SEATTLE EATS

This was my very first time in Seattle and I totally fell in love with the city and the food choices Seattle had to offer.

- PEPPER TEEHANKEE

Seattle is the birthplace of Starbucks coffee. Their very first commercial store is located in Pike Place Public Market. I went at 8 a.m. on a weekday and the queue was already long. I did pass by also on a Sunday before lunch and the line was almost a mile long! Customers obviously want to go where it all started as well as get Starbucks merchandise only available in this first store. There are also limited-edition coffee drinks.

It was a dream come true when I finally made it to Pike Place Public Market! It's a place where I could stay for hours and I actually went here daily.

We took a guided food tour with @eatseattletours. Why take a guided tour? You skip the (sometimes very long) queues and you get to sample food in roughly nine establishments without having to order a whole portion (so you'll know what you like and order the full portion another time).

We had sampled food such as curd and mature cheese from Beecher's Handmade Cheese; delicious soft tacos from Maiz Seattle; salmon jerky, ube and coconut cultured cream from Hellenika Cultured Creamery; and the best clam chowder from Pike Place Chowder, which has the second longest queue after the original Starbucks.

We also had pizza from Pizza and Pasta Bar, excellent pulled pork with slaw from Pike's Pit, and chocolate-covered cherries at Chukar Cherries. A highlight was excellent Filipino food from Oriental Mart, a Filipino joint established in 1973 that won an "America's Classics" James Beard Foundation award.

It is now run by Leila Rosas, who serves the best salmon collar sinigang. Leila's mother opened Oriental Mart that stocked Filipino ingredients and eventually started a kitchen in the 1980s. Leila took over handling this family business after her mother's retirement in 2008.