A random chick asked me to share a two-bedroom bungalow half a block from the beach on a Venice walk street.  The year was 1979.  There wasn’t much else going on.  I was living in my friend’s kitchen that had I converted to a very small bedroom by simply hanging a Japanese print curtain next to the refrigerator.  It was pretty ghetto.  But it was easy reaching from my bed for a can of Tab, and I had a six-pack-a-day habit.  Anyway, I can’t resist the beach, so I said yes.  Problem was, I didn’t know this girl all that well.  And soon learned there would be no chicks staying-up-all-night-in-PJ’s laughing.  Turns out, she was a full-blown groupie.  And an alcoholic.  She spent her nights at a recording studio with some band that shared her in the late night hours.  Most of her days were spent cleaning the recording studio.  Not for money, just because she was a fan.  My roommate was never home to pay her rent on time.  And if she were home, she would start a fight to get out of paying the rent.  Fun times.

I would spend hours listening to a new artist, Elvis Costello, and the song, “Watching the Detectives,” which I would play along with on my drum practice pad outside on the patio.  It was a sorry little existence.  I never felt safe alone at night, and I was pretty sure my big cat Cosmo, who went missing for hours at a time, had joined a gang.  Some nights, I would go with my friend Pam to little bars and joints on the strand, Cosmo trailing behind us.  Cosmo wore a scarf the way dogs did in that era, which means I put the scarf on him.  He didn’t wake up in the morning and say, “Hey, I think I’ll sport this great red scarf today.”  Cosmo would wait outside those little bars for us and then follow me home.  By the way, I never drank, so I’m not sure what we were even doing in those joints.  Something to get us out of the house, I guess.   Most days I wore stars on my face.  Sometimes I carried a wand.  A combination of vintage and punk clothes was my wardrobe.  I was very colorful.  Speaking of colorful, the roomie once told me this story.  Actually I had heard this story for years, I just didn’t know I was now living with a “famous” person.  Or is infamous the better word.

When the Justin Bieber of that era (Hint: he was on a TV show, initials DC; brother SC, also a pop star.) was in his heyday, she had spent the night with him.  In the morning, while he was walking around his kitchen cooking breakfast, she was on her knees, crawling, with a part of his anatomy in her mouth.  Are you getting this visual?  He’s asking her if she wants bacon with her eggs, and she’s unable to coherently speak, saying, “Mm-huh.”  It’s a famous story that went around my crowd of friends, and little did I know she would one day be my roommate.

One day, while living with the groupie that was never home, I fell sick with a fever.  Probably the flu.  I was stuck in bed, too ill to go fetch food.  I was not really an order-food-to-be-delivered kind of a person.  I was more of a person who went out to pick up the food, or who just sat in a restaurant and ate.  I didn’t know how to cook yet.  That would all come much later when I had hungry children of my own.  But back then, I sat in my pad, the “director” who thinks everyone is her personal assistant, wondering who out there might be interested in the unrewarding job of fetching me some food.  I had a house charge account at Ah Fong’s in Beverly Hills.  My dad paid the bill at the end of each month, so I ate there occasionally.  I assumed that restaurateur Benson Fong, who had been an actor, had once upon a time appeared in one of my father’s movies.   “Who do I know that lives in Beverly Hills?” I thought to myself.  I came up with someone.  A very sweet girl I barely knew, though once, several years before, we did go to my mother’s house in Palm Springs for the weekend.   I called information.   Lucky for me, her number was listed.  I called her, out of the blue, and said, “Hey, it’s me, Fredde Duke.  Are you by any chance free to go pick up an order of Chinese food for me?”  When I say this was random, that is just putting it mildly.  This was a total fucking stretch.  HELLO?  You barely know me but…

I sweetened the deal by offering that she could order anything she wanted from the menu, dinner was on me.  I mean, really, it was on my dad, but he would understand.  He would call this “good road-managing.”  The girl said that she had to go to school at USC, where she was in a graduate program, but sure, on her way home, she would be happy to pick up my food and bring it to me in Venice.  Oh my god, how nice is she!  And what a stroke of genius on my part!!!!  I said, “Great, what time do you think you will be running by Ah Fong’s?  I’ll call in the order — and what dishes would you like?  They make great pan fried noodles.”  She declined the invitation to share, and then I felt really awkward, but not, in fact, awkward enough to say forget about it.   After all, I really was sick.  Still, to relieve my guilt, I continued trying to entice her.  “What about sesame sliced pork with duck sauce?”  “No thanks.” “Chicken in a bag?  Not sure why I even like it, but I do.”   So, that is how this very kind, not really great friend came to my rescue and brought me Chinese take-out one night, long ago.  (And if you’re reading this, I’d still like to buy you dinner.)

 

Food:  I researched Ah Fong’s online and there are still people out there talking about the signature dish Beef Su Chow.  In fact, I found one person who recreated the recipe.  Turns out, it’s someone I know, Pauli Moss.  Thanks Pauli!!!

Recipe

1 pound sliced top sirloin or filet mignon
(freeze slightly for even slices 1 inch by 2 inches by 1/3 inch thick)
Marinate the meat for 3-5 hours in:
1 teaspoon fresh minced garlic
1 teaspoon fresh minced ginger
1/2 cup DARK SWEET SOY SAUCE (available in Thai Markets)
1/2 cup of dry sherry wine
1 Tablespoon Hoisin sauce

Saute in a wok with 2 tablespoons peanut oil for 3-5 minutes on medium/high heat

Remove the beef and set aside. Reduce the sauce over the heat for another minute and pour over the beef. Serve with white jasmine rice.

Enjoy!

Garnish with 1/2 cup freshly chopped green scallions IF DESIRED

 

 

 

Tags: Beef Su Chow at Ah Fongs in Beverly Hills, Beef Su Chow recipe by Pauli Moss, Chinese food, delusional director and personal assistants, famous groupies, fredde duke, Freddie Duke, Freddy Duke, living in Venice on walk streets in the 70's, wearing stars on my face

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