Shopping in San Francisco

A picture of San Francisco Chinatown between the rain drops. The background photo on my desktop is a photo similar to this one.

I'm in California for a little trip and so I went shopping in San Francisco. San Francisco is one of my favorite places. It was a beautiful rainy day on President's Day (Monday, February 16th) in San Francisco. My friend April and I got a little wet. It didn't bother me one bit. April was such a sport. We walked all over Chinatown. I was looking for a clock with the Chinese numbers on the face. I couldn't find one so I will probably make my own.

I was also looking for a movie I haven't been able to get on Netfilx or Blockbuster. The movie is "Unforgettable Regret." It has my favorite Hong Kong actress Sammi Cheng http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sammi_Cheng (she is also a big pop star.) My usual DVD/CD store had closed down in Chinatown so I had to find a new one. The girls working in the new shop hadn't heard of the movie. I tried explaining as much as I could about the movie. Times like this I wish I knew how to speak Chinese. Of course they probably speak Cantonese and I'm learning Mandarin. Anyway, after 30 minutes of looking for the movie with some pop music blaring that I wasn't that fond of I told April we should probably go....and then there it was... one little copy of the movie hidden behind some other movies. Of course the girls were "Oh, that movie!" The girls were great though and after I found the movie they were so chatty but of course I could only understand half of what they said. I'll probably watch the movie sometime this week. Sammi is known as the Lucille Ball of Hong Kong cinema. This is not one of her comedies but I'm sure I will love it. There are many actors I really like in the movie.

Poster of the Cherry Blossom Festival. I wish I could get the poster for my friend Kris. She loves Hello Kitty.


One of the biggest highlights of yesterday was bento shopping in Japan town of San Francisco. I went nuts inside of Ichiban Kan store. I found all the information about shopping on the Lunch-in-box website http://lunchinabox.net/. This was posted on the website as the $1.50 type store of Japan town and indeed most everything was around $1.50. I got a shopping bag filled with accessories for bento boxes and a few bento boxes. It was so much fun. I can't wait to go shopping there again. I must have been in the store at least an hour. I'll share my shopping loot with you on another post.




Until Next Time. . . . .



Kathleen

Bento Supply Shopping At Sunrise Asian Food Market

Just the thought of Sunrise Asian Food Market in Eugene Oregon is enough to make me want to move there. There are many things I like about Eugene and Sunrise is one of the top things on the list. I've been known to take the 2-1/2 hour trip north just for shopping at Sunrise and Trader Joe's.

Being true to their name, Sunrise carries food items from all over Asia. Some of the aisles are dominated by foods from a particular region in Asia. Thailand, India, Japan, China and Korea are the ones which readily come to mind.

They also have lots of bento making accessories from food jars, rice makers, dishes and just about anything you could want. My favorite pair of chop sticks in a case were purchased at Sunrise years ago. On my last trip I purchased various rice molds (remember my heart and star rice molds.) Years ago I purchase a mold to make my own California rolls. Which do on occasion usually in the cooler months of the year.

Here are many varieties of the seasoned soybean pockets I stuff with rice for breakfast. They have an impressive produce area. Their deli area has the largest rice cooker I have ever seen in my life. Next time I will make sure to get a picture of that.

Many soybean cakes and various varieties of moochie (not sure if I spelled that right.) The owners of the store are very friendly and helpful. So if you are in the area stop by and tell them I suggested it.

Until Next Time. . . . .

Kathleen

The Shamrock Flowers & Gifts - Eugene Oregon

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving for those celebrating here in the states. This time my delay in posting is due to mechanical problems with my new computer and my camera communicating. I finally just downloaded to my old computer and copied the photos onto a memory stick. I'll get it figured out eventually.



I've been wanting to share pictures from trip to Eugene and Florence the weekend before Thanksgiving so finally here a few. Below is The Shamrock Flowers & Gifts located at 1520 Coburg Road in Eugene, Oregon. Their toll free number is 866.807.4983 and their website is http://www.shamrockflowersandgifts.com/ I'm crazy about Eiffel towers and boy did I hit the mother load when someone told me about this place. I've already started planning another trip back.

Here was their beautiful Thanksgiving display right in the front door.

This place is huge and had lots of vignettes setup through out the store. Just breath taking!

Here we go with the Eiffel towers. I've never seen so many different kinds in one spot. I bought the little guy on the right. It is a clip.

More Paris stuff.

And more Paris stuff...

And a whole tree decorated with a Paris theme.

Another view of the Paris tree.

And another view - I purchased one of the silver glitter 3-D Eiffel Towers.

And a tree which is a Ocean theme. I think I'm going to do something similar to this on a much smaller scale though.

And yet another tree. As I said I was completely enchanted by this place. I recommend checking out their website and if you happen to be in Eugene Oregon drop by you will love it!

I also have other things to share from my trip - An incredible restaurant in Eugene; a trip for Bento shopping supplies; more shopping; and a small look at the Oregon coastal town of Florence where you can get a great cup of tea. So stay tuned and . . .

Until Next Time. . . .

Kathleen