CHINATOWN: FAVOURITE PLACES

An acquaintance asked where I preferred to smoke my pipe when not at work. Was it at home? Surrounded by my books and a shrunken head collection? Or was I an utter pervert, haunting school playgrounds after hours, when the little tykes were few and easily terrified?

How did I cope, with "no smoking" everywhere?

I gravidly informed him that I did so in my basement, while gloating over all the second hand tires I was saving up for the war effort.


But actually it's in several alleyways in Chinatown. Trenton Street, Beckett, Ross Alley, Hang Ah, and Commercial Street. Quiet at most times, cooler during a heatwave, and less windy than down in the financial district.

And far fewer belligerent heffalumps screeching about how that pipe will destroy my health, kill the wales, dolphins, and little children, and is the source of all that is evil in her universe.

ROSS ALLEY BY DAY

http://www.sanfranciscodays.com/chinatown/

Ross Alley between Washington and Jackson Streets

ROSS ALLEY AT NIGHT

http://www.vagabondish.com/photo-ross-alley-chinatown-san-francisco/ 

Vagabondish, Ross Alley, by Mark Coggins.

The Cantonese people in Chinatown are far more tolerant of smokers than the suburban middle classes in the Financial District or the shopping areas around Union Square, and there is more interesting stuff to eat or drink, without having to master yuppie-menuspeak or going broke
It's nicer, and much less snooty.


There are several places where I like to go for lunch or a tea-time snack, where I am welcome, and I know I will never see the screaming white suburban heffalumps.


荷里活茶餐廳 NEW HOLLYWOOD BAKERY & RESTAURANT
['Ho-lei-wut Chaa Chaan-teng']
652 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94133.
Telephone: 415-397-9919

華盛頓茶餐廳 WASHINGTON BAKERY AND RESTAURANT
['Waa-seng-duen Chaa Chaan-teng']
733 Washington Street, San Francisco, CA 94108.
Telephone: 415-397-3232

永興餅家茶餐廳 THE AA BAKERY & CAFÉ
['Wing-hing bing-ka Chaa Chaan-teng']
1068 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
(415) 981-0123


Plus of course Yummy Dim Sum and Fast Food, Capital Restaurant, Kam Po, Ma's Dim Sum and Cafe, New Fortune Dim Sum & Cafe, The Boiling Shrimp ...




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