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One woman’s “pagan” food is another’s home-cooking, and there’s little I like more than corrosive parallel the natives

Cafe Selam

Selam is dominated not by aesthetic (it’s near to a rundown body shop), nor by its d

This Central District spot caters to Seattle’s extending population of East Africans

Hosoonyi

Lucky me. Hosoonyi, united of the many Korean restaurants that dot the strip-mall landscape north and south of Seattle proper, sits minutes from my front door. Which is only one of the reasons I’ve long been a regular at this Edmonds “hot” stain where service is cause to the point of brusque and I’m frequently the only non-Korean in the protect.

I’d come for the banchan alone

Pacific Market

I’ve been stopping by this Lake City storefront for 20 years to buy Persian-pantry staples such as pomegranate molasses and limou omani

But while I don’t have the time or vigor to cook, and am looking to practice my fractured Farsi by owner Shahram Moghaddam, there’s always a seat at a prettily oil-clothed cafe table. Sitting in that place, I might sip a goblet of chai or a curative bowl of ash reshteh (yellow fissure pea broth). Or go for the full-meal give and eat a plateful of koreshte ghaymeh bademjan: fragrant beef and eggplant stewed meat served by basmati rice and lavash.

Sichuanese Cuisine

I not long ago paid a visit to Redmond’s bustling Sichuanese cafe, whose smaller (and I’d say even better) Seattle sibling sits just off 12th and Jackson. Two fans oscillated as the air hung humid in this crowded joint (waaaah! no beer!) while other fans delved into the bubbling broth of their spicy DIY hot pots, cooking up thin slices of raw meat, aromatic vegetables and rice noodles. Still others dove into delicious bowlfuls of raw, garlicky Sichuanese cold jelly (design: Jell-O by hot chili oil instead of whipped cream) and shared beef and pork “miscellany,” from whose depths one might encounter Western-palate-whatzats including tripe and tendon.

For those new to Sichuan cuisine, dry-cooked string beans, chili-pod-laden cilantro chicken and cumin-scented Sinkiang lamb should not dark up your life.

Tsukushinbo

If the kit behind the sushi rail looks familiar, you may have seen him operating at I Love Sushi, where he clearly learned some modern techniques. Now he’s “home” full-time at his family’s cozy Chinatown International District cafe, where, for mostly of his young life, his parents have been construction the locals feel at home by cooking country-style eats at luncheon and offering izakaya-worthy “toping” dishes come evening.

As of last month, Shota

Here you might sample saut

. To read her blog, go to www.seattletimes.com/allyoucaneat