Seattle Cheese Festival

5.26.10

Last week there was a cheese festival at the must-go-to Pike Place Market in Seattle. I wouldn't miss it this year. The weather was in mutual agreement with the weekend giving us a nice sunny day. As you know, it doesn't happen often for the rainy city to get a sunny day outside of summer time.

Speaking of Pike Place Market, let's talk about it a bit before jumping to the Cheesefest. It was born on August 17, 1907.  Eight local farmers brought their wagons to sell produce and merchandise at the corner of 1st Ave and Pike St.. An over 10,000 estimated shoppers went out and shopped that day. Everything was all gone by 11 AM. Crazy huh? From that point, the market was born and was known for connecting farmers to consumers. It has thousands of interesting stories and has become "The Soul of Seattle"

Other than fresh produce, it's also famous for fresh seafood. One shop at the front entrance of the market  from time-to-time has workers throwing fish to one another back and forth while singing a song. Some tourists come here just to see their fish-throwing show.

Okay, back to the Cheesefest - there were a lot..a lot of people, and a lot..a lot of cheeses that day. I couldn't remember how much I had. This year was my first time to this Fest. I was impressed with the number of vendors giving out samples. According to the web, it presents more than 250 cheeses from local and international producers. Whoa..

This is such a cool huge Parmigiano Reggiano wheel

A little fact about the event: the Seattle Cheese Festival is a nonprofit originally conceived by DeLaurenti Specialty Food & Wine. DeLaurenti Specialty Food & Wine has served Seattle residents and visitors for close to 60 years from its outpost on First and Pike in Pike’s Place Market.

Yeah, I couldn't keep track how much I ate even though they were only samples. Some of them were so good while some I almost spit out..ew..sorry I couldn't help it.  We took our little dog, Bella, for her first time to the market. She was so excited to see so many people. It was just a funny thing to watch when she didn't know where to walk first. Since she was so small, people almost stepped on her. It was such a bad idea to bring her. Next time I should carry her in a doggie tote - - well, lesson learned

We got to see a mozzarella making demonstration.  It was my first time to see this kind of demonstration. My mind thought about tomato and basil..hmm..yum

Blue cheese with chocolate syrup. I'm not a big fan of blue cheese so this is "ew" for me

We walked almost to the end. My hands were still empty with no cheese. No! this couldn't happen to me. I needed to buy some cheese. My favorite cheese is Brie and I only tried a few renditions due to the massive crowd. We stopped by at this one booth. The brie with mushroom was so good. It wasn't too strong (the way I like) while my husband went over to the long aged Cheddar from England. We ended up buying 2 kinds of cheeses from this booth.

  

Did you see the coffee shop in the background? It was the first Starbucks store in the world!! Yes, it attracts thousands of tourists. The line is always longgggg. I went to buy mugs for my sisters for a gift, and there were tons of people and tons of cameras. I avoid this shop if I can. It takes so much energy from me...

There, our brie and cheddar! It tastes so good and it was worth the trip. Pike Place Market is my favorite spot in Seattle.