Boston, Massachusetts – On a previous visit to Chinatown, I had lunch at the awesome Vietnamese restaurant Xinh Xinh, and at the next table there was a family with a toddler who was shoveling in the pho as if it were Kraft macaroni and cheese. I should specify that this family was not Vietnamese (as far as I could tell), though they clearly knew their way around the menu.
Needless to say, I was very impressed by (and jealous of) the little guy’s daring palette, and I vowed to bring the twins to Chinatown and introduce them to more exotic Asian foods.
One year later, guess how many times we have been to Chinatown? Zero.
Today I was back in the neighborhood and I was reminded of my forgotten vow. To make up for it, I decided to bring home mooncakes to see if the boys would like them. They are normally associated with the mid-autumn lunar festival, but I don’t know why we can’t eat them in spring too. The traditional Chinese pastry is filled with sweet adzuki bean paste and a salted hard-boiled egg yolk. I figured it must be loaded with protein, not to mention all the other health benefits of legumes.
I later learned that each mooncake has as many as 1000 calories. One thousand. I think that’s one child’s caloric intake for the entire day.
Anyway, the mooncakes were a hit. Twin V was convinced the adzuki bean paste was chocolate, and I certainly wasn’t going to spoil his fun. Twin S finished off all one thousand calories.
I’m not saying they are ready for a dim sum outing or anything like that; but it’s a step in the right direction.
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