When I was growing up, frozen dumplings were always a backup food somewhere in the back of the freezer. Like many other Asian families, we only had these when my mom didn’t feel like cooking but needed to get dinner on the table. The dumplings were always fine, but nothing to get too excited about. As a kid, I was always excited because it was one of the very few things in the kitchen our mom would entrust us to do for dinner, other than turning on the rice cooker. The dumplings were usually the large bulk purchases from places like Costco or Ranch 99 and varied in filling, from chicken and cabbage to beef and mixed vegetables. Sometimes, we even got a “treat” and had mixed shrimp and pork ones. The texture was always very uniform and not particularly interesting.

When I moved to New York, I realized that almost every hole-in-the-wall dumpling shop I liked, whether it was in Elmhurst, Flushing, or Manhattan Chinatown, sold their own dumplings to take home — in frozen form. You could get a bag of 50 pre-frozen dumplings for somewhere in the ballpark of $9-14 depending on the filling (and what year we’re referencing). Because of this, I could “vet” how good the dumplings were by buying them freshly made, whether it was boiled, steamed, or pan-fried. And if I liked them, then I’d be comfortable committing to a bag of 50. Some people are wary of the frozen dumplings from little dumpling shops, but I can say, after buying many frozen bags from my favorite shops, that they cook up exactly like they do by the restaurants as long as you treat them properly.

Bibigo beef dumplings were a frozen brand that we found at Costco years ago that was on sale, so we got it a couple times and enjoyed them. So when HMart opened in our neighborhood, I picked up the Bibigo frozen chicken and vegetable dumplings, also on sale. I steamed some of them to supplement dinner tonight, and while we ate them, I was reminded of all those frozen dumplings I ate growing up and how… they all paled in comparison to my favorite dumpling shops here in New York City.

That’s when I realized how lucky I am to live in a city that has literally endless excellent dumpling shops (and with so many different styles!) that can be bought in bulk, frozen, and made at home. I am spoiled for choice here, and when one shop doesn’t have the dumplings ready frozen, then another one will just a few blocks away. Sometimes on Instagram, I get messages from people around the world, people I do not know personally, who tell me how envious they are that we live in such a cosmopolitan city with so much variety for cuisines — and at approachable price points. Some people tell me that they have to drive at least 50+ miles just to get the most basic Asian vegetable, or a good Indian restaurant, etc. We really are so lucky in so many ways to live in this great city.

Since we came back from Australia, Kaia has gotten really into her “search and find books.” We’ve also been using her favorite Artichoke to Zucchini book as a way to “search and find” different foods, with me asking her where the mango is, and then she has to point to tell me she’s identified the mango. Before Kaia turned two, I didn’t actually know that “search and find” as a concept was a very popular 2-year-old activity. Luckily, we have friends and family who have gone through this phase with their children, and so we got gifted a number of these types of books.

So in addition to reading a number of books as part of our bedtime routine, Kaia always insists that she “wants to find,” too. Her favorite book for this right now is Under the Sea: Search and Find. The cute thing she does when she is extremely confident about knowing where something is — she’ll start giggling uncontrollably and use her finger to slap what she’s identifying. So if I say “Kaia, can you find the octopus?” And she’s 100 percent certain she knows where it is, she will shriek and giggle, point/slap the octopus, then aggressively bounce on the bed and lie down, almost jumping.

This past week, she’s also incorporated her stuffed animals, two rabbits named Henry and Peter (Rabbit). She will say “I don’t wanna find. Henry (or Peter Rabbit) wants to find. Then, she will use their “hands” to point to the object I’ve asked her to find. Sometimes, she has them take turns. Other times, she has one do a string of “finds” and then gets the second rabbit involved.

She proudly declared after having both of them participate: “Sharing is caring,” with a huge smile on her face.

I used to have moments when I’d be so sad about her getting older because I loved her as a baby so much. Sometimes, I still get sad about her walking now (as insane as that sounds) because I miss the sound of her hands happily slapping the floor as she crawled, indicating to me that she was coming near. But then I realized that if she were a baby forever (yes, I realize that’s an unrealistic hypothetical, but hear me out), then we’d never be able to enjoy these sweet, cute moments together. A blogger I follow, who has a young daughter just a few months younger than Pookster, recently wrote in a post, “I know I say this every time, but (the age her daughter is currently at today) is my favorite age!” That’s sort of how I feel – minus the toddler tantrums.

I saw in my Upper West Side Neighbors group that it was official: HMart at 70th Street and Amsterdam was finally opening today. So I knew I wanted to stop by to see if there were any grand opening specials or giveaways. I haven’t lived this close to any Asian market since I lived in Elmhurst from 2008-2012, and even then, I was about a 20-minute walk away from the markets along Broadway in the main drag in Elmhurst. With HMart at 70th Street, I am now less than a 10-minute walk from Asian groceries! Granted, I have some mixed feelings about HMart: The prices for a lot of day-to-day items can be very high, and in some cases simply price gouging. The freshness of the produce is not always optimal (I remember recently going to one location where the cilantro looked sad and wilted). I also dislike how a lot of the fruit and vegetables are wrapped and packaged in excessive plastic wrap and styrofoam. But it’s nice and comforting to have an Asian market so close and walking distance from where we live.

So I went to the grand opening today. They had lots of flowers on display to celebrate the grand opening. There were clearly a lot of managers (and even owners) who were walking the floor and watching how people received the new HMart. They also had a lot of security at the entrance, exit, and walking up and down the aisles. Much to my dismay, they did not have that many specials or sales. I was pleasantly surprised to see that all the Pulmuone brand organic tofu was reasonably priced — I really like that packaged tofu brand and wondered if they decided to lower prices indefinitely.

I ended up purchasing three items: a bag of dried japchae/sweet potato noodles, a frozen bag of Bibigo chicken and vegetable dumplings that were $2 off, and the biggest find of the day: a yuzu-honey jar of about 450 grams to make an instant yuzu-honey tea (just add water!) for only $4.99! It’s supposed to yield about 42 total cups of tea, and it’s definitely Japanese as all the writing on it is in Japanese, and it’s imported from Japan! I panicked a little when the cashier rang the yuzu-honey jar up and the screen read $16.99. I gave him a sad look and told him that the shelf said it was only $4.99, and if it was really $16.99, I no longer wanted it. He asked another worker to do a price check for me, so I waited at the register patiently. Lucky for me, the shelf was correct and the scanner was wrong: it really WAS $4.99! So I told him I’d take it. I paid for my groceries, and he gave me the grand opening gift: a set of five pairs of bamboo chopsticks with a fun design on the top. Not dishwasher safe, but hey, I’ll take some nice bamboo chopsticks! They’re supposed to be eco-friendly. 🙂

Since I was in elementary school, I knew I wanted to live in New York City one day. The concrete jungle, tall buildings, bright lights, and endless people fascinated me every time I saw photos or videos of this cosmopolitan city. And now that I live here, there really is never a dull moment or day in New York City — if you are bored of this city, it is most definitely a “you” problem, not a problem with New York itself. And when it comes to the sheer variety of cuisines, there’s probably very few cities in the world that could come to compete with the number of cultures represented from a culinary standpoint against New York.

Years ago when I lived in Elmhurst, Queens, I ate at the very first (supposedly first, anyway) Egyptian restaurant that opened on Steinway Street in Astoria called Kabab Cafe. It was a total hole-in-the-wall, and when I went to eat there with my then-roommate and then-boyfriend, there was no menu: we simply told the chef-owner what we liked, and he whipped it all up for us on the spot. It was a little mysterious, fun, and delicious. It was a true eating adventure, especially since I had never had Egyptian food before. Since then, I’ve eaten at Mombar, another Egyptian restaurant completely outfitted in Egyptian textiles and decorations (all hand carted back by the owner and his family themselves) twice. And on Chris’s parents last full day in New York City this time around, we ate at Sabry’s, a cooked-to-order Egyptian seafood restaurant we’d been meaning to try.

Sabry’s was likely one of the most sumptuous meals we’d had in a while. We started with freshly steamed clams in a white wine sauce, plus a seafood soup with shrimp and calamari. We also ordered a mixed seafood tagine and a seabass barbecued Egyptian style (black!).

The first thing to come to our table was a big straw basket of piping hot Egyptian flatbreads, which could have been a side in itself. The breads are freshly made and baked on the premises, and the first bite was so hot and delicious that it took a lot of self-restraint to not fill up on this. A salad also arrived with our two starters. The clams were huge, fat, and juicy; the delicious clammy sauce it left behind could have been drunk up on its own with how flavorful it was. These were probably the fattest clams I’ve had in a while; I am still marveling over how large they were and wondering how they were sourced. Kaia especially loved the clams, eating about five of them all by herself, which surprised us since she’d never really had many bivalves previously. She also slurped up the lightness of the seafood soup and even ate some calamari.

The tagine came to the table with a separate plate of brown rice cooked in a rich seafood broth. The tomato sauce it was cooked it was very rich, brothy, and well spiced. While everything that came to our table was impressive, the sea bass is probably what blew me away the most: the server brought it piping hot to our table, served whole with the head and tail on, and it was BLACK! There was some sort of reddish spice paste slathered all over it. And when you cut the fish open, a beautiful, moist, meaty white flesh was revealed that was ultra luxurious. Kaia insisted she didn’t want fish when she saw it, but when I left it on her place mat, she eventually picked at it and gobbled her whole portion up, asking for more.

In addition, Chris’s parents had a freshly blended mango juice each, and Chris and I shared a “lemonade,” which really felt more like an Indian lime juice, which was a bit tart and very refreshing with the flavors of all the seafood we got to enjoy. It was an extremely memorable meal, one I hope we will revisit in the near future. Astoria has other fresh, made-to-order Egyptian seafood restaurants which are also on our list. That’s one of the most delicious things about New York City: even if you cannot afford to travel to places like Egypt, you probably can afford the $2.90 subway ride to a place like Little Egypt, Astoria, plus a full meal there to feel like you visited Egypt. The whole sea bass itself cost only $34, and honestly, it almost felt like robbery because of how high the quality was. I never stop marveling over how great and delicious this city is.

Sometimes, I still can’t get over how helpful and genuine my neighbors are through my neighborhood Buy Nothing group. It’s almost like whenever you need something, anything, even a unicorn ask, someone somewhere in these boundaries will help you!

I remembered that I’d lost my oversized glasses case for my one pair of designer sunglasses last summer while we were in Baltimore. And with summer around the corner, I wanted to start wearing them again, but I always fear breaking them without a proper carrying case since the arms are so delicate. So I posted on the Buy Nothing group earlier this week to ask if anyone had a spare oversized sunglasses case to spare. Someone replied, saying that she was getting a new sunglasses delivery this week, and she never uses the cases and usually donates or tosses them. So she’d be happy to message me once her delivery arrived.

Well, she made due on her promise: she messaged me yesterday evening to let me know her glasses had arrived, and so whenever I was ready, I could come over to pick up a new sunglasses case. I went 14 blocks north to pick up the glasses today and thanked her for her generosity. And the bonus: these really were brand new! I put my sunglasses into the case, and they fit perfectly.

New Yorkers get a bad wrap, but I’ve always loved how kind and helpful people in this city are. I’m proud to call New York City my home.