SippitySup

Market Matters- Pike Place Market in Seattle, WA

For today’s Market Matters we have a guest post and a new market to visit! The market is Pike Place, in Seatte, WA– and my guest blogger is not just any guest either. Nope we have Eric, from Eric Rivera Cooks. One of my personal favorite bloggers in all of blogdom.

Eric has come to my editorial rescue today because I am on a road trip! I am traveling from Los Angeles to Seattle and back again. There is not a whole lot of extra time to blog, especially when I am driving!

Today I am in San Fransisco getting ready to go to the Food Buzz festival farewell brunch. It’s been an amazing event. And though I did not win any awards, I was happy to be nominated and thrilled to have met so many terrific bloggers! So thanks to the great folks at Food Buzz. They put together quite a food packed weekend, and yes I did get “buzzed” quite a few times too!

So, the point of a guest blogger is for me to let them do the talking, so with no more blather from me, I introduce you to Eric…

pike placeFirst off, I want to thank Greg for giving me the keys to his Ferrari (SippitySup​.com). He has mentioned on this very blog that he does not care for sharing so this opportunity is a tremendous honor for me. I have modeled/copied/been inspired by Greg so many times but I don’t have the natural Sippity or the Sup to come close. One day, my blog wants to grow up and be like SippitySup!

I was perusing Twitter when Greg announced he was looking for a guest blogger. I responded four times and was not about to stop before he said I could guest blog for him. I don’t play nice/fair when I want something and I have a feeling that someone else might have responded before me but I wasn’t going to take no for an answer. If I had to beat on the virtual door of SippitySup​.com then I would have but Greg surrendered the time to me (YES!!).

My original idea was that I was going to go to Pike Place Market and pick out a seasonal ingredient and make a recipe as a tribute to his Market Matters posts. I was once inspired so much by his Market Matters series of posts that I worked at a few different farmers markets in the Seattle area. I learned where and how to buy the best ingredients my local farmers had to offer. I also learned through Greg’s blog how I could just go buy something at a market even if I had not worked with it before. My intentions were large for this post but alas, real life caught up to me. I am currently in culinary school, I work full-time in a high caliber restaurant as a prep cook, I post to my blog 1–3 times a day and still have time to cook dinner for my lovely wife, Mindy. I’m just a normal dude obsessed with food.

Change of plans.….….

Focus!

Pike Place Market is a year-round farmers market in Seattle. It’s the oldest continually run farmers market in the United States so when it comes to farmers markets this market matters! My school is a few blocks away so over the last few months I have been spending my in between classes time running over to the market area to see what it has to offer.

I look at the market in a different way than I used to. This is the first place you take people when they visit Seattle for the first time. It’s a tourist trap and there are millions of people that visit the market yearly that do not have an intention to cook something using the amazing ingredients available at the market. Instead, they want to pick up a Space Needle souvenir, make jokes about the rain, or ask about a Starbucks. Pike Place Market is much more than those stereotypes.

Restaurants, arts, crafts, produce, fish, seafood, history, producers, purveyors, and even a brewery are among the many things you will find all year round. One of my favorite places to stop by and visit is Beecher’s Cheese. They use local ingredients and have an open processing facility so you can see the cheese being made right before your eyes (direct link to my visit to Beecher’s Cheese http://​ericriveracooks​.com/​2​0​0​9​/​1​0​/​0​6​/​b​e​e​c​h​e​r​s​-​h​a​n​d​m​a​d​e​-​c​h​e​e​s​e​-​s​e​a​t​t​l​e​-​wa/)

pike place at nightGet lost, walk around a bit and take time to visit each one of the vendors. If you’re hungry then I recommend eating at Etta’s, Cafe Campagne, or any other restaurant or small food vendor that peaks your interest. Fixing dinner tonight? That’s the best part! There are so many vendors there to help you find the right ingredients to make your dinner, lunch, or even quick snack more appealing/exciting. One of the things I like to do is have the market vendors brainstorm for me. “Ok, here’s what I’m going for and here’s who is coming.….…What do you recommend?” Two minutes later a complete meal is born!

The first time you visit Pike Place Market go ahead and drool a little bit and write down the places you have to come visit the next time. Check out the flying fish, take a picture with the pig, and check out the original Sur La Table. Next time, go in a little deeper into the market and find the Pierogi stand, the minuscule I Love New York Deli, and visit De Laurenti for all your Italian food needs. It’s not just about the regular Seattle stereotypes, Pike Place is a culinary melting pot.

Greg is visiting Seattle soon and I hope he has time to visit the market that matters the most to me. I’m sure he has visited Pike Place Market but hopefully this time it will involve a meeting with Eric Rivera Cooks 🙂

Thanks Greg,

Eric– I’m off to cook something.