Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The deviled eggs with Dungeness crab head a menu full of locally reared surprises,
and even some of the furniture is foraged from Craigslist.
LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
BIENVENUE À MADISON VALLEY
Once considered a sleepy hollow on the way to Madison Park and its beach,
Madison Valley has recently dusted off its image and established its raison d'être:
being French. The key is in the food. Along a tree-lined, detectably Hausmann-
esque stretch of E Madison St between 27th Ave E and 29th Ave E there are four
French restaurants, two Parisian-style bakeries and a creperie, with most of the
businesses owned by immigrantfrançais. The Francophile reputation has led
people to apply the moniker 'Little France' or 'Petite Paris' to Madison Valley, and
in 2012, the neighborhood inaugurated its first
Bastille Bash
- held on the
nearest Saturday to Bastille Day (July 14th) - a celebration of food, troubadour
music, street performance and general joie de vivre. To get to Madison Valley take
metro bus 11 from downtown, disembark around 27th and Madison, and follow
the aroma of freshly baked croissants.
CD
CAFE SELAM
ETHIOPIAN
$
( 206-328-0404;
www.cafeselam.com
;
2715 E Cherry St; mains $9-10; 10am-9pm Tue-Sun;
3)
The windows could do with a scrub and the table's a bit wobbly, but you don't
come to Selam in the CD's proverbial 'Little Ethiopia' for interior design. Ethiopia is
home to Africa's spiciest cuisine, with dishes such as
foul
(a fava-bean concoction
that's not at all foul) and
fir fir
(injera bread, yogurt and lamb), and it's all done to per-
fection here.
The only catch is the lack of knives and forks. In true local style you must scoop up
your beans, lamb, okra etc using torn-off bits of bread. Selam even roasts its own cof-
fee, the product so beloved by Seattleites that was first 'discovered,' legend has it, by
an Ethiopian goat-herder.
CATFISH CORNER
SOUTHERN
$
