Day 3: Chinatown, DimSum and the Chinese New Year Parade

Chinatown:
WOW! I think every person of Chinese descent in the western United States came to Chinatown today. There were people EVERYWHERE! We were lucky that it just sprinkled off and on in the morning so we were able to find the GPS and spend some time in Chinatown before the storms rolled in. We did a little shopping for the kids, found another umbrella and tooled around as much as possible given the crowd. I found the street fair very interesting as it was not what you would have pictured. I'm thinking there are going to be little tents with games, trinkets, free stuff and yummy lo mein noodles from a cup. Ummm...not even close. The cute little red and white tents you see lining the main street of Chinatown were occupied by the San Francisco Water Department, the Chinatown Council, the local school, cell phone companies, etc. Most tents were for information. Some were giving away things like gift cards and free cell phones, etc. This is the one I found most interesting: the Chinatown Lowe's tent. Mr. Lowe's man even had on the vest.


the DimSum experience:
I was told (by the guide books) that when in Chinatown you simply must eat dimsum at a place called Gold Mountain. I have talked for weeks about eating dim sum in Chinatown on Chinese New Year. What was it I said earlier..."when in Chinatown do as the Chinese"? After all, we are adopting a baby girl from China so we need to get in touch with our Asian side. That is what good parents would do, right? It never crossed my mind to do a little more research into what exactly IS dimsum? It was described as little carts that stroll around the restaurant offering little Chinese appetizers. Mmmmmm...appetizers. I loooooovvveeeee appetizers so this was right up my alley. I never thought another thing of it. We're going to eat dimsum in Chinatown because that's what everyone does. Well, girls, let me tell you. Gold Mountain did not have any ham rolls, sausage balls or creme puffs. Their idea of appetizers and my idea of appetizers are NOT the same.

So, we find Gold Mountain in the sea of Chinese writing and head on in. Oh, girls, I was so excited. We're eating dimsum in Chinatown on Chinese New Year! Isn't that awesome? The hostess at the front door could not speak any English. She stuck up two fingers and just pointed in which direction she wanted us to walk to find a table. Picture a HUGE open restaurant with random tables filled with families enjoying their Saturday as a family and two very cute Americans smiling from ear to ear. There are only two seats open in the entire place. We made our way through the stares of little old Asian men and sat down at the tiny table where a little pot of tea awaited us. Awwww...tea. My friend Rebekah would be so excited if she was here. I looked around for a menu after our server plopped two plates and a piece of paper down on our table. OK...no menu...no Sweet and Sour Chicken for me today. That's OK, I didn't come for chicken. I came for cute little appetizers. See, here is a google image of dimsum at Gold Mountain. Don't they look so cute?Oh, boy, here come those little carts with all the cute little appetizers. Here comes one, wonder what he has? It went something like this...

S: Ca iss [he quickly said]
M: I'm sorry, could you repeat that?
S: Ca iss
[Daddy and I look at each other in confusion...Hmmm...then he opens the top of that little wooden bowl and I am overcome with a horrible stinch]
S: Ca iss! [he is obviously annoyed with me]
M: Oh, cod fish, no thank you [as I look in smiling horror]

This went on and on...dee-fie shimp ball, steem poke bun, ba-b-too poke bun, egg cusar tar. They would wheel by the table and say what was on their cart in the very best English they could muster. After a while I started to say yes because I didn't want to hurt their feelings. You could tell they really wanted us to eat but we kept saying no. I began to notice every time I said "yes" they put these cute little stamps on that paper she put on the table when we sat down. It wasn't until Daddy told me to stop saying "yes" that I realized what those cute little stamps represented. That little piece of paper and those cute little stamps? That was our ticket. OH! I was just trying to be nice.

At this point I was a little antsy as I realized I DO NOT HAVE ONE SINGLE CLUE WHAT I AM DOING!!!!! Then, I broke open one of those steem poke bun (steamed pork buns). THAT WAS IT FOR ME LADIES! I was done. I ate one deep fried shrimp thing and two egg custard tarts without gagging. Then, I had a moment.

When we go to China to bring home our daughter what in the world am I going to eat? I'm going to starve if this is the definition of authentic Chinese food. Who needs Weight Watchers? I'll just go to a foreign country for two weeks. By this point my cheesy American smile has turned upside down. I am watching the butcher in the little window chop pieces of meat with a huge knife and hang it up in the window. I am so ready to go. I can't get out of there fast enough. Daddy quickly pays for all of our "stamps" and we are outta there but not before our server demands her service tip. ;-)

Daddy was a trooper. I dragged him all the way to the far end of Chinatown through a HUGE crowd (which he hates) to eat something that I ended up not eating myself. He can say he ate dimsum. He didn't LOVE it but he experienced it. I can not say that. I will try as hard as I can to expose our daughter to her heritage. I just hope she never asks me to eat a steem poke bun. Hopefully she'll like sweet and sour chicken like her Mommy. :-)

For your viewing pleasure, a few more google images of dimsum. I was too overwhelmed to whip out my camera in the restaurant so google will have to do.So, after this we headed back to the hotel before the bottom fell out. We took a nap and Daddy played with his new man toy (AKA the GPS) while we waited for the parade to start. It is always a rain or shine parade but we were NOT standing in the rain for three hours. So, we watched the beginning of it from our window and then headed out to find some dinner. We ate at a little Italian place off Union Square called L'Ottavo at the recommendation of our hotel. It was wonderful. We almost lost our umbrellas a few times in the wind but so did everyone else so we didn't look that ridiculous. Two hours later we were back at the hotel catching the end of the 3 hour CNY parade. After our marathon day on Friday, it was great to have a little down time. Off to Napa Valley tomorrow...