nerd’s eye view

The Jackson Street Crawl I

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Jackson draws an East-West line through Seattle and marks the edge of where the Central district meets the International district. It’s also the home of good eats, and plenty of ‘em. There’s sure to be some bad eats too, like that drafty place Brett and I ate one time just south of Jackson on Rainier.

Nia, who lives just north of Jackson, has initiated the Jackson Street restaurant crawl, bless her heart. I missed last week’s adventure when she and Bill ate Vietnamese at Saigon Bistro, but I’ve been there before so I don’t feel too left out as I already know they make a fine roll-up platter, even if it is freezing in that place.

Last night, four of us (Nia, Bill, Terry, and I) got in to Bill’s car and headed down Jackson until we saw enough neon to make us park the car. We stood in Ding Ho Shopping Center eyeing the offerings and settled on the Seven Stars Pepper.

Now, I’ve been away and it’s been some time since I’ve feasted on high quality Chinese, so maybe I’m easy to please, but the other three at the table agreed that this was some fine chow.

We started with the Laver Seaweed and Tofu soup - creamy and comforting without being too heavy. Next, Green Onion Pancake, which I’m sure we could easily have eaten two or three orders of as they were fresh, crispy, and delicious. I’ve actually had better Green Onion Pancake, at a place on King, but these were still quite good, if not the best I’ve ever had. The soup and the pancake really were appetizing as an appetizer should be, they promised that the food to come would be just as good.

We were not disappointed. We had three main dishes: Eggplant and Deep Fried Tofu, Dry Tofu with Celery, and the Crispy House Noodles. While none of these dishes were exactly what their names implied, they were all very, very good. The eggplant had a nice smokey flavor and the tofu, while not really deep fried, was just a little crisp on the outside and covered in the same smokey sauce as the eggplant. Yum. The dry tofu was what I’d call smoked tofu and served up with celery that was braised but still crunchy and piled high with cashews. The noodles weren’t crispy, but they were full of veggies that still had plenty of crisp to them and a mixture of everything else - shrimp, chicken, beef…

We ate everything on the table. And while we ate and commented on how delicious everything was, we coveted the food on the neighboring tables. What are those deep fried things? Those people have hot pot! Hey, is that ginger? What is that, it looks so exotic!

Seven Stars Pepper has a pretty big dining room, but it filled up while we were sitting there. We sat in the corner window overlooking 12th and Jackson, watching the busses come and go and a Critical Mass ride roll by. A good mix of people ate there - the table behind us seated four young Chinese guys, while gringos in the know waited in the doorway for a table.

The staff was freindly, the service was quite good, and get this, it was cheap, too. Dinner for four with beer came out to 15 dollars each, including tip. If you don’t want to wait, go early because the place does fill up. We loved it.