Royal Bakery

Green Tea Cake (top) Green bean bread (bottom) Royal Bakery Although the front window features a wizened monstrosity that might just be Miss Havisham's wedding cake, the rest of Royal Bakery's glass cases are filled with fresh and attractive Korean-style breads, tarts, and cakes.  The green tea cake is a delicate sandwich of sponge and whipped-cream frosting with a mild but appreciable bitterness--ideal (green)...

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New York Suggestions?

I'm heading to New York tomorrow--first, to teach a weekend jewelry workshop at the 92nd St Y, and then to eat myself silly for the following week. My agenda currently includes: Payard The Hungarian Pastry Shop Rice to Riches Minamoto Kitchoan Bespoke Chocolate Babycakes Momofuku Vesuvio Mitsuwa Jacques Torres The Doughnut Plant Any other suggestions? The more obscure, the better, and I'm quite willing to travel to anywhere worth trying!...

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Buñuelos

Buñuelos de Miel Guanaco's Tacos, $4 If Guanaco's excellent pupusas and tacos leave your stomach with room to spare, then the buñuelos de miel will do their best to satisfy.  These pillowy balls of golden-fried yuca dough have a pleasing texture but little flavor of their own, so they're drenched in miel de panela, a syrup made from cane juice that's been evaporated and re-liquified; it's as sticky...

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Sweet Laurette's

Black Bottom Cupcakes Sweet Laurette's, $3.50 Word has it there are no bad choices to be made at Sweet Laurette's, a bakery, cafe, and bistro located a short (uphill) walk from downtown Port Townsend. It was enthusiastically recommended to me by a local grandmother who takes her granddaughter for breakfast every week. The French-inflected bakery offers coffee by the bowl and indulgent treats such as "Oblivion...

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On Common Grounds

Vanilla "Wedding" CakeOn Common Grounds, $4.50/slice I recently read something that surprised me: serving for serving, vanilla cake generally contains far more sugar than chocolate cake. I decided to take a scientific approach to my doubts, ordering a slice of vanilla "wedding" cake at On Common Grounds, a cheerful bakery and cafe just off the road that most travelers take between Port Townsend and the Hood Canal Bridge. The cake...

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Elevated Ice Cream

Elevated Ice Cream 62¢/oz. Established in 1977, the Elevated Ice Cream parlor on Port Townsend's main drag is a long-standing local institution that became a "destination parlor" more recently, when the Travel Channel voted it one of the best in the country. Elevated's ice creams are made on the premises at least twice a week, using a base mixture manufactured to their specifications in Snoqualmie. Elevated products aren't...

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La Boulangerie

Tarte Normande La Boulangerie, $4.50The need for carbohydrate comfort first steered me into La Boulangerie several years ago, when a movie I was desperate to see at the theater across the street sold out just as I got to the ticket window. Fast forward to now and I can't remember the name of the movie, but I can recall every bite of my consolation treat, a meltingly tender and spicy baked apple encased in a buttery croissant--a chausson au...

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