CHINATOWN district, San Francisco

Take some time to find this little out of the way factory in Chinatown. It sits in an alley so isn't easy to find. But the stop is SO worth it.

A little Chinese gentleman is the ringleader of this circus. He hawks the cookies and asks for a 50 cent donation if you take any pictures.

Two little old ladies remove each cookie from the revolving hot irons and BY HAND insert the fortune and bend the cookie around a steel mandrel.

We bought a small bag of flats (flat cookies without the fortune) and now wish we'd have bought more.

They're So tasty.

Via the Kong Chow Temple we walked to Grant. It was a completely different sight compared to Stockton Street.

On Grant you'll find a lot of souvenirshops and it's definately the "commercial" part of China Town. Althought we liked Stockton Street much more it was still nice to see all the beautiful lanterns and colourfully painted fronts.

Chinatown is a community within San Francisco that is worth the walk through. Many restaurants and shops line the area. We walked through and had our pictures taken at the gates.....it's a nice place to stroll though and get a bite to eat.

I saw this guy in Chinatown. He was protesting, I tried to ask him what he was protesting for, but i didn't understand him. People walked right past him while he was yelling things out in his language. He gave me a paper but it was in taiwanese, i'm not sure what it said. But he was interesting to see, he was very passionate!

If you visit San Francisco's Chinatown, you will have to walk Grant Avenue from California Street all the way to Columbus. There will be many stores, lots of walking, so, on a hot day, you will need to stay hydrated. Wanna try something different and healthy? Then check out TenRen's Tea. I walked in this one and ordered a Red Bean Tapioca Drink. I read somewhere that Red Bean is one of the healthiest toxin cleansing things you can digest.

The service is fast, friendly, and you will be refreshed.

One fun thing to do while in Chinatown is to see how a fortune cookie is actually made.

Like the Origin of the Tango in Argentina, the origin of the Fortune cookie has many theories. Some date it back to the 13th to 14th century in China, others say it was invented in Los Angeles around 1918, and then there's even a theory that a Japanese American in San Francisco invented the Fortune Cookie!!!

One thing is for certain: Fortune Cookies as we are familiar with in American Restaurants were not introduced to China until 1992!!!

The fortune cookie is a great example of how cultures reinvent themselves as depicted by the Chinese American community in San Francisco's Chinatown.

Walk about the Alleyways of Chinatown until you find Ross Alley, somewhere between Grant and Stockton and Clay and Jackson. In this lovely alleyway, where you'll hear sounds of Mah Jong played in houses, a chinese Violin, and even the percussion of a dragon dance company practicing it's moves, you will first smell and then find the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory. Literally, a hole in the wall, you will just see two or three workers making cookies and putting them in bags. They'll even let you sample a hot one freshly made.

Here you can purchase a bag of fortune cookies for as little as $1.00. You can buy a large bag of "flat fortune" cookies for $3.00. But I thought the process of making them was the most interesting.

This company was founded in 1962, the year of the Tiger.

The Kong Chow temple, in the headquarters of the Kong Chow Association (a Chinatown community organization), was first built around 1853, in a different location, but many of the temple's original elements have been transported to this newer location, on the 4th floor of an office building. Not much from the outside, but well worth the trip inside.

It's a Taoist temple, with dozens of sticks of incense constantly burning, the ash falling into great urns, and offerings left on the altar, as well as prayer flags and other objects affixed around the room. There's an elaborate carving on the left side facing the altar that is especially interesting: it shows the signs of many, many years of incense-smoke!

Although visitors are welcome, please be aware that this is a place of worship - indeed, people may be performing devotions during your visit - and you should behave appropriately. Donations are not solicited, but it might be polite to put something small in the box near the door.

This is well worth a visit. the food is great, you are initially drawn by the smell, then you realise there is too much choice.

Try some of the places the locals use. They are just off the main haul through Chinatown in the side streets. There are some wonderful Dim Sum take aways.