I spend quite a bit of time in Seattle’s International District. It seems to me that the food there is authentic because it’s hanging, whole and deep-fried, in the window of a shop with no English writing on its sign. Call me crazy. Housing Malaysian, Thai, Japanese, Chinese and even Cambodian cuisines, the International district is awash with Asian flavors, unique delicacies, a lot of nasty birds picking from the dumpsters, and dusty and dimly-lit grocers. But the best part is that none of it seems to be there for white people to gawk at, so you don't really feel like a tourist because they don't want you there anyway.
The International district probably seems so isolated because it, like other Asian districts in the U.S. in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, was formed because of Asian segregation. In the 1880’s, Chinese workers came to Seattle to lay the railroads, dig coal mines and can salmon. Most of them settled near what is now Pioneer Square--Seattle's first Chinatown. During the recession in the mid-1880’s, these workers were despised by Seattle’s white workers, and in 1886, white rioters forced 300 Chinese immigrants out of the city.
By the early 1900’s, railroads built their main terminals in the area south of Pioneer Square, in what is now the International District. Hotels and businesses were built to accommodate the railroad workers and passengers in the neighborhood. Chinese settlers, soon followed by Japanese and Filipino immigrants, were attracted to this area for the cheap real estate and by the 1930’s, Seattle had the second largest “Japan Town” on the West Coast.
During World War II, much of Seattle's Japanese population was sent to internment camps in the Pacific Northwest, while Chinese immigrants were forced to wear badges declaring that they were not Japanese. Tides changed after World War II, however, and the region diversified with different Asian communities throughout the 1940’s and 1950’s. In 1951, Mayor William Devlin declared the area the “International District".
In the 1970’s, the city created a number of social services in the district, including low-income housing. The area gained new populations in this decade as immigrants from the Pacific Islands and Southeast Asia poured into the city. Today, the district’s mixed race heritage is obvious in the businesses and restaurants of the district.
A standout is one of the city’s only Malaysian restaurants, called Malay Satay Hut. Like the district itself, Malaysian cuisine is a conglomeration of other cultures and includes India, Thai and Singaporean influences. The last time I was there I ordered the deceptively simple chicken rice, which consists of white rice in a chicken broth and pulled chicken served with ginger, soy and a spicy red dipping sauce. We also ordered a smoothie of Durien, a popular Malaysian fruit that smells like a rotting carcass. Our waitress told us that we had to wait until the other patrons had left before she would cut into the fruit, which has a mild taste, but a nasty aftertaste. The restaurant is housed in something that looked like a strip mall at first glance, but the building’s bricks near our table told us that the building was built in 1905. Probably originally home a Chinese business, this particular building serves as a fitting history of the changing Asian ethnicities housed in the district.
Another excellent restaurant in the district serves up Chinese dim sum for insanely cheap prices. The owners and waiters looked bemused at us, a white duo, when we walked into Duk Li Dim Sum, but they have to be getting quite a bit of white foot traffic since they were reviewed in The Stranger recently. We ordered a smorgasbord of dim sum and I’m pretty sure they messed up the order, but I don’t care too much because the only thing they didn’t bring us was our requested chicken feet. The steamed barbeque pork buns were delicious, with a springy, slightly sweet dough covering just enough barbequed pork. We also ordered two dishes that are not usually served in more mainstream dim sum restaurants, Lo mai gai, glutinous rice with chicken served wrapped in a lotus leaf and a taro cake, which was a gelatinous cake made from taro root that we, and the other table of white folks in the restaurant, didn’t touch.
The last stop that I never miss when I visit the district is Uwajimaya, the huge Asian grocery store that sits in the center of the district. Housing exotic fish specimens that I don’t recognize, huge vats of kimchi, and Asian crackers and other munchables with little cat faces on the front of the package, Uwajimaya is the fastest tour of Asia that Seattle offers. The book store in the grocery store is always packed, but it has a huge selection of Asian-American penned books, rows and rows of anime comic books, cute little pen-and-pencils sets with cartoon animals on them and magazine of Asian relevance.
The International District is one of the most interesting neighborhoods in Seattle. I’m glad I don’t feel like some kind of weird Asian fetishist when I go there, mostly because they could care less if I am there or not.
Sources and further reading:
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/duk-li-dim-sum/Location?oid=3545481
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