There's a place on the highway where beets, peas, potatoes, beans, sauerkraut and dill pickles are friends,
where chicken or beef-filled pelmeni--one of the smallest members of the dumpling family--are served on flowered grandma plates with a side of sour cream,
and where (possibly still warm) dark rye bread--slightly sweet, dense, and chewy, with subtle notes of anise and caraway seeds--lie in baskets next to the light rye I'm going to try next:
I have driven past European Foods and Deli on 135th Ave N. a zillion trillion times without taking any notice of it whatsoever. Heading south, the only hint you have is the bottom of a sign listing five other businesses. Heading north, you might barely notice its red signage next to Friendship Food (Asian BBQ) on one side, and a Social Security Administration building on the other.
Inside, though, is all things Eastern European--Ukrainian, Romanian, German, Polish, Moldavian, Lithuanian, and Latvian--a store packed so tightly with imports, you'll experience overwhelm in the best possible way. Cases filled with sausages, salami, bologna, and braided cheese, baskets of fresh bread covered by checkered cloth, containers of borscht and mushroom soup, imported beers, smoked salmon, cookies and chocolates, pickles, frozen homemade dumplings, and caviar spread.
Phew.
And then, just when you're reveling in it all, you'll realize there's a portal entrance to a rather dark additional space connected to the store.
A restaurant!
With a full menu listing all the PotatoCheeseBeetCabbageGoulashPiroshkyDumpling food (and traditional Ukrainian clothing) of your dreams!
At least that's how it happened for me the first time I stopped.
If only I had known this store has been offering all of this since 1997! The current owners, a Ukrainian family, "inherited" the space in 2019, and created the current, Ukrainian food-focused menu.
For my second visit, I needed witnesses to my discovery, and, of course, more people present to accomplish all of the tasting required on that menu. I called ahead and reserved a table for seven.
"Prepare to eat 'Mommy Food'," I told my friends. "Come early to shop!"
And shop early they did! Then we sat down and began by ordering 3/5ths of the menu, made by a true Ukrainian mother, Oksana, and served to us by her son, Greg. Soon, the only sounds in the room were forks on plates, "oh my god" murmurs and declarations like "let's order another plate of this!"
Greg seemed both pleased and amused over how much food we were ordering, and how much we were enjoying it. At one point, one of us asked how to say his name in Ukrainian--a question that caught me off guard, since I didn't know the answer was going to be 'Григорій (Hryhoriy)'.
We stuck with 'Greg', and kept ordering until there were only three menu items left untried.
We clapped for Oksana when she appeared briefly, shyly, at the end of our meal.
"You cleaned every plate," Greg said, smiling.
We certainly did. We loved every homemade bite of Greg's mother's food.
Here is a tour of a few more menu highlights:
1. Varenyky ($10.99): Known as pierogi in Poland but going by their Ukrainian name here, the dumplings pictured below are filled with farmer's cheese-- similar in texture to ricotta, but more dense, with a slight, sweet tang. I happen to hold a major in dumplings with a minor in pierogi, so I am officially telling you that these are about as good as they come, with a very satisfying dough-to-filling ratio:
(Someday I'll get around to trying the potato filling!)
2. Hungarian goulash ($11.99). Cubes of tender pork, peppers, onions, carrots, mushrooms and a light tomato sauce over perfectly fluffy mashed potatoes:
3. Cabbage Rolls ($11.99). A combination of ground pork and beef, rice, onions and carrots in a tomato sauce so light I questioned all the tomato-sauce-heavy cabbage rolls of my past. Both delicate and meaty in their thin cabbage packaging (vegetarian rolls available, too), I had to get some to go from the deli for my parents to try:
4. Olivier salad ($6.99). This is the ultimate egg salad/potato salad mash-up with bologna, carrots, eggs, potatoes, peas and pickles:
5. Blinchiki ($10.99) Crepes stuffed with sweet cheese and topped with jam and sour cream. We were full to the brim by this time; otherwise, we would have ordered three more plates. Also, they were out of the (now I know, after researching) famous cheesecake pancakes everyone dies over. Next time.
Before leaving, we shopped again, filling bags with pickles, Vienna sausages, bread, and deli food, agreeing to return for piroshky, red caviar sandwiches, and chicken kiev. We walked out the door feeling truly "Ukrained"--closer to the country that has permeated our collective consciousness since February of 2022.
Suddenly the courageous people in the news felt very real, and warm, and not at all an ocean away.
Optional Fun Fieldwork:
Please enjoy Maria Montalvo's and my 2022 entry for the Edmonds Scarecrow Festival, honoring Ukraine's resilience, resistance, and desire for peace:
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European Foods and Deli
13520 Aurora Ave N, Seattle, WA 98133
Hours:
Monday: 11am--8 pm
Tuesday through Friday: 10am--8pm
206-361-2583
Call ahead for big groups!
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