March 7, 2011 New Scarfing Seattle’s Top 48 Sandwiches: Marination Mobile’s Kalua Sliders
Marination Mobile
Location Changes Daily – Check the Website
Last year I reported on the street-food scene from Portland, where I sampled some of the best fish tacos on the planet; food that was better than anything I ate in any of Portland’s restaurants. Having visited countries around the world and sampled the grub offered by local vendors I’ve been ready for the American version of street-food for some time, but never thought it would come to fruition because of our bureaucratic ways. Sometimes its good to be wrong. The sudden madness surrounding Seattle’s street-food revolution is both surprising and refreshing, and Marination Mobile is the poster child of this local street food fad, offering both low prices and high quality Korean/Hawaiian grub.
Our mission was to review the Kalua Pork Sliders, which were named one of Seattle’s Top-5 Pulled Pork Sandwiches by Seattle Magazine last August and which have been featured everywhere from the Today Show to the Seattle Times to Cooking Light magazine. Seattle Magazine said, “if you’ve got a spare $2 burning a hole in your pocket, Marination has a tasty little snack for you.”
And that’s what makes Marination Mobile so special right now. $2?! Who could pass up a $2 sandwich in this economy, especially one that actually tastes good? Then again, the money you save on the sandwich might be spent on gas chasing the mobile eatery around Seattle.
The Kalua Slider is zingy and zesty in a Korean-slaw and sauce fashion, and the pulled pork is decent enough to make the slider a three bite affair. Is the pulled pork worthy of a Top-5 designation in the city of Seattle? Only time will tell as this sandwich review progresses, but it definitely falls short of the pulled pork at Pig Iron. The Hawaiian bun encasing said sliders, however, is fantastic. It is perhaps paired better with that Hawaiian fad, SPAM; not the stuff in your inbox, but that weird canned concoction. Yes, Marination Mobile sells a SPAM Slider, also for $2. The sauce and slaw is so good you won’t even know you are eating SPAM. Get some, if you are the trendy type.
Marination Mobile fulfilled my desire for street food, no doubt. I felt good about spending $6 on three tasty sliders and left wanting some of the tasty-sounding tacos. There’s no point, however, in providing a ton more copy on an eatery that generates a butt-load of press, as is. I’m just adding to the noise rather than filling the void. And how much can you really write about a sandwich the size of a dinner roll?
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Tags: curb cuisine, food truck, hawaiian, kalua, kalua pork sliders, kalua sliders, korean, lunch, lunch in seattle, marination mobile, pork, Pulled Pork, sandwich, sauce, Seattle, seattle food trends, seattle magazine, seattle magazine's sandwich love, seattle magazines best 48 sandwiches, seattle's best 48 sandwiches, Seattle's top 48 sandwiches, slaw, sliders, spam, street food, trendy food, west seattle
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February 27, 2011 Scarfing Seattle’s Top 48 Sandwiches: Homegrown’s Crab Cake, Bacon + Avocado
Homegrown Sustainable Sandwich Shop
1531 Melrose Ave.
Seattle, Wash., 98122
(206) 682-0935
*Update as of 3/2/11: Homegrown is making way for a new Spring menu and is pulling the sandwich reviewed below from its menu with no promise to ever bring it back. If you want to sample this sandwich get it before March 19.
Another Saturday, another sandwich. Ah yes, life is rough. Perusing the list of Seattle Magazine’s 48 top-rated sandwiches is a dreamy affair and what I imagine the wealthy must feel like when trying to decide which Caribbean island to moor their yacht on each weekend. The choices are vast and each represents the creme dela creme; the upper crust if you will. This weekend’s sandwich stop had two things going for it before my wife and I even walked through its door: for one, I’m all about sustainability. It’s more than just a marketing buzzword for this flak. And two, even though I no longer partake in such pleasures, nothing tops the homegrown, be it sudsy or smokey.
Upon entering Homegrown’s Capital Hill location diners are whisked away from the concrete jungle and into the dynamic Melrose Marketplace which includes an old-fashioned, but suddenly hip butcher shop in Rain Shadow Meats, the fragrant Calf & Kid cheese shop, the beautiful Marigold and Mint flower shop, and the avante garde Sitka & Spruce restaurant, among others. There’s even a small bar called Ferd’nand. All of the shops in the Melrose Market, including the bar, feature their goods in a communal environment, giving it the feel of an indoor farmer’s market. If forced to choose between Homegrown’s Freemont, Queen Anne or Capital Hill location for lunch, my wife and I would choose Capital Hill every time. Ambiance is key.
When my wife saw the Crab Cake, Bacon + Avocado sandwich on the menu board she was elated. I tried to talk her into the Turkey, Bacon + Avocado offering for diversity’s sake, but she wasn’t having it. So we ordered two, plus a side of yummy french fries with toasted fennel and herbs, served with a tangy sage aioli. Finding a place to sit with our eight-month old was dicey because of Homegrown’s limited seating, but not impossible. Fellow diners in Seattle seem to understand the issues that babies bring to the table, making it a truly unique city, and they play along with us in cramped situations which is always a relief. And for convenience, our sandwiches were ready within minutes. At least one of them was. The girl working the counter somehow missed out on the fact that we wanted two sandwiches. Too many piercings, perhaps?
The cook behind the counter made up for the mistake and showed what customer service is all about. Recognizing that the wife and I wanted to eat together he offered to cut our sandwich in half. And when the next one was ready did the same and through in a couple of yummy dill pickles for free. The timing of the second sandwich was perfect too, as we gulped down the first one in just minutes. The thick and smokey bacon topping the crispy crab cake was the perfect accomplice to the fat slices of avocado the crab cake sat on. And the hazelnut romesco and chimichurri lining the toasted bun gave just the right amount of zip and zest to the sandwich.
Being a fan of all things crab, I’ve always stumbled on and bitched about the many crab cakes that have come my way. Perfecting a crab cake truly is a science. And Homegrown hit a home run with its crab cake. It wasn’t doughy, or dominated by nappy flour. It was just crab, seasoned to lemony perfection, and housed in a tight, thin and spicy crust. It let the crab dominate, proving its freshness. Most crab cakes are lame attempts to mask a lack of freshness, but not at Homegrown. This crab cake could stand all alone as a small plate dish. The fact that it lives in a sandwich that includes bacon (my favorite meat) and avocado (my wife’s favorite veggie) is pure genius. We were still licking our lips and enjoying our burps while working the clearance racks at REI hours later.
Homegrown’s Crab Cake, Bacon + Avocado belongs on Seattle Magazine’s list of the top sandwiches in Seattle. Based on Seattle culture, history and industry I think it belongs in the magazine’s Bucket List, but I digress. Reidwegs.com will have its own Bucket List by the end of this wonderful process. The quality a Bucket List nominee should inherently own is the ability to make one want to visit that sandwich again and again, and to want to sample the other goodies on the menu as well. The Swinery has been calling us back for two weeks now to sample more of its porkey fun fare, and now Homegrown has had the same effect. If I’m not grubbing the Crab Cake, Bacon + Avocado delight on our next visit, I’ll be sampling the Reuben Revised or one of the awesome seasonal offerings, such as the Pot Roast sandwich.
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Tags: avocado, bacon, bucket list, capital hill lunch, capital hill sandwich shops, crab, crab cake, crab cake sandwich, homegrown, homegrown sustainable, homegrown sustainable sandwich shop, lunch, melrose market, Seattle, seattle magazine, seattle magazine's sandwich love, seattle magazines best 48 sandwiches, seattle sandwiches, sustainable
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February 20, 2011 Scarfing Seattle’s Top 48 Sandwiches: Pig Iron’s Pulled Pork
Pig Iron Bar-B-Q
5602 1st Ave., S.
Seattle, Wash.,98108
(206) 768-1009
Last weekend my wife and I tried to review the Smoked Pulled Pork sandwich at Georgetown’s Pig Iron, but made the mistake of showing up on a Sunday when they were closed. That mistake turned golden when we ended up at the Swinery, enjoying an epic BLT. But all of last week, especially during my workouts in the pool, I day-dreamed of BBQ Pig Iron-style. Lap after lap my fascination with all things pig manifested until it appeared in my nightly dreams. What had started with a few slices of bacon and some chicken liver pate last week in my fall from vegetarian grace had suddenly grown into a desire for a huge pile of smoked, pulled pork. It was like going from a wade in the kiddie pool to a dive in the deep-end, from the high dive.
Digestive system be damned, we hopped a rockin’ and rollin’ ferry from Vashon Island to the mainland on a sunny, but windy Saturday morning, intent on earning our pig-out after a run at Alki Beach. Along the way something kept eating at me – Pig Iron. Who the hell names their business Pig Iron? I get the pig part, but what about the iron? Was it because of its location in Georgetown’s industrial wasteland? Was it the iron inherent in bloody meat? What exactly was Pig Iron?
A search on Wikipedia set me straight in terms of the definition, but didn’t explain much in terms of naming the restaurant. Apparently, coke is an element in the Pig-Iron process, but not the type of coke you’d want with BBQ. The more I pondered out loud the more my wife sighed in agony. Enough already, on to the sandwich itself.
According to the master, Seattle Magazine, Pig Iron’s Smoked Pulled Pork sandwich, “comes in succulent chunks glistening with juice, with the sparest amount of barbecue sauce so as not to detract from the meat.”
As you can see from the photo the ‘glistening’ description is apt. In terms of the flavor the meat was super smoky and tasty, but also given a huge assist from the sweet and tangy carmelized onions. For my first foray into pulled pork since 2009 I felt a bit of disappointment though because the pork was somewhat dry once you got past the glistening exterior, rather than fall-from-the bone tender as hoped. With the help of a massive dose of Chipotle BBQ sauce the sandwich gained its wings. Without the sauce it seemed rather dull.
This is not to say that Pig Iron’s sandy doesn’t belong on the list of Seattle’s Top 48. It was gone from my plate in a matter of minutes and gave my taste buds a thrill ride that should keep them satiated for the coming week. It just didn’t have the ‘wow’ factor that we found with the Swinery’s BLT. In a town full of killer food, Pig Iron’s Smoked Pulled Pork simply failed to kill it. More like, it nailed it like something made out of Pig Iron.
From a service and ambience perspective Pig Iron rocks. The waitstaff is super attentive and sold us on an unexpected appetizer of fried green tomatoes, which were dynamite. The interior is much larger than it looks from the outside, with two dining rooms that encourage hearty eating and drinking. And best of all the smell of smoked meat permeates the walls, which also embeds in your clothing, giving diners a fine fragrance to take home with them.
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Tags: BBQ, BBQ sauce, BLT, carmelized onions, Coke, Georgetown, pig, Pig Iron, Pig Iron Bar-B-Q, pork, Pulled Pork, Pulled Pork Sandwich, sandwiches, savory, seattle magazine, seattle magazine's sandwich love, seattle magazines best 48 sandwiches, Seattle's top 48 sandwiches, Smoked Pulled Pork, Sodo, the swinery
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February 13, 2011 Scarfing Seattle’s Top 48 Sandwiches: The Swinery BLT
The Swinery
3207 California Ave., SW
Seattle, Wash., 98116
(206) 932-4211
Featured Sandwich: The Swinery BLT
In August of 2010 Seattle Magazine published its list of, “Seattle Best 48 Sandwiches.” Being a devoted fan of the magazine and its taste in all things food, I salivated over the list and the requisite photos of Bhan-Mi’s, Reubens, Pulled Pork delights and Gyros. At the time, however, I was devoted to a vegetarian diet and felt remiss that I’d never get a chance to eat most of the featured meat-bearing hoagies. Usher in 2011 and a new approach to life; one of moderation. Rather than take a strict and obsessive, ‘no meat’ stance, it seemed ironically healthier to eat carnivorous delights when presented, but in moderation. Hello sandwich list!
On this particular February Sunday, my wife and I were presented with sunny skies. So we decided to hit Alki Beach for a jog with our 8-month-old in tow (baby joggers are amazing), after which we would tackle the first sandwich on the list of 48 for lunch. Wanting egg salad and still a bit nervous about jumping on the meat wagon, we decided to try the egg salad sandwich at Smarty Pants in Georgetown. Bad call. To our surprise, Smarty Pants is a bar and they don’t allow babies, regardless of how cute and smiley. Strike one.
Strike two happened after we cruised by the Luna Park Cafe and noticed the line streaming out the door. We were too hungry at this point to wait 15-20 minutes. So much for that triple clubhouse sandy.
The last offering on the list of 48 within reason geographically was the Swinery’s BLT, something I truly wasn’t looking forward to. Seattle Magazine gave this classic the following description, “nine slices of house-cured bacon, peppery leaves of arugula, thick slabs of heirloom tomatoes and a smear of chicken liver pate.”
Certainly adventurous eating for a reformed vegetarian. Problem was, the Swinery was open, there was no line and like I said, we were starving.
Ten minutes later I was in pork and pate heaven! The tiny BLT was the perfect proportion of bacon, tomato, lettuce and pate. Nine slices of bacon? More like three slices cut three time to fit the miniature toasted, circle-shaped bread. The small portion of meat definitely made me happy. And the pate was hardly visible while providing serious punch to the overall taste of the BLT. Having shied away from BLT’s for most of my life, mainly because of a dis-like for mayonnaise, this BLT from the Swinery makes me want more swine with my veggies. Combined with the garlicky swine french fries, my tired legs coo’d as I grubbed, much like our baby does at the sight of mommies boob.
West Seattle’s Swinery does things refreshingly different than your typical lunch spot. The front of the house is a butcher shop loaded with meaty delights, while the grill sits outside on the left hand-side of the building, neatly tucked into a alley-like space that captures all of the scents of pork-fatty goodness. The menu is limited to delish, delicious and delicioso. My wife opted for a Coca-Cola braised beef brisket sandwich that smelled like Julia Child’s pot-roast, and dripped a lovely au-jus down her chin, which naturally had me scrambling for more napkins.
We’ll be back to visit the Swinery soon, if not for lunch, then to peruse the amazing butcher shop. When friends visit from out-of-town, we’ll take them there for lunch and to stock up on party favors.
The Swinery’s BLT sits at the top of the rankings as of today, which is where it should be considering I’ve only reviewed one of the 48 sandwiches on Seattle Magazine’s list. Will it remain in the top spot? Only time will tell, but it seems hard to believe it will ever fall from the top-10. It’s that good.
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Tags: bacon, beef, beef brisket, best 48 sandwiches, BLT, butcher shop, california street, california street eats, lunch, lunch in seattle, pig, pork, salami, sandwich, seattle butcher shops, seattle magazine, seattle magazine's sandwich love, seattle magazines best 48 sandwiches, seattle restaurants, swine, the swinery, west seattle
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February 12, 2011 Dig It: Pacific Northwest Razor Clam Festival
Ocean Shores, Wash., is not your average tourist destination though it inhabits prime property on the Pacific Ocean. Seemingly forgotten by time and run down by the harsh environment, the town resembles a former 1960′s playground for the mob; a place where tourists might have rubbed shoulders with a rat pack or two during its heyday. Today, tourists are more likely to rub shoulders with a beach rat than a celebrity, not to imply that its beaches are not impeccable. The Pacific Ocean cleanses everything eventually.
In an effort to draw tourists to it’s rough and tumble shores, Ocean Shores celebrates its annual Razor Clam Festival with zeal. This year’s event comes complete with sponsors, such as Les Schwab Tire Centers and the Quinault Beach Resort and Casino. There’s even an event planned for the Ocean Shores Convention Center, which takes place on March 19. If you are into pancake breakfasts and organized digs definitely check it out. If, however, you are like my wife and I, who prefer the road less traveled with a bit more luxury thrown in, read on.
Just ‘up the road’ from Ocean Shores in Moclips sits the quaint and quiet Ocean Crest Resort. From the killer views of the Pacific and the sounds of the heavy surf pounding the sands below to the fine dining and super wine selection to the creative wood staircase/walkway leading to Pacific Beach, Ocean Crest offers a vacation experience unlike any other on this stretch of Washington coastline. Olympic skating champion Apolo Anton Ohno is apparently a frequent guest, using the resort as a place to unwind from the pressures inherent with being a gold medalist.
If it is good enough for Apolo. . .
What about the Razor Clam Festival, you ask? The clam dig is not limited by geography, so feel free to skip the pancake feast happening in Ocean Shores, enjoy a nice breakfast at the Ocean Crest and afterwards talk to the concierge about getting hooked up with the proper tools needed to get the clams. Who knows? Maybe the concierge will share some clam digging secrets with you (it’s not an easy task). There’s even a clam cleaning station on the Ocean Crest property, provided you have some success.
How do the Razor clams taste? That’s up for debate, but they seem to find their niche in clam chowder.
If you don’t feel like digging, grab a warm latte and head for the beach. Those hundreds of hearty souls who are digging will provide plenty of entertainment, which combined with the rugged surf, sweet-smelling sea and spectacular views of the coastline make for a walker’s delight. The massive stretch of beach at low tide allows one to literally walk for miles. If walking isn’t your thing, driving a car is also allowed on this huge stretch of sand.
Click on the photos below to enlarge the views.
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Tags: Beach, clam digger, clam digging, Moclips, Ocean Crest Resort, Ocean Shores, Pacific Beach, pacific ocean, Pacific ocean surf, Razor clam, razor clam dig, Razor clam festival, salt water, sea, surf, vacation, Washington, Washington Coast, Washington resorts, Washington vacations
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