dkcaudill's Profile
102 Cuisines: Taking Inventory (SEA)
I've been pretty floored by the lack of diversity in Seattle as compared with Nashville and Atlanta. I had certainly expected the opposite. Hell, we had entire neighborhoods of middle eastern food.
I guess it just depends on what immigrant groups your city draws... in the southeast we had a lot more africans, middle easterners, and latin americans from the looks of our restaurants.
Oysters in Seattle?
Actually, I had JUST this same experience with family coming from out of town and wanting local seafood. The service at Emmet Watson's was SO awful that I was terribly embarrassed. They even told my mother that they would not give her a straw because she had ordered water... her jaw was wired.
Then the food was awful and lukewarm. Bummer, because it had been good in the past.
Can anyone recommend a good Greek spice blend?
Try a Zatar seasoning? You might find a good one at Market Spice, but I even tried one from Costplus World Market that I was happy enough with!
What's good in Kitsap?
15th St. Bakery is now open in the space where Luigi's(RIP) was! Apparently, the folks and Hi-Lo's hired lots of Luigi's assistants/proteges/students and have them baking the same menu plus a few additional things.
The Seeded baguette and the scones are still there, and almost just as good- maybe without that hint of burntness that luigi was so damned good at, but still really good.
The neighborhood is overjoyed, and there may be a line.
Also, they are now open way more(Sundays too!), and they take plastic!
What's good in Kitsap?
The peruvian place has slow service and a tiny menu and FANTASTIC food. Highly recommended!
What do we have in the Northwest that you can't get in other parts of the US?
As a recent transplant from the Southeast, you have TONS more local, unique, foods than we did in the SE. The ones I would miss the most would be:
The local green figs
Salmonberries
red huckleberries
golden chanterelles
lobster mushrooms
dungeness crab
geoducks
Harvey's Butter Rum Batter
oregon black truffles
matsutake
and most specifically, I would miss all the extra high quality varieties of things like Pears, Cherries, apples, and berries that you can get here. I love to go in to Tacoma Boys and buy local produce that has a sticker for a gift company on it.
Other people MAIL ORDER this stuff as a gift- and I go in an buy it every week!
What's good in Kitsap?
I have had really positive experiences with Suzy's kitchen on 6th and Callow, across from Poblanita. Good Korean for an unbeatable price. Great service.
Anybody know a good filipino place on the peninsula?
If you're headed up north for any reason, Bella Italia in Port Angeles is great- I had fig and bleu cheese ravioli with corn and chanterelles. Unstoppable!
Also, please please stop by Luigi's Baking in Bremerton next to Hi Lo's. Better bread(by far) than I got when I lived in Italy. The man knows baguette- I didn't even think I liked baguettes.
SEA - Whole Wheat Israeli Couscous Source?
Recently purchased a box from University Place/Tacoma Trader Joe's.
middle eastern groceries in Seattle
You can find these items at the Souk in Pike Place- but they are small and their stock is a little intermittent and unpredictable. Still worth checking if it's close to home or work for you.
How to Find Tolerable Mexican Food?
Since it's been months and I've been to dozens more places, many that I've just walked in and turned right around out of, I've still found nothing.
Things got so bad I called my Mexican mother about it. She said I shouldn't have moved here, and that I will never, ever talk her into moving here and opening a restaurant. She says what she cooks is just called "Mexican" food, and that I need to come back home to Nashville because she's worried about me. I love that lady.
Looks like I'm going to baja fresh...
What's good in Kitsap?
I'm so happy to come back and find this post still relatively active! We are still very happy we moved here, and trying to sort out some good places to eat. I just thought I'd drop by and add that I work in Belfair, and I had a good experience the other day. I swung by a place called the Rice Bowl on Belfair, thinking it would be pretty awful (because Belfair has about 8000 people and everything else I've had has been lame). I found out AFTER I ordered that they also have a fairly large menu of Vietnamese food. They also have a nice bubble tea menu. I got ginger beef, and it had lots of fresh vegetables- more than I can say for most lunch places in the area. I also got a Taro bubble tea, which was ok. I'm just happy to find anything like that in Belfair. So if you are faced with the hard task of trying to find something to eat in Belfair, try the Rice Bowl.
I think it would really benefit Kitsap for us to keep this discussion open, and keep the standards high. The choices are few and far between, but if we effectively identify and patronize the good ones, we might stop going to Seattle every time we want something to eat! The fewer people get burnt, the better restaurants will do here. Like somebody else said, too many of these places survive in spite of themselves. I have a hard time cutting a restaurant any slack when it's in a region of the US with better quality meat, seafood, and produce than anywhere else I have been.
What's good in Kitsap?
La Poblanita is on the corner of 6th and Callow, right across the street from Azteca. They also have a great mexican bakery and a tiny grocery/butcher.
Miracle Fruit
This is an excellent question. One would think that in a place with such diverse and plentiful produce available, we'd have some of this. But I've looked high and low and asked around at Pike Place and nobody knows where I can find any other than online!
How to Find Tolerable Mexican Food?
Authenticity is a really hard thing to assess in general. I'm just looking for the style I had in the eastern US. By the way, this style was what I had all up and down the east coast, Texas, the Gulf Coast, etc. As far north as Toronto and as far south as Orlando.
There are good taquerias here if you look, and I love them. What I was hoping was that someone might tell me that "oh the food you like is from xyz region" so I would know what to look for. By the way, lots of "Mexican" restaurants are owned and operated by people from all over Latin and south America.
Oh and if you are looking for what I am talking about, asiangirl, it was Las Palmas on Nolensville Rd. I know it's too late since you've moved, but they also had a few spectacular international markets on Nolensville. Ever go the the K&S?
I read an article a while back about the geography of supertaster prevalence. The northern European countries have the highest prevalence, and the Indian subcontinent had the lowest. And given the heritage of a lot of the peninsula, it makes perfect sense that they might, in general, prefer milder food.
And I love it here, I've had tons of great food. I work in a field that allows me to choose to live anywhere in the country, and this is where I chose. The local people are very nice, polite, weirdos.
It's just hard to lose that one style of mexican food, after eating it all the time for most of my life.
How to Find Tolerable Mexican Food?
Again with this "staples of the mexican kitchen" business? There are a lot of different types of mexican cuisine, and this is the one I'm looking for. My "mexican mom" is from Monterrey, and she certainly didn't use garlic in almost anything, except maybe, maybe salsa.
I'd have to say that my negative stereotype about the northwest is the overuse of garlic. It's like the only spice people tolerate well here.
How to Find Tolerable Mexican Food?
the guacamole recipe I like the most is just smashed avocado and water. Not even any lime or lemon to slow the reaction. When I got guacamole at restaurants in Nashville, I knew that one avocado had been smashed immediately prior to serving the dish, and the taste was so fresh that with a good pico de gallo and sour cream it was unbelievable in fajitas. The food NEVER contains garlic, cumin, or chili powder. All flavor comes from fresh ingredients and cooking methods. Things like fajitas or tacos de asada never came with cheese, and they didn't need it. I have a feeling that the secret is cooking with lard. :)
The restaurants were always family operations, and the service was so nice it was unbelievable. As a kid I spent every single day for years and years at a mexican friend's house. His mom was way nicer than my own, so without my mexican comfort food, I'm feeling pretty disconnected!
And when I get recommendations from the locals, it invariably sucks in the same way.
I give up, I just have to keep eating at La Poblanita. They are far and away the best I've had, I just miss my restaurant fare like fajita quesadillas and molcajete and a host of dishes with impossible to pronounce aztec greens.
What's good in Kitsap?
I totally agree! I try my damnedest to avoid getting cheesed, but it's rough.
Silver City has my favorite Reuben of all time, but their service is so obnoxious about pushing appetizers, deserts, beer, etc on us that we never go any more. I have to keep reminding myself it's local and the food is good, or I will think I've accidentally ended up at Applebee's.
Nobody has mentioned it, but right next to Hi-Lo's in Bremerton is Luigi's Baking. It has what is easily the best bakery product I have ever had, much better than what I got when I was living in Italy. If you like the jewish burnt bakery taste, you will love this place.
The New Delhi by the ferry landing is probably going to have to be my new comfort food, it's cheap and the owner is so nice every time I am in. You have to ask for it spicy though, because people here like the blandest food.
Also if you like a taqueria, La Poblanita is great, and has fantastic salsa.
How to Find Tolerable Mexican Food?
I've just moved to the Kitsap Peninsula(Bremerton, WA) from Nashville, TN. In Nashville, I could depend on Mexican food- always cheap and always good. I never found a bad place as long as I stayed away from chains.
I've been to 4-5 places in OR and WA now, and they have been uniformly awful. I'm not looking for a taqueria, I want a sit down place. The plates at all these places are the size of a football field, and it's all cheese. They all feature shredded cheddar on their beans and a tomato based sauce on everything that gives me an MSG gut-ache.
Clearly my mexican food radar is now as confused by this move as my gay-dar. How do I tell a good place from a bad one here?
The kind i'm used to has the following distinguishing features:
not much cheese
NEVER NEVER yellow cheese
pico de gallo with every meal
guacamole made solely from avocado and water
fresh cilantro- lots
no chili powder, no cumin
totally awesome cheese dip made from queso blanco, table cream, and jalapeno.
Aztec art on the walls
no crushed ice in cocktails
I don't know if it's more "authentic" or not, I just know it's better than the slop I've had here.
Is there a term for this type of cuisine so I can just go find it? I can only hope that maybe I'm used to a different regional cuisine than I am finding here!
