Every city has some strange, but delicious, food options, and Seattle is no different. We ventured out to sample a few of the more unique offerings like unicorn balls, 1000 year old eggs, The BOB (we'll explain later), and more. If you are on the hunt for unique food in the greater Seattle area you have come to the right place. (Send more things we need to try to [email protected])
Photo courtesy of Matt McDonald
These are not your average fries. Coastal Kitchen in Capitol Hill offers Fries With Eyes that are whole smelt. The smelt is a family of small fish found in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Once you get past the staring contest you can dip your fried-smelt fry in some lemon aioli. It's surprisingly delicious! Just don't make eye contact.
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Photo courtesy of Matt McDonald
We enjoy all the grub on the Buckley's Pub menu and have been meaning to try their T.D. Sliders and it finally happened. We never thought a bacon cheddar slider with peanut butter was going to be good, but we stand corrected. It is simply delicious.
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Photo courtesy of Matt McDonald
If you are looking for some delicious eggs and balls, Unicorn in Capitol Hill has got you covered. Try the Dragon Egg, Unicorn and/or Narwhal balls for an interesting and delicious fried treat. The Dragon Egg (pictured above) features a scotch style soft-boiled egg, ground pork, and sweet chili aioli. The Unicorn Balls are fried pork balls, with ginger, scallion, and sweet chili aioli. Last but not least, the Narwhal Balls, featuring fried, cheesy, potato croquettes, and roasted garlic aioli. So many fried circular objects, such little time.
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Photo courtesy of Matt McDonald
Meg's Burgers makes very, very tasty burgers in Pioneer Square, but they are listed here for a strange twist on the classic PB&J sandwich. Here we have simple peanut butter and strawberry jam between two fried pieces of bread that create a dessert-styled sandwich. Meg's also offers the "Seattle Burger," featuring a split all-beef hot dog on a toasted bun with caramelized onions and cream cheese. Both are worth trying out at least once.
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Photo courtesy of Matt McDonald
We ventured to HardWok Cafe in The International District to sample the 1000 year-old egg. Also known as the century egg, it is a Chinese preserved food product and delicacy made by preserving duck, chicken or quail eggs in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, quicklime, and rice hulls for several weeks to several months or even years, depending on the method of processing. The yolk becomes a dark green to grey and the outside turns black. Despite its appearance, we thought it was just OK, and at the very least we're still here to talk about it!
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Photo courtesy of Matt McDonald
Mashiko Japanese Restaurant is a fully sustainable sushi bar in West Seattle, and has many unique options like fried fishbone, geoduck, trout sushi and more. During a recent visit we sampled the fried fishbone atop one of the Mashiko sushi rolls. It tasted like bacon!
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Photo courtesy of Matt McDonald
Is Goulash a soup, a stew, a pasta, or all of them? We aren't entirely sure, but we will be eating it again in the future. The goulash at the Queen Anne Beer Hall features onions, tomato, crème fraîche, spätzle and a Macrina baguette. After minutes of Googling, we found out that Goulash originates from medieval Hungary where it is a popular meal predominantly eaten in Central Europe. Welp, we have some delicious goulash in lower Queen Anne as well.
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Photo courtesy of Matt McDonald
The BOB from Nielsen's Pastries in Queen Anne is a savory pastry we had never heard of until a couple weeks ago. It features caramelized onions, cheese and bacon, and it is delicious just like everything on the menu at Nielsen's.
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Photo courtesy of KATSU BURGER
You can thank Katsu Burger for this noodle cup concoction featuring ramen, American, cheddar and pepper jack cheeses, a chicken katsu patty, cabbage, bacon, spices and more. The extreme noodle cup is available for a limited time at the Georgetown and Bellevue Katsu Burger locations.
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Photo courtesy of Rain City Hot Dogs
We don't think a hot dog topped with cream cheese and sautéed onions is a strange food, but then again we grew up here. Wikipedia references the Seattle-style hot dog's origins thusly: "the concept began in the Pioneer Square neighborhood in the late 1980s or early 1990s. One possible inventor is Hadley Longe who operated a bagel cart at night. He incorporated hot dogs on bialy sticks with cream cheese." Rain City Dogs, located right in front of the Home Depot off Rainier Ave, offers both a traditional Seattle Dog and a Jamaican Dog with cream cheese, grilled Onions, and spicy Jamaican sauce.
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We still have more work to do and plan on trying out the chapulines at Poquitos and the shiso geoduck at Taylor Shellfish Farms.If you have any other suggestions about the Strange and delicious foods of Seattle make sure to shoot us an email at [email protected].
