‘Woman Who Ate Chinatown’ leads tasty S.F. tour
(The following article appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday, Aug. 10, 2008.)
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Shirley Fong-Torres wants to know if she should wear the black blouse with the Asian design or the less whimsical top she has on already.
“And maybe I’ll put on a little lipstick,” she says, rushing to a nearby Chinatown business, where she can duck into the bathroom for a quick wardrobe change.
The 61-year-old Oakland native, whose Wok Wiz walking tours of San Francisco’s Chinatown have become an institution, seems to be the woman of the hour. Her new book, “The Woman Who Ate Chinatown: A San Francisco Odyssey” (iUniverse Publisher’s Choice), was recently been released, and local TV stations want a piece of the colorful author.
(Read on …)
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How do you get to Chinatown? How do you truly taste and shop in Chinatown? Where is the best dim sum, the most knowledgeable herbalist and the finest oolong tea? Where can you hear the ‘clicking’ sounds of mahjong, the calls of the marketplace, and the sounds of pork roasting in a homemade Hoisin sauce? How do you walk the steps of history through San Francisco’s Chinatown Portsmouth Square or the Stockton Street Market Place? The answer to these questions and so much more lies within the pages of the latest book by author, educator, celebrity chef, humorist, television and airline ‘in-flight’ personality, and founder and owner of the San Francisco award-winning Wok Wiz Chinatown Tours & Cooking Center, Shirley Fong-Torres.