A recent police brief in our newspaper concerned a 100 mph chase in Fontana. The headline, unfortunately, read “Driver arrested after 10- mph chase.”
Reader Will Plunkett asks: “Fuel costs hitting the high-speed chase market, too?”
On a related note, Plunkett says that when driving behind an Omnitrans bus the other day, he was startled to see the bus had a huge ad for the film “Death Race.” For the sake of the dozens of passengers on board, he decided not to goad the bus driver into a chase.
In my cookie after a Chinese lunch in Rancho Cucamonga, this fortune was found:
“You are an adventurer, traveling on the highway of life.”
If so, I’m traveling in the slow lane. Either that, or I’m stopped on the side of the highway of life, waiting for AAA. How about you?
As seasons will do, the 909’s Summer of Scandal has become the Autumn of Scandal, with ridiculousness rearing its head in Rialto, Chino and Chino Hills, and good ol’ Pomona. Hoo-boy, did it rear its head in Pomona. Check my Sunday column for the sorry details about a host of people who ought to be sorry but probably aren’t.
Green Mango Thai Bistro, 11226 4th St. (at Milliken), Rancho Cucamonga
My unholy love for Mix Bowl Cafe in Pomona has been well-documented. It’s Thai fast food, essentially, not far from home and casual enough — with its bright lighting, colors and neon and its T-shirt-clad servers — that a lone diner can eat there without feeling self-conscious.
On the other end of the spectrum is Green Mango, which opened in 2007 cater-corner from Ontario Mills (but in R.C.) in a space formerly occupied by Mi Tortilla. The family owned restaurant is decorated in teak direct from Thailand, and with its straight-backed chairs, square plates and staff in traditional dress it feels slightly elegant.
The menu, too, is lighter on the noodle and rice dishes Mix Bowl favors. There’s a nice range of entrees: chicken, duck, pork, beef, curries, seafood and vegetarian.
I’ve been to Green Mango a half-dozen times in its year or so of operation, in groups of two to five, but have never written about it. So on Thursday, I went in for a solo lunch. The place was, thankfully, busier than I’ve seen it. It may, finally, be catching on.
Since my last visit, the lunch menu has expanded from nine items to 30, and prices dropped a bit, with the lowest special at $5.95, which may be helping.
I got Panang Salmon ($8.95), which was chunks of salmon in a red curry with coconut milk, mildly spicy. Quite good, and as with all the lunch specials, you also get a small salad, a wonton, a scoop of rice and a cup of soup. Candidly, these sides are smaller than before, and not as good, either. A cream cheese wonton? That’s too American for a restaurant like this. But for the money, you get a filling meal.
In past visits I’ve had Jade Curry Chicken, Pad Thai (both $7.95) and, for dinner, Pra Ram Long Soung Prawn ($15.95), which is sauteed prawns with garlic, peanut sauce and sauteed spinach. The Sweet Coconut Sticky Rice With Mango ($6.95) dessert is delicious.
There’s no special need for me to mention the amusingly named Angry Beef, Angry Chicken, Drunken Noodle and Dancing Crispy Duck entrees, but I can’t resist.
Oh, and I can attest that Green Mango is a good choice after a movie at the Mills. Boston’s, BJ’s, etc., are packed, with lines out the doors. Green Mango is quiet and you’ll be seated quickly. It’s not as popular as it deserves to be but hopefully it’ll be around a while.
While I haven’t made a comprehensive survey, it’s up there with Thai T in Rancho Cucamonga and Swasdee Thai Cuisine in Chino Hills as the nicest Thai restaurants in the Inland Valley.
Although I still love Mix Bowl best.
* Update, February 2014: I went back to Green Mango for lunch and to take photos, ordering ginger pork ($8, below), which comes with salad, soup, wonton and rice. The entree was very good, the rest acceptable. I couldn’t get a good shot of the dining room without being obtrusive, but at bottom is an abbreviated view of the large-party area, which has sunken seating, and there are photos on the restaurant’s website.
For Friday, I’ve got two observational items from my Midwestern vacation, including the Palin-Biden debate, plus a third item about my plane ride home to ONT. Also, a comment about the Ontario councilman who’s been named Lawyer of the Year. Nice, of course, but something tells me he won’t be touting that in his re-election campaign.
The column begins, however, with a local-connection item on the actor who played Mr. Clean in the TV commercials, based on a letter sent to me dated Jan. 20, 2005. I filed that missive in my “I.V. Celebrities” folder for future use. His death means now is the time.
See, readers? If you send me an idea and I don’t use it right away, don’t be discouraged. I might use it four years from now.
My week in the St. Louis area was fab, thanks for asking. I’ll likely write a column for Sunday or next Wednesday about the tourist-y highlights, and maybe some column or blog items about general observations.
Here’s one: I landed in Phoenix on Tuesday for my connecting flight to Ontario and wondered what the local time was. Should I set my watch back two hours, or one?
Checking a clock in the Phoenix airport, however, proved impossible: There aren’t any. I walked from the A gates to the B gates and never once saw a clock. Eventually I asked an airline employee at my check-in area for the time. The time difference was indeed two hours.
Given that almost everyone in an airport needs to be critically aware of the time, and that people are flying in from all over, meaning whatever time is on their watch or phone may be wrong, one would think a clock or two at an airport might be useful, no?
I was going to make a point of looking for clocks at ONT when I landed, but forgot. I’m pretty sure the airport has several. Am I wrong?
Cooling my heels in a doctor’s waiting room today gave me an hour-plus to catch up on Daily Bulletins from my time away. Interesting stuff.
I liked the campaign flier in Pomona, apparently put out by the firefighters union, mimicking a newspaper and titled Pomona’s Better Times, with “Times” in giant type. Thank goodness it wasn’t Pomona’s Better Bulletin or we’d be offended.
Did you know Ontario Councilman Jason Anderson was named “lawyer of the year” by the local Bar Association? I’ll have to ask him if that’s an honor or not.
And speaking of bars, we learned today that Elliott Rothman, a councilman and mayoral candidate in Pomona, was arrested on suspicion of DUI. That’s about all we’ve learned as of mid-afternoon because the Police Department was told to refer media calls to City Hall and yet City Hall won’t call us back.
Good times. And good column fodder. I should’ve thanked the doc for keeping me waiting.
I’m back in the office after a week’s vacation (darnit) and will resume writing once I have an idea what’s going on. Or this afternoon, whichever comes sooner.
This is an expansion of my blog post about the TV converter box. Actually, I wrote it as a blog post, but the result was so long I decided to use it as one of my vacation columns instead. I ran a shortened version on this blog. Since then I’ve rewritten the column a bit. Some of it’s a repeat from the blog post but much of it will be new to you.
Is that an El Camino Real bell in downtown Pomona? It is. This Burton Frasher photo shows the northwest corner of Garey Avenue and Second Street in 1925. Dig the surprisingly modern bank facade.
The building, btw, was razed at some later point to widen Garey or build the underpass, but it would have stood just east of where Joey’s BBQ is today.
Anyhow, the Auto Club sign on the bell directed motorists to San Bernardino, 31 miles, and to an unreadable place to the west, 24 miles.
Betty Peters, the Pomona Public Library’s volunteer historian, found the photo and was amazed to see the bell, never realizing Pomona had had one.
You can read about the bells here and here.
In short, the original El Camino Real was a 600-mile Spanish trail that connected California’s 21 missions. In 1906, a modern-day version of the road was established as one of the state’s first highways. The route was marked by bells attached to shepherd’s crooks. The Auto Club began maintaining the bells in the 1920s but eventually they began being stolen or vandalized.
In recent years, Caltrans has been putting up the bells again, mostly along Highway 101, as a nod to history. I find them quite charming.
Betty Peters wonders if anyone remembers Pomona bells or ones in other local cities. The route apparently went through Claremont as well.
