|
The Inner Richmond is a
practical and comfortable
neighborhood with a citywide
reputation for fantastic
restaurants. It's often
called "New Chinatown"
because it's almost as full
of Chinese groceries and
restaurants and Cantonese
chatter as Grant Avenue, but
most tourists overlook it,
as did early S.F. residents,
who wrote off the entire
Richmond as a "Great Sand
Waste" between the City and
the sea. Mountain Lake
The Richmond did almost
became a miniature Colma,
housing the municipal and
Chinese cemeteries. But
after World War I and the
Bolshevik Revolution, Irish
and White Russian immigrants
and Middle Eastern Jews
bought homes in the area.
Two waves of immigration
after World War II brought
Japanese residents and added
to the sizable Chinese
population.
Since then, the Inner
Richmond has become a
bustling multicultural soup
with cute stucco houses,
grand mansions, easy access
to the Presidio, a plethora
of inexpensive eateries and
a good variety of shops. The
Richmond lacks the hype of
the Mission, and the fog
does roll in a little
earlier in the afternoon,
but on its main dining and
shopping drag, Clement
Street, you'll find great
Burmese, Thai, Chinese,
Vietnamese and Korean
restaurants, Chinese
bakeries that sell siu mai
(steamed meat dumplings),
BBQ pork buns and other dim
sum for under a dollar and
produce markets that offer
bitter melon, several kinds
of choy (greens) or 10
lemons for a dollar. Browse
the stacks at one of the
city's best bookstores, suck
down some Hong Kong-style
pearl tea (complete with
marble-size tapioca balls)
or sit down for a French
bistro meal, and you'll come
to appreciate the modest
neighborhood that has
sprouted from the sand
dunes.
|
