La Petite Chinoise : LPC

I was preparing myself for the worst on the flight to the US. I packed light. I didn’t bring any liquids, mouthwash or water on the plane. I checked in my make-up pouch. I did not give any smart aleck replies:

Flight Officer: Did you bring any sharp objects?
Me: No officer, no sharp objects, no knives, no axes (but I brought my brain.)

Turned out that traveling to the US wasn’t so bad after all. The flights were smooth, the flight attendants were friendly, the luggage searches on the US-side were surprisingly easy. At customs, I answered the questions as best as a jet-lagged person could and they let me through.

Customs: What’s in the US?
Me: Shopping and Food. I’m here to shop and to eat.
Customs: What are you going to have?
Here is where I pulled out my moleskin and showed him my list.
Customs: Welcome.

They say that the fastest way to get over jet-lag is to exercise. We woke up bright and early on a foggy San Francisco morning and walked half an hour to Sears, off Union Square. Sears is a SF icon and has been around since 1938. Sears reminds me of an old French bistro, with the little hexagonal white tiles, heavy dark-wood tables, little pendant glass lamps… I’m probably very jet-lagged… but Sears was still a very “American” experience for me.

Remember the agent for Joey Triviani, from Friends? The chain-smoking, husky voice agent with the big blond curls? Our server was just like that, only she was not chain-smoking, she had thick black mascara, big curls, a little cute apron and a nice attitude. “Whad cann aye git ya tah-day?”

I’ve been dreaming of Big Breakfasts for a month before the trip… so, this morning, my big breakfast at Sears was an Al’s Special: two eggs over easy, corn beef hash, hash browns, 9 small pancakes, an extra order of hash browns and a strawberry milkshake. The strawberry milkshake was made with real strawberry coulis and lots of whipped cream. Of course, I know this is not reasonable. But I’ve been dreaming of this for a month… and we will be exercising… so…

For lunch, we opted to go light. We had nouveau Japanese food at Medicine Eat Station on Sutter Street. I had one of Medicine’s “Foundation Set” of savory Shiitake clear broth udon, a small block of tofu with ginger and nori and homemade pickled vegetables with black and white sesame seeds. Slurp! slurp!

The setting at Medicine is modern, with an open kitchen and huge glass windows to clearly see the menu. Here is what I find at the bottom of the menu:

ABOUT OUR TIPPING POLICY: The mind can truly rest after a meal since MEDICINE includes a 17% service charge in the bill, eliminating any stressful tip calculation and the ensuing internal battle of thriftiness versus generosity.”

Customers typically tip between 15% - 20% in SF. Personally, I don’t see how calculating 15% or 20% is very mentally challenging, but I can see it helps when there is a large lunch party. I don’t like the imposed 17% tip because that eliminates my choice of not tipping if the service is appalling. Thankfully, that was not the case and I did not have to be the ugly tourist.

After lunch, we somehow found ourselves back to Union Square (not that we wondered very far away) and into Macy’s. Macy’s is huge! Seven whole floors of shopping! We shopped our way from the basement up and five hours later, it was dinner-time at The Cheesecake Factory (TCCF for short).

I found my dinner experience at TCCF very interesting. TCCF gives its customers an RFID when we are waiting for our table (anything between 30-90 minutes). And the hyper chirpy waitress wouldn’t seat the party until all the members of the party are present. Our waiter was very friendly and stylish and he called us “Sweetie” and “Sweetheart” every time he came by our table. *Chuckles*

The menu is a book that is 14 pages long. The menu is written on the right page and advertisements for clothing, bedding, fine china is on the left page. It’s an melting pot menu of Italian pasta, steaks, Asian curries, seafood grill, Mexican burritos and two full pages of every imaginable type of cheesecake – it’s a “there’s something for everyone” type of menu.

Dinner was Bang-bang chicken and shrimp with rice and coconut sauce and a root beer. Ben and I shared a Tolberone cheesecake with almonds. There was way too much food, and what we couldn’t finish, our cute waiter doggie-bagged it for us.

All in all, my first day in San Francisco was lots of jaw-muscle exercise and shopping. And now, the other way to cure jet-lag – to bed!

Sears Fine Food
439 Powell St (off Union Square)
San Francisco, CA 94102
Tel: 1-415-765-0957 Fax:1-415-765-0957
Click here for the Sears Fine Food Website

MEDICINE Eat Station
161 Sutter Street at the Crocker Galleria
San Francisco, CA 94102
Tel: 1-415-677-4405
Mon-Fri: lunch and dinner, Sat: dinner only

The Cheesecake Factory
Macy’s Department Store, 7th floor
170 O'Farrell Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
Tel: 1-415-397-333