Any really great Seattle food gifts?

[creepygirl]

My mother is helping me tremendously as I prepare to move this month, including driving up with me. I am trying to think of something special to buy her in Seattle, something that would be hard to get elsewhere.

One problem is that she's on a moderately low-fat diet (not as austere as Ornish, thank goodness), so while she loves chocolates as much as I do, a huge box of locally-made truffles would probably not be the most thoughtful choice.

She and my father have tons of smoked salmon, so that wouldn't be a good idea.

Any thoughts?

[BetsyinKY]

This may not be a fancy enough gift idea for you, but when I was in Seattle last month, I purchased several jars of different locally made fruit spreads/jams at Pike Place Market to bring home to my parents. My father is also on a low fat diet and the jam was a perfect gift for him because it is fat free. My parents particularly liked the Tayberry spread and recently served it to rave reviews with homemade oatmeal muffins.

[rockdoggydog]

Why not put together your own basket of goodies from the area instead of trying to find that one thing. Go through the Market and pickup a few small things like teas from Market Spice, jams, honey, and then get a small box of say four truffles from Fran's?

rocky

[Sleepy_Dragon]

How about some fish express posted to her? The various fish mongers at Pike Place Market have 24 or 48 hour shipping available.

The basket of goodies sounds good too, maybe add to that a cookbook or two from local chefs?

Pat

[tighe]

How about a big goeduck? It would get a reaction at least....

If they're wine drinkers, you could get them something from one of the smaller Washington producers that likely isn't available in their area.

[lala]

What the others have said about going through the market and making up a basket is perfect. For max flavor, no fat, get a few half bottles of flavored vinegars from Sotto Voce. They're great on salads, and with a tiny bit of oil, to marinate meats and fish. I find the flavor and quality to be superior to mass produced flavored vinegars. Their oils are terrific, but may not be on her diet?

I second Tighe's suggestion of NW wines. Pike & Western has a great selection, and the staff is very knowedgable and able to help.

When you say they have enough smoked salmon, do they have the hot smoked that is traditional here? If not, it could make an interesting comparison for them. A gift that I often give is a couple of fresh cooked crabs and smoked salmon from Jacks. Always a hit!

For jammy things, there are quite a few good producers. The Canterbury Farms Blueberry syrup and jam is lovely. And some Pepper jelly from the place by the footbridge from the Market Garage is great. Nonfat, lots of flavor, and can be used in many ways.

Oh, and World Spice merchants sells the best herbs and spices. If she's into cooking, they beat the pants off what you can get at the supermarket, and they make spice blends, too. And Tom Douglas makes a line of Rubs for all kinds of meat and fish. Again, lowfat, max flavor!

[rockdoggydog]

The wines are a great idea, the other nice thing also is you can get half bottles sometimes and further increase the range of items you can include.

rocky

[creepygirl]

Thanks for all the great ideas.

Though it seems hard for me to process at the moment, I'll be able to try some of them in less than two weeks.

[tsquare]

Odd - how about crumpets from the Crumpet Shop at the Market? They can put their salmon on them.

[laurel]

If they have too much smoked salmon, there's always smoked oysters, smoked mussels, smoked scallops, smoked halibut, smoked tuna...