Jet City Journal

Ram & Rooster Dumplings: Little Pillows of Awesome

I consider myself something of a Chinese dumpling aficionado. I'd crawl across a field of broken glass for good dumplings. OK, maybe not. But I'd jog across a hot parking lot barefoot for some.

Unfortunately, there are too many places in Seattle that serve mass produced, pre-packaged dumplings that are deep fried and served with some indifferent soy-based sauce or, worse, a weird white sauce that I suspect is nothing more than ranch dressing. In other words, pure heresy on a plate. At the other extreme are the tasty but tiny "gourmet" dumplings that you'll find at places like Wild Ginger.

The best dumplings combine a moist, seasoned filling of meat (usually pork or chicken) and vegetables that lets you taste the individual ingredients wrapped in a thick, chewy but still tender skin that's been steamed then browned on one side. And they're big enough that a few will serve as a meal.

That is most definitely the case with Ram & Rooster Dumplings. We had the chance to try their little pillows of awesome on Saturday at the Seattle Square Market in Occidental Park. They were, by far, the best dumplings I've had in Seattle. You can taste the bits of Bok Choy, ginger and garlic in the pork dumplings and the chicken dumpling had flavorful chunks of mushroom and peas. The skins were just the right thickness and browned perfectly.  They offer a variety of dipping sauces, including traditional soy & vinegar, chili pepper paste and others. Needless to say, there's no ranch dressing here. In addiiton to the chicken and pork dumplings, they also have a vegan option which we didn't try.

Jennifer Lim and Thomasin Levin, the proprietors of Ram & Rooster, set up shop at local farmers and crafts markets. You can find them at the Seattle Square Market on Saturdays and the Meadowbrook Farmers Market on Sundays. If you want to know what a real dumpling is like you have to check them out.

Scenes from the South Lake Union Block Party

Food, sun and zombies. Really, it doesn't get any better on a (rare) warm Friday night in Seattle. The South Lake Union Block Party at The SLU Discovery Center drew a respectable crowd yesterday. We had a chance to try a couple of the ice cream cookie sandwiches from Diane Skwiercz's Street Treats truck. Two chewy and (in my case) chip-laden cookies with a healthy dollop of Bluebird ice cream between them. A perfectly messy way to celebrate the dog days of summer. Good enough, in fact, to serve as dinner.

New Farmers Market on Aurora near Greenlake?

According to the latest newsletter from the folks at GAIN (not yet posted online), the former Half Price Pots location on Aurora Avenue at 81st street could become the city's newest farmers market.  The lot is currently for sale and one prospective buyer, a Wenatchee farmer, hopes to rent space to other farmers to sell produce.

That would certainly be a welcome addition to the neighborhood and a step up from the vacant lots, empty storefronts and the payday loan shops that seem to be attracted to Aurora.

 

Our summer of (weather) discontent

 Over the last couple of weeks, a persistent marine layer has made Seattle mornings seem more like those in San Francisco. As if the heat-sapping fog weren't enough, now we have a new issue: haze from several wild fires in British Columbia.  Cliff Mass has an interesting graphic that shows how the smoke is flowing south and adding an orange glow to our afternoons and evenings.

(Un)intended Consequences of Seattle's Bike Masterplan

The image to the right shows one of the consequences of Seatle's Bicycle Master Plan. Taken this past Thursday at roughly 8 in the morning, it shows a 4-block traffic back up on 7th avenue from the Westlake intersection west.

There were no extenuating circumstances causing the back-up. No accidents, police activity or anything else. Instead, it's a direct result of the decision to convert what was formerly a shared bike/car lane on 7th into a dedicated bicycle-only lane from Dexter Ave. all the way to Virginia. And it's created a serious traffic bottleneck where none existed before.

With so many riders coming up from Dexter and riding a few blocks on 7th before heading downtown, the dedicated bike lane is a good idea. But there's no reason it should extend all the way to Virginia. In fact, there's a good reason it shouldn't.

There are two sets of traffic lights close together at Virginia and Westlake. That's also where 7th ave switches from a two-way to a one-way street eastbound. Since the lights aren't synchronized, only 4 cars at a time can get across Westlake before hitting another light at Virginia without blocking Westlake. With a lane of traffic gone, it's now impossible for more than a couple of cars to queue up at Westlake to make the light at Virginia. In addition,  there's now a cascade effect as more cars get caught at the lights at preceding blocks on 7th.

Keeping in mind that the photo above was taken in late July, when car traffic volume during rush hour is low, there is a strong likelihood that this problem will only get worse as the year goes on. It's not inconceivable that the back-ups could extend all the way back to the Aurora interchange.

There is an easy solution, however: end the dedicated bike lane at Lenora Ave and allow cars and bikes to share the same lane from Lenora through Virginia. That would relieve the bottleneck at Westlake and reduce or eliminate the cascade back-up it creates on 7th. As the vast majority of bikers turn south before reaching Lenora, it should have a limited impact on bike commuters. Another option would be to change the light pattern so that there are greens at Westlake and Virginia at the same time.

Still, it's odd that no one thought about these issues before and, at a higher level, raises questions about the overall Bicycle Master Plan. How much research was done before determining where dedicated bikes lanes should be created? Does the plan offer the flexibility to adjust routes if assumptions about car and bike traffic prove erroneous? Who is actually monitoring the impact that these new bike lanes are having for traffic and traffic patterns in the city?

Now that more of the master plan is in effect, it might be time to reassess these questions. It will be interesting to see whether our bike-loving mayor has the interest of all commuters in mind or just those of his fellow bike commuting constituency.

Fixing Aurora Avenue North

If you live within a quarter mile of Aurora Avenue North, you're probably familiar with the problems highlighted in a recent Seattle Times story. 

"About 20 motels operate now from North 40th to North 145th, the Seattle city limits, and peeling facades, burned-out neon signs and buckled asphalt lots hint to conditions inside."

[...]

"The density of cheap digs has fueled Aurora's reputation as a magnet for drugs and prostitution. An average room goes for $50 a night."

[...]

"'Crime on Aurora has been a deeply ingrained problem that's lasted for decades," said Seattle police Capt. Mike Washburn, commander of the North Precinct. "Aurora is a state highway, it's easy to get in and out of ... and the motels are certainly a piece of this.'"

While the article points out that many of the hotels on Aurora are well-managed and not contributing to the area's crime problem, there are clearly some landlords who permit illegal activities to take place on their premises.

I'm probably not alone in wishing that the motels would just go away. But advocates for low-income and homeless families insist that the motels are a necessary evil, as they provide much-needed housing for the city's less fortunate. That's a fair point, but many of the motels charge outrageous sums for rooms that are, in a word, horrible. Even worse, the city, state and Federal government are actually paying for this squalor through various housing assistance programs. Put another way, you and I are keeping slum lords in business through our tax dollars.

So, here is a modest proposal to address the problems of Aurora Avenue. The city and state should start a program to acquire the offending motels through eminent domain, refurbish them, manage them and rent them out to low-income residents at reasonable rates.  Couple that with the establishment of a Seattle Police storefront station on Aurora somewhere between 85th and 120th streets and the initiation of regular foot patrols. Clean, well-managed motels and a stepped up police presence would do much to eliminate the underlying problems that have made Aurora Avenue a boulevard of broken dreams.

As long as Aurora Avenue continues to be a haven for petty crime, drugs and prostitution, there is no hope that it can rise above its current seedy circumstances. Respectable businesses won't want any part of a neighborhood where potential customers fear to walk.

Spaced-Out Needle

DSC_0329, originally uploaded by Kevin Pedraja.

Post-fireworks haze creates an eerie pall over the Space Needle.

Gaming the Seattle DPD permitting process for fun and profit

I live in a North Seattle neighborhood of modest houses built mostly in the early to late 1940s, generally single-story brick ramblers along with a few slightly larger houses of 1960s or 70s vintage.  Back in January, I noticed some renovations being done an unassuming little house around the corner from mine on North 90th street. The house, which had a detached garage with a mother-in-law unit over it, appeared to be getting a much-needed makeover. 

The original 1911 North 90th Street (or according to Trulio.com, 1917 North 90th St.). Clearly this is a single property. (Photo snatched from Google Maps.  Sorry.)

A few weeks later, construction crews started taking the garage apart. Or so I thought. Within weeks, the garage became a full-fledged and very tall modern home that towered over the surrounding houses. Not only was this new house out of scale and out of character with the rest of the neighborhood, no public notice of land use action had ever been posted signaling that the lot would be subdivided. I decided to try and find out how this could happen.

Mariners Opening Day 2009

Played a little afternoon hooky on Tuesday to go to Mariners Opening day.  With the Red Sox looking completely overmatched this season, I may have to temporarily transfer my allegiance to the local 9. 

A few pics from the day:

Safeco was dressed up for Opening Day.

My Evening with Paul Feig*

[Ed.:* OK, so it wasn't MY evening with Paul Feig so much is at was Bob Young's evening.  Bob is a local journalist, garage band rock star and all around good guy.  He sent this along last week and for a variety of reasons (mostly having to do with my Xbox 360) I just got around to posting it today.  Also, be forewarned.  I no longer have the election to obsess over so I might actually start writing about, you know, SEATTLE.  In any event, without further distractions, here's Bob's (excellent) post.]

What am I doing here?
It's just me, Paul Feig -- my current hero -- and a few nervous Borders' employees.

I figured the place would be jammed, here in Redmond, WA, the geek capital of the Pacific Northwest, to see the guru of geekness, Mr. Feig, creator of the cult TV show Freaks and Geeks.

If you haven't seen the 1999-2000 dramedy, cancelled after 18 glorious episodes on NBC, go rent it. Unless you're really cool. If you were a jock, a cheerleader, or rich; if you had dates and sex and confidence and the clothes and car to match, then it's probably lost on you. Because this is a show about three freshman geeks and three upperclassmen freaks. Caught between the two is an Army-fatigue wearing Mathlete, Lindsey Weir.