- The Stranger
- MUTSUKO SOMA Owner, Miyabi 45th.
Mutsuko Soma is chef and co-owner of Miyabi 45th, a Japanese restaurant in Wallingford specializing in dishes that could have come from a pleasant culinary fever dream—such as sea-urchin-and-quail-egg shots—and soba, a type of thin buckwheat noodle. Vegetarians, beware of Soma’s creation foie gras tofu, which is foie gras prepared like tofu, not vice versa: It’s all goose and no soybean.
Soma’s impressive Seattle résumé lists Chez Shea, Saito’s, and Harvest Vine. She counts former Harvest Vine chef/owner Joseph Jimenez de Jimenez as an important mentor, but her hero, she told me without hesitation, is Eric Cartman from South Park because he’s “smart and brave.” At Miyabi 45th, Soma makes hundreds and hundreds of pounds of soba noodles…
