In my next life, I’ll be a personal travel concierge (and work in a TV writer’s room and be on SNL and be a lady of leisure with a roller rink and staffed pizza parlor in my basement). I am a P-L-A-N-N-E-R — I love discovering fun, quirky, delicious, beautiful places and experiences around the world, and sharing my recommendations with folks who are headed there next.
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You’re visiting Yokohama, Japan? You have to go to the CupNoodles Museum! Taking a trip to Long Beach, Washington? The high-end Japanese outdoor brand Snow Peak chose little, unpretentious, blue-collar Long Beach as the only North American location to build a gorgeous Japanese-style bathhouse! Want to do a New York City pizza crawl, but can’t commit to ordering several whole pies? Scott’s Pizza Tours are awesome!
Last week, my mom flew up from San Diego to celebrate her birthday, and we ate like queens for four days. So please allow me to be your Seattle-area restaurant concierge and share everywhere we went!
There are nearly two dozen noodle bowls to choose from at Azuki, featuring various broths and sauces, temperatures and toppings. But nestled inside each comically large ceramic bowl is a tangle of long, chewy, housemade udon noodles, some stretching the length of my arm. This was my second pilgrimage to the Madison Valley restaurant, owned by Japanese immigrant and longtime Seattle chef Ryuji Miyata, and I was on a mission to slurp their fleeting, seasonal cold noodles.
We ordered a summer special, shibire niku kakiage (牛すね肉冷菜海老かき揚げうどん), chilled noodles in a cold, delicate sauce topped with sliced beef banana shank (I was assured that no bananas were harmed in the making of this dish; it’s a banana-shaped cut of beef from a cow’s lower leg) and freshly fried shrimp and onion kakiage tempura. I am a certified shrimpoholic, and the jumbles of plump shrimp, encased in a light, crispy-crunchy shell, are some of the best I’ve ever had.
Over the last two years and 2,000 miles (cough flex cough) of riding my e-bike, I've developed a mild allergy to cars. I’m one with the wind! I’m freeeee! My spirit can’t be suffocated by the stifling metal cage we call Car! So, I appreciate how easy it is to get to Bainbridge Island on foot. The cute downtown is only about a five-minute walk from the ferry terminal, and it’s less than half a mile to walk to Proper Fish, whose popularity is proven by the perpetually long line out front. The arm-length noodles from last night’s dinner weren’t enough – now we needed arm-length fried fish and palm-sized onion rings! The fish was tender and flaky, the onion rings loudly shattered between our teeth and the fries are my favorite kind (skin-on, square batons, crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside), especially tasty when doused in malt vinegar.
If you follow me on Instagram, chances are you’ve seen a lot of googly-eyed ice cream cones lately! Many Bennies makes “New Zealand-style" ice cream – a scoop of hard packed ice cream is blended with one or two frozen fruits (the berries are local!) in a special machine and voila! A customized, made-to-order swirl of fluffy, fruity soft serve. I like sweet cream ice cream blended with either mango or strawberries and raspberries, drizzled with puckery chamoy and a sprinkle of Tajin. But blueberry lavender topped with housemade lemon curd is also a winning combo!
I grew up eating dim sum with my family in California’s Bay Area, from massive banquet rooms with push carts in San Mateo to our favorite hole-in-the-wall, walk-up counter on Clement Street in San Francisco. So I knew my mom would be thrilled to try a new dim sum parlor in Bellevue! Located in an unassuming strip mall, Sum Yee Kae’s interior is bright, modern and brand new, and every juicy dumpling, verdant stalk of gai lan, chewy rice roll and pan seared turnip cake was fresh and delicious. I couldn’t stop eating! A luddite who prefers human interaction, I’m usually not a fan of self-ordering via tablet. But it’s actually a good match for a staggered meal like dim sum — you can easily add a steam basket of siu mai or an order of baked pineapple buns the moment you’re ready, and they'll be delivered by the smiley servers in minutes flat.
My mom was born and raised in the Bronx and Brooklyn, where she’d lay her head on a cushy knish pillow each night, snuggled under a sky-high pile of corned beef quilts after brushing her teeth with a big, fat pickle. When she requested Jewish deli for her birthday dinner, I was excited to finally try Dingfelder’s in Capitol Hill!
We hemmed and hawed over the menu, asked too many questions, stuck in an indecisive spiral, but when the sweet cashier carved us a strip of glistening, melt-in-your-mouth hot pastrami, our minds were instantly made up.
My mom and I split The Rachel (I feel sorry for everyone who doesn’t share their name with a sandwich): hot pastrami, melted Swiss, sauerkraut and just enough Russian dressing on marbled rye. I am not usually a big-pile-of-meat Jewish deli sandwich kinda gal, but this was a WOW moment: I ate every. Last. Crumb. There were crunchy slices of half-sour pickles to cut through the richness, and the aforementioned sweet server treated us to a big slice of birthday cheesecake!
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Have a food- or drink-related question? (Need a restaurant rec? Have a mystery that needs solving?) Send me a note: rachel.belle@cascadepbs.org
XO
Rachel Belle
