Cafe Besalu

A woman I met last night told me about the ginger biscuits at Cafe Besalu in Ballard. They are so good that when her aunt visited from the East Coast she tried to buy them all. Cafe Besalu restricted her to just twelve.

We joined the long line of patrons this rainy morning and ended up buying not just ginger biscuits, but most of the pastries they had, including pain au chocolat, almond croissants, almond schnecken, plum rolls, and more. I took a bite of most of these (okay, in some cases more than a bite...) and the pain au chocolat was definitely the best I've had since visiting France (still warm, with melted chocolate). The ginger biscuit was indeed delicious as promised: light, fluffy, not overly sweet, with a very subtle ginger flavor.

Despite the massive quantity of sweets we purchased, there were still more items there that I'd like to try, including the onion and gruyere pastry, the cornmeal apricot sage cookie, and the leek and goat cheese quiche. I will be back! But I'm actually glad I don't live closer to this place. Even though it's open only 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, it could be dangerous!