The Bay

And now a Tribute to those across the pond:

I think many of the main cities in the US are known for certain specialties w/r/t food. So it is with San Francisco and the Bay Area, with but a slight variation. I think of great food in the Bay Rea, but it is a generalized specialty. Sure there is the Italian of North Beach, and the elegant vegan restaurants near the Tenderloin and in the Mission, but it is the ethnic foods: Chinese, Ethiopian, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Thai, and those I'm failing to mention, that truly stand out here and set the city apart. There are also the historical places to eat, ones that have been recommended but have yet to be visited, such as the Swan Oyster Depot.

I'd like to present a very limited account, based solely on my visit to Clement St., the "New China-town" in the Richmond district. I was with my friend Greg and a friend of his that he had met while teaching English in China, who has now moved over that lake to take a 2-year program at USF. It was definitely a treat to have two accomplices fluent in Cantonese.



As I hopped off the BART at 16th St., Greg took me to one of the best bakeries in the city, with the line out the door. I don't want to dwell too much on the croissants I had b/c they will again incite envy, a deadly sin. But nowhere else can I think of a more stylized, crafted way to indulge in your favorite of any of the seven than in the Bay Area.

So we stopped eating for five minutes to whet the appetite again, and then it was to a Taiwanese restaurant for lunch. The amount of food we ordered and consumed was too large to photograph. We walked it off by exploring the bakeries and stores around Clement St.




What is this?













Or this? I can't answer these questions.










MMMM, Duck's feet





MMMM, Duck's tongue











Or shark fin soup. For those ambitious enough, you can make it at home. Pictures of other exotic foods, like preserved sea cucumbers, were thwarted by the shop's owners. At the risk of saying something extremely stereotypical about picture taking, I let it slide...











Or if you just want prepared foods that you have no idea what they are or what they might taste like, even if they say what they are, there are also stores there for you.









An hour wait at the Indian restaurant led to eating Thai, with numerous options for types of rice (ginger, coconut, pineapple) as well as thai iced tea cocktails, so there was no disappointment.





So I left the way I came, but it was Sunday and the preachers were on the corners, spouting and shouting, this time in Spanish. What a treat.





Still to come is the new M.O.