I just returned from my second visit to the Pacific Northwest city of Seattle to visit my best good friend Raquel and my nephew Spencer. There was a lot in store for this 10-day visit. Multiple locations, stunning natural beauty, gut-busting laughter and as always the hunt for the best bites!
No more than a couple of hours after landing we were packed up and on the road headed downstate for Memorial Day weekend revelry. Planning our adventures with my nephew in mind, we headed to Tenino and a well-equipped guesthouse on the hill, as it was within a 15-minute drive of the “whaddah pawk,” a.k.a. Great Wolf Lodge.
Two and a half hours post departure and near our destination, we stopped at the Iron Rabbit (@hoppenings, 2103 Harrison Ave. NW, www.ironrabbit.net) in Olympia for dinner. This tavern is a local favorite serving comfort foods made with local ingredients. We had some mac n’ cheese for the kiddo, of course, but with shaved asagio cheese. For the adults we split fried calamari, steak Caesar salad with polenta croutons and our best bite, the poutine. A Canadian standard of fries covered with cheese curds and gravy, this poutine featured their house Who sauce with prosciutto, gorgonzola and stone-ground mustard. Everyone devoured it, including the munchkin.
I need to give a couple of honorable food mentions to our guest home proprietor and to Great Wolf Lodge. To our proprietor for, among the other great welcoming touches, the fully stocked gourmet kitchen with everything needed to make us want for nothing, including a first try using a Chemex coffee maker. And to Great Wolf Lodge for their limited but delicious menu. We fully enjoyed Greek salads and those hot shoestring yam fries. Oh, and the local pale ale on tap hit the spot!
Raquel and I did the necessary research to find the number one restaurant in Tenino for our one night out, confirmed by the one-hour wait with a reservation. Well, the wait is always worth it at Don Juan’s Mexican Restaurant (639 E. Lincoln Ave., www.donjuanskitchen.com). For first-timers, servers bring out a sample of all of their sauces so guests are certain about what they order.
Although we might have overdone it on the chips and salsa, chunky guacamole (really an avocado tomato salad) and queso fundido with chorizo at Don Juan’s, their special mole verde was outstanding over carnitas with housemade flour tortillas, rice and refried beans. A combination of their chile verde and mole sauces, this sauce had both deep, slow cooked notes and bright fresh ones in the same moment. I would buy a case if it is ever bottled! If all of that wasn’t enough, Raquel gave Don Juan’s the flan test. They passed with flying colors with the most perfect texture and level of sweetness. If time were on our side, we would have gotten another before we headed back north.
Happy eating and thanks for reading!
Kysha Harris is a food writer, culinary producer, consultant and owner of SCHOP!, a personalized food service offering weekly and in-home entertaining packages. Questions? Comments? Requests? Feedback? Invitations! Email her at kysha@iSCHOP.com, follow her on Twitter and Instagram @SCHOPgirl or on Facebook www.facebook.com/SCHOPnyc. For even more recipes, tips and food musings subscribe to her blog at www.talkingSCHOP.wordpress.com. Follow AmNewsFOOD @NYAmNewsFOOD.
