Seattle Eats with Tan Vinh

While Seattle food lovers flock to Richmond, BC, Bellevue is steadily becoming home to some of the Pacific Northwest’s most diverse and authentic Chinese food. The dishes you’ll find there tell the story of a community cooking for itself, not just the tourists. From braised goose to smoked tea duck, Tan highlights the regional specialties worth crossing the 520 bridge for.

Read more of Tan’s reporting on the Belle...

Seattle spent a whopping $800 million dollars on the new waterfront to create a vibrant public space. But is it just a tourist trap with expensive food? Seattle Times writers chat about the history of the waterfront and the food spots worth braving the crowds to check out on Seattle's new "front porch."

Read more of Tan's reporting on the Waterfront food scene here.

Check out David’s essay on the Seattle’s “front ...

It’s restaurant season in Seattle! Dozens of new spots are opening in hopes of riding a summer wave of tourists and sunshine. In this episode, Tan highlights three restaurants the industry is watching and reviews the menus at each. 

Read more of Tan’s reporting on new restaurants in The Seattle Times.

Recommendations in this episode:

• The Wayland Mill, Wallingford 
• Mr. Fish, Downtown 
• La Loba, South L...

Seattle Times food critics Tan Vinh and Jackie Varriano eat hundreds of meals each month: At new restaurants, old-school dive bars, tiny pop-ups and national chains. In this episode, Tan and Jackie highlight five of the best dishes they’ve tasted recently, from high-concept Vietnamese fusion to an Italian cookie pop-up. 

Read more about Tan and Jackie’s picks in The Seattle Times, linked below.

Recommendations in t...

Who makes the best slice of pizza in Seattle? Last summer, the Seattle Times food team went in search of an answer to that question. They polled Seattle diners and narrowed 32 pizzerias down to 4 finalists and 1 winner. Today, we’re re-sharing our episode breaking down the results, so you can enjoy a pristine slice this holiday weekend. 

Read more about the results of The Seattle Times Pizza Smackdown. 

Recommendati...

June brought a slate of closed restaurants in Seattle, from a half-century-old dive bar to some of the city’s most high-end dining. But it was also a good month for new spots, with two popular rooftop bars debuting in Central Seattle just as the weather heats up.

Tan breaks down all the trends in openings and closings this month with Seattle Eats producer Clare McGrane. 

Read more about The College Inn Pub’s closur...

This week, 25 restaurants and chefs were crowned with James Beard Awards – the Oscars of the food world. And for the fifth year in a row, Washington state came away with zero wins. 

Tan breaks down the three Seattle-area finalists with Seattle Times food writer Jackie Varriano, and asks: What are we doing wrong?

Read more about this year’s local James Beard Award finalists, including seven-time finalist Jay Blackin...

Dinner parties are a staple in many cultures, but in Georgia – in the Caucus mountains of Eastern Europe — dinner parties are another deal all together. Almost any occasion in Georgia calls for a Supra, a feasting tradition that goes far beyond the food on the table and the wine in the glasses. It’s about connecting with the other people around the table, sometimes getting extremely vulnerable. 

The Supra Din...

Ever stopped by a Seattle bar or casual food spot and noticed a pinball machine or two? The region is a center for pinball enthusiasts, in part thanks to its culture of barcades and general geekiness. 

Today, we’re sharing a glimpse into Seattle’s pinball haunts from Meet Me Here, a new podcast from KUOW. Find more episodes of Meet Me Here in the KUOW app or your favorite podcast app. 

Recommendations in this ...

Memorial Day is behind us, meaning summer has officially started. The Seattle Eats team is taking a short summer break to cook up new shows. To get the vacation vibes going, we asked friends of the show to send us their favorite patio to enjoy the summer weather.

Seattle Eats will be back with regular episodes June 12. 

Patio recommendations: 

• Marination Ma Kai – West Seattle (Rachel Belle)
• Little Water Cantina...

The Pacific Northwest is a great place to hunt for clams of all types: Razor, manilla, butter, and even the elusive geoduck. But one bivalve flies under the radar: horse clams. 

Horse clams are the little cousin of the geoduck and share many of the qualities that make geoduck a delicacy. But while geoduck costs upwards of $40 a pound, horse clams aren’t available in stores. The only way to eat them is to get a $15 licens...

Roy Choi is best known as the father of the Korean fusion taco. His food truck Kogi went viral in 2008, making him one of the first food influencers on social media. 

But in his new book The Choi of Cooking, Roy offers a look into a different part of his life: His journey to eat healthier while still having the comfort foods he loves. 

Tan interviewed Roy in front of a sold-out audience at Freemont Abbey in Seattle during...

Mexican Seoul is making waves among Seattle foodies. But instead of traditional carne asada or cheesy quesadillas, the food truck in Roosevelt is serving up a meld of Korean and Mexican flavors. Their menu features bulgogi-style pork cooked al pastor, kimchi pico de gallo and steak marinated in spices from Korean kalbi.

Tan tastes two of Mexican Seoul’s most popular tacos with local Korean food aficionados Ellen Acuario and J...

Seattle has some truly stellar food that draws on cultures from around the world, but not all cuisines get equal time in the limelight. 

At a recent live event at Town Hall Seattle for the Splendid Table podcast, Tan and Seattle chef Melissa Miranda joined Splendid Table host Francis Lam to put a spotlight on fine dining in Vietnamese and Filipino cuisines. 

Recommendations in this episode:

• Musang, Beacon Hill (Filip...

Two big-name Washington breweries are expanding with new locations in Seattle, complete with food offerings from local chefs. Tan explains how the news points to two trends shaping the city’s brewery scene.

Plus, Seattle Times editor Trevor Lenzmeier tells the story of an acclaimed sushi restaurant that shut down this month, and not for reasons you would expect. 

Tell us about your favorite neighborhood hang out spot! Em...

There are plenty of good hot sandwiches in any town. But making a great hot sandwich is something of an art form. There are too many ways for things to go wrong: Sharp crusts that scratch the roof of the mouth; one-note fillings; sad lettuce; etc. Seattle Times journalist and restaurant critic Bethany Jean Clement joins Tan to discuss her criteria for a stellar hot sandwich, and they taste three from her top-10 list. 

Read Bet...

Like many cities, Seattle has a long history of turning pre-made cacao into chocolate confections. But there’s a new kind of chocolate maker in town: Small, artisanal makers that are crafting “bean to bar” chocolates that retail for as much as $13 a bar. 

Seattle Times food writer Jackie Varriano dug into this shift, and the kind of chocolate these new operations are churning out. She joins Tan for a taste te...

Tahini is a simple ingredient — toasted sesame seeds, ground into an oily paste. It had a moment in the food fad cycle in 2016, but has since faded into the background. Local writer and cookbook author Rachel Belle thinks that is a mistake. In her new book Open Sesame!, she argues that tahini deserves a spot in the center of every kitchen. 

In this episode, Tan visits Rachel for a blind taste test of four tahinis, a...

This month, Seattle lost three iconic restaurants, including one in the heart of Chinatown. At the same time, the two hottest new restaurants in the region are Chinese spots in cities outside Seattle. On this episode, Tan and dining partner and writer Chris Solomon share some of their favorite bites at these new restaurants and discuss what this shift says about the region. 

Read more about the hottest new restaurants in ...