Congee Is Our New Favorite Comfort Food
An Uwajimaya food stall is dishing up soul-warming bowls of rice porridge
By Chelsea Lin June 27, 2018
This article originally appeared in the July 2018 issue of Seattle magazine.
This article appears in print in the July 2018 issue. Click here to subscribe.
Comfort food has a way of tasting like home, even if it’s not the home you grew up in. Such is the case at Congeez, a humble stall in the Uwajimaya food court that’s been slinging steaming bowls of savory rice porridge, an Asian breakfast staple known as congee (among other names), since February.
Owner Akavin Lertsirisin envisioned Congeez first as a door-to-door service catering to University of Washington students, particularly Asian students missing traditional breakfast items in the ’hood. (Indeed, you can still order via Postmates and Uber Eats.) He and chef friends Ittipol Summanuch and Wisit Chanabun (both formerly of Ballard’s Pestle Rock) operated as a delivery service until the opportunity arose to set up shop at Uwajimaya.
The congee ($8.95)—rice long simmered in chicken stock and then topped with green onions, cilantro, shredded chicken or pork meatballs and enough grated ginger to keep you healthy all week—isn’t the only thing on the menu, but it is the best. At press time, they were planning to broaden the scope: congee served with sustainable sea scallops and fresh Northwest oysters. We’ll stick with the original, thank you.
Chinatown/International District, 503 S Weller St.; 206.556.6498.
Follow Us
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
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
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,…
Ahead of the Cut
How a tech-minded home cook turned years of tinkering into a chef’s knife powered by 40,000 vibrations per second.
Scott Heimendinger traces his love for knives back to college, when his dad taught him how to cook over the phone. By his junior year he had saved for his first real knife, a JA Henckels Santoku. Compared with the $9 IKEA knife he had been using, “it felt like a laser… things that used…