Adventuring in DC :: U Street Corridor

[Ben's Chili Bowl, African American Civil War Memorial, Busboys and Poets Teaching for Change bookstore]

Adventuring in DC :: Rock Creek Park Nature Center

What I Made for Dinner :: Roasted Eggplant Salad

It's funny how your taste buds change over the years. I wonder how that works? How is that I used to dislike eggplant (among other vegetables) and now I love it? In the same vein, the kids don't like eggplant right now, but will they love this dish in 20 years? Hmm ...

[Speaking of taste buds, author Rebecca Stead incorporated taste buds in an unexpected way to show the turmoils of adolescent relationships in her new book Liar & Spy. Good stuff, people, good stuff.]

 

For my grandmother-in-law's birthday dinner I was asked to bring a salad. This roasted eggplant salad with almonds and goat cheese was a hit at the last get-together I took it to. Since this batch had to feed 15 people I decided to add it to (2 bags of) mixed salad greens. (My preference was for the combo of the peppery-ness of arugula and the rich, deep creaminess of the roasted eggplant.)

The recipe calls for 2 ounces of goat cheese, but I used a whole 4 ounce container: half was incorporated into the eggplant mixture and the other half was sprinkled amongst the greens. I didn't add salad dressing to the greens because the eggplant and extra cheese acts as the dressing.

I, of course, forgot to take a picture of the finished product, but I received compliments on it so I think everyone liked it. It's a perfect hearty meatless meal for summer evenings. Granted, having to use the oven will heat up your house, but that's when you take your eggplant salad outdoors to your patio to enjoy! :)

obon festival

i spent my childhood summers in japan. my memories are filled with time spent with my maternal grandparents, going to japanese school (not all good memories), semi-tori (cicada catching) with my cousin, the humidity, and summer festivals. the obon festival was something i attended from year to year and it's a tradition i'd like my kids to embrace as well. it just seems like ian and maya don't have the same kind of summer traditions i did and i'd like them to have fond memories of their summers as i do.

but in order for them to embrace the tradition, i need to take them to an obon festival every year! sadly, in the last 20 years or so i haven't attended any of the many festivals here in the los angeles area. the one i used to go to is the gardena buddhist church obon, and it's the last one of the season in our area.

i couldn't convince ian to come with us (he opted to play at a friend's house) and jordan had a paper to write, so it was just me and maya. i dressed her up in ian's old jinbei-san (even though she wanted to wear a dress) and we headed to gardena for a little cultural mom & daughter time.

the main attraction of an obon festival is the obon dancing, which usually happens in the evening, but we couldn't stay that late. instead, we enjoyed some food (shaved ice and sata-andagi donut holes), watched a bit of taiko drumming, and played a couple of games. the festival seemed smaller than i remembered but it was just the right size for our afternoon outing.

walking through the church grounds and looking at all the people around me, i felt a tad bit out of place. not because i looked any different from the people around me, but because i didn't feel like part of the community.

the japanese american (ja) community has strong ties to each other through many activities for the young and old, annual traditions like obon and nisei week, and families that go back three and four generations in southern california. my step-dad's side of the family has been here for about four generations and my step-sister is pretty tied in with the goings-on in the ja world.

but i've never been a part of that. at the same time, i was never a part of the chuuzai-in (temporary transfers from japan) crowd either. it didn't help that i grew up in manhattan beach with so few asians around me (much less jas). in many ways i feel awkward being at these kinds of events because i know what they're about, but i don't know the ja way (sometimes japanese traditions change or are tweaked over the generations after they've crossed the pacific), or i think i should know about something but i don't and the jas do. basically, i feel in limbo between being a "real" japanese and being ja. and, no wonder. i'm not ja and i'm not really japanese. and my kids are really neither because they don't see themselves as ja or japanese (at least, i don't think ian does and maya needs more time before she even figures out she's not a fairy princess).

i don't think about it often, but there are times when i contemplate cultural self-awareness and what that means for the kids. i want them to be informed about their japanese and jewish heritages but they don't have very good role models in rupert and myself, unfortunately. it's hard to ask your kids to take their cultural backgrounds seriously when you're not very in tune yourself. figuring this all out is another thing to add to my long list of parenting to-dos. at the very least, taking maya to obon and exposing her to it was a start. a pretty tasty start.

legoland 2008

we're getting to the end of summer and since i really hadn't taken the kids anywhere i decided a trip to legoland was in order. (it helped that we had a coupon for free kids admission.)

ian went for his 5th birthday but it was the first time for me and maya. unfortunately, she's just barely 34 inches tall, the minimum for some of the rides. that prevented us from going on quite a few rides, but we managed to have a lot of fun walking around miniland usa, splashing at swabbies deck, and riding on captain cranky's challenge.

more pictures here.

visitor

we're gecko-sitting for the week for some friends. meet lunera, our nocturnal guest ::

32, but who's counting?

lots of weekend trips for us lately. this time around? good ol' san francisco.

at the last minute we asked our friends if we could head up there for the weekend. last time we were there we stayed with J+J but this time our friend MZ offered up his place near haight-ashbury since he and his sister would be out of town. we had a whole apartment to ourselves, which worked out great.

we arrived on thursday night and had dinner with J+J at park chow near their house (a few years back we went to chow in the castro with them too). after some post-dinner wii-ing, we headed over to MZ's apartment to get some much-needed rest (my allergies were really bothering me all day).

we woke up to a lot of fog on the fourth. i went for a run along the panhandle towards golden gate park in the morning and came back pretty wet from the very misty fog. the weather was pretty cold and gloomy the entire day, unfortunately. made for a very odd fourth of july; i'm used to sunshine and beach weather. (come to think of it, the last time we were in sf for the fourth in 2005 it was pretty darn cold too.) lunch was at burma superstar in the richmond. the tea leaf salad and the pumpkin pork stew were quite tasty; the salad in particular has a really unique taste and texture.

afterwards we headed to the legion of honor for a hike down the trail near the water. maya and i made it down el camino del mar but since we had the stroller we opted to wait back at the car. good thing, too, since the trail ended up having a lot of stairs (222 in one set alone, according to ian). sadly, that meant maya and i missed the nude guy walking around on the beach. nudists i understand, but who walks around butt-naked in weather like that?? rupert was not kind enough to bring back photos of the big naked man.

dinner was an impromptu bbq back at the apartment. i was already in a it's-my-birthday-and-i'm-not-gonna-lift-a-finger mode so i sat around on MZ's very comfy two-seater couch and read stiff by mary roach. very morbid and entertaining. in fact, it was so entertaining that while the rest of the group (a couple of other people joined us for dinner) watched air force one ('cause it's patriotic?) i went into the bedroom and kept on reading.

after staying up until an ungodly hour reading, i woke up nice and early with the kids. just like last year, i let rupert sleep in on my birthday and spent the early morning feeding the kids and watching tv. thankfully the weather started clearing up and by the time we made plans with J+J to go to the ferry building it was quite sunny out. lunch was at the primavera stand since there was no way we were getting into the slanted door (my first choice for a birthday meal) without a reservation. no biggie since i really enjoyed the ceviche tostada i ordered. sure, it was $9.50 but i felt like it was well worth it. (and, heck, it was my birthday.) i had a bite of ian's pork tamale and that was good too. it's just too bad the famous chilaquiles were already sold out.

since it was saturday the farmers market was going on and it was so fun to see all of the great stands and taste the sweet fruit (have you had a candycot before? yum!). i even saw a wild boar leg being sold and it reminded me of the hunter/gatherer section of michael pollan's omnivore's dilemma. what wasn't so great was the price of everything. crazy expensive; i was going to buy some strawberries for the long drive home but balked at the $3.50 per basket price.

what i really like about a place like the ferry building is that almost everyone around you is a foodie. they share the same love of food that you do and the same fascination with interesting ingredients. J+J and rupert decided to make pasta for my birthday dinner after i picked up a package of ink squid dry pasta from italy.

later in the afternoon we headed to the de young museum to see the dale chihuly exhibit. unfortunately, by the time we got there the special exhibit tickets were sold out. we had to settle for the not-as-impressive-during-the-day chihuly saffron tower sculpture in the museum's garden of enchantment. after a stroll through the golden gate park botanical garden we walked back to the apartment and took a little break before dinner.

i got to sit around while a wonderful dinner was prepared. the garlicky squid ink fettuccine was served with really plump mussels and tasty clams on top. i'm used to squid ink pasta sauce, which is much brinier in flavor than squid ink pasta. although it might look scary because it's so black, the squid ink dry pasta doesn't taste fishy at all.

before heading home on sunday we had brunch at squat and gobble in haight-ashbury. i had the strawberry blintz crepe, which was good but had a bit too much ricotta in my opinion. ian had belgian waffles and maya inhaled part of rupert's omelette. we are beginning to notice more and more that the kids are eating like real people lately, which means they are starting to cost us more. darn kids!

after a weekend of lots of eating, rupert drove us home amidst end-of-fourth-of-july-weekend traffic. i am thankful to him for taking us up there for the weekend and really looking after the kids so i could enjoy my birthday weekend. thanks honey!

i {heart} nyc

i spent my first three semesters of college in nyc at barnard college. and for someone who spent that much time in the city, i really do not know it that well. that's because i didn't take advantage of everything it has to offer. what a mistake! i think i missed rupert so much that i was blind to what was around me. now i miss it a lot, especially since one of my best friends lives there, and i wish i could visit more often.

sadly, last summer's trip with the kids was my first time back in nine years. but luckily, rupert and i had the chance to go again to attend his cousin's wedding. my mother was nice (and courageous) enough to watch the kids for three days so that we could get away for the weekend.


and what a weekend it was, jampacked with activities and seeing people. we flew in on a red-eye so we got into manhattan around 7:30 on saturday morning. we checked in, took a quick shower, and we were off to meet a friend of mine from my morgan stanley days in tokyo. after coffee and catching up, rupert and i had to dash off to c-town for dim sum with my best friend K and our other college friend HJ, who i hadn't seen in 10 years.


after dumplings and boba tea, we drove up to barnard and columbia. it was a mini-reunion of sorts for us since it's been 10 years since graduation and none of us had really visited campus. the old student center, mcintosh, was demolished and a new gigantic building is going up in its place. i have so many memories of hanging out in mcintosh that i'm pretty sad it's gone.




then we (minus HJ) headed to the met. oh my god -- suggested admission is really expensive now! i remember when we were students we'd just drop in and not pay anything at all. just like old times we headed to the arms and armor exhibit first, then wandered over to the temple of dendur where we realized it had started pouring outside.

it was a good thing we decided to forego the vampire weekend concert in central park that afternoon. from the museum window we could see tons of concert-goers wandering around in the downpour. after awhile rupert and i managed to make a dash to the subway station when the rain let up for a few minutes, just in time to get ready for the rehearsal dinner in times square.

the next morning was father's day so we tried to get up as early as possible to spend time with rupert's dad. we had breakfast, took the train to columbus circle, and then walked through central park (sometimes in the rain) to zabar's. we didn't have much time to explore since we had to get back for the wedding.

luckily the weather cleared up and we walked the block from the hotel to the prince george ballroom. it's a great venue with a gallery-like entrance area and a wonderful, grand ballroom where the ceremony and reception were held. it was a fun reception and the food was pretty darn good. rupert's cousin S and her husband E looked absolutely ecstatic -- congrats!

and that was our entire weekend. we flew back the following morning and arrived in time to pick up maya at my mom's and then swing by to pick ian up at school. sometimes rupert-and-me-happiness is fleeting.

[more pictures here.]

what we'll be doing this summer

after much back-and-forth, i convinced rupert to buy rock band for the wii. the morning it went on sale, i think our conversation went something like this ::

r :: i don't know if we should get it.
y :: we're going to get it.
r :: okay.

seriously, though, we did have to think about it because there are so many games we want to get. sadly, our family spends most of its free time playing video games and, therefore, our wish list of purchases only includes video games. rupert spends some of his free time "researching" upcoming games, and we debated for awhile whether to get rock band or wait for guitar hero IV - world tour to come out in the fall.

anyhoo, we decided that rock band will be an early anniversary and birthday present -- and we won't go out for our anniversary -- since it's a big purchase for us. hopefully, i'll get birthday money to offset some of the $180 it cost to buy it.

and now that we have it, there are a few things that are bothersome (we did know this stuff going in to the purchase but that didn't stop us from getting annoyed) ::

• it's fun, but it's not as cool as the xbox version :: you can't create the members of your band; you can't go on tour; and you can't download new songs (you can, though, buy an expansion game with 20 songs).
• dang! the drum set takes up a lot of room!
• i cannot get used to the guitar buttons' stickiness. i'm still used to the guitar hero guitar with its clickity-clackness, so i can't seem to get the hang of strumming the rock band hero repeatedly.
• banging on the drums is loud, which is a problem when you have a light sleeper (i.e., maya) sleeping in the next room. luckily, rupert's co-worker's huband is going to make us felt pads for them.

we're now splitting our time between rock band, lego indiana jones, playground, and boom blox. that is, until we get wii fit, mario kart, super smash brothers, house of the dead 2 & 3, resident evil 4, lego batman, star wars: the force unleashed, and order up! (or maybe we'll get iron chef america if it looks like it'll be any good). yeah, we're going to be busy through the end of the year.

year 6

i'm really happy with the way this one turned out. i scraplifted the idea from elsie flannigan's 52 scrapbooking challenges (pg. 47). i'm trying to learn how to layer more without looking too cluttered.

there's no journaling on this, but it's a family picture taken at our local park on our sixth wedding anniversary (the title would've been better as "6 years" now that i think about it). rupert and i totally forgot it was our anniversary and instead of going out we went for a walk to hit baseballs with ian at the park.

i remember :: maya fussing after awhile because she didn't want to be strapped into her stroller; gnats flying all over the place (hate that!); ian was so proud of the "best attitude" baseball he earned at baseball camp; i sat on orange graffiti on the park bench and got my butt graffited second-hand; and rupert took a picture of it!

[click on picture for details about materials.]

what's better on a hot day?

it's been hot this week ... where was this heat when i needed it last week during maya's swim lessons?!

i hate that our house traps heat and i can't open the windows very much because of two huge construction sites nearby (the dust has been horrible lately). i was in a foul mood today because i don't deal well with the mugginess. all i wanted to do was lie around naked under the ceiling fan and pretend i didn't have any kids. thankfully, maya and ian took turns taking naps this afternoon so i didn't have both of them around at the same time.

it hadn't cooled down very much after dinner so i pulled out trusty ol' kyoro-chan, our shaved ice machine (actually, it's my parents'). we've had this thing since i was a little girl and it never ceases to delight me. when you turn the handle on top of the hat, kyoro-chan's eyes move back and forth. it also shaves the ice pretty finely, so the ice is almost fluffy unlike sno-cone ice, which is almost gritty in comparison. i prefer the clear mizore syrup; it's just sugar water, basically.

ian had a huge bowlful before bed. i would've too, except that our ice tastes kinda funky ... spoiled the fun for me.

it did, however, remind me of the ice shop in my grandparents' neighborhood in japan. every time i walked by it during the summer i felt the cold seeping through the clear rubber curtains. when you peeked in you saw huge blocks of clear, clear ice, and you could hear the distinct sound of an old fashioned ice shaver making kakigori.

p.s. that little watermelon in the background was grown in the planter on our front porch.

amazing fruit

did you know i love stone fruits? well, i do. and i really lucked out yesterday because my parents brought back some amazing peaches, nectarines, and plums from my dad's friend's orchard up in central cali.


if you picked them up you'd initially think they weren't ripe. but they're bred to be firm even when ripe to prevent damage to the flesh during transport. when you bite into the fruit there's almost a crunch and then a wonderful sweetness that's not overpowering. i like my fruit to be firm so this is perfect for me; no juice dribbling down my hand, no mush in my mouth, just sweetness bite after bite.

i've gotta make some peach ice cream before they go bad. as for the nectarines, i think i'll eat them as is, just like an apple. that's summer eating bliss in my book.