Food Stuff: A Long Tradition

Seattle restaurants carry on the heritage of hand-made noodles.

When it comes to noodles, most restaurants save time by using the pre-made or dried stuff, but a few, including Seattle restaurants Cascina Spinasse, Sichuanese Cuisine and Nettletown, remain dedicated to the art of making them by hand.

Martin Islas makes tajarin noodles at Cascina Spinasse. Photography by Andrew Waits for City Arts.

“People who really take pleasure in eating can sense the work that goes into these noodles,” says Spinasse chef Jason Stratton. “They can sense those hours, the respect given to food.”

Cascina Spinasse (1531 14th Ave., 206.251.7673) specializes in food from the Piedmont region of Italy, and one of the restaurant’s signature dishes is tajarin: super-fine, deep yellow hand-cut noodles made with egg yolks, then tossed with sage butter. 

Spinasse’s pasta maker, Martin Islas, spends a full forty hours a week making tajarin. With an admirable, Zen-like concentration, Islas, who works at a large wooden counter surrounded by hanging swaths of golden pasta dough, slices close to ten pounds of tajarin each day with one large knife, then fluffs them up into whimsical, honey-colored haystacks.  

“I could never take the tajarin off the menu even if I wanted to,” says Stratton. “People would just freak out.”

At the International District’s Sichuanese Cuisine (1048 S. Jackson, 206.720.1690), owner Yun Shu Chen proudly says that customers have been crazy for their chow mein, made with hand-pulled la mian noodles, since the restaurant opened in 1989.  

La mian, made from wheat flour and warm water, come into existence by way of an intricate twisting and pulling process that requires as much time as it does arm strength. The noodles, which are made in weekly batches of up to fifty pounds, are quickly revived in hot water, then tossed with garlic and chilis in an extremely hot wok that chars a few random sections of noodles, imbuing them with a light, smoky flavor. 

Sichuanese’s chef demurs shyly when asked his name, but is quick to answer the question of who taught him how to make la mian. “Mama,” he smiles. “Mama is always the first teacher.”

Christina Choi, chef and owner of Eastlake eatery Nettletown (2238 Eastlake Ave. E., 206.588.3607), first learned the art of noodle making from her mother as well. Now she uses her mom’s recipe to pay tribute to her Swiss heritage with Nettletown’s signature knoepfli, small, nubby egg noodle dumplings. 

Knoepfli are made from a simple batter of eggs, milk, flour and water, which is then pressed through a sieve into boiling water, where the squat chunks of dough cook almost instantly. “Knoepfli is actually pretty common,” says Choi, “a staple usually served plain as a side dish to meat. But whenever we ate it, it always felt special.”

Nettletown’s knoepfli are served as a main dish, pan fried with cabbage, leeks, garlic and herbs, then topped off with your choice of a bratwurst or an oozy, perfectly poached egg. Choi takes the traditional handmade noodle but offers her own modern spin, turning it into something special indeed. •