男前豆腐 Otokomae Tofu – something you should all try at least once! November 17, 2009

So, it’s not secret that I’m a lazy blogger but another reason why I don’t update very often is because I don’t have enough time to do the research and write posts that do any of the topics/subjects justice. And for places/things that I like and want to talk about, it’s hard not to write a lot especially when so much of the information available about these subjects are only in Japanese or Chinese and not easily accessible to English reading visitors.

But obviously I’m not the first person to discover or even talk about everything ^_^ so today, I’ll just share some comments and provide links where you can get additional info.

Okay, enough with the (yet another) long introduction.
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Otokomae Tofu

Several months ago (summer?) Charlie and I were at one of Mitsuwa’s (San Jose branch) food fairs when we saw a newly set up corner near their existing tofu section featuring products by 男前豆腐. Even though we haven’t heard of the brand before, we decided to buy a few to try.

Now some people might consider paying $3 – 4 for a block of tofu to be unreasonable but I know that even in Japan, high quality tofu can be quite pricey so paying <$5 for a pack of something that has been air shipped seems like a good value to me.

Anyway, so we went home with 2 packages that night before knowing anything about the brand or the products figuring that at worst, it will taste similar to the ones (from Kyoto) that they already carry, which we already liked.

I was happily surprised, however, after doing some research, to find that 男前豆腐 is something that is gaining popularity even in Japan and in the US, was only previously available in certain areas (like NYC) – now, why do they get everything Japanese first?)

Now, before I tell you what I think of 男前豆腐 I’ll just say that I’m not a tofu specialist. I never thought much of them until I moved to Japan and learned that there are entire restaurants devoted to tofu and tofu cuisine. These days I enjoy them a lot more but mainly, I just divide them into 2 categories – LIKE (will spend $$ and make effort to buy) or DON’T LIKE (won’t go out of my way to get any).

Prior to 男前豆腐 I’ve tried Hodo Soy, which sells at the Ferry Building’s Farmer’s Market…but for some reason, the taste was forgettable (too “American?” I’m not sure how to explain this) so I never bothered to buy their stuff again. I’ve also tried San Jose Tofu, which I remember liking better than Hodo Soy but again, not enough to drive 25 or 30 min to purchase.

But 男前豆腐 now, this is the kind of stuff that I’d buy…no, serve to family and friends so that they can taste how delicious tofu can be…

So how does it taste? Okay, first of all, we’ve only tried their tofu straight – not cooked or with anything else other than some dashi soy sauce or ponzu – so I’m not sure how this tofu will compare with others for dishes like soup or stir fry. But if you do try 男前豆腐, I’d recommend eating it directly first because that’s probably how you can best taste everything.

To be honest, the first time I tried it, I was actually a little disappointed after the first bite because I was expecting to be “wowed” but it didn’t blow my mind. Yet, after finishing our meal, I wouldn’t stop thinking about how tasty it was and how I would be interested in trying more of their products.

Anyway, so back to the taste. Like one of the Taiwanese bloggers said, it’s almost like 豆花 (the soy custard dessert they serve at dim sum) – full of soymilk flavor. At the same time, the texture is somewhat like panna cotta, creamy and dense. I can see why some people decide to eat it like a dessert by adding honey or maple syrup as toppings.

So if you like tofu definitely give 男前豆腐 a try (just keep in mind the silky texture I just described so you’re not taken by surprise because it’s very different from the other kinds of tofu that you’ll usually find in the US). Even if you don’t like tofu, I’d say give it a try anyway. Who knows, you might find that you actually like tofu.

Oh, though it’s not obvious from my photo but apparently the design of their packaging and in fact, their whole marketing is something of a pop culture phenomenon. So definitely visit the company’s website to see what is so hip about 男前豆腐 besides the taste. [By the way, the first time you visit, keep the "sound on" but make sure you're some place where you won't disturb anyone because the music is funky and can be loud. Also, most of the website seems to be in Japanese but if you click "Skip (sound on) you can visit the "story" tab where there is English text.]

http://www.otokomae.jp/index.html

Lastly, here are some links to more information about 男前豆腐 and what others think about them (as ranked by google’s search engine). I’m listing only 4 here but you can easily find many others.

http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2009/06/otokomae-tofu-japanese-nyc-manhattan-sunrise-mart-soho-east-village.html

http://blog.q-taro.com/food/otokomae-tofu/

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070520a5.html

http://www.kenleewrites.com/2009/02/my-favorite-tofu-otokomae.html

And once you’ve tried 男前豆腐 you can become their fan on Facebook ^_^

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Otokomae-Tofu-Inc/117962837552?v=info

I’m not sure how sales are going for 男前豆腐 but please, if you like them, do buy their products often so they will continue to be available in the Bay Area. Thanks!

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Update: uploaded a photo of the 男前豆腐 corner at the San Jose Mitsuwa…

男前豆腐 display case at Mitsuwa (San Jose)

Crown & Crumpet (Ghirardelli Square, SF) October 1, 2009

Okay, so I haven’t finished writing the previous post but I wanted to start this one so I don’t forget to write about it.

Last weekend, a group of us from the same small group gathered in SF for a bridal tea for our dear friend D who is getting married in a few weeks.

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Update – it’s been a very BUSY few weeks as we hosted 2 groups of out of town guests. This past Saturday we took one group to the Farmer’s Market at the Ferry Building so hopefully I’ll get a chance to post about it.

But before that, I need to finish this one so I don’t forget everything!

A table of goodies that serve as a partition at the entrance (the man in the photo is the husband/owner of the salon)

In any case, so as I was saying, a group of us gathered on beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon (I love Indian summers in the Bay Area!) at Crown & Crumpet for our friend D’s bridal tea. I had heard of the tea salon before but found it hard to make it all the way up to city for a visit, especially since it’s located in a popular tourist area.

As it turns out, Ghirardelli Square is pretty accessible by both public transit and car. From BART, you can take a muni bus or street car that drops you off w/in a block or two of the salon. By car, you can get parking validation for nearby garages (for up to 1.5 hrs) for dining at many of the restaurants in the Square so definitely consider Crown & Crumpet if you’re looking for a place to have a special occasion celebration!

The other side of the tea room

Individual place setting (favor extra)

$5 tea favor for special occasions

As soon as we were seated, the hostess handed out our shower favors which contained cute little tea related items (i.e. sugar packs called “Sugar Daddy”). I haven’t tried everything yet but I liked the Oolong tea biscuit that was included in the pack, which was by a famous Taiwanese cooking maker called “Isabel.” Besides shower favors, Crown & Crumpt can also provide other types of favors and parting gifts at additional cost (and costs vary).

Table centerpiece for special occasions (non-edible)

Although the tea room is one large room and private parties are seated along with everyone else (except for the sofa area, which can be reserved for private parties) Crown & Crumpet also provides themed center pieces for the table which helps to set the mood for the celebration. This is a photo of the wedding cake centerpiece that was on our table.

Sugar bowl

In terms of the food, I found it to be pretty satisfactory but unfortunately still not comparable to what I’ve experienced in Paris or London.

For instance, rather than having special kinds of sugar (i.e. raw or even cubed sugar), what we got were regular white sugar placed in pretty jars with pretty floral candy pieces. I don’t normally put honey in my tea so I didn’t bother asking about honey but judging from the sugar selection, I’m guessing you’ll just get regular honey as well.

Tea sandwiches (for 3)

The tea sandwiches were tasty but I found execution to be somewhat “American,” – a bit too much filling for the amount of bread. Personally, I prefer a better balance between the two.

Scones and crumpets (center)

To my delight, however, the scones were light and flaky, and didn’t contain the heavy baking soda taste that are sometimes in American scones. The crumpets, however, were somewhat disappointing. My first/last taste of crumpets was at the Tea Palace in Notting Hill and they were like miniature English muffins that were perfect for soaking up honey. Crown & Crumpt’s version, on the other hand, were somewhat flat and not as porous (even though they looked that way). Maybe they were made in the morning dried out from being reheated? As many of the other girls had never tried crumpets before, I urged them to give it another chance (at another tea salon) before giving up on this delicious British treat!

House made sweets and treats

Even though the sandwiches and scones were not big, by the time we finished them, most of us were too stuffed to tackle the sweets plate so we asked for take home containers and Crown & Crumpet was very nice to provide enough boxes and bags for all of us.

As for the tea, Crown & Crumpet carries their own private label teas and offers a large selection of both caffeinated and herbals types (they also provide children’s tea service) as well as some champagnes and alcoholic drinks. The only thing we didn’t find was coffee, which makes sense, I mean, why would you order coffee in a tea salon?

I’m not usually a big fan of infused fruit flavored teas so I opted to get a classic blend, Earl Grey, which I thought would also allow me to compare it to the Mariage Freres tea we drink at home. Sadly, Crown & Crumpet’s Earl Grey didn’t stand up to my gold standard but one of the girls’ Paris blend was pretty good (and reminded me of Mariage Freres’ Marco Polo) so I’d probably order that instead on my next visit.

Fresh fruit with jam, lemon curd, and clotted cream

Crumpet

I was so hopeful that this would be tasty…maybe next time it will be better?!

Sitting area

Overall, I would say that Crown & Crumpet is a great place to have afternoon tea. The decor is very Cath Kidston* and not at all lacey/doillie like some of the other tea places. It’s clear that the owners put a lot of love into the salon and all of their personal touches (displays, items for sale, etc.) will make each visit exciting.  For those who prefer to have tea in a more minimalist setting, Crown & Crumpet also offers outside patio seating with simple wood furniture. Charlie likes tea and tea service and this is one place that we can definitely enjoy together.

That afternoon, we didn’t spend too much time exploring the whole Ghirardelli Square but it seems that the recent renovation has really jazzed up the place. Unfortunately, with baby#2 coming in January, it will probably be a while before I get to enjoy a another leisurely afternoon but I’ll know where to go (and who to go with) when the opportunity comes!

For more information and photos, visit Crown & Crumpet’s website.

*In fact, all of the Crown & Crumpet waitresses wear Cath Kidston aprons. When I asked about it, they said that the store adjacent to the salon usually carries some but that day they were sold out of everything except some stationary >_<

P.s. I had previously read comments about how tacky it is for Crown & Crumpet to have glass table top covers. Actually, they don’t look offensive at all in person. In fact, I think it’s very smart of them to use these covers to protect the Cath Kidston table clothes!

Shanghai Tapas (Fremont) September 29, 2009

I read on someone’s blog that if you post photos first, then you will feel compelled to return (soon) to finish the post.

So I’m trying this out to see if I can pressure myself to post more often…

[Update: this part week turned out to be a really busy week as Noah started daycare (only 1 day a week) while I attended the first MOPS meeting of the year, not to mention relatives visiting from Taiwan. The week ended with us buying a new car (2010 Prius) late Sunday night...so it's going to take a few days for everyone to recover but let me finish this week first as I don't actually have that much to say.]

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What a difference a week makes for this restaurant! Two Fridays ago when we first ate at Shanghai Tapas and took these photos, very few people had known about the place. We got there around 6 PM and by the time we left around 8 PM, there were still only 2 – 3 other tables (the restaurant fits about 12).

But only a week later, on another Friday night, the place was already 1/2 filled by 6:30 PM and by 8 PM there were no open tables. I don’t know if it’s because of the Mid-Autumn (aka Moon Cake) Festival or because word is getting out (I think they ran an ad/story in the World Journal newspaper sometime this week) but they’re definitely getting enough business now to stay open!

When we first moved to Fremont 2 years ago, we were happy about how the city is full of reasonably priced ethnic foods. We knew that we’d have to drive a little further for good CA-French and more sophisticated options but we took comfort in the fact that Fremont is so culturally diverse. But unfortunately, what we discovered was that overall, people in the community seem to support mostly chain restaurants (the wait at BJ’s Brewery on a Thursday night at 6:30 PM was 2 hours long!) or “value” ethnic restaurants (i.e. 3 dishes for $16).  After a few disappointing outings, we ended up sticking to really simple foods when we go out, like pho, In & Out, or even takeout/bentos.

In any case, when Shanghai Tapas opened up near us, I convinced Charlie to give it a try because 1) the yelp reviews seemed okay 2) they offer Xiao Long Bao, which Charlie LOVES and 3) the menu seemed more diverse than the average Chinese restaurant.

Well, that decision turned out to be a good one. Shanghai Tapas isn’t on the same level as places like A&J in Cupertino but so far, the foods we’ve tried have been pretty decent (tasty, not oily or overly seasoned), the service attentive (not true at many popular Chinese eateries) and the facility clean (my mom said it used to be a fish store so I’m guessing that they had to put in all new fixtures).

Most importantly, we were happy to find that the Xiao Long Bao was pretty well-made – the skin-to-filling ratio was good, the steaming done right (no broken wrappers), and the ginger dipping sauce made conscientiously (the ginger was finely julianned, which isn’t true at many other places.) And at the price of $5.95 for 8, definitely a great value.

In fact, mot of the dishes we tried that first time were pretty cheap. The Hot & Soup which easily feeds 5 – 6 people (one bowl each) was only $5.95 as were the Shanghai Style Fried Noodles (the size of 1.5 – 2 normal dishes). The only thing that seemed a little overpriced but only because the other dishes were so cheap was the Red Bean Pan Cake which was a little over $5 and only served 2 – 3.

This second visit, the wait was much longer and it looks like the staff and kitchen will need some time to adjust to the volume of traffic but we’re glad that this means they’re likely to stay in business, especially since we live just 5-min down the street. Now if only they open early in the morning (like 9 AM) so we can go there for a Chinese style breakfast…

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Wow, this turned out to be a lengthy post. Bottom line, this restaurant is Charlie and Noah approved.

Hot & Sour Soup

Shanghai style fried (thick) noodle

Green Onion Pancake

Father and Son waiting for the meal

You can see where Noah gets his “good looks” from…

Off on a new family adventure September 12, 2009

God willing, if all goes well, tomorrow at this time we will be on our way to our first (and only) family vacation this year.

Ordinarily, Charlie and I like to explore new places and experiences while on vacation. In the past, this meant visiting museums, outdoor markets, and hunting down exciting culinary treats.

On this trip, we won’t be doing any of the usual activities. Instead, we’re going to stay in one location, eat in the same 3 restaurants*, and have nothing on the agenda except to relax.

I’ve never been very good at just relaxing and doing “nothing” so it’s something I am learning to do. This past year, both Charlie and I realized that we don’t do enough unwinding during our downtime. Sometimes our weekends are so exhausting that we use the weekdays to relax and recharge.

With baby #2 coming in January [yes, that’s my excuse this time for not updating this blog since May], we will be entering a new stage of parenthood. In preparation, we’re reading “Wild Things, the Art of Nurturing Boys” [yup, Noah is getting a buddy to play with]…you can see where we think we are headed.

So before more tornado/hurricane/earthquake [insert natural “disaster” here] happens, we’re stepping off to do a little “nothing.”

We have some books and the netbook is loaded with TED talks but mostly we will be just sleeping, eating, and hopefully enjoying a lot of “unplugged” family time.

Wish us luck…hopefully we’ll be back refreshed, with lots of stories and photos to share.

*We’re going to an all-inclusive resort so although there are technically 3 restaurants, it’s the same staff running the kitchens.

Just popping my head up to say ‘hello’ April 4, 2009

I don’t have many readers so I’m not sure who notices that I haven’t updated in a few months but a few friends who do have said that they’re curious about what I’ve been up to so I thought I’d post a quick update.

First, as you all probably can guess, things are busier now that Noah is 17-months old (time jets!). He’s now down to 1 nap a day and sometimes they are short, giving me just enough time to eat lunch.

In addition to joining 2 playgroups, 1 recreational class, and MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers), we also make regular visits with the grandparents and Noah’s cousins. I’m a homebody and would love to stay in most of the time but our boy is in the “exploring” stage of his development so we spend at least half of the day “joyriding” around town (Noah recently [finally] switched to a convertible car seat and loves long drives) running various errands.

But more importantly, I guess I haven’t been blogging because I haven’t been wanting to “distill” and reflect as often.

One reason for this is because I’m finally reading some new parenting books, beyond titles such as “Toddler 411″ and “What to Expect The First Year.” Now that I’m a little more confident with handling Noah’s day-to-day physical needs, I’m starting to think about how to nurture his other developmental needs and how to define our parenting “perspective.”

I know that some of you probably have already thought through these issues BEFORE having children but Charlie and I aren’t the kind of parents who can grapple with these issues hypothetically.  Even though being sleep deprived and busy isn’t the best time to dive into this kind of reflection, I find that the book discussions have stronger resonance because we are deep in the trenches.

I’m still going through all of the books (I tend to start and read 3 – 4 books concurrently) but some of the titles that are giving me food for thought are: Parenting Inc, MotherStyles, The Hurried Child, I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids, and a few other Chinese titles (I’ll update these later if anyone is interested). Hopefully I will come out of this reading hibernation with a better sense of my identity (and philosophy) as a parent and a stay-at-home-mom.

The other reason that I’ve been “off line” until now is because of some “sadness” (for lack of a better word) that happened last year. I’ve debated for a long time on whether to blog about this (and actually wrote 2 draft posts) but in the end, I’ve decided to just mention them and move on…

So…the biggest sadness is that my old pastor, the one who married Charlie and I, ended his marriage after having an affair.

Then after that, our friend passed away from heart failure, after her failed marriage.

A few weeks later, a childhood friend’s baby son died in the NICU after a premature birth.

Then the college-aged daughter of a church member died in her sleep despite being in apparent good health.

I don’t know why these things happened. To be honest, I don’t have the kind of close relationship with these people to have the “right” to suffer and feel any pain….but still, there was this dull, mild depression that sat in the back of my mind. The feeling is like being a witness to a multi-car accident with many casualties…and not being able to shake the memory of seeing the tragedy.

Like I said, these things didn’t happen to my close family or friends. And our lives really weren’t impacted in any way except when I sat down to reflect on life.

But I don’t have any answers. And only God knows what He has planned for us. So I’m going to blog about them here and move on. I do, however, take comfort in the hope that someday we will all see each other in heaven again (God willing), even my old pastor, whom we (my girlfriends and I) now refer to as “Darth Vader”.

I’m sorry if this post puts a damper on your week but I promise to be back with more uplifting (or at least less heavy) updates. I just needed some place to “dump” all this and I figured, the black hole of cyberspace is a good place to bury everything.

In any case, until next time..may everyone enjoy the fresh spring and cheery weather.

End of year resolution (of some sort) December 10, 2008

I’m either really late for 2008 or somewhat early for 2009 but this week I made my first (I say first because it probably won’t be my only one) resolution…

Okay, so here it is: From this point forward, I resolve to “help cultivate an appreciation for beauty” in our family.

I’m not sure if I’m putting this right but basically, I want us to enjoy the beauty of everyday living more.

A few weeks ago I placed an order on www.books.com.tw because my dear friend T agreed to help lug some stuff from Taiwan on her next visit in January. In the busyness of things I had forgotten all about the order until this week when I received an email notice from the retailer saying that they had shipped one of my items, a translated Japanese book about cultivating children’s creativity through their sense of beauty (at least that’s what the Chinese title suggests). To be honest, I didn’t really know too much about the book when I ordered it so I googled the title to remind myself why it was worth importing from Taiwan.

According to this blog post, the book’s main point is that a children’s awareness of beauty and the world around them is heightened when parents (or caretakers) share the experiences with them (i.e. a child will “notice” or remember seeing a sunset when someone sees it with them and/or points it out to them).

Around the same time, I happened to browse this blog which I tagged a long time ago but never really revisited. There I stumbled upon Moline’s photo set (of her home) on flickr. And one thing led to another…until I was left with this tremendous sense of dissatisfaction about the state of our home…

Don’t get me wrong, we have a nice home – it’s spacious, warm (important in the winter time, especially in the Bay Area), and comfortable (babies and dogs can go everywhere) but something was missing. In other words, it’s like the feeling of someone realizing that she’s been eating everyday without ever tasting the food. Horrible, right?

Since I haven’t read Yamamoto’s book yet I don’t know what her recommendation is for improving our senses but I know that I want Noah to grow up more aware of the world around him. And I want Noah to see beauty on a daily basis.

So obviously our home would be the first place to tackle.

But before I can beautify, I must first remove the clutter…this is not easy to do when most nights I just want to put my feet up and rest. But if I work on it a little every day hopefully within a few weeks (crossing my fingers), our house will be tidy so that more of my time would go straight to making the place more appealing to our senses.

I’m still working on defining “beauty” but I know that I don’t want to just end up buying useless decorations that you sometimes see on those design shows. We already have a lot of stuff. My task to bring out the beauty in what we already have, not to collect more. At the same time, it’s sometimes okay to bring into our home objects that might add meaning to our lives.

For example, this week, while decorating our Christmas tree, I decided to start a new tradition of having an annual theme for our ornaments. Last year, rather than buy boxes of shiny balls just to have something on the tree, we decided (since Charlie doesn’t really care about these things, my decision ends up being our family’s decision ^_^) to acquire ornaments one at a time, so that each one would be more meaningful. Needless to say it was pretty easy to execute my chosen theme this year (candy canes symbolizing the Shepherd’s cane and how God has guided us through the year). A few boxes of candy canes tied with some ribbons, and the look is complete.

The end result looks like this:

I know, that’s not the most beautiful Christmas tree you’ve ever seen* but I really enjoyed every minute spent decorating it and I know I’ll enjoy telling people about the meaning behind the ornaments (don’t worry, I won’t talk about it unless I’m asked).

*I intentionally kept the tree sparse in case Noah decides to pull on things because this is the first year he’s been able to reach the tree.

In any case, this is going to be a long term project. No one is pressuring me to do anything. There’s no deadline for completion and no one is going to come and give me a critique of our home and my efforts so I’m going to slowly cultivate my own sense of beauty…then hopefully someday Noah’s as well.

Already I feel happier about waking up every morning and the beauty I might find in the day’s activities.

Here’s wishing everyone the time to see a sunset…and a loved one to share the moment.

美感是最好的家教 (Chinese version)

子どものセンスは夕焼けが作る (Japanese version)

Medical cost of pregnancy and labor December 1, 2008

Since it’s Sunday night, Thanksgiving vacation isn’t technically over yet. So I probably should post something related to the celebration….about our first Thanksgiving dinner (hosting), our first turkey, etc…but it has been a LONG weekend and I’m pretty tired. I’d much rather soak in a warm bath and call it a day.

So instead, I’m sharing a post that I had written last November around the time of Thanksgiving. I can’t remember why I didn’t publish it or if I had planned to add anything else.

I guess when I wrote it I was feeling thankful for our comprehensive medical benefits. Charlie has since moved to a new company but we’re fortunate enough to have a similar kind of coverage. Sometimes it’s easy to forget how blessed we are but I’m reminded today by this old blog entry that we have a lot to be thankful for.

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Our insurance has a somewhat user-friendly website that provides searchable information on individual medical claims.

Just out of curiosity, I looked up how much it would have cost us to pay for the pregnancy and labor on our own and the numbers I found were so astounding that I just had to post about them here.

My hospital charges for a non-emergency, unplanned c-section –> $34,490

Noah’s hospital charges (4 days in the NICU) –> $35,587

Some friends who are in-between jobs were considering paying out of pocket rather than purchase insurance in case they get pregnancy. In the end they decided against it (not the pregnancy but to get insured), at the advice of another friend. Thank God!

For anyone who is thinking about starting a family, please check your insurance policy to make sure that you’re fully covered. Otherwise, you might be in for some nasty shock.

Back from vacation…happy to be home October 28, 2008

It’s been so long since I’ve updated this blog (and even longer for Noah’s blog…sigh) so I don’t even know where to begin but to put it simply, we had a 17-day vacation to Taiwan and Noah turned one.

Now that Noah’s recovered from his jet lag and cold and I’ve caught up on laundry (did 5 loads yesterday, 1 more to go today), I’m hoping that I’ll be able to collect my thoughts and add some new posts. For anyone who’s thinking of taking young children (under 1 year) to Asia and not sure of what to prepare, I am planning to provide a summary of our trip and a few product recommendations (of course, without anyone holding me to this promise, who knows how long it will take me to write this piece?).

But for now, I’d just like to say, it’s good to be home. Even with all the housework and going back to the 12-hour a day childcare schedule, I’m glad that this is my “reality.”

I am surprised to find myself feeling this way (glad to be home back in the US) considering that I’ve been “pining” for Asia for a long time, pretty much throughout my pregnancy and all of this year. And the month or two before our trip, I had spent so much time researching about Taiwan (places to eat and visit) that you’d think I’d want to stay longer or enjoy the trip more.

Don’t get me wrong, we had a great time. Noah LOVED meeting all of his relatives in Taiwan and tasting all the exotic foods (I lifted the restriction on his diet since he was already 11 months old and starting to “demand” more table food). And as always, Charlie and I enjoyed being in urban Asia where “things” (the way of living, etc.) made more sense to us.

It was wonderful having all that family love, yummy food (and no clean-up!), and help with Noah.

But the truth is, I missed home. I missed our bed. I missed cooking and eating at home. I even missed our 12-year old mini van (with Noah’s car seat) and doing housework.

Whenever I get depressed or discouraged (usually the cause is physical exhaustion), Charlie would comment that it seems like I “hate my life.”  Though I strongly disagreed with the statement, Charlie’s observation makes me concerned nevertheless. What does he see that makes him think I’m unhappy all the time? What does his comment say about my daily well-being and attitude? Do I really hate being a homemaker that much?

And so it was with some relief to find myself missing our life here in the US. Even on days like this when chores and childcare seem like endless loops, I’m glad to be home. I was a little worried that our vacation would require another vacation to recover. And in some ways it did; our first week home was exhausting. It was challenging to jump right back into work and housework on very little sleep. But now that things have settled I’m starting to enjoy my time in our little castle again. It may be humble and messy and sometimes seem both “crowded’ and “empty” at the same time but it’s HOME.

… So any trip that helps me appreciate what we already have is a good trip in my book. I hope to be back to share some highlights of our trip soon.

This was our last lunch at the famous 鼎王麻辣鍋 malah hotpot restaurant in Taipei. Look at how Noah posed for the photo. Our boy really LOVES Taiwanese food!

Japan, a great travel bargain – Taiseikan (Hakone, 2006) September 4, 2008

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I found this post in my draft box today and decided to publish it so that more people would consider traveling to Japan (and perhaps stay at places like Taiseikan). Again, thanks to our friends A & M for helping with the arrangements. We don’t know when but someday soon we will be back!

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One comment/reason I often hear from people who want to take a vacation to Japan but have been dragging their feet, is the cost. But considering how prices have stayed relatively flat over the past decade (due to recession), I think visitors will find traveling in Japan to be of great value. As an example, we had a great time at Taiseikan*, a med range B&B for what would cost at least 30 – 40% more in the US.

*The English webpage looks terrible. Take a look at the Japanese one (linked above) for a better view of the place.

During our ten-day vacation in Tokyo last Thanksgiving two years ago, we took a side trip to nearby Hakone to enjoy a full onsen ryokan (hot springs B&B) experience. Although we appreciate a good onsen and comfortable accommodations, the real draw of the B&B experience was the kaisei meals so with our friend M’s help, we booked a stay at Taiseikan, a ryokan that offers high-quality seasonal cuisine.

Below are some photos from the dinner during our one night two meal stay. It’s been too long so I can’t really remember what we ate but everything was so fresh and tasty that we would go back in a heartbeat.

Charlie rarely gets this happy without some great beer or coffee so you KNOW the meal must have been really good!!

Just as a point of reference, a similar meal (dinner) at a kaiseki restaurant in our area costs $97/person [2007 prices] without tax and tip, not to mention the luxury of dining in your own private room.

And for those who are worried about language issues – I didn’t ask but it seems that Taiseikan has had non-Japanese guests (though they may have been Asian) since the staff was prepared to speak English with us (due to the name on the registration). Of course, once they realized that we could speak Japanese, they didn’t use English but I’m sure communication wouldn’t be a problem. Besides, goodwill speaks volumes, no?

Hopefully this post will encourage some of you to consider Japan for your next relaxing vacation. You will definitely get more than your money and time’s worth!

P.s. All of the items in the photo were individual servings. No sharing necessary!

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The site we used to make the discounted reservation – Jalan.net

The ryokan website (in Japanese only)

The cost of our stay that night for two people was 39,900 yen = $344.276 (which includes dinner, breakfast, 24-hour onsen access, 1-hour facial for me and 30-min foot massage for Charlie). This is a wonderful deal considering that a stay in a nicer hotel in Northern California easily costs $300 or more, just for the lodging.

Muji Taiwan starts online service~! August 25, 2008

I know I should finish the draft posts waiting in the queue (especially the ones about maternity/postnatal meal stuff) but I can’t help but share this great news first….

Muji Taiwan now offers online shopping!

For those of you who are big fans of Muji but find NYC or Tokyo….or UK a bit far now you can shop from home!

Okay, so Taiwan is not close either but some of you might have family who live there who can help bring stuff over or ship it. Looks like they’re giving away freebies until the end of August so there’s no time to waste!

Thanks Sona Queen for sharing this great news!

Now if only someone would tell me how I could ship these Muji furniture back to the US…Anyone got a cargo container that they need help filling?

Image: Muji Taiwan