The Blue Fairy of Union Square

Ok. Now, I will have to admit this is one of the more wacked things that I've seen in San Francisco. I was walking around Union Square and see this lady dressed up in blue as a fairy with a little wishing well begging for money. Wings and all. She talked in this fake high pitched English accent asking people to drop money into the well and make a wish. I dropped in some money into the well. She was trying to get me to tell her my wish but I wouldn't tell her. I was trying get the whole story out of her about the fairy thing. This totally fascinated me. Like maybe she needed some money... and like 2 in morning, she got some great ephany - "I can make a well out of a basket and dress up like a fairy to beg for money." "If you build it, they will come..." This just goes to show you that San Francisco people are seriously wacked in the head.  

Macy's in Union Square is having this chinese "Gardens of the Dragon" exhibit so they put up this big blow up dragon over the front doors.  

Adventures in Dimsum

I had to go run some errands today before going back home for the week for my father's funeral. I needed to get some lunch before doing that though so I tried calling up my friend, Joon, to see if he wanted to go grab dimsum in Chinatown. Last week, I found this ok place on Stockton. (I kind of realized that Grant St. has all of the expensive tourist traps but one block down on Stockton was were all of the good cheap stuff was.) It went ok. It wasn't crowded and the dimsum was ok. They ran out of xiao long bao though but I was able to finish everything off with a dan ta.

Anyway, Joon didn't call me back and I was getting kind of hungry so I just decided to go get some dimsum anyway. I couldn't remember the dimsum place on Stockton was but I did find this all-you-can eat dimsum place for $5. Cool. They were playing this tape in english about the all-you-can eat dimsum deal and I was totally sold. So I get up to the counter to ask the lady about the $5 deal and then she started speaking to me in Cantonese and I didn't understand anything that she was saying. Then this other lady comes to talk to me in Mandarin about the $5 deal. I kind of understood what she was saying and I had to break out my bad Mandarin/Chinglish to answer her. She was asking me for how many people and I was telling her for one person... "Duai, yi ge ren." Then she says something to me like "yi ge ren qi guai" which means pretty much "(Dimsum) for one person is strange." I'm like, "Strange??? What the hell? I just want to get something to eat." I don't know why Cantos always want to argue with me about stupid stuff. They pretty much didn't want to serve me because I came alone for dimsum. I hate arguing with chinese people in bad Mandarin so I just left. So crazy... like didn't want my money or something.

So I walked down to Broadway and Stockton and found this other dimsum place. I ordered some dimsum. The lady was asking me what I wanted and how many. I said two each of this stuff and some rice with chicken and chinese sausage. Now, I was pretty hungry at that point but I didn't realize how much stuff I actually ordered. I thought when I told her "two" is was two pieces but it was really two orders of each. So that's two times two. The lady gave me two trays full of food enough for two people. It wasn't the greatest dimsum that I ever had but the rice with chicken and chinese sausage was something I would make at home. My stomach has been kind of upset for a while so it really helped settle my stomach. The dan ta was probably the best dan ta that I ever had though. The crust was all coconuty. I think used coconut oil to make the crust.

While I was in Chinatown today, there was some special dragon dance performance. I'm not exactly sure what the special occassion was but they were having one. I was trying to read the chinese on that banner on the right but the wind was blowing it backwards. All I could make out was the characters for "dragon dance". 

Some arches of a building near the Citibank near work in the Embarcadero. 

I just thought that this was funky bubble that formed in bottle of shampoo.  

Nob Hill shrubbery. 

Saturday's catch of the day in Chinatown. 

I am a patient boy... I wait... I wait... I wait... I wait...