gyoza, sushi, and ramen! Presidents! Soccer balls!

Presidents' Day! At 1:30am monday morning I'm truly appreciating that I have extra day off today. It's much needed and deserved holiday for me. After this I have cooking classes every week through April, which make 6-day work weeks. Mentally/emotionally I've been feeling like on the verge of burning out for a while, but it really takes a lot to burn me out. And clearly Taiyo got my genes. At 11pm when we close up the shop, he would literally run around each of my employees a bunch times, then he runs to hug that tree, then runs to the other direction to shake that tree. In his pajamas. It's the cutest thing.

We lunched at Jin on Grand Street yesterday. Upon entry, a waitress asked me if I could fold the stroller, although the place was fairly empty and there were lots of empty corners to park it. Then she tried to squeeze us to a little table right next to a couple dining, although the place was pretty empty- only three other tables were occupied. Taiyo ignored her and settled at a big round table, so I shrugged and followed his lead. Then although the place was rather empty, and Taiyo was chanting for "Sushi and Gyoza!" we were left unattended for quite a long time, until I asked the bus boy to send someone for our order. So the impression in the first 20 minutes was pretty bad. We had gyoza, sushi delux, and an eel/avocado roll. This place was not Japanese owned, which I could tell from menu, decor, and the fact that there was no wasabi on sushi (they served only on the side). Well, which usually makes the food mediocre, which was this place. And with absence of good service, I would never return to this joint. Taiyo did enjoy the food, despite of the funny expression in the photo above. He ate all the skin off the gyoza, eel/avocado roll, and some more rice from not-so-delux plate of sushi. Happy hour special helped, but otherwise this place is totally overpriced for the food.

Today we caught another show at New Victory Theater, "Brazil! Brazil!" It was so totally cool and much more enjoyable for me than last week's Bubble Show. Filled with great music, dance and acrobatics, they could've easily have a good run outside of children's theater. The films they had from Brazilian cities reminded me of Cuba, and I thought it would be a great place to visit one day- with Taiyo. He seemed to really enjoy the show, although he got restless sitting on my lap after 30 minutes (he refused to sit on his seat even though they give you a handy booster at this theater). We survived another theater experience. Everything's great about this theater, but they seriously need more bathroom. It's impossible to go to bathroom after the show.

We escaped the crowd at Times Square and went to have lunch at Tabata Ramen at 9th Avenue and 40th street. I've heard of the place and was meaning to check it out for a while, but we rarely travel that direction. Today we were as close as we'd get. And it was perfectly quiet at the restaurant, too. We were directed to a comfy corner with a bench. Of course Taiyo was already chanting for gyoza when he got to the table. So I ordered gyoza, fried chicken, and miso ramen. They promptly brought him a water glass with straw, cute plastic bowl and kids utencils, giving them high points for a kid-friendly restaurant. And food was wonderful, too. Especially the ramen was so tasty, and had lots of veggies, too. Extremely satisfying kind of ramen. This place became the best ramen place in town for me. Highly recommended. Since the waitress was so nice to Taiyo, he took so many pictures of her, one of which is this.