Punjab Sweets

Mithai
Punjab Sweets, $4.75-10.99 per pound

When food writer Jeffrey Steingarten compares Indian sweets to cosmetics, I'm with him--but only up to a point. While he concludes that, ”The taste and texture of face creams belong in the boudoir, not on the plate,” I'd happily eat these rich and luxuriously perfumed desserts in any room of the house. 

Aptly enough, the glass cases (below) full of housemade mithai (literally "sweet things") at Pujab Sweets in Kent are as artfully arranged as eyeshadow samples at Sephora. This small shop regularly makes more than 20 different varieties, including (above, from top) besan (creamy yet earthy fudge with toasted chickpea flour), rose burfi (delicately floral fudge), rasgulla (fresh cheese soaked in syrup), coconut roll, and kalakand, (a moist but crumbly cream cake).  

The most prevalent ingredients are dairy products such as whole milk, cream, cheese, and ghee (clarified butter), and a wide range of grains, nuts, and pulses, which are used both whole and ground into flour.  Cooks can manipulate the flavor of these staple ingredients by cooking or toasting them, or by adding ingredients like coconut, rosewater, cardamom, saffron, or chocolate.  Finally, the mithai are formed with care--balls are rolled by hand, sheets are cut into regular rectangles or diamonds--and perhaps given a finishing touch, such as a sprinkle of crushed nuts or a patch of edible silver leaf. 

Mithai are an essential part of many Indian occasions and observances; although many recipes are achievable for home cooks, the labor involved, multiplied by the quantities required for big events, add up to a strong demand for professionally-made mithai.  Since 2001 the Kent valley community has been able to count on Punjab Sweets, a combination confectionery and vegetarian restaurant begun by Iqbal and Gurmit Dha and Iqbal's brother Jasbir Rai and now helmed by the Dhas' daughter, Harpreet Gill.  You can order hundreds of pieces for your wedding or Diwali celebration, or pick up a small assortment to try with your afternoon tea. 

Punjab Sweets
23617 104th Ave SE C  Kent, WA 98031
253 / 859-3236

Bánh Bò Hấp

Bánh bò hấp
White Center Supermarket, $1.25 

 Bánh bò, or "cow cakes", are the Vietnamese version of a steamed rice cake that originated in China.  Bánh bò batter includes rice flour, coconut milk, sugar, and a leavener--traditionally yeast, but baking powder is sometimes used as a shortcut--which causes the batter to bubble dramatically when cooked.  The resulting texture is as spongy as beef liver, earning these cakes their unexpected name.  

Baked bánh bò nướng has a thin golden crust and is usually cut into wedges before serving.  Steamed bánh bò hấp are usually smaller, round, and colorful; natural extracts of pandanus or magenta plant produce pastel green or purple, whereas the neon hues of the banh bo pictured hint at artificial food coloring.  As sold in Seattle's Asian groceries, bánh bò hấp come snuggled onto a deli tray along with a tiny cup of creamy dipping sauce (coconut milk thickened with tapioca flour). 

White Center Supermarket
9828 15th Ave SW
Seattle, WA
206/768-8087

"A World of Sweets in Washington State"

2012-14 Speakers Bureau: Julia Harrison from Humanities Washington on Vimeo.

"A World of Sweets in Washington State" 

From bienenstich to bánh xu xê, marzipan to mochi, the diverse range of sweets we enjoy across Washington state reveals much about our shared history and culture.  Each sweet tells a story: ingredients illustrate trade routes and trends, recipes record migration patternsspecial forms point to special occasions. This mouth-watering, thought-provoking presentation explores the ways in which sweets reflect how individuals and communities celebrate, adapt and interact.  
 
For the next two years, I'll be offering this talk through Humanities Washington Speakers Bureau.  Interested in attending a free public presentations?  Please take a look at my schedule.   Interested in having me speak at your venue?  Humanities Washington sponsors this presentation for qualified groups; check out these application guidelines.  And should you want to find out about something other than sweets (really??) I have 27 colleagues on the current Speakers Bureau roster; learn about their specialties here. 

Lengua de Gato

 
Lengua de Gato
Sweet Coconut Bakery, $5.75/12

I went to the Urban Craft Uprising summer show to check out some jewelry...and left with cookies.  I have my priorities.

Seattle's Sweet Coconut Bakery is a young company on a misson:  "to create sweet treats that might induce you to sit down, maybe put your feet up, and enjoy a cup of coffee, cocoa, or tea. Let time tick slowly, as you would if you were on vacation on a tropical island, where coconuts abound, and life is sweet."  

Sweet Coconut's treats are largely Filipino, American, or some combination of the two.  Crisp, rich little cookies that resemble cats' tongues in both shape and texture, lengua de gato are a Spanish recipe beloved in the Philippines and here given a Seattle spin with the addition of cacao nibs from Theo Chocolate.  Sweet Coconut's menu includes other well-traveled favorites such as polvorones (shortbread), pastillas de leche (cooked milk candy), sampanguita (coconut-butter cookies), macaroons, marshmallows, brownies, and peanut butter cookies.  

Available around Seattle at selected farmer's markets--and the occasional craft fair--these treats can also be Sweet Coconut treats can also be ordered from Sweet Coconut's Etsy shop.   

George's Bakery

 

Chocolate Thumbprint Cookie

George's Bakery, $1

A disc of buttery shortbread and a dollop of fudgy icing:  sweet, simple, and satisfying out of all proportion to its size.  The same could be said for just about anything from George's Bakery.  

Founder George Marcis was born in Greece in 1933 and immigrated to the US as a teenager; he learned English while studying at Seattle's Broadway Technical School.  In 1964 Macris and his wife Jean opened their bakery on the main street in North Bend, a small mountain town in the Olympic mountains east of Seattle.  

Until the 1978 bypass, Interstate 90 ran past the front door, delivering hungry skiers and hikers to and from the mountains.  Macris' work day started at 3am, and one North Bend resident described seeing him work "like a buzzard" to keep his cases stocked with fresh baked goods:  cracked wheat, cinnamon nut, and rye bread, danishes, doughnuts, cinnamon twists, peaked "Mount Si" loaves, and boozy rum balls.  When there weren't enough chairs to go around, patrons would happily sit on the floor with their pastries and coffee.

The Macrises commuted into Seattle to attend the St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, and George's Bakery played an active role in producing goods for the annual fundraiser bazaars; in the days before an event, the bakery would host a revolving army of volunteer bakers, trying their best to meet the public's lucrative demand for specialty breads and pastries.  

Macris retired in 1993, selling the business to Greg and Cornelia Cordova.  In 2008 the business passed to current owners Kathleen Stokesbury and Joe McKeown, a third-generation baker from Pittsburgh who had previously run Seattle's Greenwood Bakery.  By all accounts, they've done little to change the formula that made George's Bakery a neighborhood hub:  the decor is still comfortably kitschy, the cases are still filled with familiar favorites. 

Macris passed away in 2008 at the age of 70; North Bend's mayor honored him with a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award, citing his unwavering support for community members and events. 

George's Bakery

127 W North Bend Way  

North Bend, WA
425/888-0632

 

Other North Bend sources of notable sweets include Twedes's (below left), home of the "damn fine" cherry pie immortalized in David Lynch's Twin Peaks, and Scott's Dairy Freeze (below right), home of some damn sweet signage.   

Boehms Chocolates

Cherry Cordial (left)

Motzartkugel (right)

Boehms Candies

Calling all producers of romantic biopics:  wake up, smell the chocolate, and give the late Julius Boehm the big-screen treatment he so richly deserves!

Born in 1897, Boehm was a Swiss-Austrian who represented Austria in the 1924 Paris Olympics and was a torch-carrier in 1936--the same year he fled the Nazi invasion by skiing over the Alps to Switzerland.  Boehm eventually immigrated to the US and arrived in the Pacific Northwest in 1941.  

As if all that weren't epic enough, Boehm was also the grandson of a confectioner, from whom he learned a thing or two about treats.  In 1934 he and a friend opened the Candy Kitchen in Ravenna, a quiet residential neighborhood on the north side of Seattle.  In 1956, Boehm moved his business to Issaquah, where the surrounding Cascade range recalled the mountains of his childhood.  Next to the shop he built a replica 12th century Alpine Chapel, dedicated to the memory of lost mountaineers.  Boehm himself was one of the lucky ones, safely summiting Mt. Rainier for the third time at the age of 80, just three years before his death in 1981.  

The business Boehm built thrives to this day, cranking out an enormous variety of filled and flavored chocolates.  For the cherry cordials, ripe cherries are soaked in brandy for nearly a month, then double-dipped in milk or dark chocolate.  Mozartkugeln are Boehms' signature sweet, a dollop of soft marzipan blanketed in creamy chocolate ganache, encased in a chocolate shell, and dressed in foil imprinted with Mozart's silhouette.   Honoring the centennial of the composer's death, the Mozartkugel was invented in Salzburg in 1890 by one of Julius Boehms' ancestors, and could itself be the subject of a pretty gripping movie; the confection was a fad that has since become a classic--and the subject of lawsuits, industrial innovation, and consumer obsession.  

Boehms Candies

255 NE Gilman Blvd

Issaquah, WA

425/392-6652

Triple XXX Rootbeer

Rootbeer
Triple XXX, from $2.75

Although "root beer" is catchier, "root-bark-herb-and-berry beer" would be more accurate; the first commercial recipe, launched by pharmacist Chester Hires at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, called for more than 25 different flavorings. 

Just after the turn of the century, the Galveston Brewing Company introduced a range of "XXX" soft-drink syrups, including ginger ale and root beer.  During Prohibition, Galveston supplied its syrups to more than 100 licensed franchises around the country.  Among them was Renton's Triple XXX Rootbeer, the first drive-in restaurant in the Pacific Northwest when it opened in 1930.  

The Issaquah branch--in its current location since 1969--and one in Indiana are the only surviving outposts of the XXX empire, but only the Indiana restaurant still uses the original XXX syrup; the Issaquah XXX sources its syrup from Coca-Cola, which uses a 1930s recipe.  

Although Triple XXX is no longer a drive-in, the parking lot is often lined with classic cars, whose owners gather at the restaurant for monthly shows and swapmeets.  Customers head indoors to order--and to ogle the accumulation of vintage memorabilia that clings to every wall and surface.  The root beer comes in "regular" or "supersize" glass mugs covered in velvety frost; it can also be ordered without ice, for an additional charge.  And of course there are root beer floats, made using Darigold ice cream.  

Triple XXX
425 NE Gilman Blvd,
Issaquah WA
425/392-1266

Chimacum Cafe

Chocolate Cream Pie

Chimacum Cafe, $3.22

The "prize-winning" pie at this vintage diner just about swamped me in waves of nostalgia. The chocolate cream pie, to an eerie degree, was just like my grade school cafeteria used to make: a blind-baked pie shell filled to the brim with instant chocolate pudding and topped with whipped cream and a few chocolate chips.  I've certainly had more adventurous or flavorful pies, but this wins my prize for affordably priced time travel.

Chimacum Cafe

9253 Rhody Drive
Chimacum, WA 98325

360/732-4631

Don's Pharmacy

Don's Pharmacy Soda Fountain 
Cherry Lime Phosphate (above)

Chocolate Milkshake (below)

Head past the world-class soap selection, gardening tools, and racks of novelty greeting cards to the back of Don's Pharmacy and you'll find a soda fountain installed in 1962 and untouched by the intervening years.  Seating is at your choice of booth or counter stool; service is quick and sassy--but completely genuine, like a sharp-tongued big sister rather than a gum-smacking, beehived retro cliche.  
The waitress is happy to explain some of the menu's more archaic items ("Brown Cow" is a Coke float, "Green River" is a lime soda) and to make recommendations.  She makes milkshakes (below) as thick as spackle from milk and hard-packed ice cream, with an entire second shake in reserve in the mixing cup.  

You can also get a made-to-order phosphate, a tart relic from soda's early days.  Although pharmacists initially introduced soda fountains as a way of making medicine more palatable (see my earlier post on the 1850s soda fountain at New Orleans' Pharmacy Museum) the public soon developed a taste for sweet syrup and fizzy water, minus the medicine.  The addition of phosphoric acid to drinks created a puckery sourness that found many fans; phosphates were a popular and prominent soda fountain offering from the late 19th century through the 1930s.  

Today many so-called phosphates, including those served at Don's, are made with citric acid rather than the harder-to-get phosphoric.  Although the citric acid gave my cherry-lime faux phosphate a deliciously sharp edge (waitress:  "Like drinking a sour patch kid!"), phosphoric acid aficionados claim that nothing matches the experience of genuine article.  

Don's Pharmacy Soda Fountain
1151 Water Street
Port Townsend, WA
360/385-2622

1151 Water StWA 98368

(360) 385-0969

Better Living Through Coffee

Peanut Butter Cookie

Better Living Through Coffee, $2.25

Seemingly stapled onto the backside of a building that fronts historic Water Street, Better Living Through Coffee juts out over the narrow beach and hogs one of Port Townsend's most mesmerizing views.  The light bouncing off the water gives the coffee shop's single room a hazy quality that underlines the vintage feel; not much about the wood-framed room would raise the eyebrows of an 1960s hippie--or even an 1860s settler.  

BLTC specializes in "Organic Fair-Trade Coffee & Nutrient Dense Food."  The coffee is locally roasted and dripped-to-order in a rack of standing filters.  The baked goods are made with organic ingredients and unrefined sweeteners, and some, like this light and melty peanut butter cookie, are also vegan and gluten-free.

Better Living Through Coffee
100 Tyler Street  
Port Townsend, WA
360/385-3388

Courtyard Cafe

Cinnamon Roll

Courtyard Cafe

A family-run restaurant in a old house just off the waterfront, Port Townsend's Courtyard Cafe radiates at least a dozen kinds of warmth.  Although no one actually lives in the canary-yellow building, it has a lived-in hospitality that makes customers feel thoroughly welcome, with comfortably worn furniture, mismatched china, hand-me-down newspapers, and local musicians jamming in the living room.  When the couple behind the counter flirtatiously pelt each other with croutons, it's easy to imagine that you're just a friend of the family, dropping by for brunch.  

The sweet treats include hearty pastries, rustic fruit pies, meal-sized desserts, and hot chocolate with homemade marshmallows toasted tableside with a creme brûlée torch.  Owner Will makes the cinnamon rolls himself and takes great pride in the rapidity with which he goes through sacks of cinnamon; the spice is used so generously that it forms a distinct layer, side by side with the buttery pastry.  

The day-old baked goods are a steal at around $2 for a huge bag; Will's wife Heidi says the cinnamon loaf makes fantastic French toast.  Closed on Tuesdays, the Courtyard Cafe donates Monday-night leftovers to the Port Townsend Food Bank, another sign of this small business' big heart.  

Courtyard Cafe

230 Quincy Street

Port Townsend, WA

360/379-3355

Countryside Donut

Maple Bar and Old-Fashioned

Countryside Donut, $.85 each

For a donut-maker to hand over your order packed in a brown paper bag is a bit of a gamble. Will you make it out the door before fryer grease mottles the bag with disfiguring stains? Will you be down the block before the bag corrodes into oily pulp?

Or, if you've stopped by Countryside Donut on the way to the Edmonds ferry, will you get most of the way across Puget Sound before even a hint of oil stipples your to-go bag?

Husband-and-wife team Sokgim Lim and Youkhun Taing (below, left) came to the US as refugees from Cambodia, with a young family and no resources. After years of saving, planning, and looking for opportunities, they bought the Countryside Donut House, a new business in a small Mountlake Terrace strip mall. Absolutely the only thing they knew about donuts was Americans really like them.

Twenty-five years later, they know a whole lot more. The first months were rocky; the Taings lost customers and trashed unsatisfactory batches as they struggled to master the unfamiliar process. But being self-taught turned out to be a huge asset, with the Taings developing their own techniques that make their ordinary offerings (fritters, old-fashioned, glazed, etc) extraordinarily light and flavorful.

In addition to being not at all greasy, the old-fashioneds (above, front) combine crisp edges and a cakey center, while the maple bars (above, back, and below right) are airy and delicate, made with a slightly tangy dough and a mildly sweet glaze.

Countryside Donut House

21919 66th Ave W #1

Mountlake Terrace, WA

425/672-7820

Pastelería y Panadería La Ideal

Conchas
Pastelería y Panadería La Ideal, 3/$1.00

Seattle's South Park neighborhood has always been something of an outlier. In the late 19th century the expansion of downtown Seattle pushed Italian immigrant George Colello off his original farm at what is now First and Jackson; Colello became one of the first of many farmers, mostly Italian and Japanese, to raised produce in South Park for sale at stalls in Pike Place Market.

Ironically, the area's industrialization during the 20th century left South Park dangerously polluted. Over the years the neighborhood has also struggled with crime and gentrification, and as if all that weren't enough, the bridge that had been South Park's most direct connection to the city since 1929 was closed in 2010 and its replacement is still under construction.

So it's both a wonder and no wonder at all that in 2007 master baker and Mexico City native Fernando Marquez Galicia looked around South Park and saw both a market and a need. As he told the Catch the Culture website, “South Park has lots of Latinos, lots of good people, and South Park needed a bakery.”

Today Pastelería y Panadería La Ideal is an aromatic neighborhood hotspot. The fresh-daily treats run the gamut from simple sweet breads (pan dulce) and pastries to fancy desserts. There's creamy caramel-topped flan, empanadas filled with fruit jams, jiggly gelatinas in colorful small cups, and pastel tres leches, a cake bathed in three kinds of milk (evaporated, condensed, and cream).

Conchas (above) are light buns topped with a soft sugar paste; before baking lines are stamped or raked into the paste, giving the bun a vaguely shell-like appearance. I also tried buns filled with custard (below left) and cream cheese (below right).

La Ideal is cash-only, but almost everything is between $0.50 and $1.00. So much about visiting South Park seems a little like traveling back in time--including the opportunity to gorge on fresh baked goods after spending only the small change scrounged from the floor of the car.

Pastelería y Panadería La Ideal
8909 14th Ave S
Seattle, WA

206/767-4002

Penland Gingerade

Gingerade

I've been attending residential art classes at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina off and on since 1996. What with juggling 24-hour studio access and whatever work-study job I've been assigned, I tend to push myself hard while I'm there, often teetering on the edge of what could be a disastrous illness.

Gingerade to the rescue! Over the years, the Penland Coffee Shop has migrated and mutated, but this spicy, invigorating brew has been a blessedly constant presence on the menu. I can't begin to calculate how many gallons I must have bought.

Now I make this versatile tonic at home, bringing a little bit of Penland magic to whatever creative or physical challenge I happen to be facing. Wretched winter cold? Hot with extra honey, and maybe a touch of whiskey. Demoralizing summer cold? Full-strength over ice. Looming exhibition deadline? Fancied up with seltzer and a lime wedge.

Gingerade

(As written the recipe recipe makes 2 quarts, but it's easy math to scale up for bigger batches.)

1 c peeled and thinly sliced ginger

1 t whole cloves
4 cinnamon sticks
2 whole lemons, washed and quartered with peels left on

2 quarts water

Combine the above ingredients and simmer for 2 hours. Strain out the chunks and while the liquid is still hot add 2 cups of orange juice and 1 cup (or to taste) of your favorite sweetener (honey, agave, sugar, brown sugar, or succanat work fine). Stir until the sweetener is dissolved. Serve hot or cold, straight or diluted with still or fizzy water.

Pierogi

Pierogi

Polish Home Association, $16 all-you-can-eat

"Pierogi Fest" is the major annual fundraiser for Seattle's Polish Home Association, drawing huge crowds for food, beer, and Polish entertainment. A $16 ticket gives you the right to elbow your way through to a long table lined with steam trays; hunted-looking ladies in festive costume periodically restock the trays with pierogi, plump hand-crimped dumplings stuffed with hearty combinations of sauerkraut, potato, cheese, and meat.

For dessert, there are sweet pierogi filled with cherries, blueberries, or plums (an advertised "sweet cheese" pierogi was sadly absent during my visit); they're dense, slippery, and bursting with juice. It takes a little experimenting to figure out which are best topped with sour cream and which with sweetened whipped cream, but with unlimited buffet privileges, there's nothing to stop you from trying every possible variation.