TNT Diner sampled a lot of fare in 2022. Here are 13 of our favorite eats and sips

The prevailing notion that the world has forever changed occasionally dimmed to an illusion as I, and many others, returned in full swing to restaurants this year.

These gathering places, where we come together over blended beer and divine dumplings, felt very much alive.

I began the tradition of collecting my favorite food and drink memories in 2020, when a “best of” anything seemed out of touch. It was such a pleasure to put together that I shared 21 such selections last year.

For 2022, I bring you 13 of the dishes (and in a couple of cases, cups) that resonated with me as I traversed the South Sound. The list starts around the New Year and runs loosely chronologically through summer and fall. May it inspire you to get back out there if you’ve been inching toward normalcy, or simply to somewhere new if you’ve already made that jump.

KHMER STUFFED CHICKEN (slabb monn bowk) AT THEARY’S CAMBODIAN

▪ Spice Bridge Food Hall, 14200 Tukwila International Blvd., Tukwila, spicebridge.org

Tukwila stretches outside our typical geographical territory, but it’s one of the most diverse cities in the nation, and we all visit the airport from time to time. Make a point of stopping here after your next flight for a taste of foods we don’t often see farther south in Pierce County. Theary’s is one of several upstart restaurants cooking at Spice Bridge Food Hall, an arm of the nonprofit Food Innovation Network that supports immigrant entrepreneurs through the complexities and costs of opening a food business. Owner Theary Ngeth painstakingly debones whole chickens, marinated in kreung, a fragrant lemongrass, galangal and turmeric paste essential to Khmer cooking, then fills them with vermicelli. The haunting result resembles a chicken wing, served on a banana leaf with pickled ginger, toasted coconut and a final flourish of cilantro.

MANGO MALASADA FROM OLY’S MALASADAS

▪ Weekends at select Olympia locations, plus various pop-ups, instagram.com/olysmalasadas

For a good chunk of my (too much) time on Food Instagram last year, I stalked this malasada maker based in Olympia. Every week I would tell myself it was the week to traverse I-5 for these Hawaiian doughnuts. That conundrum resolved itself when Olivia Bergeron popped up at a winter edition of Tacoma Sunday Market. Similar to pączki and sufganiyot, the yeasted milk dough of malasadas proffers a dense fried treat that somehow — at least in Oly’s case — refrains from being too sweet. We delighted in the unadulterated simplicity of the original and the juicy freshness of the mango, putting other jams to rest. Look for weekend drop-offs at select Olympia Coffee locations, Vic’s Pizzeria, Bar Francis and area festivals, and let’s hope their pre-order option returns soon.

CASHEW MILK AT GATHER JUICE CO.

▪ 2612 6th Ave., Tacoma, 253-999-5610, gatherjuice.co

I had long held an inexplicable infatuation with wanting to tackle a juice cleanse. What better year to rid your body of processed evils (for three days) than 2022? Gather Juice explicitly says, “We can’t stress enough that a cleanse should absolutely not feel like punishment.” I believed I would gnaw on my arm. While picking up the crates — four juices, one cashew milk and add-on daily wellness shots — co-owner Sean Doyel insisted I would appreciate the experience. I was giddy at first, thinking it would be easy. By Day 2, I was ravenous, unsure I could muster the willpower to continue. On Day 3, I defiantly told myself, “I’m glowing!” What pushed me over the finish line each day was the cashew milk, available only with the cleanse. After four juices — all delicious, mind you, with a nuanced increase in sweetness through the day’s rotation — the milk was a gift from Mother Nature.

POPPY SEED CAKE AT EMISH MARKET BAKERY

▪ 2040 70th Ave. E, Fife, facebook.com/EmishMarket

The bakery at Emish Market provides a valid reason to visit Fife. Operated by the same Ukrainian family behind Paradise Village in Ashford (where the pierogies should have your attention) and the since-closed Kusher Bakery, the pastry case beams with specialties like rogaliki, mini layered cakes and fruit tartes. I dream of the poppy seed cake, though, with lush layers of this ancient ingredient between subtly sweet cake and more poppy. The owner of fellow Ukrainian bakery Pie Style in Auburn told me that poppy seeds remind her of home. That home has changed forever; may this humble cake remind us of what we gain as a nation of immigrants.

CHEESESTEAK AT MY PHILLY

▪ 4314 Portland Ave. E, Tacoma, 253-301-2022, www.myphillytacoma.com

I know some may fight me on this one, but My Philly slings perhaps the best cheesesteak in town. They are downright messy, juicy, chip-choppy and finely seasoned, swaddled in melted cheese and piled into Amoroso rolls. When I first ordered two full sandwiches from this modest Eastside shop, I didn’t realize they would each weigh three pounds. No matter, because we finished half of the classic with peppers and provolone and the chicken cheesesteak with mushrooms at the kitchen counter, as is tradition. The Moffetts learned to make this Philadelphia export in Seattle, and we should consider ourselves lucky they landed in Tacoma. One full will easily feed two people.

CARNITAS MACHETE AT LOS CUERVOS

▪ 11109 Pacific Highway SW, Lakewood, facebook.com/tacomixlakewood.wa

Willfully unaware of Taco Tuesday, I stumbled into Los Cuervos (searchable as Taco Mix) on such an afternoon. The small restaurant, with a handful of booths and tables, was bubbling with customers, most enjoying platters of $2 tacos. The only server on duty apologized to me for the wait; I had been sitting alone, neck turned to read the digital menu above the register and urns of jamaica, for hardly five minutes. Everyone was here for the special, which excludes certain meats, and they are getting a deal, she said, because these are on homemade tortillas. I inquired of the machete, an elongated quesadilla, shaped like its namesake blade, exported from Mexico City. The version here is more manageable, about 10 inches round. It’s gorgeous, with freckles of charred masa indicative of a fresh press, its thickness ideal for the supple carnitas and Oaxacan cheese tucked inside the fold. Knife and fork on the traditional clay dish, I took my time and ordered another to go.

FRIDAY PIZZA AT OUTPOST SANDWICHES

▪ Courthouse Square, 1102 A St., Tacoma, outpost-sandwiches.square.site

Downtown Tacoma went to sleep for large swaths of the past three years, but Adolfo Calles and Lauren Hernandez took advantage of the downtime to perfect their pizza recipe. Thus was born this grandma-style pie: square slices, an inch-or-more rise, crunchy edging, garlic-forward tomato sauce, cheese or pepperoni, basil. If you’re smart, you schedule Outpost Sandwiches into your Friday, the only chance of the week to snag one of the best slices in the city. Methinks he makes more trays now than he did before I spilled the flour with a feature in July, but I still advise arriving (or ordering online) around when the shop opens at 11 a.m.

GHOST PEPPER CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM AT ISCREAMERY

▪ Brimstone PNW Smokehouse, 7707 Pioneer Way, Gig Harbor, iscreamerypnw.com

I have a high tolerance for heat, and often I’m let down — only twice have I been foiled, by an aberrant jalapeno and a Thai papaya salad. When I asked the young lady behind the counter, in the refashioned back room of Brimstone, she admitted the consequence of using the 1-million Scoville unit specimen varied. Some days the Ghost Pepper Chocolate Ganache was super spicy; others it was less detectable. Today? Not too bad, she insisted. I declined to taste-test but, in what I soon realized was a prescient decision, I put a scoop of Mint Chocolate Chip on top. On this day, I experienced the chile-induced endorphin rush some describe, switching between the chocolate and the mint with abandon (remorse?) until the spoon hit the bottom of the waffle cone.

SAFFRON CALAMARI AT PRIMO GRILL

▪ 2701 6th Ave., Tacoma, primogrilltacoma.com

This year, we sat at the bar at Primo, brought friends to Primo, and sat at the bar again. Each visit proved that the restaurant Charlie McManus and Jacqueline Plattner opened more than two decades ago (moving to this location in 2014) remains one of the region’s finest. Where service has been wildly inconsistent elsewhere, here it is as knowledgeable as ever about both the menu and the wine, and that focus carries into the kitchen. On a warm summer evening, after the dinner rush, we accepted the corner stools and decided on the capellini, figs with prosciutto and the pan-roasted calamari in a golden sauce humming with garlic and saffron. We finished the mollusk and I picked up the plate. Great sauce must not go to waste.

GUNG FU TEA RITUAL AT OBSCURA TEAHOUSE

▪ 1308 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma, obscuraarcana.com

Obscura is the only place for miles to offer gung fu, a Chinese tea ritual that involves steeping leaves several times with steadily decreasing water temperatures. From kettle to small glass cup, the Ai Jiao Rock oolong I sampled while getting to know owner Ean Oz Sager this summer was a case study in balance, the tea’s earthy low notes attuned to subtle sweetness. Also a tattoo artist, the tea importer and custom blender has created a truly unique space in Hilltop for us all to learn a little about the expansive, ancient world of tea. Gung fu means to master, to learn to do something with skill and care. In a time when so much feels rushed, the meditative framework of this process was relieving and invigorating all at once.

TASSO SPICED HAM & PIMENTO CHEESE PLATE AT CHICORY

▪ 111 Columbia St., Olympia, chicoryrestaurant.com

Following a sweaty bike ride on the Chehalis Western Trail, I suggested dinner in Olympia, so we changed clothes and settled into a table along the brick wall at Chicory. I had been closely watching this restaurant before and after chef-owner Elise Landry’s appearance on “Chopped Next Gen.” We began with the house-smoked tasso ham, a cured staple of south Louisiana, plated with pimento cheese, Creole mustard, baguette and seasonal pickles — fiddleheads today. Pay heed to any restaurant with fiddleheads, the foraged curls of nascent ferns; lend extra eyes to everything at Chicory, where Landry’s Kansas City upbringing inspires a Pacific Northwest experience that should be turning heads. “I didn’t realize you were taking us to one of the best restaurants in this whole area,” my partner exclaimed. Indeed. The attention to seasonality, the clever and pretty plating of a vegetable galette surrounded by frisée, the hot chicken biscuit sandwich that stays together like no other biscuit sandwich ever has — these are the makings of a destination.

BLEND BEERS AT TOP DOWN BREWING CO.

▪ 15355 Main St., Sumner, topdownbrewing.com

Skepticism poured through my brain when Chad Cray and Greg Burd said they would conjure “additional” pours at their space-constrained Sumner taproom by blending two beers into one pint. Black and tans are probably the most well-known, and blending isn’t rare in barrel-aged beer or in the history of waste-saving, but in an era of copious high-quality brews, why mess with a good thing? The precise ratios vary with each batch, Cray told me when I ordered the Black IPA, a marriage of their 39-IBU Maduro Stout and 72-IBU Rite of Passage IPA. The latter also pairs well with the Plus One Pilsner in the IPL, a stepchild of the “cold IPAs” seeping into the saturated beer market. The choice was one of necessity — they wanted to offer more than six beers at a time but barely have room for that many tanks, perched on steel beams above your head — but the meticulous attention to detail of Top Down blends has me convinced.

TURKISH DUMPLINGS AT LEZZET BRUNCH

▪ 12722 SE 312th St. H, Auburn, brunchauburn.com

On a gray fall Saturday, we encountered a full house on the ground floor of one of many apartment complexes in Auburn, a diverse city where 20 percent of the population was born outside the United States. I thought we would order the Turkish breakfast plate, a master class of freshness, taste and texture found in mostly raw ingredients, but we quickly grew distracted by the dumplings. Amid the bustle of a single server clearing tables and a steady flow of new customers, a white plate of 20 or so beef manti appeared at our counter seats by the door, at first humble, then transcendent. Each petite pillow burst with what I can only describe as lezzet, the Turkish word for flavor, animated by the warmth of butter, tomato and yogurt. I didn’t care that my strong Turkish coffee was missing because in our stupor, we forgot that we had also ordered fırın sütlaç, baked rice pudding scattered with crushed pistachios and raspberries. Besides, these manti deserved their very own pedestal.

TNT Diner’s 21 favorite dishes from Tacoma and beyond in 2021