In “Upon Further Review” we update topics from previous episodes and one of the most popular subjects we do concerns food.

We've done episodes about oysters, clams, crab, Louie, Chicken teriyaki, Dutch babies and frangos all with strong ties to Seattle.

Clam broth was fed to a baby in the Denny Party when they founded Seattle in the 1850s.

Dutch babies were a gold rush favorite.

Chicken teriyaki became a signature fast food in the 70s, but times change, along with diets and food fads, so we decided to offer an updated look at so-called Seattle foods.

What are our signature foods today?

What will be feeding nostalgia in the future?

Joining me is Rachel Belle, host of PBS's “The Nosh” and the podcast “Your Last Meal” to share her thoughts on local appetites.

Welcome, Rachel.

I am so happy to be here.

So we're going to kick off with chicken teriyaki.

Take a look at this.

In 1976, a man named Toshi Kasahara opened a teriyaki place near Seattle Center, and he created what became the sort of classic standard teriyaki dish.

You want to make sure that the chicken is grilled and it has the little grill marks on it.

The original teriyaki, you paid under $3 for a full meal, and you felt like you were buying really healthy food.

Rachel Chicken teriyaki is identified with Seattle, people are sometimes surprised at that.

Yes, it is a very Seattle food.

In Japan, there's kind of a different version of teriyaki.

It's much more simple.

It's kind of like a glaze that maybe you would put on salmon.

It's not like the thick kind of sweet sauce that we're known for.

And yeah, anyone who's had it knows it's the chicken.

So a lot of rice.

And then you get that little iceberg lettuce salad with the really sweet dressing on it.

I think the person who has actually brought it back to the forefront is someone who only moved to Seattle during the pandemic, and that is cookbook author Kenji López-Alt and he has decided that he's going to try every teriyaki joint in Seattle, and he does his Instagram videos about it.

So what's the new teriyaki?

Is there such a thing?

I don't know if there's a new teriyaki, but my favorite fact about Seattle is that there are more pho restaurants than there are Starbucks, which is kind of hard to believe.

And we have our bowls of pho in front of us now.

And this comes from Pho Bac Sup Shop, and Pho Bac is believed to be the first pho restaurant in Seattle.

It opened in the very early 80s.

And the difference with this pho and a lot of places do this, but if you have pho that's not that good.

It's because they've made the broth with the powder.

I just learned that a few years ago.

Really!

The good stuff is made by boiling bones and chicken feet for hours and hours so that the collagen releases.

So let's give it a taste.

All right.

It's very herbaceous so good.

It's kind of like teriyaki in the sense it's deceptively simple.

You know.

But a lot goes into the broth and the spicing and everything is really really good.

So next I want to talk about Seattle's seafood heritage.

Okay.

And we have a clip.

Take a look.

The Denny party landed at Alki Point on a chilly, wet November day in 1851.

Among the party was a new baby, Roland Denny, just two months old.

His mother, Maryanne, was sick and couldn't produce milk, and so Duwamish women taught her to nurture tiny Roland on clam broth until she could.

It worked.

He lived to be a ripe 87 years old.

The last survivor of the original Denny party.

So, Rachel, we can't talk about Seattle Foods without talking about seafood.

Yes.

and one kind of seafood that I grew up with was lutefisk.

I am dying to try this because I have never had it before.

I feel like people have very strong opinions on lutefisk and as we learned when we were acquiring this, there's one place in town you can get it.

Exactly.

There's a Scandinavian specialty shop in Ballard.

Lutefisk is salt cod.

Oh.

Pacific like from the North Pacific salt cod, and it's treated in lye.

Oh, It just shreds.

I'll just grab some.

It's very gelatinous.

That's what I've heard.

And I actually thought that it was served cold because I assumed gelatinous meant cold.

But no, this is hot fish jello.

What's not like?

And is there butter and salt on this?

There's a little butter and salt.

I have to say, I like it.

Oh!

I don't mind it, I will try.

It's good.

I told you like I couldn't lose because either I would cook it and you'd hate it.

And then I'd feel like, there.

See?

Or I'd cook it and it would be better than my grandmother's.

Good Job.

I think I won.

So the other thing it is somewhat related to seafood.

I mean, people think of Seattle as a coffee town.

Yeah.

Right.

You know, back in the early days, people drink clam nectar.

Oh, the coffee of the sea.

Right.

Exactly.

It's like you're drinking a little bit of the Salish Sea.

Yeah.

And you're telling me that now there's a new kind of of hot drink?

Yeah.

What do you mean?

At this point, at most coffee shops in the city, you can get Matcha, which is Japanese green tea.

And, you know, it's made like a latte there's steamed milk, and there's often, like, a sweetener to it.

I know that you have never tried matcha before, and I've never had the clam nectar.

Right.

So we're going to do a trade here.

All right.

Cheers.

Skoal Okay.

That's really good.

It just tastes like salty fish broth.

It's really good.

This is a strange bitter taste.

That's it.

It was a little bit.

I mean.

I'm having a better day today than you are.

Apparently!

Yum!

Lutefisk.

Mmm..Clam broth.

We're going to need a palate cleanser.

And so we're going to look at a clip here that relates the origin of the Seattle hotdog to bagels.

Yes.

There was a man in Pioneer Square in the 1980s who had a bagel stand.

And when the clubs closed at 2:00, people would come out and they didn't want a bagel.

Being in the bagel business.

He started serving, Bialys, which were kind of a bagel, like, thing and putting, cream cheese on i and putting a hot dog in there.

So, Rachel, Seattle dogs.

Thumbs up or thumbs down?

Big thumbs up.

Two thumbs up, I love it.

Okay, well, Cream cheese, we've got some cream cheese right here.

Yeah.

What's the story about that?

Okay, I'm not about to upset the entire state of New York and say that Seattle is, you know, a bagel city.

You could still say, you know, oysters and salmon.

That's Seattle, but you can also find really good foods, that are better known in New York, in Seattle now.

So this, for example, is from Hey!

Bagel, a company owned by my friend Andrew Rubinstein.

We did an episode on bagels on my show “The Nosh” and these are made with sourdough.

So at a bagel, they will not cut your bagel for you and they won't make sandwiches.

You just buy bagels and cream cheese, and then you just pick it apart.

You tear and you schmear.

So we're just going to rip it open and it's a little bit it's it's a little challenging, but that stays true to it.

A lot of people like about New York Bagels is having that crust on the outside and they're really chewy inside, seeds everywhere, So Andrew calls this the rip and dip.

What do you think.

I think it's really good.

Well thank you for giving us this taste of future history.

And thank you for giving me a taste of Lutefisk past!

For more on this episode, listen to the Mossback podcast.

Just search for Mossback wherever you listen.