San Francisco - Golden Gate Bakery and a little good deed

Near the corner of Grant and Jackson Street in San Francisco's Chinatown lies this marvelous little shop called the Golden Gate Bakery. Even before I was born, my family would always visit this bakery every time they were in the city, and twenty somewhat years later, I still can't keep myself away from their yummy goodies.

The Golden Gate Bakery is arguably one of the best Chinese bakery in the U.S. and although they are also famous for their lotus moon cake, I primarily go here for their other famous baked good: the Chinese egg custard tart! I can't say much about the moon cake, but they definitely have the best egg custard tart around, it's even better than the ones I had when I lived in Taiwan. So believe me, they're GOOD!

Majority of the time you'll see a bunch of people outside the bakery, shifting their feet, waiting in line for a chance to get into the bakery before the custard tarts run out. If you don't see a line then most likely they are on vacation or it's near closing time. We were lucky enough to get there before a huge line formed up so I can get my hands on some of those amazing tarts.

While we were waiting, I overheard this guy standing in front of us tell his friends that the egg custard tart here is good (which I agree), but he also said that egg custard tarts are good anywhere because they are all made from a similar recipe (He is so wrong!). I couldn't believe what I just heard! But I took a deep breath and suppressed my urge of tapping on his shoulder to ask him what is wrong with his taste buds, and why is he standing in line at this bakery instead of buying his custard tart from a bakery down the street where there is no wait

If you also share his opinion or if you had an egg custard tart at a dim sum place and didn't think much of it, then you must try the egg custard tart from Golden Gate bakery. The outside crust resembles a pastry shell and is light, flaky, not at all oily, and the filling is so soft and delicate. They come fresh from the oven and you just can't stop smiling after you bite into it. I could probably eat 6 of them in one sitting, and I would have if I didn't have to share them with my family.

The egg custard tart is $1.35/tart (if I remember correctly) which is sort of on the expensive side, but it's worth every penny! If you actually are able to make your way there, be sure you know what you want to get by the time you reach the counter, cause these ladies don't mess around; there are minimal customer service here and they want to get the line moving. They'll indulge a few questions here and there, but if you don't make up your mind soon, they might just pass you up to help the next customer till you're ready.

When we were walking back to our car, we passed by this old Chinese lady and she was going through the trash can and drinking the milk tea that someone had just threw away. The sight of that just breaks my heart and although my dad would never agree with what I did, I stopped and took out one of the tart and gave it to her. My dad would say that when you give to the needy, they will never think it is enough or they just want to get drugs and alcohol, so we're actually not helping them. I really disagree with his view, sure there are people who are into drugs and alcohol, but there are also a lot of people who are just down on their luck and need a helping hand. I wish I could've done more for the old lady, but hopefully the egg custard tart will at least fill her tummy a little bit.