torakris

Monday Dinner: Chuck E Cheese I am not sure why the pictures were so dark, I used the flash... I am using my dad's digital camera and I still don't know how to work it very well. Some shots of inside, the back part (with the stage and show area) was closed off for a private party. It is hard to tell but those cars near the ceiling are connected by tubes, ladders and slides, almost 1/4 of the room is taken up my this massive maze/jungle gym. Dishing out the tokens, all of the games need one token to play. We bought 260 tokens for the 7 kids to split. Many of the games give you little tickets if you win, you collect these tickets and then exchange them for prizes. Hide on one of the rides. This Star Wars game was by far the most popular My favorite, the skee ball area! My sister Erin is a skee ball queen, of the over 2000 tickets we all won today, about 1500 were hers from skee ball alone. All the tickets are pooled and prizes are chosen, Hide was the lucky one today and he was allowed to get the Spiderman game he was wanting.

After my book, my dad made us go in the backyard and pick some raspberries.... ....they were gone in less than 2 minutes. I needed to make a run to Office Max to pick up some stuff for my husband and decided to pass some time in Borders which was right next store. I picked up a Good Food magazine.

Not today, since I was just there a couple days ago... but last week I picked up The Border Cookbook (Jamison's), the Best Quickbreads (Hensperger) and The Food and Cooking of Spain, Africa and the Middle East. We were also at a 1/2 price books on the westside last week and I picked up a Nigella Lawson book.

What, the kids were missing their Playstation or Gamecube already? Had to satisfy the video game withdrawal? ← Actually my daughters both brought their DS's with them...

My kids seem to be fine, I am the one that ends up with all of the stomach problems! Since I do most of the cooking we really don't eat too much greasy food. Like me, my parent's don't keep (junk food) snacks in the house, so the kids eat a lot of fruit My kids speak entirely in Japanese to me, but then they turn and speak to everyone else in English...

Well, since my car wouldn't start, I missed out on Momocho/VTR. Did you guys have fun while I was fuming? ← Edsel, we had the most wonderful time! Momocho was great and I highly recommend it. I will give more of a report later as I need to get over to Chuck E Cheese for dinner , but don't worry about missing VTR as we will be there again this Friday!

I spent a nice part of the afternoon sitting on the front porch with a good book and a glass (ok a snoopy tumbler) of my dad's sun tea. He has been making this as long as I can remember, this year he is brewing it with one bag of raspberry tea and a couple regular ones and then throwing in some mint leaves when he puts it in the refrigerator. It is quite good. I added a half a packet of sweet and low. And now for what may be an eGullet foodblog first! Dinner at Chuck E Cheese! At least 1/2 price books is a just a couple stores down....

That will probably be the only choice I have if I go over the weight limit. I already have 3 of 8 boxes/suitcases packed and I don't leave until 8/8.

I remember reading about them before in another thread on Ohio foods and I have never seen one before. Not growing up Polish I may have missed out on some of these foods. Most of my food influences are from my Italy-born grandparents.

Major culture shock, actually I feel like a foreigner here. I moved to Japan straight out of college and don't really know how to do many of the typical day to day things here. I get panicky when I make reservations for things because I have no idea what to say, I no longer know how to tip and I would have no idea how to open a bank account. I haven't written a check in over twelve years and last summer was the first time I pumped gas in about 7 or 8 years....

Remember I have three kids travelling with me. That means 8 suitcase/boxes. The new weight limit is going to hurt me this year though, up until this year each suitcase/box could weigh 70lbs, this year it is down to 50lbs. They will be easier to carry though. I told myself I wasn't going to get too many books this year, but I have already bought more than 10....

I actually had a bunch of those 1-shot brew things in my cupboard in Japan...it never occured to me to bring them.

I think that this was hte first time they had ever eaten bottled BBQ sauce, I usually make up my own ose a recipe from one of Ina Garten's (Barefoot Contessa) books. I found the recipe you were referring to, right here. I am going to have to give it a try. My dad uses BBQ sauce like ketchup, just today for lunch he ate the leftover rice with some of my fried chicken all covered in a sauce he 'created' with BBQ sauce, ketchup and salsa mixed together. When I was a his favorite sandwich was a thick slice of gooseliver with mayo, peanut butter and pickles...

Yeah, my kids picked that out when I said I would buy them something...

Just down Miles Rd. is a new Asian Supermarket called CAM, we stopped in because my sister Mary asked us to pick up some tofu and takuan. Some shots of the store I can't have a blog without a picture of Pocky We did't buy much as we had just been there a couple days ago

After breakfast my dad, my daughters, my nephew Jake (age 12) and I headed out to Miles Farmer's Market. I love this store! This is where I buy most of my groceries when I am here even though I have to drive past about 10 Giant Eagle and Tops supermarkets to get there. Some pictures from the store The olive oil and vinegar tasting area, this is only about 1/3 of the shelves, there was a huge display behind me and I couldn't get it all in. The cheeses The olive bar they even have a salsa/pickle (not pictured) bar My purchases (purple cauliflower, tomatoes, green beans, grapes, radishes, and plums. The bag of cut up lettuce we bought for my sister. My kids picked up some fried chicken for lunch and I got the 'Ultimate sandwich'! Various Italian meats, provolone cheese and a roasted red pepper with olive oil and vinegar on the side. This the type of type sadwich other sandwiches dream of being... I finished it off with a glass of water.

Breakfast: coffee, instant with half a pack of sweet and low and a bit of 2% milk. The coffee station breakfast prep Hide wanted egg salad sandwiches and the girls and I wanted blueberry bagels. I am the only person in my family who eat Hellman's, everyone else eats Miracle Whip , so my mom always picks me up a small jar (or squeeze tube...) My breakfast I took a bite of the bagel before I remembered to take a picture, the sandwich Hide gave to me because he couldn't finish it. The bites are his...

Parma???? How do you find these places?

Not that I can think of... fellow Clevelanders are you here? help me out!! ← Wow - that's a tough question! I've lived in Cleveland just over ten years, but I can't think of any food uniquely indigenous to Cleveland except for Dominic Cerino's Blue Egg Ravioli. Still, when I think "Cleveland Food" - I think pierogi and kielbasa - a reflection of the large Polish and Eastern European population here. The grandmas at some of the local Polish churches still make pierogi to die for! Kris - do we need to get you some of those before you leave?? ← I think we should make Dominic's Blue Egg ravioli Cleveland's official dish! For more information check out the whole thread on the restaurant Carrie Cerino's I had my first ever pierogi last summer the Ohio Wine Festival....

It is only 12:30 but I have accomplished a lot today! Erin and I left the house at 6:40am to be at the thrift store when it opened at 7:00, Monday's are half off days. I am a thrift store junkie. I didn't find any good cooking things or even cookbooks but I did pick up a gorgeous Maggy London dress for $3.40 and an equally gorgeous Ann Taylor dress for $4.20. Came home and ate breakfast, pictures to follow....

Snacks are easy I am addicted to M&M's (plain only please) in both countries and every time I get to the US one of the first things I buy is a big bag of sour patch kids. In Japan I really like Hi-chu (a soft sort of starburst like candy). I am really not much of a snacker and will often turn to either fruit or a bit of sweetened ice tea or iced coffee if I am hungry between meals. My kids love snacks and could eat them all day long if I let them. They are big fans of the Japnese rice crackers (sembei) and prefer things like potato chips. Though my oldest daughter just walked in now and said she was hungry (after that huge ice cream float) and wanted to know if there was any broccoli left. My favorite meals? hhmm.... In the US I love my mom's stuffed cabbage (this was what I always requested for my birthday dinner), I also love sweet potatoes (they are different in Japan) and I cook with them once a week. I am also an olive and cheese freak and I just love the selection I can find here. In Japan, it would definitely be the fish. I love sashimi (raw fish) and would eat it everyday if I could. Since I am only here for a month every year I don't really get too many longings for Japanese food but if I ever moved here I think it would be really hard for me to live in a place like Cleveland that doesn't have a very large Japanese population and thus access to great Japanese supermarkets.

Today was a pretty nostalgic day, Both Amy Joy dounts and UDF (United Dairy Farmers) are places that I enjoyed as a child. A couple Sunday mornings a year my parents would take 2 to 3 of us to Amy Joy to pick out the donuts for the family. I am pretty sure there is just a handful of shops and they are all in the Cleveland area, they really are great donuts. I had a coupon for Dunkin donuts last summer and tried there for the first time and was really disappointed. UDF has great ice cream, you must try their fried ice cream flavor! It was founded in Ohio but according to their website now have shops in Kentucky and Indiana as well.

At 8:00 we met Mary, her husband and kids at UDF (United Dairy Farmers) for ice cream. They had their 2 scoop ice cream floats on sale for $.99, you can't beat that! It was so big I could barely eat half of it. The rest is in the refrigerator, I wonder if will still be ok tomorrow?? One of the things I love most about summer in Cleveland is that the sun doesn't set until about 9:00pm, in Japan it gets dark by 7:00. I really love the long evenings.

Sunday dinner: We left the zoo a little before 6, my sister Mary and husband Chad who had joined us later left with their 4 kids to return home. I returned to my parent's home with my other sisters, the whole time debating what to do about dinner. We knew there was nothing in the house.... As we arrived home my mother greeted us with the news that she had roasted a chicken and left the rest for us. Roast chicken and it was still warm! My kids and I were so hungry we tore into with our hands. I let my kids pick at while my sister and I scrounged around to find something to fill out the meal. I ended up sauteeing some (frozen) broccoli and onions (from the garden) with a really nice Asian style sauce from trader Joe's. We also whipped up a Rice A Roni (sp?) style instant rice we found in the cupboard. Voila! dinner for 5 in less than 10 minutes! the broccoli the rice the sauces Soyaki, this was quite good and the BBQ sauce my kids asked for.. EDITED to include the right picture.

Since college I have been very interested in 'ethnic' foods, I cook a little bit of everything and while my family enjoys eating it, it just isn't the way they would cook for themselves. The foods on the right show how my family eats when I am not here. My dad does have a very nice garden (I will get some pictures up tomorrow) and they eat from there daily in the summer. My family has really learned a lot about eGullet in the past couple days, but they do think the photographing of all the food is a little weird.