Bring your gently-used clothes and toys to swap with others in the community It’s the perfect time to declutter and give your items a second life Attendees will receive a free recycled tote bag to place their swapped items in Unwanted hangers will also be collected to help keep things organized Leftover items will be donated or saved for a future swap email EnvironmentalPrograms@SouthPasadenaCA.gov Many of our advertisers are local businesses that have been impacted directly by the fire we immediately removed all advertisements the day after the fire and transformed our site to provide live updates We felt it would be inappropriate to run ads while our friends and neighbors were being evacuated and displaced we don’t outsource our operations overseas Our priority has been to keep you and ourselves informed with timely even a small contribution of $5 can make a significant difference Please click the blue button below to learn more about how you can assist Support Our News Desk department consists of a collective of news gatherers in order to keep the community informed and safe Colorado Boulevard is your place for informative news and social living for the greater Pasadena area and work together to make a better world for all of us See all articles See all newsflashes Back to articles KQED Live Events PRX Podcast Garage Events Events Around the Bay Area Member Benefits with KQED Live Videos from KQED LiveWatch recordings of recent KQED Live events Featured That's My WordAn ongoing exploration of Bay Area hip-hop history See Senior Director of TV Programming Meredith Speight’s recommendations from this month’s KQED 9 Watch recordings of recent KQED Live events Support KQED by using your donor-advised fund to make a charitable gift A freshly cooked bowl of miến gà is pictured at Hong Pham’s home in South Pasadena on Saturday Miến gà is a Vietnamese chicken and glass noodle soup fresh chives and crispy fried shallots. (Alisha Jucevic for KQED)Standing over a gas burner in his outdoor kitchen in South Pasadena Hong Pham toasted an onion and a whole ginger root until they were smoky and black Every Vietnamese household needs a kitchen in their backyard or garage to do the “smelly cooking,” he joked emphasizing that charring the aromatics is key to enhancing the flavor of miến gà a Vietnamese chicken and glass noodle soup The dish is comfort in a bowl — and special to Hong and his family, who are among the diaspora of people who fled Vietnam after the war ended a half century ago and settled in places like California Miến gà was one of the first homemade meals his family had together after reuniting at a refugee camp I had a miserable cold this winter and was searching for a recipe for miến gà when I found one posted by Hong and his wife, Kim Dao, on The Ravenous Couple told him about the soup’s connection to April 30 Because he had served in the South Vietnamese Army Tung was sent to a Viet Cong re-education camp as punishment for supporting the Americans’ war effort He endured three years of starvation and hard labor When he got out, Tung tried to make a living as a teacher, but he barely scraped by. In March 1980, he decided to escape, joining the exodus of Vietnamese refugees who fled their homeland by boat Because he could only afford three spots on an overcrowded fishing boat Tung took his two eldest kids — Hong Tam — and left behind his pregnant wife “My mom and dad were OK with splitting up the family even though they had no idea when — how — at what point in the future they would see each other again,” Hong said “For them to make that decision [when they were] in their 30s was unimaginable to me.” Hong and Kim started their blog 16 years ago when they were still dating They were craving Vietnamese food and wanted to learn how to recreate the dishes their moms cooked for them using everyday kitchen tools like rice bowls to measure her ingredients so he decided to write down her methods so he could follow her recipes precisely Kim helped convert the amounts into the American system of cooking measurements especially after he moved away from home in Michigan where the family resettled after coming to America He often calls her when he’s cooking to get her advice When he went to college and came home to visit during breaks It was her way of nourishing us and showing her love and affection,” he said we’re so much tighter because of our cooking.” brother and I traveled by plane to the United States in 1984 as part of a later wave of refugees who were admitted to the country under the Orderly Departure Program I had been a longtime admirer of The Ravenous Couple and their culinary adventures After finding the recipe for miến gà and reading his dad’s story He was as open and friendly as he seemed online We moved from his backyard kitchen to his brightly lit indoor kitchen to continue making the soup Hong called his mom on FaceTime at her home in suburban Detroit to ask how much dry bean thread noodles to use in the dish I asked her to share her memories of her family’s flight from Vietnam Ly said in Vietnamese that after Tung left Tung and the children went on a boat led by the same smuggling organization her other family members hired to get to a safer shore but there were reasons to worry: The journey was dangerous and an untold number of refugees lost their lives to dehydration a man working for the leader of the smuggling operation came to her door He said that during the journey to Thailand Tung begged the leader to bring his wife and toddler on the next trip out of Vietnam but the man urged her to quickly come up with a payment and leave while she was still five months pregnant it was my fault because [the ringleader] was trying to keep his promise to my husband,” she said Ly borrowed enough gold — the most desirable currency in post-war Vietnam — from neighbors and friends to board a boat with about 90 other refugees Ly said the sea was calm and the boat was so overloaded that she could stretch her arm and touch the water so she fed her daughter a citrus syrup she had made for the trip so she wouldn’t cry from thirst and hunger They traveled for three days and two nights before landing on an island near the Thai-Cambodian border Ly said authorities eventually transported her group to a refugee camp in Laem Sing Hong and Tam in the crowd of people rushing to welcome the latest load of survivors we just hugged each other and cried,” she said Vietnamese refugees consider April 30 a day of mourning They call it “Black April” because it was the day they lost their country “So many people were lost at sea … so for our family to be able to reunite like that was really a miracle,” Hong said Because of the secrecy surrounding the escape they never learned the name of the smuggling operation’s leader He was only known as “Anh Bo.” Hong and his sister said they wish they could thank him for bringing their family together that means a lot,” Tam said by phone from her home outside Detroit the family stayed in Thailand for several more months so Ly could give birth so she put everyone’s portion together to make miến gà Tung described feeling grateful to eat miến gà with his family “Thinking what could have been and the remote odds of seeing my family together so soon I ate this simple dish with such happiness,” he said “It was the most satisfying and unforgettable meal I’ve ever experienced.” who was the first in her family to arrive in the United States for sending the money to the refugee camp so she could buy the noodles and other ingredients for the soup Hong used a whole chicken — head and feet intact — he bought from a fresh poultry store to make his version of miến gà He placed the chicken in a boiling pot of broth threw in the charred onion and ginger and reduced the stock to a simmer he lifted it out of the pot and submerged it in a bowl of ice water he placed the translucent noodles into a handmade ceramic bowl ladled in the broth and seasoned it with pungent fish sauce scallions and fresh chives picked from his herb garden He said his mom used to scoff at his precise plating technique and his insistence on pairing certain dishes with ceramic pieces that he made — a hobby he picked up during the pandemic — to make sure they “look pretty for the ‘Gram.” whereas he has the luxury of consuming food “with more intention.” We gathered around his dining table and slurped miến gà with Hong’s daughters The noodles were slippery and the soup had an intense chicken flavor combined with the umami of shiitake mushrooms the Phams were admitted to the United States as refugees and resettled in Michigan with the support of a Catholic charity Tung worked as a janitor and assembled machinery parts at a factory I didn’t know anything,” she said “But I tried to raise my kids and teach them Vietnamese so they wouldn’t lose their cultural heritage.” When the children went to school full-time a trade she did in the wet markets of Vietnam She also volunteered at her Catholic church often by making and selling Vietnamese food to raise money for various causes “My children didn’t understand why I spent so much time in church,” she said I prayed to God that if He delivers our family to safety I would do everything I could to serve my faith.” The family started over with almost nothing Hong remembers wearing secondhand clothes for years because his parents were saving money to pay back their debt his parents wrapped empty boxes and put them under a donated tree because they couldn’t afford to buy gifts “My mom mentioned that when we first arrived the [sponsor] families didn’t know what we liked to eat and so they would give us canned peas canned corn and things like that — and a lot of mashed potato flakes and macaroni and cheese,” Hong said She didn’t know how to cook any of it and instead used whatever she could find at American supermarkets to recreate Vietnamese food “I think that was the ingenuity of that generation but it was all made in a Vietnamese way,” he said small acts of kindness helped the family survive When someone noticed that Tung was taking the bus to get from one job to another a sponsor gave him a used car and taught him to drive a lot of generous people in the community helped us get through a tough time,” Hong said Hong said his parents constantly reminded him and his siblings how lucky they were to be in the land of opportunity and achieve their dreams The four kids graduated from the University of Michigan and went on to earn graduate degrees Hong and his wife stay connected to their heritage by speaking Vietnamese to their daughters and by sharing food with their community They host cooking parties in their backyard to help raise funds for charities they made an inventive version of banh mi with brisket and homemade pickles to support victims of the Eaton wildfire in nearby Altadena Hong said Tung is 85 and no longer able to speak coherently due to a stroke Hong said he’s glad he recorded Tung’s memories of miến gà years ago and regrets not doing more recordings while his dad was still able to speak He said his dad was a great storyteller and had a knack for spotting Vietnam veterans wherever they went “He’d approach them really casually and thank them for their service they’ll have a long conversation,” Hong said “He loved to share his stories and listen to other people’s stories as well.” Hong said he would probably say that he’s “forever grateful to America for welcoming us as a family and as a whole community.” He said he also thinks Tung would be sad about the country’s tough immigration policies under President Donald Trump “Part of me also would like to think he would be abhorrent about the current state of America the freedoms that he escaped and risked his life and lives of his children for To learn more about how we use your information, please read our privacy policy. The Finance Department is comprised of two divisions An Accounting Manager-Controller oversees payroll a Budget & Purchasing Manager oversees accounts receivable as well as staffing the Council’s Finance Commission the Finance Department has 10 FTE positions The ideal candidate will have an orientation toward building strong and effective teams who are invested in working together to continually seek improvement; be a strong leader committed to leading by example and delivering excellent customer service; understand change management and building employee buy-in; and have an appreciation and acceptance for continually improving operations through developing people Education: Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university preferably with major course work in accounting Experience: Eight years of increasingly responsible experience in public accounting and debt structuring experience including at least five years of administrative and management responsibility Licensure: Certified Public Accountant (CPA) or Certified Public Finance Officer (CPFO) is desirable interested candidates are encouraged to review the detailed recruitment brochure at www.mosaicpublic.com/careers www.mosaicpublic.com/careers This recruitment will be handled with strict confidentiality References will not be contacted until mutual interest has been established Amy Gallagher2025-05-05T07:41:43-07:00May 5 Dominick Beaudine2025-05-02T09:39:58-07:00May 2 Dominick Beaudine2025-05-02T08:40:53-07:00May 2 Ted Hwang2025-05-04T09:32:06-07:00April 30 Ted Hwang2025-04-30T17:06:48-07:00April 30 South Pasadena High School (SPHS) students have the opportunity to explore various careers during the third annual Career Fair a special event co-hosted by the SPHS Counseling Department and the SPHS PTSA who represent industries such as computer science Professionals from these fields and others are visiting the school to talk with students about their jobs The Career Fair will be taking place outside of the counseling office during lunch again on Thursday South Pasadena High School, 1401 Fremont Ave., South Pasadena, (626) 441-5820 or visit www.sphstigers.org About South Pasadena Unified School District Established in 1886, the South Pasadena Unified School District (SPUSD) serves approximately 4,700 students within five schools including three elementary schools one middle school and one comprehensive high school in South Pasadena SPUSD has earned a reputation for providing high quality public education attracting families who value challenging academic programs and outstanding teachers Consistently recognized for superior performance The District draws vital support from parents and community members through the South Pasadena Educational Foundation For more information, contact: South Pasadena Unified School District, Office of the Superintendent, scarroll@spusd.net Learn more about the Pasadena area's finest private schools