Super Baby Experiment One

Through a reference here, we discovered the Super Baby Food book. Basically, this book encourages people to feed their babies real food, not jarred Gerber stuff. The author claims making your own baby food is healthier and cheaper than store bought. Well, OK. That makes sense. She also claims that feeding your baby homemade food is easy. Hmmm... let's see.

The key to this process is pureeing a bunch of food at once and then freezing it in ice cube trays to create baby-sized portions. When baby needs food, you pull out a couple of cubes (i.e., servings) and feed her.

This is super baby food experiment #1 - papaya. I started with a ripe papaya from the grocery store. I washed it with warm water because it was not an organic papaya,* despite the fact that I spent a good thirty minutes at the grocery store looking for organic. Once clean, I sliced it in half and scooped out the pretty little black seeds.


The next step is to scoop out the flesh with a spoon and puree it in a blender. Like so.


Once blended, you pour the papaya "sauce" into ice cube trays. I bought three trays that came with their own little plastic lids to cover the baby food while freezing. One papaya filled almost all of the three trays (all but two cubes in the last tray).


Once they are frozen, I can remove the cubes from the trays and pop them into a labeled freezer bag. Then we are ready for when Miss G has a craving for papaya. Obviously, we will have to wait until we get back home with her until we can try this out. I am encouraged by the prep process, though. One papaya took 15 minutes, tops.

*According to the book, you can use cold water for washing organic veggies; supposedly cold water is better for preserving nutrients. However, non-organic veggies and fruit should be washed in warm water so that the pesticides wash off. Now you know why I tried so hard to find organic. Bleagh.

Celadon

I met up with my dad in Bangkok this past weekend on my way to Singapore. We went to have dinner Saturday night at Celadon, which is in the Sukothai Hotel. Dad was a little bitchy about the whole experience because he really prefers to eat on the street, but he was swayed once we sat down with a tangy little Australian Shiraz.


The food was oh so good. I love Thai pomelo salad, don't you? The restaurant was nice and soothing. All diners eat surrounded by lily ponds and subtle, traditional live music. I thought the music was a recording until we stepped out into the foyer after our meal and saw this lady.


Yummy yummy. Must go back. Even Dad was pleased.

Din Tai Fung

The food here in Taipei is outstanding. Chris says that it is "how Chinese food in China ought to be prepared." On Sunday, my peeps and I went to the original Din Tai Fung, which is a famous dumpling house. I cannot, unfortunately, share the food with you. But I do have some pictures.

Here is a shot of everyone waiting outside for their turn to eat.



You order in advance, while you wait, so the food gets delivered almost immediately after you sit down.




When your number is called, you pass your order sheet to the hotstess and then climb up the stairs to your floor and tables. Then come the dumplings and the veggies and the soups....yum.