A Fortunate Pilgrimage - 2010 San Francisco & Napa Trip Day 2 Part I

Continued from...
I Am The King Of Thai - 2010 San Francisco & Napa Trip Day 1

(San Francisco Market Street)

My full day in San Francisco consisted mostly of exploring the various neighborhoods by foot in San Francisco and eating. I was prepared for an entire day of walking from weekly hikes I recently had been taking up to Echo Mountain. Having lived in Los Angeles for most of my life, it's sometimes easy to forget how much a feel of a city I could get from walking instead of driving. Compared to a passive ride on the passenger seat in my friend's car the night before, I was able to let the lay of the land be better be ingrained into my brain.

The Adante served a free continental breakfast along with the hotel stay. Generally I have very low expectations when it came to free hotel breakfast, but I decided to at least check it out before writing it off. The continental breakfast turned out to be just as I expected, but with even less choices. It was simply an offering of a couple types of muffins, toasts and bananas accompanied by hot chocolate, coffee and an assortment of teas. I understood keeping cost low, but to only have one type of fruit was a bit perplexing. It wouldn't had strained their budget if they got a few less bananas and replaced them with apples. I decided to completely opt out of the hotel breakfast. It was pointless to travel all the way to San Francisco just to have muffins and bananas.

(Sears Fine Food Zagat Rated)

(Sears Fine Food - Swedish Pancakes)

The Adante was only three blocks west of Union Square in San Francisco. Sears Fine Food was one block north of Union Square so it was perfect for us to grab breakfast there. My friend Kenneth back in Los Angeles suggested that we check this out because of the high number of reviews and ratings on yelp. When we reached Sears Fine Food, there was a line already formed outside the door. I'm not a big fan of lines so we decided to buy the food to go and eat it at Union Square instead. I normally don't eat breakfast so it wouldn't had been a heavy meal. I only wanted to try out their Swedish pancakes. My travel buddy ordered an oatmeal because she did eat the free breakfast at the hotel.

It took approximately twenty minutes for our order to be completed. We took our food down to Union Square and found a table to eat. The Square was relatively empty since it was only ten in the morning. The ice skating ring in the center only opened a few minutes prior. The Swedish pancakes were smaller than I expected. There were around fifteen little discs inside the box accompanied with slightly warm and melted butter and syrup. It turned out to be very convenient to eat at the square as finger food as well as to share. I picked up each small disc, dipped it into the butter and then into the syrup. Since I was outside on a cold morning, the temperature of the food dropped rather quickly so there really wasn't a chance to savor the food as I would inside the restaurant. But sitting outside had its perks. It was open and bright. The air was still fresh from having just been through a storm; the rain did wash out a good amount of the pollution in the air. It was a very relaxing way to start a long day of exploring San Francisco.

(Organic Donuts)

(San Francisco Ferry Building Marketplace)

After breakfast, we walked down market street to the ferry building. I visited the ferry building during my last visit to San Francisco and had lunch there with a friend. It hasn't changed much. The market there were filled with healthy choices and unique food items such as head cheese and organic donuts. I was very tempted to get some food, but I knew I had to pace myself or I would end up over eating. I only ended up having a little bit of samples of the almond brittle from G. L. Alfieri. The brittle were not overly sweet which I liked. I always feel a little bad trying out samples without buying. I knew it's a marketing ploy to get you to feel exactly that, but I simply couldn't help but to feel the urge of making a purchase if it is actually a descent product. Fortunately I am disciplined enough to not allow myself to give into my urge to do so; well at least my wallet behaved.

(San Francisco Chinatown)

(San Francisco Chinatown Alleyway - Ross St.)

(San Francisco Chinatown Fire Escape)

After leaving the Ferry Building, we began our pilgrimage to San Francisco Chinatown's Golden Gate Fortune Cookies. Alright, it wasn't really a pilgrimage, but it almost felt that way going up the hills of Chinatown and then to a hard to find back alley. San Francisco's Chinatown was one of my favorite Chinatowns that I have ever visited. It's bustling and the hills made it more interesting to explore. The store was located at Ross Alley wide enough to fit one car through at a time. The store front was very easy to miss and in fact, we passed by it initially and ended up at the other side of the alley without being able to locate the store. For a brief moment I thought I was lost. Nevertheless we turned around and finally located the small door to the small fortune cookie factory.

(Golden Gate Fortune Cookies Worker)

As soon as we stepped foot into the store, we could smell the aroma of the fortune cookies, and it smelled wonderful. Within a few steps upon entering the store, you could see three Chinese women sitting at work stations making fortune cookies. There was a charge of fifty cents to take a photo of the workers making the fortune cookies. It was similar to what I had seen on the Travel Channel before. This company had been in San Francisco since 1962. An older man greeted all the visitors, promoting the store to us in English and Chinese. He continuously boasted about how people from all around the country and the world would come to his store to buy fortune cookies. Then he handed my friend and I a golden coin fresh out of the assembly line to try. A golden coin is simply a fortune cookie without having been bent into the shape of a fortune cookie and stuffed with a fortune inside. It was still warm from the assembly line and it was definitely tasty.

(Golden Gate Fortune Cookies - Golden Coin)

The circular discs were crunchy and warm and had a slight tangy aftertaste that I had never experienced eating a fortune cookie. In fact that slight aftertaste was extremely hard to detect when I ate the same cookies a day later. The freshness and the warmth amplified the aroma of the cookie. I ended up buying two bags of mixed flavor fortune cookies; regular and chocolate, along with a bag of cow's ears which are salty flavor cookies. The fortune cookies were all very delicious and the cow's ears were wonderfully made. The crunchiness lasted as long as the cookies were contained in sealed bags. As a bonus, the man who packed our purchases threw in a stash of free golden coins into our bags for us to snack on throughout the day. The only drawback to the cookies were the limited variety of rather generic fortunes inside them. But I did get a kick out of knowing that a new relationship would soon blossom in my life, which did actually come true. But another fortune said an investment in something with four wheels would soon be fun to make did not realize. Which one would I have rather come true; only time could tell.

(Hills of San Francisco)

While exiting the fortune cookie store, there were loads of tourists who just arrived into the store. It was definitely a well known secret. For all intensive purpose it had the making of a pilgrimage. There was a journey up a hill and into a small narrow passageway. It was tiring and easy to get lost. There was an old, though I'm not certain whether he was wise, man. There were fortunes told by the female oracles making the cookies. There were foods to be shared and bread, well cookies, to be broken. Finally we left the journey with things to bring back to where we came from to share the wealth. It was certainly a fun journey for the morning of my full day in San Francisco.
Now it was time to take a hike over the remaining hills to Swan Oyster Depot on the other side.

Continue reading at...

It's a Small Small World - 2010 San Francisco & Napa Trip Day 2 Part II
Burger To Die For - 2010 San Francisco & Napa Trip Day 3 - The Food
Riesling, riesling, where for art thou my riesling? - 2010 San Francisco & Napa Trip Day 3 - The Wine

Read more »

I Am The King Of Thai - 2010 San Francisco & Napa Trip Day 1

I travel to eat. Of course I travel also to see new places and experience new things. But the local food scene is what I am ultimately interested in. The heart of any culture is in its cuisine, and eating what the locals eat gives me a glimpse into the way the people live in any particular community. It's hard as a tourist to find the real local spots. Having yelp is definitely a plus in our day and age, but with so many places it can be challenging to narrow your choices down to the five or so places you have time and stomach for.

For someone who have been to San Francisco a few times in my life, I really didn't know much about the city. All the previous times I went I fell victim to the tourist traps of Fisherman warf. This time I was determined to get a real sense of what San Francisco is truly about. As I was planning the entire trip, I posted to my thirteen hundred Facebook friends for possible suggestions for places to dine at and things to do up north. I had also enlisted my nearby friend Kenneth, since he had lived shortly up in San Francisco before, for his opinions and suggestions of possible restaurants to check out. Ultimately I was fortunate enough to have a friend currently living in San Francisco who loves food, to take me to one of his favorite spots as well as a quick tour of San Francisco.

(Adante Hotel)

It was a rainy night when I arrived to San Francisco with my travel buddy. I originally wanted to drive up highway 1 along the coast and visit jade cove and other coastal towns along the way. But I scraped that idea when I saw the weather forecast that it would be raining up north by the late afternoon and into the night. It was a bit risky to take the Pacific Coast Highway up north as the roads may end up being extremely congested because of the rain. Instead we opted to go up the 5 Freeway, cut across on the 152 to the 101 and head into San Francisco from the south. I also wanted to avoid the toll bridge during rush hour.

I made Vietnamese spring rolls for the road trip. They were the same as the ones I had at my family's Christmas day dinner. This time I wrapped them myself with the same ingredients as the ones my aunt made. My wrapping skill was a hit or miss; I definitely can use some practice. A few turned out nice while the others barely stayed intact. I will spare myself the embarrassment of posting pictures of them here. Nevertheless these vietnamese spring rolls made for a good lunch on a road trip. They were light and didn't stink up the car, though the rice noodle did put me in a slight food coma immediately afterwards. I was able to switch off and let my travel buddy take over the drive for an hour or so.

We arrived at our hotel the Adante Hotel, which was a few blocks west of Union Square at the border of Tenderloin. Because of the location, the hotel was very reasonably priced. There was really no problems with the neighborhood at the hotel as long as we didn't venture too far west in the middle of the night. My friend Dave came by at 730pm to pick us up and take us dinner. The spring rolls were a good snack on the trip, but I was ready to have a real meal on this cold and wet night. I told Dave I wanted to check out a low brow dive joint, a place where the locals would eat. He ended up taking us to a local popular chain of Thai restaurants, King Of Thai Noodle House.

(Combination Beef Noodle Soup)

The noodle house was south of market street near Powell. It was a happening place despite the rain. We parked a block away from the restaurant on the street and ran in the rain over to the entrance. The restaurant was mostly full. There was a table by the door but we opted out of that one and waited a few minutes for another one that was further inside. I detest sitting by the door, especially on a cold, rainy night. Dave told me he used to eat at this chain nearly every day a few years ago. Supposedly there was a rift in the family and some of the members went down the street and opened another Thai restaurant. I wasn't able to confirm this story, but I still enjoyed a good old fashion restaurant drama before a good hearty meal.

The menu was rather basic. I suppose I have been spoiled by the enormous amount of choices from restaurants in Los Angeles. Nevertheless I asked Dave for suggestions based on what he normally eats. I wanted to eat like the locals, so why not ask the local what he eats here and order that. He ordered the combination beef noodle soup and I followed suite.

I don't recall ever having a noodle soup at a Thai restaurant. It's not the first thing that pops into my mind when I think of Thai cuisine. I normally would order either some form of curry over rice, a pad thai or some sort of dry noodles, or even a tom yum soup. In terms of south east Asian cuisine, like most people I think of Vietnamese Pho when I think about noodle soup. I didn't quite know what to expect in terms of flavor from a Thai noodle soup.

The menu said the soup was a little spicy. I am always weary of spiciness; I have a rather low tolerance of spice. My friend reassured me that the noodles are not spicy at all. I was still weary of the soup since my friend had a high tolerance of spice, but I went for it nevertheless. The soup turned out to be barely spicy but extremely flavorful. It was a rich, dark, beef broth that almost tasted like a good bowl of Taiwanese beef noodle soup. We ordered the rice noodle, but apparently they changed their rice noodles a year ago from the thin version to pho noodles.

That aside the beef stew was very tender and melted in my mouth. The beef slices were thicker than the Vietnamese style which I prefer in my noodle soup. It's very easy to over cook the beef in a noodle soup because the broth continues to cook the beef after plating. Their beef was just bordering well done so it was still acceptable in terms of texture for me.

(Vegetables Over Rice)

My travel buddy ordered vegetables over rice since she wanted to eat something lighter. I took a bite of her veggies and thought the dish was pretty flavorful. On one hand I do enjoy the rich flavors of the sauce that the vegetables were stir fried in, but at the same time I almost miss the original flavor of the vegetables. I generally prefer my vegetables to retain their original natural flavors. Once in a while, a heavily sauced vegetable dish is still nice over a bit of rice.

(On Top Of Twin Peak in San Francisco on a Rainy Night)

After dinner Dave gave us a quick driving tour of the city. We ended up on top of Twin Peak with a night view despite the rain. Having had a crash course on the neighborhoods of San Francisco, I had a slightly better feeling for the city. I was ready to go to bed and hit the city head on the next day.

Continue reading at:
A Fortunate Pilgrimage - 2010 San Francisco & Napa Trip Day 2 Part I
It's a Small Small World - 2010 San Francisco & Napa Trip Day 2 Part II
Burger To Die For - 2010 San Francisco & Napa Trip Day 3 - The Food
Riesling, riesling, where for art thou my riesling? - 2010 San Francisco & Napa Trip Day 3 - The Wine

Read more »