When you live in a place like Seattle, it gets attention. It is a city people like to visit. Maybe not as much as SF (sorry folks, kinda true), but it still draws tourists. Just this past weekend the lower downtown area seemed quite a buzz. Seems this place is also a starting port for cruises to Alaska and draws them in a few days early before they set sail to be trapped on boat for days with people they don’t know and nowhere else to go. No wonder those things offer unlimited drinks packages! And can you tell I am not a fan of cruises. Where was I?

Right, visitors. Living here, people come to town, and when they do they wanna take you out. It is the perfect time to try a spot you may not have gone to on your own for whatever reason, you know, like cost. Cuz’ those out of towners will usually pick up the tab, which is always lovely. It helps if it is a combo trip for business too and you can chat them up about work and they can expense it. A win win for everyone! It also helps they usually want to try something funky and different than they get back home. All these things came together when Ms. M, some fam from Chicago rolled through town to work on her expanding empire.

Seemed like a good time to try something fun. Having only been here a bit I told her I’d find a fun casual spot. That is how we ended up at Nue. I’d walked by the place a number of times and looked up the menu which turned out to be quite wide ranging. They specialize in recreating versions of street food from around the world with their own spin. It was definitely up my alley being the food truck/street food kind of person I am.

What makes this Beirut? Near as I can tell it is a mix of chickpeas, olive oil, garlic, yogurt, tahini, cold water, cumin, lemon juice, chili peppers, chopped parsley, and paprika. This was then topped mint, fried garlic, toasted cumin, a quite generous amount olive oil and served with grilled pita pieces. So like an amped up version of something you are gonna buy out of the grocery store. It was good, especially if you are a garlic forward kind of person so probably not the best for date night, but drinking with friends—it works. They were also nice enough to bring a few extra pieces of pita.

Staying in the Middle East with a Syrian kale and carrot salad. Kale, shredded carrot, lime, pomegranate dressing, shattered dates, feta, black sesame seeds and toasted almonds. Though it was the shattered dates I could not figure out. I have even searched the web and everything I find is pretty much chopped up sticky sweet dates. Okay then—if anyone else has any ides, feel free to let me know! I realize it is just a salad and maybe we’d had a few glasses of wine but this was quite tasty and a big yes from the three of us.

These are fries with mayo and gravy. Not sure what else I can say about these except, they needed salt. Otherwise—-the fries were fine.

This is what happens when you hang out with friends and have a few drinks. Something comes to the table you don’t remember ordering. Sadly, parts of the evening I have probably remembered fuzzily but when the server brought this to us we looked at each other—”Did we order this?” We couldn’t really say, but it was there and we were eating so we ate it. A Portuguese Peri Peri Chicken Sandwich—crispy fried, buttermilk marinated chicken breast, spicy piri piri sauce, mayo, house made pickles and arugula on a Grand Central Bakery brioche bun. A super fancy fried chicken sandwich as it were. It was crispy at least even after dipping in the peri peri sauce (a traditional South African sauce made from crushed chiles, lemon, pepper, garlic, salt, onion, bay leaves, vinegar, and oil) which I think could have even been a tad spicier. At this price it was a bit much and I still like the one from Bok-A-Bok better.

The Maracas Shark and Bake—I saw the name and immediately wanted it until I saw it didn’t actually have shark in it. Bummer. Instead it was fresh Pacific cod, green seasoning, crispy cabbage slaw, sliced tomatoes with tamarind and habañero chili sauces rolled Inside a warm, house made fry bread. Yes, a glorified fried fish burrito and yes, I did actually order this—wine be damned and that no shark thing. This has sweet, heat and crunch and I was kind of digging it. I also was drawn to the fry bread, something I’d had before in a different way. I mean deep fried bread is tasty! And being from the South we so love fried stuff. I tried not to think too hard about the fact this was $20! Yes, it is big-ish, but, ugh, it was hard to get past as I ate every last bite. I felt so ashamed, till I remembered I wasn’t paying, then it passed, mostly. Good stuff, but….

Okay, so I liked the food and lucky me they also had a nice, not too sweet Riesling to offer. Add in the pre-paid business dinner and I had a good food time. The joys of out of town friends visiting! I wouldn’t mind going back as their differing menus are quite interesting, though it isn’t a place to dine alone as the food is good for sharing and the prices are definitely for splitting. The brunch menu also looks fun with variations on chicken and waffles and a tower of wings? Well, maybe next time. I’ll just have to wait until my next set of visitors comes to town and wants to eat at a fun casual place. If so, then I have just the place…..as long as they are paying!