OUR COMMUNITY

Man I hope they survive this. They do good food, and their Chinese baked goods are stellar. Plus a number of people in the neighborhood rely on them for snackies. It's very much a hub.

I've always been fond of their tomato porkchops over rice (番茄豬扒飯 'faan ke chü paa faan'). Plus milk tea. Good place to spend an hour on an afternoon, in between smoking a pipe. Then lazily amble over a few blocks toward a bus stop on Sacramento Street to carry one over the hill. Today I had the salt fish and chicken friend rice (鹹魚雞粒炒飯 'haam yü gai naap chaau faan'), most of the time being the only customer in the place. Chinatown has been hit hard by the pandemic financial disaster, and there are for rent signs on some storefronts.
It's very much quieter there than it used to be.
Not as 熱熱鬧鬧 as before.



When one of the old Chinatown bakeries changed hands several years ago, and the old staff no longer worked there, the regulars all bailed out to other places, and a sense of community was lost. I still see a few of them here and there, but the place to which they go now doesn't appeal to most of us, and I gave up on it after only two visits.

Too many grumpy old snoots, not my type of place.
I lack the sourness they cater to.



So I'm very much hoping that the place with the tomato porkchops survives. I like the place, and I like a few of the regulars too. There are only two bakeries I patronize now -- a total of seven places where I can get milk tea -- and they all have nice people who work there.
Obviously I don't want the world to shrink even more.
I want them all to thrive again.
They deserve it.

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