Play Doh Sushi

A couple of years ago, during a trip to Japan, we visited the Tokyu Hands department store in Japan. I love Tokyu Hands. It's a cross between a hardware store, Target, sports store and clothing store. I love the entire floor devoted to stationery and pens.

While we were there, we found an amazing selection of Play Doh molds. At the time, CJ was in preschoool, so we bought some molds for making hamburgers and hotdogs. We also bought a set of molds for making sushi.

The molds sat in CJ's play doh kit until a few weeks ago when CJ's got interested in play doh again. So over the past few weeks, we have been busy making play doh sushi. Check out the results.


The molds are great. We can make salmon, shrimp, salmon roe, rice balls, octopus, etc. We are having a ball making custom colors so that we can make sushi that looks more like the real thing.

The problem is: I don't know where I'm going to put all the finished product. We've let a bunch of our creations harden and they're now on display in our kitchen. But we've made a bunch more than you see in the photo above. Maybe we'll send play doh sushi to the grandparents for Christmas. :-)

Mexico, Here We Come!

Despite the dire warnings about swine flu, Maki, CJ, Maki's parents and I traveled to Playa del Carmen last week for a wedding and vacation. Our friends, Nate and Helen, were getting married on the beach. We loved the area two years when we came for another wedding, so we were game to go again!

We flew out of National on Saturday. I love flying out of National because we avoid the haul out to Dulles or BWI and it means that we don't have to get up before dawn and will have a civilized morning. We flew American and got a ridiculous deal on the airfare - $1,100 for 3 people!

Standing in line to get on the plane, the pilot walked by us and CJ said hello. I said something silly like, "Hey CJ, maybe the pilot will let you see the cockpit." At that, the pilot said, "You want to see the cockpit, young man? Follow me." Oh boy. The pilot led us to the front of the line then let us visit the cockpit! The pilot asked if mom had a camera. Does mom have a camera? I always have my camera!!!

The pilot let CJ sit in the pilot's seat, he let him wear a pilot's hat, and the other pilot even asked CJ to turn on the wing lights. CJ eyes were bugging out at all of the switches, lights and controls. Of course, CJ had to entertain the pilot with stories about his trains. And CJ explained that we were going to Mexico for a vacation. So cute!

It was very sweet of the pilot to let CJ visit the cockpit area and I wondered if he enjoyed it as much as CJ did. It must be amazing to see the wonder in a kid's eyes at the work that you do and the things you make happen -- like make a big piece of metal fly through the air!

We got delayed in Miami. Our flight was delayed and I think it was because another flight to Miami had been cancelled and American was trying to consolidate passengers. The same thing would happen to us coming back. The sad part is that our flights were not crowded, despite the cancelled flights. It was just an indication of how few people are visiting Mexico.

Flying to Cancun from the DC area is easy. It's just over two hours to Miami, and just over an hour to Cancun. Cancun is on Central time so there would be no jetlag and time difference to adjust to.

Because we were delayed in Miami for so long (3 1/2 hours), we ducked into the Admirals Lounge. I did my best Tina Fey imitation and showed the receptionist my Platinum card - it worked! They let us in, they gave CJ candy, we were able to get online, and best of all, we got to hang out in the kids' lounge! The kids' lounge was a godsend during the long delay. CJ was able to watch Disney channel and play games on the computer. I was able to read my trashy novel, which meant my vacation was starting and I minded the delay a whole lot less. Somehow, we even found sushi in Miami airport (the little stand was called Sushi Maki, which cracked up CJ).

Here's a photo of CJ showing off his crab sushi. This kid continues to be mad for sushi and is now eating salmon, tuna, yellowtail, egg, crab, and California roll.

We finally got to Cancun around 5pm, met mom and dad, picked up our rental car from Hertz, drove less than an hour to the resort, and checked into the Iberostar Paraiso Lindo.

CJ Still Loves Sushi

It's amazing but CJ still loves sushi.  Any chance he gets, he asks for sashimi or sushi.  If we go to Harris Teeter, my grocery bill is always $20-$30 higher than it would be normally because he asks for sushi and enari pockets. 

CJ and Maki have a cut tradition when it comes to haircuts.  CJ gets his hair cut at a barber shop in a shopping center that also has a good Japanese restaurant.  So today, CJ got his haircut and then Maki, CJ, brother Alex and I had a sushi lunch.  CJ ate 4 pieces of salmon sushi, 6 pieces of crab, 4 pieces of egg sushi, and one gyoza.

We ordered a little too much sushi so we took it home and CJ had leftover tuna, yellowtail and tuna/avocado rolls for dinner.  

The picture top left is of a special clam sashimi that we ordered. It came with the huge clam shell and was super yummy.  The picture at right is CJ with Uncle Alex. Just look at the big smile on his face!  I also realized tonight that CJ has become so independent.  He drinks without a mess (usually) from a cup or glass, he eats on his own without assistance (unless I need to cut up his food), he can mostly dress himself, he goes to the potty all by himself, he can turn on the computer and fire up a browser to play games (he can read the bookmarks to get to his favorite Thomas or Little Einsteins games) and he can pop a DVD in the player to watch a movie.

CJ Loves Jessie

My niece Jessie spent last weekend with us.  CJ had a ball playing with her older cousin; Jessie was awesome and ready CJ lots and lots of books.

On Saturday, we went to Yoko, a Japanese restaurant in Reston.  My god, these kids really love their sushi.  CJ ate 10 pieces of nigiri - 6 pieces of salmon, 2 pieces of tuna and 2 pieces of egg sushi.  Jessie ate two rolls - a California roll and an eel roll.  I am pretty sure that the kids ate more than I did.  At left is a cute photo of CJ and Jessie (and two other girls) watching the sushi chef make their lunch.  

After lunch, we went to Tyson's Corner mall to get some watches fixed, look for some new shoes, and visit the Lego store.  CJ is finally old enough to play with the small Legos, so we bought him a small container of Legos.  We were hoping that CJ wouldn't see the Thomas Lego sets, but no such luck.  I'm surprised were made it out of there without buying any Thomas Lego sets.  (We did promise a set or two for good behavior and stars.)

On Sunday, after a heart-stopping breakfast of sausage egg mcmuffins, we headed out to Old Town.  We met up with our friends Emi, Elena and Rona to have lunch and take the water taxi to National Harbor.  It was a beautiful day and the kids loved the 20-minute boat ride.

We got off at Gaylord Place, which is a gorgeous property.  We walked around the hotel, checked out the many restaurants and then the kids ran around the colonial garden.  Afterward, we walked down to National Harbor.  There are more shops open than the last time we were there, but there are still quite a retail shops that are coming soon.  With the economy the way it is, I wonder how many shops will wait until next year or simply never open.

As usual, CJ loved playing in the sand park at National Harbor; this is where the Awakening statue has been moved to and it's nice to see more people enjoying the statue.  After strawberry milkshakes, it was time to take the water taxi home, meet up with Maki, and head home.  

I can't believe it's October and 80 degrees outside!

Fish, Glorious Fish

Yesterday morning, Jonathan, Tree and Kevin ventured out to the Tsukiji Fish Market. Tsukiji (pronounced tski-ji) is the wholesale fish market where something like 75% of the fish sold and consumed in Tokyo is sold by auction every day.

Tsukiji is quite the experience, I'm told. I have yet to make it to Tsukiji because the auctions start in the wee hours of the morning and end around 6:00am. Traveling with CJ, it's not practical to go out trekking out before dawn. The last time we were here three years ago, CJ was 4 1/2 months old and I was going nowhere that early with an infant!

Jonathan, Tree and Kevin left the hotel around 4:30pm, caught a cab to Tsujiki, then spent 15 minutes looking for the auction area since Tsukiji itself is blocks and blocks of restaurants, food equipment dealers, fish distribution houses, etc.

The auction area is technically closed to tourists, but they are tolerated if you stay out of the way. Imagine 400-500 tuna being auctioned off, in sections, to wholesalers who are distinguished by their blue hats. There's a lot of yelling and gesturing and then it's over. The bidding is intense and when each auction ends, another is starting nearby, while the enormous fish are hauled away for preparation. Jonathan has a video of a guy pulling what appears to be a 400-lb. piece of tuna. He motions to Tree to give it a try; she gives the fish a tug and it doesn't budget an inch.

In April 2007, Washingtonian Magazine published an article about why good tuna is so rare these days in the US. The reason? The good stuff is going to Japan. And no wonder. Japanese consumers are willing to pay top dollar for good tuna. We've had good tuna at several restaurants. But Jonathan, Tree and Kevin report superlative tuna at a sushi restaurant (yup, sushi for breakfast!) in Tsukiji. Here's a link to the Washingtonian article:
http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/restaurants/3870.html

To learn more Tsukiji, go to
http://www.tsukiji-market.or.jp/tukiji_e.htm