“Summer Saturdays on Waverly” Street Festival: Craving Chinatown Food Fest | Chinatown
Saturday, July 28, 2018 - 11:00 am to 2:30 pm | Cost: FREE*
Waverly Place | Waverly Place, San Francisco, CA
July 28: Craving Chinatown Food Fest
The first food festival in the community will feature a selection of Chinatown restaurants offering items that bring to mind, memories of “what food cravings bring you to Chinatown to eat?” Local Chinatown restaurants will feature unique dishes and snacks as well as food demonstrations.
Pricing info to come
We got there close to 11:30am, and caught the end of the opening ceremony, some local political people were in attendance, and lion dances. Following that, there were 7 savory, 2 sweet, and 2 drink vendors to choose from. Each $15 ticket got you stamps for five food options ($10 if you checked in ahead on Facebook). Between that and a stop at iCafe Bakery for pineapple pork buns, we were stuffed.
The event was well organized and food was served with minimal lines. Thanks to the stamps, and at most two options at each vendor, service was quick.
The businesses included were well curated and included a mix of older Chinatown businesses, like New Golden Daisy and Capital Restaurant, with newer upscale places like China Live and Mister Jiu’s, whose owner Brandon Jew served bao from his restaurant’s window. My favorite items were Capital Restaurant’s salt & pepper fried chicken wings, which stayed crispy, and Poke Fusion’s poke skewer (112 Waverly), which was a lighter spicy contrast to the meaty ands dough-based offerings (China Live’s vegetarian potstickers FTW).
All proceeds supported the Community Youth Center of SF, which I hope will make this an annual event.
I promised myself the next trip to San Francisco will include a stop at Capital Restaurant for the empress clam:
from SF Eater:
The empress clam is a show-off dish of a giant surf clam that is steamed, sliced thin, and tossed with scallion oil vermicelli, then put back in the clam’s shell. They come two per order, so order one plate per two people
I haven’t tried it there. Have you tried Great China’s version? Their Steamed Surf Clams are served sliced in the shell, and are seasoned with rice wine, white pepper, and finished with shredded green onion, over which they pour hot oil to bring out aromas. I don’t recall their version including vermicelli like at Cantonese places.
Thanks for the tip about the sliced steamed surf clams at Great China. Did a quick check and Luke Tsai raved about them in the East Bay Express a few years ago and you’re right, they are served there without noodles:
excerpt:
Another of my favorites was the steamed surf clams, which are priced at $7.95 a pound and are huge. The cooks slice the meat thinly and steam it, then present the tender-chewy sliced meat on the half-shell topped with slivered scallions and hot oil — the traditional condiments for Chinese steamed fish. Scoop some white rice right into the shell so that it soaks up all of that oily sauce. It’s not health food, but it’s tasty.
Empress clams is a fairly standard dish at Cantonese restaurant. You should be able to find it fairly easily in Cantonese places that has some seafood, including those in Oakland Chinatown.
I liked the mushroom filling, but found the bun dough to neutralize any truffle flavor, and prevent it from enhancing the stuffing. I also directly tasted some truffle, which was shaved onto my bao as I watched, and couldn’t taste much. Plenty else I want to try at Mister Jiu’s so glad to have that one off the list
Golden Gate has been open at least since Thursday of last week.
We overheard two tourists at the very end of the queue, as we walked by on Saturday. “What’s this line for?” “Dunno, I think they are giving something away free”.
I think hyperbowler was referring to the opening time. GG Bakery is usually open at 12 (per the random signs that I see). Closes around 8 I think, but the times are pretty much whenever they want.
They actually reopened from vacation about 2/3 weeks ago. When they do go on vacation, they state that they are on vacation and should be back in X week. Only problem being… they don’t tell you when they started vacation…
Oh I rarely ever buy anything from GG Bakery nowadays if there’s a line. I just happen to pass by that place quite often on the weekends lol. I’ve seen that site to be not quite updated before but maybe its better.
