Summer for the City Festival Orchestra at the Lincoln Center

One of the greatest things about living in New York City is the ease of access to the arts and live performances and theater. We have historic venues and theaters to go with some of the most up-and-coming performers, some of the most talented artists in the world. It would be unheard of to be a singer/major music group, do a tour in the U.S., and NOT stop in New York City; some artists even have multiple dates just in New York City. We’re even luckier on average because we live just a few blocks from Lincoln Center and minutes away from the theater district, Carnegie Hall, and other major performance venues. So when I started subscribing to Lincoln Center’s email newsletter last year to keep an eye out for low/no-cost performances for littles, I also got email notifications regarding Lincoln Center’s annual Summer for the City series. The series consists of lots of different free or pay-what-you-wish performances and events. There’s a huge summer stage that has been built in Lincoln Center Plaza for things like swing nights. It’s definitely been popping. And it’s even more inclusive because the events are low or no cost.

I got pay-what-you-wish tickets for two orchestral events. The first one was tonight at David Geffen Hall for Huang Ruo’s North American premiere of City of Floating Sounds, followed by Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 (“Pastoral”). A friend drove in from New Jersey to have dinner and see the show with me. Act I was the modern “City of Floating Sounds” piece, while Act II was Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6. I’ll be honest and say that City of Floating sounds… was a bit too modern for me. For the first ten minutes of the piece, I genuinely thought they were all tuning their instruments. But as the music heightened and became more intense, it became more enjoyable towards the end. The real highlight, as un-modern as this may sound, was Beethoven’s “Pastoral.” It was familiar and soothing, and I loved the way the sound of the violins and cellos grew more and more intense. The flutes were also a highlight of the performance.

Lots of theater and arts experiences are expensive in New York City, but we’re very lucky in that many more are also low-cost or free thanks to generous donors. The last few times I’ve seen live orchestral performances was during free NYC events: one was a jazz event at one of the open public spaces owned by Lincoln Center, another was at Damrosch Park (two blocks from us, and just steps away from Lincoln Center Plaza), where Yo-Yo Ma was the star performer, and the other was to see New York Philharmonic perform in the summer “concerts in the parks” series at the Great Lawn Central Park. The one paid instrumental performance I saw was Lang Lang and friends at Carnegie Hall. Before that while in college, I’d seen the Boston Philharmonic perform once. And before that… I honestly can’t remember. I remember seeing the symphony regularly while in elementary school, as these were field trips that were covered by school. In the last year, I’ve thought about things that I enjoy, and live orchestra music is definitely one of them and something I’ve kind of forgotten about over the years, regretfully.

While working during the day, while I do play Spotify occasionally, I realize that my focus is not great if I listen to music with words. So instead, I’ve switched to classical music and sometimes even sound scapes. I find it very soothing. I added the Chinese song “Butterfly Lovers” to a separate “Chinese instrumentals” playlist. It reminds me of my time in Shanghai in the summer of 2006, when I learned about the Chinese legend, the tragic love story of Liang ShanBo and Zhu YingTai as butterfly lovers… and their untimely demise.

First Saturday back from South America means… spicy food!

For the last two weeks, while we’ve enjoyed the food in South America, one thing that was blatantly missing in every single meal was… spice. There wasn’t much spice in almost anything we ate. Sure, there might have been cinnamon in some of the desserts we ate. But there wasn’t anything even remotely hot spicy. There were times we thought we might get it, like when we had a ceviche in Santiago or even ordered a lamb curry at a tapas restaurant in Montevideo, but there was literally no heat in any food we ate whatsoever. Towards the second half of our trip, Chris started making comments about this.

“This could be spicy… but it isn’t,” he’d comment. “If this just had a little heat, this dish would be even better!”

There were a few times I thought something would be spicy, and it wasn’t even a smidgen. The two times we had chimichurri sauce (a delicious oil based sauce made with blended parsley, coriander, and garlic, oftentimes served with steak) in Argentina, the chimichurri was not green as I anticipated, but red. I later read that these were red because the restaurants added smoked paprika and likely some red bell pepper. Unfortunately, neither of those ingredients are spicy-hot. They are tasty… just not spicy. Oh well.

Chris loves the food almost anywhere and everywhere we have visited in the world. But he definitely likes his spice. And he is generally a bit disappointed when he doesn’t get it for too long. So when we got back, I knew he’d be craving spicy food. And I had a big, big hunch that he’d choose a Thai spot for our Saturday afternoon outing. And if it wasn’t Thai, it would be Indian, but I was doubting that. I was almost certain it would be Thai.

And Thai it was. We went to Bushwick and ended up at Chiangmai Diner and Bar. It was a beautiful corner restaurant, with lots of beautiful green tiling, fun decor, glowing lanterns in the back of the restaurant with full floor to ceiling murals. Even the bathroom matched the restaurant’s chic decor and smelled heavenly (I even noted the candle that was fragrantly lit in the bathroom for futur reference). We had spicy papaya salad with a fermented fish sauce that we’d never had before, which made the salad far more pungent than usual; a fried fish fritter appetizer known to be popular street food in Bangkok, sai oua spaghetti, and boat noodles. Everything was delicious with lots of complex flavors dancing in your mouth all at once, and other than the fish fritters, everything was spicy. Chris’s favorite thing (and Pookster’s) was the sai oua spaghetti, which had a really addictive umami spiciness along with nice al dente noodles for a fun fusion Thai dish; the sai oua was most definitely house made with fresh galangal and makrut lime leaf, with a nice soft texture. But for me, it was a pretty close tie between the boat noodles and the sai oua sausage noodles. I’ve been listening to Hot Thai Kitchen’s Sabai podcast on Thai food and culture, and in one of her episodes, Pailin says that if she could have just one noodle soup for the rest of her entire life, boat noodles would be it. But when she said it, I doubted I’d ever had a really good or authentic bowl of boat noodles (no, I definitely have not. And I knew I hadn’t as soon as she said that authentic boat noodles are enriched with pig’s blood, which makes for a more intense and rich soup). But this boat noodle soup… I could definitely have this again and again.

So yes, this is one of many signs that I absolutely know my husband. He always loves to say that he knows me better than anyone else… At the same time, I would also like to say that I know him better than anyone else… regardless of whether he wants to admit that or not (out loud).

Summer fruit excitement: longans, lychees, and rambutans

From March to July each year here in New York, we get excited for our ataulfo mangoes, all yellow, plentiful, and sweet coming from Mexico. If you come to our apartment during this time, you can expect to see at least 5-10 of them, all lined up by our living room/kitchen windows, socially distanced comfortably to prevent over ripening too quickly and all at the same time. But once July hits, the supply of mangoes starts to dwindle. There are less sales for the ataulfos. And then eventually, we have to bid farewell to yellow mangoes for the summer. If we get lucky and see some nice green/red or Kent mangoes at an Asian or Indian grocery store, we may pick them up, but usually July is the last time we will have mangoes in the Northern Hemisphere for the year.

When we returned from South America, I was sad to see that the mangoes were no longer on sale at Whole Foods and regular priced. So this was an indicator to me that we would no longer have them regularly this summer. Then, my focus switched to summer exotic fruits we can get in Chinatown, like longans (my fave!), lychees, and rambutans. I went down to my favorite street vendors at Mulberry and Canal yesterday, and it was like a galore of all my favorite Asian fruit all lined up. I got three pounds of lychees (3 lb for $10!), one pound of rambutans ($4/lb), one pound of longans ($5/lb), and two pounds of very sweet red cherries (two pounds for $5). I had just bought seven pounds of fruit for $24. The fruit vendor at that stand was likely very, very happy. My shoulders were heavy carrying all that fruit, plus all the other goodies and groceries I picked up yesterday. But I know my stomach (and Pookster’s and Chris’s) will be full from all these seasonal exotic fruit delights!

New Golden Fung Wong Bakery is closing in Manhattan Chinatown

While in South America, I was saddened to learn that one of the oldest and long-standing bakeries in Manhattan Chinatown is closing at the end of July. Once upon a time in the early 1960s, New Golden Fung Wong Bakery opened on Mott Street. Manhattan Chinatown was predominantly Toisanese and Cantonese due to restrictive immigration law and early immigration patterns. They became known among those who know (this is another case of #iykyk) for their moon cakes, winter melon cakes (lao po bing), and hopia, various flaky snack cakes filled with black bean or scallions with pork fat. I am embarrassed to say that while they had been on my radar for a while, because I always had so many places I wanted to try (and repeat places to return to) every time I went down to Chinatown, I did not actually step foot into this shop until the pandemic period, so 12 years after I first moved here. I loved their non conventional mooncake filled with black sesame ($7.50 is a steep price to pay for a moon cake, but given I knew it was all black sesame, I was happy to pay it and its rising price). And their lao po bing, aka old wife cake, aka winter melon cakes, were probably the best ones I’ve had outside of the ones my dad used to buy me at a specific bakery along Stockton Street in San Francisco Chinatown. Most places use a lot of cheap filler for their lao po bing; New Golden Fung Wong puts all the good stuff in to make this cake extra special for those who appreciate it.

I went into their shop today and after ordering my black sesame moon cake and lao po bing (fresh out of the oven, still on the baking tray!), I told the worker that I heard they were closing at the end of the month, and I asked why. She sighed and responded that the owners were retiring and had no family members or kids who wanted to continue the business, so they had no choice but to fully close down. It was really sad to hear this news in person, as well as to see the signs written in Chinese on the front that July 31 would be its last day in business.

New Golden Fung Wong is a no-frills bakery. They don’t sell anything trendy or any new bao that’s being developed by up and coming pastry chefs in Hong Kong. But it’s the type of bakery my grandma would have loved and frequented, and also the kind of place my parents would appreciate and want to give business to. Times are changing, and tastes are evolving. But it makes me sad that this institutional bakery is closing because it could mean that for the next generation, like Kaia’s, they may never even know what these classic, nostalgic Cantonese treats were and how delicious they are. I’m seriously tempted to go back to the shop one last time to get my fill of black sesame moon cake and lao po bing before July 31 to not only support the owners in their journey to retirement, but also to quell my own sadness that I won’t ever be able to enjoy New Golden Fung Wong treats ever again after July has ended.

Eating and cooking after a meat and carb intensive trip

There’s no way to sugar coat this: we didn’t have very many vegetables during this trip. Overall, we probably had more while we were in Chile, but in Uruguay and Argentina, we had very little other than the vegetables we proactively ate during breakfast at our hotel. Kaia was also seemingly on a vegetable strike: she didn’t eat almost any vegetable offered to her nearly the entire trip, and especially in Argentina. She ate lots of pasta… perhaps too much pasta, and a good amount of meat, but no greens were in sight almost at all. So I wanted to make sure we took care of that when we got back.

Today, I spent most of the day defrosting food and cooking vegetables. It was clear right away that even Kaia missed her vegetables: she ate multiple servings of each type almost right away, and she seemed to reject something she usually loves: sticky rice (Chinese and Vietnamese). Who knows — maybe her body was telling her to reject the sticky rice because she had already had her carb fill in South America. Either way, I was quite satisfied not only to be eating and cooking vegetables again, but also to see that my toddler wanted them, as well.

I’ve also been preparing my defrosted white beans to make white bean pesto soup, and some dal, which is always a comforting, healthy, and nutritious meal after a heavy eating trip. We’re definitely going to get in our legumes and veggies this week!

3.5 bulbs of garlic, minced and frozen

When most people think about travel prep, they think about booking logistics, creating schedules, and packing. While all of that is true and needed, what no one seems to talk about is… making sure your house is in order and that no food rots or gets wasted in your absence. Well, that was me this morning: skinning and mincing about 3.5 bulbs of garlic (I didn’t even bother counting how many cloves that was!) and about six inches of very fresh and juicy ginger.

It took ages to do. Even though I have my method, doing that much garlic and ginger in one standing takes time. It’s annoying, tedious, and makes me wonder why I rarely plan ahead enough to NOT buy too much of these aromatics before a long trip. But then I look at the bright side: when I come back in two weeks, I will have endless amounts of already minced ginger and garlic ready to go. All I will have to do is pop them out of my ice cube trays, defrost them, and throw them into a hot pan — that’s work up front for true enjoyment (and speedy meals) later!

The expenses of being a building’s fitness center general manager/trainer

When we first moved into this building about seven years ago, while we had all the machines, mats, and weights, I didn’t notice a lot of extra equipment like TRX bands, leg bands, kettle bells, stretch bands, and balance balls. But over time, I noticed that new extra workout accessories were being added, and I thought, wow, this is great! It’s almost like someone’s personal collection of workout accessories, but in a public setting for everyone in the gym to enjoy. I’ve always liked to foam roll, and so I regularly use the foam rollers at the gym after my workouts and during the day when I get a break and feel the need to roll out my muscles.

Chris recently mentioned he was interested in using a version of a foam roller that’s called a rumble roller – it’s basically like a foam roller, but it’s got these interesting textured “spikes” that stick out of it all around. It’s very good for massage and taking out “toxins” that are concentrated in sites of pain in your muscle. I wondered if it might be something that could be added to the building gym, so I messaged our building trainer (who I occasionally chat with and text) to ask if it might be a possibility. And I was shocked: the trainer told me that the management company didn’t pay for any of the extra equipment: he himself had paid for all of those accessories out of his OWN pocket! He said he needed these things for training his clients, so he just bought them himself.

That confused and infuriated me to no end. Why would he not even ask the management company if they could comp him for it given they were for the benefit of a working and operating gym for the use of residents…? It just didn’t make any sense at all.

Sun protection awareness for babies and young children

This afternoon, I took Kaia to the playground to get some energy out. She said she wanted to take her scooter, so I put her helmet on and took the scooter out with her. Unfortunately (or fortunately for her…), the fountain was on given it was such a hot day, and she immediately made a beeline for the fountain and completely abandoned her scooter. She still had her helmet on, so it provided a little sun protection, but I was getting a bit concerned with how much sun exposure she’d get given she was soaking.

A neighbor came and met me with her husband and six-month-old daughter. Her daughter turned six months just a few days ago and had gotten her six-month vaccinations. The baby is extremely fair-skinned, and her face, neck, arms, and legs were completely exposed to the sun. I asked her if she had any sunscreen or a hat for the baby. She said she thought it was in the stroller but needed to go check. Her husband was pretty indifferent and responded, “Does she really need sunscreen? I don’t think so.”

I couldn’t believe how much he didn’t seem to know; it was borderline embarrassing for me to hear this. I lightly nudged them that they should get a hat on her and put some sunscreen on. She went to grab the hat and sunscreen and started spraying her baby with it. Before six months of age, it’s strongly recommended to keep babies out of direct sunlight and to keep a hat on them to protect their face and eyes. And from six months onward, sunscreen is highly recommended, along with a face/eye cover. They’re so young — they’re just babies. And the sun can be so damaging for them at such an early age. It’s not even just about serious concerns like skin cancer or sunburn, but just keeping their skin looking young, supple, and healthy. I’m in my late 30s now, and even though I am obsessive about sunscreen application, I’m already seen sun damage on my skin in the form of these stupid freckles, which I hate. Now, I always wear a hat to protect my face. I used to resist it because my head would get hot, but now my vanity has overtaken my distaste for a hot head.

I look at my Kaia Pookie’s face, and I just want her to look sweet, cute, and pore-less forever. I love that she’s been more tolerant with my applying sunblock on her. She still doesn’t love it on her face, especially the rubbing in part, but she doesn’t resist me anymore when I apply it on her arms and legs. It’s all progress in the right direction!

Closeness and vulnerability

Today, Kaia and I went to Brooklyn Heights/Cobble Hill to hang out with a friend we usually catch up with while her husband and Chris are here, but we decided this would be a nice way to catch up with just us. We met at a Palestinian restaurant for lunch, had coffee at a nearby coffee shop after, took Kaia to the playground to run around and get out some energy, then walked around Brooklyn Bridge Park and enjoyed some delicious passion fruit ice cream with apricot jam swirls and pistachios. Even Pooks had a few licks before passing out from an entire afternoon of attempting to fight off a nap.

Since I was in high school, I realized that I’m just better in small group or 1:1 situations, and I enjoy them a lot more. Large groups certainly have their place, but you never truly get to know anyone unless you have some genuine one on one time with them. When you are one on one, it allows both sides to be more vulnerable, to ask harder, more interesting questions. There’s less of a need to posture or pretend that all is rainbows and flowers in your life. And you never truly know anyone unless you are able to be vulnerable around each other and expose things about ourselves that are not necessarily flattering, sometimes embarrassing or stigmatized, and other times even flat out damning (potentially).

But I feel really comfortable with this friend. She’s had a hard life, but she’s open about talking about it and you can tell she’s learned and grown so much from her tough experiences. And it kind of makes me intrigued to ask her more about what’s happened and how she’s handled it. In turn, she’s asked me a lot about things I normally don’t discuss with casual friends, like my family, Ed, and IVF. What was funny was that she projected onto me a bit. She’s never wanted children, and for the longest time, even while dating who is now her husband, she never even wanted to get married. So when I revealed to her that Kaia was conceived via IVF after a year of trying to conceive naturally and failing, she said she was surprised. She had, for some reason, assumed that Kaia was not planned. No, she was very much planned and wanted, I assured her.

As I’ve gotten older, and especially working 100 percent remotely now, it’s been harder to meet and make new friends. While I’ve met people through Kaia’s daycare/school, it’s not really the same because you’re bonded more because of the kids. But it’s been comforting to know that I’ve successfully made at least one friend since being pregnant who can be completely raw and real with me.

Brooklyn Children’s Museum

I actually did not realize this until after I visited today, but the Brooklyn Children’s Museum is the world’s first children’s museum. I booked a visit via Culture Pass, which gets me and three guests free access to the museum — that’s a $30 value for both Pookster and me, so I’d say it’s a pretty good deal.

I organized a visit here with my friend, his wife, and their toddler daughter who is about eight months younger than Kaia. After this visit, I can definitively say that the Brooklyn Children’s Museum is much better than the Manhattan Children’s Museum. And I love that the museum tries to incorporate local residents, local businesses, and local history and neighborhood facts into the different exhibits and play areas. There’s an entire area called World Brooklyn that models different shops, from a Mexican panaderia (bread shop) to even a mini version of L&B Spumoni Garden, a popular pizza/ice cream shop in Brooklyn. Of course, Kaia loved all the supermarket, food, and grocery sections, plus the “air maze” where you can stick in different light-weight balls and scarves into tubes, and they get pushed out with air and fly out another side. But I’d say that her absolute favorite was the fake MTA bus. She loved steering the wheel. And clearly all the other kids of many ages love it, too, because kids were constantly waiting to get a chance to “drive the bus.”

It’s nice to visit these children’s museums with Pookster because I know she will always have something that will engage her, and I don’t need to be 100 percent hands on since she will get excited and enthralled by something she finds herself, especially at her age. I also don’t need to have a hawk’s eye on her since it’s a safe space, and there’s no risk of her getting run over by a car or taken by some creep.

She was certainly comfortable here. She even had a blowout. It’s a good thing that I not only had a change of clothing for her, but also a wet bag to contain the damaged shorts.