Happy New Year!

With the arrival of 2008, Guide to Out-of-the-Way L.A. is ready to embrace a slight change in structure. I'm happy with the blog's humble beginnings, but I want to post on a more regular schedule. So, among my other New Year's resolutions, I intend to

• post weekly
• write a monthly in-depth feature of a district or specific single location
• include a wider range of neighborhoods in the posts

I live in South Pasadena and teach in El Monte, so the San Gabriel Valley will remain the focus of my postings, but I want to include more of the other sections of this fascinating "metro area." Keep your eye on this space!

El Gordito (El Monte)

El Gordito is Marlene's latest discovery. We can thank my car's recent loss of its head gasket; all this week, while the car has been in the shop, Marlene and her mom have come to pick me up from work. El Gordito is about a mile from the school, right next to Art's Burgers, on the north side of Valley, just east of Peck.
I've only had one meal from El Gordito, but it was notable--four very good carnitas tacos (if the fare from Tacos El Gordo of Tijuana/south San Diego fame is a 10 of 10, then these
were 7.5) and probably the best agua de pina I've ever had. The drink was sweet but not overly so, and had pineapple chunks to add to the flavor and feel.
Marlene says the burrito she had was good, too. I've had a coupon for a free torta from El Gordito for some time; it was part of the "swag bag" we received at the luncheon the City of El Monte gave for new teachers. It looks like it's time to redeem that coupon.
El Monte insider trivia: El Gordito is owned by Frank J. Aguirre, who recently mounted an unsuccessful bid for a seat on the board for the Mountain View School District.

Find El Gordito at 11665 Valley Blvd (Peck/I-10 and La Madera) in El Monte. 626-444-4912. Call for hours of operation.

Soccer Plus

I dropped by this little soccer equipment shop on the north side of Pasadena because I needed a goalkeeper's jersey. I found a small but impressive display of football-related wares. The owner, Joseph, was very helpful and friendly. I don't like shopping while a salesperson hovers over me, so I appreciated that he was available but discreet, waiting behind the counter in his Perugia shirt.
The shop had a wide range of team jerseys, including heavyweight clubs like Manchester United and AC Milan, but also including unlikely shirts like the Scottish National Team. The store also has a strong selection of shoes for outdoor and indoor soccer and a respectable assortment of "generic" (that is, not affiliated with a team or branded with a club logo) shirts and shorts.
I got my goalkeeper jersey, a green Adidas shirt, and I'll be back to buy a new pair of cleats soon.

Find Soccer Plus at 1640 E. Washington Blvd. (N. Oxford and N. Sierra Bonita) in Pasadena. 626-798-5405. Call for store hours.

Fortune Bakery

This little gem at the San Gabriel / Alhambra border has been Marlene's bakery of choice for years. Its simple, small storefront features a case with birthday cakes and other baked goods like sweet loaves and cupcakes. It also has several cases filled with figurines that serve as cake decorations.
Marlene got my chocolate birthday cake here (above), and it was delicious. Another standout is their strawberry sponge cake with a light whipped-cream frosting. They have delicious cookies as well, including their lemon cookies and their sugar-free rosebud cookies. Marlene's elementary-school teacher would buy Fortune Bakery's cookies as a treat for outstanding students. Finally, Marlene's friend Carmen loves their brownies, though we can't vouch for them ourselves.
You can call ahead to pre-order if you want to be sure that they'll have what you're looking for.

Find Fortune Bakery at 700 W. Las Tunas Dr (N. Franklin and Sycamore) in west San Gabriel. 626-576-0514.

Bahooka Ribs and Grog

Bahooka Ribs and Grog has been serving up Polynesian fare and strong tropical drinks in Rosemead since 1967. It's one of the few exponents of the Tiki craze that has survived through the years.
There seems to be some disagreement about the quality of the food. I like it, especially the appetizers and the fish and chips; Marlene really likes it, but admits that the quality is inconsistent and can depend on who's in the kitchen; a colleague once said one should eat before going to Bahooka's. That's okay, though, because you don't really go to Bahooka for the food--you go there for the strong drinks and tiki-fied atmosphere, both of which are at the same time authentic and very kitschy.
The back of the menu is devoted to the tropical drinks. While the bar serves "non-exotic" beverages like beer and Seven-and-Seven, the real draw is the selection of island tonics, such as the Deep Purple, the Mai Tai, the Singapore Sling, and Marlene's favorite, Planter's Punch. I am quite fond of their Zombie. The menu includes a short description for each of the drinks, and for the Zombie it warns, "Two of these will put you among the living dead." I tried once and found that they're not kidding!
If you have to man the vehicle and want to do the right thing while still enjoying some of the liquid island flavor, opt for a Captain Cook Goat. It's a concoction of coconut and pineapple juice that's delicious, and can be served "flaming," with a lit crouton on the top beside the tiny pink umbrella.
Another Bahooka specialty is the Flaming Bowl for Two, a tropical cocktail served flaming in a salad-bowl-sized container. Choose a designated driver! While the menu lists four specific Flaming Bowl varieties, it also notes that any drink can be served as a flaming bowl.

Bahooka's over-the-top decor is the restaurant's other main draw. The restaurant is a maze of booths, each of which has a view of at least one fish tank. In fact, there are over a hundred fish tanks in the place! My favorite fish tank is at the bar--or perhaps I should say my favorite fish tank is the bar. On crowded nights, you can sip your drink, catch a bit of a baseball game, and watch the fish while you wait for your table.
The fish tanks are the most obvious element in the decor, but there are plenty of other kitschy touches as well, such as the plastic birds that hang from the ceiling throughout the restaurant, and, of course, tiki gods. The entrance features a wall of mailboxes and vintage post office signs. Authentic naval memorabilia abounds, including buoys and an old-fashioned scuba set; according to the Bahooka website, lamps are "hand crafted from castoffs, port holes, parts of ships, etc." A large banquet room sits in the back, and Bahooka also does catering at homes and offices.
Bahooka recently celebrated its 40th anniversary with a three-day rib special. The celebration has come and gone, but I recommend you join Bahooka as it gets its fifth decade of tiki kitsch
underway.

Find Bahooka Ribs and Grog at 4501 N. Rosemead Boulevard (Lower Azusa) in Rosemead. 626-285-1241. Mon.-Thurs. 11:30 am to 9 pm; Fri. 11:30 am to 10:30 pm; Sat. noon to 10:30 pm; Sun. noon to 9 pm.

Transit options include Metro Bus 266 and Metro Bus 489 (as the latter is a commuter express route, it operates Monday through Friday only; only the northbound route runs in the afternoon, and only between 4 and 6 pm).

California Cactus Center

Blink and you'll miss it as you drive down Rosemead Boulevard. It's inauspiciously tucked into a nondescript pocket of East Pasadena (some might say the word "nondescript," and even the word "pocket," is redundant), near a handful of fast food joints and furniture shops, across the street from a fortune teller, and next to an air conditioning supply and repair shop. Nonetheless, however unpromising its neighborhood may look, California Cactus Center is worth the trip.
I first popped in because I needed a small bag of cactus mix to repot a plant that had been knocked over (the cat is a prime suspect). I parked on a side street and had to pass CCC's aforementioned neighbor, Air-Tech. It appears that CCC has furnished Air-Tech with some plants. As a result, Air-Tech has a beautiful little cactus garden in its small entryway. I was especially taken with a lovely succulent with a rosette of pink-tinted leaves, the echeveria.
Inside, the relatively small space teems with drought-tolerant life. Quite a few aloes and agaves live in the entryway space, which is uncovered. Marlene especially admired the "Black Beauty" (also called "Schwartzkopf") plants we found in this space. A few steps further inside the property and you enter a covered nursery space that has row after row of plants and a greenhouse.
Highlights of the space include the strangely beautiful lithops or "living stones" in the nursery and greenhouse the Giant Saguaro in the front. The shop also has a selection of handsome pottery and a small space with books (more than a bookshelf, not quite a bookstore). I found my cactus mix--the shop has bags of 3 different sizes (the workers will help you load the largest bag). My bag, the middle size, was a reasonable $3.
I'll be back, I expect, to buy some more cactuses or succulents--an echeveria or two for me and a Black Beauty for Marlene.

Find the California Cactus Center at 216 S. Rosemead Boulevard (near Del Mar), and on the web at http://www.cactuscenter.com. Open 7 days a week, 10 am - 4:30 pm. 626-795-2788.

Transit options include Metro Bus 266 (Rosemead and Del Mar), and Foothill Transit 187 and Metro Bus 181 (both have stops at Rosemead and Colorado).

Pepe's Finest Mexican Food (Temple City)

Pepe's Finest Mexican Food has locations in Alhambra and Covina as well as in Temple City. This blog refers to the Temple City location.

Pepe's is a very, very good taco shop, in business since 1964. It serves what you might call "old-school" taco shop fare--hearty food that's more mildly seasoned than the "street tacos" you might buy in Tijuana.
The hard-shell tacos may be the best thing on the menu. These are the real deal, full of tender shredded beef and cheese, tomato, and lettuce.
Their burritos are good, too, and packed-to-bursting with (for example) chile verde pork or seasoned eggs and potatoes.
Bill Coburn's San Gabriel Valley Menus website has a number of photos of Pepe's offerings along with his review of the Temple City location.

Find Pepe's Finest Mexican Food at 5829 N. Rosemead Blvd., at the corner of Hermosa and near Las Tunas. 626-286-3055. Sun-Thurs 9 am - 9:30 pm; Fri. and Sat. 9 am - 10:30 pm. Closed major holidays.

Transit options include Metro Bus 78 and Metro Bus 487. Montebello Bus 20 stops at San Gabriel Boulevard and Hermosa, about a mile west.