Food & Drink
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Food We Love: Hood Famous Bakeshop
And a purple haze cheesecake that will blow your mind
This article originally appeared in the February 2017 issue of Seattle magazine.
Meet the humble ube cheesecake, Hood Famous Bakeshop owner Chera Amlag’s nod to a Filipino flavor from childhood that she’s incorporated into her favorite dessert. Ube, for the uninitiated, is a purple yam native to Southeast Asia (you may have tried it locally in Full Tilt’s spectacular ube ice cream). At Hood Famous’ new kitchen (Ballard, 2325½ NW Market St.—entrance on Shilshole Avenue; hoodfamousbakeshop.com), with its tiny retail counter, enthusiastic Instagrammers can finally have easy access to the single-serving purple cakes ($4.99), which Amlag has been baking and selling wholesale to local markets for years. The flavor is subtler than you’d expect from such a vividly colored tuber, reminiscent of good vanilla but with a sweet potato-like earthiness, supported by a tender coconut cookie crust. Hood Famous has other Asian-influenced flavors, too—coconut pandan, white chocolate guava—but I can’t seem to resist that ube hue.
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Restaurant Roundup: Literary Libations and Tequila on the Docks
Here’s what was served up recently in the Emerald City.
There are still three weeks until Thanksgiving, but the spread of offerings this year at Seattle-area hotels is already impressive. Whether you’re traveling in the city or simply don’t want to deal with dirty dishes, the cornucopia overfloweth. Enjoy a feast at the Four Seasons’ recently remodeled Goldfinch Tavern, or a three-course meal at The…
Best Coffee Shop: Drip Drip Coffeehouse
This women- owned and minority-operated coffee shop gained popularity for its Vietnamese-style coffee and matcha flights. The former is brewed with a phin—a Vietnamese coffee press in which hot water slowly drips through coffee grounds—yielding a bold, concentrated brew. Drip Drip’s phin-brewed coffee comes in sweet and savory flavors, including banana, salted egg yolk, coconut…
Best Brewery: Stoup Brewing
Like any good craft brewery, Stoup has a little chaos to it. Dogs tuck under tables, kids tear into snacks, food trucks hum in the background, and friends squeeze together at long tables. Husband-and-wife Brad Benson and Lara Zahaba opened the original Ballard brewery with their friend Robyn Schumacher in 2013, amid the neighborhood’s craft-brewery…
Best Bakery: Bakery Nouveau
If one pastry can explain Bakery Nouveau’s appeal, it’s the twice-baked almond croissant, dipped in simple syrup, filled with almond cream, and sent through the oven twice. Co-owner William Leaman, who has more than 35 years of experience in professional baking, was named one of the country’s Top 10 Next Generation Chocolatiers and captained a…