Let's Have a Beach Walk - Trick

Saturday, 3/15/2014 

           

A Clever Trick

            My son-in-law, Hans, treated me lunch at one of the best Mexican restaurants in Santa Barbara on Saturday.  He knows I would normally prefer solo trip to explore the area on the weekend, and I am not a fan of Mexican food.    He tried to trick me first. He said, “Let’s go out for a weekend walk at the beach.  It’s sunny today.”  He started the car toward Santa Barbara direction where VISTA bus took me in February.  Somewhere along the pretty neighborhood, he got the baby settled and said, ‘Come on, you have been travelling like the local now, you’ve got to try a little further, Eat like a Local.”  

La Playa Azul Café

            The Mexican restaurant “La Playa Azul Cafe” is located at 914 Santa Barbara Street.  It was tugged in the neighborhood with tree-lined streets.  The houses, all red-tiled roofs and white stucco walls, were beautifully built on the gently slopping hills.  There were even more luxurious villas perched on the mountain overlooking the blue and wide beaches.  The sidewalk stretched before us after we parked our car under the eucalyptus tree.  You wouldn’t have known it’s a restaurant if the colorful umbrellas were not open in the patio.  It’s just nicely blended with the surrounding exclusive residential areas.   The only thing I noticed was the steady pulse of traffic on Laguna Street not very far from here.  Hans said, ‘this is a quieter area comparing to bustling downtown Santa Barbara with assortment of diners, coffeehouses and nightclubs.”  I knew what he was talking about now.  VISTA solo trip in February does help.

   

            Inside the restaurant, it’s full of Mexican culture.  Pictures with bright and bold colors using the tones of reds, blues, greens and yellow were hung on the wall.  The rich red tile floors and the big vases of fresh lilies, orange, red and yellow and palm leaves are typical of Mexican decorations.  I saw Mexican sombreros – the national symbol displayed on the chalked menu atop at the counter.  Since it’s a family-run café, the customers lined up for ordering instead of being seated by the uniformed waiters.  I didn’t see any waitresses.  There were many specials of the day.   I chose Pescado in Salsa Verde because I recognized the word halibut, which is a flounder.  Both Celeste and Hans ordered chicken burritos.  For baby Forest, mom made the puree carrot, of course, organic, for his first eating out.

 

            To make out the details of the dish description was challenging.  It’s simply halibut in tomatillo salsa.  The fresh fish sautéed with olive oil, garlic, onion, cilantro, green olives and marinated capers.   Hans, who I considered a global trotter from Patagonia managing non-profit international conservation organization, made effort to teach me a few Spanish words.  For examples, playa – beach, Azul – blue, pescado – fish, salsa – spicy tomato sauce, verde – green.

Story Sharing

            We shared the interesting stories of how Forest was tightly swaddled during his first three months in Velcro sleep sack.  He is all liberated with different sleep sack now. 

  

            I was mostly relaxed enjoying their treat.  When I made the decision to retire and come to California as a unpaid Super Nanny in January, I traded my favorite Chinese restaurants specialized the home-made cuisines in Montgomery County, Maryland for a modified American Chinese home cooking catered to their tastes, which was significantly different.  Hans’ mother, my mother-in-law, teased me as the “private chef flew in from Maryland.” 

            I could not find any Chinese grocery stores in Ventura area.  I managed to find one, Island Pacific Seafood Market, 20 miles away.  But, it’s mainly for Philippine items.  I told them the frugal graduate student’s life back in Blacksburg, Virginia in 1973; “Daddy and I used to grow bean sprouts out of green beans in milk carton, make soymilk from dried soy beans and tofu from the soymilk adding the ‘Plaster of Paris’.” Celeste’s eyes grew wide from the complete surprise when I mentioned the name.  I said, “it’s not what you use for walls or your cast when you break your arm! It’s the white edible powder to harden the liquid, just like gelatin.” “It’s the ingredient I smuggled in by tucking away in my textbooks along with other necessities in the luggage to start my new journey in America.  My senior friends in college already warned us, ‘you can’t find tofu in America, be prepared.’”

 

Assimilation

            As we continued on, four of us were soaking up the bright sun while enjoying the pleasant taste of Mexican food in Santa Barbara.  I was relieved that my anxiety of being alienated and feelings of missing home suddenly disappeared.  I know I have grown out of all the difficulties in assimilating the new culture for the past 40 years.  Eating Mexican food in southern California where the Latinos are the majority is probably the easiest part besides the language, and walks the fine line in their boundaries.  I am learning its history and customs along with both their temperament and personality as I go.  It’s just like Forest’s adapting to a brand new environment.    However, assimilation takes time, and it’s really an ongoing process that can take the better part of my short stay here to achieve.  It’s simply doesn’t happen at all once.  

            We didn’t go to the crowded beach walk, because Forest was getting fussy from the hot temperature, it’s close to 90 degree.  These days, we all revolve around him as the center of gravity.  The folks in east coast will be expecting another round of snow on Sunday. 

            I am here in a beautiful setting, surrounded with family blessings, great atmosphere and trying out the local food in southern California.

P.S. – I did not bring camera.  These pictures are from the restaurant’s commercial advertisements.