I had lunch at the Vietnamese restaurant Pho 777 on Monday, July 21.  I had taken the day off work in order to have my wife’s car fixed and I planned to meet up with an Assistant Director of Alumni Relations from Willamette University, the college I attended as an undergrad.  Since I had been consistently donating to the college for many years, they’ve recently awarded me with visits for coffee breaks and in this case, lunch.  I read about Pho 777 in the “Dining on a Budget” section of the San Gabriel Valley Tribune and they gave it a good review.  It’s located in one of the many strip malls on the southeast corner of Citrus Ave. and Alosta Ave.  At that intersection Alosta is also known as Route 66.

I walked at least one mile from the garage where I left my wife’s car to the restaurant.  The mechanics had to take much longer than I expected because they didn’t have all the parts on hand.  Luckily, it wasn’t too hot that morning but in the low to mid 80’s.  It would get up to over 90 degrees in the afternoon.  I arrived about ten minutes before noon and got us a table.  The assistant director arrived soon after me.  I recognized him from his photo on his willamettealumni.com profile.  That site is similar to MySpace or Facebook but for Willamette Alumni.  I called him over and we looked over the menu in between introductions and conversation.
 
Pho 777 has a very large menu with around 100 items.  Each has a number, its name in Vietnamese, and a brief description in English.  The items are under different categories such as Pho (pronounced “fuh”) or traditional rice noodle soup, seafood dishes, meat dishes, and rice.  The middle page of the menu has many small photos of the more popular items along with their numbers, names, and descriptions.  We placed our orders and continued our conversation.

The restaurant has about 20-30 tables in a medium-sized space.  It was nearly empty when we arrived and never really got crowded but this made it easy to converse.  I’m guessing that it gets more crowded when school is in session at Azusa Pacific University (APU) that’s located just across Route 66.  There are some Asian decorations on the walls and 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s adult contemporary music played over the sound system.

Our orders arrived quickly and they were large and impressive.  Mine came on a large oval plate and the assistant director’s came in a large, deep bowl.  He ordered the pork rolls with rice and had decided his order after glancing quickly at the menu page with the photos.  We obtained our utensils from cups and boxes on our table.  He opted for chop sticks while I used the fork and large spoon that came with my order.  I got Com Tom Muc Ga Xao Xa Ot or lemongrass shrimp with squid and steamed rice.  The article in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune recommended this dish.  The shrimp and squid were actually mixed with several other foods including sautéed sliced green pepper and onion, firm tofu, and chicken.  It was a lot of food and it mixed well with the steamed rice.  The squid was sliced into cylinders and had the cross-hatched cuts I’ve seen on squid at other places.  It was a bit tough but everything else was delicious.  The green pepper and onion slices had been sautéed just right retaining much of their flavor and crunch.  The shrimp were large and meaty with their tails on.  When I ordered I had been given the choice of mild or spicy sauce and even though I had chosen mild it still had a bit of spice.  The sauce tasted like it included soy sauce in addition to lemongrass.  It was all very good and very filling.

The assistant director also enjoyed his meal.  His included a small bowl of sauce for dipping the noodles and the pork rolls.  We had a great conversation about our respective Willamette careers (he graduated in 2007), what was currently going on at Willamette, his interactions with other alumni, and what we’ve done since graduation.  He asked if I had heard that Willamette was mentioned in a question on Jeopardy about fencing.  I had caught that episode.  He hadn’t but heard about it from friends.  We also talked about Nick Symmonds, the 2006 Willamette graduate who had recently qualified for the Olympics in Beijing in the 800 meter race.  The assistant director didn’t know Symmonds personally but he knew some of his friends.  Symmonds had surprised himself and many others by how well he did.  Willamette is trying to figure out how to manage the publicity and support Symmonds.  They may send some staff to Beijing.  The assistant director and I had had at least one of the same professors.  It was interesting to learn of the many changes and the many things that hadn’t changed.

The assistant director generously paid for lunch and then gave me a ride back to the garage to pick up my wife’s car.  It’s great that Willamette rewards us for giving back.

On Friday, June 27, we saw George Michael at the Honda Center in Anaheim.  This was the Orange County stop of his 25 Live tour, his first tour of North America in 18 years.  He had also played in Las Vegas and at The Forum in Inglewood earlier in the month.  We had been to Honda Center for a concert once before two years ago to see Queen+Paul Rodgers when the venue was still called Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim.  We remembered having some trouble getting there.  But this time we followed the venue directions and had little trouble.  We exited the I-5 south at Ball Road.  The exit actually exits onto South Disneyland Drive.  This street intersects Ball Road where we made a left.  Just past State College Boulevard we had dinner at Taqueria Las Mulitas (see earlier review).  After dinner we continued east on Ball Road until we got to S. Sunkist Street just before the 57 freeway.  We turned right on S. Sunkist Street, drove less than one mile and then turned right on E. Cerritos Ave.  This avenue veers from east to south and changes into S. Douglas Road that goes right alongside the Honda Center.  We turned left into Gate 3 and had to pay $15 for parking.

The venue looks about the same inside and out as it did when it was Arrowhead Pond.  The signs are different and there’s a Honda car displayed on one corner.  Though it was crowded we got in fairly quickly at about 7 pm.  Most of the crowd looked to be about 5-10 years older than us.  The only ones younger were the kids of the ones 5-10 years older, and a group of who appeared to be college girls.  The crowd were mostly Caucasian women though there were men that came as part of male-female couples and there were also some Asians, Indians, and African Americans.  Inside the concourse were places selling the overpriced fast food and others selling George Michael merch.

We didn’t spend much time on the concourse and went to our seats in section 406 that’s on the upper level back and to the left of the stage.  We felt the seats were pretty good.  We were closer to the front than the back of the upper level.  We could see the entire stage that was all black.  In the middle was what looked like a large rectangular covering that draped down from the ceiling and forward across the stage.  I thought the covering would retract when the concert began because I didn’t see any instruments or sound equipment anywhere on stage.  To either side of the covering were curtains and to the side of them were large screens.  Below these screens on stage were gradual ramps that circled around to the front.  After we arrived they put out a small table on stage to the right of the covering.  On it were a few colorful things that I could not identify even with binoculars.  Over the speakers played classical music and soundtracks, strange canned music for a pop concert.  We identified the soundtrack to The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and instrumental version of “Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling”, and Ode to Joy sung in electronic voices.

We waited and seats slowly filled up around and below us.  The only seats that didn’t seem to be filling were the ones on the lower level in the center back section.  We waited past the 8 pm start time listed on the tickets.  The canned music started playing loudly and triumphantly and when the place was almost full at 8:46 pm, the lights went out and the audience cheered.  The whole venue filled up quickly after that, even that center back section.   Images of blue and red stars appear on the side screens and the covering that turned out to also be a screen.  The canned music ended and we heard an acoustic guitars playing.  It was a slow acoustic song.  We heard singing that sounded like George Michael with the main line being “Here I am.”  The middle screen turned a shiny red color, part of it opened to the side, and out came George Michael.  He was dressed in a shiny black suit and wore tinted but not entirely black sunglasses.  The curtains on either side of the middle screen had opened to reveal the large sections of the band on the stage and elevated platforms above it. 

George Michael’s touring band consisted of a saxophone player on the top left platform, a drummer and a guitarist on the middle left platform, and a keyboard player on the stage level below the left platforms.  Two guitarists stood on the top right platform, a percussionist with a full set of congas on the middle right platform, and another keyboard player on the stage below.  He also had six backup singers consisting of four women and two men, all African-American.  They usually stood on the ramps to the sides or on the middle screen with George Michael when they sang.  Sometimes one or more of the musicians would join them on the main screen, especially the percussionists with the congas.

Things got faster with the next number, a very danceable song called “Fastlove” with the catchy line “gotta get up to get down.”  The screens showed images of shimmering diamonds, disco balls, and beating red disco hearts.  They continued the dance theme with the early Wham! tune “Baby I’m your Man”.  The screens showed early black and white footage of George Michael and Andrew Ridgely performing at a concert as Wham!  Much of the crowd (the real crowd along with the crowd in the footage) was standing up and dancing.  George Michael sang an extended ending to the song repeating the line “If you’re gonna do it, do it right.”

They slowed down for the next song, the spiritual-sounding “Father Figure” from the famous Faith album.  On the middle screen the red outline of a female form swayed to the music.  Inside the form were what appeared to the red leaves and butterflies.  As the song ended, the outline of the female form disappeared and the red butterflies scattered across the screens.  They brought out a chair and George Michael sat down for the next song, a cover of Roberta Flack’s “The First Time Ever I Saw your Face.”  The screens showed white, blue, and pink curved lines moving up and down.  A small portion of the middle screen’s pixels went out but they had it fixed by the end of the song.

George Michael then addressed the crowd saying, “Anaheim, how are you doing?”  He thanked us all for coming and then said, “People at the top, I can see you all.  You look like you’re risking your lives up there.”  He thanked everyone for the last 25 years and said that with this show he would make us forgive him for being out of sight (i.e. not touring North America) for the past 17-18 years.

He mentioned how he didn’t perform then next song during last year’s European tour.  They then performed a song with which I wasn’t very familiar.  It had a fast dance beat and the main chorus seemed to be the line “don’t bring me down.”  The screens seemed to move through smooth and bumpy contour grids.  For the next song he asked us to help him out because “I’m an old man.”  The music then went to the opening bars of “Everything She Wants” and the crowd went wild.  Nearly everyone stood up and moved to the music.  He began a little slower than the song normally goes but the music quickly went to the familiar tempo.  While singing he would often turn the mike towards the crowd to sing parts of the song.  The screens showed images of many diamonds that formed outlines of spheres and the dollar sign when he sang “to give you money.”

After that popular song ended, the audience sat down and the backup singers stood in two lines facing each other in front of George Michael.  With them he sang, “One More Try”.  They sung the beginning more soulfully than the original recording.  Blue symmetric shapes moved up the screens.  George Michael sat down again for the next song, the slower mid-eighties Wham! tune “A Different Corner”.  The screens showed the sky with birds flying across it and leaves falling down it.  The blue sky turned to rain that soon became a colorful rainbow.  The screens then showed the night sky, stars and a red nebula in space and a large moon.

George Michael stated that the next song was for those who wanted to live their lives and “not give a f***.”  That less familiar song was “An Easier Affair” and it had a strong dance beat.  He followed that with “Too Funky” that also had a dance beat along with some appropriate funky guitar sound.  The screens switched between showing red, green, yellow, and blue equalizer bars and strutting models including Linda Evangelista, Nadia (we didn’t know her last name), and Tyra Banks.  The song also had a strong percussive beat and ended with the repeated line “Everybody wants to love.”  They continued the less familiar danceable songs with “Star People” from the album Older.  The screens showed colorful shooting stars that seemed to form their own galaxy.  The side screens had projected the image of George Michael on stage for most of the songs and this time they showed him among the stars.  The song ended with a repeated line that sounded like, “Why you want to tell me that.”

After that song ended at about 9:55 pm, George Michael, the backup singers, and the band left the stage.  A time with the words “Back in” counted down from 20 minutes for the intermission.  It was like the break between periods in a sports game.  Many in the audience got up to take a break.  When there was about five minutes left in the intermission a recording of George Michael’s “John and Elvis are Dead” played over the speakers and the screens displayed pictures of John Lennon and Elvis Presley.

As the intermission timer reached zero, the lights went out and the strong organ part at the beginning of the song “Faith” played.  The spotlights shined on George Michael, now wearing a grey jacket, and two of the guitarists on stage.  As he sang he snapped his fingers.  The screens showed arms with hands snapping fingers.  The crowd was on their feet, dancing, and singing along.

The next song began with a saxophone playing.  What looked like newsreel clips rolled up the middle screen.  The song was “Spinning the Wheel” and its lyrics sounded political.  The clips showed what looked like Grace Kelly’s wedding and footage of the late president, JFK.  The beat of the song got faster as he sang the repeated line that sounded like “one of these days, bring hope to me.”

They finished the song and George Michael complimented us saying, “You’re a f***ing wicked crowd.”  He then thanked some people by name for coming including Victoria, Mel B., Brooklyn, and Romeo.  He went on to describe how he sang the next song for the series finale of the TV show “Eli Stone”.  It was called “Feeling Good”.  He sang the song a capella for the first minute and then the band joined in.  It was a smooth nightclub-lounge type of song.  The screens showed images of hardly-covered showgirls moving and posing provocatively.

Between that song and the next George Michael said he would “Chat a bit while the musicians gather around me.  What you’re going to see is film I shot eight years ago in the Red Light district of Amsterdam.”  More spotlights came on revealing a bass player (playing what looked like an electric standing bass), guitarist, keyboard player, and saxophone player all standing or sitting around and behind him.  He then sang a smooth cover of “Roxanne” originally by The Police.  On the screens the footage seemed to have been shot with a dark red lens.  It showed the ladies putting on makeup and posing in their rooms from the doorways and windows.

The musicians stayed with him for the next song that was in the same tone: “Kissing a Fool”.  The musicians then returned to their places on and under the platforms.  George Michael mentioned how great it was that “in California we can get married.”  He stated that the next song was “for Kenny.”  The song, “Amazing” was a loud, larger-than-life song with a strong dance beat.  The colored lights on the screens danced quickly to the music and the venue itself seemed to shake to the rhythm.  The next song, “Flawless (Go to the City)” was also loud and fast with a strong beat.  The screens moved through colored outlines of right prisms that looked like buildings along a city street.  At the end of the song the spotlights turned off we heard what sounded like a loud helicopter.  On the screens the large image of a helicopter came to a landing and then took off.  The spotlights turned on to show George Michael in a dark blue police uniform with short sleeves.  He and his backup singers performed the loud and kinetic song “Outside”.  The screens showed the point of view of a helicopter flying above the high rises of a modern city.  A couple of buildings looked like the Capital Records building in Hollywood.  The song stopped abruptly.  George Michael said, “Thank you” and he and the others left the stage.  The lights went out.  It was 11 pm.

No one left the venue but rather they stayed, cheered, stomped, and waved their lit cell phone screens.  After ten minutes a spotlight came on, they set out a chair, and George Michael returned.  He sat down and sang “Praying for Time”, a slow song with heavy lyrics.  The screen showed the sun and sky in the background and ripples of clear water on the stage.  After finishing the song, he said, “You’re going to like the next one.”  The sound of the saxophone playing the first bars of “Careless Whisper” brought everyone to their feet.  We could hear everyone singing along.  The screens stayed black.  There was no need to show anything but the spotlight on George Michael.  The crowd cheered loudly as the song drew to a close and again he left the stage.

This time some people left but most stayed and cheered.  George Michael returned and asked us to make the loudest noise of the night for his band.  He thanked us again for coming and said, “I know many of you are going through tough times.”  He pointed to the screen and said, “This blasted thing cost me all the money from the tour.  I’m not doing this for money.  I’m doing this for you.”  He said there was time for just one more song and asked us what we wanted to hear.  We couldn’t make out anything in all the shouting.  We shouted, “Wake me up before you go go.”  Instead, George Michael sang the rousing anthem, “Freedom ‘89” that suited the mood.  The crowd gave him a standing ovation at the end and the credits rolling up the middle screen signaled that there would be no more encores.

We followed the crowds of people to the parking lot and then the lines of cars north to Ball Road.  From there we took the 57 North and the 210 West back to Azusa.  George Michael put on quite a show.  He didn’t sing some of his more familiar songs such as “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go”, “Monkey”, and “Freedom”.  But he put all his energy into every song he did perform.

We went to Taqueria Las Mulitas in Anaheim on Friday, June 27 to have dinner before seeing George Michael at the Honda Center (see later review).  We found out about the eatery by going to the venue information section of the ticketmaster website and clicking on a link about nearby dining.  The link revealed many places, some chain eateries, fine dining, bars, and independent places.  Taqueria Las Mulitas caught our eye because it is on the way from I-5 to the Honda Center, it seemed relatively inexpensive, and it got a good review on citysearch.com.  My wife also remembered when we went to the Mexican eatery, La Taquiza, near USC three years ago and they had mulitas on the menu.  Mulitas are like quesadillas only they are made with corn tortillas and jack cheese.  She didn’t try the mulitas at La Taquiza because a salmon burrito on their menu seemed even more intriguing.  At Taqueria Las Mulitas she could now try mulitas.

I picked my wife up at work and we drove south on I-5 for an hour through Friday afternoon traffic.  We exited at Ball Road.  The exit is a bit confusing because it actually exits onto Disenyland Way or something like that.  We drove south a bit on this street and soon made a left to go east on Ball Road.  Taqueria Las Mulitas is in a large strip mall on the north side of Ball Road just past State College Blvd.  The strip mall includes some other eateries mentioned in the nearby dining link such as Willy’s Eatery, a Greek place that seems like it’s only open for breakfast lunch, and Brianna’s Fruit Salads where we would go for dessert.  The Taqueria is in the middle of the long strip mall building between a tobacco shop and a Vietnamese Pho eatery not mentioned in the nearby dining link.  We arrived at around 5 pm, much earlier than we normally eat dinner, but we had appetites.  The taqueria is very small.  There are only 6 booths and 4-5 small tables for seating.  Near one corner is a jukebox with a large selection of Rancheros, Mariachis, and other traditional Latin American music.  The décor is very bright.  Along the wall near the counter are large posters with pictures of their combination plates, seafood, and their special of $15 dollars for a bucket of beer on ice.  The tablecloths on the booths are very festive and along the upper wall are painted cartoon images of cacti, donkeys, suns, chili peppers, and Mexican characters wearing large sombreros.  In the back is a Salsa bar.

For a place so small, they have a very extensive menu.  The combinations consist of three soft tacos, one chili relleno with tortillas, chile verde with tortillas, carne asada, and mulita combo with one soft taco, all served with rice and beans.  Seafood combinations include Camarones a da Diabla (fresh shrimp topped with red chile hot sauce, Mojarra Frita (fried tilapia), and Caldo de Camarones (shimp soup).  They serve tacos and offer seven choices for meat fillings that include Al Pastor (BBQ charred pork), Cabeza (beef cheeks), carnitas (slow roasted pork), beef tongue, and tripe.  They also serve several different types of burritos, mulitas, and have a large breakfast menu.  With so much from which to choose we had to sit down and think before ordering at the counter.  There were no other customers yet, though some others would come after we had placed our orders.  They placed their orders in Spanish.

After we decided I placed the orders with the cashier.  My wife ordered the mulitas that came with a choice of meat and she chose carnitas.  I ordered the all-meat burrito that also had a choice of meat and I chose al pastor.  We sat in a booth and it didn’t take very long for them to prepare our food.  They called out the order and we picked it up from the counter.  My wife’s order came on a oval plate and mine on a paper plate.  My burrito was full of the little chunks of charred barbecued pork and also contained onion and cilantro salsa and came with some tortilla chips on the plate.  It was very good with the barbecued pork providing most of the smoky flavor.  The tortilla was large and heated.  However, the burrito wasn’t wrapped too tightly and it fell about when I was just half-finished with it.  I had to clean up the rest with the tortilla chips but it still tasted great.  My wife’s mulitas came with some lettuce and a slice of tomato.  They came with a fork and a steak knife for which my wife didn’t know the purpose. But she still enjoyed the jack cheese and carnitas grilled between two corn tortillas. 

We finished our dinner and decided we wanted some dessert so we went to Brianna’s Fruit Salads, a small ice cream and fruit dessert shop just a few doors down from the Taqueria.  Brianna’s serves many different types of fruit desserts such fruit salads, smoothies, ice cream, and fruits mixed with cream or yogurt.  They also serve meat tortas for those who want to have any entire meal.  My wife had the strawberries and cream and I had a raspado that’s shaved ice with fruit and syrup.  Raspados are not listed in the print menu and come in strawberry, pinapple, coconut, and many other flavors.  I had peach flavor and it was very good, not too sweet and a good consistency with the ice.  My wife had the strawberries and cream that along with its title ingredients also had raisins and granola at the top.  Both our desserts came in tall plastic cups and were very filling completely extinguishing any lingering hunger.

I’m glad we were able to find some decent places to have dinner and dessert before the concert.  They sure beat what was available at Honda Center.