Three Highlights

There were 3 highlights to July 5th.  Alcatraz, lunch, and after dinner dessert.

Alcatraz is just cool.  If you ever get a chance, go.  They give you an audio tour that is narrated by ex-guards and ex-prisoners that experienced the prison themseves.  Its really well done.  

You can see we were well prepared for the cold wind today.  This is a view of San Francisco from Alcatraz...

The second highlight was Shanghai Dumpling King.  Its an unassuming little restaurant that seats maybe 30 people and is in an area of the city that you really have to work at to find.  We used our recently gained knowledge of the bus system along with our feet to make it.  I had researched a bunch of restaurants in preparation for our trip and this place was high on the list for good and cheap.

We really weren't sure what to order, having never been to a Chinese dumpling restaurant before.  So we asked the waiter for recommendations and this is what we got.
 

Green pea sprouts...don't turn up your nose.  This dish was to die for!  Allen aptly described them as tender shoots of asparagus attached to spinach leaves.  They were tender and buttery with a hint of garlic.  I'd go back just to eat them again. 

The dumplings did not disapoint either.  They came out steaming.  Tasting like tender little sausage balls, wrapped in a noodle.

We ordered two different types.  This one was a litte more spicy and had rice inside along with the sausage and veggies.  

Dessert was a sesame rice dumpling.  This was the strangest part of the meal.  It came in a warm, sugary, clear broth.  The dumplings were pure white, and when you bit into them, they were thick and chewy with a grainy sugar/sesame filling.  We liked them more for the experience than anything else, they were fun.

As we were complimenting the waiter on the food, we told him we like to blog and asked that he tell us the names of everything we had eaten.  He obliged and was impressed with the voice to text feature I used on my phone.  He even went to get his so I could show him how to use it.  He also suggested we try one more thing, the sugar egg puff.  It was yummy and fresh and tasted like funnel cake.

We left the restaurant quite pleased with ourselves for finding it.  Next door was a little Chinese market and we bought Oolong tea, which I am currently enjoying while I type, and also candied ginger.

After eating, we explored the De Young art museum and also the Japanese tea garden in the Golden Gate park. 

I hate to say our dinner was a let down after lunch...it really wasn't...but it wasn't a highlight either.  We decided on a tourist favorite and waited in line for about 45 minutes to get in.  Really, it was very good.  If we hadn't had out of this world earlier in the day, I might have even said it was great.  It just wasn't quite the same.  But, it was good.

Waiting in line.

 The final highlight of the day was our dessert, bubble tea.  We had already enjoyed it the first night in SF, after our ramen experience.  The last thing we did in San Fracisco was go back and get one last glass.  Its a cold milky tea drink with tapioca balls in the bottom.  The straws are large so the tapioca balls can get sucked up in each slurp.  They are like really gummy jelly beans...its just good.