They do in Chinatown

San Francisco, wonderfully hilly and mass-transited though it may be, is not gigantic and sprawling like LA and Chicago are. This means that you could conceivably walk from one end of the city to the other. Or, that you could easily walk from the touristy neighborhood where your hotel is to the touristy neighborhood where there are a bunch of shops to look at.

During the week I was in San Francisco, I made two trips to Chinatown. The first was when I was walking around North Beach. I basically turned a corner and there it was. I wound up walking down Stockton, which is one street over from the superultratouristy Grant street. While there were still plenty of cheesy souvenir shops, there were also markets and shops and restaurants that were, like, for people who actually lived there. It meant that I got to see cool shit like:

Frickin' durian fruit. Crazy and exotic to my Wisconsin-ite eyes, but just about every fruit stand I passed had them for sale.


I know, they're ducks. Big fucking deal. However...

Tripe! I know, right? And next to it, but less visible, chicken feet. Touristy dim sum joints on Grant weren't rocking this shit.
While the chances of me being able to, um, stomach the tripe were slim to none, I should've man'ed up and sampled the chicken feet.

This pagoda-shaped pay phone on the corner of Jackson & Stockton. Why, yes, that is me with my face blacked out. The booth's exterior was covered in graffiti, and I'm not entirely sure it worked. Still, it was pretty fucking cool and probably a relic from a time before mobile phones. Note: If you go on the street-level thing on Google Maps, you can actually sort of see this thing at that intersection. Neat, huh?

Sadly, I'm not sure what amused me more about this: Dick Lee or the angelfire web address. Yep, it actually works. The place looked shut down, but maybe they were just closed for the day.

I actually caught sight of this fucking gorgeous view while on the cable car going down Powell earlier that day. I believe this is looking down Jackson street.
I have several pictures peering out in to the Bay, and this one is my definite favourite.


Seen, but not pictured:

• tons of bakeries selling bao and lotus cakes and red bean mochi
• bubble tea and crepe stall where I had the hugest selection of bubble tea flavours I've ever seen (taro, always go taro)
• live fish market - my mother and I watched a couple of guys trying to grab live fish out of a small tank, their efforts made a mess and were unsuccessful until the shop lady quickly reach over, grabbed the fish, and tossed it in a bag for them.