Pumpkin chicken stew (for a truck load of toddlers)

Ingredients

• 1 onion, finely diced
• 4 cloves of garlic, finely minced
• 2 small stalks of celery, diced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 150-200gm of organic pumpkin, diced
• 3 small potatoes (suitable for stew, e.g. Russell), diced
• A handful of fine asparagus spears, diced
• 500gm of chicken breast, diced
• Salt
• Coarse black pepper
• Italian herb
• 1 organic chicken stock cube
• 1 cup of water
• 1 tbspn of butter
• 2 tbspn of oil
• 1-1.5tbson of plain flour (optional)

Method

1. Heat up the pan. Add in oil, lower the fire and add the butter.
2. Stir-fry onion for about 3 mins or till it became softened (but not brown).
3. Add garlic and stir-fry till it’s light golden brown.
4. Add potato, carrot and pumpkin. Stir-fry with high heat for 2 mins.
5. Add celery, water and stock cube. Bring to boil and simmer for 15mins.
6. Season the chicken meat with salt, black pepper and herb according to taste. If the stew in the pot is too watery, add flour to the chicken meat.
7. Add in asparagus and chicken meat into the pan. Mix everything, bring to boil and simmer for another 5-10mins.

Tips:

• Ensure the vegetables and chicken cubes are similar size, so cooking will be done together.
• Prepare this in advance and freeze in glass jars for rainy day meals.

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The ‘Middle Wife’ by an Anonymous 2nd grade teacher

I’ve been teaching now for about fifteen years. I have two kids myself,but the best birth story I know is the one I saw in my own second grade classroom a few years back.

When I was a kid, I loved show-and-tell. So I always have a few sessions with my students. It helps them get over shyness and usually, show-and-tell is pretty tame. Kids bring in pet turtles, model airplanes, pictures of fish they catch, stuff like that. And I never, ever place any boundaries or limitations on them. If they want to lug it in to school and talk about it, they’re welcome.

Well, one day this little girl, Erica, a very bright, very outgoing kid, takes her turn and waddles up to the front of the class with a pillow stuffed under her sweater.

She holds up a snapshot of an infant. ‘This is Luke, my baby brother, and I’m going to tell you about his birthday.’

‘First,  Mom and Dad made him as a symbol of their love, and then Dad put a seed in my  Mom’s stomach, and Luke grew in there. He ate for nine months through an umbrella cord.’

She’s standing there with her hands on the pillow, and I’m trying not to laugh and wishing I had my camcorder with me. The kids are watching her in amazement.

‘Then, about two Saturdays ago, my   Mom starts saying and going, ‘Oh,
Oh, Oh, Oh!’ Erica puts a hand behind her back and groans. ‘She walked around the house for, like an hour, ‘Oh, oh, oh!’ (Now this kid is doing a hysterical duck walk and groaning.)

‘ My Dad called the middle wife. She delivers babies, but she doesn’t have a sign on the car like the Domino’s man. They got my  Mom to lie down in bed like this.’ (Then Erica lies down with her back against the
wall.)

‘And then, pop!  My  Mom had this bag of  water she kept in there in case he got thirsty, and it just blew up and spilled all over the bed, like psshhheew!’ (This kid has her legs spread with her little hands mimicking water flowing away. It was too much!)

‘Then the middle wife starts saying ‘push, push,’ and ‘breathe, breathe.
They started counting, but never even got past ten. Then, all of a sudden, out comes my brother. He was covered in yucky stuff that they all said it was from  Mom’s play-center, (placenta) so there must be a lot of toys inside there. When he got out, the middle wife spanked him for crawling up in there.’

Then Erica stood up, took a big theatrical bow and returned to her seat.
I’m sure I applauded the loudest. Ever since then, when it’s show-and-tell day, I bring my camcorder, just in case another ‘ Middle Wife’ comes along.

Thomas land is part of Fujikyu highland, a big playground compound, and about 1.5hrs on bus. It’s wise to book the bus tickets early to ensure you get the timing that you most prefer. The tickets are around 1800Y for one adult fare. Not cheap lor! Alex was under age and they won’t charge if the toddler does not require additional seat. The tickets for Thomas land can be purchased at the entrance. Adult at 1200Y each and child at 600Y each. Basically we paid for an arm and leg before we entered into the park.

Most rides in the park are suitable for his age and height. The rides are not free and ranged from 100-300Y. Alex had a great time playing about. He basically played and played and refused to nap till we got on the bus to Gotemba.

Gotemba premium outlet (御殿場) is a branded factory outlet. It is about 45mins- 1hr ride from Fujikyu highland. On weekend, there are bus services to Gotemba railway station. From there and then, change to a free shuttle bus to the factory outlet. The travelling took up a lot of time. We didn’t have much time to shop there coz the outlet also closed early and we had to catch the last bus back to Shinjuku. It was a mad rush within the compound. Somehow on that day, the temperature dropped again and we were all cold. It was an experience to remember.

I would describe my experience at Ueno as… perfect. The scenery was perfect. Lush and green vegetation all around. The weather was perfect. Lower 20c temperature and sunny. People walking their dogs about. Mums and babes walking towards the Zoo at the other end of the park. Alex zig-a-zagged about with no fear and clearly enjoying himself. Sometimes you know how certain feelings or smell can invoke a piece of memory. I think the feeling of cool, tingling breeze and the sun did it for me. Ueno is my wonderful place. =)

The cherry on top of the pie was a food fair ran by producers from other prefectures/states. We had a whale (tummy) of a time tasting the food. It was a very good way to taste food from other states without the cost of the railway tickets. The food was cheap too! Like 4 big scallops for 250Y and a thick chunk of wagyu beef-tori for 500Y. A while later with a protruding whale tummy, we went on to the other side of the Ueno park where there was a big pond to walk about. The spot didn’t give me a good vibe, and I can’t put my fingers to it why, but otherwise it looks great in photos.

We were using the free Tokyo Metro passes that came along with our bus tickets, so we could take as many subway rides as we want for the day. We took the subway to Asakusa, a few stations away to take a look at the ongoing sancha matsuri (三社祭). I always wanted to participate in a matsuri coz of the Japanese shows or movies that I have watched. It’s a quick way to be involved with the local culture and not to mention, eating the local food. lol. To our surprise or rather underestimation, there were so many people and we couldn’t take a clear look of what was going on. It was a stroke of luck that we chanced upon a small parade with kids practising.

How not to eat anything? There were food everywhere, though the pricing is more expensive than the food fair at Ueno park. E.g. 3 scallops at 500Y VS 4 scallops at 250Y. The nerve!  Thankfully Alex had his fill at the food fair and was sleeping through all the commotions from the parade, so we were able to enjoy the Japanese “pasar malam” food.

After walking about Asakusa for a while, we headed back to Ueno station and visited another toy store and the… Ameyoko (Ameya Yokocho/アメ横). OMG, the place is a must-visit. You can find cheap and fresh seafood here, dried sea-food like kelp and top quality scallops, omiyage (お土産) for the family and friends. We pretty much bought stuff till we couldn’t carry anymore.

We were tired out and hungry. What about dinner? We headed back to Shibuya to seek out the sushi restaurant that was closed on our first visit. It was open, but the crowd…. it would take us 2hr before we can sit down. *le sigh* We decided to takeaway the food (from a limited menu) and headed back to the hotel to eat. The quality of the food was there and Alex enjoyed his unagi rice. I should say the unagi is definitely fresh (not like the ones in SG kept in frozen storage for years), plump and soft. It was a good meal nevertheless. =)

Character street is part of Tokyo station underground, but it took us about 20mins to find the way there, coz the underground passages are that many and confusing. We first went to Miffy shop to browse (too expensive but oh so cute), then we spent a lot of time at Tomica where trains, cars and automobiles reside. Hb went bug-eyed at this shop coz he’s obsessed with cars too. Of course by now he has transferred the obsession onto his offspring and I think the no.2 won’t be sparred. ;p

Japan is an overall a child friendly and safe place. What I love also is toy shops like this have toys for children to play and I can leave the stroller with shoppings outside the shop while no one would touch or even steal it. Unimaginable in Singapore. So Alex was happily planning in a toy corner and I browsed around for a while and came back to check on him on short bursts. Win-win situation!

Half of the shops on the street featured familiar characters like Ultraman, Domo, Totoro (!), Doraemon, Hello Kitty and some other local TV stations’ characters. If you are a fan of these characters, don’t miss this place!

We LOST track of time here and by the time we made our way out, it was over 1pm. Alex and I were HUNGRY! Lunch was at Ootoya Japanese restaurant at a nearby building. The food was cheap (about 800Y a pax) and delicious. Didn’t manage to take picture of our food coz we wolfed down everything in no time! The dessert that we ordered was absolutely diving. Sesame chiffon pudding with azuki bean, green tea icecream. Hmmm, maybe I should very soon check out the Ootoya restaurant branch in Singapore that I just discovered.

In the afternoon, we paid pilgrimage to Akihabara (秋葉原) coz it’s a must-visit on hb’s list. The place is nothing to blog about… Haha. We visited a couple of electronic places and a toy/manga stall. That’s about it. This place is for tourist and maid cafe fan! Then we noted the sky looked menacing, so we decided to head back to Shinjuku for the night.

We had dinner at a Muji cafe. I just lurvvvve the cafe! From the moment I first stepped into it, I fell in love with the cafe! The deco is made of recycled materials. E.g. chandelier made of wine glasses. How clever is that? The ingredients in the food are also carefully selected and sourced from different parts in Japan, and not neccessarily big scale commerical farms. I ordered a meal of 10-grains (!) rice for Alex and myself n 2 hot n 2 cold dishes along with a warm caramel soy milk. I can still remember the taste. The food served is healthy and delicious.

After dinner, we took a stroll to kabukicho, further down this time and visited a 100Y shop. Bought 1 basketful of stuff there. =)

It was a Thursday and yet the crowd was quite a staggering sight. Thankfully there were no pushing or queue cutting. This is one of the contributing fact that our trip was enjoyable throughout.  I am not saying the Japanese are not a zealous *cough or KS* bunch coz when once passed the entrance gate, most of them just dashed forward. Maybe they want to get a good seat for the show or some rides. They also crowded around the mascot whenever there’s one around and went, “Kawaiiiiii”!

We started with some leisure walk around and were also trying to figure out what to do and where to go.  Ultimately, we just go with the flow. We watched a show first, which Alex enjoyed. Then we went for a tram ride which he loved. For a Thomas the train fan, at that point it was a dream come true for him!

We had lunch at Sakura restaurant serving Japanese food. We pretty much covered the rest of Disney Sea and this was the only place that the food was suitable for Alex, so dinner was here as well. To our bemusement, he started saying, “I love food” during lunch. He totally really approved the food in Japan!

After lunch, we went for another show. All shows were in Japanese but nevertheless Alex was hooked to the song and dance. There was a new interactive show with Crush the turtle from Nemo, so how could we miss that? It was interesting, coz Crush on the screen could converse directly and joked with the audience. It was a tad boring for us, coz… u guessed it. Crush speaked in Japanese!

While Alex napped, we visited the shows for souveniors.  Each shop has its own merchandise so it’s worth while to pop in for a quick browse. Then it was this main show which I, a non-Disney fan marvelled at. It has fireworks and all the whizz and bangs. The dancers gave their best. Spectacular floats, costumes and the characters. Disney sea felt like it’s the happiest place on earth. I wondered if the shows at other Disney lands are at the same scale or even better?!

Throughout our day in the park, we could see people holding special popcorn buckets. There were stalls selling popcorn of different flavours and mostly a different bucket.. I just had to hunt down an appealing flavour and the right bucket! My tastebud then was still picky and I didn’t find these flavours appealling, namely black pepper, milk tea and even curry! In the end, I settle for the conventional caramel. Ha…

We had a good time at Disney sea and hope to return there with no.2 one day. That one day may be in 3yrs time! Gosh, such a long wait…. =O

We set off early to Shibuya (渋谷) as we planned to have breakfast there.  It is mainly a shopping belt for the young people, which we are not neither the shopping type nor young anymore (except for Alex). TToo many malls, too little time and interest. Heh. So instead, we planned a few key places to go and spent the rest of the time exploring.If there’s a thing about me, when I am hungry, I must eat, otherwise I will lose focus and become grouchy. We found the breakfast place before I turned into a Godzilla, St Marc’s cafe, quite easily and enjoyed the food. We love its signature crossiant and buns, so much so we made a 2nd order! A must try if you are in the area. However, the cafe, even if it has a separate smoking section as like other restaurants in tokyo, the cigarette smell is daunting. So it’s not a place to slowly enjoy the food.

After breakfast, we walked further up the street and went to visit the 7 storeys high Tokyu hand. We spent a lot of time browsing in the store and bought some what-nots. We love the store, coz it provides to all of our different preferences. Hb n Alex likes trains models and I like the cutsey n craft stuffs. It’s a great place for the family to hang out, provided your tod won’t tear down the shelves.

We lost track of time and everyone was hungry again! Oh, human. We eat, crap, get hungry again and the cycle repeats! =p We went to Mark city to try out this restaurant that our friend strongly recommended. To our dismay (and my suayness), the restaurant was closed for business for two days! We blindly settled for Ginza Lion Brasserie nearby. The food was quite alright and the two lunch we ordered were big enough to share among us three. Alex has never been a small eater and he has an unusual appetite in Japan. He lapped up adult portion of food at each meal! It’s no wonder he gained weight after the trip.

After lunch, Alex fell into a food coma, and we explored other parts of Shibuya. Like we went to Loft. I have visited Loft at Bangkok so it was rather exciting to visit the mother of them all, I mean Loft in Tokyo. Heh. Oh, the stuff in Loft (6 storeys) are great. They have all sort of things that you can imagine, however too expensive for our shallow pockets. =(

In Shibuya, is also where we bought the tickets to Disney Sea for our Day3 itinerary. There are some ticket counters around Tokyo that sell Disney tickets. We had originally planned to buy the tickets at Takashimaya (shinjku area), but the malls close early. I had came upon a chain store when I was doing my research,  Daikokuya (大黒屋) which is one of Disney’s ticket agent. We chanced upon a few branches, but mostly they sell 2nd hand branded goods. It’s our good luck that we managed to find one branch that sells the ticket, and even luckier that there are 150Y discount for each ticket! Alex’s entry to Disney is FOC coz he’s under 3yo.  =D Daikokuya also sells other tickets such as highway bus trips, theatre shows, other amusement parks and movies.

After a long, long walk, it’s dinner time! Would you have it that my choice of a dinner place is closed again?! Urgh, luckily I referred to the trusty guide book and found another ramen place nearby. We didn’t regret this choice! The ramen shop didn’t stand out from its first look but we all love the Hokkaido style ramen. Hb ordered the butter corn ramen while I had my fave pork bone red miso charsiew ramen. It was great n better than any ramen I ever had.

After dinner we made our way to the Garden (can’t remember which mall was that) and bought strawberries on sale. The strawberries rock my socks! Heh.

Tip: Fresh food stuff on sale at the supermarket in a mall after 7:30pm to clear stock.

First impression was we had to walk a long way to the immigration counter. The staff was efficient and friendly and we cleared the custom in no time. Second impression was it’s cold…. brrrr. It drizzled the whole day in Tokyo, so it was cold. 18c when we first stepped out of the airport! Big difference from 34c back home.

We took the Limousine Coach service from the airport. 6000Y for 2 ways and a 2 day Tokyo Metro pass. The coach stopped at some key hotels and Shinjuku station, and we cabbed to our hotel, Citadines hotel for about 1250Y.

Then we went out to have our first meal in Tokyo. It wasn’t easy to find the restaurant coz we can’t read Japanese. I learnt Japanese for a year but it was 10yrs ago! However in the end we did and ordered some Teppanyaki Wagyu for lunch. The meal came down to less than 4000Y for 3 dishes that we ordered.

After the lunch we went back to nap, coz A3 and I couldn’t take it. Came night time, we walked from our hotel to Shinjuku area in the fine drizzle. We had a curry dinner at the famous Nakamura curry restaurant. I ordered a curry wagyu which was more like a rich stew.  I could tell that the stew was cooked for a very long time and everything was tender and just melt in the mouth. The wagyu was of excellent quality (at least grade A4). The stew went very well with the rice so much so that A3 finished 1 adult portion of rice.  For dessert, we had Nakamura’s cream puff and strawberry/red bean Daifukumochi (大福餅) which was very good too! Dinner + dessert was about 4000Y.

Discovery of A3 for the day.: he doesn’t like eggs and he likes expensive food.

After dinner, we walked around Shinjuku area and went to Kabukicho (歌舞伎町) for a short walk in the light drizzle. There’s a joke about hb’s pronounciation over kabukicho. He kept saying kaki bukit! (Ok, I made this initial mistakte too.)

It’s not a smooth start to our trip coz our flight has been delayed. We were originally supposed to fly at 11:35pm and before we could even check in, the notice was put up that the flight will fly out at 1am. The Airlines gave all three of us meal vouchers though and we had some lack lustre bah ku teh for supper. Never eat in a 24hr food court.

It’ s really tiring and we all couldn’t sleep, coz Alex is not accustomed to the bright light for his bed time and thinks that he should be playing!

Hope we will get enough rest on the plane later. Mata ne.

Counting down! We will be heading to Tokyo in 10 days.

We will be staying at Citadines Shinjuku. It’s not on the main line, and we have to change on the Marunouchi (丸ノ内線) line to Shinjuku Gyoemmae (新宿御苑前駅) station. I have been doing research in Chinese and it’s mind boggling to translate the names from Chinese to English and vice versa. Plus the English words doesn’t seem to be quite the same, which is like name of places in Bangkok.

Citadines Shinjuku

We will be taking a night flight with ANA and reaching Tokyo at 7:25am. God help us that Alex will settle and sleep well during the plane and bus ride. The limousine bus ride will take us almost 2 hrs plus we will need to take a can from Shinjuku to our lodgings! We need God’s mercy indeed.

Admin note:

1. Buy 2 2-way Limousine & Metro pass for adults at bus ticket counter. 6000¥ (S$87 each). (Not for child)
2. Take 8:00am or 8:30am bus from Narita Terminal 1. Bus 11, station 2.
3. Alight at Shinjuku station and cab to Citadines Shijuku.
4. Estimated arrival time: 11am

W00t!