Oh Sizzle

For the love of God, I have been home and things are definitely more clear to me now than they were growing up. Orange County is indeed, doomed.

Those of you who know, and have been there, we do not call it, "The OC." Whoever gave that show's creator even the faintest idea that we do, has to be dragged out in the middle of the street and publicly humiliated. "OC" perhaps, but never by the now-hip moniker that people have been slinging about. Calling it by its new name is about as absurd as calling Malibu "The 'Bu".

Now, the reason for going home was The Taste of Newport food festival. Once a year, all the restaurants from Newport Beach gather themselves together in a little corner of Newport to let the public sample their best dishes. Of course, there's an entrance fee and all the samples cost a little bit of money, but the experience itself is highlighted by chef demonstrations, live performances, and obviously, delicious food. They have a good system worked out for keeping actual cash out of all of the booths, but there has to be a better system for crowd control. Towards the end of the night, the walkways were packed to the gills with people, and it being hot out, sweaty people.

The Taste of Newport is a great festival, but what really surprised me was the crowd. Having lived in Orange County all my life, and having lived elsewhere for a good 7 years now, it's disturbing that I never noticed the environment I had grown up in. This doesn't apply to all of OC, really, but mostly to the Newport, Laguna area. What I discovered, and probably should have known all along is that it has to be one of the least diverse, and most decadent areas of Southern California. There was so much silicone, that if Noah's Flood had happened all over again, at least half the population present would have been saved by their implants. There were so many upper middle class people, that I don't believe anyone there had any doubt who they were going to vote for in this upcoming election. It almost makes me ashamed to have grown up near there, but not quite, since my childhood was
quite different.

To tell the truth, there are many areas in Orange County that are quite the opposite. Travel closer to LA county, for example, and things change quite drastically. In Westminster, Anaheim, Orange, Garden Grove, all these cities are completely polarized to the South County ideal. You won't find the upscale Tapas restaurant you're looking for in Brea, you won't find the conservative viewpoints in Santa Ana either. What you will find, however, are local ethnic markets, hole-in-the-wall eateries, and a friendly face or two, as opposed to the plastic grin that might greet you in saaaaay, Mission Viejo?

It's not a horrible thing to have grown up there, really. I think there are some things I'm still completely blind to, and some I'm glad that I was able to move away and live someplace quite different for so long. One would almost say that it's appalling that so much money can be concentrated in one area while others continue to suffer elsewhere, but that's how the world is. With much brain-cleansing and traveling, maybe all the OC-ness will get out of my system completely within the next couple of years.