Monday, 6 January 2025
Visiting Chinatown and Dining at a Curbside Eatery in Little Italy, San Francisco
Since we stayed at a downtown hotel during our stay in San Francisco, a lot of the places we wanted to visit were within walking distance from us. The year round mild weather along with the availability of numerous interesting things to see and do in the city have make San Francisco one of the top tourist destionations in the United States.
There were two interesting places where we enjoyed visiting on this trip.
1. Chinatown in San Francisco - the oldest in North America. A neighbourhood lined with interesting shops selling real and costume jewellry, toys and household items, regular and Chinese clothes, herbal medicines, small mom and pop grocery stores as well as numerous small authenic Chinese restaurants and teashops where visitors can sample a variety of Chinese teas offered by some shopkeepers. Chinatown is decorated with historic street lights and strings of red lanterns hanging across the streets. A visit to this unique neighbourhood is a different cultural exprience from the other parts of SF. It is also an excellent place to shop for souvenirs with excellent prices. This time when we visited Chinatown, we also discovered some new art galleries displaying some comtemporary arts as well as some beautiful work pieces created by local artists. Since I had some stomach pains prior to arriving to SF, I was careful of what I ate trying to avoid spciy and deep fried food. The congees offered in some of the Chinese restaurants helped sooth my stomach. I had absolutely no pain at all. Therefore we went to the SF Chinatown a few times for the congees and it was a good experience for us!
2. Little Italy - very close to Chinatown, it is the area around North Beach with many colourful historic houses, shops, numerous cafes and restaurants. There was one restaurant that was highly recommended to us - Tony's Pizza. We did go there around 530pm on a Friday but the place was fully packed inside the restaurant as well as the outdoour seating area. Many people were congregating outside and there was a huge lineup. We got a number and the waiting time for us was about an hour. With our number in hand, we walked around the area and enjoyed some live music provided by a live band playing outside another restaurant. We liked the music so much that we decided to give up our waiting spot at Tony's and eat there instead.
The music was very good, the drinks and food we ordered were just as good. E. struck up a conversation with the two other patrons sitting at the next table. They were toursits just like us, but from other parts of the U.S. We had an interesting experience while we were dining on the curbside. We saw a huge white and red fire ball of very bright lights and heard something like a localized electrical explosion lasting for about 30 seconds across the street on the tops of a cabled street car followed by a driverless electrical car. We all gasped! Then that section of the area turned dark after losing its power. We were concerned about the safety of the passengers inside this driveless EV. Some people tried to help by opening the car doors but unable to do so. Finally, someone called 911 and help soon arrived. It was quite exciting and concerning for many for a little while.
Despite all that excitment casued by the ball of electricla fire, We enjoyed the drinks and food, meeting new people and listening to the street musicians. It was a great way to spend a Friday evening in the North Beach Little Italy district of SF!
RT, Chinatown, Little Italy
San Francisco, USA
nov2024
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