Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
provided cheap labor for the painstaking
job of swiftly hand-folding the cookies
before they hardened in the cool air. (Read
Jennifer 8. Lee's fascinating book
The For-
tune-Cookie Chronicles
for the full history
of this phenomenon.)
The factory can be hard to locate,
because street numbers aren't always
posted in Chinatown, but follow the scent
of baking cookies and you'll find your way
to this narrow, crowded little operation. In
business since 1962, the Golden Gate For-
tune Cookies Co. is no longer a major for-
tune cookie producer—it has been
superseded by other companies with big-
ger, more automated plants that can man-
ufacture cookies at a much greater
volume. On this older machinery, how-
ever, you have a clearer view of the thin
brown wafer coming off the hot cast-iron
discs of the cookie press; the dexterity of
the women tucking in the fortunes and
folding the cookies is impressive indeed.
While there's no admission charge,
there's a tacit assumption that you'll buy
some cookies in return. You can purchase
them in small bags or in bulk; you can even
bring your own messages and watch them
inserted into fresh cookies before your
eyes. The cookies come in many more fla-
vors that you'd expect—strawberry,
almond, sesame, chocolate—and they
taste marvelous when they're still warm
and fresh. (You'll suddenly realize how
stale the cookies are that you get at most
Chinese restaurants.) The tour doesn't
take more than a few minutes, and the fac-
tory is so small, there's no room to linger.
But you'll never eat a fortune cookie again
without remembering this atmospheric
little workshop.
56 Ross Alley, between Washington
and Jackson sts. (
&
415/781-3956
).
(
San Francisco International (14 miles/
23km).
L
$$$
Hotel Adagio,
550 Geary St.
(
&
800/228-8830
or 415/775-5000; www.
thehoteladagion.com). $
Hotel des Arts,
447 Bush St. (
&
800/956-4322
or 415/956-
3232; www.sfhoteldesarts.com).
Ice Creameries
492
French Vanilla & Beyond
Berthillon
Paris, France
The ice-cream machine was an after-
thought when Raymond Berthillon opened
a cafe in 1954 in his small hotel on the
aristocratic Ile St-Louis. But when packs of
local schoolchildren were seen lining up
for their ice-cream cones every afternoon,
soon the adults in the neighborhood
began to pay attention. They discovered
that the
glacés
Berthillon was whipping
up—made with fresh eggs, whole milk,
pure sugar, and carefully sourced flavor-
ings—were more than just a kids' treat.
Eventually, Berthillon surrendered to his
destiny; he dropped the hotel business
and concentrated on ice cream, branching
out only by adding a line of fruit sorbets a
few years later.
Fast forward half a century, and Ray-
mond's descendants are still selling rich,
creamy
glacés
at the original wood-pan-
eled shop on this island in the Seine, just
east of Notre-Dame's Ile de la Cité. A few
years ago, they added a cafe next door
where they serve fresh baked pastries,
juice, coffee, and tea—only Mariage Fréres
tea,
naturellement
. All the ice cream is still
made right on premises, with milk and
cream delivered fresh each morning.
Although the actual flavors depend on
which ingredients the ice-cream makers
