Tender Greens - Part 1

At a recent counselor training at Liberty Station, formerly the old Naval Training Center (NTC) in San Diego, our group decided to check out Tender Greens, which one of our other co-workers highly recommended. It's a little hard to find, but if you can locate Trader Joe's, it's kind of behind it. You need to walk past it and then walk past Da Kine's Hawaiian place and it will be on your left. (see Yelp reviews here ).

Before I get to the food, it was a bit of a strange yet emotional feeling for me to be on the grounds of the old NTC. I hadn't been there in decades, not since my father was still in the Navy. We used to live in the Navy housing off of Rosecrans. After the end of World War II, Filipinos were no longer considered a menace to society and a scourge to the American workforce (anti Filipino discrimination was especially rampant in the 1930's following the Great Depression, when thousands of Filipinos worked the fruit and vegetable fields up and down the West coast; along with blatant anti-miscegenation acts targeted towards Asians), but rather as allies or "little brown brothers" of the United States. Through the U.S. Military Bases Agreement of 1947, thousands of Filipinos in the Philippines were recruited by the U.S. to join the Navy, specifically as stewards. For many, it was an opportunity to leave their life of poverty and come to America no matter what the cost. For many of those Filipino men, that meant serving as a steward (basically a glorified servant for the white officers) or a cook. (more info on Filipinos in the Navy here)

My father was a pre-1965 immigrant, having joined the US Navy in 1963 (Note - with the passing of the Immigration Act of 1965 by President LBJ, Asian immigrant quotas were raised to 20,000 a year as opposed to the poast WW II quota of just 100 a year. In fact, prior to the end of WWII, the Filipino immigration quota to the U.S. was a paltry 50 a year from 1933 with the passage of the racist Tydings-McDuffie Act, which masqueraded as the "Philippine Independence Act"). He was trained as a steward, here at the NTC alongside his Pinoy brethren and a few African Americans. No whites were in his graduating class. In the 1970's, minorities were able to rise through the ranks with more ease and get into different rates. The early 70's were much more relaxed with the famous Z-Grams named after late Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, Jr.. Back then, the majority (if not all) Filipinos who enlisted in the Navy from the Philippines were trained in San Diego's NTC.

The Steward rating was discontinued in 1974, but by that time, my dad had changed his rating to commissary man and later a mess management specialist. He later taught classes on food service at this very same NTC and got up to the ranks of senior chief. Not all Filipinos served as stewards back in those days, mind you. My best friend's dad joined in the early 1950's. He was a musician and played in the orchestra. Bert's dad who joined in the late 50's worked as a BT (Boiler Technician). Anyhow, when I walked through hallways like these, I couldn't help but think about all the Filipinos who'd walked here before me...
We were wandering around like bumbling idiots and finally asked a worker who pointed us in the right direction...
Nice and airy and cheerful:
You place your order first...
Then it puts the lotion in the basket. No, I meant, it gets made while you are in line. If it's not too busy, like when we were there, you may even get your food by the time you get to the end of the line to pay. Otherwise, if it's not ready, someone will deliver it to your table.

Ugh - this came out too dark. These are the meats (fish, chicken and angus flank steak):

This is what I love about going out to eat with a large group - more pix of food for my blog! But really, I'm just happy I'm not ridiculed (at least to my face) when I take photos of their meal. This one's mine. By the way, all the lunches are $10, unless you order just a soup or a dessert. I ordered the Angus flank steak with the arugula salad (no dressing) and mashed potatoes. I really liked my dish because the portion was just right. The arugula went well with the steak. My only gripe would be that the meat should be served with some kind of sauce, even an au jus or something. Or, the potatoes could be served with some sort of gravy...

My other co-worker got the braised beef on mashed potatoes which also came with a side of break and salad, although his salad was regular romaine with tomatoes. I don't know what kind of dressing he had. One of my other co-workers got the same thing, so I didn't bother with a photo.

Another got the Caesar Salad with crunchy tortilla strips and chipotle dressing:

The intern got the same thing as me, except as a sandwich. Actually, hers looked pretty good because the sandwich came with mayo and sun dried tomatoes. No mashed potatoes though. She had them redo the sandwich because it was a little too pink for her taste. This shot was the first one before she had them take it back.

There are a lot of little courtyards around here. There was a nice relaxed village vibe in Liberty Station. There were lots of moms and their babies in strollers, people walking their dogs and school kids. Yes, school kids because the campus of High Tech High is in Liberty Station. Those teenagers looked very happy and relaxed sitting out by the fountains and just kicking back. They seemed very respectful and kept to themselves. There were also a few homeless people hanging out and asking for handouts.

To think that the old NTC is now home to ritzy homes, condos, and various shops and markets...

The historic Old North Chapel andArc Sculpturesby Bernar Venet:

I'm excited about the upcoming Smithsonian's traveling exhibit, Singgalot on Filipino American history at the New Americans Museum. The exhibit will debut on August 5 and run through October 25, which is appropriate since that is Filipino American History Month...

Looking forward to that upcoming exhibit...