- So this next spot we're checking out is Off the Rez.
It's a food truck that's serving up
Native American cuisine.
The only one in Seattle.
We'll be talking to Mark who is celebrating a dish
called fry bread, which is a recipe that he learned
from his Native American grandmother.
What's up, guys?
This is the spot, huh?
- This is it.
- Sick, I'm super excited to try some Indian tacos
and some fry bread.
- [Mark McConnell] Let's do it.
- [Sheldon] All right.
(upbeat energetic music)
- I grew up having fry bread.
As far as with natives, it's kind of a staple.
And when reservations were given certain rations,
they got simple ingredients
and they kind of made something out of it.
- That's when food is like the most like raw,
when it's born out of necessity--
- Yeah, exactly.
- [Sheldon] Yeah, and then you make
something delicious out of it.
(upbeat energetic music)
- My grandma actually was the first one
that I made fry bread with.
She moved here with my mom when my mom was in high school.
They came from Browning, Montana.
Which is where the Blackfeet Reservation is.
You ready to try one now?
- [Sheldon] Yeah, let's do it.
- We make it every day.
Flour, water, milk powder, yeast, some honey,
salt, and then you just drop them down.
Traditionally the fry bread would be a lot bigger.
People are eating on the go here, we wanted to do
smaller ones and also so that they can mix it up
and try different kinds.
(upbeat energetic music)
We might as well make it beef
because that's kind of like the traditional style.
Got some beef chili--
- [Sheldon] Topped off with some cheddar cheese.
- [Mark] Lettuce, sour cream sauce,
and the pickled onions on top.
- [Sheldon] Ooh, look at that.
- The pulled pork, it's not a traditional one,
but I'm a big fan of barbecue
so I had to have something smoked on here.
- Right, right.
- [Mark] It's one of my favorites.
Pork shoulder, we smoke it 12 to 14 hours,
then we top it off with barbecue sauce that we make.
- It's a whole whoppingness of deliciousness.
I love how quick and efficient it is, man.
- [Customer] Thank you, guys.
- Enjoy.
- Have a good one. - Thank you.
- Well Mark, in the early days
this was your life when the food truck first opened.
- Yeah, this was every day.
At that time, food trucks were relatively new up here
and I kind of liked the idea of being able to move around
to different locations.
We found this truck, built it out, and started going.
- Were you in the food industry too, before the food truck?
- Actually neither one of us was in the food industry.
We were just kind of office bees, you know?
We just love food and we love cooking
and we really wanted something
that was our own so far it's been such a fun ride--
- [Sheldon] Congrats on that.
- And it's like a labor of love.
So this is our huckleberry jam one.
And then we top it with a little powdered sugar,
and make it extra delicious.
Huckleberries are pretty hard to find.
- [Sheldon] Yeah.
- A lot of the huckleberries around here
are reserved for picking by Native tribes.
We asked my mother-in-law, Mark's mom,
and then some huckleberries came to our kitchen.
(Cecilia laughing)
- I love that.
- It was wonderful, yeah.
We do have a really popular burger--
- Yeah.
- Which is our powwow burger.
So, instead of a regular bun, we put it on our fry bread.
- Let's do it.
- And it is so delicious.
All-beef hand-formed patty.
(upbeat energetic music)
We also put our house-made cumin crema sauce.
(upbeat energetic music)
So you got a bacon cheeseburger on fry bread.
That's a powwow burger for ya.
- Powwow burger.
Must be super rewarding, though,
because you get to see the reaction right there.
- Yeah, mostly it'll be Native Americans
that grew up having fry bread.
There's no where else to get it here.
They're thankful that we're around to supply them.
That's part of why I wanted to do it.
(upbeat energetic music)
- A lot of the talk in the culinary scene
is defining what American cuisine is.
A lot of it is celebrated because of immigrants,
but this is even before that coin was flipped.
This is indigenous food.
And I love that it's coming from someones
who's celebrating their own background
instead of learning it on Pinterest and Google.
(laughing)
- [Mark] Yeah.
- This has the pulled pork chopped on try fry bread.
Cheers, guys.
- [Cecilia] Cheers.
- That's what's up.
- And you have to make a mess.
- Crispy on the outside, but nice, soft, and doughy.
Perfect amount of sweetness.
Great job, guys.
- Thank you.
So this is the most classic,
the first one that we came up with.
We were like, this is the one we gotta do.
For sure.
(upbeat energetic music)
- I would so crush like 20 of those.
I love it.
- Thank you.
- And then you guys also even make dessert ones, too.
- [Cecilia] Yeah.
- That's so good. Oh my God.
Perfect balance of tartness.
And it soaks up in the bread,
so you get the crispy on the outside,
and then soft and gooey.
It's like the perfect jelly doughnut.
You guys are crushing it.
- Well, thank you.
- It's so good.
- Don't forget about the burger.
(upbeat energetic music)
- Texture is so key to making a perfect recipe.
And the fry bread has all of that in it already by itself.
- Yeah, it varies from region to region,
so we're doing like Montana style.
- Alright.
Blackfeet style.
- You guys are the only ones that's doing it out here.
- Yeah, he was like, I'm craving fry bread.
And we kept talking about
what kind of restaurant do we want to open up?
And it was like, obviously fry bread.
Like, nobody has this, and we really were just excited
about bringing it to people.
One of the first places that I tried fry bread
was at a powwow after I met him.
But now we're the fry bread at the powwows sometimes.
- Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
When you guys first opened up,
what did people think about fry bread?
I don't know, I didn't know about fry bread.
- Yeah, for sure.
I mean, some people just really didn't know about it at all,
and they thought that we invented a fusion concept
of Indian tacos.
They see Indian taco and they think
that it's curry based.
- Yeah yeah yeah yeah.
Is there a Native American community here
that you guys--
- Yeah, the city was named after Chief Seathl.
- And lots of tribes, as soon as you,
kind of, come out of the city,
there's like Tulalip tribes, Suquamish tribes,
and lots of other tribes that are local to here.
And coastal tribes.
They have their own fry bread style too.
Smoked salmon, that's just like so delicious.
- Oh yeah.
- A lot of really good seafood.
- Yeah, it's really good.
- So why don't we see this
next to Korean food or...
Or even right now, like Filipino food, right?
Why isn't there Native American food?
- I think that, for the Native community,
the barriers to entry for business is a little bit tough.
You know?
It costs a lot of money to start something.
I mean, we poured our blood, sweat, and tears
into building this business.
- I think a lot of it is,
Natives were here first.
They were making all their food
before there was a health department in Seattle.
I think that's why a lot of them are on the reservation.
Because they can do what they want there.
On the land that was theirs.
- It's a struggle.
We've always gone through that in Hawaii too.
- Yeah it's the same kind of thing.
I wanted to do something that would give other Natives pride
and jump through the hoops, and make it happen.
- You're wanting to share your culture, man.
There was nothing gonna stop you guys.
Especially coming from Native Americans.
They should be the first ones to be celebrated.
(food sizzling in the pan)
- Now we go in with the goat.
- Whoa, you know it's going to be flavorful already.
- Oh my gosh.
- And the goat gets in there.
- Yes.
(upbeat music)