I think we ate out more in the last week than we did this entire Fall. And it’s been criminally cold out there, the kind of weather that makes you wish you owned a snuggie, but we dragged our cold selves over to the subway to meet with our friends for dim sum in Chinatown on Sunday. When you have a craving for dim sum AND you seem to have started an annual tradition of starting off the year with a trip to Chinatown, then nothing short of a natural disaster or an illness close to death will stop you from getting your dumplings.

But I will confess that I may have overdone it with our 4 day binge of eating, socializing, and walking around the city in sub-freezing temps with a bad cough (perhaps this momentary lapse in sane thinking is why I thought that a visit to FAO Schwartz during Christmas break was a good idea? And I didn’t even get the kind of wide-eyed, “this blows my freakin’ mind!!!” reaction from Claudine who’s never been there. oh well). I’ve spent the subsequent days sequestered on the couch since then, trying to prevent the cough from turning into an infection because I don’t know about you, but I still remember how sucky the GreatViralInfection of ‘09 was early last year when I was completely down for the count for 17 days. So that pseudo New Year’s resolution of getting out more? Guess I need to kick start that program in a little bit. Btw, please don’t mind the self help nature of some of these posts in the upcoming weeks. I’ve since realized that I sometimes teeter on the edge of depression (or when I’m not in denial, I am right there) which is what immobilizes me from getting things done, so I need a self kick in the ass and a daily reminder to “Make it happen!”, Tim Gunn-style. Identifying the problem is the first step, right?

In the meantime, here is my first self help gem found over on the Bedlam of Beefy. How freaking awesome is that??

Christmas dinner at my parents’ house was a fairly typical meal, but on Saturday night our whole family went out for dinner at this unassuming Korean sashimi spot on 22102 Horace Harding Avenue in Queens called Samdado. We’ve been there before, but not in a while, and I’d forgotten just how much food you get when you order a sashimi dinner special to share. We’re talking numerous small dishes, plates and platters of food and just when you thought you were done and there was no more room on the table, the waiters and waitresses would come around with even more dishes of food to put down.

All this for a mere $120, the equivalent of which would get you a 2 or 3 tier fruits de mer plateau at Balthazar or Blue Ribbon. Sure, you don’t get the ambience of a Balthazar by a long shot, or maybe the artful presentation of an impressive silver tiered platter, but what you do get is more than enough food to feed the 5/6 of us (you know, Claudine had like a shrimp). I admit that there were times I’d walk away from a raw platter experience at one of those places after dropping mad money, feeling satisfied but still hungry. And they usually don’t serve raw lobster so fresh that the lobster was still moving a little (!!). Guys, it’s true, and I bet you are thoroughly unnerved right now at the thought of that, but it was an experience even if it was a little too “Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmerman”. Mia was a bit freaked out by it even though she totally ate the raw lobster meat, but Claudine thought the whole thing was funny and would swat at the claws with her chopsticks (see the photo above for her reaction). The very same lobster ended up in a stew that was served at the end of the meal.

I’m always so impressed with Mia’s adventurous palate. That kid will try just about anything, even picking up some gnarly looking clam that none of us wanted to eat. She declared the sea urchin her favorite of the evening (mine too as it was particularly good that evening) and she also enjoyed the various Pa Jun (crisp pancakes), one of which was made from pumpkin.

And those photographs that line the wall around the restaurant? I was told that they are reproductions of images that were taken by an American soldier during the Korean War and discovered relatively recently. Pretty amazing that they are in color, given that this was the early 1950s. The shot of the woman carrying the baby, which we sat under that evening, is especially meaningful. My mother was carried by her grandmother strapped to her back when her family fled with the refugees, on foot, from Seoul to Busan to escape the Communists (some 200 miles). She still remembers this vividly. Her family was separated during the journey at some point. It’s amazing sitting here in that restaurant, given my parents’ history and experiences, that this is the same life. My dad returns to Korea every few years but my mom and I have only been back once since we immigrated to NY in the early 70s, and we were not together when we made our sole visits. We all talked about making plans to go as a family to Korea, with the kids, with my brother…some day.

Hard to believe that we hadn’t eaten at the neighborhood restaurant where Mark does his baking until just a few nights ago, but we finally went in for a lovely meal at Bussaco Thursday evening. Mark said that he’d been staring at the summer menu for weeks while working at the kitchen and wanted to go in for dinner. I love the room - it’s spacious and uncluttered, but not cold and there’s this great long communal bar table made from wood recycled from a tree from Prospect Park.

We had a variety of dishes that night - oysters, foie gras, squid with chorizo on arugula, octopus, seared sea scallops with sugar snap peas, mac and cheese made with Gruyère and the most perfectly crispy top, and very tasty fried chicken with savory and slightly sweet/sour collard greens which Mia loved. The waiters were kind enough to make the girls frothy ice-cold chocolate milk after they saw that we got special dessert wine and wanted special drinks too. All in all, a fantastic dinner with grown up food that the kids enjoyed. We went in very early because of the girls so we had the restaurant mostly to ourselves, but heard that it got busy later on. After a nice chat with owner Scott Carney, a Master Sommelier who is a veteran of the Manhattan restaurant scene before opening this restaurant in Park Slope, and compliments to Chef Kevin Adey, we were on our way, walking off the food on a lovely Brooklyn evening.

We didn’t barbeque on the 4th, but spent the day eating out a lot. Brunch with friends at Sidecar here in our neighborhood and dinner at the Mermaid Inn in the East Village where our friend Matthew is chef. Gravalax, shrimp and grits, eggs, raw oysters, calamari, fluke ceviche, beets, goat cheese, crabcakes, cod and of course, french fries. Mia ate everything as usual, but in one surprising move, taking a break from her fries, Claudine picked up an empty oyster shell and sucked in some oyster juice. And speaking of unexpected moves, who the hell taught this kid the beauty pageant wave? I happened to look down while I was pushing Claudine in the stroller and saw her doing that damn wave, fingers together, hand moving in slow deliberate movements. Wtf?

Short trip, and we are back in the city already. Although it is good to be back home, this evening is a huge contrast to our quiet nights upstate, where there was nothing but silence and pitch black darkness as we went to sleep. As soon as we stepped into our apartment around 6pm, we heard party noises from down the block and a DJ blasting Lady Gaga and Rhianna from its sound system. Welcome back to Brooklyn. The kids were hyped up once we got back home too, chasing each other like banshees up and down the hall. These were the same kids that sat quiet as mice for almost an hour this morning, bird watching out on the back deck?

Our last day was spent having breakfast at an old, authentic diner called Danny’s with Mark’s dad, uncle and an old family friend. It’s never fun saying goodbye. As we drove south, clouds gathered and rain started to fall. Funny that we managed to escape the wet weather while we were away up north, even getting a little sunburned in the process, while the city still stood under clouds. On the way back we stopped for a long break at the outlet mall. Sheesh, we are so freaking American.

Still visiting with family. Saturday was a wash with all the rain, but we drove out for Korean BBQ with my parents to eat a gluttonous dinner. Sometimes Korean food really hits the spot.

You may recall from yesterday’s post that we were waffling over what to have for our Sunday lunch out since our plans to go away had changed. It used to be that Mark and I would make the decision, but with the girls old enough to voice their opinions, it isn’t always easy to get 4 people to agree. We decided to spend the afternoon in the East Village, our old neighborhood, and one that I’ve lived in on and off since the early 90s. Sadly, we don’t come to this neighborhood much since we moved to Brooklyn 9 years ago, so walking from the Union Square subway stop to our lunch destination, Soba-ya, I pointed all sorts of places out to Mia: our old apartment building on 12th street, the cheese store on 3rd ave, the Kiehl’s store (which, by the way, is HUGE now), Sunrise Mart, among others. Weaving our way down 9th street Mark and and I wondered if the Takoyaki stand was still open…and it was!

So after our delicious lunch of freshly made soba noodles in savory broth, which Claudine slurped down till she was the last one left eating, and an appetizer of uni tororo (sea urchin in grated Japanese yam, which Mia couldn’t get enough of), we headed out to Otafuku across the street to get Takoyaki, or as we used to call them, octopus balls. The space is tiny tiny so we waited outside on the bench for our order. Mia could hardly contain herself - she was so excited to try them and kept peering into the little window to watch the the guys cook the batter with octopus. After a 7 minute wait and one bite, she was hooked.

Soba-ya and Otafuku were old standbys back in the day since we used to live around the corner, but since we were in the neighborhood, we decided to drop by the Momofuku Milk Bar to see what all the hype was about. I have to admit that I still haven’t eaten at any of the David Chang empire of Momofuku restaurants, which as a foodie (did I just call myself a foodie?) is lame, but I attribute that to being a working parent on a tight budget (and maybe that’s an excuse, but it is true). The Milk Bar menu is a little bit eclectic as there are both sweet and savory dishes, including the famous pork buns and the cereal soft serve, but we went for the cornflake, marshmallow and chocolate chip cookie, and the Crack Pie. Both items had good flavor, but they were both really densely sweet and very buttery. Despite the fact that we’re in the business, I’ve never been able to handle very sweet desserts or cookies, but I do realize that a lot of people like them that way. I’d come back here though, but I’d have to have an intense sugar craving to plow through a cookie by myself (the girls had no problem though).

Once home, it struck me that weekends are fun again now that Mark is no longer stuck working in restaurants. Now that we are out of the baby phase, it’s really fun to explore the city with the girls who are enjoying these outings. Maybe Claudine is even growing out of her culinary pickiness just a little bit, as she’s starting to try new things and even tried a salmon roe (which Mia loves) and a piece of Takoyaki. Speaking of which, Mia is still talking about those octopus balls, raving that they are now her new favorite thing. What was my favorite takeaway from this day? The Soba-ya bathroom, which has one of those fancy Japanese toilets with heated seats and a bidet. I took Mia there hoping they would still have them. She was afraid of the idea of a bidet, but as she sat down on the heated seat, the funniest look of surprise spread across her face and she said, “It really IS warm. On my butt and on my legs”.

Valentine’s Day: a trip to the Whitney to catch the last weekend of the Alexander Calder circus exhibit, which was very timely since Mia was learning about him at school. Couldn’t take any photos, but it was fun to be at an art museum for the first time since Claudine’s been able to walk and talk. Since we were on the Upper East Side, we had lunch at the Central Park Boathouse. Mia misses coming here, but since Mark has been consulting here once a week since last summer, it isn’t weird to come in and eat. The restaurant is still beautiful, even in the dead of winter, when the rest of the park is brown and dead. The weather forecasts a return to winter this week. I’m still sick and patiently awaiting spring…