T in the Far East

16 hours from JFK to HKG. A week later, 4.5 hours from HKG to Denpasar, Indonesia. At the risk of malaria and Bali Belly, we touted our 2 and a half year old T on a 3 week trek through Hong Kong, Bali and Macau. I think T is made for travel- the many times that he's flown, he never had problems with air pressure and motion sickness, and though we worried about upset stomachs and mosquitoes, the biggest problem we had to deal with was T getting too comfortable sleeping on our bed.

I'm almost ashamed to admit the amount of Hong Kong street food that he had, the curry fish balls, the mini cakes, the waffles, the bowls of noodles and steamed rice crepes. Add to that, all the freshly made juice that we bought in street stalls, whose equipment and ingredients lay open and accessible to dirt, people and gaseous fumes. But he had the time of his life! I have to say, I'm pretty proud of him.

T even got to see the fancier side of Hong Kong food. He loved it just the same. It was just more painful for us when he decided that he'd eaten enough and wanted to run around instead. I'm really ashamed to admit that we pulled out the electronics all too often. But there was no way anyone was letting him loose around Lei Gardens or the Four Seasons. So, iPhone it was.

Salt Cooked Chicken and Quail Eggs- Street Stall in Tai O

Baked Portuguese Chicken and Rice- Mei Do Cafe

Smoked Duck Egg- Ningbo Restaurant

Stinky Tofu & Shrimp with Egg Yolks- Ningbo Restaurant 

Satay Beef with Tomato Broth Rice Noodles- Star Cafe

Shrimp Caviar on Noodles- Six Cafe in Macau

Street Stall- Tai O

Beef Chow Fun- Mei Do Cafe

Breakfast with T

In our household, breakfast never posed much importance until the arrival of our toddler. Waking at dawn on most days, T is hungry by 7am EST. My groggy self usually whips up a suitable breakfast in automaton mode. Here are some ideas:

French Toast- Super easy with store bought bread, especially if you're close to a Chinese bakery, the high-gluten flour that they use for sliced bread gives your toast great texture. Give your slice of bread an egg bath, toss it on the fry pan with a teeny bit of oil, some cinnamon and maple or agave syrup, good to go!
Omelets- Pop an extra ingredient to make it more filling or nutritious.
Frozen Pancakes- Serve with fruit/nuts/granola and yogurt on top.
Steel Cut Oatmeal- Make enough for a couple days and store in fridge. When ready to use, heat up a little milk and pour in oatmeal to warm. Add your mix-ins.

Growing up Chinese, we have a whole other menu of breakfast items. Some to share are:

Macaroni in Soup- Use any kind of broth (chicken, usually), add cooked macaroni, cubed carrots, peas and chicken, variations aplenty, tailor to taste.
Frozen Waffles- Use for pb&j's, nutella and pb. For really special mornings, condensed milk with peanut butter.
Chow Mein- Great to heat up in nuker for a quick breakfast. Don't use the typical American-Chinese oily noodles, instead, grab the thin or wide egg noodles. Stir fry the noodles with chives, a little soy sauce and sesame oil. If that's too plain, mix with an omelet cut into strips and add some chopped up veg.
Savory Oatmeal- use a savory broth to cook the oatmeal, add chicken or pork, peas and carrots, same idea as Macaroni in Soup

Happy Brekkie!

Medicine

Is medicine 'good eats'? Perhaps not. But when faced with a fevering toddler, medicine cannot be avoided. Modern parents have a menu of options in their arsenal. Pharmacies can flavor liquids with their child's favorite syrupy concoction. There are quick dissolve tablets that actually taste decent. You can drown the 5ml of Acetaminophen in a 118ml suspension of cocoa and milk. So much available and yet, nothing worked. 

Here's the trick that totally got my 2 year-old blindsided- dissolve a quick dissolve tablet in a small amount of juice. It's that simple! The tablets are much more pleasant in flavor and lacks that icky, fakey sweetness of syrup meds. Pass it on.

Capital Crushers- Washington DC with a Toddler

On a recent trip to Washington, D.C., I was shocked. I still can't believe that we had so much fun. "We" being my 2 year old toddler and I! It felt like I was touring the city with a friend. The weather did not cooperate, it was raining softly the whole day. T hates his rain cover and I hate umbrellas. As a result, we arrived slightly damp at each stop.

Our day began at the National Building Museum, I was very excited about this one. They have a space created especially for toddlers called the Building Zone which promised kid-sized Bob the Builder equipment for kiddies to experiment and explore. It was educational for me and awesome fun for T. Despite the lightly falling rain, I made the trek from our parking garage to the somewhat out of the way museum. We made it just as the museum was opening. On the walk over, I had repeatedly touted the fun we would have to my tour group of one. He was hyped, I was beyond excited for him to run off and leave me be for an hour. When we walked in, we oohed and ahhed the giant marble columns that faced us from the entrance. I quickly located the information booth, saw a list of exhibits that required additional payment and thought, "So D.C. museums aren't REALLY free!," then I stopped dead. There was an information sign with a huge picture of Bob the Builder. It read, "Exhibit closed for renovations 10/15-10/20." What date is it today? DARNATION!!!

We heaved a great sigh and walked out.

Quick contemplation about where we were, where we should go and how to get there led us to the National Mall where everything else was located. Our first stop, National Air and Space Museum, was an immediate hit the moment we stepped past security. The airplanes, rockets and vehicles locked in T's attention and we quickly ran from plane to plane to exhibit. There is a large children's area with exhibits that explain the science of flight. Preschoolers will love fiddling with gauges, buttons and wheels. Older kids can learn about gravity, atmosphere, torque and etc. Within the children's area, a small stage area is set up for short talks and presentations. We walked in while a boy stood center stage being fitted for an astronaut suit and a guide explaining why the suit was necessary (environmental concerns) and what it was made of (Kevlar was in there). There is also a gift shop with freeze-dried ice cream, memorabilia, astronaut costumes, etc.

After 2 hours running around Air and Space, we went next door to the Museum of the American Indian. This time we were in search of food at Cafe Mitsitam, a very child-friendly food court with interesting food choices plus wine and beer. They feature food that Native Americans really would've eaten prior to modern conveniences and much of it is very familiar, roast salmon, pumpkin soup, roast vegetables. We had the fried bread, duck sausage soup, a quinoa salad and a wild mushroom salad. I enjoyed it. T gobbled up most of the fried bread dipped in soup. Very satisfying. They also have chicken fingers, fries and buffalo burgers. We said our good-byes after lunch, vowing to return in the future for a more thorough visit, and headed to the Museum of Natural History.

The Big Mac

It must be the kid in me. McDonald's has just been weighing in my mind. Do you remember when the Golden Arches used to count the amount of millions that it had served every day? Despite its bad reputation, McDonald's has its place in my head and I believe in many others, as well. Their marketing, especially with children, is genius. Its representation of good times, golden fries, free playgrounds is hard to wipe away. At times, I still indulge in its freshly salted, red boxed fries, the lovely soft-serve sundaes and the perfect chicken nugget. Yum ... just thinking about it makes me smile.

Recently, as you know, I have been inundated thoughts of the Golden Arches. First, by its new mocha frappes and now by the Filet-O-Fish. I've always loved the Filet-O-Fish...

Still do but again, will have to leave this posting unfinished as I have completely forgotten what I had planned on writing here...

The Caribbean Fish

I just came back from a week in the Southern Caribbean Islands. My first cruise, my first foray into the Caribbean, my first time crying about leaving a beach. St. John's Trunk Bay, oh, how I love thee. Aside from the sun and sand, there was definitely food. A whole lot of it! So much that I am now experiencing a departure from meats and seafood.

On the boat, the food was expectedly tailored for mass tastes and while satisfying, it was not entirely inspirational. I had looked forward to trying the food on the islands themselves. My group, consisting of a husband and two friends, were definitely down for some local culinary scenery. We were all known for being adventurous in food and despite my limitations, I was willing to go the full distance without doing something ridiculous.

On Sunday, we landed in San Juan and headed into the old neighborhood to try out a restaurant known for its mofongo, El Jibarito. Located on a seemingly residential street with a small sign posted on the wall, the wooden doors opened into a high-ceilinged lounge bustling with activity and noise. The smells of shrimp and garlic tantalized our noses once we were pulled inside the main dining room and made us very eager to be seated. The menus did not disappoint with offerings of mofongo with shrimp, fried snapper, grilled skirt steak as entrees with such sides as sweet and fried plantains, arroz con habichuelas, smashed yuca, on and on. It took me a while to decide what to have, I finally decided on the mofongo with shrimp, classic PR style. It is did not disappoint. The grilled shrimp was so perfect that I did not mind chomping on a bit of charred shell along with the meat.

This post will have to remain unfinished as I have left it alone for 2 whole years...

Dirty Water Dogs

Dirty water dogs, heard of them? I believe they may be a New York phenomenon. They are hot dogs sold from stands found on many New York City streets, known for the abundance of automobiles passing by releasing clouds of fumes. These special hot dogs float around a metal container full of tepid, gray-colored water until the hawker stabs one up and places them in a bun that has been treated in much the same loving way. But despite my description, I find them irresistible. It is not surprising considering my foundation in culinary tastes. Born in Hong Kong and raised in New York, I am a big city girl with an iron stomach. In truth, I am quite proud of my belly.  Aside from a painful stint resulting in bad cabbage slaw from a Barcelona shop, I had never gotten sick from food. The grilled beetle on a stick from Beijing, the duck blood noodles from SuZhou, the curry fish balls from Hong Kong, the stinky tofu from Taipei, the takoyaki from the streets of Tokyo, I was immune. As I say, too proud.

Nowadays, with the little kid in my womb, the iron stomach is on hold as being with child means a bit of sacrifice. Hot dogs are a thing of last year, dirty water or not, as they are a double whammy. First off, hot dogs contain preservatives such as sulfites and nitrates which can cause birth defects when consumed in large quantities. Although my normal dirty water dog intake barely exceeds one per year, hot dogs can carry listeria, a bacteria that can cause serious problems during pregnancy. As a result, I have forlornly abstained from hot dogs ever since the test came back positive. 

Dirty water dogs hold a special place in my memory. Long ago, in the days of piano lessons and art classes, a friend's mom would buy them for us almost every Friday when the walk to the bus from class would allow us to pass by two hot dog stands. If you go there today, they're still there selling shish kebabs, hot dogs and knishes. I used to savor the moment when she would suggest, 'How about a hot dog?' They were a dollar for two, one for my friend and one for me.  The hot dog man would load it with everything the stand offered, relish, onions, mustard and of course, ketchup. Wrapped in a piece of foil leaving the top open for immediate consumption, I remember the first bite into one of those. New Yorkers honor the unique snap of the skin of a dirty water dog. We don't know whether it's the water or the fumes. I just know it's not replaceable. Later, further along my culinary prowess, I realized that this snap is really tough to replicate. 

Good memories or not, the desire for a hot dog has been strong. It never crossed my mind that there could be healthy, non-preservative hot dogs. Why would anyone want one? Nevertheless, salvation came in the form of a random grocery store outing on Austin St. The gourmet food market had a line of non-cured hot dogs made by Applegate Farms. I eagerly grabbed a package of beef dogs and another of turkey. Much to my disappoint, they don't taste nearly as satisfying as its 'so bad for you' counterpart. It's a decent sausage and the snap is there but as I have said, dirty water dogs have etched their being into my mind. The experience is unique. Perhaps I could try eating it amongst the smog and taxis. 

*But try the Applegate dogs, they really should be pretty good. I may not eat them in a non-pregnant state but I have devoured two packs of those dogs. So that must mean something...