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From Malaysia we have “Brown Rice Wafer Backed Nutitious Grains Non Fried Natural Flavor” a 70 calorie cookie thing:

“…made with selected nutritious grains, coupled with Premium Grape Seed Oil and Cold Pressed Olive Oil, along with a state-of -the-art baking technique give a delicious and healthy snack.  No added milk powder, artificial colorings, flavorings, preservatives or chemical additives.  You and your family can enjoy the snack without fear of ingesting chemical residues.”

The ingredients include brown rice, mixed-grain powder which are apparently “backed” and “nutitious”(including Black Bean, Soy Bean, Job’s Tears, Wheat, Buckwheat, Millet, Chinese Yam, Lotus Seed, Gordon Euryale Seed, Red Bean, Green Bean, Gingko, Lily Bulb, Radix Ophiopogonis, Garden Pea, Pine Nut, Pumpkin Seed, Sunflower Seed, Walnut and Almond.),” black glutinous rice, wheat germ, black sesame, vitamin E and a few more mundane items.

One cookie has 70 calories 5 grams of fat, and 4 grams of carbs.  They taste okay but Leonard wouldn’t eat one.  The listed ingredients are all vegan so if it really contained what it says, I guess they could be some kind of power bar for long rides.  However, based on the “bombshell” out of LA regarding animal products in allegedly vegan restaurants and tainted ingredients from Taiwan (fake meats like you get at 99 Ranch), I think I’ll be taking a pass on this one.

All funny quotes from the label are accurate.  It would take weeks to walk through 99 Ranch and write down all the funny English.  Kind of like Shawn Marion’s “Chinese” tattoo: “Demon Bird Mothballs.”

Huy Fong, the Sriracha sauce from the San Gabriel Valley in the plastic bottle with the green top and the rooster is really good stuff.  I eat it on just about everything when they have it in a restaurant.  However, it isn’t the only brand out there and they don’t all taste the same. Huy Fong is thick, not runny, and is made with jalapenos, which I think have a less subtle flavor than Thai chilis.  It is also pretty sweet, the second listed ingredient is sugar and it’s full of preservatives, if you care about that.

Markets specializing in Southeast Asian food have other brands, usually made in Thailand from Thai chilis.  In Por Kwan ( pictured), garlic is the second ingredient and you can definitely taste it.  Por Kwan comes in different strengths– pictured are “Medium” and “Strong” although what the label actually says in Thai is “very hot” –(yeah, I can read it and I am showing off).   It’s like Cholula, Tapatio, etc… a matter of preference.  My friend Lizz shared my preference for Por Kwan when I set out samples, but she grabbed my extra bottle of “rooster sauce” to take home.  They’re all good.

Enjoy.

Lead Belly cover.

Growing up in the beaches of LA, we believed the saying “there’s no life east of Pacific Coast Highway” at least until we discovered punk rock and Hollywood.  In San Diego, a large portion of the population draws a Maginot Line at the 94, keeping to the north.  Even folks in my hipster ghetto of South Park, which abuts the line, tend to stay on their own side.

Even on bike, when considering the realm of possible bike errands, we tend to look north, even though Mission Valley and the mesas are filled with dangerous on-ramps and gnarly hills.  We tend to forget that the South Bay exists (if you are brown or grew up down there– not you.)

Since I’ve begun my journeys on bike, I’ve been fairly guilty of this myself, with the exception of weekly laps down to Imperial Beach and up Coronado to the ferry on the newly completed South Bay to Silver Strand bike path but that is going to change due to my pleasant ride this weekend.

My swap meet specials are pretty scratched up, so Saturday morning I was going to check out Performance’s summer sale for some cheap sunglasses.  Their shop on Midway in Pt. Loma immediately came to mind, but on a bike, this puts you through some of the sketchiest bike commute zones in the area.

A quick google revealed told me that Performance has a store on Bonita Road in, you guessed it– Bonita.  I took a quick look on Ride the City’s San Diego test site which showed a way to get there using the bike path along the Sweetwater River.  Looking to lengthen the ride and combine errands, I also found the Chula Vista Henry’s on 3rd and J.

With the route firmly locked in my mind (I forgot to bring the printout) I set out through Logan and down Harbor to Pepper Park in National City, where you can pick up bike-only paths heading east and south.  I’ve done the south route plenty of times on the way to Imperial Beach but never headed east.   Very cool, pretty well-surfaced and no fucking traffic, plus it goes through a nature preserve.  You’re finally dumped out at the Westfield Plaza Bonita– so if you ever need a mall (yeah, I don’t either), this is a lot less stressful ride than the aforementioned slog into Mission Valley on bike and actually very fucking easy and mellow.

Without directions in hand, I unnecessarily climbed one mesa but found Performance pretty easily.  From there it was a cruise through mostly residential neighborhoods to the Chula Vista Henry’s which is huge compared to North Park, totally clean, and filled with old ladies who totally look like they know their mangoes– a welcome alternative to the pseudo-high school reunion of all your crunchier friends that you get when shopping uptown.  To get back, go west on any of the letter (L, K, J,) streets and follow the Bayshore Bikeway signs back to Harbor and 32nd.  Only a 25 mile round-trip and totally low stress, low hill and low traffic.

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