We like to go to Fashion Valley AMC theaters once in a while. Recently, we have noticed a Ramen restaurant on the ground floor below the AMC Theaters, by the parking lot road behind the mall. We were curious about it but never seemed to have the time to check it out. This week we experienced a cool, windy day of rain—perfect weather for a hot bowl of Ramen to warn us up—so we thought of Silverlake Ramen at the Fashion Valley Mall.
We learned that Silverlake Ramen started in about 2012 in Los Angeles’s hipster Silver Lake community.
The Fashion Valley Mall location has been open since 2021.
Their website says they believe in traditional ingredients from local sources that make their ramen the best there is.It mentioned their many vegan options.
We looked at the menu on line and although there were many items that included some type of meat, they did have good vegetarian options and some that included Tofu.
The restaurant interior has a very modern and sleek appearance, and it is larger than it looks from the outside. They have a unique way of ordering for items to go. You simply go to a computer screen at the front counter and place your order there. No need to wait for a person behind the counter.
They have many types of ramen including the Shoyu Ramen, The Blaze, The Classic, The Shoyu on Fire and the Garlic Truffle Ramen. They all include your choice of protein: pork/chicken in a chicken or pork broth, as well as the Veggie with miso base, veggie broth, bean sprouts, corn, mushrooms, tofu and brocolline.
They have many appetizers such as Edamame, salad, brocollini, Crispy Chicken Karage, Gyozo, pork, chicken and impossible bun. They have a nice selection of bowls, desserts and drinks
Since we wanted to try the ramen, we decided on the Veggie Ramen for $16.00, and since we like buns, the Impossible Bun for $5.75.
The Impossible Bun includes a panko fried impossible plant meat patty, shredded cabbage and hot mustard and katsu sauce. It was small, but tasty. We cut it in half so we could both try it, but it is rather small and I think Steve got the larger half.
The Veggie Ramen came in two containers with instructions on the side on heating. Since we live so close, the food was hot enough without heating. The ramen serving was very large, so we split it with no problem, having more than enough for both of us. It was chock full of noodles, corn, mushrooms, brocolline, and the broth was extra thick and creamy. I even ate a piece or two of tofu. All in all, I thought the ramen was very good. The bun was too small for the price I thought, but it was tasty, and I almost felt like I was eating a very small slider. The bun part was very good.
Take a look at the full menu here. Hours are 11 to 9 daily.
Rebuilding Together Seeks LV Homeowners in Need
During these challenging financial times, it becomes easy for some homeowner to decide upon deferring required home maintenance projects or any necessary improvements. Such requirements and necessities can be seen as extravagant luxuries due to the associated costs. Oftentimes, these associated costs are indeed too expensive for people undergoing financial struggles; when this happens and such needs cannot be met, the lives of certain seniors and people with disabilities can become ones of hardship. If one has to forego an improvement capable of addressing a disability or age-related mobility issue, quality of life greatly suffers.
Fortunately, there is at least one local non-profit organization capable of coming to the rescue and providing the construction resources required to ensure proper maintenance and improvements to those in need. Rebuilding Together San Diego provides free critical repairs and renovations for low-income homeowners, to include seniors, veterans, and those with disabilities. As part of a Rebuilding Together national affiliate network, this non-profit organization partners with volunteers, civic minded builders, building tradespeople, and community groups to help rehabilitate houses that have fallen into disrepair because the homeowners cannot fix them. These rehabilitation efforts that are offered at no cost to the homeowners are community events that involve neighbors helping neighbors through a program that coordinates sponsorships, financial contributions, and in-kind donations of resources, materials, and time.
And here’s even better news. Rebuilding Together San Diego is currently looking for those homeowners and their houses in Linda Vista that need maintenance or improvements and fit the organization’s program eligibility requirements. In keeping with its mission of seeking to provide a safe and healthy home for every person, Rebuilding Together San Diego is eagerly offering its services to the local Linda Vista community.
If this sounds like too good an offer, think again, because this organization has already proven what it can accomplish, recently completing work in our community while rehabilitating a house located on Linda Vista’s Glidden Street. Check out the before and after photos displayed below to see what the enthusiastic volunteers associated with Rebuilding Together San Diego are capable of accomplishing over a few weeks’ time.
We recently got to see first-hand evidence of a Rebuilding Together San Diego project when we were invited by Deanne Hutchinson, the organization’s Senior Project Director, to see volunteers in action a couple weekends ago as they worked on rehabilitating a house in Chula Vista for a family in need. The family included a father confined to a wheel chair. Unable to afford the significant home improvements needed to accommodate his disability, the father had been forced to go outside the house every time he needed to use the wheel-chair accessible bathroom located in his garage. This volunteer effort coordinated by Rebuilding Together San Diego included remolding the interior of his house to make the inside bathroom wheel chair accessible, to include a wheel chair accessible shower. The volunteers also made such improvements as repainting the exterior of the house and the side yard fence, and making aesthetic improvements to the front yard. The sight of the volunteers making such a significant contribution to this family and the neighborhood was nothing short of inspiring. This home improvement project, conducted mainly on the weekends, took a couple months to complete. It included the temporary acquisition of an RV for the family—parked in the driveway--so that the family could be accommodated during the extensive remodeling effort. In addition to individual volunteers, project partners from the San Diego community included DPR Construction, Clark Construction, NASSCO, Turner Construction, Wells Fargo Bank, US Bank, Considine Certified Public Accountants, the Greater San Diego Association of Realtors, Swinerton Builders, and Booz, Allen, Hamilton.
Founded in 1973, Rebuilding Together’s 150 national affiliates have rehabilitated over 100,000 homes. Rebuilding Together San Diego was founded in 1995 and is responsible for rehabilitating over 400 homes and facilities.
In addition to rehabilitating homes, Rebuilding Together San Diego also assists community facilities (i.e., VFW and American Legion halls) when budget restraints impact the organization’s ability to address their deferred maintenance.
If you or someone you know in the Linda Vista area is interested in receiving assistance from Rebuilding Together San Diego, here are the basic eligibility requirements:
· Applicants must own and live in their own single-family home. The program is unable to consider mobile homes, condos, or townhomes.
· Applicants must provide documentation of total household income. (Proof of total annual income is required for all persons living in the home 18 years old and older).
· Have neither the financial resources, family members to assist, nor the ability to do the work themselves.
You can check out further eligibility requirements and apply for the program by going to the Rebuilding Together San Diego web site here. You can also call 619-231-7873 for information.
Exciting Times for Kearny High Sports
It’s CIF post-season playoff time for winter sports here in Sam Diego, and that means it’s an exciting time of year for Kearny High sports.
First, as we reported in last week’s issue featuring the team’s star point guard—Isaiah Baker—the Kearny Komets basketball team qualified for the CIF Division IV tournament. This Tuesday night they opened the first round of championship tournament play with an amazing come-from-behind home court win over Calvin Christian High (Escondido). The Komets fell behind early in the game and trailed by double digits for most of the second and third quarters, but the home team never grew discouraged. They steadily crawled their way back with three pointers and timely defensive play. They succeeded in tying the game at 57 points each in the closing seconds, and then found themselves in an overtime period. Fortunately, Kearny’s momentum continued into overtime as they won the game 67-62.
The top scorers for the team included Isaiah Baker with 27 points, Noe Flores with 12 points, Matthew Bowman with 12 points, and Elijah Queen with 9 points. The Komets are now scheduled to play again in the second round of the playoffs against Brawley High. That game will be played Friday February 17 at 7:00 pm.
The Komets are also excelling on the soccer field as the boys varsity soccer team, seeded #2 in the CIF Division III tournament, is scheduled for a Saturday February 18 home game at 5:00 pm against Monte Vista High. Kearny earned a bye for the first round of the tournament due to their high seeding. The team finished the regular season with a stellar 15-3-3 overall record and a 8-2 league record.
Kearny head coach John Henry Winter-Nolte credits the Komets’ successful season to the fact that “We outwork everyone else. That’s our foundation. We are high energy for a full 80 minutes or more.”
Several Kearny soccer team members recently received individual league honors for their regular season play. Senior Alejandro Lopez was recognized this week as the City League’s MVP. Komets selected for the City League First Team included Lopez as well as Austin Lopez and Issac Avila.
Finally, the Kearny High girls varsity soccer team (seeded # 3 in the CIF Division IV bracket) will play a Friday night (February 17) home game at 5:00 pm against High Tech High San Diego. The Komets finished the season with a 12-5-1 record, which earned them a bye for the first round of the CIF playoffs.
If you are looking for some exciting athletic contests, head on over to Kearny High this weekend. You are sure to catch more than your share of dramatic action.
Commentary
Hey Balloon…Get Down From There Right Now!
There are a number of civic organizations in Linda Vista that could use the services of more volunteers. The Linda Vista Town Council, the Linda Vista Planning Group, and the Linda Vista Recreation Advisory Group are all recruiting members to serve on boards and committees. There are many benefits to volunteering. For example, these volunteer positions provide local residents with opportunities to make a contribution to the community, enable them to have a voice in local decision-making, while breeding a greater spirit of community involvement that can inspire others to do the same. It’s also a great way to enhance one’s job resume. Volunteer jobs can sometimes signal evidence of possessing certain types of valuable experience and job skills.
Despite the positive aspects associated with joining these organizations, however, people are slow to sign up and volunteer. Perhaps they are afraid these volunteer jobs may require too much work or time, or maybe they are seeking something more exciting or glamorous to do and eventually place on their resumes.
Fortunately, the recent sighting of spy balloons hovering over the United States and Canada has given me an awesome idea. In order to develop a greater sense of volunteerism in Linda Vista, I am suggesting a new activity that may appeal greatly to those local residents interested in a more national security-related form of volunteering. Pardon the pun, but I would like to “float” the idea of starting a Linda Vista National Security High Altitude Balloon Observation Team (LVNSHABOT). This team would be comprised of local volunteers spending an hour or two a month standing at strategically important Linda Vista vantage points and looking up at the skies. If they spotted a mysterious balloon floating above, they would report the finding to an LV point of contact at the North American Aerospace and Defense Command (NORAD), which is located in a super-secret mountain side bunker in Colorado. Think about it…if another giant Chinese spy balloon happens to make an incursion over the California coastline and it first gets spotted by one of our LVNSHABOT members, and it then gets shot down by U.S. fighter jets, Linda Vista will get lots of great publicity. We will certainly be recognized as a patriotic community, and one with keen eyes.
There are some other advantages to this volunteer plan. First, it wouldn’t require much to train these volunteer observers. I figure just an hour to train them on how to tell the difference between a spy balloon and a runaway Happy Birthday balloon from the Party City store. And related equipment wouldn’t cost much—just a pair of binoculars and maybe a fold-up beach chair to sit in when observers get tired of standing. And volunteer watch assignments would only be for an hour or two a month, unless we were able to obtain infrared technology enabling volunteers to see at night, in which case we would have to either expand everyone’s assigned watch hours, or sign up more volunteers. Finally, volunteers would get to have the words “National Security” included in their resumes. That’s pretty impressive! Especially if someone wants to eventually apply to work at the Pentagon, the White House, or Harry and Meghan’s mansion.
And consider this — as everyone knows, Linda Vista is Spanish for “Beautiful View.” But who says the “view” was mean to be just of the water? It can also mean the sky. In this sense, a volunteer activity that involves “viewing” or “watching” makes perfect sense for our Linda “VISTA” community.
Now, when I ran this civic volunteer idea through some local residents, a couple of them asked if members of the LVNSHABOT would be supplied with a uniform or even a helmet, much like the helmets that civil defense volunteers wore during World War II and the 1950’s, and a couple others asked about the possibility of getting high-powered BB guns to immediately shoot down the balloons, instead of wasting valuable minutes calling our POC at NORAD. This is just speculation, but I believe the uniforms and helmets could be a possibility, especially if the LVNSHABOT acquires non-profit 501(c)(3) status and starts accepting donations. As for the other matter, I don’t mean to burst anyone’s balloon, but unfortunately, the high-powered BB guns raise serious liability issues. Besides, if you’ve seen the classic movie A Christmas Story, you know what’s going to happen…”You’re going to shoot your eye out, kid.”
In any event, I think once my idea of a LVNSHABOT starts to be discussed in the community, it will be “high” on everyone’s list of favorable volunteer activities. Hopefully, it will serve as a gateway to other prominent LV volunteer activities. I look forward to being a LVNSHABOT volunteer member and maintaining a protective watch over Linda Vista skies. In the meantime, a word of caution to the Chinese government…”Watch yourselves, because our LV volunteers will certainly be watching you!”
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