In 2003, after fifteen years in the sleepy San Gabriel Valley town of Temple City, my family packed up and moved to India. (You can read more about that experience here.)When they came back to the U.S., instead of returning to Southern California, they decided to settle down in Seattle, where the skies are gray and the breathing is easy.

The bad part: I only get to see them twice a year. The good part: I get to visit Seattle twice a year!

The day I arrived my sister and her boyfriend took me out for Cuban sandwiches at Paseo, an appealingly Third-World-looking shack in the Fremont neighborhood. I got the Cuban Roast sandwich, a fat baguette stuffed with slow-cooked pork, slippery caramelized onions, pickled jalapenos and a scattering of cilantro. It's a drippy, porky beast on the plate, the kind of sandwich you have to roll up your sleeves and tuck your hair behind your ears before facing. I ate about half of it before admitting defeat, belly full, pork juices streaming down my arms. I can see why people line up for this sandwich.

The baker at work at Cafe Besalu.

They also line up at Cafe Besalu, a small bakery in Ballard, and THEY ABSOLUTELY SHOULD. The cafe's strawberry danish and cardamom pretzel were possibly the best pastries I have ever eaten on U.S. soil. (France and Japan have their own special categories.) I dove into the danish right away, alongside a very good cappuccino, and wondered why no one else thinks to fill pastry dough with cubed pieces of fresh strawberry. Whole strawberries are so unwieldy, but the manageable pieces in this pastry ensured I had a bit of fruit and pastry cream in every bite -- without getting glaze or danish flakes all over my face. Success!

The cardamom pretzel was less like pretzel and more like a buttery, cardamom-scented slice of heaven twisted into a pretzel shape. I unwrapped it after my post-cafe trip to the ultra-cool Ballard Library and even after spending a few hours in my purse, it was still chewy yet tender, with a slight crunch from the coarse sugar sprinkled on top.

I've thought about it at least once a day since then. Sigh. At least I know I'll be back in Seattle soon.

Paseo
4225 Fremont Ave N
Seattle, WA 98103
(206) 545-7440

Cafe Besalu
5909 24th Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98107
(206) 789-1463