The Hidden Chinatown of San Francisco

Had to escort a group to Pena Pachamama and decided to try this Pho place. Do NOT recommend.  Looked through their menu and could not find any beef stew noodles. The closest they have is "curry beef stew noodle soup", and it was barely edible. There wasn't much beef, and I barely tasted any curry. What's more, the noodles taste as if it's not quite cooked through... It's chewy. The vegetables like carrots are waffle cut, as if they are using pre-cut frozen ingredients from a supermarket.  I was hungry, so I did finish the whole bowl, but I'm definitely not going back. 

Here are some questions that are a bit too short to deserve their own posts, but are interesting information nonetheless.  Q: When did Chinatown become known as Chinatown?  A: According to PBS's "Chinatown Guide" , the first Chinese in the area settled either on the street next to Portsmouth Square, or in the immediate block around it. The area was first known as "Little Canton", and it wasn't until 1853 that the local press named the area "Chinatown".  Q: What books should I read if I want to know more about San Francisco Chinatown?  A: In no particular order: San Francisco's Chinatown by Judy Yung and the Chinese Historical Society of America , full of vintage photographs, this book documented the life in Chinatown never seen before.  The Children of Chinatown: Growing Up Chinese American in San Francisco, 1850-1920 by Wendy Rouse , discusses the seldomly touched subject: children in Chinatown, who really feel the prejudices against them and

Most of you who checked the origin of Caesar's Salad probably accept the story that it was invented in Mexico by Caesar Cardini at Caesar's Grill, in Tijuana, Mexico. But the story has MANY San Francisco ties. (Its ties to Chinatown will be explained in a second) The first person who put the Caesar salad into the American culture was none other than Herb Caen, San Francisco Chronicle columnist, in his column on August 27th, 1946, and even Caen mentioned that the salad had been well established by then, believed to have been invented 2 decades before. The Cardini version does NOT have anchovies, but instead, has Worcestershire sauce. And it is usually mixed at the table by the server or the chef.   However, San Francisco has a different story. There was also a Caesar's Grill in San Francisco during the prohibition, and may have existed as far back as 1911. Historians can find no link between Caesar Cardini and the San Francisco Caesar's Grill though. And this Caesar'

Golden King Vietnamese restaurant has the typical pho and rice plates of a Vietnamese restaurant, virtually idential to that of Golden Star, reviewed earlier. The main difference is Golden King is willing to open a little later and thus is a viable choice at 6PM when Golden Star will tell you they are already closed.  The food tastes almost identical, IMHO to Golden Star, as I also ordered the beef stew pho as a common basis of comparison. Similar amount of beef tendons, very tender beef that falls apart in your mouth, decent amount of fat in the broth (but not too much) with enough connective tissue to remind you you are eating beef, but not steak. There is a bit of spiciness in the broth, in that the waitress specifically mentioned the dish being "spicy", though it's not spicy hot in the hot chili sense, just that there's a bit of a kick in the spices used to prepare the beef.  Actually, after repeated comparison, there seems to be a lot less meat in the Golden King

A while back, I lamented the death of Washington Bakery and Restaurant , but the spot was too good to stay unoccupied, and in August, the place reopened as the flagship location of Hon's Wun Tun House, which previously occupied a smaller store 648 Kearny. Now, the new location is "Soft Opening", but it is serving a full menu, more than just wonton and noodle soup. In fact, when I went in over the weekend, there was a waiting list!  I ordered beef stew with wonton noodle soup, and it's pretty good. The portion is a bit less than the equivalent priced bowl of pho in restaurants a block away (Golden Star, Golden King, etc.) but it is pretty good. Nothing really bad to stay about it other than the wait.  Give it a try at least. 

Golden Star Vietnamese Restaurant has been at its location, next to Portsmouth Square (11 Walter U Lum Place, roughly Clay and Walter Lum Place, between Grant and Kearny) for a long time. And they have always delivered consistent quality pho with proper broth.  One item that I recommend there, if you eat beef, is NOT the "Number One", but rather, their beef stew pho, which is number 24 (if I remember correctly). The beef has been stewed for a long time, with proper amount of tendons and pretty much falls apart as you poke it with your chopstick, and almost melts in your mouth. The broth is VERY flavorful, and obviously very different from your normal pho broth.  Even with a can of soda, it's well under $20. when I don't want roast pork, I'd go here.  You can definitely try the Number One, but every pho place has the number one, and there is almost no difference among them anymore, other than the broth.  The main problem with this place is they are only open from 1

A new "tea restaurant" (even though it didn't call itself that) has opened at 881 Clay St, intersection of Stockton and Clay. It is called G&Y Bakery Cafe.  They used a hard laminated menu with both sides crammed full of items, both Eastern and Western style breakfast so it's clearly a tea restaurant. Tables are quite clean as it is new. However, a sampling of their dish left the writer a bit wanting.  Went in in the afternoon for a late lunch, and ordered something pretty simple: beef stew with seasonal vegetables over rice. The item arrived promptly, with plenty of gravy to soak in the rice. And the stuff is pretty flavorful. The vegetables, basically choy sum, is fine. However, the same can't be said of the beef. The beef is tough to the point of almost inedible. There are a lot of tripe and tendons, and they didn't seem to have been cooked long enough to soften properly. Took me a bit to chew each bit before they can be swallowed.  The price is a bit o

Tea drinking has been a part of Chinese culture for most of China's existence. It was said that the first (Mythical) Emperor of China, ShenNong, was also an herbalist, and he discovered tea back in 2437BC (or thereabouts). The story was he and his entourage had always boiled water for hygiene. After a journey, they stopped for a break, and his servants went to boil water. As the water was boiled, leaves were introduced accidentally into the hot water, either fell from a tree or dried leaves were brought by the wind and some fell into the hot water. The aroma soon drew ShenNong's attention, and he tasted it, finding it extremely refreshing. And thus, tea was born.  However, tea drinking did not gain sophistication until millennia later. The first formal study and catalog of tea were found in Tang Dynasty, about 780AD, where a scholar claimed to have spent 20 years thoroughly documenting the process of planting, growing, harvesting, processing, brewing, and tasting tea. As trade

Next to the East-West Bank that used to be the Chinatown Phone Exchange is Grant Place, a Cantonese restaurant that also serves duck and dimsum, among other things. Despite the name, it's actually on Washington, not Grant. And it's been there since 1994.  While usually not full, it enjoys a steady stream of business so it maintains a certain quality and fast service. And they can provide a pretty diverse menu, including duck. Keep in mind that while it's called Peking Duck on the menu, it's technically Cantonese Duck.  They can also do the typical fried rice (chow fun), fried noodles (chow mien), porridge, and so on. And they can accommodate fairly big groups of a dozen people or more at almost anytime.  They are also very close to Portsmouth Square. And they are open for long hours, from 8A to 9P every day. Before COVID they used to run 24 hours a day.   If you do walk by the area, and need a quick lunch or dinner, it's not a bad choice if you want a bit of everyth

NOTE: Columbus Tower, also known as the Sentinel Building, is technically on the very edge of Chinatown on the border of North Beach, Chinatown, and the Financial District. As it's on the east side of Kearny, it is technically not in Chinatown, but it is so close, I am including it as a bonus.  At the northeastern corner of Chinatown, at the corner of Kearny, Columbus, and Pacific, is a building that stands out, being mostly green, and triangular in shape. This is the Sentinel Building, aka Columbus Tower.  Google Maps 3D View of 916 Kearny, the Sentinel Building Finished in 1907, the building was actually under construction when the city suffered the Great Earthquake of 1906. As architecture goes, this was considered a Beaux-Arts flatiron building, mainly built between 1880 and 1926, and they are unique in that they are shaped like old fashion iron for clothes, and used when odd lot shapes require unusual building shapes for maximum square footage. Unique for their time, flatiron

Sometimes in Chinatown, you may come across shops selling incense bundles and paper packets. Ever wonder what those are?  Wentworth Buddhist Supply on Jackson / Cross Ross Alley courtesy author This store is a "Buddhist Supply Store" (even though they serve Daoists as well), and they offer items needed to pay proper respect to our ancestors, as well as other traditional items for the practice of Buddism and Daoism.  The incense stick bundles, often called joss sticks (a pretty archaic term), are usually made of sandalwood, and are known as 檀香 (tang-xiang). They are burned as offerings and to aid communication with the spirits. They are also sometimes used to simply scent the room, or around Chinese New Year, as a way to light small firecrackers.  BONUS FACTOID: Honolulu's Chinese name is 檀香山, literally sandalwood mountain, because there used to be a lot of sandalwoods exported from Hawaii.  The white packets are offerings to ancestors and are paper offerings of clothes an

House of Dimsum is easy to recognize on Jackson between Stockton and Grant, with its blue canopies covering their little "parklet" holding a couple tables and chairs.   House of Dimsum is a casual restaurant where you order at the counter, and get the stuff immediately (unless its a special item, which may take a little longer), and seat yourself, and they offer a lot of fresh dimsum, both sweet and savory, for reasonable prices. House of Dimsum is also a bit unusual in that they will sell you individual pieces instead of sets of 3 or 4 so you can try everything. Most places that sell dimsum will only sell you whole sets. They often have a line outside, as they move a LOT of dimsum daily and everything is fresh.  They also have more than just dimsum. They can also get you steamed rice with pork ribs, wonton noodle soup, soy milk, boba tea, rice noodle rolls, and so on.  You can just point and order, or you can try ordering off the menu. The menu's way too long to list her

While most people may have heard of Mr. Jiu's restaurant at 28 Waverly Pl, few may have heard about the "pop-up" bakery that also operates out of the "Kitchen" right next to it, called Grand Opening .  Operating as a pop-up since 2019, Grand Opening was operated by Melissa Chou, the star pastry chef that helped three different restaurants earn a Michelin star. She used to be opening pastry chef at Mr. Jius, and Grand Opening was supposed to be her first solo venture. She took a break at the beginning of 2020 to visit family back in New Zealand, but had to stay much longer due to COVID. Her return in late 2021 means she's ready to make Grand Opening a dedicated venture.  Keep in mind that Grand Opening is a pop-up, which means you need to pre-order off the website, unless you want to come on Sundays to Mr. Jiu's, where you may find Melissa at the window with a selection of what's available, and this is more about what she wanted to make instead of wha

If you came to Chinatown, you probably walked or drove past Portsmouth Square many times. But this "square" predates the statehood itself, and has a history far beyond "where you park for Chinatown".  Google Maps of Portsmouth Square 2022 courtesy Google, USGS, Maxar, Airbus, et al The town square that will become Portsmouth square was set aside in 1833 by the Mexican community who had won their independence from Spain. At the time, the area was called "Yerba Buena" (lit: Good Herb). In 1835, it was officially designated "Grand Plaza", but it was an empty gesture, as there were no residents until William A Richardson and his family (Richardson married Maria Antonia Martinez, the daughter of the commander at the Presidio, Ygnacio Martinez, who controls the local Mexican army fort) moved to the area just west of the plaza, in late 1835, in an attempt to map and settle the area. He was soon joined by Jacob Leese (known to the Mexicans as Don Jacobo

At one end of Spofford Alley stood a community mural, and one of the phrases on top is "Tape vs. Hurley". What you probably do not know was this was the EARLIEST court victory against school racism dating back to 1885, 70 years before Brown vs. Board of Education in Topeka, Kansas, and 11 years BEFORE "Plessy vs. Ferguson" (1896).  Mural at Washington side of Spofford Alley, Mary Tape, Tape v Hurley 1885 courtesy author Joseph Tape was born in Guandong, in Southern China. He came to San Francisco, as a teenager in 1864, and worked as a servant to a dairy farmer, and steadily moved up to delivery wagon driver. He met and married Mary McGladery in 1875. Mary originally came from Shanghai as a teenager a few years after Joseph did, and MAY have been trafficked, but was rescued and placed with the Ladies' Protection and Relief Society's shelter, and chose to take her caretaker's name as a symbol of her rebirth. When they married, they both took the German su

This First Chinese Baptist Church stood unique among all Chinatown buildings in that it incorporates clinker bricks in its facade. Originally built in 1888, it was rebuilt after the 1906 Earthquake and fire. The congregation, with assistance from other Baptist churches across the US, was able to rebuild, and they chose a very western choice: walls studded with that's known as "clinker bricks". These bricks are darker, and gnarled, and are named for the sound they make when you clink them together.  First Chinese Baptist Church, 15 Waverly Pl, SF CA 94108 courtesy author Close-up of the gnarled clinker bricks among regular bricks Clinker bricks are made by exposing unfired bricks to hotter fire for longer so the surfaces sintered and thus are SEALED, unlike regular bricks which are porous. Therefore, the clinker bricks barely absorb any water, and are denser and heavier than regular bricks, thus more stable.  NOTE:  Some claim the clinker bricks were reclaimed from the rub

One of the oddities during the Gold Rush years of San Francisco was the extreme imbalance between males and females. It is believed the ratio was like 20 to 1. And remember, back in the 1800s, men do NOT do laundry... It was supposed to be women's work or domestic servant's work. Most men don't even know how to do laundry. Not to mention two buckets of fresh water would cost a quarter. This resulted in some very odd pricing, such as the cost of laundering a dozen shirts being $8-12 dollars, due to very few women available to do the laundry. A few men will try, but give up after a while after they either destroyed the shirts or lost all the buttons. The situation was bad enough, laundry was sent across the ocean to be laundered. A ship can carry back several hundred dozen pieces of laundry .  Hawaii, seeing an opportunity, started to offer $6 per dozen washes and a much faster turnaround.    Some folks in Chinatown recognized the profit potential, being close to the port and

Waverly Pl was far more than just an alley in San Francisco. During the earliest days of San Francisco, it was apparently known as "Pike Street", at least until the 1906 Earthquake. I cannot find any historical references on when the name was changed. Many references imply state "Waverly Pl, (formerly Pike St.) while other references imply stated Pike St. Even from the earliest days in Chinatown, it was known as a place of brothels, and allegedly both Bella Cora and Ah Toy, the two most famous madams of Chinatown, have brothels at or very close to Pike St. (later Waverly Pl). For a while, the brothels co-existed with barbers on the same street, where sailors and miners can get a haircut and a shave for 5 cents, and later, 10 cents. So the area was also known as Five Cent Street or Ten Cent Street for a while. But the street remained mired with vices.  A "crime map" prepared for SF City Supervisors in 1885, note the blue and red vices mapped.  courtesy Cornell U

How many movies have at least one scene in Chinatown?  According to IMDB, no less than 69 . Unfortunately, some are short films, some are ancient, some are actually Chinese, and very few are well known.  In fact, a few of the more popular movies most people believed had a scene in Chinatown... Did not.  Not In Chinatown Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) did not film in Chinatown, but adjacent to it. When Scotty, McCoy, and Sulu walked by a couple arguing in Cantonese, most people assumed this was in Chinatown. But if you look more closely, they walked past 1232 Grant " The Saloon ", just before encountering the couple. The Saloon, the oldest Blues Bar in San Francisco, is in North Beach.  So which ones really did film in Chinatown?  Did Film in Chinatown Big Trouble in Little China (1986) poked fun at all the myths and legends of Chinatown underground tunnels which are fictional. The location of Grant and Commercial is still there, now home to a Bruce Lee mural.  Curren

One of the "must-stops" in SF Chinatown is the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory in Ross Alley. Founded in 1962, the place is about to hit its 60th anniversary later in 2022.  Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory courtesy author Feel free to watch them make some in front of you, and get a taste of the unfolded ones, which are miles better than any of those wrapped (censored) you get from (censored). They are often still warm off the circulating multi-griddle. And yes, the fortunes are placed manually. You can also get fancier versions, like dipped, flavored, and so on, or even giant ones.  But did you ever wonder where it came from? Turns out, it's not Chinese. It's actually Japanese.  The origins of fortune cookie can be traced back to a Japanese "fortune" (tsujiura) that a temple would offer in a rice cracker (senbei) for a small donation. It is a bit larger than the modern version, darker, and made of sesame and miso. Let's just say, they are fist-size

Old St. Mary's Cathedral, with the address of 660 California St (corner of California and Grant), is also the Chinese Mission, and the first Cathedral in California. The cornerstone was set on July 17, 1853, and the cathedral completed and dedicated for Christmas1854, by Bishop Joseph S Alemany. This was both the first dedicated cathedral (and thus, the head Catholic building in the state, and was also the tallest building in San Francisco when it opened, at 27 meters (89 ft) tall, due to the extra tall clocktower.  One of the most prominent features of the clocktower was the quote from Ecclesiasticus 4:23 right below the clock itself: "Son, Observe the Time and Fly from Evil." It was meant to warn the sailors from visiting the various brothels and other dens of vices in the area.  This cathedral was demoted to a regular parish church in 1891 when the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption (aka "New Saint Mary's") was built at Van Ness and O'Farrell. 

The Wok Shop , located at 718 Grant Ave (between Sacramento and Clay, next to Eastern Bakery off Commercial) has been a Chinatown institution for over five decades.  In this tiny shop you will find all sorts of Chinese kitchenware from rice cookers to crockery, from woks to ladles, recipe books, kitchen gadgets, and everything else related to Asian cooking (yes, even sushi making stuff), on the walls, hanging from the ceiling, and more. Think the inventory of William-Sonoma, or Sur La Table, but crapped into 1/5th the space. That's the Wok Shop.  The owner, Tane Chan, over 80, has been operating the shop since 1972 and not even a break-in in 2021 in the midst of COVID season can slow her down.  The shop has been such an institution, its products were featured several times in Cooks Illustrated and America's Test Kitchen by Grace Young, aka the Stir-fry Guru . Indeed, one of the Wok Shop's exclusive Carbon Steel Wok was the 2nd choice on ATK , only because it was a hair hea

NOTE: This is not related to Chinatown, but it was a part of Chinese-American history, so I decided to include it as a bonus post.  If you eat fruit, you may have heard of Bing cherries. They have darker skin than your typical cherries, almost purple-ish. This is the most popular cherry variety cultivated in the US. But did you ever wonder where that name came from? photo of Bing cherry, courtesy Wikicommons The Bing cherry was named after a Chinese farm foreman who was only recorded in history as "Ah Bing". But to explain things, we have to go all the way back to the 1850s, and a Quaker family.  The Lewellings were a Quaker farming family who believed in human rights. Before the Civil War, one of the brothers built an Underground Railroad stop in their house that was riddled with secret passages and doors (and it still stands today). In the mid-1800s, they decided to head out West, and the two brothers, Henderson and Seth settled in Milwaukie, Oregon, and started the first n

In late May or Early June, you may see Chinatown vendors offer sticky rice dumplings, that are actually quite large, roughly the size of a fist. This is called zhong-zi 粽子 and it has some history behind it.  The most accepted origin story traced it to roughly 300 BC, when China was in its "Warring States" period, lots of smaller kingdoms vying for survival. A poet-politician by the name of Qu-Yuan 屈原 (pronounced chu-yuan) in the State of Chu, was exiled for opposing an alliance with the state of Qin as he feared the "ally" would later turn on them. He was proven right 28 years later when the ally turned on them and captured the Chu capital. Saddened by the event, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the nearby Miluo River. He was beloved by locals, and many rushed to the scene, if not to save him, then to at least recover his body, but his body was never found. This was said to be the origin of the dragon boat races. Some also dropped sticky rice into th

Everybody knows who is Bruce Lee, but what most people do NOT know, is Bruce Lee was thoroughly American... by birth. Bruce Lee, Chinese name Lee Jun-fan 李振藩, was born in The Chinese Hospital in Chinatown, San Francisco, on Nov 27, 1940... which happens to be the year of the dragon, AND the hour of the dragon.  This made him a dual Hong Kong and US Citizen by birth.  Bruce Lee Sculpture in Victoria Harbor, Hong Kong by tee2tee via Pixabay When he took to the stage later, he chose the stage name 李小龍 (Li Xiao-Long in Mandarin, Lee Siu-lung in Cantonese), which means "little dragon".  (Remember we mentioned Xiao Long Bao aka XLB, aka Shanghai Dumplings?)  What was interesting at the time was how his parents got to the US... His father, Lee Hoi-Chuen was the lead Cantonese Opera singer of a traveling troupe from Hong Kong, and his mother, Grace Ho, was the wardrobe manager for the troupe. Indeed, Grace Ho was Eurasian, as Bruce's maternal grandmother is English. The Cantonese

If you have walked by Chinatown, or indeed, cities with a large Asian population, you probably came across "boba tea" vendors, and there are like a dozen of them in Chinatown. The items are also known as "pearl tea" or "bubble tea". But have you ever wondered about its history?  A cup of boba milk tea courtesy wikipedia The lineage of Boba tea can be definitely traced to Taiwan... all the way back to the 1940s.  A gentleman by the name of FanShu Chang (Chang is the surname) worked as a mixologist in an izakaya (Japanese, lit: stay-drink-place) in the 1940's Taiwan, which was then under Japanese rule. After WW2 ended, Chang decided to specialize in hand-shaken ice tea by opening a unique tea shop in 1949. The hand-shaken tea was done by a cocktail mixer and the result is a smooth and silky ice tea with a layer of bubble foam on top, dubbed "foam tea" at the time, and it was a hit, as Taiwan, being a tropical island, is always searching for co