The Chinese Bakery Story

Several people in my life know the Bay Area well. My number one rule in visiting an area is always to ask the locals where to go. And so I turned to my local experts for advice. One very good friend who lived in San Francisco and knows of which she speaks, highly recommended a bakery in Chinatown. She advised me that they "always" have a line because they are just that good. With that I knew I had to visit. Thus our mission on Thursday evening, once on-board a Hyde-Powell Cable Car, was to find the Golden Gate Bakery to order Dan Tot.

From our tourist map, we knew to jump off the cable car at Washington and Powell. We wandered down streets to Grant Avenue keeping our eyes open for the Bakery. We found it! We found no line, even! We found a sign....

I called my friend back home. I reported our findings. She directed me back to her second suggestion on Stockton. We back-tracked and found the bakery. I went inside and asked the young woman at the counter: "Do you have dan tots?"

"They finished for today. All gone! Sorry!"

No Dan Tot.

I called back. I was getting a little testy. We had passed another bakery around the corner. I had no idea what Dan Tot even looked like. I was feeling very out of my element. I told my friend that I was going to just walk into bakeries until I found one. And so with that we walked into the Golden Bakery. The room was filled with older Chinese gentlemen sitting around tables and talking in Chinglish. Chinglish: It's like Spanglish but with Chinese instead of Spanish.

I asked the woman behind the counter the magic question: Do you have dan tots?

She tapped on the glass and said "Here!" I looked and saw little egg custard tarts. OH! So THOSE are dan tots? And that's when it allllll started. I'm not naive. I knew about Chinese women. I've been around. But I had forgotten how pushy they can get!

PCL: "How many you want?"

Me: "Four."

PCL: "I be right back."

She went to the back of the bakery and came out with a big tray full of buns. "These buns with barbecue beef. Still warm from da oven. You want some?"

Me: "I'll take four dan tots."

The Chinese lady took a styrofoam box off the shelf. "You want six? Six fit in the box."

Me: "OK, I'll take six."

She gestured to the big tray of buns "What about da buns?"

"OK, I'll take one bun." Hey, we were still at least an hour or so away from dinner. We could call it our appetizer.

She packed up the dan tots and bun but never gave me a total. I handed her a $20 bill and watched her punch numbers into the cash register. She handed me change and as I turned to leave the bakery, she pointed to the display case asking "You want cream filled roll?"

"NO!" I told her. "But it was a nice try." She smiled.

Then we left and took pictures outside her bakery. And on our way back to the Cable Car. Eating our appetizer.