FoodNet

Bohemian San Francisco

1914

Page 42

Presented as published in 1914. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
Shrimps, alive and active, crayfish, clams, squid and similar sea food was in profusion and sold at prices on a parity with that of the fish. As the dny wore on the early buyers were replaced bj^ those who knew of the free fish market and came to get good supplies for their money. Here were boarding-house keepers, unmistakable any- where, Bohemians in hard luck who remembered that they could get good food here at a minimum of price, and came now while on the down turn of the wheel. BOHEMIAN As a human interest study it was better than a study of fish. Fishermen's "Wharf is where the independent fishermen bring their catches to San WHERE Francisco, but it is not where the FISH city's great supply comes in. To see COME IN that we had to go along the docks until we came to the Broadway wharf where Paladini, the head of the fish trust, unloads his tugs of their tons and tons of fish. It is not nearly so interesting to look at, but it gives a good idea of what comes out of the sea every day to supply the needs of San Francisco and the surrounding countr5\ These tugs bring in the catches of dozens of smaller boats manned by fishermen who are toiling out beyond the heads, and up the two great rivers. From far out around the Farallones, from up around the Potato Patch with its mournful fog bell constantly tolling, from down the coast as far as Monterey Bay where fish are in such abundance that it is said they have to give a signal when they want to turn around, from up the rivers, come fish to the man who has grown from the owner of a small sail boat to be the power who controls prices of all the fish that go to the markets of the city. By the time we finished with Paladini's fish we felt ready for breakfast and took a car down to Davis and Pacific street where we found Bazzuro's serving break- fast to dozens of market gardeners who had finished their unloading, and there, while partaking of the fresh fish we had brought from Fishermen's Wharf, we saw another phase of San Francisco's early morning life. Here were gardeners who came in the darkness of early morning to supply hucksters, small traders and a few thrifty people who knew of the cheapness, and in Co- lumbo market they drove their great wagons and dis- charged their day's gathering of vegetables of all kinds. But a few steps away is the great fruit market of the early morning and here tons of the finest fruits are dis- 78 SAN FRANCISCO tributed to the hundreds of wagons that crowd the street to such an extent that it takes all the ingenuity of experienced policemen to keep clearway for trafilc. Threading their WHERE way in and out between the wheels FISH and the heels of horses, were men COME IN and women, all looking for bargains in food. Amid a din almost deafening business was transacted with such celerity that in three hours the streets were cleared, fruits and vegetables sold and on their w^ay to distant stands, and the tired policemen leaning gainst friendly walls, recuperating after the strenuous work of keeping order in chaos.