Tasting Washington

Welcome back dear reader. It’s good to see you.

Let us start with my wife, Elexa, she is amazing at many things, specifically here she is amazing at finding activities to do. Honestly I didn’t know how she did it for the longest time. I would sit on the couch and search the web for an hour and come up with nothing. She on the other hand would search for ten to fifteen minutes and would produce five fun things to do that day.

So, how does she do it?

Well that’s her secret that she let me in on. Unfortunately I am not sharing.

Regardless, the important thing is that we get to do some truly fun things.

Last year we went to The Taste Northwest and it came back this year so we re-attended.

Let’s dive in.

We drove down to the Washington State Fairgrounds, found parking, and got promptly stopped at the gate. Well I did. I totally forgot that I had my Swiss army pocket knife on me. So, hence back to the car and then back to the gate. The second time I was cleared. I do appreciate the extra precautions that are taken to keep the event safe.

We stopped for a quick photo of The Taste sign and moved quickly through the grounds to provide a preview of the tastes we could acquire.

Interestingly not every vendor was providing the taste, if you will. This was upsetting to me. After all I came for tastes not full dishes. One of the main points for me was spending a minimal amount of money for multiple experiences. If that sounds cheap, well it is. Though this is the whole premise if you will of The Taste NW.

Let me explain.

A taste is a sampler usually of one of their main dishes. The taste this year sold for six dollars.

So, this sounds great, and it is. Though there is a but here. Last year the taste was five dollars.

So, does a dollar matter this much for me in this case, no, no it doesn’t. The reason it bothered me is it is undeniably inflation, you can’t ignore it. Especially when you just want to forget your problems for a couple of hours.

Okay, back to the food.

The vendors ranged from formal fair food establishments, to food trucks, to pop up tents. Again I was a bit upset with the fair food establishments. If I want fair food, I go to the fair. This is a bit of an irony because the event is held at the fair grounds, but I digress.

Elexa and my first taste came from a sky blue food truck selling tacos, a quesadilla like pizza, and ramen, along with other dishes.

Yep I said ramen. Not a food type I would expect to see from a taco truck.

So, I had to try it, of course. This one did have meat which I try not to eat, though I do break this rule sometimes for food events and when I travel.

We ordered and were shortly rewarded with the “Spicy Mini Birria-RAMEN” and the “Mini Birria-Pizza.” We found a covered seat thirty feet away and dug in.

The ramen was amazing, it was warm, spicy, salty and savory. The fats from the shredded chunks of meat created a savory broth. Onions were mixed in adding to the multiple textures. The piece was topped with parsley. Elexa’s pizza, which was in every aspect a quesadilla, had a crunch to the exterior tortillas which provided a nice dualism to the soft meat and cheese in the interior. The Port Taco Truck & Cantina did not disappoint.

My mouth waters just thinking of it again.

We moseyed around the food fair and eventually found and purchased an Indian curry dish that had fried potatoes for its base. I kept thinking it was a fry bread base, it was that savory.

The Taste NW was okay this year. We did have some good food though the vibe overall, compared to the year before, felt muted and a bit sad. There were fewer people, which could have been the day we went. The previous year it seemed like there were more vendors, at the very least they were spread farther into the fair ground. Again this is my field note observation.

To lift your spirits and mine what better way to do so than to consume caffeine.

There’s a coffee shop that opened sometime in the last year in Tacoma, it’s called Sana’a Cafe.

When I first entered it the white marble walls that were supported by rough bare stone bricks transported me. To where I suspect Yemen, though I have never been and know very little about the country for all transparency. The gold accents and white counter tops complete this chill posh vibe.

Upon entering I saw two men sitting at a side table with hair that had some grays and whites. They seemed to be in deep conversation. What really caught my eye was the squat hammered copper pot that had a long brass handle sticking up from it at an angle. I thought immediately, I have to try this.

I approached the counter and was greeted by a friendly man who asked me what I wanted. I informed him that I was new to the coffee shop and inquired a bit about when it had opened and about it in general. The man informed me that the coffee shop was a chain that specialized in Yemen coffee. Also that Sana’a Cafe had started in California and that the Tacoma location was the only one outside of California. He also pointed me towards their specialty drinks when I asked what he would suggest I get.

Their specialty drinks contained cardamom, cinnamon, saffron, ginger, and clove. These all looked delicious to me, though I was still curious about what the two men were drinking who I saw when I walked in. I inquired about this and the man informed me that that was Turkish coffee.

I ended up getting one of the specialty drinks though I can’t remember which, it had cardamom and it tasted delicious.

Fast forward and rewind to last week and I finally built up the nerve to order the Turkish coffee. See, I don’t always order caffeinated coffee and I thought that the Turkish coffee was so large that it needed to be shared. Due to this I held off until I could bring Elexa.

Elexa and I both went together and I ordered the Turkish coffee and she ordered a Yemen latte which featured cardamom.

I found out that I was able to order the Turkish coffee in different sizes, which was a relief. Now I didn’t have to worry about having too much.

I want to acknowledge that I am going to a coffee shop that is serving Yemen coffee and that I am ordering a Turkish coffee. Coffee has a deep and tangled history which many websites have covered in great detail.

The Turkish coffee was amazing. It had a sweetness that I would not have expected from a black coffee. It was also incredibly smooth. I loved the aesthetics of the hammered copper serving cup.

Sana’a Cafe is one of the cafes that I will continue to seek out on my travels to California. I did just that when I visited Sacramento, as I mentioned in my previous posts.

Being open to trying new experiences while observing the life around you is what makes me tick and maybe it does for you too. I’ll see you on the next field notes post dear reader.

-Abe