A visit to Seiwa Market

Interesting sake labels

Going to grocery stores may seem an odd hobby, but few things make me happier than finding new ingredients to play with.

Seiwa Market is Houston's newest Japanese grocery store (bringing the total to 2). Japanese grocery stores are a bit like gambling. I'm never quite sure what I'm buying since I can’t read most of the package labels. There is a label in English on the back, but as I have found out, it's not always accurate. If you really need something specific, either have a friend that reads Japanese, or be willing to ask a lot of questions of strangers.

I like that the package sizes were smaller. Most American grocery stores seem to assume that you are buying for a family of four. I browsed through chopstick rests and sake, marveled at the entire section of curry (one of these days, I've got to try Japanese curry), thought about buying fresh bamboo shoots, and decided that I really didn't need Hello Kitty Soy Sauce.



Yes, it is a thing

In the end, I settled on a fairly limited selection.

Pickles! Daikon (yellow) and cucumber & eggplant (purple). I haven’t opened them yet, but there are very few forms of pickle I don’t like.

I love pickles.

Dango. I have to admit I bought these because I saw them in a manga. They are a sweet: mochi wrapped around sweetened red bean paste. I like mochi a lot more than I like red bean paste. I'd give these a C+. (All three colors are the same flavor.)

Dango

Lunch. There is an section for eating in the store, though I took these home. I bought three kinds of onigiri (rice balls), partly because I was amazed at how neatly put together they were. (My attempts at onigiri resulted in misshapen golf-balls of rice.) They obviously used a mold, but I was fascinated to find that the nori (seaweed) was actually enclosed within the wrapper, not touching the rice. It makes sense, because then you can use the (dry) nori as a kind of edible napkin while you eat. They are more filling than you’d think; two of these were plenty for lunch.


Filled rice ball (this one was mustard greens) with nori sheet

Hello Kitty Matcha Marshmallows, because I just had to buy something with Hello Kitty on it. I was not expecting much from these, but they are actually really good.

Dango and marshmallows

If you're interested, (or you really want Hello Kitty Marshmallows) Seiwa Market is on 1801 S. Dairy Ashford. http://www.seiwamarket.com/

White Linen Night

It is a constant battle to keep from becoming a recluse. I always have wonderful excuses to stay home. For example, this weekend, when I attended White Linen Night.

White Linen Night is a street fair in Houston's Heights neighborhood. There are bands and food trucks, lots of booths selling the work of local artists, and everyone is supposed to wear white linen. (it's supposed to be cooler.)

The excuse making voices in my head said, "It's going to be crowded, hot, sweaty and expensive. Stay home and watch Netflix."

And it was hot, crowded, sweaty and expensive. Dinner (at Shade) was approximately $70. I won't even go into the art prices.  But it was a lot more interesting than staying home and watching Netflix.

Korean-Mexican food truck - I didn't eat here, but I loved the decoration.

I have no idea

My favorite part - I heard arias from Little Women, La Fille du Regiment, and the bolero Besame Mucho.



Meet Jack!

This is my parent's new puppy, Jack. Isn't he cute?

We are still discovering his personality, but for the moment I can tell you is that he's bright, chews everything is sight, loves to cuddle, and really doesn't like limes.

Please forgive the sound, HGTV was on in the background.

Fitbits, sleep and nightmare scenarios

Two weeks ago I bought a fitbit.

I've had activity trackers before. Pedometers, mostly, and I found the simple ones usually worked best. This was great for the budget, since they always (always) fell off, usually into the toilet - though I did have one migrate down my pant leg.

I purchased a refurbished fitbit through Groupon, which meant it cost about 1/2 what they charge in the store - which suited my inner cheapskate. It doesn't have any complicated programming or buttons to push, and it's basically a pedometer you wear on your wrist. But it's a pedometer that links to a webpage where you can (if you choose to do so) keep track of not just your steps, but diet, water intake and even sleep.

I did not purchase this to do the "10,000 steps a day". I got it for information. I know from my previous pedometer experiments (before I dropped them in the toilet) that keeping track does motivate me to get off the couch more. Not "Join Cross Fit and start doing 10K's" more, but more than I would normally do.

And I'm a bit of a geek, so having a tool that tracks my progress and make pretty charts and statistics of my activity without my having to do anything other than wear an (admittedly dorky) bracelet? That is pretty cool.

If you are more of a social butterfly, you can also join the forums and do the social media thing. This is not really my cup of tea. It seems almost everything  has a social media option these days - I'm just waiting for my lettuce to have a user group. (@romainehearts.us.)

I move about as much as I thought I did, which is to say, pitifully little (I average about 2 miles a day). But what I found most surprising was the sleep logging function. Before, had anyone asked, I would have said that I slept well: around 7-8 hours a night. I generally wake up once, around 3am, pet the cat, roll over and go back to sleep. Well, according to the fitbit, I've been living (sleeping?) in a fool's paradise. This is what an average sleep log looks like.

I wake up a lot. In two weeks, I've only managed 7 hours of sleep once. Though to be fair, I have been watching the conventions, and those are enough to give anybody nightmares.

Anybody else experimenting with fitbit out there? Are the fancy ones worth the price? Will thousands of people voluntarily giving their biometric data to the cloud result in a dystopian nightmare future where everyone is required to wear tacky rubber health monitoring bracelets by our new corporate overlords, the insurance companies?

And if you fall behind on your sleep, you will be  denied caffeine and forcibly re-educated in government run sleep centers painted in soothing colors and filled with hypo-allergenic pillows. (Which you will be billed for - of course.) These are the kinds of thoughts you have when you are sleep deprived.

My plan for the rest of the year

Houston's town hall, lighted to honor the victims of the massacre in Nice - July 16th

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the Sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a Promontory were, as well as if a Manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee...." 

John Donne                        

Civilization only continues when we participate. Therefore I will be watching the Republican and Democratic conventions, because even my one vote counts. I will be having dinner parties, drinking wine, going to public festivals and planning trips by air, no matter what foreign or domestic terrorists are out there, because I will not have my life controlled by the religiously intolerant and mentally ill. I will be adding to my retirement fund, because no prophet of the end times has been right yet.

And I intend to do it in great style, so bring on the champagne.



An abundance of basil

I have a large pot on my patio filled with basil. I've cut it back, but that only means it will grow back even more thickly. I don't know what to do with it all. There's only so much pesto a person can eat.

I'm can dry some of it, but then what?

I am appealing to your wisdom. What do you do with an abundance of basil?

Holiday Fun

My local Boy Scout troop raises money by placing flags on your lawn on patriotic holidays, specifically Memorial Day, Flag Day, July 4th and Veteran's Day.  I like that they are using high quality flags (the stars are embroidered, not printed) and that they've aligned it with my front door, so I can see the flag most of the time (I have a glass panel front door.)  It's also kind of festive to walk around the neighborhood and see all the flags.

So with my house properly adorned for the holiday, I did the most American thing I could think of: I went to a baseball game. It was the Houston Astros vs. the Seattle Mariners and our team won!  It was fun, though for me the best part is watching the crowd.

Orbit, the Astros mascot.

I also had my first chili cheese hot dog. This has confirmed my belief that sauerkraut and mustard is the only way to dress a dog. Never again.

And since it was an afternoon game, I was home in plenty of time to watch my neighbors set off at least a thousand dollars worth of fireworks. 

Happy 4th!