More than cuisine
A culinary melting pot: The stories behind some of Bellingham’s international restaurants
Written by Ravi-Regan Hughes
View the StoryMap which goes along with this piece here.
Food is a universal language — a necessity, a unifying force and a common denominator of humanity. It is perhaps the most obvious wonder of human diversity; a simple way of sharing and celebrating one another’s cultures.
Historian Reay Tannahill once said, “[w]ithout food, there would be no human race and no history. For 50,000 years and more, humanity’s quest for food has helped to shape the development of society.”
Today, trying the world’s delicacies, experiencing unfamiliar cultures and tasting family recipes from faraway homelands has never been more accessible.
Western Washington is known for its local seafood staples like salmon, shellfish and crowders, but the soul of the region is arguably its lively intentional food scene. Tucked into the Northwest corner of Washington state, Bellingham is home to authentic restaurants from around the world.
Cafe Rumba
On North State Street, the edge of Bellingham’s central business district is Cafe Rumba. On a cold Pacific Northwest day, the Peruvian restaurant’s windows steam up from the inside, as the humid, aromatic air fills the high-ceilinged dining room and kitchen.
Antonio Diaz and Marco Mellet opened Cafe Rumba in 2012. The pair, who are Lima, Peru natives, happened to meet while working at a bar in Bellingham.
Their similar backgrounds helped them click, and soon after, they decided to open Cafe Rumba. Unfortunately, Mellett passed away in 2016, just four years after opening the restaurant with Diaz.
Diaz said Mellet was an ambitious, hardworking business owner who had the idea of making Cafe Rumba a faster-paced, grab-and-go restaurant with a walk-up counter.
Originally, Diaz wanted to do more of a white-tablecloth sit-down restaurant, but the concept of a more casual dining experience made sense in a college town. Plus, the style is more reminiscent of the eating experience at vendors and trucks in the streets of Lima.
“This is the sandwich that you can find all over Lima; in the streets of Lima, or in the old school sandwich spots,” Diaz said.
He’s talking about the Butifarra sanguch, the first sandwich on his comfort, street-food-inspired menu. Cafe Rumba features nine sandwiches that combine elements of traditional Peruvian cuisine with ingredients and influence from other parts of the world.
The Butifarra sanguch is served on French bread and is made with juicy, tender pulled pork on top of a large slab of sweet potato, complimented by red onion, crispy lettuce, a bit of cilantro and a Peruvian classic: aji amarillo sauce.
The savory pork combined with the sugar from the sweet potato and the spiciness of the red onion and aji amarillo create a perfect balance of powerful flavors, while the French bread and lettuce provide that nice fresh “crunch.”
Diaz recalls growing up around soccer, often playing in the streets of his home city.
“I grew up eating on the street too,” Diaz said, recalling the street vendor culture in Lima.
Lima’s streets come alive at night. During his teenage years, Diaz remembers going out partying, then grabbing a sandwich to end the night at a street vendor’s shop.
Family influenced Diaz’s culinary journey, too. He thinks back to seeing his mom and dad in the kitchen — going to family gatherings and house parties. Food was always around. It wasn’t until he was in his early 20s that he started considering a future in the food business.
“Maybe I can do this, you know, as a hobby or something,” Diaz recalled. “And then it became this.”
Diaz’s journey to starting a successful restaurant in Bellingham’s downtown didn’t manifest overnight. He spent time in France, studying culinary techniques at the University of Lyon. He also worked in a French-Cuban restaurant that combined the two culture’s cuisines into one.
“Being open-minded, it’s a great weapon,” Diaz said. “Just keeping your heart ready to adjust. Then embrace whatever community that you fall into. Like Bellingham, it’s a great community.”
Ambo Ethiopian Cuisine
Just down North State Street from Cafe Rumba is Ambo Ethiopian Cuisine, a quaint restaurant opened by Mulunesh Belay in 2019. She named the restaurant after her hometown of Ambo, Ethiopia, and serves traditional Ethiopian dishes.
Right when you walk in the door, you’re hit with a wave of spices and herbs. The small dining room has soft, warm lighting that pairs well with their Ethiopian comfort food. The food is hearty, healthy and simple.
At first glance, the ingredients sound familiar on the menu. But the heavily spiced, perfectly cooked nature of Belay’s dishes makes eating at Ambo a brand-new culinary experience.
Ambo’s main dishes are nutritious Ethiopian stews of chicken, lamb, peas or lentils, all seasoned to perfection. Popular sides include Belay’s homemade cottage cheese, kale and injera bread, perfect for wrapping the ingredients up or simply dipping.
One staple of Ethiopian cooking is berbere, which is usually a blend of chili powder, coriander, garlic, ginger, Ethiopian holy basil and other spices and seeds. Berbere is the key ingredient in many of Ambo’s dishes, which pack a potent — but not overpowering — spicy and savory flavor.
Located on the edge of downtown and down the hill from Western Washington University’s campus, Ambo attracts young college students looking for an affordable, healthy meal.
Ambo’s meals are comforting like a family home-cooked meal but offer unique Ethiopian flavors. The recipes stem from Belay’s childhood when she started cooking for her family with her mother.
“I’m like a second mother for my brothers and sisters,” Belay said.
Belay is the second oldest of 11 siblings and had to help her mom cook for the family growing up. She was in the kitchen with her mother whether it was breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Although Belay spent years cooking in Ethiopia for her family, she didn’t consider starting her restaurant until she moved to Bellingham.
“I really never dreamed to open a restaurant,” Belay said. “My plan was to be a nurse.”
She would bring her food to social gatherings, like potlucks, in Bellingham. People she met at those gatherings encouraged her to open a food stand at the Bellingham Farmers Market in 2005, where she served her cuisine for nine years.
“I always bring my culture’s food. People love it,” she said.
Eventually, she expanded past the Saturday-only market, moved Ambo Ethiopian Cuisine into a full-time restaurant in 2014, and then moved the business to State Street in 2019.
A special part of Ambo’s menu is that it rotates traditional meals from Belay’s cookbook, which features 78 authentic recipes. Belay is not only passionate about cooking for people, but she also has the drive to teach others how to cook Ethiopian food.
“It’s different, it’s very different from another place, another country,” Belay said. “I want people to make [Ethiopian food] at home; I want people to experience Ethiopian food.”
Ashuri Baklava & Cafe
Ashuri is a cozy Turkish cafe on the north side of Bellingham’s downtown business district. Opened by Kris Konutgan and his younger brother Lukas in 2021, Ashuri specializes in baklava, coffee and traditional Turkish treats.
Konutgan was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey, but always had a connection to Bellingham through his mother, who attended Western.
Before opening Ashuri, Konutgan attended Bellingham Technical College’s culinary school and worked in several bars and restaurants in the area. After living in Bellingham for six years, Konutgan had the vision to open a shop that reflected the culture of Istanbul.
Asides from the treats, Ashuri sells traditional Turkish rugs, chandeliers and glassware, as well as ingredients to make Turkish coffee at home.
The coffee is finely ground, then boiled in a metal pot called a cezve. The hot, frothy drink is often served as a single or double in a quaint porcelain cup and paired with a Turkish delight.
Although a bit smaller than your usual cup of Joe, Turkish coffee is highly caffeinated. Another characteristic that separates it from regular coffee is that it is unfiltered; the strong, finely ground coffee rests at the bottom of the cup.
Ashuri has regular Turkish coffee, cardamom coffee and menengic (pistachio coffee). Pistachio is also a key ingredient to Ashuri’s variety of baklavas, a common sweat treat in Turkey and neighboring countries.
Their baklava selection includes walnut, pistachio, chocolate and mussel, named after the similarity in shape rather than the flavor of the shellfish. The baklava’s honey syrup-soaked nuts are sandwiched between light and flakey filo dough layers, a common pastry style in Turkey and other post-Ottoman Empire countries. The tones of pistachio, walnut and chocolate combine well with the crisp buttery dough and sweet syrup.
A must-try at Ashuri is the tahini halva, a honey-sweetened and protein-dense treat. The mildly nutty and sweet sesame-based dessert crumbles and melts in your mouth. Each cube, roughly one to two inches thick, contains approximately eight grams of protein.
Ashuri doesn’t only sell coffee and treats. Their menu also features a Turkish-style breakfast, complete with simit (a circular bread), sausage, feta cheese, black olives, boiled egg and a cup of tea. They also have rugs, gorgeous mosaic light fixtures and lamps, porcelain teacups and more.
Konutgan’s entrepreneurial spirit derives from his experience working in Istanbul. Most notably, one of his first jobs was working in the Grand Bazaar, one of the world’s oldest indoor marketplaces and one of the world’s most visited tourist attractions. He partially credits the relationships he had with his bosses in Istanbul for feeling comfortable opening Ashuri.
“Most jobs that I worked at, I was working for my boss directly, and so I could directly learn from that person,” Konutgan said. “It’s kind of different if you work a corporate job — you’re kind of separated, it’s a lot less personal.”
Konutgan said navigating his identity, and explaining the intricacies of his background, can be complex.
“My nationality is Turkish; I grew up there,” Konutgan said. “So, I am culturally Turkish as well, but ethnically I am not, my father is Assyrian.”
Influenced by his Assyrian ethnical roots, he chose the name Ashuri for his cafe. Konutgan said Ashuri is another word commonly used in the Middle East for someone of Assyrian descent.
“Even though our food and everything we are doing here is more Turkish and Ottoman, we did think it was important to call ourselves Ashuri,” Konutgan said.
When Turks come to visit the cafe, they ask about the name. Konutgan said it’s a great conversation starter and helps him explain the multiple backgrounds he identifies with.
Konutgan values sharing Turkish customs with Bellingham and feels like he is paving the way for locals to taste a piece of the delicious, traditional treats.
A Universal Language
Like Cafe Rumba, Ambo and Ashuri, every international restaurant has an origin story; one that often connects to a culture or heritage far away from where they serve food. In a way, international restaurants provide small, tasty samples of worlds that are unfamiliar to us.
Eating is often an emotional experience, as food may remind us of our childhoods, loved ones or places we once visited. It can also serve as a bridge to understanding more about one another’s cultures. And it transcends language; no need to say how delicious something is — a full mouth, a smile and a nod say it all.
While eating is necessary for survival, it also serves other purposes. For many people, restaurant owner or not, cooking is an art form, a creative process and an expression of self. It can be therapeutic, or it can be a way of showing care, compassion and love. In a way, food is everyone’s story.
Anthony Bourdain, famous chef, writer and travel documentarian described it this way: “Food is everything we are. It’s an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic feeling, your personal history, your province, your region, your tribe, your grandma. It’s inseparable from those from the get-go.”
