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bakery, serving a limited menu of salads,
sandwiches, and small pizzas. Smaller
locations in the Queen Anne neighbor-
hood (615 W. McGraw St.;
&
206/283-
5900
) and on Vashon Island (19603
Vashon Hwy. SW;
&
206/567-4133
) were
added as well. Now that Mackie has pub-
lished a
Macrina
cookbook, and her rustic
breads are available at specialty stores all
over town, the place no longer feels like a
neighborhood secret. Be prepared to wait
up to an hour for a table at the Belltown
spot; service can be slipshod.
For cookie fans, though, that's all beside
the point. They sidle up to the antique
pastry case near the counter, intent on
today's thick, moist, chewy treat. Now just
add a loaf of that divine fresh bread to
your bag and you're good to go.
2408 First Ave. (
&
206/448-4032;
www.macrinabakery.com).
(
Seattle-Tacoma International (14 miles/
23km).
L
$$$
Inn at the Market,
86 Pine St.
(
&
800/446-4484
or 206/443-3600; www.
innatthemarket.com). $$
Bacon Mansion
Bed & Breakfast,
959 Broadway E (
&
800/
240-1864
or 206/329-1864; www.bacon
mansion.com).
Baked goods from Macrina in Seattle.
The Baker's Best
484
Golden Gate Fortune Cookies Co.
A Dessert You Can Read
San Francisco, California
Touristy it may be, but this tiny factory
tucked away in a Chinatown alley offers a
glimpse into an intriguing byway of Ameri-
can food history: the fortune cookie.
Hard as it may be for most Americans to
believe, fortune cookies are not the tradi-
tional end to a Chinese meal in China, but
a marketing stratagem by early-20th-cen-
tury Chinese immigrants to entice dessert-
loving Americans into their restaurants.
(The Chinese themselves more often finish
a meal with fruit.) What they came up with
wasn't even Chinese, but a novelty cookie
first made in Japan: a crisp sugary wafer
folded into a crescent with koanlike say-
ings on tiny slips of paper baked inside.
Transplanted to the United States, the
fortune cookie industry grew, though it
remained dominated by Japanese family
businesses. Immigrant Japanese women
