Paseo Is Summer

I’ve been enjoying Paseo, the tiny Cuban sandwich shop that has become a Fremont mainstay, for years but now that I’ve moved to the neighborhood and am just a quick walk away I’ve developed a feeling of ownership over the place. This is now my neighborhood sandwich shop and I can jog on over whenever I need a fix. And just in time, too–there’s something about Paseo’s tiny corrugated metal storefront and plastic tables and chairs that perfectly compliment the long, hot days of Summer, and as Summer draws to a close and the days get cooler a trip to Paseo will make you forget that Fall is just around the corner. Sitting outside, people watching as juices from your sandwich run down your arm, you feel transported somewhere else, somewhere tropical and relaxed, far from cold, uptight Seattle. Paseo is just what this city needs.

The menu at Paseo was revamped earlier this year and now features several new options, but the sandwiches remain just about everyone’s favorite and really should not be missed. They come on a baguette, wonderfully chewy and sturdy enough to hold the abundance of toppings, which include homemade mayo, cilantro, pickled jalapeños, romaine lettuce (for a bit of crunch), and a heaping mess of the best goddamn caramelized onions you will ever eat. These onions are so popular that Paseo now offers a sandwich where they are the main attraction. I prefer the grilled chicken breast and the fish, however. The meat is light enough to offset the heavier flavors of the sauce and onions, and tender and juicy to boot. The chicken thigh and pork are a bit rich but also delicious. The scallop, a new edition to the sandwich menu, is excellent; big, meaty scallops are sautéed in extra virgin olive oil and packed (cheek to jowl?) on the bread. Keep in mind when ordering the sandwiches that these suckers are messy and you should have several napkins at the ready to sop up the juicy mess they will leave all over your hands, arms and lap.

The rest of the menu is just as good as the sandwich portion. The West Caribbean Bowl comes with two scoops of sticky jasmine rice, soft as rice pudding, soupy black beans, tangy and with a touch of spice, and a chicken thigh that, like all of the meat at Paseo, has been marinated to perfection. The flavor of tomato infuses everything. The Fresh Fish in Rojo I liked but didn’t fall in love with. The tomato sauce with peas and onion was spicy and a little sweet but the fish was nothing to write home about. Other entrees include a half chicken dinner, grilled pork, prawns, and a tofu dinner I hear tell is one of the best vegetarian meals in town.

So head on down to Paseo while the weather is still nice and treat yourself to a mini vacation.

Paseo

4225 Fremont Ave N

Seattle, WA 98103

(206) 545-7440

Dear Pagliaccio Salad,

I love you so much, Pagliacci’s Pagliaccio Salad. Everything about you thrills me, starting with your perfect base of green leaf lettuce. How is it that you have such exquisite toppings? Your garbanzo beans–tasty, yet good for me! Your finely diced red peppers–marinated to perfection! Your shredded soft cheese–so mild, so creamy. Your cubes of salami–a salty accent to your lighter ingredients. Your diced red onion just doesn’t do it for me, however. I’m sorry, Pagliaccio Salad, but it is much to potent. I ask to have it left off. I do so love your dijon vinaigrette dressing, though! I want to dip everything I eat into it! So how about it, baby. You, me, and a couple of breadsticks. Let’s order in tonight. I know we’ll be good for each other.

XOXO

Salvadorean Bakery

When I mention White Center to people in Seattle I am usually met with confusion and disdain. “Wait, where is that again? It’s way down south, right?” Noses inevitably wrinkle. White Center just isn’t viewed as a “destination” place, and I think that this is a mistake. Unpretentious in the extreme, perhaps a little trashy yet possessing a charm all its own, White Center is a great place to get food. Businesses are mainly Mexican and Southeast Asian and this makes for some very good, cheap eating. It’s also relatively easy to get to, lying just outside of the Seattle city limits and abutting the south side of West Seattle.

One of my favorite places in White Center is the Salvadorean Bakery. It is, so far as I’m aware, the only place in the Seattle area to try the food of El Salvador. Only some of the employees speak English so it can be a good opportunity to brush up on your Spanish. This friendly, brightly lit bakery has an adjoining room full of booths and tables for eating in, but take-out is an easy option. A must try are the pupusas. These are akin to a corn tortilla, but thicker and pillowy soft. They are stuffed with a variety of fillings, fried, and served with salsa and a spicy, pickled cabbage dish called curtido. There are six varieties, three of which are vegetarian, and are a bargain at $1.95 each. My favorite is the revuelta, which has a pork, cheese, and bean filling. The pork is delicately minced and salted and the refried beans moist and flavorful. The queso con loroco, cheese with palm blossom, I find to be a bit too cheesy and greasy, but if cheesy and greasy is your thing you should like this one. There is an extensive menu beyond the pupusas, including tamales, soups, fried plantains, chile rellenos, and an entire breakfast section. On a recent morning I tried the pan francés con frijoles, queso y crema, a loaf of french bread roughly the shape and about half the size of a football, filled with refried beans, hard cheese and sour cream. The golden, crisp exterior of the bread encases a soft chewy middle and a lava floe of warm refried beans and sour cream. The firm bits of cheese act as a salty accent to the creaminess of the filling. The thing was giant, and a bit heavy for breakfast, but it was so good that I finished all but a few bites. Another breakfast item that caught my eye that I haven’t had a chance to try yet is the plátano frito con frijoles y crema, deep fried plantains served with refried beans and sour cream. I mean to get this the next time I’m there. On weekends only you can get atole de elote, a sweet, hot corn drink seasoned with cinnamon. Creamy and smooth, this would be the perfect accompaniment to a cold winter morning.

While the meals served at the Salvadorean Bakery are grand, the real excitement of visiting this place are the two large bakery cases full of lovely, lovely desserts. Being a total sugar freak my heart beats a little faster when these cases come into view. Everything in there is so pretty, so colorful, so…happy looking, it can be hard to know where to start, but I highly recommend the almond squares. These are little bites of heaven. They are made from a piece of unbelievably moist almond flavored cake that is dipped in chocolate, topped with sliced almonds and coated with a thin layer of glaze. They are so light and airy they will seem to just melt in your mouth. Other highlights include the leche flan, the borracho, a rum-soaked bread pudding (this one packs a wallop), and the sweet, jam filled empanadas. Opposite the bakery cases, on a small shelf by the door, are some very unassuming little loafs of cake wrapped in a clear plastic bag. Don’t let their ordinary appearance fool you. The chocolate cream cake, while unadorned and innocently shaped like a loaf of banana bread, is one of the best cakes I have ever had. It’s not heavy yet it’s very substantial, incredibly moist yet not greasy, and chocolate-y like nobody’s business. I’ve seen a small group of people take one of these babies down in under an hour.

So remember, White Center= good eatin’, and there are few places where this is truer than at the Salvadorean Bakery.

Salvadorean Bakery

1719 SW Roxbury St

Seattle, WA 98106

(206) 762-4064

Open every day, 6:30 am-9:00 pm

For a Good Time, Call The Pita Pit

I was recently made aware of the existence of The Pita Pit by a couple of Oregonian friends of mine, That’s What She Said and The Lovely Miss Q. We had gotten together for a Sunday afternoon stitch and bitch and needed some food delivered fast. “How about The Pita Pit?” Suggested the Oregonians. “We used to order from them all the time back in Eugene.” Apparently they deliver their pitas on a bike. A bike! How quaint! A quick perusal of the menu revealed The Pita Pit to have a layout similar to a sub shop. You take a pita, you choose from an extensive list of toppings, ie: meat, veggies, cheese, condiments. Pretty straightforward. While cheap, fast, and convenient, I believe that what really sets The Pita Pit apart are their hilarious stoner employees. A call made to inquire about their delivery options met with this response: “Um, well, yeah…I guess we deliver, but he’s on a bike so you have to live close by.” It was established that I live somewhere within a 20 block radius, but the stoner balked. “Oh, you mean way on the other side of the freeway?” (Four blocks on the other side, but who’s counting.) “Well, um…yeah, that might work…ok, let’s give it a try. It’ll probably work.” Fearing for the fate of our food, we decided to put our stitching and bitching on hold and go pick it up ourselves.

Once inside we were met by the same stoner that took our call. He went to ring us up but needed to take the delivery charge off of our bill first. “Um…wait. What’s $20.77 minus $2.50? Um…sorry, I just woke up and I really can’t do math right now.” It was about 6:00 at night. Having worked in customer service quite a bit myself, I have near infinite patience for people in the food service industry. It’s not as easy as it looks, folks. I helped him out with the math, and he promptly wandered off to help some new arrivals at the other end of the counter, leaving our money and ticket sitting by the register. He wandered back a bit later, and That’s What She Said and The Lovely Miss Q requested some sodas. As he was handing TWSS her cup, he suddenly and somewhat awkwardly said, “No, you’re not paying for this soda. Go ahead and have it”. Uncomfortable pause. Handing TLMQ her cup, “No–no, you’re not paying either”. It didn’t seem like he was trying to be nice per se–one got the sense that he didn’t want to be bothered with adding the soda charge to our bill. When I jokingly asked if I could have a free drink as well, my request went ignored. Of all the nerve.

Back at home, having been rung up at last by another employee who came over to bail out his incompetent coworker, we dug in. The pitas themselves were pretty good. I had the chicken breast with feta, several veggies, honey mustard, and ranch dressing. The chicken seemed a little…reconstituted, perhaps. Not as bad as a McNugget, but noticeable nonetheless. It was tasty, but in a fast food kind of way. Still, there were plenty of toppings and they didn’t skimp on the condiments. TLMQ was crestfallen that they had run out of hot sauce, which, to hear her tell it, attains almost magical levels of deliciousness when mixed with tzatziki. This disappointment aside, we all agreed that the pitas hit the spot. I would go there again the next time I’m craving something sandwich-y. I’ll just keep my expectations low regarding service.

The Pita Pit: pitas on a bike and hilarious stoners. How can you go wrong?

For the Love of Sushi: or, Sushi, How I Love Thee

This is what I had for dinner last night. Well, I didn’t eat all of it myself, but I had a good portion. I often find it more enjoyable to eat sushi as a take-out dish rather than in the restaurant. I know sushi is supposed to be bite sized, but I find the expectation that you are to shove an entire piece of sushi in your mouth at once to be ridiculous. They are usually much too big for this. It is nigh impossible to enjoy the flavor and texture of a food that you can barely get your mouth around. It’s a bit uncouth in a restaurant to bite your sushi in half, however, hence my preference for take-out. In the comfort of your own home you are free to look as unattractive as you want while wrangling your sushi into a more manageable size. It won’t taste as fresh, sure, so it’s definitely a trade off. One of my favorite take-out places is Kozue (ko-zoo-ay) in Wallingford. Their food is good but not too pricey, and they are always very nice.

If you are a sushi novice a safe place to start is the California Roll. I have yet to meet a person who does not like this roll. Not containing any raw seafood, the California Roll is very non-threatening. It’s inviting, even. It consists of “fake crab” (a white fish such as pollock that has been pulverized, re-formed, and cured to look like crab legs–tastes better than it sounds), cucumber, avocado, and either sesame seeds or tobiko, flying fish roe (don’t be afraid, they are tiny and cute). This is wrapped inside of sushi rice and seaweed and cut to form an attractive roll. While a good introduction for beginners or wusses, you can do much better. If this is not you first time eating sushi, or if you are a bit more adventurous, you need to branch out from the rolls (maki). Be bold. It’s not gonna hurt ya. Here are some of my favorite nigiri (hand-formed rice with toppings on): Ikura. Food of the gods. I swear, this is one of the best things that you can put in your mouth. A lot of people are put off by the appearance. Ikura is salmon roe, and it looks like something that you should use for bait while fishing. In fact, I think it might be. It consists of large (about the size of a pea) orange spheres filled with salty liquid that pop in your mouth in the most satisfying manner when bitten. I get all dreamy-eyed just thinking about it. The only way you can improve on Ikura is to have a quail egg served on top. Quail eggs are small, and just the yolk is used. The mild creaminess of the yolk compliments perfectly the sudden, biting saltiness of the roe.
Uni: sea urchin roe. I once heard this described as the ocean vomiting in your mouth. I agree with this in the most positive way. Yellow, mild, creamy, unlike anything else I’ve tasted. A bit pricey, but definitely worth trying. Hamachi (yellowtail): meaty, buttery, satisfying. This is what most people think of when they conjure up the image of sushi. Tuna (maguro, toro, o-toro): I don’t usually bother with maguro, the most inexpensive cut. The flavor is all right, but it’s often a bit stringy, which is a mouth-feel that I can’t handle. O-toro, on the other hand, is the good stuff. So rich, so soft, so…mmm. Just try it. You will not regret it. This is cream of the crop stuff. Unagi and Anago: eel. Eel was long the poor man’s food in Britain and eel pies used to be common pub fare. Unfortunately, everyone else has caught on to how good it is and it is now one pricey fish. The texture is tender, flaky, not fishy tasting. Unagi, the freshwater eel, is usually grilled with a thick, sweet sauce on top, and is a bit crunchy on the outside. It is like a sushi dessert. Anago, the saltwater variety, is a bit milder and fresher tasting and usually served plain with a touch of salt on top. One of the best things I’ve ever eaten was some anago I had at the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo. It was perfection, and I am permanently ruined for eel because nothing else can live up to it.

Well, now that you have had your crash course in sushi 101, go out and eat! And enjoy!!

 Here are some sushi places in Seattle that I like:

Kisaku: 2101 N 55th st, Seattle, Wa 98103 (206) 545-9050

Kozue: 1608 N 45th st, Seattle, WA 98103 (206) 547-2008

Toyoda: 12543 Lake City Way NE, Seattle, WA 98125 (206) 367-7972 (try the potato croquettes)