Author: Judi Curry

Soi OB Thai Street Food
1916 Cable St.
Ocean Beach, CA 92107
619-230-5885

By Judi Curry

There are two Thai restaurants in Ocean Beach that I am aware of. Both of them are very good; very tasty; and have a very extensive menu.  Last night Steve and I decided to go to the Soi OB Thai Street Food restaurant dinner because although we have taken food home from there (and I did two earlier reviews of the takeout food), we had never actually had a meal in the establishment.  And we were so glad that we did.

Parking is easy because we parked in the lot that also houses CVS on Santa Monica.  (The same lot where there is parking for the laundromat.)  We walked a very short distance from the lot to the restaurant and walked in to a relatively small facility with approximately 12-15 tables and a welcoming counter.  We were greeted with smiles and handed two very large menu’s.  (I won’t go into the menu, per se, but there were 17 appetizers, 8 salads, 5 side orders, 3 soups, 5 curry dishes, 3 Pan Fried noodle offerings, 3 noodle soups, 7 Rice dishes, 9 special meals, 2 desserts and 7 extra items.) There was a separate menu for drinks which included wine, beer and other drinks!  Got the idea of the definition of “extensive?”

PEZZI DEL MIO CUORE
3944 W. Pt. Loma Avenue
San Diego, CA 92110
619-255-2521

By Judi Curry

It has been some time since I have gone to a new restaurant with the purpose of critiquing it, but several people have contacted me about this restaurant with so many nice things to say about it I decided to give it a try. I called Steve and asked him if he would like to join me and he said “yes”.   And I am so glad that we did.

The restaurant is owned by a family that lives in San Diego.  I spoke to both the son and daughter and found out that he went to La Jolla High School and that his father is the chef.  The menu is very extensive and I thought they might be related to another Italian family that has restaurants in San Diego but they are not. In short, the food is excellent in this place.

First of all I want to clarify where it is located because I had some “difficulty” in locating it.  It is behind Grocery Outlet on West Point Loma.  I was told it was near CVS but it is not so don’t give up.  It is to the “el” of the parking lot.  There is one restaurant directly behind Grocery Outlet and this restaurant is next door to that.  There are many tables set outside, with one of the cutest bottle holders on the tables there.  There is parking in front of the restaurant and along the side of the parking lot.

By Judi Curry

Social Thai Kitchen
1830 Sunset Cliffs Blvd.
Ocean Beach, CA 92107
619-228-9928

Several years ago, when Social Thai opened, I was amazed when I had my first meal there.  The restaurant was spotless; the food was delicious; the menu had a fantastic selection of items available – including vegetarian and vegan and the prices were reasonable.

The service was fantastic; and we could not find anything wrong with Social Thai Kitchen. Several months later I went there with a different group of people and we ended up with basically the same take-away thoughts as the first group had.

Due to some medical problems, I had not been there again until March 31, and brought with me Michelle – a foreign student I had 13 years ago and her niece Emily, who had just turned 13 years old. Michelle was in her thirties when she was my student.

I had been raving about the restaurant to Michelle and Emily and wasn’t sure they would want to attend because they are from a relatively near-by city to where the big earthquake was a few days ago, but they wanted to go, and so we did.

By Judi Curry

A friend of mine, trying to be funny, said to me yesterday, “I thought you had stopped writing fictional pieces.  It took me a minute to realize he was talking about my article a few days ago of my perception of the Trump presidency.  I told him I wished it were fiction, but as I saw the ways were happening it was a nightmare of nonfiction.  So….here we go again.

I guess the first thing that created havoc in my body was the story that Trump and his shadow Musk want to eliminate Social Security.  I’m on Social Security. And no, I do not get my deceased husbands social security. (It’s kind of funny that he got $622 a month from the Teachers Association and $101 from Social Security when he died.) Granted he was an old man – born in 1927 and retired in 1960.)  Baby sitters were earning 50 cents an hour!

By Judi Curry

Since the holiday season I have received a few calls from readers of the Rag asking if I am okay. Several of the callers have said that they have missed my writings, so perhaps because I feel like a volcano getting ready to explode, I thought I should do two things – explain my lack of writings, and rant over the situation facing the United State!

In March of 2024 while asleep one night I had a stroke. Unfortunately because it happened while I was asleep I did not have enough time to get to the hospital for the injection that is what they give stroke victims within a time period to lesson the effects of the stroke. And, it turned out that I went blind in the left eye.

The eye doctor said there was a small chance that I would regain sight in that eye by six months; almost no chance after that.  Sad to say I am now blind in the left eye.  The results are terrifying – had to sell my car because I can’t see well enough to drive; have to depend on others – or Uber – to get places; there is no tracking of the two eyes together and so I do not see things on the left side of my body.

By Judi Curry

Since I lost my eyesight in one eye, I have not been able to drive or go to the places I have always frequented before.  It goes without saying that I feel like I am missing a lot, and every now and then I venture to the telephone and call a restaurant (or delivery service) to have a meal delivered.

That was the case the other day, when I was craving Mexican food and decided to order from one of my favorite restaurants, HUGO’S COCINA.  It’s been months since I have had anything from there, but I did enjoy the new owners’ menu and food after Hugo left. I have ordered from other restaurants over the period of blindness, and have not had any trouble doing so.  When I went to the HUGO’S internet page, it gave me the opportunity to order from their menu and have delivery made. 

By Judi Curry

It has been quite a while since I had a meal at Hugo’s.  It used to be the place I would always go when I didn’t feel like cooking, or if I had company for lunch or dinner, or…..   but after the restaurant changed hands I decided to try other places in the area that I had not gone to because of my love for Mexican food.  And then, of course, Covid hit and we didn’t go out at all.  And, as I found myself aging, I found that different illnesses were keeping me closer to home and I was very careful what I eating.

Then, last week a very dear friend, Mona, that used to live in OB called to tell me she would be in town and wanted to see me. We have been friends for a very long time, and I knew she only ate vegetarian.  And I remembered that Hugo’s was known for their vegetarian/vegan food.

By Judi Curry

We moved to San Diego in 1966 and rented the second floor of a duplex at 1474 Pescadero Drive (I think that was the address.)  Pescadero Drive is the alley-like street that parallels the ocean for a block or so — not Pescadero Avenue that travels east/west.  The owner of the duplex, Maria, lived on the bottom floor and had a patio and clothesline outside her living room.

The view was spectacular because there was nothing that blocked the view for 180 degrees.  We watched the seals forage for food; the fishermen standing on the rocks fighting the seals for the very same food.  We ran down the steps often to grab the boxes of butter and other things the Navy ships threw out before they returned to port.  We sometimes took our surf boards and went out to sea just footsteps from our home.  Our three daughters had a fantastic life living and learning about the ocean in the first person.

By Judi Curry

I am not a native San Diegan, but I bet that I have been here longer than many of the readers of this article.  I am, however, a native Californian, born and raised in Los Angeles. I have lived in Northern California while attending school at Berkeley and while husband and I both had good jobs in the Bay Area. I also lived in Arizona while husband and I had top jobs in neighboring school districts and I live in Bangor, Maine. But I always came back to California.

My experiences in these different areas provided me with many different situations – some very similar to ones facing us today.  For example, when we lived in San Simeon, following a big storm, Highway One literally fell into the ocean.  That road was closed for over a year while it was repaired.  (I have been told that since I left the area they have been numerous storms and the road has been closed again and again.)

Frequently, while living in Northern California, bridges were closed because of flooding, because of landslides and because of decay. 

By Judi Curry

I have had dogs for as long as I can remember.  Usually they have been Golden Retrievers, but in the past few years I have had other breeds.

After my last Golden passed away, I was so devastated that I wanted to have a dog right away and I contacted a rescue that had a Husky/Australian Shepherd mix available. She had just been rescued from a “kill center” in San Bernardino.  Rescued after just giving birth to 9 puppies and weighing in at 27 pounds!  She was being fostered at a home in the ranch lands of San Diego along with her 9 puppies.  It was the day that she was going to be euthanized at the dog pound.

By Judi Curry

Once again I want to thank all of the readers from the OB Rag that have contacted me and asked why I haven’t been writing recently.  Your missing me has helped in the recovery process from a TIA (transient ischemic attack), which left me blinded in the left eye.  Gradually my sight is coming back…. It is most disconcerting to not see my dogs…

And, talking about my dogs – this is a problem that I hoping one of you can help me with. … I had a tenant – we will call him “Painful” that was with me for over six months.  He had a delightful German Shepherd female, about 7 years old, that was pretty well trained. 

By Judi Curry

I purchased my home in the Sunset Cliffs area in 1967, just as Sea World was getting started. At that time there were no fireworks every night.

Over the many years I have resided here, the fireworks have become nightly, scaring the dogs that live here; having a Viet-Nam discharged military man leave my house in a hurry because the sound of the fireworks brought back all of the experiences he had while fighting in the war; and watching other animals panic at the sound of the explosives.