Chinatown Kitch

This is my third in a series about a few fun places to explore in Chinatown (we also featured the San Francisco Chinatown Fortune Cookie Factory and Vital Leaf Tea shop).

Just across from the Vital Leaf Tea shop at 1044 Grant Avenue, is a Hello Kitty type store that sells little toys, Pokemon cards, knick-knacks and stationary. The kids loved it. I was more entranced by some funny products that had awesome English translations.

This fragrance above says "Natural Spa - it is a fragrance that makes you relaxed as if you enjoy SPA."

This car fragrance was my favorite. It says "New car fragrance that not is before." And the scent (you can't read it in the photo) is SEXY RICH.

This coin bank says: "Honey - Fall in love with..."


Huh???? Fall in love with money? Fall in love with the bank?

This next one was part of a pair. This one says: "Husband I love you" - because nothing says love like a pile of pennies, apparently. The unintended humor (in case you miss it) is the hand-written sign on the bank that says "please handle with care." It's only on the Husband bank. Hmm....

The matching bank is pink and says "Wife I love you too." I guess he loves her enough to let her collect her own pile of pennies.

And last (this wasn't from the Hello Kittty type shop, but rather in one of the generic souvenier shops)...

This is The Original Jesus Saves bank, "the bank you can trust." Just put some coins in his crotch, and you're good.

Here's a little bible verse on the side of the box, in case you're not totally convinced to buy it. "He who gathers money, little by little, makes it grow." From Proverbs.

(by the way, the Jewish joke is that Jesus saves, but Moses invests...)

Also in Chinatown:
Fortune Cookie Factory - free!
Vital Leaf Tea tastings - free!

Coming Up: Star Wars the Clone Wars weekend at Zeum

For all you Star Wars fans out there, you won't want to miss this event at Zeum. They're partnering with Lucasfilm (yes, Lucasfilm) so kids and familes can create their own intergalactic adventure at Zeum. Haven't been to Zeum? It's San Francisco’s hands-on, multimedia arts and technology museum - and it's awesome.

What can you do there?
--Lightsaber Training - Jedi Masters will show you how to wield a glowing lightsaber and control the Force

--Movie-making - You can build clay models of your favorite Star Wars™ characters and bring the adventure to life with stop-motion animation in the Animators Studio
--Green Screen Special Effects - Write a script and direct our own The Clone Wars episode
--Take pictures with Star Wars: The Clone Wars characters and special guests


When: Saturday, September 11, 2010 & Sunday, September 12, 2010 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: Zeum, 221 Fourth Street, San Francisco
Cost: $8 for kids (ages 3-18) and $10 for adults. Free for Zeum members

What to do with Kids Labor Day weekend in San Francisco

I planned to write a long post with lots of ideas for fun family events in San Francisco this Labor Day weekend. But I've been swamped with other work. So I'm going to refer you to Bay Area on the Cheap, one of my colleague's sites, because they list some great family-friendly ideas, like:

--Bank of America "Museums on Us" program (fee museum membership for B of A customers)
--McLaren Park (SF) free BBQ with DJ, hot dogs, hamburgers and veggie items
--Free Shakespere in the Park (SF) - Two Gentlemen of Verona
--Yerba Buena Gardens Festival  - free
--Coyote Point free first Sunday (San Mateo - there's a fabulous Magic Mountain playground in the park there)
--SFMOMA Family Sunday program

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Chinatown: Fortune Cookie Factory

While I have memories of visiting the fortune cookie factory on a family vacation 30 years ago, I had never taken my kids. So we headed out in search of San Francisco's Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory. Zachary really wanted a tour, though I kept telling him I didn't think there was an actual tour. My memory was of a dark room with women folding the warm cookies by hand. Enough to see, but not much to tour.

The sign says the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory has been around since 1962, but it looks much older.

The Golden Gate Fortune Cookie "factory" is at 56 Ross Alley, between Jackson and Washington, Stockton and Grant. An old man sat out front eagerly inviting us inside. Once in the door, one of the employees greeted us with round samples of flat cookies that never made it to fortune cookie status. I took a photo of her handing them out, and she said loudly "50 cents a photo." So this blog post cost me $1, in addition to the cookies I bought. (I didn't pay for the photo above since it was outside the factory).

Inside you'll see three women sitting in a line (not facing each other so they can talk easily), each by a cookie machine. The batter automatically pours into a mold (you can see it behind the woman in the photo below), and goes around in a circle, getting cooked. They peel off the warm cookies, insert the fortune, and fold them into shape. It's hard to believe they're still doing this by hand. It was very hot that day, and the women sat there with long sleeves folding cookie after cookie. I felt sorry for them and wondered if they ever develop carpal tunnel syndrome.

Not surprisingly, you can buy bags of cookies (plain, or chocolate and plain mixed) for $4.75. They also sell "adult' versions which I was anxious to try, but not with the kids around. You can also buy almond cookies for $3.75, but I didn't think they were very good.

You can see a pile of cash sitting atop the cookie machine in the photo. The old man selling us the cookies just grabbed change from up there. Not very official. No cash register, no wallet, no documentation of money paid. No taxes? Hmmmm...
I told my mom about the factory and how it looked a little different than I remember. It turns out the factory we visited in my youth was in Oakland. Ah, now that explains it.

If you go:
Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory has no website (what do you expect for a factory where three women hand-fold cookies?)
Where: 56 Ross Alley, San Francisco (between Jackson and Washington, Stockton and Grant)
Cost: free (but photos are 50 cents each)

Also fun in Chinatown: Vital Leaf Tea tastings - just around the corner. A beautiful shop where you can learn about different teas - for free!

And - my friend June says there's a fabulous vegan restaurant on Ross Alley, near the fortune cookie factory, if you're hungry. I don't have the address, but the alley is only one block long

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Deal of the Day: Silliman Aquatic Center 50% off

I've posted before about Silliman Aquatic Center in Newark. It's a great indoor water park good for toddlers up to teens. Read Frisco Kids' review of Silliman Aquatic Center here. There's a kiddie play area (see below)

plus a lazy river, plus water slides for kids and adults over a certain height. And there's a hot tub and lap poool as well. We've been several times and love it there.
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Mamapedia is offering 4 admissions for $15 (50% off) - you can use it this weekend. Get the deal here. The deal is offered for the next three days, and it's good through September 11, 2011. The place is open in winter, so if you want to swim in winter - here's a good option!

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Chinatown: Tea Tastings at Vital Tea Leaf

It had been a long time since I wandered through Chinatown. So we headed over there one day in search of the Fortune Cookie Factory. We found it (written up in a separate post), but we also found a few other fun stores to share with you.

Vital Tea Leaf was one of them. The clean and modern tea tasting salon is modern and inviting. There's a long tea tasting bar, with seats, fortune cookies and beautiful displays of tea. Tastings are free.

The walls are lined with jars of different teas - available for sale. The staff there can help you pick out whatever you're looking for - whether it's something to soothe your digestive system, or a pick-me-up.

Plus in the back you'll find other specialy teas, like bricks of tea (apparently tea used to be packaged this way and you'd just break a chunk off to boil into the beverage).

If you're a tea lover, you must read Sarah Rose's book For All the Tea in China. I mentioned it on the blog once before, but it's a fascinating story about how the English stole seedlings and trade secrets from China to grow their own tea empire.

Vital Tea Leaf has three Chinatown locations - the one we feature here is at 1044 Grant Avenue. There's also one on Pacific Avenue (at Jones Street). Admittedly, we did not do the tea tasting. With 4 kids and only 2 adults on this excursion, it was a bit too much to ask of our kids, none of whom like tea. Sigh. I'll have to go back without them.

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Coming Up: Free National Park Entrance

Vaationing at a National Park has to be one of the best bargains around. But the national park service is offering free entrance several times in 2010. So mark your calendars and make your plans. About 100 national parks are included in the list, with 12 from California. Those include Lava Beds National Monument, San Francisco's Maritime National Historical Park, Muir Woods, and Yosemite. You can see the entire list of 100 free parks here.:


--September 25, 2010 (Public Lands Day)
--November 11, 2010 (Veterans Day)

You still might need to pony up for camping reservations, but the entrance fee will be waived.