Flavours of San Francisco: Private Half Day Food Tour

San Francisco’s Chinatown is the second-largest Asian community in North America and is as old as the city itself. But there are really two Chinatowns here, though: one for tourists centred on Grant Avenue and another for locals centred on Stockton Street. Dip in and out of both for wonderful dining options and a unique glimpse of a world within a world.

In Chinatown, it pays to wander off the beaten track and down the side alleys. There you will hear the muffled buzz of conversation and the clatter of game tiles, and you can see temples with wafting incense and hanging pieces of laundry flapping like flags overhead.

Cornucopia

The SF Chinatown is considered by many to be the birthplace of several Westernised Chinese dishes, such as Chop Suey, and also where delicacies such as Dim Sum were introduced to the United States. Even today its Dim Sum tea houses are still a major tourist attraction. But for the real deal, head to the Stockton Street markets. Here, between pull carts and dozens of stalls, you can find anything: dried mushrooms, sea cucumber, bundles of bok choy — you name it.

American Homeopath

Waverly Place is home to the district’s acupuncture and Chinese medicine shops. Also tucked away there is the Tin How Temple — the oldest Taoist temple in the city. Dozens of illuminated paper lanterns hover overhead and plates of orange and bread rest on an altar with a shrine of Buddha statues. Photography is not allowed, so you have to see it with your own eyes.

North Beach’s Italian heritage is deep and evident. It’s not large - spreading less than a square mile - but it is dense with jazz clubs, galleries, restaurants, gelato parlours and a shed-load of Italian Americans. It only really developed this character after the 1906 earthquake razed what preceded it to the ground. Since then, several prominent Italian Americans have emerged from this neighbourhood, including none other than baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, who actually returned to live there with his wife Marilyn Monroe in the 1950s.

The Beating Heart

It was also during the 1950s that North Beach became the historic centre of the Beat Generation. Many of that generations most famous writers lived in this neighbourhood, including Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady. Another poet from that time, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, founded the famous City Lights Bookstore, which can still be found there today. It’s a cultural landmark that’s well worth visiting.

The Beat Generation may have left us, but the nightlife of North Beach remains among the best. For classy drinks in blue velvet booths enveloped in candlelight, head to 15 Romolo. For a real taste of Italian North Beach, you can try Gino & Carlo, where cheap martinis and homemade Italian food, along with pool and pinball, are enjoyed by (very) lively crowds.

America’s Dual Heritage

North Beach’s festivals are also not to be missed. Art in the Alley is an annual outdoor art event where you can catch emerging young talent and live music. It usually takes place at the beginning of May. A little earlier in the year is the Oyster and Beer Festival, whose heritage is in fact Irish. Enjoy an array of Irish musicians along with your pint of Guinness and batch of fresh oysters.