Today was my cousin’s son’s 8th birthday, and they “threw” him a virtual birthday party with his family and friends from his school, hosted by a party planning company called So Fun City. I will admit: I wasn’t sure what to expect of this given that kids’ birthday parties are already awkward to me when adults come (WHY IS THIS A THING??? WHY? ONLY KIDS SHOULD BE ATTENDING KIDS’ BIRTHDAY PARTIES!!!!!), but I decided to join the Zoom anyway just to see my little nephew and participate.

Well, it was just as awkward and boring as I thought it would be. The kids were attempting to do activities “together,” but some were tuned out, some were participating because it was clear their parents forced them to, and some were just doing their own thing completely. Two of my other cousins were dialed in along with me, so we just started texting on the side to comment on what was going on.

Virtual birthday parties should NOT be happening for kids. Who could possibly enjoy this???

I’ve spent very little time in Washington Heights, and that’s probably a bad thing since it’s a fun area with lots of good food and activity. We went up there to meet my friend and her husband for Cuban food at a fun and colorful spot, and afterwards, we explored the area, wandering around and noticing all the interesting street art.

Ten years ago when I first moved to this city, seeing street art or “graffiti” art was pretty rare… unless it actually WAS graffiti. Now, it seems to be in almost every neighborhood, just at different rates. Not only that, but some walls and buildings tend to change up their art very often! Lots of the street art we’ve seen this year have been covering themes of political injustice (ahem, Trump), racial injustice, COVID-19, and wearing a mask. These are examples when art mirrors life and makes a statement about our life today. I hope the street art movement continues to flourish here.

Since I am Cantonese on my dad’s side, I’ve always enjoyed and appreciated Cantonese food, but I think it’s fair to say that both San Francisco Chinese food and New York (Manhattan) Chinatown are dominated by Cantonese restaurants and bakeries. This isn’t totally a bad thing, but it means that there’s less variety given how vast and diverse Chinese food actually is. One thing I realize I’d never really done in Manhattan Chinatown was have Sichuanese food. We were down there tonight and were thinking about what to eat for dinner, and Chris suggested we get Sichuanese. I said I didn’t know of any places, so he quickly looked something up and we chose one.

Well, even if you are a Sichuanese restaurant here, there’s still pressure and demand to have Cantonese dishes on the menu. This menu was vast and had so many dishes from both cuisine types. So while we still got our beloved mapo tofu, dan dan noodles, and other Sichuanese delights, we also got Cantonese-style fish, as well. It’s the best of both worlds!

My friend has been following a lot of new restaurant openings in the New York area, and she excitedly texted me to let me know that Prince Tea House would be opening a location in Forest Hills, and she wanted us to go. They have this tea-flavored mille crepe cake that looked amazing online, and she needed us to have it.

Unfortunately, restaurant openings during the pandemic, especially ones that have trendy dishes, have been a bit crazy. Even with the smaller crowds, there still ARE crowds; this restaurant, on average, reported a wait time of just over 2 hours for each party! And I reviewed the menu; other than the desserts, there really wasn’t anything else there that I really wanted to try. There was no way any of us were going to tolerate this. So we decided to pick another place in another neighborhood because none of us wants to wait in this city for good food, pandemic or not.

In New York City, as I’ve been told, having a vitamin D deficiency is pretty common. Since vitamin D is taken in by the body through a combination of milk/dairy products, leafy greens, and the sun (primarily), in a concrete jungle, citizens spend a tiny percentage of their time outdoors. So when I get my annual physical results back, twice I’ve seen “borderline vitamin D deficient” on the list, and the doctor advises me to take a vitamin D supplement… which I’ve been taking… on and off to be honest because I am lazy. Then, the other vitamin that has been slightly low is vitamin B12. B12 is not really present in plants; humans consume this usually through meat, eggs, and fish; fish is especially high in this.

This time around, I already knew that I would not be vitamin B12 deficient. We’ve been eating more fish this year, especially since I usually put sardines on our avocado toast about once a week. Sardines are the best and most sustainable fish since they’re low on the food chain and thus have little to no mercury risk, and they’re just so good. Chris has become addicted to them and expresses a little disappointment when some time has passed, and I haven’t made the avo toast with sardines. That’s how good these things are.

While it’s been hard for pretty much every brick and mortar business, especially restaurants and bars, during the pandemic, the good news seems to be that liquor stores have been doing quite well. COVID-19 has given birth to a sales boom for alcohol retailers since consumers are not able to visit bars and restaurants to imbibe as often and as much as they’d like. Consumers have also been looking to stock up on their alcohol supply, and well, our household is included in that.

Now before you judge, Chris and I absolutely are nowhere near being alcoholics. On average, I probably have somewhere between 3-4 drinks total per week. Chris drinks likely about double what I drink (I think?). As we’ve gotten older, and really since the beginning of our relationship, we’ve always prioritized quality of alcohol over quantity, so I’d rather spend more on a well made cocktail or a really good bottle of wine and have less of it, rather than spend less on loads of crappy alcohol that will likely give me a bad hangover the next day.

But yes, Chris has taken charge of the alcohol deliveries. It’s been one of the few things he’s looked forward to during the pandemic — when we get a call that our alcohol delivery has arrived, and the delivery person brings it up. But what he looks forward to the most, no doubt, is when his Australian chocolate and biscuits orders have been shipped from Australia. As someone who “shows emotion on the inside,” as he likes to say, he is outwardly enthusiastic when this box has arrived twice since quarantine.

Yesterday, we spent the day wandering through Brooklyn, and our last spot we stopped at before meeting with our friends for a birthday event was A&A Bake & Doubles Shop in Bed-Stuy. It’s a Trinidadian shop that a husband-and-wife team from Trinidad opened back in 2002 and is known for their delicious doubles, roti, goat and other meat stews. We didn’t have much room in our stomachs after our mini-food crawl, so we ended up just getting a potato roti and a double. This shop is so famous and respected that it even won a James Beard award as one of “America’s Classics.”

I think that this is pretty symbolic that a Trinidadian restaurant would win an “American classic” award for food. It shows what this country was meant to be — a country of immigrants built by immigrants and fed by immigrants (well, minus the Native Americans, but we won’t get into that here). What made me sad after learning this, though, is that I’m sure many Trump-supporting, anti-immigrant Americans would not agree with a business like this getting this award. We are a country divided, and I really do not see the end of that or a potential mending anytime soon.

With five straight days of work, that ultimately left me too drained to finish my video in time to publish it today. So I ended up having to overcompensate and spend five hours this evening editing my video to upload to YouTube, and it’s still not done; I still need to adjust volume, color, and add music. This social media/YouTube channel work really is like a full time job, except now, I have two full time jobs that I’m trying to succeed at. It’s not even just the process of editing the video to consider; there’s also creative edits that you have to spend time and energy thinking about so that not everything is in order and so predictable. A lot more goes into creating these videos than anyone would initially think about. And the frustrating part is… the average watch time is still only a couple of minutes… Where is the love and appreciation when I really need it…?!

Does anyone want to be my YmF assistant? 😀