Wednesday, February 13, 2013

A Handy Guide to Valentine's Day in Holtville

WORDS BY ELIZABETH ENRIQUEZ-PHILLIPS

   Ah, Valentine's Day is in the air tomorrow, but wait what do I get my sweetheart? Well if you are like me you love to shop local! Here's a Valentine's Day Guide for Holtville:

Photo from Marisol's Holtville Floral & Gifts

Flowers

   Recently I was volunteering my time with the Chamber of Commerce and got to experience first-hand the amazing fresh quality of Marisol's Holtville Floral & Gifts at 571 Pine Avenue.She currently has roses, balloons and stuffed animals for the special person in your life. You will not be disappointed!

Sweets

   Lovely's Luscious Cupcakes of Holtville is AMAZING! Luke tried the Elvis Cupcake and loved it. One on my list to try is the Moscato cupcakes...hope I can get an order soon. This cupcake is perfect for any occasion that calls for a bubbly drink.  If you can get them for Valentine's, for sure place an order soon. They make a mean cupcake.


Moscato Cupcakes from Lovely's Luscious Cupcakes

Stationary

   Our local Parker's Pharmacy has a good selection of  conventional cards. They also carry See's Candies.
They are located at 102 West 5th street.

   Another great selection of really cool cards is I Heart Kid by Minerva Torres, a local artist. She currently has two cards to choose from and both are delightful.

Fine Wine & Dining

   The Fields Steakhouse at the
 Barbara Worth Resort. Mmmm... what can I say about Fields. It's absolutely delicious! Chef Chris is super talented and brings his experience from working at fine venues such as the Hotel del Coronado. I personally loves how he creates a fusion of classic cuisine and combines them with our local palette.  They are currently having a special on a four-course meal for $28.95 per person. Sounds of Jazz will also be playing as you enjoy your baby greens salad with dried cherries, cotijia cheese and a sherry vinaigrette.The appetizer is garlic shrimp with black bean puree, cornbread and pico de gallo. The main course is a choice between grilled filet mignon or a grilled lobster tail. If you are a big eater you can have both entrees for an extra ten dollars. Both entrees comes with a baked potato and baby carrots as well as a complimentary glass of champagne. Desert is a lovely Creme Brulee, which is my favorite. Join the event on Facebook and call for a  reservation, but hurry they are filling up fast.

An intimate setting at Fields Steakhouse

Casual Dining

   Nana's Cafe is also having a Valentine's Day special. We have gone the past two years and it's quite good and affordable. Please call them for reservation and details.

  Hot Rods and Beer is having a Valentine's Day Special too, and it includes a bottle of wine and a rose. They have Clark Baker's Standing Room Only performing. Call for details.

Beautiful Holt Park

Family Fun

   Have the little ones afoot and need to entertain them as well? May I suggest a family picnic at Holt Park! Holt Park is one of the most well kept and nicest park in the Valley and it's quite romantic as well!


Here's to all of you. May you have a truly happy Valentine's Day!

2013 Holtville Carrot Parade Photo Gallery

WORDS & PHOTOS BY LUKE PHILLIPS

   Below are a few of best photos I took during the 66th Annual Holtville Carrot Parade this past Saturday. Out of about 750 photos that I took during the parade, less than 100 are posted below. If you'd like to see the full parade in all it's glory featuring all (approximately) 750 photos we have a Carrot Parade Photo disc available for $12 that includes every entry in every division. You can purchase your copy of the disc by clicking here.
We'll send you a DVD disc that can be viewed on any computer featuring every photo I took during the parade.

I hope everybody enjoys the photos. It was a beautiful day and one of the best Carrot Parades in recent memory. Thanks to everybody who participated and made the Carrot Parade such a success!




Friday, February 8, 2013

VIDEO: 2013 Holtville Soroptimist Carrot Cookery Contest Sweepstakes Awards Ceremony

Winners of the First Annual Carrot Festival Coloring Contest

Winner in the 6 and under age division is 5-year-old Aubrey Lopez, a kindergartner at Kennedy Gardens in Calexico:


Winner of the 7-12 age division is 10-year-old Abigail Hester, a 5th Grader at Pine School in Holtville:

Congratulations to both of our winners! You can pick up your prize, a $10 Cinemark movie gift card, at the This is Holtville booth at the Carrot Festival Craft Fair in Holt Park tomorrow (Saturday, Feb. 9) before 2 p.m., not on Feb. 8 as stated on the flyer (sorry for the typo!). 


Wednesday, January 23, 2013

First Annual Carrot Festival Coloring Contest

WORDS BY LUKE PHILLIPS

   When I was a kid growing up in Holtville I always loved the coloring contests put on by Pine Market. The store would sponsor a different contest for almost every holiday and the winners would be featured in the Tribune. I don't think I ever won, but I always had fun trying. 

   Pine Market has been closed for several years now and they stopped running the contests several years before they closed, so it's been quite a long time since Holtville had a coloring contest and we think it's time to bring the tradition back. 

   So here it is, the first of what we hope will be many more Holtville and holiday-themed coloring contests for kids, featuring artwork by my amazing wife Elizabeth. I hope the children of Holtville enjoy this as much as I did when I was a kid!

   Here's how it works: Download this printable JPEG (right-click the link and select 'save link as') of the coloring sheet, print it out, have your child color the bunny and mail it back to us. It's just that easy! Good luck!



Monday, January 21, 2013

Restaurant Review: Same Name, Different Flavors at New Hop Sheng

My plate from the newly-reopened Hop Sheng Chinese Restaurant with Sweet & Sour Pork, General Tao's Chicken,
 Beef with Broccoli and Fried Rice. 

WORDS & PHOTOS BY LUKE PHILLIPS

Sweet and Sour Pork
   After hearing from a handful of people that the food at the newly-reopened Hop Sheng restaurant was “no good”, and hearing a rumor that the new owners where snowbirds from Nebraska who didn’t know how to cook Chinese food, I was a little bit weary of giving it a try, but I’m happy to report that neither of those rumors are true and the food is quite good.

   The new owners are actually from Los Angeles as we learned from the friendly young man behind the counter and they seemed perfectly qualified to be cooking Chinese food. The menu featured a good variety of different dishes and the pricing has been simplified over the previous menu. Most of the entrees available cost $5.50 for a lunch-sized portion (before 3 p.m.) or $7.50 for a dinner-sized portion with the exception of a few seafood dishes that are about a dollar more. All in all, the prices are very affordable and the portions are fairly generous.
Beef with Broccoli

   We ordered the Beef with Broccoli, the General Tao’s Chicken and the Sweet and Sour Pork and they were all quite delicious. There were many dishes I enjoyed at the old Hop Sheng, but for some reason I never did like their Sweet and Sour Pork which just happens to be one of my favorite Chinese dishes. The sauce was never quite right, leaning heavy on the ‘sour’ side of things, and it never failed to give me heartburn. So I was very happy to find the new Sweet and Sour Pork to be very agreeable. Not too much sour, not too much sweet. It had the perfect balance and none of the acid bite. So, thank you New Hop Sheng for bringing one of my favorite dishes back into my diet.

General Tao's Chicken
   The Beef with Broccoli was likewise very good, with a nice, rich sauce, tender meat and fresh, crisp broccoli, but the stand-out was definitely the General Tao’s Chicken. For those unfamiliar with it, the dish consists of coated, fried pieces of chicken with a sweet and tangy glaze and covered with red pepper flakes that gave it a spicy kick. The flavors were almost delicate and complimented one another well.

   The only disappointment in the whole meal was the fried rice that came with our entrees. It looked like a batch of regular steamed rice with some soy sauce in it, along with one piece of scrambled egg. There were no vegetables or anything else. It was very plain and a little dry, but the steamed rice was good.

   Overall though, I would definitely recommend giving the new Hop Sheng a try. It’s not the same as the old Hop Sheng, no doubt, but it’s very good in a different way. I can understand how some people might not like it, after all Chinese food is a very subjective thing, but I liked it and you might too. 

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

FFA Sheep Killed by Loose Dogs at HHS

WORDS BY LUKE PHILLIPS

   A family friend contacted me last night with a bit of disturbing news. Apparently several sheep owned by the Holtville High School FFA program were slaughtered by a loose dog or dogs yesterday afternoon. One of the sheep was already dead when the massacre was discovered and another three were injured so badly that they had to be euthanized, including one that was pregnant.

   And if that isn't bad enough, the incident took place during school hours when students were present on campus and could have been harmed themselves. Luckily, the dogs were gone before students arrived in the area, but the kids are also being advised not to walk their sheep around town because of the danger of being attacked.

   The incident also means a big financial blow to the FFA program which made money from selling the sheep to students. One of the sheep was also being rented which means the school will have to pay back the owner too.

   It's a senseless, stupid thing that happened and it could have been prevented. My wife and I have been on a bit of a crusade for the past couple of years to get the City of Holtville to take the problem of loose dogs seriously, but to little avail. City officials listened to us, smiling and nodding, they held many meetings on animal control, they formed a committee and appointed a part-time animal control officer, all with few results. There are still loose dogs everywhere terrorizing citizens and killing innocent animals.

   As I've said, many, many times before, I believe the solution to this problem is education and enforcement. The city already has laws on the books that are supposed to prevent this kind of thing, but they need to be more aggressively enforced. I see people walking dogs without a leash every day. I see people purposely letting their dogs run loose every day. It's quite obvious that it's same people committing these inconsiderate crimes over and over again and it's about time they were cited. Give them a few high-priced tickets and I bet the problem would end very quickly.

   I've been attacked by dogs at least four or five times since I moved back to Holtville about three years ago, and I know tons of other people who have had problems too. Just last year a loose pit-bull somehow made its way into a Holtville girl scout meeting and growled at the children. The way things are going, it's only a matter of time before somebody ends up getting seriously injured or killed, and next time it might not just be sheep.

   If you are one of the many Holtville residents that has had problems with loose dogs, I urge you to attend the next meeting of the Holtville City Council and demand that stronger actions be taken to address the problem. Maybe if enough of us are loud enough, the council will get the message.