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JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION
Oriental Mart offers honest to goodness Filipino comfort food. 'Masarap' is Tagalog for 'delicioius.' |
If you're at Pike Place Market in Seattle and pass by a grocery store called Oriental Mart and don't go to the back of the store, you'd be passing up one of the America's classic meals as announced by the James Beard Foundation Tuesday (Feb. 18) morning.
The Filipino American lunch counter (we know this because a snarky sign in the front proclaims "We only serve lunch 11:00.-4:00") won a prestigious James Beard Foundation "America's Classics Award."
The chef, Leila Rosas, learned how to cook from watching her mother Mila Apostol at the restaurant's tiny kitchen. She told the Seattle Times that her family never imagined the James Beard Foundation would bestow such an honor to “a restaurant that is just a hole in the wall.
The award is usually given to local businesses that the Foundation judges determine “have timeless appeal and are beloved regionally for quality food that reflects the character of its community.”
Locals know that the lunchonette serves up the best bargain in town with its hot, tasty and plentiful honest-to-goodness Filipino comfort food.
Locals know that the lunchonette serves up the best bargain in town with its hot, tasty and plentiful honest-to-goodness Filipino comfort food.
Oriental Mart has been a mainstay at Pike Place Market for decades and is in the third generation of the family that runs the operation. It is unapologetic Filipino home-cooking at its best and doesn't try to Americanize its food by catering to American tastebuds.
Another sign reads: "If you don't know how to eat our salmon sinigang, don't order it." Salmon sinigang, a tamarind sour soup, is its most famous dish.
The menu changes daily at the whim of the chef. “I cook what I want so that I don’t get tired of cooking the same thing every day,” Rosas told the Times.
Apostol opened Oriental Mart in 1971 as a grocery store. Ten years later she expanded with a counter-seating restaurant in the back that focused on the family’s favorites such as adobo, dinaguan, pancit and, of course, sinagang. During the tourist season, she still helps her daughters: Rosas who cooks, and Joy Mori who works the retail part of the store.
Apostol opened Oriental Mart in 1971 as a grocery store. Ten years later she expanded with a counter-seating restaurant in the back that focused on the family’s favorites such as adobo, dinaguan, pancit and, of course, sinagang. During the tourist season, she still helps her daughters: Rosas who cooks, and Joy Mori who works the retail part of the store.
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Three generations of the Apostol family operate the award-winning Orient Mart. |
It has been a busy few months the family. Last December, Oriental Mart's home cooking was featured in PBS's No Passport Required hosted by famed New York chef Marcus Samuelsson when his show focused on Filipino American cuisine in Seattle.
The business is closed during Seattle's winter when fewer tourists wander Pike Place and the Alaska-bound cruise ships with their large Filipino crews are plying warmer waters. As she does every year, Apostol uses the break to visit family in the Philippines. With only 18 seats, there will likely be lines out the door when Oriental Mart reopens April 1.
"I would not exchange my working life with anything else," the 89-year old Apostol says. "I love the people, my customers, the ethnic diversity. It's been an interesting place to work and raise kids. And they're all good kids. I'm proud of them."
Oriental Mart will be one of six 2020 “America’s Classics” recipients to be honored at the James Beard Awards Gala on May 4 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
The business is closed during Seattle's winter when fewer tourists wander Pike Place and the Alaska-bound cruise ships with their large Filipino crews are plying warmer waters. As she does every year, Apostol uses the break to visit family in the Philippines. With only 18 seats, there will likely be lines out the door when Oriental Mart reopens April 1.
"I would not exchange my working life with anything else," the 89-year old Apostol says. "I love the people, my customers, the ethnic diversity. It's been an interesting place to work and raise kids. And they're all good kids. I'm proud of them."
Oriental Mart will be one of six 2020 “America’s Classics” recipients to be honored at the James Beard Awards Gala on May 4 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
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