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Thursday, December 8, 2011

Seattle's Kick Ass Asian Market; Uwajimaya Market

I always watch sports, I love football and baseball, love it, with a fucking passion! Okay, I'm a Dodger, a Los Angeles Dodger. And for football, I like the Chargers. I am not a fan of the Seattle Mariners, or a fan of the Sea Pigeons. Oops, I meant the Seahawks. So on my first official visit to the port city, I was amazed that right behind where the Mariners and Seahawks calls home, is a kick fucking ass Asian market, complete with every item an Asian like myself needs to satisfy my taste buds. 


My sister and husband took me cruising, it was foggy, cold around 30 degrees in the daytime, cloudy, just fucking ass cold. I wore two jackets, and I still froze. My friend Amy Geisler Facebooked me and laughed, "Try Wisconsin." she typed. Sorry she's from cheese country, Badger country apparently 30 fucking degrees is too warm for Amy.


Anyhow, we walk inside this huge ass Asian supermarket, it is called Uwajimaya, in biz since 1928, and I wasn't even born, my mom was like 8 years old. So this business is old, and it's been around, it is always packed, well I thought it was, but from what my sister said, it wasn't even packed, could have fooled me, she said on the weekends or when there's a game in town, forget finding parking. Okay, sorry what do I know I'm from good ol Lahaina.
Safeco Field-Seattle from Uwajimaya Market


Back to the story, inside it is busy, if you need noodles for your Pad Thai, chow fun, chow mein, pansit, cake noodles, Uwajimaya is the place to go. Do you need lots of rice, bags of it? Uwajimaya is the place. Fresh fish? Are you a sushi chef? Yep this is the place. You need sauces? Yeah, this place has it. Hoisin, black beans fermented, veggies, all those Asian ones, this is the place, forget the Albertson's, or Smith's, or whatever, if you're an Asian foodie, man this is the place to be.


They have cooked foods ready for you to purchase and take home, shrimp tempura, katsu, Asian stews, noodles, all smellin goooood! Oh man, I had my Droid out taking pictures, and this cute little Japanese woman looks at me and gives me the "don't take picture" look. I felt a cold chill run down my spine, I am not messin with her, who knows, she might know Kung Fu and hurt my ass.
Uwajimaya Food Display, cooked food:)
And they have this marinated chicken they sell that's a clear winner, XOXO Chicken, it's really good. You buy it, take it home and then fry it up, grill it up, bake it, any cooking method you want, you go ahead and do, it is great! Chef John, my brother in-law says it may have miso in there, chili sauce, garlic and ginger. I figure he's right, it's good, they can put spit in there, it tastes great, who cares what's in there. John cooked it up, and he had my sister steam veggies, and we had kim chee with it. Man it was a winner. Local style food in Seattle, fucking orite! And they have these 5x3 cards with recipes on there for free, I took a whole bunch for my chick in Vegas coz she's a good cook, she can cook, so if I give her these recipe cards she can figure this shit out EZ. The recipes include the basics, Kabli (Korean), Adobo (Philippines), BBQ Pork (Chinese), Sukiyaki (Japanese) and others, shit loads of others.


And the people going in there are totally a mixed breed of peeps, you can see Indian peeps, Euros, African Americans, Hispanics, the whole world is represented there, so I know for sure that the Asian thang is thriving in Seattle! Remember this name, Uwajimaya. Find them on the web at www.uwajimaya.com
Uwajimaya Asian Food & Gift Market Seattle, WA

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