Pepperoni Paint Job Slice

Breezy Town Pizza, $4.75 

I have never had pizza in Chicago or Detroit. But I do regularly eat a slice of what Breezy Town Pizza describes as "a Chicago and Detroit-inspired deep-dish pan pizza." One slice, such as my favorite, the Pepperoni Paint Job, fills the deepest hunger in a matter of minutes. Its thick crust, thick cheese, and sea of sauce on which float slices of spicy salami, has, according to my senses, not a match in the city. And all of this for under $5. One slice is enough; two is, to be honest, overdoing it. In my mind, two slices would make me look like a python that has eaten a whole goat. CHARLES MUDEDE

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Fran’s Chocolates Almond Goldbite

Groceries stores everywhere, $1.99

 

 

 

 

 

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I don't just love Fran's salted caramels, I crave them. With every cell in my body. If I eat one, I eat five, and it's a pricy habit given that a box of just seven small caramels—about two ounces total—runs around $12. I'm not alone. A ravenous appetite for salted caramel is so common that in 2016 scientists studied the phenomenon and coined the phrase "hedonistic escalation." Most foods satiate hunger, but salted caramel's combination of salt, sugar, and fat triggers a "hedonic experience" and makes our body want more. Fran's Almond Goldbite is the perfect craving quencher. For $2 you get a bite-sized block of Fran's luscious salted caramel dotted with almonds and covered in dark chocolate. Unlike cheaper candy bars, full of air and stabilizers, the Goldbite is dense. It melts slowly in your mouth with each chew, with the smooth, buttery richness lingering and signaling to all those happy chemicals to flood your brain. Of course, when the candy is gone you'll immediately reach for another one, but that's not a lack of willpower, that's science! It's hedonistic escalation, baby! Give in and enjoy. MEGAN SELING

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Birthday Cake Cookie

Lowrider Cookies, $2.60

 

 

 

 

 

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My first visit to Lowrider Cookies unexpectedly changed my life. There was a time Before Lowrider Cookies (BLC) and After Lowrider Cookies (ALC). Their cookies are the platonic ideal of what a cookie should be—compact, chewy, not too sweet, and goes great with milk (which they have a fridge case full of). For $2.60 you can get their signature flavors—brown butter triple chocolate chip, birthday cake, salted toffee pecan, cookies and cream, s'mores, and lemon crinkle. They also rotate specialty flavors by month—February’s menu includes double chocolate, strawberries and cream, and red velvet. If I had to choose a favorite, it would be their birthday cake cookie, with all its almondy, sprinkly, and sugary glory. For all you cookieheads out there, they also make cookie cake slices—go hog wild! JAS KEIMIG 

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Cauliflower Taco

Situ inside Jupiter Bar, $4

Situ means “grandma” in Lebanese Arabic, and rock drummer Lupe Flores makes her tacos dorados the way her Mexican-Lebanese grandma, Dolores, taught her: stitched together with toothpicks and double pan-fried. After starting out at the Tractor in 2020, Lupe popped up around town for a while, before settling in for good at Belltown’s Jupiter Bar. For $4 apiece, your taco options are hushwe (spiced beef sauteed in brown butter), creamy garlicky potato, or roasted cauliflower and mashed garbanzo. All are great, but lord, the vegan garbanzo-cauliflower tacos are just spectacular, with roasty, creamy, spicy innards that’ll warm you right up. Sizable tacos too, and perfect drunk food. Just don’t eat the toothpicks. MEG VAN HUYGEN 

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BBQ Pork Hombow

Mee Sum Pastry, $4.54 

A hombow from Mee Sum Pastry is the OG broke-joke Seattle snack. It used to be that they only made the barbecue pork one, but curry beef, chicken ‘n’ mushroom, and veggie versions were eventually added, and they’re all pretty nice. (There’s a ham-and-mayonnaise hombow that shows its face at the Mee Sum in Pike Place sometimes too.) For my money, though, the classic barbecue pork is The One—something about how the liquid fat from the pork and the red, umami-heavy char siu barbecue sauce mixes with the steamy, slightly sweet Chinese roll. The chewy edges of the meat, the delicate crust of the bread, and the pillowy texture. A singular and specific heaven. One hombow is a big snack, two’s a meal. Walk down the Ave or through the Market, whichever, with one in your hand and one in the waxed paper sack, feeling like you have everything in life figured out. MEG VAN HUYGEN

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Kouign Amann

Temple Pastries, $5 

Seattle is silly with wonderful bakeries, many of them serving a very worthy version of the croissant for about $3 a pop. An expertly made croissant is the ideal snack—indulgent without being too heavy, delicious on its own, but made even better with a latte or jam. But to know what laminated dough is truly capable of, throw down a couple bucks more for a kouign amann. The one at Temple Pastries is especially good. It's made with the same flaky, buttery layers of the croissant, but it's covered in coarse sugar and baked in the shape of a crown (kouign amann is pronounced queen ah-mon—it's pastry royalty). The sugar caramelizes with the butter, making the outside of the pastry crackly and crispy—just look at those deep golden peaks!—and the inside stays tender and steamy with a glistening little pool of melted sugar in the center. And that's the jackpot. That's the bite. Get a little bit of that syrupy sugar with the surrounding soft dough and the crunchy candied base that holds it all together and you've got the best bite of food money can buy. MEGAN SELING