Battered California faces billions in storm damage to crops, homes and roads

• March 24, 2023

By David R Baker, Kim Chipman, Mark Chediak and Brian K Sullivan | Bloomberg

The costs of California’s relentless winter storms keep rising. And outside of the human toll — with at least 28 people killed since January — the price will be measured in billions.

The “bomb cyclone” that lashed San Francisco on Tuesday was the latest in an epic series of extreme weather events to hit California since New Year’s Eve. It blew out windows from skyscrapers, flung barges into a historic bridge, sent trees tumbling across roads, knocked down power lines, and threatened a major freeway as the waterlogged hillside beneath it started to collapse.

Just to the south, in the Santa Cruz area, the river that flooded the town of Pajaro a week ago rose again, while nearby strawberry fields that were already submerged received a fresh round of rain.  And on Wednesday, the National Weather Service confirmed that a rare tornado hit an industrial area of Montebello, east of downtown Los Angeles, injuring one person and damaging several buildings.

The price tag for all this mayhem — road repairs, damaged homes, lost crops — won’t become clear for months. But the early estimates are sobering.

In the Salinas Valley region known as America’s Salad Bowl — a key growing hub for the US’s supply of lettuce, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower and artichokes — crop damages could climb as high as $500 million and the broader economic impact to the region could reach $1.2 billion, said Christopher Valadez, president of the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California, a trade group that represents farmers, processors and exporters in the region.

The landslide that threatens apartment buildings in San Clemente on Tuesday, March 21, 2023 is being monitored by geologists after resent rain storms. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Officials in hard-hit Santa Cruz County, which has seen roads washed out and a popular ocean pier destroyed, estimate $88 million in public infrastructure damage and $49.5 million in crop damage from the storms so far.

Tuesday’s damage comes in addition to the destruction California sustained in January, when three weeks of intense rainfall triggered floods and mudslides across the state, closing roads and homes. Moody’s RMS, a risk-modeling service, estimated the statewide cost from floods and infrastructure damage in January to be $5 billion to $7 billion. AccuWeather Inc. put its own estimate far higher at $30 billion.

It’s a dramatic reversal of fortune. After three years of punishing drought, California since late December has endured 12 “atmospheric rivers,” weather systems that channel intense plumes of moisture from hundreds of miles across the ocean and can carry as much water as the Mississippi River at its mouth.

Tuesday’s storm added to the river a “bomb cyclone,” a rapidly intensifying low-pressure system that fired up winds and produced a hurricane-like eye that rolled directly over San Francisco.

Across the Bay in Oakland, tropical storm-force wind gusts of 39 to 73 miles per hour (63 to 117 kilometers per hour) were reported for seven consecutive hours, according to AccuWeather.

“The impacts from the event resembled that of a landfalling strong tropical storm — likely the closest San Francisco residents will ever come to experiencing that weather phenomenon,” said AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter.

High tides cause flooding on Pacific Coast Highway at Bolsa Chica State Beach in Huntington Beach, CA, on Tuesday, January 24, 2023. The beach in this area has narrowed through the years. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Downtown San Francisco has received 30.69 inches of rain since October 1, which is 11.35 inches above normal, according to the National Weather Service. Los Angeles has received 25.74 inches in the same period, 13.27 inches above normal. On Tuesday, the city got 1.43 inches, a record for the date.

Related links

A tornado in Southern California? Destructive Montebello twister a rarity
71 Freeway in Pomona will close for pothole repairs starting Friday night
Map: See California’s drought nearly disappear in just six months
Geologists checking hillsides threatening San Clemente apartment buildings as more rain falls
Strong winds, heavy rain pound Southern California – and it’s not over

In San Francisco, the city closed off part of busy Mission Street downtown after window glass fell from a nearby tower. Near the city’s baseball park, a historic bridge was closed to vehicle traffic after barges blown by the wind crashed into and damaged it. Meanwhile, workers blocked off lanes of one of the main freeway arteries connecting the city to the Central Valley — Interstate 580 in the Altamont Pass — after the ground beneath it started sliding.

“We’ve gone from extremes, this weather whiplash — the most dry and arid years that we’ve experienced in our lifetimes to some of the wettest years we’ve experienced in our lifetimes,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Monday, as the latest system approached.

The storms have triggered so much destruction across so much terrain that Newsom has declared a state of emergency in 43 of California’s 58 counties. In each, the damage and the repairs needed are unique.

Brian Ferguson, a spokesman for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, said costs from the latest round of storms will likely go up for weeks as officials assess damages. That comes on top of the more than $1 billion in damage to homes and public infrastructure from a series of deadly storms in January.

MONTEBELLO, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 22: People gather near a toppled tree after a possible tornado touched down and ripped up building roofs in a Los Angeles suburb on March 22, 2023 in Montebello, California. Another Pacific storm has been pounding California with heavy rain, high winds, and snow. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

In the Sierra Nevada foothills, roads have been closed by landslides that can’t be quickly removed. The California Department of Transportation on Monday posted footage of State Route 70 in Plumas County buried under a collapsed hillside and warned there’s no estimate for when it can reopen.

For some of the state’s industries, the extreme weather has been an inconvenience, but little more. FilmLA, which administers permits to shoot movies and TV shows in the Los Angeles region, said it experienced many cancellations and requests to reschedule projects in the first wave of storms earlier this year. Now applications are being submitted with rain dates included as many producers try to plan their shoots around weather reports.

Operations at California’s busy ports have occasionally been slowed by the storms.

Alan McCorkle, CEO of Yusen Terminals LLC in the Port of Los Angeles, said the wind had twice stopped containers from being unloaded. “We also had a situation a few weeks ago where the wind knocked over several empty containers in the yard, which happened to several terminals at the same time, requiring all terminals to shut down for the rest of the shift,” McCorkle said. But such events are rare, even this year, he said.

The state’s sprawling agriculture industry, however, has taken a direct hit. The back-to-back storms struck farmland along the Central Coast particularly hard, putting strawberries and leafy greens in soggy peril and threatening to pinch national produce supply.

At the 99-year-old Ocean Mist Farms, the largest North American grower and supplier of artichokes, the deluge and unseasonably cool temperatures mean its growing crops in the region are delayed by several weeks, according to Mark Munger, senior director of marketing at the family-owned farming operation.

“Shoppers should probably expect very limited supplies in April, and that is directly due to the cold, wet weather we’ve been having,” Munger said. Ocean Mist, headquartered in Monterey County’s Castroville, was not able to plant vegetable crops like lettuce and broccoli on time due to all the rain and standing water. Other vegetables, like Romaine lettuce, also are likely to be hard to find next month. The shortfall is poised to lift retail prices at a time when consumers continue to grapple with high food inflation.

In the Central Valley county of Tulare floods have already damaged citrus and almond orchards, along with dairy farms. As the spring runoff starts in the nearby Sierra Nevada mountains, even more water will flow onto farmland downstream. ”The creameries are having to temporarily shut down from the floods, that means a loss of jobs temporarily and dumping of milk,” said Tricia Stever Blattler, executive director of the Tulare County Farm Bureau. “There are potentially tens of thousands of acres of cropland under water.”

–With assistance from Laura Curtis, Christopher Palmeri and Joe Deaux.

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.

​ Orange County Register 

Ducks’ Trevor Zegras in line for significant raise this summer

• March 24, 2023

ANAHEIM — The conversation with Trevor Zegras on Thursday morning started by touching briefly on the upcoming World Championships and then wandered elsewhere.

“It’s such an honor to wear that jersey,” he said of the 16-team event, scheduled for May 12-28.

However, that doesn’t mean Zegras is a lock to get on the plane to represent Team USA in the tournament being co-hosted by Tampere, Finland and Riga, Latvia. Even though the Ducks’ season wraps up on April 13, there are other matters taking precedence.

“I think it’s something you’ve got to think about,” he said. “Obviously with stuff up in the air for this summer it might be tough to do that but it’s definitely something I’d be very honored to do at some point. If it’s something I end up doing, I probably won’t know until a little bit later.”

Front and center is a contract extension. Zegras, the Ducks’ leading scorer, will be coming out of his three-year, entry-level deal ($995,000 AAV), making him a restricted free agent and awaiting a big pay raise.

“With the contract stuff up in the air, I feel like that’s the first priority,” he said.

His agent, the Los Angeles-based Pat Brisson, said via text that he should be talking to Ducks GM Pat Verbeek “soon here about an extension.” Verbeek said on the first day of training camp (Sept. 23) that negotiations with Zegras and fellow pending RFAs Troy Terry and Jamie Drysdale would come after the season, trying to minimize distractions.

Still, it’s hard to completely push financial considerations to the side.

“I’d be lying to you if I said it didn’t come up every once in a while,” Zegras said. “With where we’re at this year, down the stretch, I feel like it’s been coming up a little bit more. It’s been an emphasis since the beginning of the year that all that stuff will be taken care of after the season.

“It definitely creeps in once in a while.”

Heading into Thursday’s game against the Winnipeg Jets, Zegras had 58 points (22 goals, 36 assists) in 71 games. In all, he has 132 points in 170 career NHL games, and the only member of his 2019 draft class with more points is his close friend Jack Hughes of the New Jersey Devils with 189 points in 233 NHL games.

Zegras turned 22 on Monday and it was notable in that he had the second-most points in franchise history before turning 22, trailing only Hall of Famer Paul Kariya.

Happy 22nd birthday Trevor Zegras! He finishes with the 2nd-most points before turning 22 in @AnaheimDucks history:

Paul Kariya – 147
Trevor Zegras – 132
Ryan Getzlaf – 97#FlyTogether pic.twitter.com/ty0H6mIoWU

— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) March 20, 2023

Reminded of that, Zegras smiled, saying of Kariya: “Whenever you hear that it’s definitely pretty cool. He’s got pretty big shoes. It’s going to take a couple of guys to fill them.”

Related Articles

​ Orange County Register 

Leroy Morishita named interim president of Cal State Los Angeles

• March 24, 2023

Leroy Morishita has been named interim president of Cal State Los Angeles, officials announced on Thursday, March 23.

The appointment was made by Interim Chancellor Jolene Koester of the CSU. Morishita will begin the job on July 31, and will serve until a new president is appointed by the CSU Board of Trustees.

“I am excited to formally return to the CSU and to be part of a vibrant, dynamically diverse and student-centered university like Cal State LA,” Morishita said. “I look forward to working with the extraordinarily talented faculty, staff and administrators to continue providing transformative educational opportunities for Cal State LA’s students.”

Morishita was president of California State University, East Bay in Hayward from 2011-20.

“Dr. Morishita is an extraordinary leader who, over a long and distinguished career, demonstrated an unwavering commitment to inclusive excellence, innovative student-success initiatives and to educational equity in all its dimensions,” Koester said. “His more than 40 years of experience in leadership positions across the CSU, including his highly successful tenure as president of California State University, East Bay, will serve him well in this role.”

Related Articles

Morishita most recently served the CSU in a consulting role, participating in a workgroup formed by Koester to identify a multi-year strategy to achieve stable and predictable revenues for the CSU.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from UC, Berkeley, a master’s degree in counseling at San Francisco State, and a doctorate of education from Harvard in administration, planning and social policy.

Cal State LA’s current president, William Covino, announced his retirement in August 2022, effective at the end of July.

​ Orange County Register 

El Dorado baseball wins battle with Villa Park in Crestview League

• March 24, 2023

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — Even though league play is just getting underway, a victory over one of the county’s top teams is meaningful and could pay dividends later in the season when the playoffs draw closer.

El Dorado got that victory over an excellent team, defeating Villa Park 3-2 in a Crestview League game Thursday at JSerra High School.

The game was supposed to be played Wednesday at El Dorado, but was postponed because of the rain.

El Dorado (8-5, 2-0) couldn’t have its grass field ready in time to play Friday, so the contest was moved to the artificial turf field at JSerra.

The Spartans (8-2, 1-1), who are ranked No. 3 in Division 1 of the CIF Southern Section and No.1 in Orange County, scored two runs on A.J. Krodel’s two-run double with two outs in the third to give Villa Park a 2-0 lead.

But the Hawks, who are ranked No. 11 in the county, answered right back with three runs in the bottom of the third to pull ahead.

Brady Abner and Garvey Rumary both delivered RBI singles in a three-run third, giving El Dorado a one-run lead.

“One of the things we try and do is answer back and we were able to,” El Dorado coach Matt Lucas said. “We did a good job putting balls in play.”

Pitcher Nick Sandstedt entered in the fifth for El Dorado, taking over for starter Jack Fishel.

Sandstedt had five strikeouts and allowed two hits as he kept the Spartans off the scoreboard in his three innings of work, pitching out of trouble in two of those innings.

In the fifth, the Spartans had runners on second and third with two outs. Lucas intentionally walked Krodel, who had two doubles in his first two at-bats.

Designated hitter Jake Fuentes worked the count to 3-1 when Sandstedt came back to strike out the senior.

Big time effort https://t.co/YGUbQYWQar

— matt lucas (@EDHawksBaseball) March 24, 2023

“Even with that 3-1 count I had all the confidence in the world in Nick,” Lucas said. “He threw a 3-2 breaking ball to strike the guy out. If we throw a ball there, it’s a tie game.”

Related Articles

Villa Park had runners on first and second with two outs in the sixth when Sandstedt retired Jake Fuentes on a ground out to end that threat.

In the seventh, Sandstedt gave up a two-out single to Krodel, but then struck out Fuentes to end the game.

“It was a tough lineup,” Sandstedt said. “I knew I couldn’t leave anything over the middle. I really had to work around them. It worked. We got ground balls and the defense made the plays.”

​ Orange County Register 

A tornado in Southern California? Destructive Montebello twister a rarity

• March 24, 2023

As business owners and residents pick up the pieces after a rare tornado tore through Montebello on Wednesday, March 22, many are wondering: How in the heck did that happen?

Cell phone videos of the small but wild storm racked up millions of videos on social media, and the National Weather Service sent investigators to the scene to figure out what occurred. Forecasters were initially reluctant to label the storm one way or another.

RELATED COVERAGE: Montebello moves to recover following rare tornado

Forecasters eventually concluded on Wednesday that the twister spinning through Montebello at around 11 a.m. was indeed an EF1 tornado. Those have winds ranging from 86 mph to 110 mph. It was the strongest to hit Los Angeles since the 1980s.

Tornadoes are ranked on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, which uses the amount of damage a tornado inflicts to measure possible wind speed and other attributes. The scale goes from EF-0, a light tornado, to EF-5, with winds of 200 mph-plus.

At about 50 yards wide, with wind speeds of 110 mph, the twister that hit Montebello damaged 17 buildings, including 11 that were red-tagged, uprooted a tree, and snapped a power pole. One person was injured.

Tornadoes are rare in Southern California, which averages one to two per year, with seven to 10 for the whole state.

There were 44 tornadoes in Los Angeles County between 1950 and 2021, according to the LA Almanac. The last one hit in Inglewood as an EF-0 in 2014. An EF-0, with wind speeds between 65 mph and 85 mph, typically inflicts only minor damage to structures and does not result in massive loss of life or property.

In March 1983, an EF2 tornado with peak wind speeds of 113 mph plowed through South Los Angeles, injuring more than 30 people.

A weak tornado hit Sunset Beach back in 2010. And in 2019, Orange County residents were shocked by a tornado warning during a winter storm.

The reason California doesn’t experience tornadoes more frequently is simple. The perfect conditions that create hundreds of them every year in the Midwest, giving it the famous nickname “Tornado Alley,” just aren’t all that common here.

“Cooler air near the surface is not conducive for the formation of tornadoes,” National Weather Service forecaster David Sweet explained. “You need very warm, moist air in place, and cool air aloft to produce a tornado, so this cooler marine air that we get at the surface suppresses the processes that are needed for tornadoes.”

That changed, though, when this week’s bout of severe weather destabilized the atmosphere and brought not one but two tornadoes to the region — the other twister happened in Carpinteria, further up the coast.

“We had very cold air aloft, we had directional wind shear at lower levels, so that created very unstable air,” Sweet said. Directional wind shear occurs when the wind moves in different directions at various layers of the atmosphere. It’s what initiates the rotational updraft that creates a tornado.

It might be rare to see a tornado in Southern California, but their weather cousins — landspouts and waterspouts — are more common. Waterspouts are tornadoes that form over the ocean. Landspouts are a weaker form of a land-locked tornado, and they begin their rotation from the ground up. The National Weather Service warned that both would be possible with this storm system, and they’re not an uncommon sight in the winter months.

Like many other weather patterns, the exact science behind the formation of tornadoes — known formally as “tornadogenesis” — can be mysterious. Scientists also are working to understand whether an increase in severe storms attributed to climate change could lead to more tornadoes.

Related Articles

​ Orange County Register 

Meet the entrepreneur who kicked off the craft beer craze in Old Towne Orange

• March 24, 2023

Old Town Orange is a semi-preserved historic area in Orange County. The neighborhood is quaint. Yet, surprisingly, it boasts several chef-driven dining concepts. Why would these places choose to open in Orange? If you ask locals, it all started with a place called Haven Craft Kitchen + Bar.

For years, the drinking scene around the area was lackluster. Then Wil Dee helped revolutionize what was being poured in Orange County. If you ask Dee, he refers to that time as the dark ages of bartending.

“If you didn’t have a creative bartender, especially in Orange County,” says Dee, “that Old Fashioned would be a bright red cherry, a sugar packet-muddled drink that was half soda water.”

That wasn’t good enough for Dee. When he opened Haven in 2009, he vowed that his place would be different.

“Things were static – as far as the spirits, wine, beer selection,” says Dee. “Things didn’t stay or move. It was just maintaining rather than being creative.”

Haven began as a gastropub and is now dubbed a craft kitchen and bar. Though its moniker changed over the years, one thing remained constant: Haven is celebrated for its craft beer and spirit selection.

Dee followed Haven’s success and opened another shop in Old Towne Orange called Provisions, a cafe, coffee, beer and wine shop. In 2016, he co-founded Chapman Crafted Beer & Coffee, which brews microcraft beer and roasts specialty coffee right in Orange.

As Dee’s beverage footprint grew, the city’s advancement also became important to him. Dee serves on the executive board for the Orange Chamber of Commerce and sits as vice president of the Orange County Brewers Guild. Beyond his civic responsibilities, Dee flies out to Louisville to taste special whiskeys blended by the famous Kentucky distiller Woodford Reserve for his O.C. restaurant.

“So tasting, that’s the fun part of it,” he says.

We caught up with Dee to learn what ignited his passion for beer and how Haven stays relevant as Old Towne Orange evolves.

What ignited your love for beer?

When I left Stubrik’s [Steakhouse & Bar], I went to Europe for two months. We visited so many countries around Europe. You get to taste so many different beers. That was my thing. We went to France, and when it came to Germany it was time for Oktoberfest. … The beer there had a difference in the flavor, texture. That was the start.

When I got back, I worked at Taps where they brew their own beer. Victor Novack wrote the book about brewing those particular styles. And that helped me build Haven, as far as the beverage program and that creativity.

Haven was one of the first places in Orange County to serve specialty beers and spirits. Why did you choose to do that when everyone seemed happy imbibing from the well?

It became one of those guiding principles, you have a product made by a company. You know what you’re going to get in terms of the quality.

At Haven, let’s have a draft list that’s a variety of styles. Fourteen years ago, you’d go into a place and a basic list would look like Bud Light, Coors Light, Stella, Amstel Light and maybe Heineken. Ultra was a big thing back then too. But all the styles were the same. That was the variety you’d see everywhere. It was just lagers.

How did you get people to try something new?

When I put my tap list here, people used to say, “Oh you have weird beer here. You don’t have American beer.”

And then, I’d say, “Actually, we have a beer made by someplace down here.”

We get a lot of new people and new faces around here. A lot of them asked for macro brands, but it’s no longer the case.

You also brew your own beer at Chapman Crafted. How did that begin?

Haven expanded into a place in Pasadena in 2011. That place had brewing equipment. So I reached out to a colleague and he had someone who was an independent craft home brewer. I met Chapman’s current brewer the year before during San Francisco beer week. He moved down here and applied for the job. My friend Randy [Nelson] wanted to come up with a production brewery and what’s left is Chapman Crafted.

Why did you open in Old Towne Orange?

We found a place in the city and Lisa Camp and our city manager at the time was like we want you in this property. It will be good for the local economy. A lot of it had to do with the principles that were put in place at Haven.

Speaking of Haven, now that craft beer and brown spirits are so common, how do you stay relevant?

People’s palates are more accustomed to craft beers and brown spirits. It worked out great for us because we always had a large hard alcohol selection – hard whiskey, gin; even our wine list is a 10-time Wine Spectator wine list.

More ‘Go+Eat+Adventure’

This story is part of a collection of stories printed Sunday, March 26, 2023.
Why sharing home-cooked meals is a way of building family for one South Asian writer
Like Vietnamese food? Here are 5 delicious spots in OC’s Little Saigon to try
Explore these 12 Inland Empire foodie favorites
Read more ‘Go+Eat+Adventure’
More SCNG Premium content

​ Orange County Register 

Why sharing home-cooked meals is a way of building family for one South Asian writer

• March 24, 2023

We South Asians come from large families and build tight-knit communities when we move as immigrants.

As a graduate student, I saved to buy gifts for my family alongside the cheapest plane ticket. I counted more than 60 cousins, aunts, uncles, neighbors and well-wishers who were family. Every other year I returned, my suitcases filled with American goods – Kirkland cashews, Costco socks, Marshalls’ cashmere sweaters and, of course, Hershey’s chocolates from Target.

This was America that they knew – the land of Dove deodorants and Gillette razors. They eagerly awaited these gifts, and I gladly obliged. After all, the universal immigrant message was that we’ve made it. The aftershave for our uncle was proof.

Years passed. Grandmothers, uncles, parents, older cousins departed this earth. I’ve lived in America longer than India, relinquished my Indian citizenship and gained an American one. Home seems like many cities and yet none of them. As the youngest cousin, I am one of the few surviving Ghosh members. Now I live alone, child-free by choice, with no parents or spouse anymore. I am an outlier South Asian.

Growing up, our family home was filled with relatives visiting from Kolkata. Baba showed them the sights of New Delhi, heading to Sarojini Nagar Market for the latest kameezes, or Palika Bazaar for bootlegged Levis or secondhand Sidney Sheldon paperbacks.

Ma’s kitchen was a flurry with luchis frying in peanut oil, chicken cooking in a whistling pressure cooker, the smells of cinnamon ground with cloves sautéed in ghee mixed with grated onions/ginger/garlic, ready for minced goat curry.

Every weekend was a roaring gas flame roasting eggplant, or a turmeric-coated piece of hilsa or rohu sizzling in oil. We children – out of my mother’s path – stole a potato fry, sometimes a gajaa (fried dough dunked in sugar syrup). Our world was food – the prep, the cooking, the serving and then the cleanup. And repeat.

Madhushree Ghosh is the author of “Khabaar: An Immigrant Journey of Food, Memory and Family.” She lives in San Diego. (Photo courtesy Madhushree Ghosh)

In America, I continued the Ghosh tradition. I cooked woks of cauliflower curry, masoor dal with onion seeds in ghee, chicken curry with cashews and garam masala for friends. I married for love, spent weekends cooking for my now-ex’s vegetarian family – spicy tomato rasam, eggplant with ground peanuts.

In a decade, the marriage sputtered. The parties stopped, dinners quit, and I was left with an empty house. I kept cooking, as if cooking would bring the magic back. Bowls of chicken curry, degchis of coconut shrimp, lamb curry haandis with ginger. In the empty house I cooked, reliving the comfort of knowing I had a family. But it didn’t matter – my parents were gone, my marriage was dead.

Life, however, predictably moves, even when heartbreak stalls time. My closest friends became family – we were “framily.” Now, every Diwali – the Festival of Lights – we celebrate with food. Then they clean up, fold the chairs away, toss the tablecloths in the washing machine, leftovers in Tupperware – much like my parents’ friends would when I was a child.

When the pandemic stalled our lives, I still cooked. I made boxes of fried rice with sautéed raisins, chicken curry in yogurt sauce, mustard fish steamed in banana leaves, sabudana khichdi – tapioca pearls with potatoes. I drove to the framily, honked outside, and they came down, masked, in sweatpants, happy to get food filled with love. We thought this would last a few weeks – every Friday, we Zoomed discussing the nothingness of a pandemic lockdown.

Then, when the pandemic dragged on, I decided to grow food to feed the framily. I filled my tiny yard with planters. An experiment.  Could I do what my Baba used to? Grow enough vegetables? After all, experiments fail.

That year, I grew greens, beets, cauliflower and pea shoots to feed my neighbors, friends, caterpillars and the occasional bug. Then, I graduated to bitter melon, green beans and kale alongside eggplants. I cook the greens with an occasional potato curry or a steamed fish. When life morphs, we transform expectations to hold love and food as the gift.

Who knows where we are headed next? After all, life doesn’t have a straightforward formula. But does it matter if our hearts hold “yes” and “joy” to guide us through it?

More ‘Go+Eat+Adventure’

This story is part of a collection of stories printed Sunday, March 26, 2023.
Meet the entrepreneur who kicked off the craft beer craze in Old Towne Orange
Like Vietnamese food? Here are 5 delicious spots in OC’s Little Saigon to try
Explore these 12 Inland Empire foodie favorites
Read more ‘Go+Eat+Adventure’
More SCNG Premium content

​ Orange County Register 

Like Vietnamese food? Here are 5 delicious spots in OC’s Little Saigon to try

• March 24, 2023

As the official national dish of Vietnam, it’s no surprise that pho shops dot every corner of Little Saigon. While you can never go wrong with established heavyweights including Pho 79, Pho 101, Pho Dakao and Phoholic, for foodies who want to try pho with some swagger, here are some new names to consider.

Take Phở Thìn 13 Lò Đúc, for instance. Little Saigon’s newest pho hot spot just touched down directly from Hanoi and brings with it authentic, delicately seasoned Northern-style pho in a region dominated by Southern-style pho, which is more robust and complex in flavor.

Order the signature phở tái lăn, which features tender ribeye and filet mignon stir-fried in ginger and garlic, a hallmark of their pho, which also comes blanketed in verdant spring onions. Ginger, onion and cinnamon are the primary aromatics here (versus the usual stars anise and cloves found in Southern pho), along with a reported 13 types of fresh fruit juice, which explains the broth’s sweetness.

Take note of the condiment jars filled with pickled garlic and pickled chilies – they’ll definitely punch up your bowl.

Pro-tip: Arrive early to nab a side of bánh quẩy (savory deep-fried breadsticks), which are perfect for dunking into the broth.

Over at Pho Redbo in Garden Grove, the wait can reach up to an hour on weekends. Seemingly everyone’s there for the American Wagyu beef pho, starting at $18 to $22 a bowl. For $50, you’ll get a stone pot of piping hot broth, with a platter of rare slices of American Wagyu and a bowl of fresh, wide rice noodles on the side.

Indeed, the Wagyu is buttery and basically melts on the tongue – the rather satisfying broth is redolent with rich, beefy aroma and flavor.

Sen Vietnamese Cuisine in Westminster hasn’t been open a year, but it already has a legion of devotees. You likely won’t find a table without an order of the Bánh Mì Que Pate, petite house-made baguettes stuffed with country-style pate, chili sauce and pork floss (shredded pork). Two come to an order ($5.50), and the baguettes arrive warm and crisp – the combination of savory, creamy with that slight zip of heat is irresistible. You’ll want to keep coming back for these.

Another must-try? The Bánh Đa Cua Hải Phòng, a crab noodle soup with unique, reddish-brown wide rice noodles that are pleasantly chewy, with housemade pork meatballs and shrimp.

Fans of the popular bánh xèo crepes might also fall for a similar dish called bánh khọt, which consists of savory rice flour mini-pancakes topped with shrimp or pork, accompanied with greens and herbs such as perilla leaves, lettuce, mint and shredded papaya that you’ll use to wrap up the pancakes and dip into the fish sauce (nuoc mam) and eat. The ones at Bánh Khọt Vũng Tàu in Westminster are thinner and lacier than most, possessing a delightfully remarkable crunch.

Of course, no visit to Little Saigon is complete without frequenting one of the many coffee and boba shops that abound. DaVien manages to stand out, thanks to its ability to consistently churn out some of the best-inspired takes on Vietnamese iced coffee or ca phe sua da.

Also, some credit should go to the shop’s use of pebble ice, the gold standard for iced drinks and for which the shop happens to be named after.

The ever-popular Egg Coffee comes crowned with a thick and creamy topping made from whipped egg yolks – all the better to cut the intensely robust coffee flavor. Oh, and when we say robust, we mean this may have you bouncing off the walls until the wee hours. You’re welcome.

More ‘Go+Eat+Adventure’

This story is part of a collection of stories printed Sunday, March 26, 2023.
Meet the entrepreneur who kicked off the craft beer craze in Old Towne Orange
Why sharing home-cooked meals is a way of building family for one South Asian writer
Explore these 12 Inland Empire foodie favorites
Read more ‘Go+Eat+Adventure’
More SCNG Premium content

​ Orange County Register