Girls Day in Chinatown

Prior to the move, Munch and I would typically stick to the East Bay when exploring. But now that we're closer to San Francisco, we have a whole new area to discover. In the middle of two days of forecasted rain and showers during Spring Break, we pulled on our rainboots and grabbed our umbrellas and headed to SF Chinatown, figuring that the rain would keep most tourists people away. A trip into the city meant we could also visit my aunt and uncle before they left for Wisconsin, so on the way we stopped in the Richmond district to bring them some char siu bao, baked bbq pork buns. Lung Fung makes our family's favorite. As they are "Lolo Owl's" favorite, we also grabbed a few cocktail buns and a small chicken hand pie that Munch wanted to taste.

At my aunt and uncle's house, Munch attempted to capture her favorite cat, Annie, and have a mini fashion show. My aunt had made Munch the most darling crocheted hats-

Other than a lot of roadwork, Munch and I had a fairly easy drive to Chinatown. I realized that other than driving past the dragon gates, I had never been for a visit either.

We walked uphill several blocks to find our first stop-a bakery to pick up some dumplings- Munch's favorite har gow, of course- and what I had read on yelp were really delicious gai bao- buns filled with chicken, boiled egg, a bit of chinese sausage, and a whole shiitake mushroom-

Just up the street I saw the sign for Golden Gate Bakery. Chowhound discussion boards have been buzzing about this place for years- are they open or closed, their frequent vacations, the passing of their pastry maker, the long lines, and their AMAZING dan tat. Walking closer, I saw that the bakery was open (hooray!) and the line was just a couple of people out the door (even better!). Munch and I quickly joined the queue for our custard tarts, making sure to get a few extra for Grandpa-

Their moon cakes looked beautiful too, but I had no idea what the differences were, so Munch and I quickly chose one filled with lotus seed paste and an egg yolk-

By now Munch and I were carrying two pink bakery boxes and were hungry, so I asked a young couple behind me where their favorite bubble tea place was. They directed me to the Sweetheart Cafe a couple of blocks away, where Munch ordered a soy mango smoothie and I had a fresh taro smoothie with coconut milk. Service was strangely slow, but the drinks eventually came out and Munch and I enjoyed them with a variety of the treats we had gathered.

Bellies full, Munch and I were ready to shop. She picked out a bright pink parasol from one store, we wandered a few alleyways before stumbling upon the fortune cookie factory, then we stopped in a market to pick up some snacks to take home where Munch found the most adorable panda cookies-

On our way back to the car, we came to the shop behind St. Mary's Cathedral where I found a children's prayer book for Munch. We ducked into the church for a few minutes to rest and admire the stained glass windows while Munch read her new book and practiced the "Our Father". I was surprised that Munch mentioned not seeing the holy water as we came in, but she found a bubbling fountain in the foyer and made the sign of the cross as we exited the church.

Wicked!

I spent a (badly-needed) lovely day in San Francisco with the family (sans kids) yesterday. For Christmas, my parents bought us tickets to see Wicked. After looking forward to it for weeks, I was even more thrilled to hear we'd be heading to Yank Sing for a dim sum brunch first. I finally got to try their signature Shanghai dumplings, filled with pork and broth- it reminded me of wonton soup all wrapped up in a dumpling. Our favorite dish was a honey glazed sea bass- it was absolutely delicious! Of course, we ate entirely too fast and were stuffed within a half hour of sitting down. It's hard to pace yourself when it's such an infrequent treat!
Since we had a good bit of time before the matinee, we walked down to the Ferry Building. My mom made a beeline for a tiny table she'd seen before at I Preferiti di Borianawhere bomboloni, Italian doughnuts, were being sold. The sugar-dusted, baseball-sized doughnuts were filled with raspberry jam, Nutella, dark chocolate, or custard. I took my Nutella filled one home to Munch later that evening and she proceeded to take enormous bites of the sweet hazelnut filling, leaving me with the doughnut's edges. Then she moved on, with her puppy dog eyes, to AudioDad's doughnut...we'll have to get these again on our next trip!
Words fail me when I try to express how much I loved the show. I enjoyed the book by Gregory Maguire and was so curious to see how it translated to the stage. Wicked was funny, smart, and moving- a lot lighter in tone than the book, but it touched on it's major themes. The costumes were AMAZING. The Munchkin was wanting to go with us to see the show so badly. I think she'll enjoy those experiences when she's older. In the meantime, I'll be getting the CD- something for us to enjoy on our commute!

Another girls' day out

How much do I adore my little Munch? She is easy-going, always up for a little shopping, and is an open-minded eater, so it's just great fun taking her out exploring with me. We met up with my sister and nephew at the Pacific East Mall-



they've never been, and I was crossing my fingers that traffic both on the freeway and in the mall would be light since it was Veterans' Day. Since we arrived before them (and we were ready for a snack), we popped into the Hong Kong Snack House for a green pandan coconut egg puff (just like the one we had last time-I've had them on the brain ever since). They also make plain, chocolate, and strawberry egg puffs, but Munch's favorite color IS green, and so she always chooses green food. (Yes, when I first made it for her, Munch turned her nose up at my buttery bread-crumb topped REAL mac & cheese casserole- too fancy, she said, before happily gobbling up her broccoli instead)


This is Munch trying to chew and smile at the same time.

Once cousin A. showed up, we started wandering around. First stop was a shop filled with dried and preserved fruit. We also popped into a shop overflowing with Hello Kitty knick-knacks. I'd occasionally forget myself, and pick up an interesting item (wondering what it was) to read the label, then realize the mish-mash of Chinese or Japanese characters were not helping me a bit. It took my sister and I quite a bit of discussion and studying to determine that this one cute miniature car was indeed, a pencil sharpener. (We still can't figure where the shavings come out!) The kids zeroed in on these adorable lollipops, so they each got to pick one out.



Next stop was Ten Ren, where we picked up some bubble teas- I ordered a black milk tea, Munch got the strawberry at the recommendation of the grandfatherly man at the counter (it was more sweet than I was expecting, but still good- with bits of crushed strawberries), and cousin A. had the honeydew. He'd never had bubble tea before-



and in the end the large tapioca pearls disturbed him so much, we poured them out.

Next stop was the take-out dim sum counter inside the 99 Ranch market. I know, there ARE restaurants in this shopping center, but this is a real quick and easy option when I'm running around with a toddler. Munch polished off an order and a half of har gow in no time. She immediately finished off the remainder after her nap later that afternoon. I managed to sneak a shrimp dumpling from her, and also ordered some chive dumplings, and a sticky rice dumpling stuffed with pork.

Before heading home, we made two more stops- first to the Sheng Kee bakery where I picked up some delicious black sesame cookies that I've been enjoying every day with some lychee-flavored black tea (another purchase from 99 Ranch).



and as I waited in line to purchase them, I was thrilled to see a man ahead of me with a basket full of egg custard tarts. I had searched for them on our previous visit with no luck- turns out, they were on the counter (I never would have noticed them otherwise!) and I grabbed the last few. Next to them were also Portuguese-style custard tarts, so I got one for comparison- it's the more caramelized one on the right-



I can't remember when I was in San Francisco last, so I'm glad to have a closer source for these. The egg custard tarts were tasty, but the crust was definitely not as flaky as you'd find in other Chinese bakeries or dim sum restaurants. I did enjoy the Portuguese-style tart, mostly because the creamier, more vanilla-flavored custard filling was a lot like creme brulee.

Last stop was the Candy Box, where a really nice woman kept the samples coming. She seemed to have some favorites and was eager to share them. Munch loved her, especially as she gave us another heaping handful of samples as we headed out the door. We purchased these grape and lychee flavored chews-


and these adorable chocolate biscuits (they're tiny-about the size of my thumb to my knuckle)

Yummies from the Pacific East Mall

I'm still feeling bummed that I missed Michelle's dim sum birthday feast at Yank Sing, so I loaded Munch into the car for a trip to the Pacific East Mall, home of 99 Ranch Market, for some tasty treats. After a requisite pass through the Hello Kitty-type shop where Munch wanted to purchase one of everything and was having an extremely difficult time remembering the "only touch with one finger" rule, we headed off to the dim sum counter in the market. We ordered sweet rice cake, steamed pork buns, roasted pork (mmm...crispy skin), fried tofu with shrimp, sesame balls, and har gow to sample, and a red bean bubble tea slushie to wash it all down. Munch quickly polished off a whole order of har gow all by herself.

Before we left to share our goodies with Grandma & Grandpa, we stopped in at the Hong Kong Snack House, where I heard they make egg puffs, a bubble-shaped waffle-like treat. We ordered the pandan coconut- so green, yet so yummy!