I've been to San Francisco's Chinatown four times in my life.1979, I'm five years old. My Grandparents chose to retire and as a result, take their first (and only at the time) Grandchild on a vacation up to Northern California. I'm half-sleeping in the backseat of a Toyota Celica, wondering why I feel nauseated. I look out the car window and stare curiously at the crooked streets and sideways cars. There is a yellow stuffed animal in my lap. I named it 'Ducky'. Grandpa drives over the Golden Gate Bridge and opens the sun-roof. I'm climbing on the center console sticking my head out of the window, cold wind chilling my five year old cheeks. I look up and the sky is blue with puffy white clouds and the bright orange pillars are towering over my head. Strolling through Chinatown, I see many items Grandpa carried in his fishmarket. Grandma bought me a chinese style jacket. It's red with little gold flowers.
1995, I'm in college. Traci, Miyuki and my boyfriend at the time, are venturing to the city by ourselves. Tram at SFO, Taxi to BART, BART to city, then walking for block after block to a seedy motel in the area known as the 'tenderloin'. Our feet are blistered red and our hands are almost bruised from carrying our luggage (suitcases weren't designed with wheels back then, I guess). All my boyfriend and I were thinking about was being alone in a motel room (we were 20 years old, c'mon!). We arrive at the motel, and come to find out all four of us were sleeping in the same room. Damn. Ghirardelli Square, an over-priced seafood dinner at the Tadich Grill (I ordered the least expensive entree on the menu, Shrimp Scampi), girlie conversation about shaving, and a brief jaunt in to Chinatown. My only memory of Chinatown was a small fortune cookie factory where they let you eat a fresh cookie hot off of the cookie press... heaven! Three elderly Chinese women are dutifully folding each flattened cookie by hand, inserting paper-fortunes one by one. One of the women stands up and loudly ask me, "Yu wan regulaa owa sick-see fochune cook-ee?" I look at my friends and bust up laughing. Did she just ask me if I want regular or sexy fortune cookies? "Ya ya, yu wan sick-see fochune!" I say, "OK" and leave with three bags of regular fortune cookies and one bag of sexy fortune cookies. Anxious to know what my "sexy" fortune is, I crack the extra crispy cookie open in half and gently pull the small narrow white paper out. My sexy fortune reads something along the lines of, "You have nice bed tonight". Laughing hysterically as all four of us spent the next five minutes opening sexy fortune cookies after sexy fortune cookie, I made a mental note of the location of the cookie factory (it was in an obscure alley). I promised myself I would go back for the cookies one day. I had to share this wonderful place with everyone.
I'm 20 something... With my boyfriend (ex-boyfriend now) visiting relatives of his in Walnut Creek. I am on the BART absolutely ecstatic about visiting the city. I am craving a visit to Chinatown to find the fortune cookie factory. We walk through North Beach and we stop for a delicious cup of coffee and a pastry at an Italian Bakery... h e a v e n. We approach Chinatown on foot and I am anxious to explore every alley way and crevace I can find. We walk up and down the streets and turn down every alley I can find. I am cursing myself as I never wrote down the name or the location of the fortune cookie factory the last time I was here. Damn! Damn! Damn! Stressed and tired from walking, I give up and wait for my relatives to find us as I am sick of walking and have to go pee.
March 5th, 2009. 3:00 am. My iPhone alarm is going off... "Starlight", by Muse is blaring. I pull my earplugs out and I'm rolling over to wake Kevin. "Baby, it's time to get up...", I whisper with intention. Kevin moans loudly in disapproval and I walk to the bathroom. The lights are on in the apartment as I realize the sun doesn't shine before 4:00 am. The shower is loud and I hear Kevin growl from the bedroom (our apartment is small). My eyes are heavy but my mind is racing.
"I am going to San Francisco today. I'm going to San Francisco today. I'm going to San Francisco today." Capping my toothbrush holder and collecting q-tips, I put the final touches on my toiletry bag. Kevin's eyes look sleepy and we give the kitties Amelie and Kuri one final kiss and pet. The sky is still dark, but I am knowing that in less than 12 hours I WILL find the fortune cookie factory and I WILL have a warm fresh off the press cookie in my mouth!
5, 22, 405 to Century Blvd. Wally park to shuttle to United terminal at LAX. A little Incubus, Royksopp, and some Cafe Paradiso for good measure is playing in the iPod. Check in, wait in line, another line and finally the security check. My father doesn't travel very often, and watching him go through the security checkpoint was kind of funny... But I wont go in to detail. Let's just say, back braces should be removed prior to walking through a metal detector. (Love you, Dad)
SFO, Enterprise rent-a-car (Michelle, you ROCK. The best service EVER for a rental car company), and then we are off (freaking finally) to Chinatown.
The gps is politely telling us that we are driving in the incorrect direction. I'm sitting in the back seat and I'm quietly giggling at Kevin as he drives through Downtown San Francisco for the first time. He appears stressed. Looking out the window, my eye's are picking up every nuance of the city I rarely see.
First stop, Great Eastern Restaurant. Dim Sum... ahhh, yes. But this place was different.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/great-eastern-restaurant-san-francisco
No carts here. Order what you like from a menu and check off the items you want. The hustle and bustle of the crowd is interestingly intoxicating. There are live shrimp, various fish and crab dwelling in tank windows. A Chinese waiter approaches our table and mistakes us for understanding the Chinese language. He get's that we are of non-Chinese decent and hurriedly asks us, "You or-da now?".
And so we order... and order... and order some more. Dumpling after delicious dumpling. Each morsel bursting with more flavor than the first. Shrimp, Leek, Scallop and pork dumplings... Rice noodle drizzled with a soy sauce concoction that melts in my mouth. And piping hot jasmine tea to complete the savory flavor left on my palette. I am now fully prepared to hike my way around Chinatown anxious to explore and discover the nooks and crannies that were left unseen the last three times I visited. Here I go...
Strolling down the streets I am taken aback by the grafitti that covers the alley walls, structures and even automobiles. Although it is disruptive and intrusive, somehow it becomes camouflaged among the rest of the cityscape.
It is now approaching 3 o'clock. There is no sign of a fortune cookie factory. My hope is running thin and I am ready to give up. I am delighted to have found so many wonderful moments to photograph. But alas, I have not found my cookies... my fortune cookies... I turn down one last alley, Ross. I catch a cool shot of laundry cascading down a fire escape drying in the wind.
I continue down Ross...and I smell them. The sweet aroma of sugar and dough hits my nose and I am about ready to jump for joy. I'm flipping out! I walk towards the sweet smell and behold! Here I am, at the Fortune Cookie Factory.
I am ecstatic. I walk in the tiny room and there are three older Chinese women creating each fortune cookie by hand as they come off of the press. They each have their own special way of making sure the fold is perfect. There is a short window of time to insert the slim piece of paper which holds the coveted fortune and then fold the cookie in to its classic shape. If too much time has passed, the cookie will harden.
An older Chinese man approaches me smiling from ear to ear. He reaches over to the fortune cookie press and grabs a freshly pressed cookie and hands it to me quickly. The warm delicate cookie slowly folds in my hand then hardens to an odd flappy shape. I put the cookie in my mouth and I am instantly taken back to the first time I visited the cookie factory. It is a perfect moment.
We continue our walk through Chinatown and our bellies are full of Dim Sum and Fortune Cookies. We are very very happy campers.
To view the complete gallery of images from my Chinatown excursion, please visit
http://www.flickr.com/photos/imagebliss/sets/72157615287561569/
SFO, Enterprise rent-a-car (Michelle, you ROCK. The best service EVER for a rental car company), and then we are off (freaking finally) to Chinatown.
The gps is politely telling us that we are driving in the incorrect direction. I'm sitting in the back seat and I'm quietly giggling at Kevin as he drives through Downtown San Francisco for the first time. He appears stressed. Looking out the window, my eye's are picking up every nuance of the city I rarely see.
First stop, Great Eastern Restaurant. Dim Sum... ahhh, yes. But this place was different.http://www.yelp.com/biz/great-eastern-restaurant-san-francisco
No carts here. Order what you like from a menu and check off the items you want. The hustle and bustle of the crowd is interestingly intoxicating. There are live shrimp, various fish and crab dwelling in tank windows. A Chinese waiter approaches our table and mistakes us for understanding the Chinese language. He get's that we are of non-Chinese decent and hurriedly asks us, "You or-da now?".
And so we order... and order... and order some more. Dumpling after delicious dumpling. Each morsel bursting with more flavor than the first. Shrimp, Leek, Scallop and pork dumplings... Rice noodle drizzled with a soy sauce concoction that melts in my mouth. And piping hot jasmine tea to complete the savory flavor left on my palette. I am now fully prepared to hike my way around Chinatown anxious to explore and discover the nooks and crannies that were left unseen the last three times I visited. Here I go...
Strolling down the streets I am taken aback by the grafitti that covers the alley walls, structures and even automobiles. Although it is disruptive and intrusive, somehow it becomes camouflaged among the rest of the cityscape.
It is now approaching 3 o'clock. There is no sign of a fortune cookie factory. My hope is running thin and I am ready to give up. I am delighted to have found so many wonderful moments to photograph. But alas, I have not found my cookies... my fortune cookies... I turn down one last alley, Ross. I catch a cool shot of laundry cascading down a fire escape drying in the wind.
I continue down Ross...and I smell them. The sweet aroma of sugar and dough hits my nose and I am about ready to jump for joy. I'm flipping out! I walk towards the sweet smell and behold! Here I am, at the Fortune Cookie Factory.
I am ecstatic. I walk in the tiny room and there are three older Chinese women creating each fortune cookie by hand as they come off of the press. They each have their own special way of making sure the fold is perfect. There is a short window of time to insert the slim piece of paper which holds the coveted fortune and then fold the cookie in to its classic shape. If too much time has passed, the cookie will harden.
An older Chinese man approaches me smiling from ear to ear. He reaches over to the fortune cookie press and grabs a freshly pressed cookie and hands it to me quickly. The warm delicate cookie slowly folds in my hand then hardens to an odd flappy shape. I put the cookie in my mouth and I am instantly taken back to the first time I visited the cookie factory. It is a perfect moment.We continue our walk through Chinatown and our bellies are full of Dim Sum and Fortune Cookies. We are very very happy campers.
To view the complete gallery of images from my Chinatown excursion, please visit
http://www.flickr.com/photos/imagebliss/sets/72157615287561569/
