A GLUTTON'S GUIDE TO NORTHWESTERN AMERICA

A GLUTTON’S GUIDE TO NORTHWESTERN AMERICA

By Ajit Chaudhuri

Introduction: Be warned, dear readers inclined towards vegetarianism or healthy eating – this note is about real food! I visited the US for the first time this summer. I was looking forward to many things, but I must confess that titillating my taste buds was not among them – after all, what could one expect from burgers, pizzas and hot dogs washed down with a Budweiser? Boy, was I WRONG! My father, brother and I (all hardcore foodies), often accompanied by a resident aunt and cousin, spent three weeks traveling around northwest US, across its peninsulas, islands, mountains and coastal roads, in search of good food and beautiful scenery. And we got plenty of both! As an aside, we also took in a Major League Soccer game to make for the perfect holiday. An appendix to this note lists the specifics – when, where, what, etc. – for those interested in gastronomic adventures in the region themselves. And we used tripadvisor.com and our own foodie networks to select eateries.

Burgers, Pizzas and Dogs

We observed a code that precluded visiting any food chain type of places (and made only one exception during the entire tour, a rest room cum driver-change stop at Burger King), and so got to eat some amazing typically American food. The two highlights were Mrs. Beasley’s and Linda’s Kitchen.

Mrs. Beasley’s was an unassuming (above) but highly recommended place on the famous west coast highway that lies along the Pacific Ocean and connects Mexico with Canada. We stopped there for a late breakfast en route to the Mt. St. Helen’s volcano, and I had a double cheeseburger washed down with a fresh strawberry smoothie. Heaven! The tables (and the entire ambience) were clean but basic, and there was no service – one had to order, pay, and then pick up when one of the staff (all of whom looked like advertisements for good food) yelled that it was ready. We chatted with the other customers, all repeats who stopped every time they passed by, and learnt that we were unlikely to get another burger of this quality in America.

Linda’s Kitchen (pictured below) was visited when really hungry – I had completed a 15 km hike around Lake Ozette on the Olympic Peninsula (famous also for being the only temperate rain forest in the northern hemisphere) before arriving at this joint in the Makah Indian Reservation in the absolute northwestern corner of the contiguous United States.

I had pizza with homemade mozzarella cheese and pepperoni topping (pictured below), washed down with homemade root beer. Again, fantastic to the extent that we had a bite of the first pizza and immediately ordered a second. The ambience too was wonderful in a homely and comfortable way – there was a guitar lying around that I used, some kids were playing chess on a couch in the room, and the other customers were talkative and friendly. No booze available, though, in the restaurant or anywhere on the reservation.

Linda herself seemed quite a character – proud of the fact that everything she served, including the ingredients, baking dough, cheese, etc., was made in the kitchen and that she took her time over her cooking (and you had to wait). Rumour had it that whenever she had too many customers she simply closed shop – apparently she was averse to any form of stress. We were given a tour of the kitchen, where Linda showed us her stove (pictured below) – the sign above reads ‘This is a Drama-free Environment’. A wonderful evening overall!

I would also like to mention Patty’s Place in the area around the Mt. St. Helen’s volcanic mountain, where the view from our table is pictured below.

It is famous for its deserts, one of which (a peach and rhubarb cobbler with vanilla ice cream, pictured below) I wolfed down after eating an Elk Burger.

Another honourable mention was the Gere-a-Deli in Anacortes Island, where we ate after visiting the Boeing Factory in Everett (where they make 747s, 777s and 787s), up north near the Canadian border. We had roast beef sandwiches, which they called Reubens, and quiche washed down with Mack and Jack beer. The ambience (pictured below, me in a blue shirt on the right seated with my aunt and cousin) was more memorable than the food, and the clientele consisted mostly of locals. It was here that I was introduced to the fact that, when one bought a cold drink, one was just given a large glass that one could subsequently fill up as much, and as often, as one liked from what they called the ‘soda fountain’. This element of trust – that three of you won’t drink from the same glass – was prevalent in all our interactions in America.

Other facts that I discovered included that one could take photographs almost anywhere, and service standards were high and friendly. We took a picture of the back of our server’s T-shirt, where it was written ‘Serving Anacortes since 1981’, and she smiled so nicely (below) that we got one of the smile as well.

The other place that we all remember fondly is the River’s Edge Restaurant at La Push, where we ate one dinner and two breakfasts because we were staying at a nearby resort and it was the only eatery in 5 miles or so. La Push is a coastal village on the Olympic Peninsula, and is part of the Quiluete Indian reservation (beer available in the village shop, thank God, but not in the restaurant). The restaurant itself looks on to the area where the Quiluete river flows into the ocean (pictured below from our table), and is community owned.

The restaurant’s dinner menu had an item called ‘catch of the day’ (this depended upon what the fishing fleet brought in every evening, and in brackets was a commitment from the Quiluete Indian community that they would never eat, or serve others, farm-raised fish), which I had, and thereby tasted grilled salmon that was fresh from the sea. Wonderful - all it needed was a beer to precede it. It was followed by a blueberry pie and ice cream.

The breakfast menu was different – with two egg combinations of cheese, ham, bacon and sausages and unlimited buttered toast and coffee (pictured below with my brother and me).

In the process of all this, I discovered that typical American food could taste good. I also discovered new typical American food – the highlight of this was the New England Clam Chowder (a thick soup eaten with bread) at Pike Place Chowder, right beside the hippie infested Pike Place market in Seattle. My latest ambition is to open my own Chowder eatery, called ‘Chowder-i’s’.

Fine Dining

Not all meals were had in All-American places in the company of the local peasantry – we did have the occasional posh evening with the glitterati. One such was at Elliot’s, right on the water of the Puget Sound in Seattle. I had the Alaskan cod, and also sampled my father’s oysters (pictured below).

Another was at Daniel’s, a bar in Bellevue, where the highlight was knocking back copious quantities of beer and eating bacon-wrapped scallops and popcorn shrimp while a singer on his piano belted out Elton John and Billy Joel numbers. Pictured below are my brother, cousin and I at the bar appreciating one of the songs.

Chinese Food

I had Chinese food on three occasions, two of them excellent. One of these was at Hing Loon in the Chinatown part of Seattle on the 4th of July, where its other attraction was that it was open till 0100 hours and so we could get a meal after the 4th of July fireworks. In addition to excellent Cantonese cuisine, I had my first taste of the superb Tsingtao beer (evidence below). A group of Indians celebrating 4th of July in a Chinese restaurant – hey, this is America!

The other excellent Chinese meal was at a restaurant serving food from Sichuan province, imaginatively called Sichuanese Cuisine. Nomenclature here was unusual all around – our highlight dish was a spicy and extremely tasty fish dish called ‘Boiled Fish’, and another superb dish, a mix of finely grained meats, was called ‘Ants on a Tree’. Most of the clientele here were Chinese, so one assumes that the food was authentic in addition to good.

Conclusion: It is difficult to get excellent food, service and ambience simultaneously in a restaurant, anywhere in the world. In northwest US, we managed two out of three quite often, and at least one in most cases – a good record. This area has so much going for it in terms of visit-ability, coastlines, islands, forests, mountains, lakes, trails, ocean, rivers, modern cities, top-notch universities, high-tech industry, inter alia, that visiting for its gastronomic possibilities tends to be low priority. This is a pity! My own experience was, and I think I can speak for my fellow travellers as well here, that the area is a food lover’s paradise for its quality and variety. Worth going thirteen and a half time zones for this? In combination with everything else – definitely!



Appendix 1: A Listing of Restaurants Visited
(Date/Meal - Restaurant - Area - What I Ate)

3rd July/Dinner - Century Links Stadium - Seattle - Burgers, Beer
4th July/Dinner - Hing Loon, 628, S Weller Street, Seattle 98104, +1-206-682-2828 - Chinatown, Seattle - Cantonese food, Tsingtao Beer
5th July/Dinner - Elliott’s Oyster House, 1201 Alaskan Way Pier 56, Seattle, WA 98101 - Facing the Puget Sound, Seattle - Fried Alaskan Cod, Oysters, Amber Beer
8th July/Dinner - Sichuanese Cuisine, 15005 NE 24th Street, Redmond, WA 98052, +1-425-562-1552 - Redmond - Boiled Fish, Ants Climbing a Tree, Kung Pao Chicken, Mongolian Beef
9th July/Brunch - Mrs. Beasley’s Burgers, 393, Cowlitz Ridge Road, Toledo, WA 98591, +1-360-864-4866 - Off the Seattle to Portland Highway, Toledo - Double Cheeseburgers, Fresh Strawberry smoothie
9th July/High Tea - Patty’s Place, 9440, Spirit Lake Highway, Toutle, WA 98649 - On the road to Mt. St. Helen Volcano - Elk Burger, Rhubarb Cobbler with Ice Cream
10th July/Lunch - Mongolian Grill, 461 South Fork Avenue SW, North Bend, WA 98045 - At the outlets’ mall in North Bend near the Snoqualmie Reservation - Noodles, meat and vegetables
11th July/Lunch - Gere-a-Deli, 502 Commercial Avenue, Anacortes WA 98221, +1-360-293-7383 - On Anacortes Island - Quiche, Roast Beef Reubens, Mack and Jack Beer
12th July/Lunch - Pike Place Chowder, 1530, Post Alley, Seattle, WA 98101, +1-206-267-2537, www.pikeplacechowder.com - Pike Place Market, Seattle - New England Clam Chowder, Smoked Salmon Chowder
13th July/Dinner - Chateau St. Michelle Winery, 14111 NE 145th Street, Woodinville, WA 98072, +1-425-488-1133, info@ste-michelle.com - During the Chris Botti Concert - Wine, Hot Dog
14th and 18th July/Lunch - Costco Food Court, 1801, 10th Avenue NW
Issaquah, WA 98207 - Outside Costco Warehouse in Issakuah near Bellevue - Hot Dog, Polish Dog
15th July/Breakfast - Burger King, Puyallup
15th July/Lunch - Quinault River Internet Café, 6094, US Highway 101, Amanda Park, WA 98526 - Along the Quinault Lake in Olympic Peninsula - Burgers, Coke
15th July/Dinner and 16th, 17th July/Breakfast - River’s Edge Restaurant, 41 Main Street, La Push, WA 98350, +1-360-374-3236 - Facing the river’s mouth onto Pacific Ocean, on the Quileute reservation - Catch of the Day (Grilled Salmon), Blueberry Pie and Ice Cream, 2 Egg Mix, American style Skillet
16th July/Dinner - Linda’s Kitchen, 1110 Bay View Avenue, Neah Bay, WA 98381, +1-360-645-2292 - At the Northwestern tip of the US on the Makah reservation - Mozarella Cheese Pizza with Pepperoni topping, homemade Vanilla Ice Cream with Rasberries, homemade Root Beer
17th July/Lunch - Bainbridge Island to Seattle Ferry - Across the Puget Sound - Cheeseburgers
18th July/Dinner - Daniel’s Broiler, 10500 NE 8th Street, Bellevue, WA 98004, +1-425-462-4662 - Piano bar with live music, lots of Elton John and Billy Joel - Bacon wrapped Scallops, Shrimp Popcorn, Tacos, Beer
19th July/Lunch - Microsoft Commons, 15255 NE 40th Street, Redmond, WA 98052 - At the Microsoft HQ in Redmond - Fried Salmon and chips, Peach flavoured Soda