Cold Buckwheat Noodle Salad

Here is the recipe I used to help make dinner tonight. My hosts, Gretchen and KC, are on a gluten and dairy free diet, so I chose this cold noodle dish using buckwheat noodles and made sure to use wheat free soy sauce and tofu. I bought the wrong kind of sesame oil - I'm used to the Chinese kind, which is dark and very fragrant. We went to the local Whole Foods, where I only spotted a plain kind of sesame oil. I compensated by adding more soy sauce - but really, the flavor should come from the sesame. You can adjust the recipe by adding rice wine vinegar to the sauce, or even using meat instead of tofu (shrimp, beef, etc). Carrots also make a good addition, for health and color. You can substitute peas for the spinach. This dish is great in the summer when you want something cool and refreshing. It is also a colorful dish with the variety of vegetables.

Cold Sesame Noodles
Serves 4

16 oz (2 packages) buckwheat noodles (usually wheat free, but check ingredient list)
1/2 red bell pepper, sliced into thin strips
1/3 cucumber, cut into thin strips
1 or 2 green onions, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
chopped ginger
sesame oil (dark kind)
soy sauce/tamari (wheat-free)
1 T sugar
spinach
salt and pepper
smoked tofu (or baked tofu if you can find one made with wheat-free soy sauce), sliced into fat strips
cilantro

1. Cook the noodles according to package instructions. Do not overcook. Rinse immediately with cold water until noodles are cold. Transfer to serving bowl and sprinkle with some sesame oil.
2. If you have plain tofu, heat it with some garlic, soy/tamari, salt and pepper to add flavor. Otherwise, just heat up the tofu in a skillet.
   
3. Optionally, you can cook the red pepper. Remove to bowl.
   
4. Heat the spinach in pan until wilted. Chop.
5. Heat 2 teaspoons sesame oil, chopped ginger and garlic over low heat. Remove from heat and add sugar and 2 T soy. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Pour over noodles.
6. Combine tofu and other vegetables in bowl. Toss to mix.
7. Garnish with cilantro.
   

Trout Reunion in Berkeley

10 of us met up at Gretchen and KC's place in Berkeley - reliving and making new memories. As with most troutings, you really have to be there to experience it in full. Here are some pictures from the weekend, which included two hiking trips, a visit to a spa, amazingly huge late breakfasts, and lots of lounging and poker.

Marcus town

I miraculously made all my flights into SFO, via Chicago-ORD and Sacramento-SMF. However, one of my bags got left behind in Chicago - hopefully it will be delivered today. It's not yet 9 am, I've been up for 2.5 hours after maybe 3 hours of sleep. I feel wide awake. This all of course is a clear sign of jet lag, as I wait for everyone else to wake up and get started on the day.

I have access to my cell phone - which is quite exciting - one of the first things I did was message people. My phone still says, "I need to be held" each time a text comes in. This is courtesy of Peter. He also set my voicemail message a few years ago. This was removed immediately after an incident on an airplane. We had just landed and were allowed to turn them on. The whole plane was dead silent and I turned red when Peter's voice shouted out, "SPANK ME! SPANK ME!" When I explained to the woman next to me that my friend often steals cell phones and changes the ring tone, she laughed. I'm not sure that the rest of the plane heard the explanation. It was a bit much for me, so I ended up deleting it, keeping only the tamer of the recordings. But I have a very clear memory of it. Another one he did was, "Touch my bottom!" I don't know where he comes up with these.

Last day in France

I'm nearly all packed now with over 70 pounds of stuff to carry back with me to the States. I'm sad to be leaving the kids - I did a few last flips with Maddie, took a long nap with Wubby, and took a walk with Buggles (while he held onto a disc the whole time).

I'm heading to Berkeley to see friends, family and hopefully a little of the outdoors as well. I'm planning on catching an early morning train from Fontainebleau and hopefully arriving at Grr+KC's by midnight - traveling for 25 hours!

back to packing...

[PostEdit]
One of my last activities was to go through my sister's pictures of the kids. This one I copied - it cracks me up the way the two cubs sleep - they are completely out.

Return to Samois

I got back to Samois Saturday afternoon - I was happy to see everyone again. It felt like I hit reset on my patience meter and could handle being with the kids for extended periods of time again. I think knowing that I won't be seeing them so often makes me handle the tough spells better. It was fun to pick up the kids and swing them around again. Also incredibly tiring as I almost immediately broke into a sweat doing it.

Saturday night, I went out with my sister for dinner at a Chinese-Vietnamese-Thai restaurant in Fontainebleau. This is the first Chinese restaurant I've been to where the staff doesn't speak mandarin. Well, one guy did, but he seemed to run off - either because his Chinese wasn't that good or because he didn't know the answer to my sister's question about available vegetables. Usually at Chinese restaurants, there is more food in the back than is on the menu - especially to cater to Chinese clientèle - who tend to like more authentic food than the Americanized version (or in this case, the Frenchified version). My parents often order what's in season (veggies and seafood) by talking to the employees. This didn't seem to work here - our waiter went off and asked someone else to talk to us. My sister ended up talking to the new guy in English - which she later explained as a conscious choice to save face - his Chinese might have been so accented she wouldn't understand, or he might have spoken Cantonese - and since she knew he spoke English, she went with that as first choice. The concept of 'saving face' is something you read about a lot in prepping for travel in Asia - but something I don't think I've ever thought about so thoroughly and quickly as my sister in those 5 seconds.

On Sunday, I went to Maddie's pony club for the first time. I took a lot of pictures and videos because Brianne seemed so excited about it during her visit, but didn't actually get to see it. We started out by watching the bigger kids finishing their lesson. Then Maddie found out her pony assignment (Caramel), saddled up and got on in the covered area (it had been raining in the morning, hence an indoor lesson). They proceeded to warm up by walking around the ground slowly and eventually gaining speed. They even did a trick where they turned around on the saddle while the pony was walking. I was impressed. Unfortunately, Caramel was acting up, and Maddie got flung off at a failed turn - she was just like a rag doll flying through the air until her helmeted head hit a wall. Scary stuff, but she got right up and back on - somewhat shaken but otherwise unscathed.



Monday's highlight was a quick bike ride to the Base de Loisirs in Bois-le-roi. This time I biked all around the park, past the Equestrian and tennis courts. I even ventured down a path into the Fontainebleau forest before turning back b/c the grounds were too muddy. It was a quick 45 minute get away, in beautiful weather, while the kids were napping. I came back covered in flies - my shirt looked like the Mavis Beacon typing car race window - where for every mistake you get a dead fly on the screen.

Oh, and I almost forgot about the morning. Laura and I were sitting at the dining table, facing my sister when her eyes seemed to just pop out of her head. I turned around and saw something flying all over the place - bat or bird? Definitely a bat (maybe a birdy bat at best). My sister was in shock wondering where it came from, as it appeared suddenly. We opened the windows and doors to encourage it to go out - but it flew around missing the exits and then landed behind the stereo where I took a picture of it, looking much smaller with wings not at full span. Taking a picture of it flying around the kitchen ceiling, while also holding an umbrella (to both help shoo it away and prevent it from flying into our faces), proved a difficult task. I came out with just one blurry photo that doesn't do it justice. I should have used video.

I have 2 more full days here - since returning I've been trying to get ready for departure - doing a dry run in packing (looks like I'll be able to take most everything home), looking up prices (to figure out what I'll be doing after CA), and researching places to go. If anyone has any advice on travel within the US - preferably the western third, do let me know. Right now, I'm thinking about the Grand Canyon, Glacier Nat'l Park, Yosemite, Bryce/Zion, Colorado, and other CA locations. I'll have 2 sets of about 10 days each in which to visit some of these locations. All advice appreciated (comment or email).

Amsterdam

On Tuesday, I got back on the Thalys from Brussels to Amsterdam. I met Theresa, my old housemate, and her boyfriend, Marshall, outside the train station. We took a tram to Leidseplein and checked into Hotel Parkzicht - not to be confused with another hotel by the same name 200 km away! A common enough mistake. The triple was really nice, with high ceilings and lots of windows.

We spent our time walking around a lot, stopping in coffeeshops (where I was once carded, "Are you 18?"), and a couple museums. The Anne Frank House was incredibly moving - a very well put together historic site, with interactive exhibits at the end. There was a really interesting video section with voting buttons for surveys - with results shown immediately for who was in the room and all previous responders - sometimes our breakdown would match exactly to the broader audience - and every so often every one in the room would agree - issues were on things like religious rights, freedom of expression, privacy rights, etc. The other museum we visited was the Van Gogh Museum - pronounced Van Hock locally. Van Gogh has been a favorite since I was introduced to his work in elementary school, where I did an independent study on him for one semester. Unfortunately part of the museum was under renovation.

Another day we rented bikes, took the free ferry just north of Amsterdam and spent a few hours exploring the idyllic towns. This was probably my favorite part of the trip - we were surrounded by sheep and cows, ducks and other birds - some even dive bombing in front of us or chasing each other - with lots of babies everywhere. The bike paths were well marked with locations and distances. We hardly crossed paths with any other cyclists. We used the bikes the next morning (24 hour rental) to bike around Amsterdam proper as well - exploring a couple nearby parks (Vondel and Rembrandt) and a fun climbing web.


We spent another day going to Keukenhof - which unfortunately suffered from the recent freak weather patterns. I think the cold rainy spell after the hot, dry month of April killed off most of the outdoor flower gardens. What remained were just stems - the gardens were filled with potted plants instead. I enjoyed the indoor exhibitions - especially the fragrance of so many fresh flowers. There was also a fun maze in the middle as well as a fun swinging contraption (that I would have gone on if it didn't mean kicking off a bunch of 7 year olds - it was enough to watch and wonder if it could have handled adult weight). We tried making the most of the 14 euro train tickets plus the 18 in bus and entrance fees.




Amsterdam is another city set among canals - lots of drawbridges and boats everywhere. It's filled with many more tourists than Bruges, but being a bigger city, seemed to balance out with at least as many locals. I realized I could have done without the walk through the red light district, where prostitutes entice their customers through big windows facing the street. This was just next to the Chinatown area which seemed quite pathetic - it made me realize how much I really miss good Chinese food and shops.

We spent our last two nights trying out couchsurfing, staying with a local artist. Unfortunately, she was quite busy and didn't have a lot of time to spend with us outside of a dinner. However, she was incredibly gracious in letting us use her apartment freely - and supplied us with bedding, pillows, blankets and internet, as well as advice on places to go.

Tips

• Keep your tickets for Thalys - the outbound trip ticket is technically required for your return ticket to be fully valid. I didn't realize this until I missed my train and the woman who sold me a new ticket scolded me for throwing the other half of my ticket away.
• Try to set up couchsurfing for the beginning of your trip instead of the end.
• Visit the Anne Frank House in the evening to avoid the line and crowds.

Belgium

I left for Belgium last week, taking the Thalys from Paris Gare du Nord to Brussels Zuid/Midi and then an intercity (IC) train to the small town of Bruges. I checked in at Lybeer's Hostel near the town center, where the front deskman gave me a map of town with a couple walking tours on it. I did the touristy walk in red around the major sites close to center first - it was quite crowded at intersections and near certain canals. I enjoyed my panini and pastry on a bench near the beguinage. I walked around town more before going into 2 churches - one of the Begijnhof and the other the Basilica of the Holy Blood. Despite getting a restaurant recommendation from a local I met at a bus stop, I stopped at the grocery store for dinner (bread and yogurt) instead of splurging on a proper meal. The old man I met was a former postal worker and knew the area quite well. However, I checked out the restaurant and it seemed more than I was hungry for - plus eating alone in a fancy restaurant has never been that much of an appeal to me.

I walked around aimlessly at night, and happened on another church - missing opening hours by mere minutes. What I could see through the glass door was impressive - and didn't come out in the photo too well. I returned home just after 10 thinking I'd be the first one in my room - but the other 3 traveller's were already there. Two were from Sydney having spent the last few months working in London and just now starting on a journey around Europe. The other was a computer engineering student from Austin who'd spent the last 4 months in Barcelona and also embarking on a tour around Europe.

The next day I headed out into the cold and did the less touristy green walk on the map, skipping bits I'd seen the day before. This was more enjoyable for being less crowded, but not so nice as it started to do the Seattle drizzly rain thing that I really still don't miss at all. It being Sunday, most everything was closed - so I didn't have much else to do but walk around for hours. I saw more churches (just from the outside), a few windmills, went up the clock tower in the center of town, peeked in through windows at the Salvador Dali exhibit at ground level, and then went back home for rest. There I met 2 new hostel mates - one who was nearing the end of his 3 month European tour, after graduating in December with a computer engineering degree but going into Investment Banking, and the other, also a recent graduate just starting on his European tour before returning back to Kansas City to be a math teacher.

We traded backgrounds and travel itineraries and tips before deciding to have a real dinner together. We went to De Hobbit where they got the all you can eat spareribs and I had some sausage dish I couldn't pronounce. The next morning we met up again after breakfast and went out to find fresh pancakes sold by the kilo. (They were really more like thick crepes than a typical American pancake.)

I caught my train to Ghent, where I immediately liked the town much more for feeling like a normal town and not just a trap for tourists. Bruges had a chocolate shop every 5th store and a place selling Belgian Waffles in between them (the hostel man said no local eats those waffles - maybe once a year on a special day). Ghent wasn't as crowded - on the other hand, the poor weather kept me off the exploring path. It was on and off rain all day. At one point, when it was clearly starting to pour, I ducked into the Gravensteen, a large castle near my hostel, hoping to spend my time indoors. I didn't realize much of the tour requires you to walk outside. Anyways, it was interesting enough - with great views from the top and a shocking torture room in the middle.

I also explored the different churches which were quite beautiful. In St Bavo's Cathedral, there were beautiful stain glassed windows - they seemed to range from the classical looking scenes to more modern ones. In fact, the church had art ranging from medieval and baroque to modern. This gave the church a timeline feel to it - as you could see a deep history juxtaposed against modernity. Down a level there was a crypt with more artwork and information on the architecture of the building. I also stopped at St Michiels and Sint Niklaas.

I gave up on fighting the rain and spent most of the night reading and listening to my iPod in my room - which I had all to myself at the De Draecke hostel. I had a quick breakfast in the cafeteria and then caught a tram up to the Guislain Museum to view artwork by the mentally disturbed. I had only an hour to spare before needing to get back to the train station - so kept a quick pace through the exhibits - but I could easily have spent thrice the amount of time there. One wing was devoted to the history of psychiatry, with explanations in Dutch, French, English and ??. They had displays of old apparatuses (straight jackets, forced water baths, lobotomy tools) and lots to read about.

I ended up 10 minutes late to the train station, but fortunately, my train was 15 minutes late, so I made my connection in Brussels to get on to Amsterdam...

Tips

• Best maps for Bruges and Ghent is the UseIt versions. They are available for free.
• 24-36 hours in each city is enough if you're a fast walker. You could use another day for biking outside town.
• Ghent has a great soup place for a cheap dinner - a big bowl of soup, 2 bread buns, and an apple for 3.50 euros (SoupLounge).
• You can walk around in Bruges without a map and not worry about getting too far from center as it is surrounded by canals and the 'other side' is visually different. There are also town maps all over town in case you do feel lost.
• Ghent, on the other hand, is longer and skinnier with a canal system that doesn't mark the limits as well.
• In Bruges, everything is cheaper further from center you get. Bakery prices especially drop - with fewer and fewer English speaking patrons.

In my belly

I went to Paris Chinatown on Thursday with my sister, Charlotte, Hugh and Laura. We went crazy with the mangoes and ended up picking up a few varieties...including some from India! They weren't labeled with a specific name, so I'm not sure if they are the hyped up Alphonso or something else. I tried one with the girls after I picked up Maddie from school. It was deliciously sweet. My only concern is that Edo will eat them all before I return. In fact, I'm pretty sure they'll be gone as there are only 2 left. However, I also picked up a package of 8 baby mangoes. They are ridiculously cute, small and quite fragrant. But I'm hoping at least one will be left by the time I get back - they seem quite hard now despite the ripe smell.

We had lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant above one of the Tang Frere's. I had a spicy pho done central style along with some iced do-jyong (soy milk). The owner was really friendly and kept giving Wubby some treats - but she was too shy to say Thank you to him - until I said she couldn't eat the lollipop until she said something to him - she ended up saying bye ever so quietly. Both girls are really hesitant to say anything to strangers - and it makes me a bit sad. In my time off, it's the strangers who have taken time to talk to me that make much of my time so memorable.

Tonight I went to a school play with Laura, Gordon and Jupiter. It was the first time I met Jup - he was quite friendly, enjoyed talking and seemed curious. He told me there were only 6 people in the world with his name, including him. Thurstan was one of the stars, as Bad Bart, in the Wild Wild West. The play was done in English so easy for us Americans to follow.



I've only just finished packing for my upcoming trip to Belgium and the Netherlands. I leave in the morning, so probably not a peep from me for a while. If any one has any advice for me, do leave a comment or drop me an email. I'll be in Bruges, Gent and Amsterdam.

Before I go to sleep, I leave you with the 5 stages of Buggles Falling Asleep in the Car...

Awake

Droopy Eyes

Yawning

Rubbing Eyes

Asleep

Night time reading

Tonight I read the girls some books at bed time. They chose a mix of English and French. One was just a small French activity book that had illustrations and questions. One of them had a picture of a girl at a computer and the question was something like "What is the girl typing on?" I read it out in French, and Maddie said she was typing, clearly not understanding the question. I translated the question to English and she said, "On Skype." Kids are so modern these days. I was expecting her to say 'keyboard' or 'computer'.

Yesterday was the town annual tag sale (brocante). Maddie was allowed to spend 2 euros and she came back with a few things. One of them was a book, Cendrillon, aka Cinderella. I read it to her in French first, and then later that night had to read it again in English. These on the fly translations are tough - I've found that I can't go word by word as I end up sounding too choppy - what with the word order being different and my French vocab not being that great. It's best to read sentence by sentence or even by paragraph to get the main ideas across. It's easier with a story like Cinderella when I already know what happens. But sometimes there are keywords that snag me like "les trois harpies". I ended up just saying Cinderella never had to see the 3 mean women again (referring to her step mother and 2 step sisters). I didn't realize it was the same word in English. Later Brianne informed me that harpies are demonic, winged, female monsters. Whoah.

The other frustrating book to translate is a Smurf book they have. In French, it's Les Schtroumpfs, and as in the American version, 'schtroumpf' is used as a base for different verbs and nouns in regular conversation amongst the little blue creatures. For some reason I find this incredibly difficult - possibly because there isn't a lot of context, it just forces me to conjugate my verbs correctly, and because it ends up making little sense to me.

Another challenging but fun one to read is Runny Babbit by Shel Silverstein (Sel Shilverstein?). This one's in English but because of the swapping of word beginnings and the desire for 3 year olds to hear it correctly means you have to be one quick flipper.

Indian Mangoes are Coming!

My friend Dave just told me about this article on mangoes coming in from India. 150 boxes cleared to go to NY. I am so excited - I had heard that the import rules might be changed after Bush's visit last year, but never heard confirmation until now. I hope they ship all over the states and I can get my hands on some - I wonder what the prices will be. I've never had an alphonso mango, but if they are as good as all my former co-workers say they are, I think the Hsu family could probably single handedly keep the mango export in business. I hope there are still some left when I get back in May - I'm keen to try the Banganpalli and Kesar varieties as well.

Brianne and I spent the last two days in Paris and just got back tonight. Yesterday we went to the Bastille street market (11th), Clignancourt to the antique market (18th), south to Sacre Coeur (18th), and then to our hotel near Charonne (Hotel Belfort) (11th). After sharing a bottle of wine in the room, and hearing the election results we decided to make our way to Place de la Concorde in the 8th to join the party. We tried to blend in (not stand out as Americans nor as non-Sarkozy supporters). We got crowd molested by a few more people than we would have liked during the random stage entertainment section, but made it out unscathed. Sarkozy came on stage to celebrate and it slowly morphed into random singers coming onto stage and then a DJ mixing cds with dancers. I recorded a sound memo, but missed some of the best parts - like the whole crowd singing the national anthem. One of the weirdest parts was them singing Happy Day and wanting to celebrate the day Sarkozy was born. It seemed a bit overboard. Listen to it here: Sarkozy Crowd Sound Clips



Then we walked to l'Arc de Triomphe and followed in another guy's footsteps to cross the roundabout since the underground entrance was closed. One of the guards noticed us there and told us we weren't supposed to be there since it was closed - oops! Since the metro and night buses stop running (but apparently there are some that run all night, according to my sister, but we didn't see any, and it was impossible to get a taxi), we walked back home. On the way we went through Bastille and noticed all the police cars and tons of broken glass on the streets. Apparently we missed the rioting where more than 700 cars were lit on fire and nearly 600 people arrested. Reading the news today, we're a little disappointed that we missed the excitement. On the other hand, we're probably better off having missed the tear gas and water cannons, instead only seeing the aftermath at 3 in the morning.

Having gotten in so late, we slept in until check out time (11 am). Afterwards, we got some pastries (pain aux raisins and pain au chocolat) and then enjoyed conversation at a creperie. We walked to Notre Dame and went inside this time - the high arches and stained glass are absolutely amazing - the last time I was inside was 10 years ago - and I forgot how impressive it is. Afterwards we did some shopping in the gayborhood in the 3rd, and then enjoyed an assortment of cheeses with white wine sitting at a table outside of a cafe.


We missed our train home, so fortunately, my sister picked us up at the station.

Adventures with Brianne

Since returning from our family trip, Brianne and I have been spending a little more time doing some solo activities. On Wednesday, we went into Fontainebleau again and attended a book reading. It was an interesting experience, watching the quirky bookstore hostess interact with the author, my friend, Laura. They weren't sure how many attendees to expect - maybe 10 or so, but the small room soon filled out with what I would guess at least double that. It was mostly middle aged multilingual French women, with a few foreigners, including an inquisitive American during Q&A. Laura made an American blueberry cake and the most outstanding Vietnamese banana cake. I learned more about Laura's life after leaving Vietnam and even helped to read a couple short passages from the book (which made me a bit nervous at first, but I got through it ok).

Afterwards, we walked around town a bit killing time. We stopped in a garden near the Chateau, admired a statue of Diane, saw a few fat peacocks wandering around, and then inadvertently misdirected a Chinese couple on how to get to the chateau. In my defense, the directions I gave them would get them there eventually - however, if they had taken a left turn from where we were they would have gotten there almost immediately. Also, that's what you get when you ask a foreigner for directions!

On Thursday, since Edo didn't use one of the mountain bikes to get to work, we set off around town. I was hoping for a nice, long, yet leisurely bike ride through the forest, but the bikes are quite old and we had some problems with the chains falling off or misbehaving the whole time. I also didn't realize how nervous Brianne was on the road - apparently she has too many friends who've been telling her bike accident horror stories. We cut the route a bit short and headed back into Samois, which ended up being nicer. Biking on smaller roads, we passed by Maddie's pony club, some paths into the forest, and then we checked on the swan by the river (aka duck pond) - who is still nesting and started hissing when a dog got near.


Today we got up hella early and just caught the bus into Fonti to catch a train into Paris. We walked from Gare de Lyon to the Eiffel Tower, by way of criss-crossing most of the bridges on the Seine (including Pont Neuf), admiring the outside of Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Military school and its "pony club", and many other monuments and buildings, sidetracking south for lunch (baguettes and snacks from a bakery) in a small park. We were a little sore to hear American Christian music and preaching blasting from some speakers on the green in front of the tower. There didn't seem to be any major event or group supporting the music - we didn't really understand why it was happening. We couldn't enjoy the grass as long as the French people around us who seemed to be able to tune out the words better than we could.

We moved to rest close to a carousel on the other side. I felt guilty lying to a beggar who asked us "Do you speak English?". We both individually shook our heads no. On our way out of the Jardin des Tuileries we had been asked the same thing, and in answering yes, were followed for a short while by the stranger. It seems selfish at times, but we were both just wanting to have some peace and quiet.

We bought tickets for the stairs for 4 euros each to get to the 2eme floor. The stairs seemed a lot easier this time than 2.5 years ago when Theresa and I did it (1st to 2nd set only). I didn't realize Brianne was afraid of heights - she seemed to be gripping the railing the whole way going up. I remember being quite nervous my first time as well - but this time it felt completely safe. At the second floor we bought elevator tickets to the 3rd floor (3.70 euros each) - my first time to that level. It was quite a view - but incredibly crowded with asian tourists all wanting posed pictures at every corner. By the time we came down it was looking very gray and within 10 minutes it started raining - nothing too bad, but enough to make us want to take public transportation back to Gare de Lyon. My credit card doesn't seem to work in the ticket machines,which is a real pain since it's my only source of money right now - I still don't have a replacement ATM card. Grrr.