Our first full day in San Francisco started off in Chinatown. Chinatown wasn’t that far away from where we were staying but it took quite awhile to get there just because of all of the traffic going through town. I liked seeing how the neighborhood changed though. One minute we’re surrounded by buildings and the next… Chinatown!
We found a parking garage to park in and went to roam around Chinatown.
One of our first stops was at the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory. It’s basically in an alley. It seems like there is no wasted building space in San Francisco. Everything is packed densely together.
There was a guy right next to Fortune Cookie factory that was playing an interesting looking instrument. It was kind of eerie sounding. He played “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and then moved into some other tunes. I took a little video of it.
There’s a bit of a line coming out of the Fortune Cookie factory, but it’s not a super long wait. They allow 10 people at a time inside. It says there’s a “tour” of the factory, but really you just stand in line, look around, get a free fortune cookie disk, buy some stuff, and then leave.
Here they had bags of unfolded fortune cookies for sale, some in different flavors.
They had bags of fortune cookies plus some “fancier” cookies dipped in chocolate.
This is pretty much the whole “factory”. There looked to be three stations set up. You can watch the ladies making the fortune cookies as they are cooked and come out of the conveyor belt. They quickly remove the cookie and fold it into shape and put the fortune message inside. There was a sign that asked you to pay 50 cents to take a photo of them making cookies. I don’t think my photo counts since the lady in front wasn’t actually making cookies at the time. Ha.
After getting fortune cookies, we wandered around a few of the streets. I poked into a few shops to get souvenirs. We asked a lady working in the souvenir shop where we should get lunch and she told us to go to “Jackson Street”. Dad scoped it out while Jake went shopping and he picked a place called New Woey Loy Goey Restaurant. What a name, right?!
You have to go down a set of stairs to get to New Woey Loy Goey Restaurant. We got there around 11am so it was empty. The closer it got to noon, the more full it got until there was a line up the stairs! Here’s Jake, who was ready for our meal!
Here’s Dad with some fish tanks behind him.
Dad wanted some Hot and Sour soup [$8.50]. They don’t sell it by the individual bowls, only in big ass bowls meant for sharing. Our waitress ladled out three bowls of soup even though I didn’t want any. So, I tried it. I still don’t like it. It’s too sour tasting for me, but Dad and Jake loved it.
We wanted some fried rice. We didn’t quite know which one to choose so we ordered the Tung Lok Fried Rice [$6.95] assuming it would be like a “house” special fried rice. There was a little bit of everything in here – pieces of shrimp, pork, chicken, fried egg, and peas. It didn’t really look like much. Heck, it hardly looked like any “fried” rice we have tried before but this fried rice was so flavorful! There was a nice seasoning to it and I loved the little chunks of meat inside. It was like finding little pieces of treasure in my fried rice. Very simple dish but packed an incredible amount of flavor!
Jake wanted to try the Spicy Salt & Pepper Pork Spareribs [$8.95]. These fried spareribs have the same fried garlic & pepper topping that you usually see on items like salt & pepper chicken wings. Most of the garlic goodness was at the bottom of the plate and when we took a few pieces, we made sure to grab the extra garlic to sprinkle on top.
These spareribs were SO TENDER. We were amazed at how tender they were. Dad kept wondering what magical thing they did to make them that way. The coating was light and crunchy and we gobbled these spareribs right UP. Damn delicious!
Dad wanted some Sweet and Sour Pork [$8.95] and that rounded out lunch for us. These crunchy coated nuggets of porky goodness were excellent. The pork was again very tender and a had a nice coating on the outside. The sweet and sour sauce was well balanced and thick, perfectly coating each nugget. Along with the pork there were pieces of onion, green pepper, and pineapple chunks.
All in all this was an excellent meal and I loved that nothing was over $10! Total score! Thanks to Dad for treating us to lunch!
New Woey Loy Goey Restaurant
699 Jackson Street
San Francisco, CA 94133
After lunch, we roamed around town a bit more. We drove down the famous windy Lombard Street along with other steep streets like this one, which had a view of Alcatraz off in the distance. We cruised by Fisherman’s Wharf and saw that it was PACKED with people and decided we didn’t need to stop. Then we went back to our Airbnb for a little nap before heading to AT&T Park for the Giants baseball game.
We took a Lyft to go to the ballpark since it seemed like the fastest and easiest way to get there. It was about $9 each way, which wasn’t too bad.
I was told to definitely try the Gilroy Garlic fries at the ballpark. There were a few of these stands around. The fries were already cooked and waiting when you order.
I also spied this little cart selling Chinese food in the ballpark.
Brats!! But not just any Brat… I made sure to get the Sheboygan brats. There are different kinds of brats in the ballpark but I specifically looked for this one.
I got my Sheboygan bratwurst on a bun with grilled onions and added a bit of mustard to it. This sucker was HUGE and extended well past the bun it was on. I prefer brats to hot dogs and this brat was not a disappointment! I loved the seasoning of the brat and it managed to stay really juicy. I wished the bun was warmed up, but the star of the show here is the brat.
Jake and I walked around the whole ballpark, checking out the sights and all of the food booths before we made it up to our seats.
The famous Gilroy Garlic fries! They… were all right. Maybe it was because they were already prepared and I had to walk all the way back to my seat before I could eat them, but they felt a bit underwhelming since they were no longer hot and fresh. They were more lukewarm by the time I got to eat them but they did have a good amount of garlic flavor to them. They were a munchable snack but I wish I had tried them when they were a bit hotter.
Pretty view from our seats. You can watch the boats on the bay while you watch the game!
Hooray!
