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Everyone knows about wine tasting, but at Seattle’s Mixed Pantry, a Belltown specialty food shop that celebrates Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander-made products, you can experience a guided soy sauce or chili crisp tasting! Owner Takeshi “TAK” Kunimune thoughtfully curates a flight of five Japanese shoyus, plus a few varieties from other countries, to show off their distinctly different, complex flavor profiles. He shares how each product is made and what dishes they pair best with and you’ll leave with the knowledge that there are so many options beyond the ubiquitous bottle of Kikkoman.
If you are a condiment king or queen, Mixed Pantry is your mecca: Taiwanese red guava jam, lime leaf sambal, roasted shrimp salt, and all manner of vinegars, oils, jams and sauces, plus fun snacks like masala potato chips and ube goat milk chocolate. TAK’s sunny personality and focus on creating an all-inclusive community space is just the icing on the cardamom-spiced yellow cake mix.
Next, we meet a Washington state principal with a lacto-fermented hot sauce side hustle. Blake Baird had always hyper-focused on his hobbies, but a recent autism and ADHD diagnosis helped explain his “deep curiosity, relentless experimentation, and a knack for finding unexpected connections between ingredients.” Lunamor’s Larder hot sauces are made from fresh fruits and veggies, like strawberries, cucumbers and kiwis, and have delightfully punny names like Peaches Christ and Mjango Unchained. Blake and Rachel Belle shop for produce at the farmer’s market before settling in at an Edmonds wine bar to taste his creations.
