San Francisco - Day 7 - Chinatown, Financial District, Ferry building

Taken from private diary entry (written by Joanne from a 3rd person's perspective):

30/06/09

They both wake up at about 8 am and spend some time in the hotel. Jason does some work. At about 2 pm, they walked to Chinatown to grab some lunch.

#1

On the way to Chinatown, we dropped by a couple of hotels to check out the room rates. We also checked out the actual rooms. I wouldn't have guessed it but this is an elevator door. To my initial surprise, many hotels located in downtown San Francisco are housed in very old buildings complete with creaking floors and scary-looking elevators. Many hotels also have that old musky smell, probably from the carpet.

#2

Trapped behind metal bars, inside the moving elevator.

After their fruitless search for take-away tim sum (was searching for it on the wrong streets. Chinatown is huge) they settle at this very authentic looking Chinese restaurant that Joanne spotted.

#3

Sam Wo restaurant, 813 Washington Street, Chinatown, San Francisco.

Joanne thought that place was interesting because the open kitchen was located downstairs and the dining area was upstairs. They had to crawl up this tiny set of steep stairs to the dining area.

#4

Steep stairs leading towards dining area

The words “100 years old” is inscribed on the front of the menu. Joanne thinks, “the food must be very very tasty.” Joanne orders a dry wan ton mee with char siew. Jason orders a typical wan ton noodle soup. They also order a plate of fried spring rolls. As they wait for the food to arrive, Joanne looks around and observes the restaurant. For a split second, one can believe that he/she is in China – the old school glass shutter windows, little stools with wooden tables, creaking floors. But the thing that took the cake was the ancient-looking food elevator that Joanne have only seen in the old parts of Penang city, Malaysia.

#5


#6

Low stools with wooden tables

#7

Food elevator

The food arrives. Upon Joanne’s first inspection of the food, she was slightly disappointed. The wan tan noodles does not look like what she expected. She expected thin springy noodles. But this was thick yellow noodles with cabbage! For the life of her, she has never seen cabbage in wan ton noodle soup before (not even in Hong Kong) She thought, maybe it’s a San Francisco version. She tried it, and it turned out not too bad, as long as she does not compare it to her wan ton mee that she knows and love. Jason’s food on the other hand, was not so great. His noodles taste quite floury. According to Joanne’s cooking experience, this can only mean that the noodles has been cooked for a tad too long. Jason did not each much of his meal. Joanne shares her noodles with him.

#8

Joanne's fat wan ton noodles

The bill arrives. It was the cheapest meal they had so far. Only 8.50 for their meal. $4.50 for Joanne’s dish and $4 for Jason’s.

They both walked around Chinatown, looking for the famous Golden Gate bakery and tim sum shops. They finally found what they were looking for – all located on Jackson Street. They were a little full at that time. So they decided to come back another day.

They then head to the Financial District of San Francisco. According to a local, the Financial District is sadly quiet right now because of the recession. They walked to the financial district and found it to extremely quiet. They were not sure whether its because it’s not peak hour (3 pm) and everyone is still stuck in the offices or it’s because of the recession. They walked around and tried looking for the office building Jason worked at before a couple of years ago. They finally found it.

#9

Financial District

#10

San Francisco's icon, TransAmerica

They hung around for a bit and then headed to the San Francisco ferry building. The ferry building was San Francisco's main transportation depot before the Golden Gate bridge and Bay bridge was built. Jason does some work there (answer phone calls) while Joanne observes cargo ships carrying cargo. Joanne found the large ships fascinating. It was the first time Joanne saw so many large ships carrying full load of cargo. Jason thinks Joanne is silly.

#11

Ferry building

#12

Bay bridge leading to Treasure Island

#13

Cargo ship

After spending an hour there, they both headed back to the hotel.

#14

We passed by Union Square on the way back to the hotel. Some local artists were demonstrating their artwork

#15


#16

Union Square, a place to gather

#17

Love the animals

#18

We hung out at borders for a bit

#19



A couple of hours later, they headed back out for dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown that they spotted earlier. They saw a newspaper clipping stuck on the door that gave raving reviews on the restaurant. As such, they both assumed that the restaurant served good food. Joanne ordered pho and Jason ordered rice with fried egg, pork chop and radish. They didn’t serve broken rice there but they served normal chinese rice instead. They were both quite surprised because every Vietnamese restaurant in Melbourne served broken rice. Their food arrives. Joanne did not really like her noodles because it didn’t taste like the pho she normally eats in Melbourne nor Vietnam. It tasted very much like chinese soup with cabbage, pepper and msg. Further, the waiter who served them spoke to them in Cantonese. Not very authentic. Jason’s food was not too bad. Overall, the food was okay but not deserving of any sort of award.

#20

Pork chop, fried egg and radish with rice

#21

Pho