Another Waffer Thin Mint...?

San Francisco is many things but in my experience more than anything else it is Viv's family and eating.  And not necessarily in that order.

"Another waffer thin mint, Mr. Creosote?"

Of course I have been to Alcatraz in visits gone by, Crooked Street, and all the rest of the immediate tourist things but mostly its been about eating.  Not that that's a bad thing but it always seems to end that way.  Of course Asian particularly Chinese food options in Bermuda are thin on the ground so the prospect of dim sum, Korean BBQ, Vietnamese pho and coffee, and all the rest is irresistible to one with limited restraint, such as myself.

That's how it started and carried on.

One highlight for me was armed with a Muni pass, a tram ride from Powell on Market Street in downtown SF along the waterside to Fisherman's Wharf for crab at Joe's Crab Shack followed by a cable car ride over the hill back to the Powell terminus just in time for cocktails at the Four Seasons across the street!

Joe's Crab Shack on Fisherman's Wharf

Another was the MacWorld symposium that was going on -- I'd found tickets on Living Social beforehand.

What a wonderful place for Apple geeks who like gadgets!  My favorite was one that snapped on a stand and hand gadget that enabled you to use the Camera as a proper handheld device or with a tripod.  So neat.

I did buy an app that takes photos of documents, converts them to pdf files and sends them as email attachments as and where you want so you can work anywhere you have internet access.  I used it later and found it as advertised as well as cheap costing $2.99 for the duration of the symposium -- its called Scanner Pro.

It would have been nice had there been some even small evidence of Apple acknowledging this important segment of their cocoon, but there was sadly none.  Recognising the importance of these guys that take Apple's cool gadgets and make them do amazing things that Apple hadn't thought of would have been a nice thing to do.

Another highlight was something called Golden Crab, a regional Chinese dish involving already cholesterol heavy crab.  Dig out the crab from the shell where possible -- the big body bit is particularly cholesterol heavy being fatty -- mix with egg yolk, cover the entire crab with egg yolk wash and then deep fry.  It is impossible to stop licking your lips after this!  Avoid very cold showers, walking upstairs or any vigorous activity for several months until your body recovers.

Golden Crab

The cornerstone of the trip was the wedding reception for Dick and Connie's daughter Charlene and her husband Alfred.  Both Alex and Ali had made it over for the wedding as well as Alex's girlfriend, Cat.  It had been several years since all of us had been to SF for family reasons (many for the boys) so it came as quite a shock for these 2 relatively huge guys rolling up to the various family events.

The traditional banquet is for tables of 10 with certain dishes coming out, one being shark's fin soup.  It had been a while since I'd been to such a banquet so when a similar tasting soup of chicken and something else came out I was surprised.  Apparently the PC brigade in the US forbade taking the fin of the shark for such purpose a few years ago so this is the PC alternative.  In Bermuda we eat all of the shark.

But it was a great night including dancing and a photo booth where guests could take sensible or silly pictures with a variety of dress up additions.

Also wonderful that Alex and Ali could spend some time with their aunts, uncles and cousins.

With Aunty Gabby

But at the end of it, Viv's and my clothes are waaaay tighter than when we arrived.

Our favorite crustacean... in the tank