Chinese New Year
Mar. 4th, 2007 10:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
notmatt I thought the Chinese New Year parade in San Francisco with the 200 foot dragon and all was this evening. Turns out it was yesterday evening, and I found out while it was taking place. I had to content myself to make steamed dumplings and coconut-curry shrimp.
We went into SF today, since the festival was still going on, even if we missed the parade. We parked at Japantown because the prices are somewhat less nutty there, and we wanted to hit the big-assed bookstore in the Kintetsu mall and acquire some new manga. Took the bus to Union Square and walked up to Chinatown. We were highly disappointed in the New Year's Festival as there was little to no cultural aspect of it. It was almost entirely merchants (by which I mean megacorps, not locals) handing out free stuff to whomever wanted to stand in line to get it. Nevertheless, we had a good time putzing about Chinatown.
We asked a cop to recommend us a restaurant (since they know all the best places) and he suggested the "ugly green building at the corner of Stockton and Broadway". It was certainly not a place we would have thought to go into otherwise, but it turned out to be quite good. We got a clay pot of catfish and pork, and a crab with curry. What curry has to do with chinese food, I'm really not sure, but as I was seated in a position such that I was looking at the crab tank, I felt more or less obligated to eat one of them. (For those of you on the east coast, these are Dungeness crabs, much bigger than your Blue crabs). It was quite good, but I can't recommend it to anyone. You see, crab must be eaten with the fingers. There are shells to crack and meat to pry out. Curry sauce is possibly the most slippery substance in the universe. They should use this as an industrial lubricant. Most of the way through the meal, we were brought fingerbowls with which to wash up. I'm not sure if that was standard procedure, or they just saw how much of a mess we were making.
We went back to Union Square, stopped by the four-story Borders to purchase even more manga, resisted a purchase from See's candies, and went home. Then I typed this up. I have a few pictures, but as I have not yet posted the ones from our LAST excursion to San Francisco, who knows when you'll get to see them.
Forgot to mention the most important bit. We found a nice tea shop that was having tastings. We picked up a wad of Jasmine white tea for later consumption.
As for the catfish, I did eat the meat off the head, but wasn't quite willing to eat the eyeball.
And we had a surreal moment walking by another eatery, in which we passed one window with live chickens in it, and passed the second window just as a cleaver came down, splitting another (already dead and plucked) chicken neatly in half. Fresh!
We went into SF today, since the festival was still going on, even if we missed the parade. We parked at Japantown because the prices are somewhat less nutty there, and we wanted to hit the big-assed bookstore in the Kintetsu mall and acquire some new manga. Took the bus to Union Square and walked up to Chinatown. We were highly disappointed in the New Year's Festival as there was little to no cultural aspect of it. It was almost entirely merchants (by which I mean megacorps, not locals) handing out free stuff to whomever wanted to stand in line to get it. Nevertheless, we had a good time putzing about Chinatown.
We asked a cop to recommend us a restaurant (since they know all the best places) and he suggested the "ugly green building at the corner of Stockton and Broadway". It was certainly not a place we would have thought to go into otherwise, but it turned out to be quite good. We got a clay pot of catfish and pork, and a crab with curry. What curry has to do with chinese food, I'm really not sure, but as I was seated in a position such that I was looking at the crab tank, I felt more or less obligated to eat one of them. (For those of you on the east coast, these are Dungeness crabs, much bigger than your Blue crabs). It was quite good, but I can't recommend it to anyone. You see, crab must be eaten with the fingers. There are shells to crack and meat to pry out. Curry sauce is possibly the most slippery substance in the universe. They should use this as an industrial lubricant. Most of the way through the meal, we were brought fingerbowls with which to wash up. I'm not sure if that was standard procedure, or they just saw how much of a mess we were making.
We went back to Union Square, stopped by the four-story Borders to purchase even more manga, resisted a purchase from See's candies, and went home. Then I typed this up. I have a few pictures, but as I have not yet posted the ones from our LAST excursion to San Francisco, who knows when you'll get to see them.
Forgot to mention the most important bit. We found a nice tea shop that was having tastings. We picked up a wad of Jasmine white tea for later consumption.
As for the catfish, I did eat the meat off the head, but wasn't quite willing to eat the eyeball.
And we had a surreal moment walking by another eatery, in which we passed one window with live chickens in it, and passed the second window just as a cleaver came down, splitting another (already dead and plucked) chicken neatly in half. Fresh!
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no subject
Date: 2007-03-06 01:46 am (UTC)In my experience Chinese and Japanese curry are just "turmeric-flavored" dishes, too mild to be what I would consider to be a proper curry.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-06 05:03 am (UTC)