Market Food Tours

Last summer, my husband and I went on an Alaskan Cruise. But before we went, we decided to fly into Seattle a day early and go on the Savor Seattle Pike’s Market Tour. When we finished our cruise, we ended in Vancouver and did the Vancouver Foodie Tour’s Grand Isle Market Tour. I have to say, both tours were AMAZING!!!! Now, I am searching for more market tours to experience.

So, what makes them different than any other food tour…the experience. When Tommy and I first walked into the markets..both markets, the sounds, smells, and sights were different. On a typical tour, you go from place to place(mostly restaurants and stores) learning the history between the stops. Usually you are at a stop 15-20 minutes. That is not want we experienced at the market places.

When we first got to the market, one of the first things that struck me was the smell of fresh vegetables and fruits, flowers, meats and baked goods. But the next thing was the color of all the food. The colors were so bright and clean. Then, I noticed the people. Everyone seemed to be having so much fun looking at food. Last was the sounds…the people talking, food cooking, and music at both places.

Both tours had about 8-10 stops. At first, I thought that was going to be a lot of food and it was. Unlike a traditional food tour where you get a large sampling of food, there were a lot of small samples. Our tours went from stall to stall, sampling the foods at the different stalls. At some stalls, we got as many as 4 different samples. Some were foods I had never heard of or experienced before. In Seattle, we had a marion berry yogurt. Being from the south, I had never heard or experienced marion berries, but it was very good. In Vancouver, we had elk meat sausage. Again, we don’t experience much elk meat here and it was good. But my all time favorite food I have ever had on any tour, I had in Vancouver. It was a HOT Doughnut dipped in honey. I thought I had died and gone to heaven it was so good.

Market tours are far and few between. If there is one, I want to experience it. I am looking forward to discovering my next market food tour.