Eastern Bakery, at the corner of Grant and Commercial, is the oldest bakery in SF Chinatown, having operated continuously since 1924, originally by the Lee family. The current owner is Orlando Kuan, who can be seen peddling made-in-house items through the limited operating hours, roughly 12-4. Eastern Bakery is best known for three things: genuine lotus mooncakes, authentic coffee crunch cake, and Smackles, the original "cow ear cookies", all of which can be seen at "front door" table. Moon cakes have been around China for thousands of years, but it was probably most famous for its use to hide messages to coordinate a revolt against the Mongol occupiers on August 15th, which lead to the founding of the Yuan Dynasty. Before that, they were used as "sacrifices" to the moon goddess. President Clinton tasted some mooncake when he visited Chinatown back in 1995 and took a box home with him, according to photos in the store. Photo of President Clinton's ...
An exploration of San Francisco Chinatown typically NOT covered by tours