…for 300 or so rooms at the new Ace Hotel in NYC at Broadway and 29th street, an area that’s been apparently rebranded as NoMAD (north of Madison – what’s that all about?). We actually made a first shipment a month ago but the hotel has been plagued with many delays in opening, but now that it appears that they have indeed opened their doors to guests, we are delivering the rest tomorrow. I got the first scoop from our spies over at NotCot who is staying there right now and posted photos of their room on the web (you can sort of make out our biscotti in that shot of snacks. They were also gracious enough to email me the pricelist as I was very curious to see how much they would mark up the product. Yikes! I know hotels are notorious for jacking prices of minibar items up, but…but…….

You’re probably wondering what this is. If you’re in NYC this month, make sure to visit Ernesto Neto’s “anthropodino” installation, commissioned by and housed at the Park Avenue Armory. Cavernous tunnels, fabric stalactites filled with aromatic spices (including a red, lavender room) and plenty of nooks to run around, discover, and lounge in, make this the ultimate in sensory experience. I’ve been a fan of Neto’s biomorphic scultpures, but this is the first time I’ve seen an installation of his in person. Not surprisingly, the kids were in heaven.

Beer? Yes, stout. Guinness to be exact, though other stouts will be tested (got any suggestions??). Marshmallow? Yes! Interesting enough to enter the Brooklyn Beer Experiment? What do you think?

I took Mia to the Flea last Sunday while Mark’s mom stayed back at home with Claudine. I know I jokingly vowed never to take the girls again, but I figured I could handle 1 kid. And yeah, it was sort of a pain at times walking around with her to all the stands, pulling her away from touching and picking up every piece of jewelry, knick knack and pleading at every single food stand for a treat. BUT, we gave her a job and that was to stand at the front corner of the table and talk to customers, informing them of all the variety of cookies and sweets that were available for sale. She was a natural and took the job very seriously. I think most of you know by now that Mia is very outgoing, talkative, confident and seems older than her 5 years. She is a natural extrovert, whereas Mark and I are not, so she relished her role and was damn good at it, charming a sale from customers who were wavering on their decision to buy something from our stand (and often talking their ear off). She closed quite a few sales for us that day.

That evening, after the Flea when the girls were tucked into bed, we watched Juno for the first time. If I ever wondered what Mia would be like down the road as a teenager, I don’t have to wonder anymore. Mia IS that character to a tee. It was weird to watch that movie and see somewhat into the future, what living with her would be like in 10 years (well, except for the pregnancy part, please).

I’m breaking my mini blog break because I’ve been wanting to write this post for a while. I think about my mom a lot since we’ve started the business. I guess you can say she is my role model for diving into things and taking risks and chances, so of course she was the first one to encourage us to start our own business when others close by told us to play it safe. We don’t have that “best friends” kind of mother-daughter relationship like some people do, but at the end of the day, she is the person I admire the most and I know I don’t say it enough.

Sometimes when I think about how overwhelmed I am, I think about how much my mom has gone through to get to where she is and it checks me in place. She was the first in her family to come to the US in the 70s with about $500 dollars and little knowledge of English. She came to NYC alone to work as a nurse, leaving me when I was a year old (for reasons I won’t go into here). Growing up, she lived through the Korean War when she was a little girl and has early memories of walking south from Seoul to the tip of the peninsula with her family to escape the Japanese. She grew up in a poor, fatherless, broken family and endured hardships like the stuff you see in movies that she and her sisters can laugh about now (she once told me that she remembers being 3 or 4 and being left outside all night, naked in the cold by her father because she cried too much). We didn’t have the happiest family life growing up (and there were times when things tiptoed to the edge of near destruction), but she was there for us always, wanting to give us what she didn’t have. When you’re a self-absorbed teenager dealing with angst and other teenage drama that prevents you from seeing anything beyond your own little world, you sometimes don’t notice that your mother spent nights studying to finish her college degree, that somewhere along the way she switched careers and went into real estate and found herself really good at it. And when she became really successful in her company, she jumped ship and took a huge risk to start her own partnership with other colleagues right when the economy started going south. She still works 7 days a week, but like me, needs to keep busy or else her mind gets restless. This I inherited from her. What I didn’t quite inherit is the fearlessness to take chances, understanding that it might cost you in money and maybe a little self-dignity if you fail, and the confidence to never look back and have regrets. Sadly, I also didn’t inherit her pure and complete selflessness and generosity or her optimism, despite the hardships that would have knocked any person down. I am trying though, everyday.

So it’s Mother’s Day today. Mia’s been super excited about the holiday in her own hyped up way. I’m trying to remember what Mother’s Day was like for me when I was a kid. You see, when I was reunited with her here in NY when I was 3, two years after she arrived alone, I rejected her, kicking and screaming, which broke her heart. We didn’t have the easiest reunion and this is probably the very first memory that I have. Obviously, I accepted her eventually, and the one Mother’s Day that stands out in my mind was the year I turned 6 or 7. I walked to the store down the street by myself (have times changed or what?) and after some careful consideration, chose a present for her. I walked home with it clutched tight in my hand and couldn’t wait to give it to her when I got home – this little rubbery, stretchy Bugs Bunny figurine. Don’t ask me why, but it’s what I chose. And I remember her accepting it like it was the greatest gift in the world. Thanks mom.

I’m taking a little blogging mini break. I haven’t been taking any photos, and I’ve nothing new to say. Will be back soon.

What kid likes lettuce like it’s a piece of candy? My kid. Seriously, she gets excited over a piece of lettuce like she’s been given a candy bar and one day even talked endlessly about how much she was looking forward to eating her leaf of lettuce during snack time all the way to school. Mia’s even planned that her next birthday party will be a lettuce party which I’m sure will be a real hit with the other kids. Not sure she’s totally envisioned how the party theme will play out, but I see a thrilling “build your own salad” activity in the mix. What a weird kid.

After months of construction all winter long, this astro-turfed field opened up across the street from us behind the Old Stone House, which is a reconstructed 17th Century Dutch farm house. It had been raining for days straight so the girls and I suited up in our rain gear and went to check out the field for the first time. It felt expansive, like being in a football field, and it wasn’t slippery when wet. Astro turf has sure come a long way since we had it carpeting our enclosed back porch in the house I grew up in (yes, I’ll admit to that). Even though we have a fairly large courtyard in our building where the kids can run around in, I have a feeling we’ll be playing here a lot in months to come. The double row of trees surrounding the perimeter of the park, the landscaping and plants, and this illusion of grass, which I admit is more real than I would have imagined, is like having a real front lawn. I now consider it my front yard.

Remember the cheesecake lollipops from last week? I made them, among other things, for a fundraiser for my friends the Treehouse Shakers, a dance/theater company that I actually used to compose music for. It was held at the Moore Brothers Wine Store in Manhattan, just across the street from Gramercy Tavern, and it was a lot of fun. It was a welcome change of scenery for a night and even though I was still cooking, it was not the same old cookies and marshmallows. I made seven different hors d’oeuvres, some sweet and some savory, along with a nice cheese platter, fruit, and a few cookies, of course. The hors d’oeuvres included Thai Shrimp Ceviche with Lychee and Mango, Mini Herb Quiches, Falafel with Lime Yogurt Sauce, and my favorite, Braised Pork Belly with Balsamic Barbecue Sauce (pictured here). I served the pork belly in the nice ceramic spoons lent to me by my friends at the Central Park Boathouse and topped it off with crispy white beans and pea shoots (I could eat over twenty of those spoons and I probably did). Along with the chai cheesecake lollipops, I had mini strawberry shortcakes (that one guest just could NOT stop eating), and our old friend, cinnamon s’mores. Everyone loved everything and I had to field a few questions about catering other events. The answer? “Well, this is not something I normally do…”, which actually means I wish I could but you’d have to add two extra days to each week.

We lucked out yesterday with the weather. It was supposed to be rainy, but the sky broke midday and it was suddenly sunny. It seemed like there was a lot going on around the city too: Sakura Matsuri at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, the Tribeca Film Festival Family Street Fair, the Brooklyn Food Conference here in our neighborhood (can’t remember why declined to be a vendor, argh! I think it was one of those things that got lost in the email shuffle). In the end, we decided to go to Coney Island at the last minute. It was an odd choice, but ended up being sort of perfect as the girls got to go on some rides and we got to sit by the water enjoying the ocean. Mia can never resist getting her feet wet and it validated our vacation plans this summer to spend a week on the beach on the North Fork.