Ugly Delicious

After my son was born, an auntie dropped off food for us. One of the dishes she brought was ketchup shrimp. It was delicious. I hadn't had this dish in years and tasting the sauce on the shrimp reminded me of my childhood. After that, I looked up a recipe.

The recipe I found was from The Woks of Life. I read the recipe and kept the page open on my iPad for over a year. It would be one of my 5+ tabs open at any one time, and it stayed there for a long, long time. Why didn't I try making it? After all, we have shrimp at home almost at all times. I think it was mostly fear and a couple of other excuses.

- Fresh shrimp tastes better than frozen so you get more flavor out of it.

- I love head-on shrimp. If I'm going to take the time to make a beloved dish, I was going to go all out. 

- I'm not a big risk taker so if it's a new recipe, I have to mentally prepare myself first.

One afternoon, I went grocery shopping and decided on a whim to buy head-on shrimp. We used part of it during hot pot after the kids went to sleep so we could eat in peace. We haven't done a hot pot meal at our house for nearly two years. It was a lovely at-home date. For the rest of it, I decided to go for it and make the ketchup shrimp recipe.

I really love their blog and the recipes they post. I've learned a lot of Chinese food from their blog, so if there's a dish you enjoy and are curious how to make it, chances are it's on their blog. 

My ketchup shrimp turned out beautifully. 

I love head-on shrimp. I just can't explain. I know it grosses out a lot of people, especially people who didn't grow up with food that's beyond chicken and potatoes. But the extra flavor you get from having the head on is worth it. 

Let me tell you, this dish brought me back. If a flavor inside your mouth could transport you back to a distinct memory, this one did it for me. I felt like I was a little kid again sitting in our kitchen table at our old house with yellow-flowered wallpaper, propping my chair up on its back legs and leaning against the window ledge. The sauce combination in this dish was so distinct to me as a flavor I loved and hadn't had in so long.

Anyone else have that one dish which brings them back?

A Themed Birthday

I had two birthday parties growing up, and neither of them had themes. My first themed birthday was actually this year! It was unintentional but just conveniently worked.

Unfortunately, my youngest got sick the weekend before my birthday so on my actual birthday, we didn't do very much. We did get takeout from bbq chicken, a new chain of Korean fried chicken which opened sometime last year. The first time we ordered from them, I wasn't impressed. So we reverted back to our old kfc favorite restaurant for a few orders. Then, recently, we decided to give bbq chicken another try, and I was much more impressed. I don't know if it's because it's the second time we had it, my tastes have changed, or if it was actually better. But I enjoyed it much more the second time.

Then there was my card. My husband and I have been DIYing birthday cards for many years now. Occasionally we've purchased cards if we were short on time, or like the time I was pregnant and puking during my husband's birthday so he received his birthday card about a month later. True story. Well this year, my husband made me a card and put a specific penguin on the front of the card. It's a penguin from a scene of a k-drama we watched together.

Well, we found the specific penguin online. The only retailers who sold it were Asian companies and potential scam websites. After doing some research and scouting, we decided to take a chance from this one website which looked the least sketchy. It wasn't a cheap stuffed animal, but it wasn't unreasonably expensive for being a "famous" plush. We still weren't completely sure if it was going to be a scam or not, but to mitigate the consequences of a potential scam, we used our fanciest credit card so if we were going to have to report a scam, the credit card customer service would have been a little nicer. That was the hope, anyway. 

Thankfully, we didn't have to find out because it wasn't a scam! 11 business day later, it arrived! 

Shipped all the way from Asia in Asian style wrapping
and sewn shut with string like a rice bag! iykyk.

I might be the only one who feels this way, but even after marriage and two children, I feel like I'm aging backwards. At the very least, on the inside. 😜

Happy 18th birthday to me! 😂 just kidding.

Punished for Promptness

I’ve been someone who likes to get things done on time. My English teacher during my junior year of high school had a wonderful system where if we turned in our essays before the due date, we would earn five extra points because it allowed her to spread out her grading instead of receiving and grading 30 papers all at once.  You bet I capitalized on those bonus five points every time. I didn’t always write phenomenal papers, but those five points occasionally meant the difference between a B and an A. 

However, there've been three distinct times in my life when being prompt did not work in my favor. 

1. When I was in high school, we wrote essays for orchestra. Each year we got assigned our orchestra essay in the beginning of the year, and each year, most people would wait until about April to actually write them and turn them in before they were due. In April. The first year, that's kind of what I did. I was a freshman and I didn't really know what I was doing my entire freshman year. Sophomore year, I knew better. I planned the concert I'd attend and would write about and had everything done early. On the first day the teacher was accepting essays, I turned mine in. There was no special recognition or anything for being the first, and that's okay because I didn't expect anything. I was simply glad it was completed.

About a week later, my teacher had some candy and she randomly made the announcement that if anyone turned in their orchestra essay, they'd receive a piece. Nobody had their essay ready right at that moment, but I'd already handed mine in, and I did not receive a complimentary piece of candy for having already turned it in. I didn’t care about the candy. It was never about the candy. But why make a random statement a week later AND forget about the essay which had already been turned in? Maybe she didn't want to single me out. But if you're going to offer candy aren't you trying to single someone out?

2. Years later when I was at a conference, the director emailed about sending him rooming requests for the hotel. I sent him a reply with my roommate request that very same day. I never received a confirmation email from him saying he'd received my email, but confirmation emails get lost these days. So, fine. I didn't think about sending a follow up one to see if he'd received it because he was a busy person with lots to do. 

At the conference, I saw my room assignment and it was not rooming with the person I had requested. I didn't complain about it or tell anyone, but my friend and I knew something went wrong and it wasn't on our end. 

3. I purchased an item from a newly launched website to support a business. I received my item and was generally pleased with it. After a few months, I noticed the prices had lowered. Now these weren't temporarily lower prices. These were permanently lowered prices as far as I could see on the store's website. Including the special promo discounts which were still valid, I could have saved over $20 had I been lazier about supporting this business. That's a huge disappointment from a customer perspective because my fervent support upon the initial launch meant I paid more money. Shouldn't it be the other way around? 

It's a shame because I was going to buy more products, but after this happened, I haven't because I don't feel valued as a customer. My early loyalty was actually penalized. 

**

My memory is probably better than most to remember these seemingly minute details about life, but even the "insignificant" events shape me to be who I am today. Have these affected my perception of being prompt and timely? In some ways, yes, they have.

My Favorite Name

My kids are at great ages right now. 18 months is fun because it's still "baby" enough to have the cute and adorable aspects of having a baby but grown enough to play independently, walk, and chew unmashed food. 3 is nice because she's old enough to follow instructions, be potty trained, and even assist me around the house in simple tasks. 

My kids have also been on and off sick for the last 4 months straight. That's what it seems like anyway. When we have one sick child, the house kind of divides because I try my hardest to separate them as to not spread the germs. We end up doing 1:1 with the child which favors each of us best. That means 120% of the time, I get my daughter, because when she's inconsolable, she doesn't want to see anyone else except me.

I like spending time with my daughter. It makes me feel slightly guilty not to see my son as much, especially him being the second child. But my daughter is fun. She talks a lot and we have conversations. One evening, I took her out on a walk, just the two of us. We held hands and walked two whole streets up and down in our neighborhood. 

While walking, she would tell me thinks she was observing or ask me questions regarding our surroundings. 

Mommy, look, it's a bird. 

Mommy, look, it's a flag. 

Mommy, why is there a flag there? 

Mommy, look, it's a squirrel. 

And she'd continue telling me things or asking me things. And she'd hold my hand and we'd walk slowly around the neighborhood and soak in the outdoors. Sometimes she'll say sentences in English, sometimes they're in Chinese. But Mommy is always in English.

Thankful for days I don't teach so I can take evening walks

This phase won't last forever. Children are constantly changing, faster than I can realize. I don't know when or if she'll stop being so inquisitive and observant. I don't know when she'll stop wanting to tell me everything she has to say. But for now, it's nice.