Rio Linda adventure

 If you are friends with Charles, you know he sends you a lot of Instagram videos and clips. He sent me a Tik Tok-style clip from @deznorcaleats that had me shook. This young man named his top 5 Mexican spots and I had not been to any of them!! Is my grasp slipping??? He seemed to have a focus on pretty cheesy stuff, including a lot of birria, but still how have I missed all these. I took screengrabs of all 5 and vowed to hit them up.

An opportunity arose yesterday, on Sunday, around lunchtime. I decided to try Birriera Chipres first, because it was about 20 minutes away from my house and closes at 2. That means it's mostly a breakfast/brunch spot so I knew I might be pushing it to go there at lunchtime. 

Driving out there, I got off 80 at Marconi and I was in absolute heaven not knowing where the heck I was. I have lived in Sacramento so long and I get so sick of it sometimes, the same drives, the same bike rides, the same walks, that I fucking love it when I can feel like I stumble on a pocket that's new to me. Looking now, I see that Birriera Chipres is in Robla, which is a neighborhood that is north of North Sac and south of Rio Linda. It was somewhat of an urban/rural interface with a lot of industrial-type spaces. I passed 2 intriguing places to follow up on: Bust Down burgers and BBQ and Connie's Drive-In. Connie's is closed on Sundays but until I looked it up I would have sworn it had been closed for years. But no, looks open. 

I reach Birriera Chipres at like 1230, down the end of a dead end road. It's contained within a gated compound of a house. The woman says Se acabo (it's over). I've missed it! A guy I chat with said he arrived at ten to a big line. I'm wondering if he's been hanging there for over 2 hours. This spot is only open Sat-Sun so this will be a challenge. I need to go at like 830 when it opens maybe.

So then I look at which of the 4 other spots is still open and not too far. I settle on El Rinconsito De Jalisco, which is in Rio Linda. I have more of a thrilling drive through rural areas, and I pass a taco stall called Chicharones Frescos and think about stopping but keep going. El Rinconsito is small and looks crowded. There's a tent for patrons outside. I parallel park in the small lot. I'm a little flustered when I walk in and end up ordering at the counter to dine-in even though they have servers from dine-in. The dude at the counter asks a table if I can sit with them. The guys I'm sitting with have a small parrot which is fun to watch. The crowd is super lively and diverse. Being flustered when I walked up I ordered kind of the first thing that I saw, which was a torta ahogada, a signature dish of Guadalajara and which I got there a few times when had a brief visit a few years back. Very cool city! Would recommend to anyone for a long weekend trip, and has non-stop flights from Sac.

Here it is. They specified on the menu that it's Jalisco-style, which means the bread is fried. It is carnitas filled and they said it's a homemade tomato sauce. They also brought me a bottle of hotter sauce. This sandwich was good but the carnitas were just ok, I'm pretty picky these days. I saw that Rinconsito has birria de chivo on weekends so I should have gotten that. I also saw they had a special of Carne in Su Jugo, which is a rich bean stew from Guadalajara.

Here it is. It's so cute! I love it. I'm excited to try the other places mentioned by this influencer, and to try to get some birria at Chipres.

Mi Quang journey and Quan Nem's big move!

 Google reveals to me that mi quang is a central Vietnamese dish with yellow, flat noodles, shrimp, pork, herbs, peanuts and a crispy rice cracker. It says it's also known for minimal broth.

Co Do Deli is maybe the first place I ever had this dish? I have loved it there for many years, even as Co Do seems to have lost popularity. Yesterday (Sunday) at noon, it was sparsely populated, as other pockets of Little Saigon were hopping.

Co Do serves the broth on the side, which you pour over. The most notable herb they use is mint, and shredded lettuce gets nicely cooked. Cooked lettuce is underused I think. I don't remember what area of Japan, maybe Fukuoaka area? but there was an area where the meat skewers would often be wrapped in hot, juicy lettuce and it was brilliant!

Anyway, Co Do also serves the bowl with a shell-on shrimp, yummy ground pork, and peanuts. I have always loved it there. Co Do used to have a neon sign in the window that said "bun bo hue" so that's also a specialty and I'm sure I've had it there. The sign must have broken.

 (I'm going ot get to more about Mi Quang trust) Years ago, a Quan Nem Ninh Hoa sign went up where Yang's used to be on Stockton, but the old Quan Nem continued to do gangbuster business and I eventually assumed the move was off. But they have indeed finally moved. On Saturday at 2, they were packed. The dining room has a lot of chairs and communal tables in it, and a few booths. Some pillars in the room can make it hard to for customers and the servers to navigate. It's cramped feeling. I'm not sure how many additional tables they have due to the move, but they probably could have used even more space. They parking lot was full and I had to park on the side street.

The inside is colorful and bright, and there are murals that looks like Hanoi colonial houses. When Quan Nem posted on IG about their move, showing the dragon dancers, etc., they showed a bowl of Mi Quang, which got me thinking about ordering it there. 

Everyone knows what you get at Quan Nem: the nem nuong rolls, usually the ones you roll yourself unless it's to-go. I would say the banh beo and banh bot loc appetizers are also on many tables. But I was by myself so I didn't want to roll the rolls and plus I was fixated on this mi quang.

I also got a salty plum drink because I was dehydrated from gardening and it was the saltiest one I've ever had. It had a thick layer of salt in the bottom. I probably needed that.

When the soup came out, it was indeed a brothy soup, not a noodle dish with scant broth I could pour over. That was the first difference. Then, it had some chunks and I thought, potato? Oh god, pineapple??? WTF. OK, I guess this is not an unknown ingredient but it's unwelcome to me. The broth was bland. The pork was a tasteless chunk on a bone. There were slices of pork cake that seemed like each one was the hard butt end of the cake, like they saved it for this soup like you would the heel of the bread for breadcrumbs. Even the shrimp cracker was stale!! Truly sad.

Quan Nem I'm sure is still the best but you gotta stick to their specialties. Has anyone ever gotten their pho? I wonder what it's like.

So the next day I wanted to get carnitas. So I tried to go to Carnitas Marquez, but all evidence of it was gone. Then I started to trip that my article in Abridged got it shut down! It had been there a long time. I don't think I'm powerful or anything, just I have no idea how many people read Abridged. I guess I stupidly thought that Marquez was legit. I'm not going to panic just yet, I want to check back and also see if the one on Franklin is still there. I mean, Marquez had a spot on Google maps and reviews and stuff! Augh.

So then I needed something to eat and I thought I would try to erase the bad mi quang from my mind by eating good mi quang. So I went to Co Do. The bowl was wayyyy better than the other one but not as good as it used to be. The broth was not as deep and savory. All the other elements were there. When I finally want to try mi quang again I will try somewhere else. I got a recommendation to try Buon Cuon Tay Ho for it.

Oh yeah, and Co Do still has my review behind the counter.

BPNA monthly meeting report

So even though I live a teeny bit outside of Boulevard Park, I attended the monthly meeting with my neighbor Ashley. I have been curious before. It meets at Washington School, at 18th and E. There were a lot of people there, maybe 40? It was inspiring that there was a mix of ages, and the board president is young (compared to me). The board president of the midtown neighborhood association also spoke, and she looked to be in her 20s.

The meeting was the same day as the city council met, so Pluckebaum and McCarty sent spokespeople (also young!). A cop who is in charge of a big swath of downtown also reported on policing strategies to lower violent crime and subtract cops from mental health calls.

Slow Down Sacramento creator Isaac Gonzalez came to talk about how we have wayyyy too many traffic deaths here. I agree! He expressed frustration that the city has budgeted for several positions (championed by Caity Maple) almost  a year ago to help create slower street and that still no hiring has occurred. 

Cutest of all, a guy who created Rewild Sacramento came to talk about planting trees and needing volunteers. His group has planted over a hundred treees.

I marveled that people find the time to do these kinds of things. I have been letting my community garden plot languish for months, but I guess my extra time often goes to freelance writing. I wish I had time to do more. 

I had an idea that I could create a program where people could adopt a block of protected bike lane to clean up during fall/leaf season. It's been driving me crazy how many of the lanes are filled with leaf piles, or even worse, sticks and other plant stuff that are under leaves and could make you slip or crash. To get that off the ground I would have to focus just on that probably for like a year. 

People care about their communities and are doing cool things!