Philippine Faire @ Kimball Park, Part 1

This Memorial Day weekend promised to be packed with events...This first of which was the Philippine Faire at Kimball Park in National City, right off the Mile of Cars and a bit past East 16th St.  TC and her dance group were scheduled to perform...This was the view as we walked across the grass field and approached the event grounds...

National City is a very diverse community - home to many many Filipinos and Latinos. Unfortunately, National City is also called "Nasty City" by many in San Diego. There are those who dare not even set food in any place below the I-8 freeway for fear of being in ghettoland or not seeing any white faces. In National City, I actually feel right at home. I see people who look like me and find stores that cater to my cultural needs. The city does have a high crime rate and is home to many lower income communities but it is a vibrant community which values culture and trying to rise above and find success.

The fair celebrates 112 years of Philippine Independence from Spain, which ruled the islands for over 300 years until the end of the Spanish American War in 1898. The exact date of that Independence was June 12, 1898 and that is the day that Filipinos in the Philippines recognize as their true independence, not the one after the U.S "granted" to the Philippines after World War 2 with the strategic and symbolic date of July 4, 1946.

Through the Treaty of Paris, Spain sold the Philippines for $20 million  to a new colonial master, the United States of America. In my opinion, the Independence was shortlived because the U.S. viewed the Philippines as their stepping stone towards being a world power. At the time, Imperialism was in full swing and the U.S. wanted to get into the game like the European countries that were colonizing distant lands in Asia and Africa.

I don't watch Filipino TV so I had no idea who those people were. Apparently, they are famous and on the "GMA" Channel.

Here's the stage...several local high school students won scholarships from COPAO (the umbrella organization, Council of Pilipino American Organizations) were recognized for their achievements.

Now, we're talking food here...here's a rundown on the booths. This one offered smoothies (with boba) and desserts...

This was a surprise - Jasmine Restaurant from Convoy St. was here! Nice to see them branch out. Lots of Filipinos have Chinese background too so it's not like an unfamiliar cuisine.

Ooh, our local Filipino mart was here, JNC Pinoy Foodmart! The price of a combo plate was $5.75 (1 item with rice); $7.00 (2 items with rice).

Here's some of their items...the far far left (kind of cut off) was Diniguan pork blood stew, then you have Igado (liver with peppers), and Beef Picadillo (one of my favorites). That's pancit in the back as well...

JNC also had Beef Mechado (far right) and lumpia (not pictured). The beef mechado is really good there - richly flavored meat stew with potatoes. OMG my mouth was watering as I typed that.

L and L Hawaiian BBQ was here as well...

And then we had Lemonade and Roasted Corn booths...

Conching's Cafe was also represented...

I loved their makeshift sign, written on the lid of a storage box! Their prices were the same as JNC.

Here's some of the offerings from Conching's - Lumpia, pancit, some sort of dish with coconut milk featuring mussels and shell on shrimp (they were making a new batch as I snapped the photo), plus pork menudo.

More of that food here...Clockwise: Pork menudo in the upper left corner, then triangular fried things filled with chicken (those were pretty good!), Beef Mechado and Pork Adobo. Not pictured were the trays with longanisa, pancit, and chicken adobo.

I bought one of these Halo Halo desserts for TC. The ingredients were preassembled in the cups and they add crushed ice and pour evaporated milk (ooh, an action shot!) over it. The halo halo had sliced jackfruit, green and red things (most likely palm nuts or agar agar cubes), coconut strings, and beans. It's like a drink and dessert in one. This was $4.00.

I got the Melon drink for Bert and myself. It's shredded cantelope flesh with cantelope juice from the pulp which is mixed with sugar. Nice and sweet!

I got this combo plate from Conchings - Bistek (soy sauce and lemon marinated flank steak with grilled onions) and that fried flaky triangle thing with chicken. I don't think that's a traditional Filipino item, but it still tasted pretty good!  They gave me three pieces!

This combo plate was from JNC and was intended for TC. Now, that's A LOT of Lumpia! I expected just maybe 2 or 3 pieces! They were still making more pancit when I ordered this, so instead I got the Beef Picadillo with carrots, red bell peppers, and raisins (one of my childhood faves).

One of our friends had Beef Mechado with Pork Menudo (pork stew with potatoes and garbanzos).

Later on that afternoon, I headed back over to Jasmine's booth because I wanted to buy a sesame ball (notice it is singular). There were two Asian women there talking to the Jasmine folks about the food. I asked one lady what type of dumpling was on her plate. She didn't know and only said it was dim sum. She also didn't mind that I asked if I could take a photo of her food. She joked with me and said, "Why don't you take a photo of ME instead?" while she posed theatrically with her plate. So cute! Looks like this is is a mish mash of stuff, fried wings, noodles, rice, and some sort of dim sum.

Earlier that day, the Sesame balls were going for $1.00. Since the event has more than halfway over, they were doing 2 for $1, so yeah, score!

These were delicious nuggets of sesame goodness filled with bean paste! I could have eaten more of these, but didn't want to overindulge.

And do you all remember what this is? I had a photo of one of these in a previous post (Nephew's Bday party post). Hell yeah, man, break out the BANIG!!!

Coming up...more pix from the Faire!

Tacos at end of the year party

[Marathon post alert! Scroll down to read the latest 4 posts!]

Our association had our end of the year party, held at a teacher's home in the Rolling Hills Ranch area...OMG, the guy had a killer view from his bedroom balcony. You could see all the way from Mexico to Mount Soledad! Nice! He also had a beautiful and large back yard complete with pool and gorgeous landscaping...

The menu for this afternoon...

Tacos by Taquizas "El Muneco" (that's what is says on the apron)...There was grilled carne asada and chicken...They also did quesadillas by request (many were for the kids that were there).

Here's the guy chopping up the meat for my chicken taco. You can see my shadow there! I asked for my tacos with "everything" which means, guacamole, chopped onions and cilantro! Yes!

They had a nice array of sauces and fixings...

There was tomatillo salsa along with an orangey type of salsa (not that spicy, but good!), pickled red onions and grilled green onions.

They you had the limes wedges, sliced cucumbers, radishes and grilled peppers! These were so delicious - especially the peppers!

This was another counselor's tacos - she had the chicken with the orange salsa plus an extra tortilla on the side. I should have asked for that...

This was my plate - I had one carne asada taco and one chicken taco. I tried both sauces. I tried everything except for the red pickled onions.

Some of the beer that was served that afternoon...

Here's the view from our little seating area...

I think every party should be at this dude's house from now on! He's not even part of our association but he offered to host since he knew the organizer of our association's event. I had a great time talking to counselors from other schools. We hardly see each other except at district inservices and those are few and far between. Or, if you are in a committee of some sort, then you can see your colleagues from other schools. Here's to the end of the school year!

Bento Noodles - H Street

Here's another lunch outing with a few of my co-workers...This is Bento Noodles at Terra Nova Plaza, off of East H Street and the 805. This location is right next to China China and are owned by the same people; the restaurants share the interior spaces. About ten years ago, Bento Noodles used to be the only Thai place in the South Bay, Thai Go (this was before Lai Thai in National City). There is another location of Bento Noodles in Eastlake...

We got there a little before noon so it wasn't quiet crowded just yet. One of my co-workers is a regular here so they know her and what she likes to order.

If you ever eat here, there is an Asian lady with super short hair named Margaret! She is a total hoot! Seriously! She's really funny and always makes her customers laugh. We'd been here several times before and she always remembers our group.

Sushi rolls and specials...

You can buy the same mochi ice cream at Trader Joe's (the Mikawaya brand though). I haven't tried the fried sesame balls here yet. I like those a lot but the ones at Ranch 99 are much bigger!

My co-workers asked for this chili garlic oil - you can see the chili pepper seeds and the minced garlic in here. They mixed this stuff with their soy sauce. No wasabi needed here!

One ordered Bento's version of Chinese Salt and Pepper Fried Chicken Wings - this has green onions and sliced jalapenos and not so much (or not at all) fried garlic and chili pepper seed bits. The skin on thewings was nice and crunchy with juicy meat inside. So good, but I like having garlic and chili bits though.

I got two rolls for lunch, The Crunchy Philadelphia Roll...

and the Salmon Skin roll...

My other co-worker ordered the Chef's Special which was a tempura shrimp and phill roll topped with eel and "special" sauce and avocado. This was pretty good - I had the end piece with the shrimp tail!

I ended up taking several pieces (plus the wings my friend didn't want) home for TC. Today was not really fun at work in that we got senior F's that morning, which also meant contacting the parent/student of any kid with non-grad status. Luckily I didn't have too many students who failed. Just a couple, but still....

Panda Express

With finals week approaching (which means 'minimum days') and signaling the hotly anticipated end of the school year, my co-worker and I wanted to take advantage of the nice day and get out of the office. The other day, I had lunch with a co-worker at Panda Express in Eastlake (in the same shopping center as Target and Lowe's). 

The place was crawling with high school kids, all wearing their PE uniforms. Turns out that the local high school's PE class walked over to the mall (chaperoned by their teacher/coach) so every table outside was filled and there was literally no place to sit or even stand without bumping into someone. I saw a kid wearing a shirt denigrating another rival school which made me crack up inside.

We ended up ordering our food to go and driving over to Eastlake Village Walk to eat our lunch in relative peace and quiet. Meanwhile, I noticed that they had a new item. If you click on this photo, you can probably see it better, the Honey Walnut Shrimp.

Here's our to-go bag...we sat outside Los Primos Mexican food at the Eastlake Village Walk complex (near Pho Hiep Grill Chateau; God, that title always makes me cringe!)...

I got the Mandarin Beef with the "new" Honey Walnut Shrimp with noodles instead of rice. This was $5.79 for the 2 entrees + a side. The honey walnut shrimp was okay. No shrimp shells on the tails, thank goodness. There weren't that many candied walnuts though. I've tasted better (more recently at Panda Inn at Horton Plaza). I really wanted to try this even though it's not that healthy for me.

The stickiness also fucked with my temporary crown, which I've had on for a week already. I get my actual crown next week. Well, I'd been eating on one side only but apparently, some of the food migrated to the left side of my mouth and got stuck. When I felt something between my teeth, I tried getting it out and dammit - it was my worst nightmare come true. And by nightmare I mean, horrible visions of my teeth falling apart or disintegrating, or in this case, the whole temporary crown lifting off in one sickening piece like a scab you peel off your arm or leg. What would Freud think of that? Hmmm!  Seriously, I do have bad dreams of my teeth getting crushed or falling out and stuff. That and scary bridges. And clowns. And Kenny G.

Frantic with worry, we tried checking my dentist's office on the way back to work to see if I could get it fixed as a walk-in. Just my shitty luck, the office was closed. I was paranoid for the rest of the day not wanting to eat or drink anything because my molar was so sensitive. It was so gross looking at it too, all hollowed out and shit. It was not fun brushing my teeth later that day.

Anyhow to make a long story even longer, I was able to get it fixed this morning. Ten minutes tops. Thank goodness! Since I saved the temporary crown, the dental assistant glued it back on. Hopefully it will last me this whole weekend because dammit, it's Memorial Day weekend and I want to eat some goodass food!!!!
 
Upcoming posts:
Food/Events:
The Philippine Fair at Kimball Park
The Ethnic Food Fair at Balboa Park
 
topics:
My late movie review for "The Runaways"
More "Listography" music lists
My ode to all that is Canadian (in anticipation of our upcoming trip to YYZ and Manitoulin!)
 
and more...
 
Four more work days!!!!