Food gifts from Seattle

[RHT in JAX]

I'm visiting Seattle for a few days, and want to bring some food gifts back to some family members in Florida. The first thing that comes to mind is smoked salmon, but other ideas would be greatly appreciated. I'll be at Pikes Market tomorrow, so any recommendations in that area would be great. If anyone has any quinticential (sp?) Seattle non-food gift recommendations, that would be great as well. Thanks for any help!

[libstewart]

Chukar's Cherries located in Pike Place Market - great for gifts that are tasty and easy to transport.

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Pike Place Market
1501 Pike Pl, Seattle, WA 98101

[mrnelso]

Smoked Salmon from Pure Foods is a great idea.
If you have more money than you need, then ship a dozen Penn Cove mussels. If the trust-fund demands you spend, make it a geoduck - Invite the local paparazzi and give Peyton Place a run for its money...

[AmandaAnn]

At Pike place the cheese at Beecher's is a good gift.

Not at Pike Place, but only about 1 mile away (but only open Tues-Fri) is Salumi. A gift of some of their Salami would make many people happy. If you can't get to the actual Salumi store/restaurant, then you can find it at Metropolitan Market as well. Maybe the PCC markets have it too, I'm not sure.
www.salumi.com
www.metropolitan-market.com

Or poke around at Uwajimaya for Japanese candies, sweets, and trinkets.
www.uwajimaya.com

A fresh fortune cookie is really something! Not at all like the often stale ones you get at the restaurant. Get a huge sack of Rose brand unfortunate fortune cookies (cookies that didn't fold up properly) at Tsue Chong Co Inc. This is great thing to bring back to coworkers; it's cheap and you can just set the bag out on the lunch table and watch them all disappear by day's end. They're pretty addictive. (Tsue Chong Co. have proper fortune cookies too, of course, and also have other flavors like chocolate, mocha, orange, etc.) 800 S Weller St, Seattle 98104.

If you were bringing something to somebody like me, I'd actually be really excited about the locally made tofu here, which can't be found back in my midwest town. You can buy it at Uwajimaya in fresh, already fried versions, and spiced. Or you could go right to the factory, I think there are tours at certain times. Here's a link to an article about the companies here: http://www.seattleweekly.com/2008-05-...

And I know this idea doesn't help the OP at the moment, but if anyone looks at this post during cherry season, taking home a big ol' box of fresh WA sweet cherries can't be beat!

[Leper]

AmandaAnn, Great suggestions. Note that you can order from Salumi on their website and have the salami shipped directly. Tsue Chong will also allow you to create your own "fortunes" to be inserted into fresh cookies. (You have to type them up using 6 pt type to fit a "standard" fortune cookie size.) Also, Esquin wine merchants will ship some terrific Washington Wines that are not available nationally or in most grocery/retail stores. I would suggest starting with McCray Viognier and DeLille Cellars D-2. Both are memorable wines.

[jerseytomato]

Fran's salted caramels! They have a store in the ground floor of the Four Seasons or the Chocolate Box also sells them.

[renspr]

For the convenience factor, I would pick up some bottles of WA wine at Vino Vollo at the Seattle airport before the flight back. It's located next to Dish Delish in the main food court area. With all of the liquid regulations and the high cost of postal shipping, it's a good stand-by if you need some last minute fill-ins!