Feeding Baby Solids

eating jjajang-myeon (noodles with black bean sauce)

     Traveling for 3 1/2 weeks around asia with a baby starting solids caused us to let go of the normal routine followed with introducing solids.  Before we left, Olivia had done 3 days each of simple fruits and vegetables.  We started with avocado and moved on to bananas, apples, and carrots.  We also tried rice cereal and breast milk with and without blackstrap molasses (for iron), but that was the one food Olivia wasn't interested in.  However, on the road, it wasn't practical to cook and mash up fruits or vegetables, so we began to feed her what was readily available.

     On all of our flights, we contacted the airlines ahead of time to request baby meals.  For each meal, the airlines provided us with 2 cans of Gerber baby food and a small bottle of juice.  I guzzled the juice, and gave Olive some baby food.  She wasn't interested in any of the weird smelling "mixed" flavors, but was okay eating the really basic ones like sweet potato and banana.  

     We started out in the Philippines hanging out with my Lola, and it turns out food that is favored by my 98-year-old grandmother is also fitting for a 7 month old baby.  We started out with lugaw, which is filipino congee, or rice porridge.  My lola has this with every meal instead of regular rice.  Lunch and dinner always includes sabow (soup).  We mixed some of the soup broth with rice or lugaw.  If our meals contained appropriately cooked meat or vegetables, we added it to the soup and rice as well.  Fish was often available and was easy to flake into small pieces, as long as there weren't too many bones.  Sometimes the soup contained soft, easy to mash vegetables like squash, or vegetables with small leaves like kangkong. Her favorite dish while were there was mongo, a soup made of mung beans.  The beans are perfect for baby because they are tiny, like lentils.

     In Hong Kong, we became more comfortable feeding Olivia while eating out since we weren't staying with family, but in a tiny Airbnb room.  Our good friends who live there, shared their favorite spots with us (many of them dives), and we were happy to have extra arms to hold and/or feed baby O.  I would have to say that 4 adults to 1 baby is a good minimum ratio!  While we were there, she got her first taste of egg tart.  This is also when we discovered that chopsticks are better than baby spoons (if you're skilled at using them like my husband).  Olivia got so into eating while were there, that she would get upset if we got too engrossed in eating ourselves and didn't feed her with enough frequency.  M discovered that sometimes just sticking the chopsticks in her mouth empty kept her happy as we ate.   

     In Korea, we had a mix of home-cooked meals and restaurants.  M's imo cooked many delicious meals at home and enjoyed feeding her as well.  Her gomo-halmoni also discovered that a shot glass is the perfect size for a baby water glass!  Since we didn't have a high chair with us, it was often easier to just sit her on the floor when we fed her.  It was also great when we were able to eat at a restaurant where we sat on the floor as Olivia could sit on her own and the floor was also relatively clean if she felt like crawling around a bit.  While in Korea, she got some of her first taste (just small ones) of dessert foods including frozen red bean, deli manjoo (fresh corn cakes stuffed with cream sold at subway stations), cheese cake, and hodo kwaja (walnut shaped cake stuffed with red bean and walnuts).       

     I'm glad that our trip happened at the time it did as it helped us to be a little more adventurous with O's introduction to solids.  Being busy traveling kept us from worrying too much about being perfect or following all the rules and let us have fun.  It also gave us a chance to share the experience with friends and relatives who loved helping us introduce her to foods and witnessing the crazy faces that babies can make when they first taste something new. 

Raising Baby Green

Seattle baby guru Ann Keppler has mentioned Dr. Alan Greene, a pediatrician at Stanford, a few times during her Birth and Beyond workshops and I decided to check out his books, Raising Baby Green and Feeding Baby Green.  They had a few good nuggets of information I want to remember for future reference.

Our wonderful neighbors recently moved which means we no longer have access to a lawnmower.  Dr. Greene had some good suggestions for baby-friendly lawn alternatives (more ideas are found here:

- Baby's tears (soleirolia soleirolii): It has small leaves, and tiny white flowers in the summer.  It prefers shade a moderate moisture, and will die back during the winter in colder regions.

- Irish moss (sagina subulata): Its tufts of slender stems form a velvety soft green carpet, and has small white flowers in the spring.

- Blue star creeper (isotoma): forms a flat ground cover and blooms with blue flowers from spring to frost.  It's easy to grow and maintain.

I absolutely don't have a green thumb, but I always aspire to more plants (if only to replace the ones I've killed).  Dr. Greene gave a list of the top ten air-filtering plants (as found by a NASA study - these are most effective at removing formaldehyde, benzene, and carbon monoxide from the air):

chinese evergreen

- bamboo palm
- chinese evergreen
- english ivy
- gerbera daisy
- janet craig
- marginata
- mass cane/corn plant
- mother-in-law's tongue
- pot mum
- peace lily


Dr. Greene included a biodiversity checklist in Feeding Baby Green to make sure your family's diet is varied enough:
1. Mushrooms
2.  Amaranths: beet, buckwheat, quinoa, spinach, swiss chard
3.  Umbrellifers: carrot, celery, cilantro, parsnip
4.  Cruciferous vegetables: broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, chinese cabbage
5.  Bromeliad: pineapple
6.  Composites: artichoke, lettuce
7.  Bindweeds: sweet potato, water spinach
8.  Gourds: cantaloupe, cucumber, squash, watermelon
9.  Heath: blueberry
10. Legumes: black beans, chickpeas, peas, lentils, peanuts
11. Lilies: asparagus, garlic, onion, shallots
12. Woody: bananas, plantains
13. Sesames
14. True grasses: brown rice, corn, oats, wheat
15. Rosy plants: almond, apple, apricot, blackberry, peach, pear, strawberry
16. Citrus: grapefruit, lemon, orange
17. Nightshades: eggplant, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes
18. Grapes
19. Laurels: avocados, cinnamon
20. Myrtles: allspice, cloves, guava
21. Loosestifes: pomengranate

Hungry Monkey

I just finished reading a terrific book called Hungry Monkey: A food loving father's quest to raise an adventurous eater.  The title made me think of how I think M wants to raise our little one.  I also have food on the brain since it is about time to introduce little O to solids.  My mom, who is a pediatrician, has been pressuring me to start since she was four months because she thinks O is ready.  Meanwhile, my sister-in-law (another pediatrician), and O's actual pediatrician say I should wait until six months so she can get the maximum benefit from breastfeeding.  Ann Keppler, local baby guru, also thinks we should wait until six months.  Many of her reasons are given here.

The book was an enjoyable account of the author's first few years with his daughter.  He lives in Seattle, in the Capitol Hill area, so he often referenced local places, which made it even more appealing to read.  Every chapter concluded with a few recipes that his daughter liked, and also gave suggestions of how little ones could help with the cooking or baking.  As a new parent, it's reassuring to read about how other parents actually introduce solids and handle diet and pickiness.  I know some of my friends think I'm a bit crazy to worry so much about it and that it's all just common sense.  However, I don't get the same information from everyone, which makes it confusing.  My husband was allergic to a lot of things as a kid, so I worry that O might be the same way.  Also, I was an extremely slow and picky eater as a kid.  My parents used to time me and it would often take me well over and hour to eat.  Sometimes I'd get sent to the garage or outdoors to finish if it took too long.  I'm not sure if this worked or I just got over being picky, but I'm a world champion at speed eating now. 

I want to wait the six months, but O is definitely fascinated with watching us eat, which makes it tempting to start sooner.  I bought some whole grain rice cereal, as O's pediatrician recommended, last week.  (Ann Keppler is anti-rice cereal, but if we do start her on solids before six months, it seems like a good place to start.)  We haven't started her on the cereal yet, despite continuous pressure from my mom to do so.  I have given O a spoon to hold and suck on as she watches us eat dinner from her bumbo.  I've practice giving her a bit of water from the spoon and from a glass, and she seems to enjoy that as well.  

Lately, O seems to suffering from some teething pain, and has taken to furiously rubbing her pacifier, her sophie, or one of our fingers rapidly across her first tooth and gums.  This is a little hard on my finger.  I've also been reading Baby-led Weaning: Helping your baby to love good food,  which inspired me to give O a baby carrot to hold.  She held it and soon brought it up to her mouth to rub against her tooth and gums.  Her little tooth was like a grater and she soon had tiny carrot shavings on her sleeve and bib.  I'm not sure if she actually ate any of the carrot, but she enjoyed sucking it and rubbing her tooth and gums on it.  (To make sure there was no danger of her choking on it, I only gave it to her while she was sitting upright in the bumbo and I kept an eye on her the entire time.)  Eventually, the carrot got too slimey with saliva for her to hold and she kept dropping it.  Does this count as her first food?  I'm not sure, but she had fun holding something and gnawing on it while we ate, and we certainly enjoyed watching her.

I'm still trying to decide how important it is to start with rice cereal, or even purees.  I'm not sure if I'm totally on board with baby-led weaning, but I like the idea that not everything has to be spoon fed and mushy.  I am still unsure about seasoning too.  Should the food be left pure and bland, or is a little salt or other flavoring okay?  My husband wants to make her some jook (rice porridge), which I'm sure a lot of babies in Asia start off with.  What was the first food you gave your little one?

Week in the Life 2011: Monday

When I finally got out of bed, Maude was napping in the sunny living room.

Week in the Life 2011: Saturday

I got up late and was greeted by a sunny morning.  Maude found a sunny patch to sit and ponder the big blue exercise ball that she is for some reason afraid of.

Jane Austen, fashion, and okonomiyaki

our finished Okonomiyaki, originally uploaded by supafly.

I started my last full Friday in London by watching a movie about Jane Austen (called Becoming Jane) at the Prince Charles Cinema. It was an interesting movie that expanded on historical accounts of a romance that Jane Austen had. If you're familiar with her books, you will see moments in the movie that could have inspired her novels. It is interesting to wonder why both Jane and her older sister ended up never getting married and what circumstances led to that. (On my way to the movie theatre, I passed an tent in Leicester square set up for poker playing by the World Poker Tournament. I didn't stop to play, but I got a bag of free goodies.)

After the movie, I headed to the Victoria and Albert museum where I walked around their wonderful fashion exhibit. My favorite was a muslin dress from 1819 that had interesting details on the skirt that I think would still look modern today. The gallery was filled with young students taking photographs and making sketches of designs that inspired them. (Apparently, Zac Posen went to fashion school in London and was himself inspired by some of the fashion on display at the V&A. Now his own work is on display here.) There was also a wonderful Chihuly piece hanging in the museum entrance as well as several red lip sofas, which are a part of the special exhibit on Surrealism.

The museum is open late on Fridays, but I decided to go in search of this pub that was recommended in a blog for its sticky toffee pudding. I should've known better since the Abingdon is located in the ritzy Kensington/Chelsea neighborhood. The sticky toffee pudding there was £6.50! I decided I wasn't willing to spend $13 on a dessert, but I did enjoy my walk around the beautiful neighborhood. I found a Waitrose (Seema says its like the Whole Foods of London) where I instead got a sticky toffee pudding to microwave at home for less than £3. (It was delicious, but so sweet that I've had my fill of sticky toffee pudding for awhile.)

I met Marshall for dinner and we walked to Abeno for Okonimyaki only to find out that you need reservations there and they were all booked up so we walked on to their other restaurant Abeno Too where it's first come, first served. It was a lot of fun sitting at the counter (on big boxes that also served as storage for all of your stuff while you ate) and watching them cook your food, but it was also really really hot. By the time we left, we were drenched in sweat and the coolness of the evening was a welcome relief.

A weekend of wind and rain

flying kites on Parliament Hill, originally uploaded by supafly.

It has been unusually rainy in England since we've been here. It was a downpour most of Saturday so we spent a good part of the day inside rather than going to the city's Gay Pride festivities in Central London. In the afternoon, we went for a walk through our Peckham neighborhood (we're just in between Peckham and Camberwell Green) and on to Dulwich. Marshall finally got to see the cheap grocery store that I'd found. It's called Lidl and is a German chain. Our new roommate Martin, who is from Hanover, Germany, told us that it is considered nicer than Aldi since it actually sells namebrand products.

We then walked on to Dulwich through a constant drizzle. We stopped at the Sea Cow for some tasty fish and chips (and mushy peas). There was also an argument going on between one of the customers and the guy behind the counter frying fish. I'm not sure what it was about, but there was some yelling and then the guy left.

This is one of at least three fights I've seen in my neighborhood. There seems to be many passionate, hot-headed people here - and you can't blame it on hot weather because it's doesn't usually get above 65 degrees Fahrenheit. The first big fight was on a bus headed from London Bridge back to Peckham. We were on the top level of a double decker and all of a sudden two men in the back started choking each other. One man banged the other man's head repeatedly against he window. A woman that was with them just laughed as they fought. Needless to say, everyone was watching and finally one person went down to tell the driver. The bus was stopped and the driver came up, but he didn't do much. It wasn't until everyone else started telling the bus driver to kick them off the bus that they stopped. First, they clutched each other's shirt sleeves and fought over who was going to let go first. "You let go." "No, you let go." It was ridiculous masculine ego. One of them went downstairs for awhile, but eventually came back up and talked on his cell phone as if nothing happened.

The next big fight I only heard. I was again on the top of a double decker, this time headed into the city from Peckham. I heard a lot of yelling below and the bus stopped. Many people yelled that they had to get to work. Eventually, we all got off and boarded the next bus that came by. On the next bus, several people were talking about the fight. It was apparently between a couple and one threw a glass bottle at the other as their kid sat in between them. A lot of the yelling had been other people telling them they shouldn't fight like that in front of their kid.

Back to the weekend...In Dulwich, I found the best charity shop yet. It was packed with Terry Prachett books! (He's a British fantasy writer.) I had the entire Discworld series, but there was a Johnny Maxwell trilogy he had written that I hadn't read so I bought it. After a few hours in the drizzle, we headed home on a bus to where it was warm and dry.

Sunday started out much nicer and we headed to the Brick Lane Sunday market. It reminded me of the Maxwell street market in Chicago but was much larger. They sold absolutely everything there. We were first bombarded by women selling porn and pirated blockbuster DVDs. Then we passed rows and rows of stalls selling hardware, tools, medicine, cosmetics, food, jewelry...come to think of it, the one thing I didn't see were hub caps for sale. We stopped to look at bicycles (probably stolen) that were being sold for £35 to £65. A steal compared to the price at a normal store. Behind some of the stalls were nice, artsy boutiques selling interesting and expensive housewares, jewelry, and clothing. One boutique had motorcycle jackets for sale - I was tempted by a women's jacket that had just come in, but they didn't have my size. There was also a lot of great graffiti. We stopped at Brick Lane Beigel Bake (open 24 hours) for some delicious freshly baked bagels. I got mine with salt beef (like pastrami) and mustard and Marshall got one with salami and one with butter.

Next, we headed to a couple of neighborhoods I thought Marshall would enjoy seeing. First to Camden town. We stopped to watch some boats go through the locks and then walked through the many food and clothing stalls. We went into one store selling raver gear. They had borg pods on the wall and lots of futuristic clothing under black lights. Marshall was impressed by all the food for sale and tried some lamb tagine from a Moroccan stall. I got an apple, lemon, ginger smoothie and a trio of freshly made cinnamon donuts.

Soon we boarded a bus to Hampstead Heath, which is just North of Camden. We found Keat's house (which I had missed by 1/2 a block the last time I was there). It was surprisingly big and plain. It looked too modern to be his home. We took a few photos and walked on. Marshall realized how posh the neighborhood was when he spotted a Maserati on the street. He had to have his picture taken with it, and then we entered the park.

We walked up to Parliament hill and watched the crowd of people that had gathered to fly kites. It was a windy day and there were many successful kite flyers. One woman and her son were having a hard time getting their bulky bi-plane shaped kite aloft and Marshall was getting irritated with their poor kite flying skills. The person next to them had a simple pentagon shaped kite flying the entire time - sometimes the string would drift towards us and I'd have to move it before it beheaded us. He was also trying to fly a stunt kite which was a lot more challenging, since it had two strings instead of one. Besides the kite flyers, we saw two men with metal detectors (searching for buried treasure?), many picnickers, and families strolling through the park.

When we got too cold, we headed down the hill and into the village of Hampstead to the Hollybush, an old Victorian pub, where we had cider (me), guinness (Marshall), and a sausage roll. We rested our feet and read a little as well. (Reading books in pubs is a common thing, unlikes bars in the US). Then, we headed home, satisfied in a full day of (almost dry) sightseeing.

A Day of Art

more book destroying, originally uploaded by supafly.

Friday started out as a day of art. I first went to the "Gorilla in the Roses" event at the Camberwell Library. David and Davina, a pair of artists, led us in an afternoon of destroying books by ripping them up, typing, stenciling, and sewing on them, and making collages. They were inspired by Joe Orton who, in 1967, inserted a picture of a gorilla into a book about roses at the Islington Public Library. The act of destroying books is entirely against my nature, and it was difficulty to begin. After reading a bit of Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery, I reminded myself there were many more copies of that out there and started ripping out favorite lines. I spent most of my time destroying a London guide book which was fitting and also easier because it was out of date. It was a small group, but we enjoyed ourselves and the artists shares their experience with another event they had done for the Camberwell Arts Festival yesterday where they shared stories with people using the laundromat across the street and asked them to share a story about experiences at the Tumble Wash in return.

After working on my book for a few hours, I left to go to another art event going on across the street, Sweet Obscenities. At Seymour Brothers bakery, Lucille powers was collecting people's swear words on a large sheet of paper and was also piping them onto cupcakes. What a great idea - to take insults that you had experienced and eat it up!

Next, I took the bus downtown and went to see Black Snake Moan at the Prince Charles Cinema. The PCC is just off of Leicester Square, where there are several expensive movie houses, and it is a bargain in comparison. I paid £3.50 and thoroughly enjoyed the intensity between Christina Ricci and Samuel L. Jackson.

Afterwards, I walked around Leicester Square, where they were previewing theatre performances by invitation only for West End Live, which started the next day and was open to the public. Then I walked down Regents street and got some bath bombs at Lush. When Marshall got off of work, I met him at the Apple store (which is bigger than the one in Chicago, there's a glass elevator that reminds me of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in the middle). We walked down to Brewer street in the rain and had falafel sandwiches at Maoz. Afterwards ,we got on a crowded #12 bus and headed home.

Science in London

Royal Society lecture, originally uploaded by supafly.

My feet were killing me by the end of the day on Wednesday, so I took it easy on Thursday. I hung out at the apartment for most of the morning. It's been nice because there aren't any other tenants yet and Abigail is often gone, so I had the place to myself. I made myself a tasty lunch of pasta carbonara and sat in the front room reading. Eventually, I decided to venture out and ended up right across the street at the South London Gallery, which is housed at the Camberwell College of the Arts. I checked out the exhibit, Stay Forever and Ever and Ever, just before it closed. I also sat in their comfy lounge reading the latest edition of Time Out. On the way out I picked up one of their free posters which can be cut up into individual cards to build with - very cool!

After dropping of the poster at home, I walked down to Primark and discovered the only store (so far) that has clothes cheap enough to buy when you take into account the currency conversion. They were also stylish. I picked up a pair of pants for £4, a shirt for £6 and a cute orange coat for £10.

Next, I headed to Central London for a lecture at the Royal Society, an "independent scientific academy dedicated to promoting exellence in science." I got there early, but they hadn't let anyone inside yet, so a queue had formed outside of the building, composed of mostly white-haired science fans. The title of the talk was "The LHC: How the world's largest experiment can investigate matter's smallest constituents." The talk was given by Dr. Tara Shears, and she did an absolutely wonderful job of communicating very complicated information in way that easy to understand and follow. Her powerpoint presentation was also impressive in that it didn't have the words she was saying, but was instead very visual in nature - showing graphics or photos that really enhanced and supported what she was saying. (I took lots of notes on the talk if you're interested.)

After the lecture, there was a lively Q&A and then I met Marshall near Trafalger square. We walked to the seven dials and found Food for Thought, a cheap and delicious vegetarian restaurant, right before they closed. We got their special of the day and sat in Neal's Yard (where Marshall picked up more tasty vegetarian fare) to eat.

Sticky Toffee

sticky toffee pudding, originally uploaded by supafly.

The best thing about my second day in London may have been this sticky toffee pudding. I had heard of this dessert, but this was my first time trying it and my was it delicious! I got it while walking down Carnaby Street - a collection of tiny streets closed off to traffic (off of Regent and Oxford streets) that had many little boutiques and cafes.

I started out the day trying a different route to get down to Central London. I went by way of the Elephant and Castle tube stop. The station was surrounded by lots of cheap vendors selling t-shirts and bages for 99pence. I took the Bakerloo line to Oxford Circus and checked out the shopping.

My first stop was TopShop and Miss Selfridges. It was similar to shopping in Korea because there was just so much to choose from. There were multiple floors of clothes, shoes, and accessories by lots of different designers. If the prices had been in dollars instead of pounds it would have been comparable to H&M, but because of the exchange rate, I couldn't afford anything.

Next, I stopped by Muji and Uniqlo - two Japanese chains that haven't made their way to Chicago yet. Muji has a lot of great basic items, like toiletry items and office supplies. I bought a new notebook to record maps of all the places I was walking. (I've posted my notes on my custom google map - check it out.) Uniqlo is like the Japanese version of Old Navy. Therefore, it's a lot nicer, but still very basic. They had some cute jackets on sale - but again, the exchange rate kept me from buying anything.

I started to get hungry and made the mistake of buying a cheese and bacon (really ham) pasty at the Cornish Bake House. It wasn't so good and right afterwards I found lots of better alternatives. I mapped a lot of them in my notebook. The most ubiquitous are the sandwich shops "Eat" and "Pret a Manger." They both have lots of tasty sandwich options as well as salads, soups, and dessert. Cheaper but less interesting sandwiches are also available at local groceries (like Tesco and Sainsbury). There were also some Thai, Chinese, and Indian restaurants that had cheap takeaway boxes available. I met Marshall during his lunch break and he found tasty, cheap, and delicious lamb curry for takeaway (what they say instead of "carry out" or "take out").

Marshall confessed he didn't know where to go to get things close to his work (a building called "The Space.") So, after I met his two co-workers, I walked around Mortimer Street and mapped all the places he could eat (cheaper the better). I noticed the cheapest option were "sandwicherias" or "sandwich bars." I also learned that shoe repair shops also cut (copy) keys and got a copy made of our room key. It's one of those old fashioned "skeleton" type keys and was quite expensive to copy - it also took them an hour. While they did that, I discovered many resale or charity shops in the area (like thrift shops but all for some cause like OxFam or Rubella) and went in to look around. All the shops were very hot and stuffy but it was a good place to get used books as well as clothes for really cheap.

In the evening, I walked East on Peckham road and found a really cheap store, comparable to Aldi where I was able to get more groceries for a really cheap price. When I went to get a shopping cart, it took me a while to figure out I had to put down a one pound deposit in order to unlock it - a good way to encourage people to return their carts at the end!

what egg whites can become

This is a slice of delicious sour cream pound cake that I baked for my Art Club meeting. My sister first made it and it was so good I actually take the time now and again to separate eggs and beat egg whites into stiff white peaks. (That's advanced cooking for me.) I am also a big fan of any baked goods that include sour cream. For example, sugar cookies and cheesecake. Thanks to Andrea for the side of fresh fruit! It added a nice tang and was reminiscent of a wedding cake I once enjoyed.

spam, portuguese sausage, ham, and eggs over rice

Spam, portuguese sausage, and eggs over rice ($5.00) from L&L Barbeque in Waikiki, HI. Marshall and I ate at L&L several times for breakfast when we were in Hawaii. I love a hearty filipino breakfast - which means rice, eggs, and some kind of meat. Yum!

grilled pork chop with egg over rice

Grilled pork chop with egg over rice ($6.50) from Pho Xe Lua on Argyle, between Sheridan and Broadway. This is my favorite dish to order. My friend Ha suggested I might like it and she was right! The pork chop tastes similar to filipino barbeque. I also like the broken rice it's served with. It's rice kernels that are half the size of normal ones - which gives it a different texture, almost like couscous.

a short burst of spring

that's a real dog, originally uploaded by supafly.

For a brief moment this week it felt like spring and I tried to take full advantage of it. After the school day ended, I rushed home to go for bicycle rides. On Monday, my sister Sharon and I biked down the lake path to Aloha Grill to split a delicious order of combination seafood and bbq short ribs with two scoops of rice and macaroni salad. Ah, I love the Hawaiian plate lunch! Since good filipino restaurants serving tapsilog are so hard to find in Chicago, Aloha is a good substitute. After dinner we stopped at the take out window of Baladoché, the fancy Belgian waffle place on Clark. I am ashamed to say that I paid $6 for a tiny reheated waffle sprinkled in cinnamon. (I didn't know until I talked to my friend that you could ask them to make a fresh one!) What was I thinking? I'd much rather pay $1.50 or so for one of the addictive chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting at the Sensational Bites bakery on Southport near the Music Box. I biked there on Tuesday. While I was walking further South, I spied this dog in the window of one of the many overpriced boutiques. Yeah, that's a real dog in the window. It was so adorable I almost went inside, but I always feel so slovenly and poor when I see the well-dressed sales people and the over priced clothes so I decided to keep walking.

Happy Pi Day! (belated)

a rice krispie "pie"
Originally uploaded by supafly.

Pi day was yesterday, 3/14, but I was too stuffed full of pie to write about it. Now that I am partially recovered and wishing every day was Pi(e) day, I want to thank my friend Andrea for her love of pi and pie as it led to this wonderful annual event. I wish I had taken more photos, but I was too busy eating. It started with savory pies. I made an Italian beef pie (more fondly called ghetto pie by Marshall). I first made it when I was in middle school and in 4-H - which is still totally around by the way. Being in the city, people aren't familiar with it, but in rural Ohio it was just like being in girl scouts except you usually raised livestock. I didn't have the space to raise a large animal. Instead I joined their cooking division and stayed in it long enough to learn how to make this tasty meat pie. After stuffing myself on that, I had some delicious sweet zucchini pie that had a custard-like consistency. This was followed by a slice of Andrea's incredible apple pie - it is so amazing that noone else dares to make one. Next came a slice of quiche lorraine, and it goes a bit hazy after that. I got a second wind when I saw this totally unique rice krispie treat that reminded me of a wheel of cheese, especially after I cut the first slice out. After another breather and some mingling, I snagged the second to last piece of creole shrimp pizza from Bricks on Lincoln even though I was stuffed. Everyone said I had to try it, so how could I resist? It didn't end there. I had a slice of a chocolate coconut pie and then took some goodies home. I regret not trying the pecan pie, but I enjoyed a warmed up slice of a late arriving caramel apple pie tonight as I caught up on my tivo. I can't believe it is another year until the next Pi party! Isn't there another day that we could use as an excuse for lots of delicious pie???

Super H Mart

Super H Mart
Originally uploaded by supafly.

If you haven't been to Super H Mart, you have to check it out. I am a big fan of Mitsuwa, the Japanese Marketplace near IKEA and this place is the Korean equivalent, only much larger and with Costco-like free samples being given out all over the store. (The last time we were there, I got to sample kimchi seafood dumplings, fish cakes, and freshly grilled bulgogi.) It has the most massive seafood section I have ever seen, including loads of still squirming sea creatures. This photo shows two men making kimchi. It's the first time I've seen men making it - when we were in Korea we saw a large group of Korean women making it outside in an alley. My boyfriend went over to try it out and was of course disappointed at its too fresh flavor. Like Mitsuwa, Super H Mart not only has a grocery store, but also a food court, a bakery, and cute stores like Morning Glory and a store that sells adorable asian style aprons with adorable animal appliqués. There's also a housewares section where I was tempted by the array of fancy rice cookers and electric floor mats. The store is in Niles just down the street from the Village Creamery, a filipino ice cream shop which is a great place to get delicious and exotic flavors of ice cream like my favorite, macapuno (young coconut).

Renga-Tei

Since one of my favorite restaurants, Sunshine Cafe, has been closed for several months, I decided to visit Renga-Tei, a restaurant recommended on EatChicago. I compared the entire experience to Sunshine, I couldn't help myself so excuse me now for being biased and sentimental.

- Location: Renga-Tei is not as easily accessible for someone living in Uptown since Sunshine is in Andersonville and Renga-Tei is in Lincolnwood, but there is free parking. The area isn't one where you can take a leisurely walk down the street and peer into all the cool Andersonville boutiques. The noise of cars whizzing down Touhy drowns out conversation too. However, it is close to Long John Silver and Wholly Frijoles if you feel like doing a food crawl. It's also pretty close to the Chicago Cycle Center so I can work up an appetite there and then head over.

- Atmosphere: Renga is much larger and "nicer." That is, there are wooden booths with rice paper dividers and a bar, whereas Sunshine is one small room with tables and chairs. However, I miss the two jolly bear-like guys at Sunshine. It was always the two of them greeting everyone and taking orders. They were quick to make you feel welcome and at home. Renga-Tei is much more formal with several young perfectly nice waiters and waitresses but not much by way of character.

- Food: Renga-Tei serves actual sushi, which isn't really available at Sunshine. We ordered spicy tuna and salmon skin rolls, which were both good - although I would've liked more salmon skin and less rice in the latter maki. For the main course, I ordered my favorite Sunshine dish that I have been missing for months, Saba Shioyaki. Renga's was not as crispy and the delicate fish flavor and overpowered with the strong odor of sauteed vegetables. I much prefer the serving of cucumber salad that comes with the non-soggy mackerel at Sunshine. Marshall ordered the katsu-don, which was better, but floating in too much soup with the rice strangely in its own bowl rather than soaking up the egg and katsu flavor. Sunshine also doesn't usually have dessert, although I know people who have enjoyed free popsicles there. At Renga, we ordered a small serving of red bean ice cream to share, which was a delicious way to end the meal. At Sunshine, I usually strolled down to Taste of Heaven for baked goods instead.

- Price: Renga-Tei was much more expensive than Sunshine, so I will definitely come here less frequently than when I used to go to my old haunt. I hope your phone message is true Sunshine and that you will return from vacation soon!

I could've sworn I took more pictures at Sunshine, but I guess I was usually too busy eating. Here's one from 2005, when I celebrated my 30th birthday there.