Melt in Park Slope

I'd heard a lot about Melt on Bergen Street, so I was looking forward to trying it for Brooklyn Restaurant Week. The atmosphere was very nice. Cozy, warm and more upscale than I had expected from the outside. The service was professional and friendly. Warm spiced wine was a special at the bar and it was fragrant and garnished with olives. Unfortunately, the food was not so great. We ordered from the special Dine-In Brooklyn menu, which gave us 2 choices for each of 3 courses. The ceaser salad was drowning in dressing, the seafood ravioli was tasteless and paired with a sharply peppered tomato sauce. And to top it all off, the dessert choices were a chocolate or vanilla "mini cake", which just turned out to be a regular cupcake, complete with foil paper, and topped with a few blueberries and one blackberry. Woohoo. So, it wasn't as tasty an experience as I had hoped. However, the setting and the staff were nice enough that I am willing to give Melt another shot. Maybe just not during restaurant week.

Favorite Childhood Books

I'm so excited to have found a few of my favorite books from when I was a child. I "won" 2 auctions on ebay just this morning. My 2 old-new books should be in my hands by next week. I got "Who's a Pest" for 99 cents! "Seeds and More Seeds" for $6. When I was very young, I was never sure if the kid in "Seeds" was a boy or a girl. It really bothered me. He/She wore a loose sailor-style blouse and hat. Well, from the synopsis I have just read - he's a him! Ok, one mystery solved. "Who's a Pest?" is about a little boy named Homer (I think) whose older sisters, Holly, Molly, Lolly, Dolly and Polly are always annoyed by him. But, of course, he's just misunderstood. I believe that one by one they fall into a hole in the woods and only Homer can save them!

I am also looking for "Hildy and the Cuckoo Clock". This was a story about a little girl who moves into a new house where she finds a mysterious cuckoo clock. At certain times of the day, the clock will grant her wishes. At one point she wishes that the fountains in school will run with root beer. To the delight of the boys, just as she verbalizes her wish, the recess teacher calls for "Quiet!", and all that comes out of Hildy's mouth is "...beer". Other wishes are a bubble bath filling the house, little glass animals coming to life and something about a swinging front gate. There is also a spooky secondary story about the ghost of a little boy living in the house. So, this book is out of print and considered quite rare. I can't find a good copy for less than $250.00, which is too much of a splurge for me. I wish I knew what happened to my copy!

Thailand

I just came across this photo of myself in the Khao San Road night market in Bangkok, Thailand. I like this photo because I feel like it captures the stillness that I felt as a visitor with nowhere to be and nothing to do, amid the bustle of this busy capitol city. It also conveys the overwhelming jet lag that enveloped me like a giant nagging cotton puff. We ate banana pancakes, people watched and shopped. I love this funny little doll.

New cartoon

tee-hee, I really like this new cartoon on Nickelodeon - Ni Hao, Kai-lan. It's very much a cross between Dora the Explorer and Power Puff Girls. But I am a sucker for huffy-puffy little tigers with mitten paws. The show is supposed to expose pre-schoolers to Mandarin Chinese, the most widely spoken language in the world. The sounds are very complicated, and, so far, I haven't learned much. Little ones soak up new sounds and ideas so easily, though. I wouldn't be surprised to hear the kids on my block running around playing dragon boat race and saying "Ni hao, ni hao!" Moi, I just giggle at the cutie-pie animals.