Welcome to Seattle.

Three years ago, I left a sleepy, slow-moving college town, called Bellingham, for Seattle. I moved principally because Seattle was the only place in all of Washington that could be considered a real, bonafide city. A city city, if you know what I mean–although no disrespect to some other very populous and cultured areas in the state. After moving to the Capitol Hill neighborhood over three years ago, I can’t stop marveling at how much I’ve grown to love this city.

Not that it’s a hard city love. Nope. There’s so much to love about Seattle that I find it insane that more people don’t know about its awesomeness. You’d be hard-pressed to find a city more beautiful, for one. Water, water everywhere–and it’s pretty darn safe to drink (and anyone with a pulse will have a Nalgene bottle and/or Brita-filtered pitcher to offer you). Everything is so many different shades of green. You get a whole zoo of cute critters wandering up to your back stoop if you’ve happened to leave the trash out overnight. And on a clear day, the snow-tipped mountains stretch beyond the range of your peripheral vision, and they will blow your mind.

I must admit here and now: I am far from a granola-munching, REI-sporting, Teva-sandal-and-socks-wearing kind of girl. I like nature, I do. But at the core, I’m a city girl. I like variety. I like innovation. I like a breathless array of ethnic cuisine at the ready when I have a particular exotic hankering. I also like white linen tablecloths. And I really like a good cupcake. To my knowledge, Seattle’s natural beauty has yet to produce cupcake trees. It does, however, produce fantastic cherries, unbelievably sweet onions, unmatched specimens of salmon and crab. And those things are almost as good as cupcakes (okay, they’re better).

So I’m bragging a bit. I live in a place literally bursting with organic, local, sustainable, honestly grown food where you can still put a face to a farmer. And I also live in a place where young chefs are flocking, where new ideas about food and how you interact with it are taking root, where there’s a spirit of innovation that more famous food towns simply don’t have the freedom to entertain. In so many ways, Seattle is a perpetual underdog, somehow always on the verge of greatness but never quite getting to the big time (ask any Seahawks fan).

I say, to heck with greatness. Without the spotlight shining so brightly, we’ve got room to do almost anything we want. From underground restaurants to hilarious online cooking shows, from mega-chefs with trademarked snack mixes to an achingly authentic taco truck, from nine-course feasts to a local greasy burger joint offering the best soggy fries and health insurance, Seattle can do it all. And I’ll share it all, with you.

Never, ever underestimate the underdog.

-Shirley