American-style teriyaki (which shares only a name with Japanese-style teriyaki) has murky origins but one of its leading popularizers is Toshi Kasahara, who opened Toshi’s Teriyaki in 1976. The teriyaki he served then established the genre — slightly charred meat, rice and salad on the side, a sweet, addictive sauce. Most importantly, a filling teriyaki meal should be cheap: $1.85 back in 1976, or around $13 today. You can find teriyaki nearly everywhere, which is sort of the point of teriyaki, but if you want to find the originator, take a trip up to Mill Creek, where Kasahara’s latest spot is.   

Eating oysters fresh from the local waterways is a Seattle birthright and there’s no better place to try them than Renee Erickson’s oyster bar tucked in the back of a former maritime equipment manufacturing building. There are small plates here but you can’t go wrong by ordering some bread with whipped butter, a tall boy of Rainier, and a dozen oysters. If you don’t know much about them the staff will talk you through the differences between the varieties, and if you’re a bit squeamish about raw bivalves get the fried oysters, which are lightly breaded, crispy on the outside, and deliciously sea-flavored on the inside.

A salad, iconic? It is when it’s the most famous dish at Seattle’s most famous fine dining restaurant: Chilled romaine, olive oil, lemon juice, chopped bacon, a coddled egg, cherry tomatoes, croutons, and slivered green onions showered with Romano cheese, mint, and oregano. Though new head chef Aisha Ibrahim doesn’t emphasize the salad — it’s no longer made tableside — the dish is still part of the Canlis experience.

Hardly anyone knows that the Dutch baby was invented in Seattle, maybe because not many people even know what a Dutch baby is. Educate yourself and get a brunch reservation at Belltown’s Tilikum Place Cafe, a delightful old-school place that serves French press coffee and quiche along with Dutch babies. These are like a cross between a Yorkshire pudding and a pancake, eggy and thick and somewhat savory, carried out to you on a hot cast iron skillet with all the pomp and circumstance of breakfast fajitas. The classic comes with lemon and syrup, but Tilikum Place also serves sweet and savory variations that change with the seasons.

The Seattle dog isn’t exactly a delicacy; combining a hot dog with cream cheese and onion isn’t high culinary art. But there’s something about the creamy-sweet-meaty combination that makes the perfect food-truck meal. The dish’s origins are somewhat disputed, and you can get Seattle dogs all over the city, especially downtown. A particularly good one can be found at Dog in the Park outside of Westlake Center, which adds some cabbage to the mix. That counts as fusion cuisine, right?

On rainy days there’s nothing like a big warm bowl of pho, the Vietnamese noodle soup that’s ubiquitous in Seattle. Inexpensive, filling, and customizable depending on what sauces or toppings you throw in your bowl, it’s hard to find a bad pho. But one of the best is surely Pho Bac Sup Shop, owned by the James Beard–nominated Pham family. 

We’re not going to argue with you about banh mi. Everyone has their favorite place to get these Vietnamese sandwiches and there are endless varieties. Our candidate for essential, can’t-miss banh mi, though, can be found at Saigon Deli (the one in Chinatown-International District, not the University District joint of the same name). The hard crust of the bread, the heat from the chiles, the meaty sweetness of the pork, the herbal hit from the cilantro — it all adds up to a sandwich that is somehow still around $6, even with inflation.