First Impressions of San Francisco (3 of 3)
Photos taken by a repatriating expat the first month back (post 3 of 3)
It’s been one year since I moved to San Francisco from Shanghai, China. I looked back at the photos I took during my first month in the USA to see what impressions I had of the city on the bay. Here’s what caught my eye when I first explored my new home.
View the previous sets:
Part 3: Remembering to Be American
After a few years in China, many things about the USA seem strange. What used to be accepted as common place now catches my attention.
I found San Francisco to be full of wires and hills. They’re actually related: both exist because of earthquakes. I haven’t checked but I believe utilities run above ground because they’re easier to maintain in the event of an earthquake. And the hills, of course, were created by the tectonic plate movement ages ago.
This was the view from the temporary housing on arrival in San Francisco. Not only were there wires crossing in front of the window, but I was thrown into car culture after a blissful few years riding one of the best public transit systems in the world.
Plus, unique to San Francisco, there were the “tech buses” which transport workers from the heart of the city to Silicon Valley, flooding the streets each morning and evening. I suppose it’s better than all those people trying to drive their own cars but it’s unnerving to see so many dark, unmarked buses snaking in a line through the city.
Another major adjustment moving back to the USA was the food. Personally, I prefer Chinese food, but it’s nice to order classic American dishes and have them cooked the way you expect, with no surprising interpretations.
I was worried when I ordered pizza in San Francisco, because my New York upbringing set a high bar. Luckily, the pizza here stood up to my tastes. In particular, the crust was really good because lots of places use sourdough to make it (a San Francisco specialty).
San Francisco is a bread town, like Philadelphia and New York. They take their bread very seriously and have a lot of bakeries that cook incredible loaves of all different varieties. This is Acme Bread in the Ferry Building. So far, they’ve been my favorite, more so than Tartine, another famous bakery.
California is known for its produce. I love this display of heirloom tomatoes at a farmer’s market. I was happy to return to food shopping at pop-up farmer’s markets in the USA, although I do miss the wet markets in China.
To take advantage of the fresh local food in San Francisco, I started cooking more American style dinners. I started with a fresh and simple dinner of roast chicken, a salad, and bread dipped in olive oil. Luckily it was also fig season. I hadn’t eaten fresh ripe figs in years.
I still cook mostly white rice instead of brown, a habit I developed in China. But I included some very American vegetables—brussel sprouts and multicolored carrots—with some simple broiled salmon belly.
Once the shipment of all our worldly possessions reached San Francisco, I could use my tortilla press and make fresh corn tortillas for tacos.
The arrival of the shipment also meant I could use my own dishes and eat fresh Californian food in Chinese bowls. The food pictured here from left to right is local honey, goat milk yogurt, fresh figs, a salad with excellent tomatoes, Bay Area bread and, of course, Chinese tea.
One month after arriving in San Francisco, I had settled into an apartment and the local food. Although, I was still adapting to the insane amount of hills and stairs—including these which I have to climb to and from anywhere.
I still miss a lot about life in China but when the sun comes up and the fog rolls out on a clear morning, I enjoy being in the Bay Area, if only for a moment.
< Go back to Part 2: Many Cultures, One City
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