CASTRO VALLEY NEWS Community news For October 2019
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It took about a full year of blood, sweat, tears, love and passion for Castro Valley residents Angela and Cameron Delgado to create what is now the very first plant truck in the East Bay. “The Castro Valley community is extremely special and unique. That’s why it’s so important to us to spend time in our neighborhood to give love back to the community,” Angela said during a recent interview in the rig that is actually a former ice cream truck.
Green Machine
Angela and Cameron currently bring their “Verde Alcove” plant truck to a number of festivals and events across the Bay and are hoping to find spots across town where they can park and share their lush and lively plants with Castro Valley. Verde Alcove is fully stocked with every type of plant you may be looking for, including subtropical, low-light, indoor and outdoor plants. They have a bevy of succulents, too. The truck is decorated in rattle can paint art by local artist “BIP” (Believe in People) that is super eye catching. Angela explained how people react to the one of a kind plant truck, “Once people take a step inside, they’re like, holy cow, you built a cool greenhouse on wheels!”
CVN Restaurant Review with Igor - Karin Johnson’s Bakery
While running errands in town one day, Chef Igor spotted Karin Johnson’s bakery in the busy Lucky’s supermarket shopping center.
semolina cake, raspberry rhubarb tart, a gluten and dairy free vegan “cowboy” cookie, a scone, a chocolate chip cookie and a macaroon.
What caught his eye? “I spotted the interior that had a bunch of sheet (baking) pans. I had to peek in to see what’s going on inside!” he explained.
The verdict? Igor was impressed by the diverse and fresh favors and believes all the baking “comes from the heart” at Johnson’s bakery.
While the bakery has been open 4 1/2 years, Johnson has been bringing her delicious sweets and bakery items to Farmers Markets across the Bay Area for over 14 years.
As always, watch the full video to get more of Chef Igor’s reactions and culiniary insight.
Igor sampled items from a wide variety of baking styles, including a piece of lemon
View a Full Review Video by Scanning this QR Code with your Smart Phone:
HAYWARD BUILDINGS GET “ALTER LEGO”
While this story has very little to do with Castro Valley, we wanted to highlight some remarkable Lego creations by Hayward resident, Samuele Arcidiacono.
A software designer for Google by trade, Arcidiacono’s small scale creations depicting “Tommy’s Donuts” on Foothill Boulevard and “Giant Burgers” on Mission Boulevard are undeniably eye catching. Arcidiacono says he admires all 1960’s architecture and has only done two lego buildings so far, but is looking forward to doing many more of them. The two Hayward buildings were entered in the big Lego show held in Santa Clara back in July. It was these two pictures shared on a Hayward fan Facebook page by Jeff Sammler that caught our eye and inspired our story.
RICKEY CHANG’S TRAVEL ADVENTURES
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or our recent travel adventure, we took a road trip to explore the western coast of South Africa. Starting at Cape Town, we headed east along the coast, around the Cape of Good Hope, stopping to visit the African penguins at Simon’s Town and also a pleasant stop at Betty’s Bay. We continued to Cape Agulhas, which is the most southern point on the African continent and where the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet. The sunrises and sunsets are a beautiful and breathtaking sight here. Our road trip ended in Mossel Bay.
-Rickey Chang www. rickeyandninastraveladventures. com
CVN Restaurant Review with Igor - Mama Cho’s Barbecue
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or our third and final review at the Lake Chabot Public Market, Chef Igor did lunch at Mama Cho’s Barbecue counter. In previous restaurant review installments, Igor reviewed their T4, Milk & Cookie Bar, and Shumi Ramen kiosks. So, what on the Mama Cho menu caught Igor’s eye? It was a rice plate with beef bulgogi, (thin, barbecued marinated slices of beef or pork) kalbi (short ribs) with two bonchon (side dishes) including kimchi and fresh vegetables. While you’d be best served by watching the full review video, we’ll give you the condensed version of Igor’s reaction, “I’m in love with the barbecue and the grocery side of Mama Cho’s.” He said the bulgogi was tender and smoky and the ribs were marinated sweetly and cooked just right.
View a Full Story Video by Scanning this QR Code with your Smart Phone:
VINTAGE CASTRO VALLEY HOME DESIGNS DISCOVERED Local history treasures always find
their way to us at Castro Valley News.
Like the trove of vintage construction blueprints dating back to the 1950’s gifted to us by Travis Richards. Richards’ 97 year old grandfather, a local builder with Ekstam Brothers, (Herb, Kuno & Rolph) passed away recently, leaving behind a cache of original, hand drafted construction blueprints. “I thought they may be of interest to some locals in the community. A lot of the original blueprints have the addresses, I’m just not sure or gutsy enough to go door to door handing them out,” Richards said. The call to action was put out and CVN responded, picking up the timeworn documents that belong to a number of local residential and commercial developments across town. Our plan is to sort them out and offer them to current property owners. Thanks to Travis, these documents will be an interesting conversation piece for CV property owners.