Skip to content

Spam Meets Sushi? This Bremerton Treat is Worth the Ferry Ride

This Hawaiian cafe makes phenomenal musubi.

By Chelsea Lin July 11, 2017

ACPhotography_CakfeKai_5_11_2017-7

This article originally appeared in the July 2017 issue of Seattle magazine.

Before you dismiss the culinary appeal of Spam, try it Jamie Cancel’s way. The owner of Bremerton’s sweet, laid-back Hawaiian Cafe Kai is using her musubi—blocks of rice generally topped with Spam (and/or other ingredients)—to popularize the polarizing pork product. She says musubi, which she grew up making for birthdays and beach parties in her native Hawaii, is the best kind of portable snack. I don’t disagree.

My favorite is a brunch lover’s dream, the rice brushed with house-made teriyaki (created by Cancel’s husband, Brandon Sumailo), topped with salty Spam, strips of bacon and egg scrambled with soy sauce, all held together with a little seaweed belt ($3.50). This may not be the comfort food I grew up with, but it’s one I’ve adopted. Bremerton, 2518 Wheaton Way; 360.627.8755

 

Follow Us

Restaurant Roundup: Remembering Legends and Late-Night Tacos

Restaurant Roundup: Remembering Legends and Late-Night Tacos

Here’s what was served up recently in the Emerald City.

A lot of Seattle stories seem to be coming to a close as we near the year’s end, with some iconic eateries going out on their own terms and others fighting to survive. Sadly, we’ve also lost some truly outsized figures on the culinary scene, including Ms. Helen Coleman, the “Queen of Seattle Soul Food,”…

Restaurant Roundup: Holiday Cheer at SLU BRU, StarChefs, and Kabul Closing

Restaurant Roundup: Holiday Cheer at SLU BRU, StarChefs, and Kabul Closing

Here’s what was served up recently in the Emerald City.

Fusion food has an innate ability to bring us together. In the blending of two (or sometimes more) cultures, new perspectives are unlocked and we are all better for it. Esquire is in agreement, as the magazine has selected Lupe’s Situ Tacos, a Mexican-Lebanese taqueria in Ballard, as one of the 33 best new restaurants…

Counter Culture: Sansonina Ristorante Italiano

Counter Culture: Sansonina Ristorante Italiano

An Italian escape hiding in Renton.

Tucked just off Rainier Avenue, across from a Safeway, Sansonina Ristorante Italiano—which opened early in 2019—is the kind of place you drive past for years without noticing until you walk through the door. Once inside, the outside world dissolves, the hum of traffic fades, and suddenly you’re not in Renton anymore. You’re in a dimly…

5 Things to Eat in December

5 Things to Eat in December

This month’s assignment: Take the pressure off. 

There’s something about the end of the year that adds pressure to everything we do. Despite all the talk of holiday cheer and “merry and bright,” heightened expectations can bring a sense of weariness. We’re fretting over feasts and gatherings while working fervently to tie up loose ends—gifts, work, everything—with a pretty bow. Each month,…