Chinatown and a new camera

This Saturday we are having a little birthday dinner for Billy (and his friend Chris) up in Tahoe, and for part of the dinner I need a bunch of little (inexpensive) dishes. {Think butter pads or teeny sauce/dipping bowls).  Thankfully I was chatting with my mom while searching online for restaurant supply stores in SF when she had the genius idea to check out Chinatown.

Which was great, especially since it gave us an opportunity to test out our new camera.

So if things start looking a little better around here (fingers crossed), now you know why.

But back to Chinatown and our little adventure – if you want to buy things besides souvenirs and trinkets, you’ve gotta get to the side streets.  And this is true for many ethnic neighborhoods in every city.

After we had gone into about the 4th (or 14th) store with no luck, I realized that something was off – or more accurately, I needed to find where things seemed more off. I needed to be on the streets with bustling (read crowded and not particularly nice smelling) markets, for that is where I would find stores with a bigger (and cheaper) supply of goods. Places where people besides the tourists actually shopped.

And once we made that turn I hit the jackpot.

Rows upon rows of bowls and plates, spoons, teapots, trays, you name it. Plain white, patterned, traditional blues – as far as you could see. Plastic, ceramic, porcelain – they had it all.

And just what I was looking for.  White ceramic butter pads/dipping dishes. And do you see the price on those babies? Not even my beloved CB2 can match that.

Thanks Mom for the reminder to look local. I’m already thinking about what else I might need next.

P.S. – Thanks to Deb, Nicole, and Heidi for your posts for regarding camera/food photo advise – big help!