Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to Beneath the Evergreens, where murder, mysteries, and mayhem lurk in the shadows of the Pacific Northwest. I'm Jess. And I'm Anna. From haunted forests and unsolved disappearances, to true crime cases buried deep in the moss and the mist, we're digging into the dark secrets hiding under the evergreens.
Speaker: Each episode will explore real cases, eerie encounters, and the legends that keep the Pacific Northwest up at night. So grab your flashlight, lock your doors, and join us... Beneath the Evergreens!
Speaker: Hello everyone. Yo-ho. Yo-ho. A pirate's life for thou. Oh. So for all our listeners, Jessie is dressed up as a pirate. It's Halloween, baby.
Speaker: This episode is coming out on in November though. So we are officially in my season. Eating season. No longer scary, scary, scary season.
Speaker: It is always scary season in my heart. Well, your heart. Not mine. It's my episode today. So we are moving into Thanksgiving, everyone. We're in pumpkin spice latte territory.
Speaker: i did actually want to get a pumpkin spice latte today, but I didn't. Look, I love pumpkin spice lattes. No hate. They're fantastic. They're delicious. I try to recreate them at home, and it's just it's hard to recreate.
Speaker: my My sister makes really good lattes, and she uses like um this maple butter from Trader Joe's. Which is, it's almost like a whipped maple, like um maple syrup kind of thing. It's really good.
Speaker: Really That sounds delicious. I'm going to check that out. Yeah. I just kind of want to jump right into the episode because I'm really stoked about it this week. Let's do it. And it has to do with food, of course. I love it.
Speaker: So. one thing This is more fitting. Oh, you're, yes. Your turkey hat is more fitting. stop Let's go. Let's go turkey day.
Speaker: Let's do this. yeah I'm excited too. Tell me all of all about the cheese curds. I don't know if that's what you're talking about. there's't Jess, come on. Do we have cheese curds in Washington? I transported myself to Wisconsin.
Speaker: Without me, of course. Without you. i do love Wisconsin cheese curds. But anyways, I digress. home So let me give you a little bit of backstory about how this episode came to me. Because it's honestly completely ridiculous.
Speaker: Okay. So...
Speaker: couple weeks ago, I was down in Oregon for the weekend. And I get there. I'm like, I'm waiting for my friends to join me. um I'm like getting dinner ripped by myself. So I'm like, oh, i come I'll get some takeout. Like, what am I thinking? I want something that's not super like, it's like fatty or like like a burger. but also something that's like kind of on the nutritious side.
Speaker: My brain goes, teriyaki. Love teriyaki. It's perfect, right? Chicken, rice, some sauce, usually a salad. Like best macros. So I'm like trying to find teriyaki spot. I find one. Looks pretty good. Has good reviews.
Speaker: I go. i pick up something for from takeout. I go back to my hotel and I'm about to eat it. And I'm like, huh, this chicken doesn't look very good. And then I was like, well, the I guess the rice is fine, but like it's rice.
Speaker: And then yeah this brings me into a whole research topic of teriyaki. Because for those of you that don't know, teriyaki is super specific to Seattle. Like teriyaki started in Seattle, actually. and I didn't know this.
Speaker: Yes. Yes. It has does have Japanese origins, but like it started in the city of Seattle. That's why there's like 50 million teriyaki joints in this city, in this area, I guess.
Speaker: And my dumb ass thought, Like I wasn't i wasn't too even too far up outside of Portland, but I was like, oh, Oregon's close enough, right? That's got to come all the way down. I five.
Speaker: It did not. I had some terrible teriyaki and I was so mad about it That is crazy. ah You're like kind of blowing my mind right now. I thought teriyaki was just teriyaki. No, no.
Speaker: um I honestly got a little taste of this when I was um younger. when i I went to school on the East Coast, and I remember thinking, ah, teriyaki sounds great, or like a fu some pho sounds delicious, right? Yeah. Oh, love a pho.
Speaker: Right? You can get pho teriyaki. There's like a million in walking distance. I feel like almost everyone's home. Yeah. Literally, yeah. They are yeah all over the place. I was in rural Pennsylvania, and I couldn't find anything. There was one pho restaurant that I was able to find. That was it. Teriyaki was not a thing. Teriyaki-flavored things were like kind of popular, but not like a legit teriyaki restaurant.
Speaker: That is insane. oh Well, i've kind of when I lived in the South, that was kind of similar, but that's kind of crazy. Is not the saddest thing that the rest of the country does not understand the beauty of teriyaki?
Speaker: I never really thought about it. I think I'm so spoiled with it. It's like, oh I could take it or leave it. But if when you're, I guess when you're got a hankering for it, you fucking. Oh yeah. And I had a hankering for it and I didn't get it. So this hankering, that's where this episode came from. So I'm going to educate all of our listeners on the history of teriyaki.
Speaker: um Yeah. Let's jump right into it. So first let's pause. I very much appreciate you bring this to the forefront of the news. I think this isn't, people don't talk about this enough.
Speaker: They don't. And i became a bit of a hyper, hyper fixation for me, if I'm being honest, because I think that teriyaki is one of the best like food groups. I'm go to call its own food group. Essentially. it is i feel like every, every teriyaki spot in this city, while there are some that are better than others, nothing's bad because I feel like it's so hard to actually mess up.
Speaker: I was going to say they're all relatively the same. Yeah, like you get a little like like a grill, like some like char on your chicken and some good teriyaki sauce and rice. like The fact that this place in Oregon was able to mess it up is honestly a feat.
Speaker: That is true. I don't think that it didn't have the char. The chicken didn't have the char and it was like a little rubbery. like It was didn't feel like it was the freshest of chicken. ah Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Speaker: I feel like you're mocking me right now and this is a very serious topic. Yeah. I told you we're done with spooky season. nice season And here we go. We're starting off. Okay. yeah Okay.
Speaker: So let me go into a little bit about the history of teriyaki because it does kind of mesh in with a lot of other stories that we've already talked about. Like specifically the Japanese influence in this area.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. By like 1910 or so, there was about 5,000 Japanese residents living in like the international district. was not called the international district at the time, but in that um neighborhood of Seattle. So pretty big. pans Pang's warehouse fire was exactly, exactly. Call back.
Speaker: Call back. I love it. But anyways, there was so many people, so many Japanese people that were living in the ID that it actually, they actually created like Japan town. So there is, there's, I feel like Chinatown is the most like no well-known area, but Japantown is right there. And have Koreatown and all the all the other neighborhoods within the district.
Speaker: Yeah. That is where like Japanese culture really thrived in Japan. Seattle. A lot of the historical events surrounding like World War II, right? Like we've just talked about it a number of times. i don't want to get into it too much again, yeah but we all know that there was a ton of Japanese immigrants in Seattle and they really shaped a lot of things in our city. They actually were further out than just Seattle too. Like there was large a large Japanese population on like Bainbridge Island, Vashon Island, Bellevue, and they did a lot of farming.
Speaker: So about um so Japanese farmers actually produce about 75% of the area's vegetable and milk and ran many in the strawberry farms. Oh, wow. Yeah. So I guess another fun fact here, Bashan Island has a ton of strawberry farms and they actually a strawberry festival every year, kind of in homage to one of their main crops, if you will.
Speaker: It sounds kind of funny calling strawberries a crop, but I guess technically it They are a crop. So like I said, there was a lot of Japanese influence and then a lot of restaurants started to come from that. So Seattle's first sushi bar was actually opened in 1904. 1904? 1904. And and love, started Tacoma 1928.
Speaker: and ahwaja maya which we all know and love started started yeah ta coma in nineteen twenty eight And it's coming back. I think it might've just come back as like a celebratory thing. Cause remember they got, they moved because of all the racism or whatever. And now they're coming it back in a historic move.
Speaker: I love a Wajmaa. Oh my God. The one in Seattle, their food bar is just top notch. Chef's kiss. I know. Oh my God. i Love it. Okay. i do So anyways, clearly we're very hungry. So you're buying me teriyaki after this, right?
Speaker: um Is that what the moral of the story is? will, because you know what the best part of teriyaki is? The cost. It is so cost effective. All all right. Everyone on on this call right now.
Speaker: here Hear what I'm saying. There are two things that are important, Dana. Macros, cost effectiveness. And if something meets those two criteria, you got to go for it.
Speaker: God, nothing butters her biscuit more. it but but
Speaker: no but you know like you get so much chicken and it's like what like high-end like 15 16 bucks like that that is steep like inflation sucks but like are growing up under 10 bucks you could get a bunch of food yeah and it's no totally and it's nutritious my For those of you are not seeing us, my hand, I am gesticulating wildly wildly right now. Look, I'm getting flashbacks to when I used to go to church. like the the Preaching about teriyaki over here. The fervor of the the the fire of God is us right now talking about teriyaki is alarming. And I'm on board. i mean, let's do it. DoorDash is on way.
Speaker: As you should be. I am thinking about getting teriyaki for dinner tonight. Thank you very much. I mean, you should after this. In fact, it should be sponsored. All you teriyaki shops out there. There are so many. I mean, I could walk just how many of them from my doorstep.
Speaker: Oh, beautiful, so beautiful place. Okay. Okay. So now let me get into, that was a little, some broad history, right? Now let me get into actually teriyaki. So teriyaki dates back to the the Edo, the Edo period. um in japan like 1603 to 1868 um this is when mass fermentation uh made soy sauce wildly widely available so key ingredient teriyaki sauce soy sauce soy sauce so soy sauce combined with like mirin um forms kind of a glaze of sorts like you get a little bit of sweet and salty taste uh taste
Speaker: um And the word teriyaki actually means, so terry means like shine or gloss and yaki just means like grilled. So like kind of like marinated and grilled. Grilled sauce.
Speaker: Essentially. Got it. Yeah. I like it. Exactly. um teriyaki sauce, a lot of like sugar or like stocke was added to help preserve the food as well. And then give you that slice nice sweet taste.
Speaker: so Teriyaki kind of spread outside of Japan. And essentially it came to Hawaii first. So a lot of Japanese workers in the 19th and early 20th century were making like teriyaki flavored things in Hawaii.
Speaker: Like spam musubis. If you know, you know. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. um But then teriyaki really made it start in Seattle in the 1970s.
Speaker: Okay. So Toshihiro Kasahara. came to um here she came to Portland from Ashikaga, Japan.
Speaker: And then he moved up to Seattle and opened Toshi's in March of 1976 in Lower Queen Anne. That was the first teriyaki restaurant in the city.
Speaker: I feel like there's a popular name for teriyaki restaurants as well. Right? Right? Putting two and two together. Okay. So at that point, the menu was like relatively small. Like it was like chicken teriyaki, beef teriyaki, udon, rice.
Speaker: yeah like that Like a salad. like I mean, what else do you need, though? Right? And it was $1.85. I wish. Right. Right? um So, essentially, I just used, like, um sweet teriyaki sauce to have over the rice, and...
Speaker: it was not initially a hit honestly like it was kind of just like another restaurant um but the prices were low so he his thought pattern was like okay this is like relatively cheap for me to make like if i just keep the cost low people are going to keep coming back and then i can raise prices from there yeah um But then a Seattle Times food critic named John Hinterberger praised the food and apparently like patrons tripled by like or triple slash quadrupled. Like he got so much business.
Speaker: And that was kind of the kickstart of people in Seattle really being like, I love teriyaki. Like I love the flavor. I love the style. So that was the initial start. However, it was actually Korean immigrants that popularized teriyaki joints.
Speaker: That's crazy. Right? Right? The melting pot. I love it. Right? Yeah. So the... chung family they are one of the ones that kind of also popularized teriyaki in the area they came up here from los angeles in l la they sold like teriyaki chicken sandwiches um almost like more like kind of like bulgogi style in a way you know bulgogi beef but like that sweet basically that sweet and salty glaze over a meat i feel like we always call it teriyaki but it's actually a very common like meshing of flavors you know
Speaker: yeah The Chung family, they came up to Seattle and they started a shop in Tukwila where they would serve like teriyaki and rice plates to many of the industrial or manufacturer manufacturing workers in the area. Kind of like a lunch special, if you will. yeah which Can you think of a better lunch than teriyaki? I can't.
Speaker: Or think a better dinner, in fact. I'm a tradition. i I do like a sandwich. Okay, like a banh mii. No, like a ham and cheese.
Speaker: They're too basic, Jessie. Don't judge me. Anyways. Don't judge me. At the Chung's restaurant, they would actually make sauce in these huge vats. like I'm talking like mass amounts of sauce at one i love a large-scale kitchen.
Speaker: It's fascinating to me. Oh, yeah. It's like getting all the rest. like it's so It feels way more chemical than like a lot of other cooking does, you know? Yeah, because imagine getting that ratio right. Like cooking in vat and getting the ratio of the sauce correct where it's like tastes delicious every time yeah you make Phenomenal.
Speaker: um So anyways, they really popularized it and then they got a lot of other Korean entrepreneurs involved. um And then yeah, essentially they pushed teriyaki onto the rest of the city.
Speaker: Which isn' not so isn't that so cool? Like Korean immigrants popularize teriyaki, but like it has these definitive like Japanese origins. I love it. Yes. So um by the late teriyaki restaurants in Seattle actually outnumbered McDonald's in the city.
Speaker: That does not surprise me. Right. Right. um You know, i think we all can imagine. Well, not maybe mean not all of our listeners, but at least those of us from Washington can imagine like your local teriyaki spot. Right. It's kind of small. There's not usually too much seating in there, but the food is delicious. Everyone's super nice. You go in for like your takeout and you're just it's just the best. It's fantastic. When I was a kid, there was this ah place called like Happy Bento, I think is what it was called. But they had things called Happy Families. And essentially, it was just like every kind of teriyaki flavored meat with rice and potstickers and egg rolls and like a big thing of fried rice. And you could get it for like $35. Are you kidding? You get like four boxes of stuff.
Speaker: Oh, my God. That's amazing. <unk> we that was like a once a week thing at our house nice that was like our game night go-tos and it was all it always tasted so it always tastes good oh yeah there's never a time where i've had teriyaki that i can recall that it tasted bad i feel bad that you had this experience it's all good i mean if you have it you have to have in washington like that's just where it's the best but i just i think it's such a cool experience like And how much we take it for granted that there's there's just so many teriyaki spots. There is. I cannot even tell. like I feel like it's not a strip mall if it doesn't have a teriyaki spot. Maybe like if maybe a fuss spot.
Speaker: That could be an alternative. So like I said, nineteen ninety s more teriyakis than McDonald's in Seattle. um Everything like The article I read said Shops were small, cheap, and often a bit run down Which is like huh it's That's the perfect description Like table might be a little sticky From the last customer Yep, yep But everyone's just so sweet and kind And like your whole neighborhood is essentially In this one teriyaki stop Yes um Now question for you yes What is your drink of choice with a teriyaki?
Speaker: Ooh So growing up, my family was not at like a drink. We wouldn't get like beverages when we would go out to eat. It would just like water. I do now. i like a nice like Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi. um For the record, Diet Pepsi is incorrect, but Diet Coke. Okay. We're not going to have this debate again. Yeah. I feel like i i guess some kind of soda i mean is my ideal. What about you? i'm feeling like it's got to be a Coke.
Speaker: So in 2010, the New York Times actually did an article about teriyaki. And they essentially called teriyaki in Seattle the same as like a Chicago, like a Chicago dog in Chicago.
Speaker: Like it's just like, it's like the cuisine. It is. It is. um And a local writer said that like restaurants, the teriyaki restaurants were so common, they're basically invisible.
Speaker: Which to our a point earlier, like we don't even notice that it's such a Seattle thing. That is very, yeah, I just take it for granted that it's always there. God, so good. Okay.
Speaker: We're unfortunately, though, seeing a bit of a decline in the teriyaki industry. Which? Because of the gluten. Damn gluten. Anyways. So the number of teriyaki restaurants fell from about, like, there was over 80 in 2010 to about in and that's that's in this thatt's in seattle So like, okay, we still got a lot of them, but we're starting to see a decline, which scares me. And a lot of times it's actually raising rent.
Speaker: So rent costs in the city are kind of insane. um And while a lot of teriyaki restaurants, we know they're not like the, like the nicest indoor dining establishments. That's still like, there's a lot of space that you got to pay for. And a lot of like, yeah especially kitchen space that you need.
Speaker: Like there was a teriyaki restaurant in, um, Capitol Hill that closed in 2016 after, ah after 20 years of being in the city. Um, 20 years a long time, right?
Speaker: Right. Yeah. No, it's, it's, it's very sad, but what I really want to highlight and essentially my plea is go support your local teriyaki spot.
Speaker: Like, it's such a fantastic part of Seattle. And I don't think people take it take like they take it for granted. Like, it's always going to be there. That's what I had as a kid. But they don't realize how truly special it is that we have this amazing food all over the place. It's pretty cost effective. You're getting a lot of food. And it's such a cool, unique story, right? It's just ah such a...
Speaker: Like fascinating story of the city of Seattle and how all these different groups have come together and how we just like made it a part of our story and our history, even though it's like relatively recent, like the 70s were 50 years ago. But I can think of so many people that like grew up with teriyaki and like that's part of our cultural identity as a city. So I don't want to lose that.
Speaker: I was actually explaining this to somebody. I took a class recently where there was a lot of international folks that came in and one person in particular was from Canada. And I was explaining to them because they were asking about like the food scene. And I was like, it's it's a it's pretty Asian heavy here. And like pho and teriyaki are like exactly what I was thinking about. Like it is the identity of who we are.
Speaker: I also have a funny story related that. I had a friend in town. we were going to grab dinner and i was like, oh, we're going to go to this Vietnamese spot. And we're driving. He's like, oh, that one. And I was like, oh, no, not that one.
Speaker: I'm like, we're actually probably going to pass three other ones before we actually get to the one that we're going to. ah So, yeah. Yes. We always have our favorites. Oh 100% and there's just so many different vibes right Like yes this This place was like in a specific part of town that I wanted to show him but like and there's like i don't know just We're getting so lucky with the food here that it's just always top notch so Go support your local restaurants go support your local economy Keep teriyaki in Seattle That's my plea Go get teriyaki for dinner tonight hell
Speaker: Tell us your favorite teriyaki restaurants. In fact, put it in the comments. oh yeah. Because I would like to go visit them, especially if we are like when I travel. Sometimes you're like you don't know what what places to go to. And if there's a nice teriyaki spot.
Speaker: Heck yeah. i always Heck yeah. Jessie, what's your go to teriyaki order? i can't have it anymore. Oh, because of the gluten. oh When you were eating teriyaki, what was your go to order?
Speaker: um I really liked the I mean, spicy teriyaki chicken. Oh, yep. And then I also was a big fan of the like tempura vegetables. Oh my God.
Speaker: I love tempura vegetables. Yeah. But yeah, just classic ter a spicy teriyaki chicken yu with some rice and that like half boiled cabbage. Like it's not quite soft. It's still got like a little bit of crunch.
Speaker: yeah And then they got that like vinegar-ish taste almost. Yeah. I love the dressing. You know, the the salad dressing. oh my god so Okay, so i have a funny story about this.
Speaker: There's this place in Puyallup and I'm just gonna blow up my spot and I don't even care. It was it was called Sheila Teriyaki. For those in South Hill, you'll know where I'm talking about. um It's by where the old Safeway used to be and that's gonna be a ah big throwback because now it's something totally different.
Speaker: In this complex, there was a Sheila Teriyaki and they had this teriyaki chicken salad that was fucking delicious. Like I dream about it still. It was so good. And they had that like tangy, like mayo based sauce. Yeah. And I don't even like mayo, but the way they fucking made it was so good.
Speaker: I was craving it and we had just moved way away from Puyallup and I was begging my mom to please, dear God, take me to this restaurant. And she's like, I'm not going to take you there. I'll just make the salad for you. Well, first of all, you're never going to make the salad the same. No, no, never. We'll have to say this. She made the salad and she made the salad dressing. And I'm not going lie. The salad dressing tasted the exact fucking same. Really?
Speaker: It was so good. But on principle, I refused to eat it because I wanted fucking Sheila Terry.
Speaker: And I feel so bad about it to this day because my mom's spent a lot of time making that salad. And as a parent now, I'm like, what a fucking dick. so i So I'm sorry, mom. I'm sorry. But it was. Yeah.
Speaker: So if Sheila Teriyaki was our place to go. Oh, my God. I don't even remember the name of the teriyaki spot I used to go to as a kid. I can show you exactly where it's at. And like, I grew up like the suburbs, right? So there was like a bunch of strip malls, but like, it was like every family had theirs.
Speaker: Like you didn't go to it. Like there was one across the street. I never went there. I we all always always went to the one. Except that was our spot. That was our jam. They knew us there. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. you Sometimes they like give you a cup of tea while you waited. like oh that is everyone's that's me that and every everyone's well i like to get the like the short ribs that like with the really tiny oh my god oh god that's so good what is your order i'm guessing teriyaki chicken teriyaki chicken 100 sometimes it's spicy it depends on how hungry i am if i'm really hungry i'm just going with a plain teriyaki yeah um yeah and like
Speaker: sometimes like a gyoza but not always husband likes to get we went we go to this our new place um that was a sort of sushi so he got sushi last time that was pretty good love sushi okay here's another question okay are you a cream cheese in your sushi person not really don't fucking god we were about to have to just divorce right now No, I, so I'm actually going pick you up sushi because I want to like raw fish. I can't do it.
Speaker: It makes me so nauseous. And I, I hate saying that cause i feel like I feel so uncultured when I say it, but I can't do it. So like, I i don't really like cream cheese in it and I don't like raw fish. So there's like very few lines of sushi that I do like.
Speaker: Yeah. I can handle the rawuit the raw part. In fact, I prefer it. But if you put a cream cheese in there, you're dead to me. Like, I can't. m It should be illegal. Outlawed.
Speaker: i do love eel, though. i think Honestly, I think I like... naggy Oh my god. But I think I like it because it's that sweet and salty and it's basically teriyaki. It tastes like teriyaki chicken, quite frankly.
Speaker: Actually, a little better because it gets more of like a char than a chicken does. Yeah. But... ah Well, thank you for making me my mouth water this whole episode. Oh, you are so welcome. Welcome to November eating season, as I'm going to start calling it.
Speaker: Now our countdown to Thanksgiving is on. That is crazy. I can't believe it's already November. Right? Well, well That was great. Thank you for that episode. Yeah, it wasn't the most scary. So I feel like our intro and outro don't quite. What are you talking about?
Speaker: This is terrifying. are The teriyaki restaurants are closing. That's that's fair. This is a national crisis, actually. It is. It's a call to action. Hear ye, hear ye. Get some fucking teriyaki tonight.
Speaker: Tell whoever you got to tell that it's okay because Beneath the Evergreen said it was cool. Well, that's it for today's dive into the saucier corners of the Pacific Northwest. If you loved the stories or your stomach growled a little, be sure to subscribe and follow so you don't miss what's lurking beneath the evergreens next time.
Speaker: Thanks for eating with us on Beneath the Evergreens. We appreciate you diving into the flavors with us. Until next time, keep your eyes open and your mouth open.
Speaker: do-do That is so dirty. I know. I know. As I said, was like, I don't know what else to do, but I'm like running out of time. Eyes open, mouth open.
Speaker: You can see the teriyaki.
