The $80 Bear (I think, it could've been more...)

Today Collette and I went to the Marin County Fair with Toran, Aurelia and Jo-Ann. The night before was the big 'sleep over' at Auntie Anna's. This morning was quite wild. While Auntie Anna was preparing breakfast, the kids, including my Dad were racing back and forth in the living room and upstairs laughing as my Dad tried to tease them by touching their feet with his cane, while the kids tried to jerk their feet away first. Sounded like a thundering herd of African somethings up there. Sensing they needed a bit of the great outdoors, we went to no less than 2 parks right after breakfast where they continued running, climbing and playing hide-and-go seek.

We met up with Jo-Ann and went to Om South Indian Cuisine for their fabulous buffet, and there is a children's price although not listed at the door ($3.99 each). It was a new experience for the kids, and there was a mixed reaction. The adults were swooning with delight at the variety and great tastes at the buffet (coconut rice!).

And the bear story... at the fair after Collette lost her chance playing for the bear, well after a pause to do some other things we were pulled back there... and then Auntie got this gleam in her eye of steely determination, and started pitching balls. Once on a roll, it's difficult to stop until the bear is in hand! The $10, $20 and another $20, etc. sounds dim in memory as one is pitching balls towards the basket and that Hershey Bear is dangling overhead, and moreover, one eager niece is waiting for Auntie to be the hero. As you can see in the photo above, Auntie did prevail (after a while...)

Tomorrow, I'll be posting an eye candy slideshow of the Chihuly exhibit that I took the kids to yesterday in San Francisco. It was quite colorful, imaginative and over the top creative, so stop by before the exhibit leaves in the fall!

A Blogger is Born

My little niece Collette is a poet and wanted her own blog. So guess who helped her start Collette's Creations yesterday? I also wanted to broaden her food horizons, and so took her to Tajine for her first official photo shoot.

Since she had photos on her phone camera from previous fun times, I was able to teach her how to transfer them from her phone to her blog. Here she is taking her first intentional blogging photo, of the Moroccan bread at Tajine.

Here's my photo of the delicious bread. The proprietor and chef stopped by to talk a bit, and we discovered that we lived in Paris at the same time, both arriving in 1980. However, he stayed a lot longer than I.

The Vegetarian Bastilla was as lovely as delicious. Collette is a vegetarian, but still being 11 found that sugar and cinnamon in a savory dish with vegetables was too 'weird' to try. Someday she'll be excited to try this, I'm sure.

However, the Vegetarian Couscous was a hit! The proprietor explained that he cooks the grains three times before serving, the first being a steaming step that can't be left out for authentic and delicious couscous.

I asked Collette which vegetables were her favorites out of the Tajine choices, and she said green beans. So we tried the Casa Tajine, which had green beans and potatoes. However, it was a bit spicy for her taste, while Dad and I liked it very much. It is traditionally eaten with the Moroccan bread, which we did. I also enjoyed giving Collette a little cultural background about Morocco -- how mostly food is eaten there by scooping up with bread rather than using utensils, and bits about the colonization by France so everyone speaks French as well. She associates Morocco with Casablanca and naturally thinks it must be a very romantic place.

We really weren't hungry for dessert, but were quite tempted to try what to us was an unusual dessert - Shepakia. They added a little piece of baklava since there were three of us. Made of flour, almonds, sesame seeds, boney and orange blossom water, it was sticky, yet wonderful. The friendly waitress brought over flower water to rinse my hands with afterwards. And oh, I didn't mention that we had the best mint tea poured into little glasses. I could go just for that.

Collette was fascinated by the eclectic collection of Moroccan lamps inside and out. Besides the food being delicious, it was friendly and authentic and easy to recommend.

Last review:
March 24, 2008

Since we were in San Francisco already, and Collette wanted to get some more blogable photos, we drove around a little bit. The first stop was China Beach.

And I prefer taking photos with her smiling face showing.

She enjoys art, so we drove past the Legion of Honor, and she wanted to stop to get a photo of Chihuly's glass sculpture in the courtyard. This is a must see since Collette was so excited about it. And naturally, being from Seattle, I've enjoyed his work for some time.