4th of July

My 3-day 4th of July was pretty relaxing. On Friday, I went into the city to run some errands with my parents. I ate an early dinner in Chinatown and met some nice tourists sitting next to us. They were very sweet and offered me their dessert, pumpkin cake. Unfortunately, "pumpkin cake" does not translate to what they thought they were going to get, in the tradition of what they think a cake is. Instead, they got gluten rice cakes stuffed with pumpkin that's fried. I get my penchant for talking to strangers from my parents as they were talking a storm with them.

Muni sign. I took this as I was sitting in my car in Chinatown.

For 4th of July, we didn't BBQ b/c its too much of a hassle and in the end, mostly my mom does all the work. Instead, we went to dim sum for lunch, and for dinner, I got to choose where to eat. We ate at a Fremont restaurant called, Chuan Lu Xiang Qi, a northern Chinese restaurant. I had to order their special, corncake with braised beef, vermicelli noodles, and green beans. My brother and dad said it reminded them of the Muslim cuisine in Xian. And, instead of corncakes, they have a flat bread that you break up and soak into the broth. It was delicious, and it's priced at $7.95.

On Sunday, July 5th, we went to the Fillmore Jazz Festival. It was really nice and expanded to 13 blocks. Lots of walking and eating. Huge crowds. I think there were more vendors than jazz.

I took this picture outside the apt. complex b/c I really liked the typography.

This liquor store was making bank at the festival with just beer sales.

Fried food galore!

A papusa. I've never had one before, and it was pretty good.

Red velvet cupcake from Marita's Sweet Potato Pie Co. in San Leandro. It was quite delicious and enough to share with three people. The man at the booth was right, pecans in red velvet change your eating experience. Pictured above is red velvet w/o pecans. I will definitely have to stop by their bakery in San Leandro.

Do you see something wrong with this sign? Thanks G for finding this at Tapioca Express in the Fillmore. We only counted two groups of people that noticed there was something wrong with this sign. Maybe I should notify corporate?

Here's the sign up close. Hilarious. Brings me back to London's "Juicy Buns Fever" poster in Chinatown.