Seattle explorations: hunting coffee and pastries around the city during my IFBC trip

At the end of August, I stayed in a Seattle neighborhood called lower Queen Anne during my travels to attend the International Food Blogger Conference organized by Foodista and Zephyr Adventures. Queen Anne charmed me immediately due to the fact that the Scandinavian bakery Nielsen’s resides in its quarters.  

Rumor has it that among several bakers at Nielsen's, an actual Dane is involved in the business (although he is now semi-retired.)  Danish flags hanging over the storefront lured me in with the promise of marzipan.  

The Danish symbol for bakeries, an upside down golden pretzel, hangs in Nielsen's like a beacon of soul-satisfying buttery dough, magic, and bakery euphoria. Anyone familiar with Denmark knows what the pretzel means, and it means good things for the passerby.

upside down gold pretzel, the Danish symbol for bakeries

Aside from Hygge in LA and Andersen’s in Santa Barbara, I have yet to visit a bakery in the states that offers some of the same pastries I once enjoyed in Denmark: Napolean’s Hats (a hat shaped cookie with a ball of marzipan in its core and chocolate on outside of the hat),  Snitters (a combination of sweet pastry dough layered with custard and white icing), and poppyseed pastries.  

Pictured above, Nielsen's poppyseed pastry (left) and the Snitter (right)

Naturally, the theme of any typical Danish bakery visit is wonderful, wonderful marzipan, and Nielsen’s was no exception.  I started and ended my tour of Seattle with a stop at this charming little bakery, which left me nostalgic for Copenhagen, a place I have missed ever since I finished my study abroad program five years ago.

Among my personal belongings, I count a Nielsen's pastry box as the most important while en route to the airport. My luggage sits here as I wait at the bus stop for my last ride into downtown, where I will catch the light rail to the SeaTac Airport.  Perfect snack for a passenger awaiting flight? Definitely!

Queen Anne also endeared itself to me because it happens to be the name of a tasty brew from a delicious coffee shop Cafe Lladro, named for their first store location (now one of many) in the upper Queen Anne neighborhood.   As a die-hard coffee enthusiast, it was essential that I try as many good cups of joe as possible in Seattle, a city proud of its coffee culture. This led me to places including  Vivace, and Victrola, where I purchased their Ethiopian Sidama Ardi coffee at the suggestion of the friendly barista. The conference provided a steady flow of Cafe Vita coffee throughout the weekend to add to the constant and wonderful supply of caffeine running through my veins. And though I may have looked a little jittery on the light rail ride to the airport, I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Hygge Bakery will lure you to downtown LA with the promise of marzipan

Does LA Traffic leave you feeling down?  Is the daily grind wearing away at your commuter soul?  If this is how you're feeling, it may have nothing to do with traffic at all.  It may just be that you're not eating enough marzipan.  Think about it: when was the last time you sunk your teeth into a genuine Danish pastry?  My sense is that you've likely been denying yourself this experience, whether you know it or not.  Enter Hygge Bakery, to take care of all your warm, flaky Danish fresh baked good needs.  I went to Hygge after it first opened and have yet to experience anything in LA as close to a Copenhagen style Danish bakery.  I would urge anyone in the LA area to try their offerings as soon as you can.  The custard, icing, and chocolate pastry called the "slice" (pictured below) is always a favorite option of mine, and the "snails" are also particularly popular.  (I observed one man lamenting that he had woken up too late and his favorite snail had sold out.)  Downtown is so lucky to have this gem of a bakery-- in fact, you might even find yourself making up excuses to go to downtown just to get a taste.  Next time, consider stopping at Hygge before you're faced with a traffic jam: just imagine, instead of feeling bombarded by billboard ads or confrontational road rage, you'll be savoring some flaky pastry dough and singing your favorite road tunes.  Don't forget to open your sunroof and take in a little of that LA sunshine.  Why not make your commute to work a little more pleasant?  

(Author's note: Exercise caution while driving and eating pastries-- That steering wheel could get a little buttery.)

the perfect breakfast sandwich, Hooligan cheese, and words to live by from Tina Fey

In honor of the LA Scandinavian film festival kickoff this weekend, I'd like to get everyone into the spirit with a tip about my favorite Danish breakfast.  It involves the following things: a freshly baked roll, like the one pictured above from Hygge Bakery, an aggressively strong cheese (try Grayson or preferably, Hooligan from Andrew's Cheese Shop or wherever you can get your hands on it!), and a sweet jam of some sort, perhaps a little Bonne Maman raspberry-- or swing by the Little Next Door and check out their lovely jam selection.  

       Now comes the important part: Spread a slab of cheese on the roll, add a layer of jam, and experience a hearty breakfast fit for a Copenhagen winter.  Sure, the cheese is stinky, but it's breakfast sandwich magic. While it wasn't Grayson or Hooligan I was eating in Denmark, these cheeses are similarly delicious compared with the unnamed, elusive block of strong Danish cheese that lived in my host family's refrigerator.  A few slices of this stinky mystery cheese, a couple pieces of my host mom's freshly baked bread, and some jam, were the essentials I grabbed and quickly threw into a sack before I ran out the door to catch the bus to school in Copenhagen. 

       It took me awhile of living back in the States to rekindle my love for aggressive, stinky cheese.  I didn't know if I'd ever taste that breakfast sandwich again, and I feared I would try to create the same sandwich and face inevitable dissapointment.  But then, unexpectedly, it happened:  I went to visit my brother in Brooklyn, and discovered Hooligan while strolling the Union Square green market.  I sampled it and immediately knew: I had to buy some and create the essential Danish breakfast at my brother's Park Slope apartment.

        Now, you must realize that this Danish breakfast endeavor took commitment.  My brother had slept in that day, being the night owl writer type.  But as a first time New York visitor I had a whole day of early morning exploration planned-- starting with the farmer's market.  (There was no time to waste in one of the greatest food cities in the world!) 

      I knew I had to buy the Hooligan, but I was planning to explore the city for many hours beyond the market.  I was determined.  I rigged up an elaborate cheese preservation plan involving a bag of ice which later left a few puddles on the subway floor.   For this unprepared traveler, it did just the temporary trick.  Hours later, I arrived in Park Slope, a woman on a serious mission.  My stinky cheese in tow, its odorous presence undoubtedly wafted through many Park Slope apartment windows, to the surprise (dismay?) of residents.  It was all for a good cause, though they didn't know it.  
     The next morning, the time had come for the sandwich reunion.  I ran to a neighborhood bakery that sold fresh, simple breakfast rolls, stopped at a gem of a specialty shop, Blue Apron Foods to buy some jam, and as planned, proceeded to fall in love with this magical Danish breakfast sandwich all over again.   Hooligan came very close to replicating the Danish breakfast sandwich experience for me, and I experienced the perfect culmination of food memories, travel, and culture in a city where anything is possible.  Don't ask me to describe the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty: on any given trip to New York, I'm likely to have better memories of a green market cheese sample than most things.

       While I'd love to go back to Denmark sometime soon, it looks like the perfect breakfast sandwich can be achieved in LA or New York, for now.  As the 30 Rock character Liz Lemon once said, "All of human kind has one thing in common: The Sandwich.  I believe that all anyone really wants in this life is to sit in peace and eat a sandwich."  Words to live by, if you ask me.

I'd like to say "Tak" to Hygge Bakery for delivering a little Denmark to downtown LA

I'd like to give Hygge Bakery a heartfelt "tak" (that's Danish for thanks") for bringing some real Danish culture to my Los Angeles life.  While the last time I was in Denmark was in 2005, I've definitely been obsessing about going back ever since.  To this day, carefully written English letters recieved from my host family continue to remind me of a culture I fell in love with, and a city of artfully executed pastry that will always lure me back for more.  With an actual Dane backing the Hygge Bakery business, it's the closest thing I've tasted to real Danish baked goods since the days of wandering the Copenhagen streets with glee as I made one pastry discovery after another.  The Danes I met, and who I now keep in touch with, remain a part of me, and Hygge is a great reminder of the food we shared. While I questioned whether their Danish pastries and coffee would warm the soul as much in the Southern California winter as in Copenhagen's, Hygge did not dissapoint.  Any Scandinavian culture enthusiasts out there?  The annual Scandinavian film festival runs this weekend, January 9-10, and next weekend, January 16-17 in Beverly Hills.  Best of all, the event is put on by the non-profit American Scandinavian Foundation of LA, making it that much cooler.