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Mango

Mango is a Reader contributor. See staff page for published articles.

Muzita Abyssinian Bistro

African spices and African hospitality will greet you at the front door of Muzita Bistro on Park Blvd. in University Heights. They serve Abyssinian cuisine from Ethiopia and Eritrea. The restaurant is named for Muzit, a sister of the Woldemichael family, proprietors of Muzita Bistro. Ethiopian food is very generous to vegetarians, but lovers of beef, chicken, lamb and seafood will not be disappointed. Abyssinian cuisine really does have something for everyone, but it is still somewhat exotic. Don’t bring picky or timid eaters to dine with you at Muzita’s. Leave them home. I once went to a restaurant serving similarly exotic food with one extremely picky person who ended up creating a minor, but embarrassing scene. Because Ethiopian food is served without utensils and was unfamiliar to him, he panicked. Instead, invite your fun, adventurous friends, people who appreciate unusual, great food. They’ll love Muzita Bistro. Even though I am a vegetarian, I have never liked okra, but being a good sport, I have tried okra prepared in many, many different ways, in hopes that one day I would eventually find an okra dish that I liked. That day has finally come. Oh happy day, I love okra! This okra was one of Muzita Bistro’s appetizers. It is listed on the menu as Teff Encrusted Bamya. It is okra with whole teff (an African grain), awaze (a paste of berbere chilies, garlic and ginger), roasted tomato, caramelized cippolini onions in a golden pepper emulsion, with not one hint of sliminess. This dish came served on a beautiful plate. The okra was stacked up into the shape a cylindrical tower, like so many Lincoln Logs. Sprinkled onto the plate with the okra tower were delicate little purple and green heart shaped kohlrabi micro greens tasting like spicy radishes, only better. The presentation was second only to the amazing flavors that blended well together, but could also be tasted separately. In all my days I never imagined that okra could be like this. My friend and I ordered two vegetarian combinations that each came with salad and two side dishes. We wanted to taste as many different things as we could, so this was a good option. They brought out everything served on one giant round plate. The plate was wearing a nifty “warming hat”. Dollops of different stewed items were served atop a large flat “pancake” of injera. Injera is spongy Ethiopian bread, made with teff flour. You just tear off pieces of injera to scoop up the stew. We sampled hamli (braised spinach and collard greens); timtimo (red lentils); shiro (seasoned ground chickpeas) and kantisha kilwa (button mushrooms with zucchini, serrano chilies and butter stewed tomatoes). The latter being my favorite. The spicy African flavors and the warm African hospitality made my endorphins soar that night.
— June 22, 2009 10:59 a.m.

Star Trek

It’s been more than two hours since I saw the new Star Trek movie and I’m still tingling. To use a phrase from the movie, I think I’ve been “emotionally compromised”, but in the best way. I had mixed feelings going into this movie. Although I’m no Trek expert (Trexpert?), I still have pretty high geek standards when it comes to any new Star Trek productions. This movie surpassed all of my expectations, despite the fact that Patrick Stewart and William Shatner were nowhere in site. While I was driving home, still in Star Trek la la land, I realized that because of the way in which this new movie’s plot played out, the producers left ample opportunity for multiple prequels that could feature Shatner and Stewart and hopefully more of the fabulous Leonard Nimoy. The possibilities make me giddy just thinking about it. I have no idea where they found the cast members for this new movie; they were all superb, but Zachary Quinto made this movie for me. Not only was he extremely handsome, but you really could believe that he was Spock or Nimoy or both. That may sound weird and I realize that all of this is just a movie, but these characters have meant so much to so many people over the years, that sometimes the line between the characters being portrayed and the actual actors gets blurred. The original Star Trek actors, themselves, are beloved to the fans. Most of the new Star Trek movie actors do not look exactly like the original cast members from the TV series, although Quinto’s characterization was uncanny. But each of them had mannerisms or voice qualities that captured the essence of the originals. Instead of detracting from the believability, their characterizations just made me think more fondly about the original cast, especially the ones who have passed away. I got a little weepy near the end. The special effects in this movie were terrific without being cheesy, and the Romulan ship, which looked like a sharp metal flying citron fruit, was spectacular. I thought it was ironic, but nice, that the producers added in a little romance between Spock and Uhura, considering that the first televised interracial kiss, which happened to have been between William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols, caused quite a political stir back then. In this movie, Spock and Uhura are a sweet, perfect pairing. I had only one teeny, tiny complaint with this movie. The character of Chekov, played wonderfully by Anton Yelchin, had blonde curly hair instead of the Monkees inspired Davy Jones “mop top” haircut donned by Walter Koenig on the TV show. On a final note, if they do make any more Star Trek prequels, I would love to see our beloved President, Barack Obama, play the father of, or the time traveling Prime of Tuvok (Tim Russ) from Voyager. Ever notice how much they look and sound alike? Obama could play a Vulcan. He’s so logical and calm under pressure.
— June 16, 2009 5:53 p.m.

Janet's Montana Cafe

I was meeting a friend out in East County. He was doing me a favor so I let him choose the restaurant where we would have lunch. He suggested Janet’s Montana Café in Alpine. There’s another Janet’s closer to El Cajon, but the one in Alpine is the original location and it’s bigger and has more ambiance. The location also made for a nice drive. Janet’s is situated in a rustic old structure that looks like a camping lodge or a log cabin, perfect for the setting in Alpine. It has a huge, shady wrap around porch on the outside. We opted for the outdoor seating so we could take in the warm spring scent of pine that was wafting through the air. There’s plenty of indoor seating if you don’t mind sharing the space with mounted animal heads. Janet’s serves big, hearty portions of good old fashioned diner/steakhouse style food with a few Mexican dishes and some lovely specialty salads thrown in for good measure. But we had a hankering for breakfast and Janet’s does up breakfast big! I was torn between the Spanish omelet and the huevos rancheros. I chose the omelette which came with a huge pile of delicious home fries, which I’ve always preferred to hash browns. You can also have hash browns or fresh fruit plus your choice of toast, buttermilk biscuit, pancakes or a giant muffin. The biscuit was the ticket for me, which I slathered with butter and honey. You don’t often get homemade biscuits like these unless you’re lucky enough to have your mom make them for you. My friend devoured his spinach omelet, but was so stuffed that he had to take his giant muffin home with him. Janet’s features ten omelettes, six of which are vegetarian. You can also create your own. Of course they serve eggs any style with ham, sausage, pork chops, bacon, steak and corned beef hash. They also turn out biscuits and gravy, eggs benedict, waffles and huge pancakes. I’ll be going back to try the French toast made with cinnamon rolls, and for the fresh mountain air of Alpine.
— June 2, 2009 2:55 p.m.

Phil's BBQ

Being relegated to the sidelines is not always a bad thing. Phil’s Barbecue on Sports Arena Blvd. has some of the best side dishes in town. Being the lone vegetarian in groups of friends and relatives, I often find myself in restaurants catering to meat eaters, but most places have at least one thing that I can eat, and that’s ok by me. The social aspect of eating out is usually more important. That being said, I often order the one vegetarian item on the menu and eat it, good bad or otherwise. Phil’s Barbecue is a nice exception to the one menu item rule. They have eight vegetarian side dishes, plus a veggie burger and salad. And Phil’s is a fun, energetic place to go. I used to frequent the old Phil’s location in Golden Hill. It was a tiny, funky hole in the wall that was always crowded and had difficult side-street parking; although that was all part of the enjoyment. I love the new location in the Sports Arena area. It’s still funky and fun, but it’s much larger and has a huge, friendly staff, making it much more efficient for the large lunchtime crowds, and there’s plenty of parking. I even hosted a baby shower at Phil’s for the father of the baby. They don’t take reservations, but the staff is extremely helpful and accommodating. Phil’s has the best onion rings around, they’re huge and beer-battered, not the wimpy little breaded onion rings found at fast food joints. They’re great with ranch dressing, ketchup or the drippings from your barbecue sauce. Most of the side dishes come as either a small or a large serving, but trust me, the small servings often serve two or three people, especially with the case of the onion rings and the delicious fresh cut fries. A person can make a full meal out of two or three side dishes. The same can be said of the veggie burger (make sure to order it with the works, onion, tomato, cheese and barbecue sauce) and a salad. Phil’s makes excellent fresh coleslaw, macaroni and potato salad. But you can mix it up with a baked potato, fresh corn on the cob, or steamed veggies. Phil’s is not just a place for meat; it’s a place to meet.
— May 24, 2009 11:10 a.m.

El Zarape

Vegetarian chorizo? Well, they don’t call it that, but El Zarape on Park Blvd. in University Heights serves both soft tacos and burritos filled with a tangy, succulent soy-meat product reminiscent of chorizo. That might sound too weird for meat eaters, but if they tried it, they would probably like it. All of El Zarape’s burritos are big, hefty creations; many with surprising fillings. If you are a pescetarian, and you know who you are, you will appreciate the fact that you can get a 99 cent beer battered fish taco; or maybe you’d prefer a burrito, taco or enchilada stuffed with salmon, lobster, scallops, or even calamari. El Zarape uses lots of fresh ingredients and their portions are huge. You can also get everything you like with beef (shredded, barbecued or served as fajitas and carne asada) or chicken (grilled, shredded or breaded). If you’re feeling adventuresome, or health conscious, you can check out the vegetarian items. They have pinto and black beans; both cooked without lard, but keep in mind that their rice is prepared with chicken stock. Some of the “veggie” burritos come with rice, so just ask for them to leave it out if you need to. Other vegetarian choices include potato filled rolled tacos with guacamole; black bean low-fat veggie burritos; soy burritos; and steamed, marinated vegetable burritos. They’re fiber filled and heart healthy. El Zarape features a salsa bar with three excellent salsas and crispy, spicy carrots that you can’t stop eating. The seating is limited at this location, but a second El Zarape will be opening soon, at Adams Avenue and 32nd Street. Two stores are better than one and they need both to accommodate the hungry people that are always in line.
— May 18, 2009 9:30 a.m.

Mama's Bakery and Lebanese Deli

If the scent of aromatic spices wafting from the front door of Mama’s Bakery and Lebanese Deli isn’t enough to activate your Pavlovian salivation response, then I fear that you may be nasally challenged. If you close your eyes, you can almost believe that you’ve been transported to a faraway market bazaar. Some of the menu items may sound a bit exotic, but Mama’s actually serves up delicious, pleasing comfort food. It just happens to be Lebanese. There’s nothing scary here, only good stuff. Nothing is too spicy or too weird. All of the menu items are fully described in English, so you can tell exactly what you are getting. It’s fun to visit Mama’s with a group of friends, so each person can order something different that everyone can share. Mama’s specializes in sandwiches and wraps made with traditional Lebanese style flatbread. The bread is made fresh on site and is cooked to order on a special oven called a sajj. The sajj looks like a hollow brick cylinder with an upside down wok on top of it. The flatbread is similar to pita, but it is slightly thicker and chewier and much tastier. There are lots of healthy and/or vegetarian items to choose from at Mama’s. My personal favorite is the “manakeesh ultimate” This wrap is cooked on the sajj, filled with lebni (Lebanese yogurt-cheese), tomatoes, mint, olives and a remarkable spread made from thyme, olive oil, sesame seeds and sumac. (Note: Edible Lebanese sumac “Rhus coriaria” is not to be confused with poison sumac “Rhus vernix”, a plant common to the U.S.) This wrap has incredibly intense flavors. I’ve eaten a lot of falafel over the years, but Mama’s has the best falafel of all. It is not deep fried, like most preparations; it’s cooked on the sajj. Other mouth-watering choices are the cheese pie, made with melty mozzarella and feta, spinach pie, creamy hummus, smoky baba ghanouj and savory fool mudamas (fava and garbanzo bean stew). They also make meat pies, lamb pies and kafta (ground beef with Lebanese seasonings) and shawarma (chicken or beef marinated with Lebanese herbs) plus makanek and soujouk (Lebanese and Armenian sausage) which the omnivores salivate over. Mama’s resides in a bright red building that was once a part of a house; the other section of the house likely serves as a residence for the owners. There’s an outside patio which is covered and partially enclosed. It’s very cozy and keeps out most of the street noise. But do I hear a bell ringing? No, it’s only my Pavlovian salivation response.
— May 9, 2009 8:18 p.m.

The Soloist

“The Soloist” is not a feel good movie, although the trailers portray it as such. I thought it might be a pleasant little story, along the lines of “August Rush”. Not so. It’s a true story about an L.A. Times reporter/columnist, Steve Lopez, who by way of an accident meets a homeless musician, Nathaniel Ayers, who is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. I expected the plot to progress down a particular path, starting with the reporter meeting the man; then the reporter helping him; then the reporter, in turn, being spiritually helped by the homeless man; and ultimately ending with the homeless man being ok. That doesn’t happen. Robert Downey, Jr., who plays the reporter, does in fact attempt to help the homeless cello player, acted by Jamie Foxx, but he is thwarted by the laws of this country that state that you cannot force mentally ill people, even those desperately in need of help, to get treatment without their consent. The “Catch-22” of this situation is that sometimes with extreme mental illness, the illness itself renders an individual unable to give consent. The movie was touching, and sometimes very painful to watch, especially the brutal views of life on skid row in downtown Los Angeles. It scared me to think that some of our brethren are just one unemployment check away from being relegated to a place like that. But there were important elements in this movie that seemed to have been left out. We know at the beginning of the film that Mr. Ayers, who by the time Lopez finds him in his mid fifties, is mentally ill, but the movie doesn’t exactly explain how he got that way. There’s a scene of Ayers as a young student, inside his off campus apartment, having a break down, but the scene seems to suggest that his being “inside” is the trigger that brought on his illness. Also, you never find out what happened to Ayers during the years between this unfortunate episode (which occurred in New York), and his being discovered by Lopez “outside” on the streets of Los Angeles. Did anybody at the school ever realize that Ayers had fled, rather than having simply dropped out? Did anyone in Ayer’s family try to locate him? Did he ever receive any kind of medical treatment? Those unanswered questions left me scratching my head. The ending was also not what I expected. Some people watching this movie will think that the movie has a happy ending, because Lopez gives Mr. Ayers the gift of friendship. But we find that due to the laws in this country, that no matter how hard Lopez tries to help Ayers to get medical treatment, which he clearly needs, his friendship is the only “treatment” allowed. Sometimes that’s not enough.
— May 4, 2009 3:24 p.m.

Fairouz Café and Gallery

We weren’t trying to drive away vampires, but we surely would have, if there had been any of the bloodsuckers flying around Midway Drive yesterday. My friend and I lunched at Fairouz Café and Gallery and consumed some of the most enjoyable, garlicky offerings ever presented in one place. Some of the most appreciated items were the garlic-marinated cabbage, served chilled, which I went back for at least three times, and the crisp-tender sliced carrots dressed with garlic and parsley. We practically swooned over Fairouz’s intense garlic dip. We tried to guess what was in the dip, besides lots of garlic. It was white in color and had a super creamy consistency. It didn’t seem to be made of dairy or mayonnaise, so we finally asked the waitress, who explained that the base was made from potato, presumably baked or boiled. We wanted to fill up our soup bowls with this dip, but we constrained ourselves to several large dollops that we spread onto pita triangles. Fairouz Café has one of the best and most varied lunch buffets in town and it’s a bargain at only $8.99. All of the selections are either Greek or Lebanese, and most of the items are vegetarian or vegan, but they do have a few chicken and lamb preparations to satisfy the omnivores amongst us. My omnivore described the saffron chicken as the best chicken she’s ever tasted, and it smelled wonderful. I counted no less than thirteen cold vegetarian items and ten hot vegetarian entrees and vegetables. Which is a lot more than you can shake a stick at! Some of the outstanding dishes were shak shuka, a tangy tomato and egg dish that reminded me of huevos rancheros served in Mexican restaurants, and broccoli and egg oujah, which appeared to be a cross between quiche and a frittata. Cold lentil salad spiced with sweet mustard was a treat too, and I was very pleased to experience hummus that was neither dry nor grainy like some of the store bought products tend to be, with just the right amount of tahini to give it its slightly bitter twinge. At Fairouz Café, be prepared to tickle your palate and cleanse your colon. This food is good and it’s good for you!
— April 28, 2009 6:19 p.m.

Ranchos Cocina

Glorious mushrooms, potatoes and tofu. That’s what you’ll find at Ranchos Cocina, or just plain Ranchos as the regulars call it. This laid back Ocean Beach spot will remind you of the good old days of O.B’s hippiedom in the late sixties and early seventies, minus the swirling clouds of pot smoke. They do have macramé and hanging plants, though. Ranchos serves up super healthy and delicious Mexican food with a nice assortment of vegetarian versions of their standard chicken, beef and fish dishes. So if you’re craving enchiladas, tacos or burritos you can get them filled with all sorts of good things. The vegetarian fillings include cheese, tofu, potatoes, lard-less beans, and what I can only describe as a cross between a mushroom veggie burger and a falafel. It’s savory and has a nice texture. You can even stir things up a little. Maybe you’d like to try some potato filled rolled tacos romantically coupled with a mushroom filled burrito, while your carnivorous friends are noshing on salmon filled tacos and chicken mole enchiladas. They give you big baskets of thick, greasy, (fried in one of the healthy oils, I assume) salty chips with delicious garlicky salsa that creates a pretty good after-burn. Fortunately their iced tea comes in huge cups. Both the beans and rice are vegetarian, which is extremely appreciated and rare. So go ahead, order a combo plate! The salsa verde, which is one of your choices to smother your enchiladas, is green divinity. It’s tart with the lemon/lime flavor of tomatillos. Maybe this is what people are talking about when they say “Go Green.” Ranchos also serves breakfast, so slip on your Birkenstocks and have your huevos any way you like them. You can have eggs, egg whites only, or tofu in your scramble. Healthy and tasty.
— April 24, 2009 7:03 p.m.

Burn after Reading

This movie was shown on our cable station’s On Demand channel for free. Otherwise I would not have watched it. Lucky me! It turned out to be hilarious and had a great, unforeseen plot twist, although it was a little more violent than it needed to be. At first it seemed like I was watching a bunch of completely separate stories, each of which was good and weird and funny in its own way. Later, I came to realize that all of the action is intertwined, but in ways that weren’t expected. I'm not usually a fan of Brad Pitt's movies. I have nothing against Brad Pitt, it's just that his movies tend towards "shoot 'em up" action movies that are more suited to young male viewers with Blockbuster tastes. In this movie Brad Pitt plays a very un-Brad Pitt-like character, which turned out to be one of the funniest characters I've seen in a long while. He will probably remind you of someone you know. It may be one of your embarrassing co-workers, it may be one of your annoying relatives, and hopefully not, but he may just possibly remind you of your best friend's dorky husband. He was ridiculously awesome. And then there was John Malkovich. He's creepy, angry and loud, exactly the way you like him, although I could have lived without seeing the site of him in a bathrobe (hint: pasty, white legs). Then there's Frances McDormand who will conjure up images of your sweet, misguided friend who's always making the wrong choices and ignoring the obvious, to her (huge) detriment, but to our delight. There is a lot going on in this movie, but it moves along in a "Mad Mad Mad Mad World" sort of way to its ultimate crashing crescendo.
— April 21, 2009 1:17 p.m.

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