There’s too many darn chinese in my neighborhood…  There Norcal, that was a racist comment.  Then again, I am part chinese, so is it really?

I wouldn’t mind AV, with a little more english spoken, and more social people on the culdesac.  The school district stinks though.

Bubblegum - 29 August 2008 08:19 AM

Jeff may be referring to Panda’s post referring to “white bread city”.

True, but then he should have quoted Panda and not CK. 

If he was quoting Panda, he should know that Panda is a little ignorant about his racial comments in his posts and that Panda really doesn’t mean any harm from them.  I guess ignorance is bliss… or is it ... ignorance is no excuse?

graphrix - 27 August 2008 07:57 PM

Remember everyone, the census data is survey based data people fill out and send back, and if people are willing to lie on their loan apps then they are certainly willing to lie to the census bureau.

The median rent in Irvine is $1713.

Good point, graphix. I hadn’t really considered it but I suppose asking someone how much they make is a bit like asking a guy how many lovers he’s had.

The school district stinks though

Stink? as in what? Greatschools.net rate Aliso Viejo a 9 and Irvine a 10 while Santa Ana is a 4. Please let’s not glorify Irvine school district.

Pros: Irvine is a great central location, safe, has reasonably good school district, and is near a top 50 Universities.
Cons: Expensive, houses are small with small yard, lots of car park on the street.

Bubblegum - 29 August 2008 08:19 AM

Jeff may be referring to Panda’s post referring to “white bread city”.

Now I’m fired up.  My BBQ isn’t the same since Interstate went out of busness and we lost distribution of Wonder Bread.

White bread sucks but for brisket it pwns because it soaks up all the sauce.

WestparkRenter - 29 August 2008 10:24 AM

The school district stinks though

Stink? as in what? Greatschools.net rate Aliso Viejo a 9 and Irvine a 10 while Santa Ana is a 3. Please let’s not glorify Irvine school district.

Pros: Irvine is a great central location, safe, has reasonably good school district, and is near a top 50 Universities.
Cons: Expensive, houses are small with small yard, lots of car park on the street.

Stinks, as in has a great many problems at the top.  Ever heard of James Fleming or Susan McGill?  Do you realize that the Capo district just had two of its corrupt trustees recalled in a special election?  They have had issues with funds misappropriation and gross fiscal mismanagment for years…

Yes, I’ve heard of the problem but while I think there is a problem with management I don’t think it stinks as in the Santa Ana school district. FYI, I used to live in SJC school district.

WestparkRenter - 29 August 2008 12:55 PM

Yes, I’ve heard of the problem but while I think there is a problem with management I don’t think it stinks as in the Santa Ana school district. FYI, I used to live in SJC school district.

What does the Santa Ana school district have to do with living in AV vs. Irvine?!  San Bernardino Unified is pretty bad too but it has nothing to do with AV and Irvine…

For comparing school districts within OC.

Trooper - 27 August 2008 10:29 PM

“What the Heck??? I still have one more question left for this week.“

Sorry, Jeff I am the one who made the White Bread City Joke regarding Aliso Viejo. CK is completely innocent, I am the one you should be going after. Move to Detroit or Birmingham…?? Yuck!!! Why live there when you can live in the two BEST CITIES in the world : Aliso Viejo and Irvine.

OK. It is time for Panda to run…..

CK - 28 August 2008 09:55 PM

norcaljeff - 28 August 2008 09:44 PM

Good racist comments.  Maybe you ought to look into moving to Detroit or Birmingham.

WTF are you talking about? Your analysis of the english language is as astute as your knowledge of the local economy.  I said the LACK OF diversity is Aliso is why we prefer to stay in MORE diverse Irvine.

I guess your astute education you received didn’t allow for learning sarcasm.  I was pointing out that your comment about white bread and lack of diversity was racist and a stereotype, but I know how you self haters think.  You can’t discriminate against white bread so therefore they are an easy target.  And I was pointing out to you that if Aliso is too white for you and your wife that you might want to move to Detroit or Birmingham, but you didn’t get that point.  Just as the Kennedys and Clintons and other white social elites live among their own kind you feel obligated to blog about your guilt rather than actually do something about it.  That’s convenient.  Feel free to insert another racist comment here {                                    }.

norcaljeff - 29 August 2008 08:45 PM

CK - 28 August 2008 09:55 PM

norcaljeff - 28 August 2008 09:44 PM

Good racist comments.  Maybe you ought to look into moving to Detroit or Birmingham.

WTF are you talking about? Your analysis of the english language is as astute as your knowledge of the local economy.  I said the LACK OF diversity is Aliso is why we prefer to stay in MORE diverse Irvine.

I guess your astute education you received didn’t allow for learning sarcasm.  I was pointing out that your comment about white bread and lack of diversity was racist and a stereotype, but I know how you self haters think.  You can’t discriminate against white bread so therefore they are an easy target.  And I was pointing out to you that if Aliso is too white for you and your wife that you might want to move to Detroit or Birmingham, but you didn’t get that point.  Just as the Kennedys and Clintons and other white social elites live among their own kind you feel obligated to blog about your guilt rather than actually do something about it.  That’s convenient.  Feel free to insert another racist comment here {                                    }.

Jeff, I think you are getting me and CK mixed up. I was one who made up the “term” white bread to describe the predominate white population of Aliso Viejo compared to Irvine, and CK just made a comment that AV lacks diversity which are both just a simple fact. Where you live is just a matter of preference. Irvine is definitely not for everyone.  For example my wife and I are both Asian Americans but my wife is whiter than I am. She wouldn’t mind at all living in a 100% white neighborhood whereas i wouldn’t mind having some asian brothers and neighbors near by. Convincing her that we will buy a home in AV to start out and work our way up to Irvine is going to be very easy task. I mean heck, we still haven’t agreed to which church we will be attending once we move to OC as I prefer a predominately entrepeneurial Hip Hoppin Asian Church like New Song where my wife prefers predominately White Mega Churches like Saddleback.

It is interesting how Aliso Viejo’s demographics is like 11-12% Asian and some guys like CK and Graph mentions that AV lacks diversity. If you find any city in Chicago with a 11-12% Asian population, that city is considered to be Asian Invasion. I still can’t get over how there is not one Asian grocery in all of Aliso Viejo to tailor to the 11-12% Asian living in AV?

Panda’s last question of the week? As an Asian grocery business owner, why would one want to setup shop in Irvine where the competition is so fierce and not want to setup shop in niche market like Aliso Viejo where there is practically no competition? Anyone want to start the first Asian grocery store in Aliso Viejo with Panda?

PANDA - 29 August 2008 09:26 PM

Jeff, I think you are getting me and CK mixed up. I was one who made up the “term” white bread to describe the predominate white population of Aliso Viejo compared to Irvine, and CK just made a comment that AV lacks diversity which are both just a simple fact. Where you live is just a matter of preference. Irvine is definitely not for everyone.  For example my wife and I are both Asian Americans but my wife is whiter than I am. She wouldn’t mind at all living in a 100% white neighborhood whereas i wouldn’t mind having some asian brothers and neighbors near by. Convincing her that we will buy a home in AV to start out and work our way up to Irvine is going to be very easy task. I mean heck, we still haven’t agreed to which church we will be attending once we move to OC as I prefer a predominately entrepeneurial Hip Hoppin Asian Church like New Song where my wife prefers predominately White Mega Churches like Saddleback.

It is interesting how Aliso Viejo’s demographics is like 11-12% Asian and some guys like CK and Graph mentions that AV lacks diversity. If you find any city in Chicago with a 11-12% Asian population, that city is considered to be Asian Invasion. I still can’t get over how there is not one Asian grocery in all of Aliso Viejo to tailor to the 11-12% Asian living in AV?

Panda’s last question of the week? As an Asian grocery business owner, why would one want to setup shop in Irvine where the competition is so fierce and not want to setup shop in niche market like Aliso Viejo where there is practically no competition? Anyone want to start the first Asian grocery store in Aliso Viejo with Panda?

Panda’s homework assignment:  Think about the question you’ve raised (in bold) for 2 minutes, and then answer it.  The answer also explains why bk gets paid the big bucks.

norcaljeff - 29 August 2008 08:45 PM

I was pointing out that your comment about white bread and lack of diversity was racist and a stereotype, but I know how you self haters think.  You can’t discriminate against white bread so therefore they are an easy target.  And I was pointing out to you that if Aliso is too white for you and your wife that you might want to move to Detroit or Birmingham, but you didn’t get that point.  Just as the Kennedys and Clintons and other white social elites live among their own kind you feel obligated to blog about your guilt rather than actually do something about it.  That’s convenient.  Feel free to insert another racist comment here {                                    }.

My gawd, Jeff—- pull your head out of your politically correct ass.  Save rants like that for your tree hugging NoCal neighbors.  Thank god I live in a place where I feel I can make a factual statement about the local demographics without fear the PC police are coming after me.  Until trolls like you come along.

Asians living in AV are “Banana”: yellow on the outside but white inside. Many of the residents are 2nd or 3rd generation Asians knowing very little of the Asian custom. Their knowledge of Asian foods was recollection of dishes that their older relatives ordered and not having a clue of the names of the dishes. They can’t read Chinese on the menu and point to dishes on someone else table to order or they will try to describe the dishes to the Chinese waiters and often having to send the food back for the right one mixed with Chef’s secret recipe : cigarette ashes and spits.

AV Asians are the Pei Wei, Panda Express and PF Chang demographic. Many AV Asian households are interracial families and really do not know about Asian food preparations. They shop at the overpriced Ethnic aisle at Trader Joe or frozen pot stickers or Pork buns at Costco. This is really the extent of Asian home food experience.

They are grossed out by the live fish heads, chicken feet, and squids at the Chinese markets. They may occasionally shop at the Chinese market for oyster sauce, stir fry sauce, Chinese broccoli, and tropical fruits to impress their non Asian husband or living together boyfriend.

Asian men with White wife or girlfriends on the other hand do not shop at the Chinese market. Most of the Asian grocery shopping is done by the older and 1.5 generation Asians and they are not the AV residents. They eat fresh and shop every other day.

AV Asians rarely living with their parents under the same roof and most likely the parents speak fluent English. The demographic is not the primary group for Asian Grocers.

Where is the competition in Irvine? There are two 99 Ranch Markets there. Monopoly is not competition. Irvine 99 Ranch Market is the second priciest Asian market in California. The priciest is the 99 Ranch in Mlpitas.

Fierce competition is in Little Saigon Westminster when markets are owned by different owners

bkshopr - 02 September 2008 11:43 AM

Asians living in AV are “Banana”: yellow on the outside but white inside. Many of the residents are 2nd or 3rd generation Asians knowing very little of the Asian custom. Their knowledge of Asian foods was recollection of dishes that their older relatives ordered and not having a clue of the names of the dishes. They can’t read Chinese on the menu and point to dishes on someone else table to order or they will try to describe the dishes to the Chinese waiters and often having to send the food back for the right one mixed with Chef’s secret recipe : cigarette ashes and spits.

AV Asians are the Pei Wei, Panda Express and PF Chang demographic. Many AV Asian households are interracial families and really do not know about Asian food preparations. They shop at the overpriced Ethnic aisle at Trader Joe or frozen pot stickers or Pork buns at Costco. This is really the extent of Asian home food experience.

They are grossed out by the live fish heads, chicken feet, and squids at the Chinese markets. They may occasionally shop at the Chinese market for oyster sauce, stir fry sauce, Chinese broccoli, and tropical fruits to impress their non Asian husband or living together boyfriend.

Asian men with White wife or girlfriends on the other hand do not shop at the Chinese market. Most of the Asian grocery shopping is done by the older and 1.5 generation Asians and they are not the AV residents. They eat fresh and shop every other day.

AV Asians rarely living with their parents under the same roof and most likely the parents speak fluent English. The demographic is not the primary group for Asian Grocers.

Where is the competition in Irvine? There are two 99 Ranch Markets there. Monopoly is not competition.

BK?? You callin Panda a Banana? How dare you??? Actually what you described above sounds just like me.

WARNING: To all the Residents of West Park, the Koreans are coming.
Speaking of monopoly in Irvine, wait until HMART comes in as the anchor for the Diamond Jamboree Center, it will make both 99 Ranch Markets and all the Chinese and Irvinese* get down on their knees.

Panda’s Definition of Irvinese* = Asians living in Irvine

BK, I don’t know what you do as a career, but you would be their best marketing copy writer for the Irvine Company. Seriously, your copy writing is so much better than most of the marketing materials that I read from the Irvine Company.

PANDA - 02 September 2008 11:59 AM

bkshopr - 02 September 2008 11:43 AM

Asians living in AV are “Banana”: yellow on the outside but white inside. Many of the residents are 2nd or 3rd generation Asians knowing very little of the Asian custom. Their knowledge of Asian foods was recollection of dishes that their older relatives ordered and not having a clue of the names of the dishes. They can’t read Chinese on the menu and point to dishes on someone else table to order or they will try to describe the dishes to the Chinese waiters and often having to send the food back for the right one mixed with Chef’s secret recipe : cigarette ashes and spits.

AV Asians are the Pei Wei, Panda Express and PF Chang demographic. Many AV Asian households are interracial families and really do not know about Asian food preparations. They shop at the overpriced Ethnic aisle at Trader Joe or frozen pot stickers or Pork buns at Costco. This is really the extent of Asian home food experience.

They are grossed out by the live fish heads, chicken feet, and squids at the Chinese markets. They may occasionally shop at the Chinese market for oyster sauce, stir fry sauce, Chinese broccoli, and tropical fruits to impress their non Asian husband or living together boyfriend.

Asian men with White wife or girlfriends on the other hand do not shop at the Chinese market. Most of the Asian grocery shopping is done by the older and 1.5 generation Asians and they are not the AV residents. They eat fresh and shop every other day.

AV Asians rarely living with their parents under the same roof and most likely the parents speak fluent English. The demographic is not the primary group for Asian Grocers.

Where is the competition in Irvine? There are two 99 Ranch Markets there. Monopoly is not competition.

BK?? You callin Panda a Banana? How dare you??? Actually what you described above sounds just like me.

WARNING: To all the Residents of West Park, the Koreans are coming.
Speaking of monopoly in Irvine, wait until HMART comes in as the anchor for the Diamond Jamboree Center, it will make both 99 Ranch Markets and all the Chinese and Irvinese* get down on their knees.

Panda’s Definition of Irvinese* = Asians living in Irvine

BK, I don’t know what you do as a career, but you would be their best marketing copy writer for the Irvine Company. Seriously, your copy writing is so much better than most of the marketing materials that I read from the Irvine Company.

Hmart is great and certainly bring another facet of Asian foods to Irvine. Prepared meat and produce are their strength while 99 Ranch will still have the expertise in fresh meat and seafood. Snacks and condiment are very different for both markets as well. I think Hmart will open a wider door for the Korean population in Irvine.

Thank you for the compliment. The folks at TIC are doing a fine job.

There is a Korean market in Yale and Irvine Blvd, IIRC, and there is the Freshia “of Irvine” in Redhill and Walnut down at Tustin.  But for most mainland Chinese, these Korean markets (and HMart) are not comparable to 99 Ranch due to the different selections of vegetables, seafood, and other items they sell in the store.  The Korean and the mainland Chinese have different prefered foods.  The Taiwanese, however, is much more Japanized, and can make better use of the Korean markets around Irvine area.

http://lansner.freedomblogging.com/2008/09/01/oc-incomes-39-short-of-home-prices/

So according to this, SF incomes are 25% lower than Irvine, although homes in SF are the highest in the country.  It’s not adding up.

norcaljeff - 07 September 2008 12:04 AM

http://lansner.freedomblogging.com/2008/09/01/oc-incomes-39-short-of-home-prices/

So according to this, SF incomes are 25% lower than Irvine, although homes in SF are the highest in the country.  It’s not adding up.

It makes complete sense, just look a little deeper:  Orange County 2 of 3 homes are owned.  San Fran 2 of 3 homes are renters.

It’s pretty hard for new Chinese supermarkets to compete against the existing ones.  I’ve seen newer and cheaper Chinese supermarkets in Hacienda Heights go down while Ranch 99 continues to do well.  If you’re competing against Ranch 99, you need to pull your prices down to attract customers, which ultimately hurts your bottom line.  As soon as you raise the price, your customers flock back to Ranch 99.

There are a few exceptions, i.e. Shun Fat has done well.

I used to shop at Han Nam Korean Supermarket for their cheaper groceries, but recently their quality has gone down.  Zion in Hawiian Gardens is still good and the one in Irvine is slowly improving.  But they still fall into the price slash mode to garnish customers (hoping they’d shop in Irvine instead of Garden Grove).  I picked up a frozen Hokke (Okhotsk Atka Mackerel) for $2 there last weekend.  Geez.

For the Taiwanese there’s still a perception that Japanese groceries are superior, which can be true if you buy the higher end products.  There’s a double standard here where the same customer would pay $$$ for Washugyu at Mitsuwa but not a dollar more for kalbi at Zion.  The Japanese are good at producing higher end / premium products.  But the lower end stuff is usually way over-priced.

I usually check weekly ad at Mitsuwa, about once in a while they have good sales on American kobe beef, I go and stock up.  They usually sell them in these thin long strip slices, perfect for yakiniku.  Brush lightly with Japanese yakininu grilling sauce and cook to medium rare.  I use an inexpensive sauce from Nishimoto (yakiniku dori ninniku shoyu daisho) and it tastes just as good as the more expensive stuff.  For different flavor, get the Taiwanese BBQ/grilling sauce bottles from Ranch 99—some have a brush attachment with the bottle.

If someone were to open an “independent” Chinese grocery store in AV, it’d be like those in Hacidenda Heights trying to compete against Ranch 99.  It ain’t gonna work when your customers flock to Irvine or elsewhere.  My friend’s niece just got married and moved to AV with her husband, both are 1.5 gen Vietnamese and they make weekly trips to Westminster for groceries.  Which reminds me, if you’re buying expensive “live” seafood like those big red shrimp and live clams, it’s much cheaper to make the drive to Westminster than to pay $22+/lb at Ranch 99 in Irvine.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, visit Ranch 99 by Jeffery & Walnut, walk to the sea foods section in the back, look in the fish tanks in the corner for the reddish big juicy live but overpriced shrimps.

bkshopr - 02 September 2008 11:43 AM

They are grossed out by the live fish heads, chicken feet, and squids at the Chinese markets.

There’s not much meat on the fish head, but the “neck” or collar area is quite good.  We used to get these big salmon heads from American supermarkets, back when they didn’t think anyone would want them and sold us whole bags for $1.  Their fillet cuts were quite wasteful and left large chunks of meat around the collar area.  We’d use it to make misoyaki.

I came for a census update and walked away visually satisfied with momopi’s food shots.  Thanks!