A morning in Chinatown, San Francisco

It was a regular Thursday morning in February. What was not regular for me was that I took some days off from work and flew from Indiana to San Francisco. I was wide awake at 5 am because technically it would have been 8 am already in Indiana. I found on Google Map this Vietnamese-owned little breakfast store that opened early in Chinatown called “Latte Express” and walked my way there. 

I stepped into the store and felt a bit overwhelmed by all the different food I could order from the wall. A woman came in right after me. She got her food and walked out of the store before I could even figure out what I wanted. Some older men walked in and ordered coffee. They said hi to each other and chit chat in a dialect that sounded like Cantonese. Another woman walked in and friendly said hi to whoever was in the room. The owner greeted her by name and asked if she wanted the cinnamon roll as usual. 

I probably shouldn’t expect anyone to entertain a tourist/traveler like me since it was a busy work day for them. So I quietly sat at a corner and observed. I sat down on this wobbly chair eating ham and cheese croissants and drinking my hot coffee. I almost ordered Vietnamese banh mi and ice coffee but decided those were not for my morning appetite. I used my own hotspot to write on my computer and wondered where I would be able to find a bathroom later because it looked like they didn’t have one. This place reminded me of some breakfast stores with danbing and those thin wedge sandwiches you can grab in the morning back in Taiwan – Not a fancy cafe for sure, but it’s a perfect spot for an outsider to get a taste of local people’s busy daily lives. 

Through the big window in front of me I could see vehicles lining up on Kearny Street. Not just cars – school buses, city buses, tour buses, mopeds, scooters, and bikes were all competing in this traffic. And there were even self-driving cars doing test drives in this peak hour. I was amazed by this boldness and got so excited. I held my phone in front of the window for a while waiting for the next self-driving car to pass so that I could capture the sight that no human being was in a moving car at all.  

Trucks parked on the side loading off ingredients for the restaurant to get ready for the day. Young people dressing in their work clothes were striding on the sidewalk. They all looked like they knew where they’re going, and some might have been late. 

The street was hustling with life. The only people that were not rushed by time were me, a homeless person mumbling something, and an elderly Asian woman who was practicing walking. She pushed her walkers and moved down the sidewalk back and forth for at least thirty times. 

 

I wondered what stories were waiting for me to discover here today. I finished up my coffee, walked outside of the door, and joined the hustle and bustle in Chinatown San Francisco.