quinn's place

i feel like i’ve been shouting this from the rooftops for years now…but this place has such a special, special place in mine and so many others’ hearts! setsunai is a huge bright spot in peoples’ trips to lopez - and as someone who now lives here, i know full well that this place is an institution and incredibly important to the people who live on the island.

when we still lived in seattle and would go visit lopez every now and then, we’d dash from the ferry straight to the noodle bar for that delicious meal we’d been dreaming of since the last time we’d eaten there 😉 . now that we live on lopez full-time (i’m still wrapping my mind around this), i feel lucky to have a window into the amount of thought and care that goes into the food at setsunai.

josh is a true artíst with his cooking & presentation, the vibe & feeling of his restaurant space, and the whole philosophy behind setsunai noodle bar.

every element of each dish has been freshly handcrafted or thoughtfully prepared daily. as far as quality control, no stone is left unturned when josh is at the helm of the whole production. i had the chance to work at the noodle bar for a while when we first moved here, and i can confidently & proudly say that an incredible amount of love goes into the amazing dishes that come out of this humble kitchen. i now work with josh on photography (seen here!) & marketing for social media, etc. you can read more about his story and how the noodle bar came to be on the new website.

from the nourishing broths built from scratch, to house-smoked meats, to handmade ramen and udon noodles, freshly pickled vegetables, perfect jammy eggs, pickled shiitake mushrooms, handmade gyoza with freshly made meat & vegetable mixtures, house-made sauces and oils…i could go on and on with just how special each noodle bowl actually is, go into detail about every tiny element that you see in your bowl, and how much intention went into each bit. it is truly “more than just a bowl of noodles.”

and, to boot, most of the ingredients are sourced as locally as possible - they may come from a farm down the road, another neighboring island or from skagit county, which is a hop, skip and a ferry ride over to the mainland.

when i was working there, i was both stunned and so charmed the first time that i’d witnessed an actual farmer who grew the actual food on their actual land walk right up to the door of the noodle bar, have a lovely conversation with josh while hand delivering an armful of fresh produce, then sit down to enjoy a noodle bowl and a beer. i could cry! ♥️ this was not something i’d observed when living in seattle 😆 . and it is simply…the way it should be! we should know exactly where our food is coming from, know and care about the people who grew or raised it.

the level of self-sufficiency and community support here on lopez is unparalleled. when you exist on an island, everyone has to support and elevate one another to make this little economy go ‘round.

evidently, i could write a whole thesis about how outstanding and extra special this little place is. but i will [try to] let these photos speak for themselves. running a restaurant is NO easy feat (in fact, it looks to be one of the hardest challenges ever, ever), especially on an island, considering all the logistics, limited space, time, resources, and people available to help run the place.

but josh seriously keeps on trucking and wading through all the hard times of the past few years, dreaming up with new flavors & creations along the way. his consistency in studying, practicing, and to strive to honor cuisines from cultures outside of his own is an important component of his work. with the little free-time that this man has (aside from having 5 kids and an amazing partner with 3 kids of her own), he spends it researching authentic methods of japanese cooking, journaling about food, learning to speak & write japanese from a tutor, identifying opportunities to support our local communities around the islands, and much more. this is apparent because he always has something new & interesting up his sleeve to chat about when you pay setsunai a visit. setsunai is such a passion project for him, and it truly shines through with each and every bite of his food.

i speak for so many folks when i say thank youuuuu, josh ratza, for all that you do! it is insane and amazing at the same time, and i am happy & lucky to call you a friend!

file this one under: first-timer food projects!

i had never made handmade pasta before this (i took these photos on my phone in september 2020). it was fun, easy and delicious.

i hauled the pasta to my bestie’s house where we also made handmade gluten-free pasta to conduct a side by side pasta taste test with the best bolognese recipe in the land.

this may be a very unhelpful blog post because i don’t even remember which pasta recipe i used to make this, but that’s not the point. making your own pasta by hand is a little bit of a process, but it is simple and worth it.

flour, eggs, olive oil and salt - that’s the gist of it. i may have used this gal’s recipe for the regular all-purpose flour pasta and her helpful methods.

another thing i learned after this process was about timing and freshness. if you’re going to make handmade pasta (and not freeze it), consume it within 24 hours. i think i had made mine and refrigerated the noodle nests for a couple of days before taking it to my friend’s house, so the noodles oxidized a bit and turned slightly green.

i learned a lot about fresh pasta and pasta storage from reading this article from the pasta evangelists.

i’m a big fan of big fat chewy noodles, so this process was very worth it to me. fresh pasta is one of life’s greatest pleasures, i say.

i discovered this cute shoppe in seattle that makes delicious fresh pasta - la pasta! there is a location in wedgwood, and i just noticed one on queen anne! i once tried their pappardelle noodles, and they were fantastic. i love that option for when you want to make a special pasta meal but don’t necessarily want to make the actual noodles by hand.

pete got me a few kitchenaid pasta rolling attachments for christmas that i’d been yapping about wanting for a while. after our current bathroom/kitchen remodel mayhem is through, believe you me that i am going to make all the pasta messes with those kitchenaid babies.

for the gluten-free pasta, we used the bob’s red mill 1-to-1 gluten-free flour and i believe we added 1 extra egg yolk to the same recipe i’d used to make the regular noodles.

we were super stoked with the final results of the gluten-free noodles! they were definitely more fragíle to handle, but after gently moving them to boiling water for a few minutes and adding the bolognese sauce, they were super scrumptious. we cut them to a pappardelle-like width and they had a nice texture!

you can see how my pasta nests did oxidize and change color over the couple days spent in the fridge - doesn’t mean they were bad, they were just not as “fresh” as they could possibly be. lesson learned.

i could have boiled the regular noodles a couple mintues longer, i think. they turned out a bit too chewy, but i was too nervous about overcooking them to mush (the worst!!).

^ above you can see the regular all-purpose flour noodle nests on the left, and the flat gluten-free noodles on the right.

i think next time i would keep the regular pasta drying flat or hanging straight; twisting them into nests and not flouring them before storage made them clump together unnecessarily, i think.

below are 2 very unattractive photos of each pasta 😂 taken by candlelight with the only parmesan cheese we had on hand, lolz. i would regularly use finely grated or parmesan shards.

this was actually the week of those awful awful wildfires happening on the west coast - we had all planned for this great camping trip, but we were totally smoked in for several days where all there was to do was cook & eat. 😈

^ left: regular/all-purpose (undercooked here, but oh well). ^ right: gluten-free (cooked properly, about 3 minutes in lightly salted high-simmering water).

both were great and andy baraghani’s bolognese is the star player, as usual. my personal takeaway after our taste test was that if you’re having a gluten-free eater over for homemade pasta night, the gluten will really not be missed! i enjoyed the texture and taste of the gluten-free noodles for sure.