Our main focus today was the Pike Place Market, about 10 minutes walk from our hotel and close to the waters edge of Elliott Bay. We had booked a culinary walking tour, which we find is a good way not only to learn about local cuisine, but also cultural and historic aspects. It is also good to meet tourists from other countries, and on this occasion there were 16 of us from different parts of America and from Holland.
Our introduction to the day was quite a shock. Our meeting point at Post Alley was in the middle of ‘Gum Wall’. This comprised two walls of the alley being covered in various colours of chewing and bubble gum. Whilst colourful from a distance, close up was the ugly truth of how it was formed.
We were told that the concept of sticking used gum to this wall started in the 1990s when patrons of the market theatre, in this stretch of Post Alley, were asked not to bring gum inside the building. Hence, they stuck the offending items on the wall outside before entering. A trend started for this behaviour. Coins were even placed on the top of each piece of gum at one stage to add a shiny finish, before someone came along and prised off the ‘lolly’. Attempts have been made to remove the offending items over the years, but as soon as the gum is removed, more gum is placed. It is now considered a tourist attraction.
Having come to terms with this, we headed with our food guide Joseph to a variety of food companies, mostly long-established family businesses. The market itself has quite a history having been in continuous operation since 1907 and in 1971 the seven-acre site was given official recognition and protection as a place of historical standing. Some changes have been made over the years, and especially to the wooden flooring which was becoming dangerously worn. To address this, sponsors were called upon to help replace the flooring with tiles. Each tile under the feet of today’s visitors has a sponsor’s name on it. Bizarrely, as John looked down he saw a sponsor with the same surname as his. What were the chances of this, especially for quite an unusual name?
We walked on, and found out that more than 300 companies and stall holders work out of this site. We tasted food from just a few each, it seems, has an interesting history. These included an 80 year old fish company whose owner set up the idea of ‘the flying fish’ whereby he threw fish through the air to a colleague at another part of the stall to speed up the sales transaction. We witnessed this today and by lunchtime there were so many onlookers that customers would find it hard to purchase. It was great for marketing, but we doubted the actual benefit for sales.
We watched cheese being made in big ‘baths’ at Beecher’s where we were able to taste 2 day old cheese curds; an 18 month aged hard cheese with a nice nutty flavour, and a really nice cheese sauce with pasta. The crowds lining up to purchase the cheese even at 10 am stretched right up the street, and this seemed to be typical of many of the most respected stall holders. The line outside Pike Place Chowder having clam chowder as one of its most popular dishes, stretched up the road and around the corner.
Starbucks too was popular with its shop in the marketplace considered its first outlet, but we were told this was in fact its fourth, but hey, who wants to disappoint the happy tourists taking their selfies outside?
My favourite of the day was Chuckar Cherries, whose owner inherited 8,000 cherry trees. Having such a number there was a need to find a way to preserve the fruit, but the aim was to do this without additives. A way was found, and today the company provides so many lovely and unusual cherry products many coated in chocolate, some with nuts, and with wine. From having a simple but quickly perishable fruit the company has developed an interesting and unusual range. Sadly it is not available in the UK, so we will just have to enjoy them while we are here!
Tomorrow we hit the road, heading to Mount Rainier.
Copyright: Words and photos Sue Barnard 2019