Chinese Food Always a Good Choice
Plus: Interesting LV Structures, Parks After Dark Update, and Population Disruption Commentary
I recently spotted a Yelp review for the BOPOMOFO cafe on Othello between the Costco Business Center and Target. As regular Costco customers, we’ve been closely watching and waiting for this new place to open so we could try it. We have previously reviewed the other eating establishments located at that complex, including Sunmerry Bakery, Kitakata Ramen Ban Nai, and the Great Greek Mediterranean Grill. We liked them all and were anxious to try the newest addition. However, when we drove up to have lunch there, we discovered it was not yet officially open—they were conducting employee training in anticipation of opening up. I believe they must have had an open house in the last week or so and some folks eagerly put reviews on Yelp. The good news is that it appears to be getting close to opening, so we will keep an eye on it. In case you wonder what BOPOMOFO means, I looked it up on the internet. Bo-po-mo-fo are the Chinese ABC’s, “a nostalgic and basic foundation for Asian Americans”, according to their website. More later when we review them.
Now, the problem was we didn’t have another place in mind to eat and review. Fortunately, however, we were in the Convoy District, which means we still had plenty of possible selections. We drove across the road where the Original Pancake House is and the Lao restaurant we had previously reviewed, to see if there was a restaurant we had not yet tried. We noticed a friendly looking Chinese Restaurant called Imperial Mandarin (located at 3904 Convoy Street) and after checking out their menu online, we decided to do lunch there. We figured one can never go wrong deciding on a Chinese restaurant for a lunch meal.
The restaurant is larger than it looks from the outside with a very attractive and welcoming interior. It was early so we had our choice of tables, although it did fill up more as lunch time approached. We noticed on the menu there was a lunch special that included soup, an appetizer, a spring roll, and an entrée with rice. The entrées included many shrimp as well as meat options The price was $11.95. That sounds like a good deal in these inflationary times. Steve ordered sweet and sour shrimp. Since I knew that would be too much for him to eat, I just ordered egg drop soup ($2.99) and figured I would eat his vegetable spring roll.
The server brought us a bowl of fried won ton strips with sweet/sour dip and our water very quickly. Steve’s lunch plate was attractive and of nice quantity. He gave me the spring roll, which was crispy and tasty. The egg drop soup was delicious and steaming hot—just the way I like it. Steve also enjoyed his entire meal. He had quite a bit of shrimp and rice, and even brought some home for another meal. Our entire bill was less than $15. Did I mention I ate all the fried wonton strips? Yum.
When I had checked the menu online, I noticed they had dim sum; I will probably try that next time. I asked for the dim sum menu and the prices seemed reasonable with lots of non-meat items we could eat and share.
The only thing I didn’t like about this restaurant was my fortune tucked inside the fortune cookie. Steve’s said he could expect travel in his future, but mine said I should exercise more. How is that fair?
I think you should try this restaurant the next time you have a craving for Chinese food. They have an extensive menu besides the lunch special.
In the meantime, I have a favor to ask of our thousands of readers. Please let us know if you have a favorite restaurant you would like us to review. We have been doing this for 4 years and have probably reviewed over 100 restaurants. Tell us how far out of Linda Vista you will go for a good meal, or if we have missed any good local places. Thanks for your help. Bon appétit.
Interesting Structural Outliers in LV
Some of our readers have sent us comments in the past couple months that criticize what they consider to be the aesthetically unappealing nature of many of the new Accessory Dwelling Units and apartment buildings that have recently popped up in Linda Vista. The comments have centered on the bland, boxy, dull colored look of these structures.
Instead of focusing on the negative, however, those comments prompted us to look on the bright side of life. We conducted our own tour of Linda Vista to find some interesting and perhaps unorthodox structures in our community. We discovered a few that we wanted to share with you. Though our readers may already be familiar with them, we want to make sure they are not taken for granted, and that we take the time to celebrate the sense of architectural or stylistic variety they provide for our visual delight.
The first structure we noted was the clock tower (see above) on the grounds of the American Legion building at Genesee Avenue and Linda Vista Road. The tower is fairly high for Linda Vista building standards. After much debate, the tower was originally built about 14 years ago to hide a Verizon cell tower. Before it went up, there was much back and forth between Verizon and local civic organizations as to how the cell tower would be disguised. The style may not exactly gel with other structures in the general vicinity, but it has since become a comfortable fixture of the Linda Vista landscape. In fact, the clock tower was a prominent feature in this year’s T-shirt design for the Linda Vista Multi-Cultural Fair/Parade.
The next interesting structure we found was at Bird’s Surf Shed, tucked in between a couple other building at 1091 West Morena Boulevard. Bird’s Surf Shed has operated at this location since 2011. The structure is a big quonset hut (1800 square feet), the kind of structure used quite frequently in the past by the military. As a Marine Corps officer I spent some time living in such structures. In the military, quonset huts are associated with Spartan-like functionality, but this one is used to spread the mystical gospel of surfing. It’s nice to see this quonset hut being used for such a creative venture. As a matter of fact, the interior of the Shed is even more interesting than the exterior. Inside the Shed you will find hundred of surf boards stacked upon each other and hanging on the walls and ceiling. The Shed represents a rich history of surfing here in the San Diego area. It also adds a fun aspect to Linda Vista architecture, though if you aren’t looking closely for the building you might easily drive right by and not notice it.
One of the most exotic looking areas of Linda Vista lies off of Ulric Street where both the Linda Vista Wat Lao Navaram Buddhist Monastery and the Tinh Xa Dun Vietnamese Buddhist Temple sit across the street from each other. The ornate roof of the monastery stands out from the rest of the conventional rooftops in the neighborhood. On a bright, sunny day the roof appears to glitter.
Right next door you can see the pagoda-like structure of the temple. It sits atop a calm, soothing meditative outdoor area. Both the monastery and the temple add a stylish element of cultural diversity to the area’s architecture.
Finally, we recently noticed the brightly colored umbrellas covering the outside eating area of Taco Bomb. Yes, these umbrellas are temporary structures, and who knows how long they will be there, but if you are a movie buff and have previously enjoyed watching the famous 1964 French film “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” you will surely appreciate the display of colors. The movie is considered to be one of the greatest musicals of all time. In the movie, starring the beautiful actress Catherine Deneuve, the rich pastel colors of the umbrellas are indeed memorable. As described in one movie review, “the opening scene shows umbrellas of all colors popping up and dancing through the streets….the viewer easily gets lost in the dizzying effect of mixed, layered, and swirled primary colors.” Now, I am not saying that Hollywood or the French movie industry should think about doing a remake of the film—with the new version titled “The Umbrellas of Linda Vista”—but don’t be surprised if the next time you are eating a Mexican dish in Taco Bomb’s outdoor area, you involuntarily get up and start singing a tune in French.
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If you have any recommendations for putting the spotlight on certain Linda Vista buildings, let us know….the more unusual the better.
Parks After Dark is Big Success
The City of San Diego’s Parks After Dark summer program continues to be a success at the Linda Vista Community Park and Recreation Center. Our Linda Vista park is one of five parks in the City participating in the program, which is being held for the third consecutive year. The popular program is designed with the intent of bringing together neighbors and keeping their neighborhoods safe, The program has been made possible due to sponsorship provided by the San Diego Parks Foundation, San Diego County, and Price Philanthropies. Program activities, which are chiefly designed for children and their families, have been attracting crowds of approximately 300-500 on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights (from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm). Food and activities are free for kids. Admission is free for everyone.
In addition to free food, activities have included various games, inflatable bouncers, face painting, arts and crafts, and music. On certain nights, the program has provided special activities for teens.
On Fridays, the organization Feeding San Diego has also been present to conduct a food distribution for families, to include fresh fruits and vegetables.
In a recent interview, Leona Sublett, President/Chief Executive Officer of the San Diego Parks Foundation, commented that the City’s Parks After Dark Program has had a positive impact on the respective communities with “crime statistics in these areas lowering” during the summer months.
This Friday night (tomorrow) the Parks After Dark activities at Linda Vista will include a showing of The Addams Family movie.
Commentary
Linda Vista and Population Disruption
As previously mentioned in past issues of this newsletter, there is a section in the Linda Vista Library that contains documents related to the history of our LV community. One of the most comprehensive of these documents is a University of San Diego Master Thesis written in 1993 by Norma H. Handy. The thesis is titled “Linda Vista: 1940-1954.” This well-researched document provides lots of great historical information about the origins of Linda Vista. The document also reveals a historical truth about how new populations to a community are often perceived, and how the basic search for housing and jobs can appear as disruptive and threatening to some more established residents.
One of the more interesting parts of the thesis include those addressing how the recent arrivals to Linda Vista beginning in 1940—many from the Dust Bowl states of Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas, as well as from New Mexico and Arizona—were seen by the rest of the long-time residents of San Diego. Needless to say, they were often not seen in a very positive light. The thesis notes how these migrant workers coming to reside in Linda Vista for defense plant work and housing for their families were seen by many as bringing with them “some undesirable elements.” According to San Diego officials quoted in the document, the cultural differences were a matter of concern as “the children of migrants” were described derisively as “from places with far different moral and education standards than San Diego,” that their “cultural and hygienic backgrounds were…obvious,” and that these new arrivals were “something less than a mixed blessing from the community point of view.”
Fortunately for these new arrivals, the area of San Diego where they chose to live—the community of Linda Vista—had few long-time residents, and so they did not have to worry much about offending others with their different ways. The land of Linda Vista, unencumbered at the time by older neighborhoods and accompanying threatened neighbors set in their ways, was free to be shaped by these WWII-era migrants, instead of the other way around. In fact, as mentioned in Handy’s thesis, there is a telling quote by one resident included in a 1952 issue of a long ago Linda Vista publication titled The Reflector (a precursor to the Linda Vista Update) that comments….“There was no old guard to say ‘we have always done it thus and so…’ Only the coyotes and the rabbits preceded us. In short, we were a large community without a tradition, written or unwritten…Other towns inherit cultural patterns. We make ‘em and we make them of the finest material…In the jostling of every day living, we have rubbed off on one another to form a fabric of community life that is unique and playful.”
As new residents move into Linda Vista today in search of affordable housing, we may want to consider the sentiment in that quote. Yes, Linda Vista back in the 40’s and 50’s was wide open for change and not set in its ways. The infrastructure to support the population and housing explosion had room to grow and flourish. There were not so many cars. In present times, the old guard may have to be patient as population shifts cause disruption. The City’s infrastructure will need time to catch up with new requirements presented by the construction of ADU’s and apartment buildings as well as the addition of these new residents, but in the meantime we should definitely seek to rub off on each other in a positive way and thereby continue to form a sense of community.
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