Blast from the Past - SDSU Retirement Party

Last month, Bert and I went to a friend's retirement party at my alma mater, SDSU. In May, Sal Flor retired after 38 years of service at State, finishing off as an EOP Counselor and advisor to Andres Bonifacio Samahan (SDSU's Filipino American student organization), the Asian Pacific Student Alliance (APSA) and the Pacific Islander Student Association (PISA) and much much more.

I first met Sal when I was beginning as a counselor intern. He was a really funny guy with lots of stories to tell about the community. As he did for me, he provided advice and mentorship to many Filipino American educators in San Diego. Sal's family was one of San Diego's pioneer Filipino families who immigrated to San Diegp post-World War II. His father was a decorated WWII vet, commended by Harry Truman for his service; his mother a War Bride and one of the original members of the Bicol Club and the Filipino Women's Club of San Diego. In the late 60's and early 70's, Sal was part of the burgeoning Asian American/Filipino American/Third World studies and activist movement. There were many hot issues going on, like the Vietnam War, Civil Rights, Women's Rights, and after September 1972, Martial Law in the Philippines. If there was something happening in San Diego related to the Filipino American community, Sal was most likely a part of that.

Fittingly, his retirement party was held at Montezuma Hall at SDSU's Aztec Center. Near the registration tables were many displays of memorabilia. These were old Samahan PCN (Pilipino Culture Night) programs from the late 80's to the present.



Another table promoted the upcoming "Filipinos in San Diego" book launching, co-authored by Dr. Judy Patacscil (a former student of Sal's), Professor Felix Tuyay (one of Sal's best friends and a prof at Southwestern College), and Dr. Rudy Guevarra:

The memorabilia tables were strewn not just with "Sal's artifacts" but also with vintage candies. That was a pretty cool idea. Check out these old wooden tennis racquets!

I liked this table - with books from Felix Tuyay's collection. And ooh look, candy "cigarettes"!

On that same table were LP's...I spy Earth Wind and Fire and War!

"Bicol" is the region where Sal's parents are from. If you're from the Bicol area of the Philippines, you are known as a "Bicolano". Ever heard of the Filipino dish, "Bicol Express"? It's from there! Lots of hot peppers and coconut milk in Bicolano cuisine.

Also from Felix's collection, a package of "Filipinos Cookies"

"Filipinos" are snack cookies that are sold in Spain (ironically the island's former colonizer) and Potugal. I once had a package given to me as a gift from Felix but we had an infestation of drugstore beetles so I had to throw it out. I never opened the package actually but the wrapper was all gross from the bugs. Ugh, I just got shivers remembering that day when Bert and I cleaned out our pantry. The culprit? Chickpea flour that I bought from an Indian store. Fkg bugs were growing out of it!

Anyways, back to "Filipinos" cookies, courtesy of wikipedia's entry on "Filipinos (snack food)":

"The Philippine National Historical Institute has stated "The cookies were inspired by 'rosquillo' biscuits produced in Iloilo and Negros and the Spaniards added another twist by coating it with brown or white chocolate."


 Controversy

The government of the Philippines filed a diplomatic protest with the government of Spain, the European Commission, and then manufacturer Nabisco Iberia in 1999. The protest took offense with the use of the name "Filipinos", a term which can refer to the people of the Philippines, to market cookie and pretzel snacks and demanded Nabisco stop selling the product until the brand name was changed.

The resolution's author, Philippine Congressman Heherson Alvarez, claimed that the name of the cookie was offensive due to the apparent reference to their color, "dark outside and white inside". His resolution stated "These food items could be appropriately called by any other label, but the manufacturers have chosen our racial identity, and they are now making money out of these food items."  On August 26, 1999 Philippine president Joseph Estrada called the brand "an insult".

The protest was filed despite Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon's initial reluctance on the matter. Siazon had reportedly said "he saw nothing wrong with the use of 'Filipinos' as a brand name, noting Austrians do not complain that small sausages are called 'Vienna sausages.'"

So maybe I shouldn't eat those chocolate coated pretzel Flipz then.Pause....


Here are some vintage baseball jerseys from back in the day when Samahan had their own team (70's):



Here are some of Sal's old work shirts. During his roast, he was recognized for wearing either his red work shirt or Aloha shirts. In the back, you can see his desk plate with his name. Looks like that was custom made in the Philippines. All that's missing is a small wooden carabao and the barrel man.

The photo below is part of the Mural Triptico in Montezuma Hall (info taken from the article, "A Chicano Perspective on San Diego History" by Mario T. Garcia from The Journal of San Diego History, Fall 1972, Volume 18, #4; read the whole article here)

MURAL TRIPTICO

This three-paneled mural in Montezuma Hall at the Aztec Center, California State University, San Diego, depicts the Chicano's painful history. The artist, Gilberto Ramirez, who lives in Mexico, was assisted by artists Ruben DeAnda and Guillermo Aranda. Description of the mural is provided by the Associated Students Organization at the Aztec Center

NOCHE (Night)

"With its independence recently acquired from Europe, Mexico suffers a new strike, this time it's his powerful neighbor in America who delivers this homicidal strike, the country is divided. The children of the sun look at their father in vain; The Mexican cries the separation of his brothers who were left on the other side of the border, but united in sentiment, symbolized by the hearts; El Chicano without language, prisoner of a system based upon the sacrifice of peoples, also cries, and there begins to germinate in him the idea of social justice and fraternity among all peoples of the world."


Here is the lone food shot I took during the party. The menu consisted of fried rice, kahlua pig, citrus mahi mahi, and spring mix salad with ginger dressing. Pretty much island style.

Newfangled bridge connecting Aztec Center to the other side of College Avenue.

When I was at state, this new bridge wasn't here. Well, there WAS a bridge, but a regular old one without a modern looking arch. The old Rubio's used to be on the other side near KB Books.

Info taken from the SDSU website:

"[The pedestrian bridge] sits over College Avenue, connecting Aztec Center to the East Campus Residential Community, the Office of Housing Administration and parking structures. The bridge makes traveling to campus safe and easy for pedestrians. The suspension-like span is approximately 230-feet long and 45-feet tall."

I'll be going here again in the Fall with the 10th graders for a field trip...

Mount Soledad

After our satisfying lunch at Latin Chef, we took the scenic route from PB to La Jolla...to one of San Diego's most recognizable landmarks, the Mount Soledad Cross.  The cross was erected (heh heh, she said erect) in 1954 and is located on the top of Mount Soledad in La Jolla (the rich white area of San Diego). At the end of the 80's until the present day, the cross has courted controversy by people who feel it should be taken down by the city because it is a religious symbol on public land. In the early 90's the land was transferred to a non profit organization which designated the land to be used as a "war memorial". It's gone back and forth in the courts about whether the cross should remain or be taken down. Click here for more info. It's too damn long and complicated. I don't really care - it's just a great spot to see San Diego, cross or no cross.

When we got there, two weddings had just finished. One in which the bridal party wore yellow and orange. The other bridal party had some really cool clothes...those pix will come later thispost.
Here's the view looking west. It was cloudy, as you can see. You can see the Scripps Pier as well as La Jolla Shores.

Here is the view looking North East. The building with the spire is the Mormom Temple off of Nobel Drive.

Bert and TC looking out towards La Jolla Shores. I was kind of nervous because they were near the edge of a cliff! It wasn't a steep droff off, but there was a trail that led down...

Another westward view...

These signs are pretty recent...



The War Memorial is a long wall with plaques commemorating veterans who fought in the various wars...

Here's the other wedding party I mentioned earlier. The women wore these sexy purple dresses; they reminded me of glamorous 1940's pinup girls with big red flowers tucked behind their ears.

This was taken on the other side of the cross because the westside had the retro wedding party taking group photos.

Another sign...

View looking North/Eastward. You can see the 5 freeway.

Hey look, Ross Perot's former runningmate!

All I remember about Stockdale is the SNL skit with Dana Carvey as Ross Perot and the late great Phil Harman as Stockdale..."GRIDLOCK!"

Poor guy, decorated war hero but deservedly skewered for his many "senior moments" during the1992 Presidential Debates:

Bert and I did a double take with this one. It's a Filipino Navyman and he looks like Bert's dad. The resemblance is uncanny.

Here's another recognizable name and face on the wall. Former President Gerald Ford

Ford was also the subject of an SNL skit back in 1976

Here's another Filipino veteran we spotted on the wall. There were only a few out of hundreds...

Remember the purple dress sporting bridesmaids? Well, this was THE wedding couple who masterminded that retro wedding party! The zoot suited groom had major cojones to pull this look off! I personally would have thought it cooler if he had on a black pinstripe zoot suit, but the red really stood out. Very different. Not your everyday look, I'll tell you. The bride was beautiful with a big red flower in her hais as well. She looked straight out of the pages of a fashion magazine.

Lookie here, a Torrey Pine!

Did you know that theTorrey pine is the rarest type of pine tree in the United States There are about 3000 trees growing in a narrow strip along the California coast in San Diego. There's a few up here in Mount Soledad.

Torrey Pine needles only come in bunches of five. How's that for another wrinkle in your cortex? While the tree is endangered in the wild, it's also an ornamental tree. There is a high school in North County named after the Torrey Pine. The seeds from the pine cones were once used as food by the native Kumeyaay Indian tribe.

It was pretty fun taking TC up here. Despite the clouds, the views were still nice and we saw a lot of interesting people that day. Lots of tourists too. I don't know if this is still the case, but Mount Soledad used to be a big makeout spot. In high school, one of our(former) friends, the Arsonist used to go up there and high beam the couples! Ha ha.

Return to Latin Chef

Here's another post from earlier this summer...I forgot when this was, but it was the day we went to Great News! in PB to get our knives sharpened practically for free ($2 each knife). There was a rep from Wusthof there. Bert was ahead in line while TC and I waited on the side. There was an old man in a soccer ref uniform carrying a big ass knife (it's in his left hand - you can't really see it here). All those people had knives. Luckily no one went postal and stabbed anyone !

It look nearly an hour to get my chef's knife and paring knife sharpened. For each person in line, factor in about 5 minutes of chit-chat and if they really had questions about their cutlery, the customers really grilled the dude. Even Bert had a few questions for him. So that is why it took so fkg long.  After all that, we headed over to Latin Chef on Garnet...I haven't been here in awhile so it was time for a revisit...

Here's their menu which looks like it changed a tiny bit - now there are Brazilian items on the menu. Do any readers know if they changed ownership? I didn't see Freddie there from before....

The interior looked a bit different too. There were some Brazilians at another table; I could hear them speaking Portuguese. World Cup soccer was also on one of the tv's but I didn't really give a fk about it...

This side of the restaurant looked the same...

Looks like this shelf is new with Brazilian and Peruvian food/snack items...there was also a freezer on the side. It looked really out of place in my opinion.

This sign was on the sidewalk...I don't really like black beans so we did not order the Feijoada.

For our appetizers, we ordered the Kibe (on the left) and the Coxinha (on the right) along with Inca Kola. Turns out that North Park Produce near us (in Chula Vista) sells Inca Kola so it's not as nearly "exotic" since I can just get it there now. I also saw that they had it at Mercado Internacional 2000 as well. Inca Kola is a really sweet soft drink that kind of tastes citrusy. I looked it up on wikipedia and the flavor is described as "lemon verbena". The maker is actually Coca-Cola.

About these Brazilian appetizers now...The Kibe tasted kind of dry - there were some spices in there but I don't recall what they were.

"Kibe (or quibe): extremely popular, it corresponds to the Lebanese dish kibbeh and was brought to mainstream Brazilian culture by Syrian and Lebanese immigrants." (wikipedia, "Brazilian Cuisine").

I had to lookup "Kibbeh" becuause I didn't know what it was - it is actually a dish made of chopped meat and rice or bulgur.

Furthermore (also from Wikipedia, "Coxinha"):

"The Coxinha is a popular Brazilian snack, also popular in Portugal. It is made from shredded chicken and spices (occasionally including Catupiry-style cheese), enclosed in wheat flour—variants made from potato or manioc are also common--batter, and deep fried. It is shaped to roughly resemble a chicken drumstick, and sometimes a toothpick is inserted where the bone would be.
Coxinhas were originally made with a chicken thigh, thus the origin of its traditional shape. The batter used to make the dough is often prepared with the broth of the chicken, enhancing the flavor of the dough.

Coxinha literally means "little thigh", and it is how chicken drumsticks are known in Brazil."


As Johnny Carson would have said, "I DID NOT KNOW THAT!"

Of the two appetizers, I liked the Coxinha much better. So did TC. Bert enjoyed both and finished off that dry Kibe for us. Ha ha.

Below is the fish fillet we ordered for TC which came with one scoop of rice and a dressing drenched salad. We ended up sharing our dishes with each other, as is usually the case. We liked the fish but found a few tiny bones. The fish was lightly battered and fried and the portion was about right for us three. My daughter wouldn't have been able to finish this off by herself.

This is what I ordered, the Aji Gallina (Shredded chicken with yellow chili sauce). The sauce is thickened with parmesan cheese and bread crumbs. There is a tiny kick to it but for the most part, it's pretty mild. I've had it before and really enjoyed it so I had have it again.

It was a nice and laid back revisit to Latin Chef. The last time Bert and I had Peruvian was a Nazca Grill back in February (see that post here). After lunch, we decided to check out Mount Soledad. We'd been there before but that was years ago and before TC was born. This photo below is heading East on Garnet...

Passiing by World Curry which has been there for at least 15 years but I've never eaten there (yet). Any readers eat here before? The verdict?

Street art on Garnet...

PB is just not PB without a local head shop...(one of many, I say)

And here's the original location of the Broken Yolk Cafe which is always packed in the mornings. The other location is in Eastlake in Chula Vista.

Other folks who have blogged Latin Chef include:
Dennis from A Radiused Corner
Kirk from Mmm-Yoso (part 1 and part 2)
as well as my previous posts:
Latin Chef in Aug 2008 with TORC and again in Nov 2008 with Bert. Next up, the place that all the atheists love to hate, Mount Soledad!