Author Archives: Yvonne

An unusually umami cucumber salad

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On Monday night, a friend and I met on St. Mark’s Place in the East Village to have dinner and catch up. I chose a new Chinese noodle shop called Loong Noodles where you order and pay via a kiosk at the front. Then, someone comes out to your table to bring you your order. We got two orders of noodles, as well as a garlic cucumber salad and pork-and-cabbage dumplings as starters. The food was all delicious and toothy, and though my wan za noodles weren’t as notable and multifaceted in flavor and texture as the wan za noodles I recently had in the Bronx, I still enjoyed these and would come back to this spot.

The funny thing about coming to Loong Noodles was that the cucumber salad we ordered was likely the most unusual dish. When the salad plate came out, I noticed a ton of finely minced garlic, which of course would mean the cucumber salad would be extremely pungent. What I was surprised by was that when I took my first bite and chewed, the flavor was *not* what I anticipated. There was this strong umami, savory flavor, as though a chicken bouillon or broth was used. Or, perhaps they sprinkled in a little MSG into the salad dressing? Either way, every bite of the cucumber salad was a tiny explosion of umami savoriness, and it was hard to not notice it, especially since I’ve never even once had this flavor or sensation in my mouth with any other cucumber salad I’d had in my life.

We had a good amount left over, so I had it packed up to take home to enjoy. This definitely makes the list of dishes I’ve had this year that did not taste how I expected.

Meyers Iowa Pine Scented soap

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The soap in our main bathroom had just run out, so I was excited to open and use the new Meyers Iowa pine-scented soap. As I dispensed the soap and started scrubbing my hands, the bathroom was filled with this rich, refreshing scent of… CHRISTMAS TREES. Our bathroom smelled like a Christmas village, or like that amazing scent I look forward to every time we walk on the streets of New York in the month of December, and there’s a corner guy selling tightly wrapped and coiled Christmas trees!

It seems a little silly that this scent excited me so much when I washed my hands, but I really do believe that it’s these little moments in life that we need to embrace and enjoy because all of life is made up of teeny tiny moments that quickly happen… and then quickly pass us by and end.

This perfume-like experience also reminded me that pretty much *no one* I’ve ever been alongside in a public bathroom washes their hands for 20+ seconds, as was recommended during the COVID-area of life in 2020-2021. I’m always the only person who scrubs her hands for over 15 seconds and still standing at the sink. That’s kind of gross, but alas, people can be pretty gross! This pine scented soap makes me want to scrub for even longer!

Holiday purchase at Costco this season: Meyer’s Limited Edition Holiday Soap!

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On Sunday on our way back home from Albany, we stopped at Costco for our second time this year to stock up on household staples and produce. We picked up olive oil, avocado oil, a large jar of sun-dried tomatoes, toilet paper (of course), facial tissue, and a decent amount of fruit and vegetables. As for seasonal things we got, Chris got 1.5 pounds of peppermint bark, and I picked up… Meyer’s Limited Edition set of hand soaps, in four different holiday scents: pine, peppermint, snowdrop (who knows what this smells like, but I’ll take a chance on it!), and gingerbread.

I was telling my friend over dinner about this purchase. I said that this is how you know you’re really an adult and care about things that matter: you go to Costco and are inundated by all the holiday/Christmas seasonal items, from house decor to treats, and the one thing you “indulge” on is a bunch of holiday-scented liquid hand soap. Ten years ago, if someone gave me soap or toilet paper, I’d wonder what the hell kind of “gift” it was. Now, assuming it’s high quality, I’d think, ‘Wow, that’s so thoughtful (and practical) of you to think of getting that for me!’

So, here I am, admitting that what my mom says is true: with age comes wisdom, and wisdom says that Meyer’s holiday soap is a good and practical thing to buy at Costco as we approach the holidays.

Toddler moments: chasing after a squirrel

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On Friday when we arrived in Albany, in the late afternoon we went to the State Capitol area and let Kaia run around the buildings, green areas, and The Egg. It suddenly dawned on me while we were roaming around the area how rare it is that we just let her run free in any open area without being within arm’s reach of her. She reveled in it and soaked it all up, running and giggling with glee everywhere. She especially got excited every time she saw a squirrel, as she’d try to chase it until it ran up a tree. Then, she would whine and wave her arms up and down, yelling, “Why’d you go up the tree! Come back! Come back!” She’d feebly attempt to wrap her arms around the tree trunk in a weak attempt to hoist herself up the tree, then would immediately stop and just whine that the squirrel got away. I documented some of it via video and laughed each time. It was just too adorable to watch.

Her innocence in a photo is one thing, but video certainly takes capturing her moments to another level. It reminded me of when I listened to the YouTube star/food influencer Mark Wiens years ago, and he talked about how he originally documented all the food he ate on his travels via his blog. But after a little bit of time, he realized that while he enjoyed writing and and taking photos, it just wasn’t enough to capture the three-dimensional side of food, energy, and life. He needed to incorporate video to truly make his experiences come to life, and to allow his audience to experience what he was experiencing as though they were there.

I’m grateful to have easy access to technology to so easily document all my moments with her and her growth. That evening, I played the video of her yelling at the squirrel and commenting how she didn’t want it to get away over and over. This goes into my memory box of moments I never want to forget because of how innocent and truly adorable she is at this moment in time, at this age. Each day, Kaia is growing, getting bigger, smarter, and more mature. Each day, she changes. But I’ll always have these videos to go back to and watch and remember how amazing these times with her were at this point in time.

Indian Ladder Farm and Oysterfest 2024

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A short drive away from Albany is a cute farm in Altamont, NY, called Indian Ladder Farm, which offers lots of fresh produce grown on the land, as well as dairy products and meat from neighboring farms. They also make their own apple cider donuts, pies, pastries, and other desserts. The farm has a large pumpkin patch where you choose a pumpkin, as well as endless apple orchards where you can PYO (pick your own) apples and pay by the weight. In 2003, Indian Ladder Farm, named after the Indian Ladder Trail, a Mohawk trade route, became the first farm in Albany County to receive a state farmland protection grant to protect the land from development. The land has to remain available for agricultural development and can never be developed. The space is definitely well used and laid out, with a full fledged store full of local goods and produce, lots of outdoor space for kids and families to hang out and play, as well as areas for riding ponies, a large sandbox for littles to dig holes and build sand castles, and an entertainment area with a stage for live music, a pizza oven/outdoor restaurant setup, an alcoholic drinks area where you can purchase local beers and wines, and endless seating, both indoors and out. It was quick to see why families and friends who are local would be happy to spend a full day hanging out at a place like this.

We got lucky with our visit to Indian Ladder Farm, as the annual Oysterfest was happening this weekend. Blue Point oysters, which are grown on oyster farms in the Great South Bay in Long Island, are served right on the farm. So we got to indulge in a dozen local oysters while also enjoying a white clam pizza (one of my all-time faves) that came fresh out of the coal pizza oven. An interesting thing that we didn’t try that I saw was an oyster stout, which is a dark semi-sweet beer brewed with oyster shells. It’s supposed to give the beer a richer, more savory flavor with a hint of brininess. Who would have thought that was a way to reuse oyster shells?

The area Kaia loved the most was one of the simplest, which was the sandbox. She spent a good amount of time using the different bucket and shovels, digging holes, creating large sand piles, handing the buckets to me, and then repeating the process over and over again in different spots. She didn’t seem to tire of this no matter how much time passed. It was a reminder to me how simple her desires are and how it really doesn’t take much to entertain or amuse her for hours (potentially) on end. A sandbox seems so basic, but oddly enough, we don’t really have one near us in the parks and playgrounds on the Upper West Side that I’m aware of. So I’m happy she was able to indulge even if just for a bit.

Autumn in New York state is in full force now

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Growing up in California, I didn’t really know what autumn was. Fall was this nearly mythical, far-away concept that had no bearing on my life. While leaves did change color in San Francisco, it was usually from green into a sad beige or brown almost immediately. As a child, I was never exposed to the brilliant yellows, golds, bright, nearly fluorescent oranges, burgundy-reds, and even deep purples that you can see near in the Northeast of the U.S. Then, I went to Wellesley for college, in the heart of New England, and every fall once the new school year began, I was thrusted into all this endless and beautiful color. Although I am never that happy when the temperatures start cooling and the days get shorter, I always love the fall leaves and the changing colors right before my eyes every day.

Last year, we went to Springfield, Massachusetts, the first week of October in search of fall leaves, but alas, due to global warming, we came a bit too early. Everywhere we went, all we saw was green, and the locals told us that we’d be unlikely to see any autumn leaves until the end of the month. So, this year, Chris booked our fall long weekend trip for the last weekend of October, and this time, it’s in Albany, the state’s capital. And the timing was pretty spot on this year: all along the roads we drove on and everywhere we went, we saw the vibrant goldenrods, fiery burnt oranges, and deep crimsons that scream autumn.

On our way up to Albany, we stopped in the cute little town of Kingston at a well loved coffee/donut shop called Half Moon Rondout Cafe. They had a delicious variety of donuts, some of which are made to order. Here, we shared a pistachio honey latte, a pistachio bombolini (Italian style donut), a freshly churned out cinnamon sugar donut, and a slice of their signature and decadent chocolate babka. The latte had just enough pistachio flavor, the bombolini had a sweet nuttiness to it, and the fresh cinnamon sugar donut was deceptively light and airy while being not too sweet. The chocolate babka slice was clearly the star of the show, though, even with such delicious donuts. I couldn’t believe how much chocolate they had managed to pack into this slice, and all the layers of dough that just melded together and formed what is likely the richest babka we’ve ever enjoyed. I was tempted to get a whole babka loaf to bring home, but I decided that it would be a bit too gluttony of us given other delicious things we’d be eating on this trip. Every time we leave the city, I always marvel at the spacious cafes and the ample seating; not every cafe out there is packed to the brim with people on their laptops like in New York City.

We also visited the Emerson Kaleidoscope, which is supposed to be the world’s largest kaleidoscope. We did the kaleidoscope show, which lasted about ten minutes and required you to stand leaning on these back “rests.” You also have the option to lie or sit on the floor while looking up, which is what Kaia did. It doesn’t seem to matter whether you are 3 or 63, but if you like colors, kaleidoscopes would appeal to anyone at any age. Kaia seemed to enjoy it, as she didn’t fuss at all during the short show and was looking up the entire time.

Another highlight of today was visiting the Kleinke Dutch Farm, where Kaia got to see lots of farm animals (and even got bitten by a couple when she tried to fake-feed them…), touch lots of fresh pumpkins, and throw and kick in endless fallen leaves everywhere. While kicking and throwing leaves with her, I thought about how fun this was and how I wasn’t sure what I enjoyed more: seeing autumn colors and leaves, or hearing that lovely sound of them crunching under my feet. These are experiences I never got when I was little, but now, I get to be a kid again and enjoy all this with her together.

We had two notable meals today: a late lunch at the historic Olde English Pub, in a beautiful house that is one of the original buildings in Albany, constructed in 1736, previously called the Quackenbush House. There, we enjoyed maple roasted brussel sprouts, a buttery and belly-warming beef pot pie, and fish and chips; plus, dinner at Shwe Burmese Restaurant, where it felt like we were dining in someone’s house. The staff all seemed like family (and the kids even played with Kaia towards the end of the meal). We had Burmese tea (sweet, creamy, and strong, almost like Hong Kong style milk tea), tea leaf salad, a Burmese egg noodle salad (tasted like a savory-sweet mix of tamarind and sesame paste), and a Burmese fish curry. Our mains came with soup, salad, and an interesting shaved ice dessert that had grass jelly, raisins, peanuts, and a fruit syrup topping. I wasn’t expecting grass jelly, but I enjoyed this dessert!

Albany isn’t considered a “major” metro area, but it has quite a number of eclectic restaurants and cafes to keep you interested. The fall colors everywhere have been a gorgeous backdrop, so we really got lucky with our timing this year.

Signs of getting older: not being able to easily thread a needle

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When I was young, my mom would ask me to help thread a needle whenever she was mending clothes. All clothes get worn, of course, but with the occasional hole or button that would come out, she was always quick to fix these for herself and for us. Even after I moved out for college and then work, whenever I’d be back home and she’d need to do a small sewing job, she’d ask me to thread the needle. “My eyes can’t see it as well as yours; you have good young eyes,” she’d say.

I always did it easily and on the first try. I never had any difficulty doing it, and that’s also why she needed my help. If she did it herself, she said, she’d be sitting there for ten minutes or more just trying to get the tiny thread into the tiny hole. We didn’t have needle threaders at home to help us, so we just had our bare fingers and eyes to do the work.

In the last month or so, Chris has had a couple of holes that have popped up in his pants, and he’d ask me to fix them. So I’d do it, but it suddenly hit me that it wasn’t as fast or easy to thread the needle anymore. Even though I am slightly near-sighted, as in I have trouble seeing long distances, I suddenly realized that seeing this closely was becoming a small challenge. The first time, it took me five tries to thread the needle with my naked eye. The second time today was even worse: I tried at least ten times before I got it through. Part of it was because the thread’s end was ragged and limp, but the other part was that I just couldn’t see the hole properly and align it with the end of the thread. And so after I finished the sewing job, I went digging in my sewing kit and luckily found two needle threaders (which I likely procured from snatching the sewing kits from high end hotels; it’s the little things in life!). I quickly learned how to use them, and I decided that from now on whenever I have to sew, I will just reach for them first and not waste any time. There’s no reason to make anything harder for myself than it needs to be, and I just have to face the fact that while I am getting older, so are my eyes.

Trader Joe’s: limited time, ephemeral items

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Since I was young, I have always loved Trader Joe’s (let’s please put aside their shady practices with doing business with small business owners for a minute). Their products are generally cleaner and have fewer gross ingredients. The packaging is always fun. The prices are most definitely always low, relatively speaking. I still have fond memories from when I was in high school, and my dad found a delicious kiwi gooseberry jam from TJs. I was completely obsessed, and I was never a big jam person. It had this really great balance of light sweetness with tartness, and it tasted like real fruit, just mashed up. I also liked the occasional chunk of gooseberry I got in my mouth while eating it. I requested he get more of it each time he went to Trader Joe’s, which was maybe once every couple of months. One day, he returned from a Trader Joe’s trip and said that my beloved green-hued jam was no longer there, that they had discontinued it. I was completely crushed: WHY? I asked. It was so, so good. Who could have that unique, delicious jam and not be completely enamored with it?

Then in my college years, Trader Joe’s carried their own version of Nutella, but far higher quality: their hazelnut chocolate spread had 31 percent hazelnut, unlike Nutella, which only had about 10-11 percent hazelnut. Each weekend breakfast at Wellesley in the dining halls, I’d take it down with me and have it be my weekend indulgence. I’d spread it on a piece of whole wheat toast and savor the nutty chocolatey flavor. And then, of course, that item also got discontinued.

As of late, the item I’m sad about, but was warned about from the beginning, is the Trader Joe’s organic tart cherry fruit spread. The Fearless Flyer told me it was available in limited quantities, made with organic Turkish sour cherries. I love, love, love all things sour cherry related. So when I saw it on the jam shelf in the spring, I immediately got the 15 oz jar (for only $4.29 – what a steal!). I made the mistake of never opening it at the time to see how good it was. Chris just opened it this week (over 5 months after I originally got it… AHHHH), and we both agreed this jam was phenomenal. I immediately got sad, though. I knew it was a limited release, and I didn’t act on it. I could have been smart about it and opened it when I got it back in May, declared it delicious, then gone back to Trader Joe’s and gotten four more jars to stock up for the future. But… I didn’t.

I guess this is just another lesson to myself for the future with limited stock items at Trader Joe’s. And maybe, it’s also a lesson to just enjoy what I have now… before it’s all gone.

My toddler is slowly overtaking all my possessions

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When I was growing up, I fondly remember claiming all of my mother’s belongings as my own. I’d try on her shirts and sweaters. I would put on her jewelry every time I was able to get my hands on them (and occasionally, much to her anger, would break some pieces…). I’d walk around with her high heels (and then subsequently fell down the stairs that way). I even got into her bathroom cabinet and applied her face cream. She drew the line, though, when I attempted to apply her eyeshadow and lipstick: she did NOT want me putting anything on my face. I did all these things before the age of 5. Like most little kids, I loved the idea of “playing grown-up.” The world of grown-ups, from a child’s perspective, is truly riveting and endlessly exciting, full of possibilities. So it’s no wonder that Kaia shows all of these same desires every time she sees Chris and me do anything she knows she’s not supposed to do.

She will oftentimes ask if she can drink some of our coffee or tea. She always tries to put on my shoes and has recently attempted to put on my hoodies and socks. Instead of playing with her own play pots, she will want to play with my real pots. She knows that when I put sunblock on her that I have my own sunblock, and so she’s asked to use mine (and I usually say no). She has recently asked if she could wear my earrings, but I told her she can’t (yet) because she doesn’t have her ears pierced. She loves to twirl them around in her hand and play with them while they’re dangling from my ears. The rare times she gets her hands on my phone or Kindle, she says that these items are hers.

And perhaps the most frustrating (and cute) thing she has been doing lately is that at some point in the middle of the night, she will creep over from her bed onto ours. I will try to set up a pillow for her at the foot of the bed, but she will consistently refuse. Instead, she will insist that she sleeps right in the middle of MY pillow on my side of the bed. And she knows exactly what she’s doing: she will have this huge grin on her face as she looks up at me, sleepy eyed staring back at her. I have to fight her for my pillow and side of the bed. Sometimes she will stage a protest and try to sit up and not sleep. Or, she will run to the couch and just sit there and wait for me to get her. Chris always wakes up and lays down the law, though: she either has to sleep at the foot of the bed between us, or “you have to go back to Hoji’s bed,” he admonishes her. She usually listens to this and then acquiesces, placing her head on the pillow at the foot of the bed and minutes later, passing out.

Children: the petri dish of germs

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Since Kaia has started at her new school, we figured it would only be a short time until she caught something from one of her classmates. She became boogery and snotty about two weeks in. The last week of September, I also became a little under the weather and had a stuffy nose. I was constantly blowing my nose, but the good news was that it ended there. It didn’t develop into a sore throat or cough or anything worse. I was still functional, as was she. But in the last week, she is still boogery and coughing, and I can hear phlegm when she coughs. This past Saturday morning, I woke up and knew something wasn’t right. My throat was sore, and my nose didn’t feel right. After Saturday’s Rendang Hang, I woke up with my throat hurting even more, plus my body felt sore. All the talking probably didn’t help that evening, and fast forward to now, I definitely know I am under the weather: headache, sore body, phlegm, stuffy nose, sore throat. This is no fun.

I am lucky to say that this is the first time I’ve actually really been under the weather this year. To date, I’ve taken zero sick days from work, which is pretty impressive since Kaia has been in school this whole time, actively collecting germs and snot from her little friends. So I guess October isn’t too late in the year to take a sick day.