How they fought 2004 Campo fire After it crested, the fire started "running pretty hard" east along the ridgeline. "We were coming along holding it with engines," Scully says, "and we were actually being very …

Oh yes. THIS is how to start your day. Fire-roasted Arabica coffee beans sending their smoky aroma up my nostrils, right beside a blue pylon of incense smoke. We’re talking coffee beans that have come …

“That used to be the beef jerky place,” says Will. He lives around here. “See? It’s in one of the apartments of that building. Weird. Pretty popular, though.” We’re sitting in Will’s ’95 Bronco, in …

He’s waiting as we come in: my window-cleaner friend Tim. His motto is “Your Panes Are My Pleasure.” Cheeriest chappie I know. He gets around, and he’s always steering me to the places near where …

“Think globally, drink locally,” says this one guy’s T-shirt. And people are sure obeying that law here. Whole long table of mostly guys, back from a sport fishing trip and whooping it up. “That’s one …

“Eat hot to cool down,” my aunt used to say. “And drink hot, too.” “What does that mean?” says my neighbor Kevin when I quote her to him on this stinking hot day last week. …

Wow. Red peppers in the sunset! They shine scarlet in the late afternoon light. Calabrian chile. The peppers are about the only “real” thing in this vegan meal I’m eating. But the rest of the …

“Oh no!” This is Diane. New to ’Diego. She has just picked up her gobernador taco, chomped in, and watched a splot of orange taco juice squirt out onto her shirt. Her white shirt. “Tacos!” …

There’s Thai and there’s Thai. You have Thai down south near Malaysia, where we’re talking fish, thick curries, coconuts. Up north, far from the sea, near the mountains of Laos and China, we’ve got freshwater …

“Nothing demoralizes an aspiring escoffier faster than requiring him to cook eggs over easy.” That’s Anthony Bourdain, quoted on the menu I’m looking at. Happily, I can see that this is not going to be …

“My grandfather was Archduke Ferdinand,” says Laura casually. “He was assassinated in Sarajevo in 1914.” Whoa. The assassination that started World War One? Her grandfather? Laura and Bosko, her husband, definitely hail from the Serbian …

“What time is it?” “Six-thirty in the am.” “Where are we?” “Don’t even look, pappy. We’re in the Philippines. Can’t you smell the food?” I can. Vinegar, fish, BBQ. Ria, my beloved stepkid who’s no …

The angel Gabriel blasts his golden trumpet high above Fifth Avenue. It glints in the evening sun from the dome of The Abbey, the massive onetime church across the road. “I am worth it,” I …

Where is everybody? This was last Tuesday, in Oceanside. I was looking for food. Don’t look for food on Tuesday afternoons. So many places are closed. Specially last Tuesday, the day the whole nation fell …

“We don’t talk a lot, but we do yell a lot,” says Jamie Dambois. Yah, for sure, there’s a lot of shouting at the screens here. Small surprise: this is the last week of the …

Purple gives way to pink gives way to blue. Dawn is cracking late here in the Southern Hemisphere. We’re at a tiny country railroad station at seven on this winter’s morning, waiting for the train. …

“New Season First Grade Bluff Oysters! Here we go, mate,” says Russell. “This is the one. This place is da bomb.” We’re sitting beside a small sign: “Fed Up Restaurant & Takeaway,” here in Paraparaumu, …

“Just don’t ask me to taste mutton or lamb,” says my neighbor Kevin. “That’s all I ask.” Uh-oh. I have this bee in my bonnet about lamb. And about burgers. I want to see the …

Barrio Logan? It’s hopping. A sort of food cluster is forming right around Thorn Brewing’s Barrio Logan factory. They’ve opened a big eatery called ReBru Spirits, where — don’t ask me how — they convert …

“So long, Huey.” It’s a biker muttering this. He ain’t old enough to have picked up that Vietnam moniker for the sun, but he says it anyway. Because yes, that last moment’s coming. People have …

“It was beauty that killed the beast,” reads the sentence etched into the blond bar counter. “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” On and on. Sayings, thoughts, bon mots, the …

“Eee-yew! Spongey!” cries my buddy Tim. “And you have to eat with your fingers? A mess! Why can’t we have a knife and fork like at any other place?” He has just unrolled a section …

It’s a sunny breezy morning. John Man, tall, slightly stooped, plenty of hair for his age, a guy who listens more than he talks, is shooting the breeze at coffee with his buddies. As usual, …

Oh wow. Ducks. They’re swimming up to me. I can see their little webbed feet pumping hard against the current. Wish I had something in my pocket for them. I’m standing by this beautiful pool …

“Let me show you my favorite chicken neck place.” That’s me. Neighbor Kevin and I are crossing the border, heading south. “Your favorite chicken…what?” “Chicken necks, dude. You ever tried them?” He looks at me …

What Meshal is going through right now — “now” being the holy month of Ramadan, with its ban on eating while the sun is up — is not easy. But it has its consolations. “The …

Somehow, I seem to be stuck on a BBQ kick. Just can’t get enough of it. Take tonight: it’s dusk, and I’m looking across the street to the long, low Kansas City Barbecue, the last …

How do you get the best out of happy hour? Mandy and I think we have the perfect in: Bleu Bohème in Kensington. She knows the place. It looks expensive and French, but she says …

My neighbor Kevin is a particular guy. Knows what he likes. Right now, he has a sudden urge for OB. We’re on Newport. “In this town,” he says, “they have the best burgers.” He points …

In my search for Ukrainian food, I end up on ECB - El Cajon Boulevard. Talking North Park here. I’m outside Pomegranate, the Georgian-Russian restaurant of Golden Hill fame. Georgian owner Mark was the jokingest …

Some bars just get it. They know who they are. They make you feel you know who you are. I walk into this place on Cañon Street in Point Loma and I feel congeniality wrapping …

Goodness gracious. It’s Bob Hope, the stand-up icon from WWII. His voice echoes around the waterfront. “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen… My grandfather was a famous naval hero […] You may have read about him: …

Honestly, I walked up through Old Town without a lot of hope. These have been tough days, specially for Congress, and I don’t mean DC. I’m talking about the Cinderella street, the one that always …

Say what? As my 929 stretch limo (read: bus) hauls me through National City, we pass a big ol’ sprawling furniture place that I remember used to take up most of the block here at …

Whew. Big relief. Kevin’s paying. Because in Poway, covid put paid to Happy Hour. At least here in the Players Sports Bar. Players is near the DMV and Walmart. And also — good for us …

Tuesday, 4 pm. Sixth Avenue is not exactly busy. The Hustler Hollywood store has a couple of old geezers staring at open bras on plastic models. I came here thinking more about my stomach. Hmm. …

Oh no! “Rosy! Rápido, por favor!” Rosy whips around. She makes a wild grab at the gull as he’s about fly over the cliff with my Bistro Burger. The wooden rail keeps her from launching …

Needed some company. Little Italy had plenty of people, but there was no real action at the Happy Hour places. Somehow ended up on Kettner. Somehow ended up opposite the Waterfront. Huh. No big mention …

Night has clanged down on City Heights like an emergency curtain at a movie theater. It’s easy to get lost in this gloom once you’re out of the #7 bus, but, just past Happy Bubbles …

Hot curry on a cold night? I think so. Besides, this place, as the day fades and the lights start winking on, just calls my name. “Come in! Get warm! Taste the chutney, the curry, …

Clickety-clack along the track! We’re rolling! The Pacific Surfliner snakes through the hills around Sorrento Valley, slowly, methodically rounding the canyon curves like a hunting dog following his nose. That distant horn I hear? Oh …

You look at Palmys and you straightway think Dunedin, Queenstown, Raglan. All those pubs are named after Kiwi hometowns. They have sprung up around ’Diego these last few years, and now here’s this new one: …

A Little Bit East of Eden There are also sharp disputes about Noah's Ark within the Creationist movement. Some years ago, in the ICR museum, I helped John Morris, their principal ark investigator, look for …

“Sure, I went to culinary school. The School of You Tube.” You’ve got to hand it to Dale. He seems to have single-handedly created this San Diego Empire of the Small Burger. Right now, I’m …

Say what? “You’re pouring the dinner onto the paper table cloth??” “That’s why we give you plastic gloves,” says Jordan. Then he’s off. And there I am, sitting with my puddle of sauce and potatoes …

Love surprises! Neighbor Kevin and I are coming out of the ocean after a lunchtime swim. Was it cold? You betcha, for the first minute. But once you’re body surfing, all you’re thinking about is …

This. Is. Fabulous. Talking about the new Blue Line. We’re zinging up where no trolley has gone before. New stations with unknown names like “Tecolote Road,” (Turns out “Tecolote” means “owl” in Nahuatl) and “Clairemont …

“This is North County, so let’s not expect cheap,” says my friend Diana. No sticker shock for her. She’s into swanky malls like this one, UTC. Problem: sign says the mall closes at eight, but …

Unexpected pleasure! Here, in the midst of Coronado’s Golden Quarter-Mile, is one of the secret bargains of the Sceptered City. I come across it as I’m loping north on the western side of Orange Avenue. …

It’s the colors, here in this neighborhood that’s celebrating with tacos and beer and lots of noise, half a block from 5th and University. “Escandalo!”, a gal’s singing again and again. It looks like a …