Self Guided Tour in San Francisco

On Sunday the guys had an NBA event in the not so good part of the city, so I did some tourist things on my own. First, heading into China Town. I hadn't been to China Town in years, things might have changed.

 

I wanted to find a hole in the wall place that regular Chinese people visit for their breakfast and lunch. The kind that's always noisy with people shouting Cantonese back and forth, that offers no menu and you have to ask the cook what's in the steamer, that piles dirty dishes high behind the counter and inspires the city health official to draft the next amendment of health codes. After walking down almost the entire length of Grant Avenue, I only found this dim sum resturant. It's very nice tho, white table cloth and all. The place was upstairs and I didn't see it from the street. There was a lady on the sidewalk gathering up crowds to point them the way, rather loudly. Shrimp dumpling was great. Chrysanthemum tea is usually used as part of the medication for clearing internal heat in the summer. My first time to see it served as a beverage in resturant. It tastes delicate and faintly sweet.



Preserved egg and pork porridge. Bill doesn't like the smell of these eggs, so I indulge myself when he's not around.



The dim sum menu. The dumplings were $2.68, but the nice big bowl of porridge was only $1.88. Tea used to be served free in all Chinese resturants, now it costs $1.00.



This musician played Chinese folk music through out my lunch, very romantic. No he didn't play it for me. He was downstairs across the street on the sidewalk, but I liked it anyway.

This little bakery was the closest thing I could find for a hole-in-the-wall traditional eatery. I had one of those little cakes.

The four charactors on the second floor of this building indicated this was the Chinese School, but on this day it's serving as a funeral home for an Elder Master Lee.

Shopping in China Town is a disappointment. Every store sells very similar items, cheap T-shirts, bamboo back scratchers, cloth shoes with rubber bottom that won't fit anyone. The clay tea pots are locked up, and there are signs everywhere "If you break it, you have to pay for it", things like that. I don't know what the tourists get out of all this, but I didn't buy a thing. I don't know how these shops stay in business.

Here are three jewlry stores all having big sale: Lisa Jewelry Co. is having Grand Opening sale, 70% off; next door Vy's Jewelry is having clearance sale; next to that LT Jewelry is having Closing Sale.

I do know the good shopping places. Heading down to Union Square.

Sipping tea under the dome in San Francisco Center was a nice way to round up the trip.