I MISS H. SALT FISH N CHIPS

I love fish and other seafood’s and its interesting how fast food fish places don’t seem to do as well as fast food chicken places. Through out the decades we’ve only had 3 popular fish places; they were H. Salt Fish N Chips which later became Captain Kids Galley and we also have Long John Silvers. Captain Kids Galley folded years ago, but Long John Silvers still exist. I was glad to see Captain Kids go because their fish didn’t nearly taste as good as H. Salt. With Long John Silvers, when they first opened the fish was good and they gave you big pieces. I visited Long John Silvers about a year ago and was very disappointed; the pieces were thin, flat and small with a lot of batter.

I love my Southern roots of the way fried fish is prepared; we fry it in yellow corn meal, but I also love the way the English prepare fried fish and the malt vinegar with tarter sauce, ummm. The English fry their fish in a batter made with milk, eggs, flour and sometimes beer sort of like tempura, but has a different texture and taste to it. Tempura has a lighter texture then batter and for those of you that don’t know this, Chips is an English term for French Fries. I like their chips because they are steak cut french fries and not shoestring french fries.

I remember all the various fast food chicken places that existed at one time in San Diego. There was Picnic-n-Chicken and the theme song for their commercial:

Pic - nick - n - chic - ken
It’s
The pick of the chick

I didn’t care for Picnic n Chicken, their chicken sucked!

There was also Pioneer Chicken; I like their batter; it had a golden orange color and was crispy and flavorful.

Still going strong are Church’s, Popeye’s and KFC. Church’s at one time folded in San Diego and then they came back. Their chicken is always oily and the batter is not seasoned unless you order it spicy.

Growing up, I recall lunches at H. Salt with my family when we were out running errands on the weekends and I’ll also never forget their hush puppies and Sarsaparilla drinks; Sarsaparilla is Root Beer. Several years ago Screg and I were in the L.A. area and came across an H. Salt and I just had to try them again. Apparently, they still have a large chain of them going strong in the L.A. & Long Beach area.

I was in the east county area buying plants at a nursery and discovered a fish n chips place call Tugboat. I decided to give them a try and I must say that they weren’t bad, no H. Salt though, but, they tasted pretty good. Their batter is lighter because they use and fry their seafood in tempura.

Regarding trademarks, I’ve always wondered what the “esq” meant with H. Salt. I knew it stood for ‘Esquire’, but I never knew why it was added to their name until now. I visited their website and ‘esq’ was added to their name for an “English touch”. Esquire in the dictionary defines: Formerly an attendant on a knight; In England, a member of the gentry ranking just below a knight; title of courtesy placed after a man’s surname.

One other trademark I’ve always wondered about “Why was Dennis the Menace affiliated with Diary Queen?” Well, I went to their website and it looks like when the first DQ opened in Japan in 1972 Dennis the Menace became a Spokescharacter for DQ.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE COWBOYS GONE?

One Saturday, I was on my way to teach my class and just about a block from the college at a light my car decides to stall on me. Dammit, I said; thinking to myself of all places that my car could have stopped why not on the College Campus; this way I could have just walked to my class without being late. I wish the car could have held on just a little bit longer and stalled on campus. Thank Goodness it was at a light and not in the middle of an intersection. So, I did the obvious of trying to re-start it again which made a choking noise as if it wanted to start but I had no luck. It’s not the battery, this I know for sure because there was still some juice to the car when I tried re-starting it. I couldn’t just leave my car there so at this point I knew that I wasn’t going to make it to class on time. So, I put my hazard lights on and called the admin office to inform my students that I was going to be about an hour late.

In the midst of this all one thing I must say is that Californians are rude! There was nothing that I could do but call AAA to tow me and you would not believe all the honks I got. I’m thinking, screw all of you people, what do you want me to do, just get out of the car and push it myself. These people honestly must have thought that honking at me will solve the problem and the car would just suddenly start; they should have just gotten off their asses and helped instead of honking. I was on my way to work, where were these people going; I highly doubt work. Considering some of them had their families in the car and it was a Saturday, shopping would be my guest. I see all of these young & older healthy men passing me by in their cars, honking and not one of them took the initiative to help a damsel in distress. It was actually a single woman with her child in a van that got out and pushed me to the side of the road.

It didn’t take AAA long to arrive; 30 minutes. I could have had them tow it to the nearest auto repair shop, but that would have taken more time, plus I prefer taking it to my own auto repair shop. I didn’t want my students waiting any longer so I had them tow it on campus. By the time they hooked the car on the tow truck and drove me to the college I was 45 minutes late. After my class ended I had them re-tow it to the auto repair shop and they diagnosed it as the Timing Belt and some other items related to the Timing Belt which was going to cost me over $1,000 to repair. Since I had the car for almost 10 years and it had over 123,000 miles I felt that it wasn’t worth pumping that kind of money into the car; so, I ended up just buying a another one.

Remembering Kim

I normally post and respond to other blogs about once a week but didn't have the desire to after I had heard about Kilatzin’s sister Kim.

I had the pleasure of meeting and seeing Kimberly on just a few occasions so I didn’t get a chance to really know her well. All were related to Kilatzin’s wedding. One time was at her parent’s house in which we all caravanned to Kilatzin’s wife’s parent’s house for their engagement party. The other times were the wedding rehearsal, wedding day & reception. We didn’t have a chance to talk much at all the events except for the Wedding rehearsal and dinner afterwards and I remember her asking me how Scregman and I met.

After reading about her professional and personal accomplishments... WOW!!!... She was really amazing!

Kim was a very caring and self-sacrificing person. She must have really felt a calling to do what she did: to help and care about people in Africa and to want to make a difference. Few people would have given up their American lap of luxury to go live under such conditions.

None of us have any doubts about Kim's achievements. For those who believe in a superior being or an after life, some would say that she has graduated (so to speak) to a higher level - - her calling being served.No one knows why we’re here - - some believe we keep coming back until we achieve our mission. In my opinion, she really lived hers and no one could ask for anything more.