We made no critical plans for today, as Carolyn had a tradesman coming to replace a major part of her ailing air conditioning system. Carolyn did encourage us to stick with our tentative plan of going to Old Towne Orange, but we decided to wait and play it by ear. Old Towne Orange Historic District is another favourite place – many of its buildings appear in the National Register of Historic Places – but we don’t have to go (and we have other days yet anyhow).
As it turned out, by the time the work was done, it was into lunchtime and, while we could have “done” Old Towne, we decided not to stress ourselves trying to squeeze it in, so it was Plan B time. This was to check out a new restaurant Carolyn hadn’t tried and to do some more of our shopping list!
The Fresh Food trend
As in Australia, the trend (dare we call it a “fad” or is it a “movement”?) towards fresh food, farm produce, responsibly sourced food, etc is evident here – including in chain restaurants.
Urban Plates, our “new” lunch spot which serves cafeteria style, is an example. They advertise their “scratch made dressing” and “hand tossed salads”; their website includes a chef blog; and so on.
Rubio’s fast food chain, which we mentioned in a previous post, writes of its food being “responsibly sourced”, of its “fresh produce”, “hand made guacamole” and “responsibly-sourced seafood”. They say that “fresh produce arrives throughout the week from California’s Salinas Valley, when possible.” I wonder what happens when it’s not possible? They also promise that they “will use only cage-free eggs by 2025.” Hmmm, that’s a while off yet – I wonder why it will take that long. However, it’s a start.
Anyhow, we went to Urban Plates, and we all enjoyed our fresh meals. I enjoyed my grilled chicken, roasted potatoes and sautéed beets and carrots. Len had the same “protein” (as they like to call it these days), but with a beet salad and sautéed Brussel’s sprouts, while Carolyn opted for an American favourite, soup and sandwich.
Having sated ourselves nicely, we then did some hardware and food shopping, and pottered around Brea Downtown, which happens to be promoting its centenary, “100 years of Oil, Orange and Opportunity”. Oil, as in oil from the ground of course, not as in cooking oil, and orange as in the fruit that gave Orange County its name.
End-of-day stuff
The end of our day started with Carolyn and I meeting, Carol, a friend from our time together in the 1990s. We met at the local Starbucks, and after catching up on where we are all at in our lives, the conversation quickly turned to politics! Carol is a nurse educator, and so is watching the health legislation shenanigans closely. She’s naturally concerned about cuts being made to health services, telling us that the places/organisations to which community nurses can refer people, particularly undocumented or uninsured people, are disappearing daily as grants and other forms of funding are being withdrawn. Terrible.
[PS Carolyn had “fun” trying to order me a “long black” thinking that if they, Starbucks, had “flat white” on their menu, they must surely also know “long black”. They didn’t. Of course it’s like an Americano, but there are subtle differences, which they didn’t quite get… But it created another coffee story.]
Then it was time for dinner, and we all (including Emily and Hana) went to one of their favourite places, a Vietnamese restaurant in Placentia called Pho Noodle House. Len and I like Vietnamese food, and so were more than happy with this option. While most of the menu options were familiar to us – Vietnamese salads, curries, noodle dishes etc – there was a drink that we hadn’t come across before, bubble or boba tea. This is apparently Taiwanese in origin and commonly involves a sweet milky tea into which “boba” (chewy tapioca balls) are added. However, what we had was an iced green tea – in Len’s and my case it was a lychee (which the Americans seem to pronounce “leechy”) flavoured green tea – with boba added. Delicious. (It may be served at Australian Vietnamese restaurants, but Len and I don’t recollect seeing it.)
The evening ended with our nightly fix of Rachel Maddow, taken with various sweet treats (such as mochi, chocolates and meringues), before we all repaired to bed after another busy, but enjoyable, day in warm Southern California.
Today’s images
Still
We had taco Tuesday at Rubio’s last night. Discounted tacos at Mexican chain restaurants and many independent taquerias on Tuesdays are common. Oh, and on the topic of food—-you missed taking a picture of Len’s double decker waffle cone at 31 Flavors on Monday in Brea. Hannah would approve.
HANNAH DOES APPROVE!! Also, is that the pho place we went to during one of my early visits? I remember it was so great!!
I’m so sad I missed these adventures 🙁
You can’t have every adventure, Hannah! That’s being greedy. But still, it would have been fun to have had you around.
Haha, I did, Carolyn didn’t I? Still, I don’t want to make our readers beach in wintry Australia too jealous!
Oh Len! Brussel’s sprouts when you don’t HAVE to! I thought you were a ma of taste! (Oh dear, all those exclamation marks, but really!)
You are having so much fun I’m glad you are missing something, Sue, even if it is only Aussie coffee.
Re the cage free eggs by 2025: maybe they are waiting for all the current hens to die so the shock won’t be too much for them? Or maybe cafes/restaurants are simply waiting for enough suppliers to get their products on the market.
I remember Brea Mall; is that in Brea? And is that where children can run about on a water spouting tiled area? I remember the delighted faces on all the children. Is it still there?
Still very cold weather here so enjoy all that warm/hot sunshine.
Len and I like Brussel’s sprouts Mum.
Maybe you are right about the eggs!
I think that water spouting fountain was at another mall Mum, and I’ve never forgotten it either, but you did also go to Brea Mall as it was our closest.