Waking around Chinatown the day after New Years

[Twister411]

I wanted to do something during Chinese New year’s which lasts from one full moon period, roughly a month. I missed the flower market which runs the week before Chinese New Year in Chinatown. @KimberlyAnnG and I already had plans today to go to de Young, but I said hey it’s this time of year, how about waking around Chinatown to see what they have for the New Year.

We started with dim sum at the Great Eastern Chinese Restaurant. We ordered 3 dishes each, knowing that we’ll be eating other foods throughout the day.

Even with 6 dishes, we were fairly stuffed so I’m glad we would be doing a lot of walking.

Next stop, I wanted to check out Chinatown Sweets and Pastries which would run until Feb 24. The website didn’t specify that it runs Thursday through Sunday. So we were a bit disappointed when we got to 41 Ross St.

From the we walked up to Stockton street which is the main streets got markets, small mom and pop shops, and herb stores. I was looking for some ingredients for a family tradition of New Year vegetarian dish and some traditional sweets.

These offerings are got guess that visit. You offer them tea, oranges and sweets. Usually your visiting many family and friends, you only take a small piece of sweets.

Usually children and unmarried adults are offered a red envelope filled with lucky money and sometimes a piece of candy.

An envelope can never be offered empty to anyone.

We checked out a herbal store. Even growing up with traditional cooking, I didn’t know what some of the things we and many of them I do not know how to cook. I was explaining the joke of black moss we nicknamed hair. It’s a must have during the new year in dishes. In Chinese it’s Fat, which means wealthy. So eating this brings wealth

We continued to wander around and took a quick to a deli and butcher shop. There was some lively conversation going on. I order my item, the lady in the deli counter offered us each a sample of roasted pork. It was delicious with the crispy skin.

At this point we’ve been wandering for about 2 hours. Next planned stop is a tea tasting. Tea has many flavors and types. We head over to a tea shop I occasional visit. Bag tea you get at the supermarket is very different than getting loose leaf tea that is selected for your pallet. The tasting in our group lasted 45 minutes. Uncle really enjoyed sharing information about the different teas, jokes and life lessons.

Rules of making a cup of tea

1 Never use boiling water. Once it comes to a boil, turn off the pot and let it sit for a minute

2. Rise the tea with hot water and piur out the water immediately

3 Bloom the leaves by adding hit water and using the lid of the tea cup, slight run the lid over at and angle to gently mix

4. Pour it into your drinking cup. Do not let the leaves soak more than a minute.

5 You should get right 8oz cups

6 Do not add anything to the tea

7 the best cup is the fourth cup

The last thing we stopped for was Boba tea, also called bubble tea. That forgot to get a picture of.

[TsekoV]

Hi @Twister411 ,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts how you experienced the Spring festival. Is it the first time you feel the spirit of the Chinese New Year or do you go every year?

I must say all of the photos of the dishes that you talked about look quite appetizing. Which one did you like the most?

As for the tea ceremony, could you guess which tea you are drinking? Sometimes it is possible, but there are so many types of tea that I believe it is not an easy task to do. You have shared quite nice tips on how to prepare the tea.

Have you ever received hongbao - those red packets that elder people give to their children during this festival? Here are some photos that I made in a market in China while people were shopping their sweets, hongbao packets and different decorations.

And here are some decorations that people put in their houses. One of the main decorations if the character Fu 福 (wealth) that you must put on your front door. One of the traditions say that this decoration must be put upside down which in Chinese would mean that wealth has arrived.

[Twister411]

@TsekoV Chinese New Year is celebrated as long as I can remember. As children my parents would take us to see the lion dancers in Lot Angeles. Even my children went to see lion dancers since they were babies.

When they were in middle and early parts of high school they were part of the Chung Ngai dance troop performing the Diablo.

They performed throughout the Bay Area and in the San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade.

It’s hard to pick my favorite dim sum. Usually I’ll order 12 dishes but because we’re walking around we just ordered what we thought we would be able to finish eating at lunch time.

With the teas I like green teas, bolay, and chrysanthemum teas. During the tea tasting they picked a teas for us to try. The only tea that I got during the sampling was the angel green tea and the lychee green tea. I also got a chrysanthemum tea and an apple green tea.

I did but a lot sweets. I’ll bring them to work to share as my kids are off at college and it’s too tempting for me to have so much at home. After walking around for 3 hours had two bags full of goodies and groceries.

[TsekoV]

What a great tradition you have @Twister411 !

Do you still go to see the lion dancers? They are quite beautiful and energetic.

As for the type of tea, my favorite one is Pu’er tea. Have you ever tried it? I like the taste of it and the feeling you have after drinking it. People say that unlike green tea, this kind of tea cannot get old. On the contrary, the older it gets, the more delicious and healthy it is.

[KimberlyAnnG]

@TsekoV we DID try the Pu’er tea!!! Uncle served it last and educated us on exactly how it is made!

Everytime I go to Chinatown in SF I grow to love it more! It is such a unique corner of the city. The tea tasting with Uncle is something I will do any time he’s in the store! Such a fun character. In addition to the Pu’er tea, I bought the Blue People Oolong. It has a definite floral sweetness that I really enjoyed. When it’s gone, I’ll go back to have Uncle prescribe some more! As Uncle told us, tea is more about the health benefits as opposed to the taste. He’s 88 years old (married for 57 years, sorry ladies) and he’s one of the most energetic men I’ve met. I think he may be on to something!!!

[TsekoV]

Hi @KimberlyAnnG ,

I am happy to hear that your uncle is healthy and is drinking tea constantly.

Honestly speaking I am trying to drink Pu’Er almost every day. It is considered to be black tea, but when drinking it doesn’t affect your heart or pulse. If you drink green tea, it can affect your pulse. I know that if you drink Pu’Er tea on regular basis, it can clean your blood from all bad toxins and one can loose weight and feel much more lighter as all the toxins will be gone.

Here is a photo of the box of tea that I keep everyday close to me.