A PLACE TO WATCH THE WORLD GO BY WHILE EATING

Back in the eighties, during a bad time of my life, I lived on the edge of Chinatown. It was...... comfortable. Food was cheaper and more varied in C'town than in North Beach, and I didn’t have to put up with the artistic types or drug-users that infested the Italian neighborhood.

[Artistic types and drug-users: pretty much the same thing, there being so all-encompassing an overlap that one can scarce tell the difference. Since the Beat era, hip creative people have settled in North Beach where the wine and pasta are cheap (too damn' expensive), the atmosphere is picturesque and continental (seedy and littered with art and drugs), and elderly Italian gentlemen make love with their eyes to the frisky young ladies (old geezers glare disapprovingly at the pretentious slags and tarts). North Beach is probably the most bohemian neighborhood in San Francisco (bums, potheads, meth-freaks, whackos, trollops, and unintelligent dipwads with attitudes and tattoos – most Italians moved out years ago). Plus residential hotels, cafés, and a few food stores.]


The great thing about the many lunch counters then still extant in Chinatown was the warm no-nonsense atmosphere that tolerated a broad range of eccentricity provided you didn’t offend anyone, and the constant refills of coffee. Plus some of those places had bright young girls working behind the counter. That, by itself, encourages experimentation in dining.
And why yes, thank you, I will have some more coffee!

Most of the Chinatown lunch counters are gone now – the Eastern Bakery is now just a bakery with tables in the back (the kitchen is no longer full service), Uncle’s Coffee Shop removed the counter and now only offers table seating, the owners of Ping Yuen Bakery and Café retired several years ago.........

But there are still great places to eat without having to put up with an excess of artistic types.
Or visitors.

The Capitol Restaurant (京都餐館 on Clay Street up from Grant, between Waverly and Hang-Ah Alley) is still there. Full meals for a low price, darn decent quality, too. Brisk service, great salt and pepper wings, and good ox tail with tofu skin. Plus they have bitter melon. Family food.
I'll probably go there in a month or so when I have my appetite back.

On the other hand, I may head over to 華盛頓茶餐廳 (Washington Bakery and Restaurant) just below Grant for some 粥 (jook: rice porridge, congee) sometime this weekend.
I find 皮蛋猪肉粥 (rice porridge with preserved egg and pork) to be superlative comfort food. Especially with good quality lean meat (瘦肉).
It's very Cantonese.



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