2 new gems hidden in plain sight south of Seattle

The classic Filipino dish lechon kawali combines fatty, tender pork belly with a crackle-crisp skin that practically shatters at first bite. To make it, you'd need to season and boil pork belly then dry it completely, frying the meat in small batches until crisp.

You can also pay a visit to Island Pacific Seafood Market in Federal Way, open since October.

At one of the supermarket's in-store restaurants, Philhouse, you can secure a pound or two (chopped to order, no less) from the cafeteria-style steam trays, finishing your meal with little tubs of lechon sauce and spiced vinegar.

Lechon kawali is just the tip of the iceberg at Island Pacific. At Philhouse, specifically, lechon kawali is available by the pound ($21.99 per pound) alongside several other dishes, with a half-pound portion the starting point. There are also terrific pork and chicken skewers ($5.50 each), with meat that achieves a beautiful balance of char and tenderness. Skewers get dunked in a bath of tangy, slightly spicy barbecue sauce before being wrapped in foil - but you can also order them as a combo with scoops of steamed rice.

And then there's almost anything your heart could desire: pancit, longanisa, pork adobo, whole tilapia, stuffed squid, garlic fried chicken, lumpia Shanghai, chicken afritada, chicken curry, pork dinuguan and more.

Also inside the supermarket is Max's To Go counter, a spot known for Filipino fried chicken (sold as whole and half chickens), a Saint Honore bakery, and an entire grocery store stocked with fresh produce: trays of calamansi, bunches of moringa and pandan leaves, not to mention an extensive butcher counter with sausages, whole fish and more. Island Pacific also has the largest selection of canned corned beef and sardines I've ever seen.

The store is clean and bright, complete with a small dining area, and I'm excited to return for the fried chicken at Max's To Go (and more lechon kawali, of course).

Elsewhere in new Federal Way food to try: Halgatteok Korean Rice Cake, in a strip mall just a few blocks north from Island Pacific.

This no-frills counter-service space is the first Washington state location of Halgatteok, a South Korean chain that specializes in jumbo rice cakes. (It also serves regular-sized rice cakes and ones made from wheat flour.) You'll choose your preferred rice cake and then choose the style of tteokbokki you want, plus the spice level and any additional ingredients.

A friend and I went for the grandma tteokbokki ($14), the chain's signature dish, with giant rice cakes, egg and fish cake; we also tried the rose tteokbokki ($16), which featured a creamy rose sauce, rice cakes, sausage, bacon, egg, fish cake and an added portion of melted cheese ($2.50). There's also a full toppings bar with ramen noodles, vegetables and seafood to add on for an additional $3.49 per quarter pound. Finally, there's a selection of appetizers, too (from tempura and fish cake soup to gimbap).

Readers, learn from my mistake: Consider the add-ins, especially extra noodles. Because when your giant saucepan of tteokbokki arrives - complete with scissors for snipping your rice cakes - you're going to want to sop up all that sauce. A few rice cakes just won't be enough.

We got a spice level 2 for both dishes, but the spiciness came out at wildly different levels. The grandma version, with slivers of carrot and an egg that had been hard-boiled into green-tinged oblivion, was brick-red and fiery. The rose version, cut with cream and covered with a layer of provolone-like melted cheese, was tempered and subdued.

I would happily eat either, any day, but next time I'll be asking for more vegetables and noodles.

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This story was originally published May 5, 2026 at 5:00 PM.