California dreamin’

Growing up in the Midwest, I used to imagine fantastic adventures to far-off lands, where I could buy scarves and espadrilles at bargain prices. I’d imagine myself cavorting with Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr in grand palaces in Siam or running through the streets of Verona with the Montague boys. When I was being more realistic, I simply imagined getting on a bus and heading for Southern California, singing on the beach with Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon, as I shook wildly my bushy bushy blond hairdo.

Of course, the child psychologist to whom my parents sent me claimed that this fantasy life explained my fascination with Hollywood and my predilection for dressing, well, differently from my classmates. It probably also explains my adult fascination with travel and exotic cooking. Not to mention that I’d rather wear a sarong by the pool than swimming trunks.

But for me as a kid, the movie that had it all was The Endless Summer. I saw it in the theater when it first came out in 1966 and then a couple of times every year when it would be shown on television. There, for 96 minutes, I could completely forget the anguish of my Wisconsin childhood while I watched Mike Hynson and Robert August—whose name was just too perfect!—not only surfing at beaches in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the South Pacific, but also being met at airports by crisp-suited native diplomats and carrying their boards down dirt streets in villages around the world. I loved watching them, in their little shorts, giving surfing lessons to groups of grinning children while women with baskets of fruit and fish on their heads watched nervously from shore.

All of which is to say I have a new favorite restaurant in Chico, Teddy Malibu’s, on West Fifth Street by the railroad tracks. Miss Marilyn and I had been for a walk on a winter’s day, and her hair was frizzing out and I’d gotten water inside my rubbers. We were freezing, and more than anything we just needed to get warm! Imagine our delight at walking into Teddy Malibu’s and seeing The Endless Summer on the monitor in the corner. We soon learned that the cozy little restaurant serves the best tacos in Chico.

Specializing in Mexican food with a healthful, island attitude, Teddy’s, which just opened in November, serves “Surf Tacos” ($2.10-$3), “Da Kine Burritos” ($4.95-5.95), “Off-Shore Soups and Salads” ($3.95-$6.95), and “North Shore Quesadillas” ($3.95-$5.95). All are huge and excellent, two tacos more than enough for a decent-sized lunch. Ingredients include grilled or blackened calamari, shrimp, steak, and chicken, as well as Portobello mushrooms, black beans, spinach and cabbage. My favorite is the blackened-shrimp taco, which comes with cabbage, feta and cream cheese. Top it off with your favorite from among six salsas at the salsa bar.

In addition to the continuous showing of The Endless Summer, the menu over the counter is written on a surfboard, and the walls are decorated with beach and surfing posters—of the Kahanamoku brothers, and boys surfing big waves all over the world—and the tables are laminated over cut-out photos from surfing magazines.

Of course, the best part—in addition to the food—is watching The Endless Summer while you eat. My only complaint is that every time (four) I’ve been there, the sound’s been turned off. Instead of Bruce Brown’s classic narration, you get to hear a mix of music ranging from Dick Dale to Bob Marley. Which isn’t bad, really. On a winter’s day, in a deep and dark January or February, it’s awfully nice to sit in an unassuming little restaurant, listening to upbeat music and imagining that you’re far away, where the sun always shines, and even if there’s no merlot to sip with your meal, at least there’s cold beer.