Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
( 206-340-6411; 610 S Weller St, btwn 6th Ave & Maynard Ave S; Chinatown/International
District E)
A good place to get a sense of Chinatown is along S Weller St. Apart from the
many restaurants, there's Pacific Herb & Grocery, where the herbal-medicine special-
ists can tell you all about the uses of different roots, bones, flowers and teas. The shop
next door is a great place to buy tofu at low prices - you can even watch them make it
on the premises.
KINOKUNIYA
BOOKS
( 206-587-2477; 525 S Weller St; 10am-9pm Mon-Sat, to 8pm Sun; Chinatown/Interna-
tional District W)
A great source for hard-to-find imported books and magazines in Asian
languages (and in English about Asian culture), this bookstore inside Uwajimaya Vil-
lage is also one of the few shops in the country where you can buy the lesser-known
films of Kinji Fukasaku and other masters of Asian cinema on DVD.
UWAJIMAYA
FOOD, GIFTS
( 206-624-6248; 600 5th Ave S; 9am-10pm Mon-Sat, to 9pm Sun; Chinatown/Interna-
tional District W)
Dried squid? Yes. Sheets of seaweed? Absolutely. Dumpling steamers,
teapots, chopsticks? All of the above. The enormous Asian grocery and supply store
Uwajimaya, anchoring an eponymous shopping center, has everything needed to pre-
pare Thai, Japanese, Chinese and just about any other type of Asian specialty.
You'll find fresh and frozen meat and fish, canned and dried produce, and in-
triguingly labeled treats of all kinds, as well as cooking tools, small appliances, spices
and gift items. It also has a deli and bakery, and a number of hole-in-the-wall restaur-
ants edge the building.
