Food Matters: Learning To Eat From A Toddler, Getting A Gift From This Blog And Jeff's Family

Every time that I feel the blog fizzling out under the weight of so much else to do, I remember that food matters -- even the humblest dishes.

Lil' Chow came from his foster family loving seaweed soup.  We knew that, but I couldn't make the soup.  I could buy seaweed.  I could put it in soup.  But Lil' Chow ate little and never seemed to be in love.

I learned from Jeff Givens' mother-in-law that I just had to make it right.

Jeff runs Southern Skies Coffee just over the county line in Finksburg.  We met through HowChow and have emailed for years. He flagged the French Twist Cafe in Sykesville.  But we probably had met only once or twice when Jeff volunteered late last year that his kids loved miyok guk -- seaweed soup -- and eat bowl after bowl cooked by his mother-in-law.  Then he hand-delivered frozen soup to our front door.  Twice.

Lil' Chow went nuts for Jeff's mother-in-law's soup.  This was real Korean soup.  Meat and seaweed in broth.  Lil' Chow had eaten mostly formula at his foster family's home, but he had an expert's hand to spoon rice into his soup and then scoop, scoop from the bowl into his mouth -- and onto his bib, shirt, pants, the floor and high chair.  It's the only vegetable that he seems to really want to eat.

That kept my hope alive until last month when Lil' Chow and I passed a woman sampling seaweed soup in the new H Mart in Ellicott City.  He drank three samples, then cried when I pushed the cart away.  I couldn't explain that I'd grabbed two bags of dried seaweed to cook the soup.

My payoff came the next night when I put down my seaweed soup.  Lil' Chow picked up his spoon and said "guk."  That's Korean for soup, and it's a word that he hadn't heard since October.  But it was there on his tongue.  Just waiting for someone to serve miyok guk and bring it out.

He still likes her soup more. 

I defrosted our final quart Monday because Lil' Chow was home with a fever.  I hyped him up by saying that we would "eat guk" for lunch.  "Eat," Lil' Chow said.  "Guk."  He ate rice and miyok guk.  So did I.  It's my first food introduced by Lil' Chow.  I'd eaten exceptional Korean soups at joints like Lighthouse Tofu in Ellicott City and Hang Ari in Catonsville, but not this homestyle soup thick with the reconstituted seaweed and the tastes of sesame oil and thin-sliced meat.  We ate quietly at lunch.  It was the only time of our nap-less day that Lil' Chow was quiet.  He used two spoons to accelerate his pace.

And I was grateful for this blog, which connected me to Jeff and his mother-in-law and to miyok guk.  A little food that matters.


So far, the other food that matters: Frozen waffles.  I'm a short-order cook in the morning.  I make pancakes.  I offer cereals, fruits, eggs.  But Lil' Chow's eyes open widest for frozen waffles with syrup.

Eating Off The Kids' Menu: Mango Grove And Ananda Introduce Indian To Lil' Chow

The kids' menu dosa -- maybe larger than normal

When we rolled into Mango Grove in Columbia on Sunday night, we had no idea what Lil' Chow would eat.

He's a good eater.  But he definitely prefers crunchy food to soft stuff. 

He knows sticky short-grain rice, toast, seaweed, rice cakes, and pancakes.  But our only prior attempt at Indian had been a mistake where we tried Ananda on the day that clocks sprang forward -- so he was starving before we arrived and stayed addled through an appetizer before melting down.

We bet on the cheese dosa off Mango Grove's kids' menu.  A rice and lentil crepe -- stuffed with their normal potato filling, but also layered inside with melted cheddar cheese.

A boy and his mango lassi

It's delicious.  We know because Lil' Chow didn't bite at the crunchy dosa.  This could be a terrific meal for any kid willing to try something new and wanting to eat crispy crepe and warm filling potato.  (It can be spicy and adult as well if you order the mysore masala dosa.)  I'm confident that Lil' Chow will come around.

But last Sunday, he ate rice and mango lassi.  That's the Indian basmati rice, looser and more flavored than the Korean rice that I made habitually now in my new rice maker.  Mango Grove stirfries rice with onions.  Lil' Chow chowed.  Then, he sucked.  He took the kid's lassi -- a mango-yogurt shake in a plastic cup with a lid and straw -- and drank down.  He was hilarious and a bit amazing since we had never seen him act so carefully with a drink before.

Mango Grove is one of Howard County's best kitchens.  We feasted on the dosa along with the mashed eggplant of baingan bartha and the unique jackfruit of kathal korma.  Unripe jackfruit give a meaty texture to that curry, although it's more of a subtle toothiness, not the weird "fake meat" texture that you can get from meat substitutes.  You're eating a vegetarian curry.  The jackfruit is firm, and the curry is beautifully spiced.

Today's snow got Lil Chow a second round of Indian rice at Ananda in Fulton.  Mrs. HowChow was minutes from dropping off our delayed-open daycare when they announced they were closed for the day.  Surprise!  She met RDAdoc for a playdate and then lunch.  When I got home, she raved about the butternut squash soup and the chickpeas.  No photos were taken.  (So sad.  Sad for me.)  But they also learned Ananda has started Sunday brunch.  We may be back there soon.

Do You Make Rice Balls For Your Toddler? Do You Have Any Recipes Or Advice For A Newbie?

Lil' Chow lived for a year with a wonderful family in Korea who seem to have made him a good eater.

When we took Lil' Chow, the family packed his bags with an array of his favorite snack foods, a container of miso soup, and a package of homemade rice balls.

So now I'm trying to make soup and rice balls.  The balls are essential because I'm cooking more rice than ever before, and we don't finish even the 2-cup minimum that the new Japanese rice maker cooks each time.  Plus, they could be a great part of the vegetarian lunches that I'll need to pack for daycare.

So does anyone out there make rice balls for their toddlers?  I have read recipes and blogs.  I know that I can use the leftover rice and flavor them in an endless number of ways.  But I'd love some suggestions about what kids really eat.  And whether I should make the balls with warm rice, then put them in the fridge.  Or whether I could use cold rice to make them "fresh" the next morning.

Frankly, I'll take any advice.  It's a fun, new technique, and Lil' Chow seems always hungry.

The HowChow Blog Now Has Competition -- A Small Body Whose Gravity Will Change Our Orbit

And the blog now has competition

A blog like HowChow is brilliantly fun, wonderfully rewarding, and shockingly time-consuming to maintain and keep in working condition.

A few weeks ago, I might have continued that paragraph with "like a baby."

But the HowChows now have a baby, and I'm no longer so cavalier about comparing anything to the fun, the rewards, or the time consumption of a two-foot-tall human.

Oh, yes.  Two-feet tall.  We didn't start with one of those beginner babies who just sit around.  Lil' Chow came home with us on Friday from Korea.  We are complete beginners, but Lil' Chow is a veteran with 17 months of experience, a taste for noodles, and a shocking burst of speed at short distances.

Obviously, the blog will change. Mrs. HowChow and I love the writing and the connections.  A bunch of local bloggers were nice enough to guest post for one of the weeks when we were travelling.  But Lil' Chow will certainly change our life -- how often we eat out, how often I post, how quickly I can respond to emails.

I hope to keep posting local food news and local food recommendations.  I hope folks will continue to be amused.  I considered just adding a toddler to our posts and letting folks figure it out.  But Lil' Chow seems worth a post on his own.  We will see where this goes from here.

Thanks agin to Lisbeth, Sara, Lisa and the Unmanly Chef who guest-posted last week to help cover our trip to Korea.  Check out their posts of Korean soup, eating with toddlers, Caspian Market, and cooking with kids if you didn't have a chance.  I giggled as the "eating with toddlers" post went up on our first full day with Lil' Chow.