With the recent cold snap that has decended on Seattle I decided the best thing to do was to warm up with a hearty bowl of soup. But I wasn’t going to be satisfied with just chicken noodle or clam chowder. No, I wanted something different. So I turned to a Fremont restaurant that I’ve always equated as a cheap lunch spot, Yak’s Teriyaki.

When I worked in the Fremont area Yak’s was always a good choice for a quick lunch to go. Their grilled teriyaki chicken was tasty, moist and slightly crispy fresh off the grill, with conservative use of teriyaki sauce. But that’s not what I had in mind as I approached the counter and placed my order. No, I wanted soup and my choice fell on Yak’s Udon Soup.

Yak’s Udon Soup is a slightly spicy vegetable broth in a large bowl holding tender broccoli and carrots, mushrooms, a grilled chicken thigh and firm pink shrimp. Lets not forget the noodles for which this dish gets its name - Udon. The soft, flavorful noodles were in abundance in the bowl. With a great flavor all their own, they were only enhanced by the melding flavors of the other ingredients. Like the grilled chicken thigh. While not coated in sauce it is the same chicken one would get during lunch. Deboned and butterflied flat then chargrilled and sliced. A cripy exterior for the juciness inside that held up well floating on top of the soup. The shrimp must have been cooked just under done otherwise sitting in the steaming hot broth they would have turned to rubber but biting into one proved they were still plump and tender.

While not a traditional American soup, Yak’s Udon proved to be just what I needed to face a chilly early evening in Seattle.

I’m not an eater of breakfast. Yes, I know, doctors say it’s the most important meal of the day. It’s the jumpstart the body needs, the fuel after a night of fasting. But I rarely feel the need to feed first thing in the day. My typical morning consists of Earl Grey tea and, perhaps, a croissant. Of course there are those rare mornings with a special someone that I will head out for something to eat. One of my favorite places for breakfast is Eggs Cetera’s Blue Star Cafe in Wallingford.

Seating at Blue Star can be hit-or-miss depending on time of morning you arrive and even from weekend to weekend. On this particular visit I arrived early so was able to be seated right away by on of the large plate glass windows. I quickly scan the menu and decide on the Pecan Waffle ($5.99) and Potatoes Plus ($5.59).

The Pecan Waffle was interesting. A golden, crunchy exterior with a fluffy interior, spotted with a multitude of small, chopped pecans. One would think the flavor would be perfect and while not horrible, there was an odd stale taste that lingered in the background. If you’ve ever had a freezer waffle, one that was not wrapped we, you’ll know this stale taste. On its own the waffle was slightly odd but fortunately with the nutty pecans, and the addition of copious amounts of butter, helped to bring it up to so-so.

On the other hand, my order of Potatoes Plus was excellent. Tender red potatoes, browned and crispy, nestling bits of sautéed onion were the base for the potatoes. On the top of this was melted shredded Cheddar cheese and bits of thick-cut smoky bacon. Most places when you get cheese fries, nachos or similarly prepared foods you find the cheese and other topping just sitting on the top-most layer of the dish, leaving chips or fries or whatever devoid of added goodness. Blue Star takes care of the problem by spreading the potatoes out into an, almost, even layer. In this way you get cheese and bacon along with every bite. Add to this a fresh bite of green onion and some creamy sour cream and you have Potatoes Plus. One word of warning, these potatoes could easily serve four people. Be prepared to take home leftovers if you order this by yourself.

While I live in Seattle my day job requires that I drive to Kirkland. In the particular part of Kirkland in which I work finding a decent sit down restaurant to spend my lunch hour can be difficult. With choices such as chain Italian and Mexican restaurants, national fast-food joints and grocery stores, finding a good restaurant is like finding a diamond while panning for gold. I found a diamond in the rough with Noppakao Thai.

The restaurant has a tropical feel. Wood panel walls with decorative trim around the top, hanging lights and a feeling of relaxing in the shade on an island. The kitchen is open to the dining area and you get a good glimpse of all the action behind the counter as you walk through the door. My order was for Eggplant w/ Beef ($6.49). The lunch that arrived was a good-sized portion of tender, thinly sliced beef quickly stir-fried with crisp bell pepper and just cooked eggplant pieces. Noppakao uses Asian eggplant so you get none of the thin mushy slices typically associated with the vegetable. Each bite sized piece was tender to the tooth yet still retained its shape and color. Bathe the strips of beef and ample vegetables in a salty, somewhat spicy brown sauce, dotted with bits of garlic, and you have a great compliment to white rice. However, I did not get the white rice I ordered. Instead brown rice came with my meal and instead of taking it back, the waitress acknowledged she brought the wrong thing without a hint of fixing the problem. I guess every gem must have a flaw.

While I typically don’t frequent Thai restaurants (my choice of Asian cuisine goes Japanese, Vietnamese, Chinese, etc) I would say that, for lunch, in Kirkland, this makes an excellent spot in which to relax away from the office with a satisfying meal.

I’m a little hesitant in going to a sandwich shop that claims to have East coast style sandwiches with a “Northwest attitude”. Not that I’m a snob about the food that I eat but in the short time that I have lived in Seattle I have come to realize that East coast and Northwest coast cuisines are two different beasts. These are two cuisines that aren’t inherently compatible with one another. It was this skepticism that filled my mind as I placed my order at The Other Coast Cafe

The restaurant itself occupies a storefront in historic Ballard and has a very open “deli-ish” feel to it. Walling off one part of the kitchen area is a case with meats and cheeses, while stacked on top of it are long loaves of French bread. Walk to the register (cash and check only) and you get a great view of the employees slicing meat and cheeses to order and piling them together with vegetables to make the sandwiches. All of these sandwiches are listed on a board mounted above the prep area, high on the wall behind the register. After a quick scan I placed an order for an Italiano ($6.95 6″, $11.95 12″), the six inch version, as these are large sandwiches.

I didn’t have long to wait after placing my order. My name was called and someone came from around the refrigerator case to deliver my sandwich. The sandwich was built on a hearty French loaf that had a firm interior and a slightly crustier exterior than I probably would want in a sandwich. Luckily the bread was slathered in a mayonnaise/whole grain mustard combination. This along with tart balsamic/herb oil vinegar added enough moisture to the bread to make it a little more toothsome than the sandwich would have been on its own. Once I allowed the crust to soften somewhat I was rewarded with a thick layer of smoky provolone, crisp shredded lettuce, sweet cool tomato and meat - don’t forget the meat. At first I almost did forget about the meat as the sandwich half I started with seemed overly light in that regard. Turns out my sandwich was made lop-sided. Taking a bite from the other half revealed a sandwich brimming with thinly sliced, tender roast beef along with fatty, rich salami. Turns out The Other Coast Cafe uses Boar’s Head brand meats, a brand that I found in almost every deli I visited when I lived on the East coast.

While I had some trouble with the bread, I think my sandwich experience, overall, was a positive one. Compared to some local sandwich places and even the national chains, The Other Coast Cafe is a winner. Does it stand up to its self-imposed title of “East Coast Sandwiches Built with a Northwest Attitude”? Well, personally I think there was more Northwest attitude than East cost in both store and sandwich. Is this a bad thing? No, it isn’t if you want a great sandwich in a friendly atmosphere. If you are from the East cost, the Northeast in particular, and are hoping for a taste of home then this may not be the place for you. But go, get yourself one of their huge sandwiches and enjoy a good meal.