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Seriously Mojo Mom?

by Chris on

Seriously Mojo Mom?Ok. So we’re pretty attuned to parenting displays because so much of our lives revolve around that. Just completely shocked today by an encounter we had at Mojo Yogurt.

We spent pretty much the entire day with the kids. Hanging out at the house, watching a movie, dropping the 7 yr old off at ballet, getting coffee, hitting a few stores, having dinner and then we ended up at Mojo Yogurt. The girls were pretty great today and it was a really nice day.

When we were at Mojo though, Heather saw (this was all conveyed to me afterwards) this mother asking her young son if he’d sit on one of the little chairs so she could have the full sized chair. He was surly & ignoring her & being pretty much an overall brat. Our kids weren’t really aware of this as they were in the chairs in front of the TVs where movies were playing and completely focused on them – as were the mother & her son.

So as Heather sees this, she asks our 7 yr old if she’d go sit in one of the smaller chairs so the lady could have her full sized chair. She jumps up and moves right away. Now this lady’s son jumps up and takes the big cushy chair that my daughter was in. The mother asks him if she could have the chair and he just turns away and ignores her and lolls about.

I find out the details later and realize that Heather was about ready to lose her mind. She didn’t ask our daughter to give up her chair so the brat kid could have a nicer chair. And then the mother didn’t even thank our daughter for giving up her chair!

It’s a rare occurrence but Heather was fuming after we left. She was ready to go back in & give her a piece of her mind.

I get that there are people who don’t demand as much from their kids as we do but not even saying thank you????

He’s going to be a nice one when he grows up and I guess we know why.

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0

If I Could Transplant 1 Restaurant to AZ…

by Chris on

IMG 6804 228x300 If I Could Transplant 1 Restaurant to AZ...If I could transplant 1 restaurant to AZ…..

I think it would be Kappou Gomi in San Francisco.

The excellent Joe Johnston was asking me about it and I made that statement. Once I made it, I thought it was a pretty interesting one. For me, there are a variety of factors involved.

  • It would need to be something you love.
  • It would need to be something that you don’t have where you live.
  • It would need to be something that’s affordable enough that you’d be able to enjoy it (at least that’s a consideration for me).

I think that makes for a pretty interesting question. I also think it could help those food obsessed of us to find other killer places.

Who knows? Maybe if we got enough support behind something, we could get another AZ restaurant gap filled?

For me Kappou Gomi fits right in with all those categories.

Heather and I absolutely love Japanese food. And Kappou Gomi is definitely Japanese. And the food is phenomenal. Of the 4 dishes I had, 2 of them were swoon-worthy.

It’s also very different from your standard sushi or izakaya spots. We don’t have anything like this in Arizona. I’d do about anything for a place like this.

And then the value was off the charts. Some of the most amazing food I’ve had in years and for what it was, it was crazy cheap. It’s still not go there every day dive cheap but it was reasonable enough that I could see hitting it once or twice a month if it were here.

Some of the other places that would be on my AZ dream restaurant short list are:

Had another swoonworthy dish there this year. The Khao Soi left me weak in the knees.

  • Raku, Las Vegas – awesome Japanese izakaya
  • Din Tai Fung, Los Angeles – great xiao long bao (soup dumplings)
  • Santouka, Los Angeles, San Mateo, Orange County, Chicago – awesome ramen chain (yes chain)
  • Jitlada, Los Angeles – some say best Thai in US
  • Sea Harbor, Los Angeles’ish (actually Rosemead) – one of best dim sum places in LA
  • Park’s BBQ, Los Angeles – some say best Korean BBQ in LA
  • Hot Doug’s, Chicago – amazing hot dogs & sausages

I guess my list skews Asian pretty hard.

So what would your tops be? What restaurant would you LOVE to see in AZ? Any other good contenders?

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2

Parenting Can Make You A Better Person

by Chris on

I truly believe this. I try to be a walk the talk kind of person so that might be a key factor of whether this applies.

I noticed it today. I’ve noticed that my 7 year old has been yelling at my 4 year old when the 4 year old does something wrong. It’s been pretty apparent the past couple of days. The 4 year old is also firing back in the same way. As I dealt with it and thought about it, I realized that a lot of it probably comes from me.

yelling 232x300 Parenting Can Make You A Better PersonI’ve been pretty stressed out over the past several months with workload and have been more on edge than usual. I realize that I’ve been way more aggressive with my speech with the kids (and even Heather) when I get upset about something. Heather has helped point this out. With that kind of sinking in and me seeing the way the kids were dealing with each other and and with us, I’m realizing that it’s behavior that they are seeing in me & my bad example.

So I told the kids they need to bring it down several notches when there is an issue and not yell. Then I told them it is probably my fault as I’ve been doing it a lot too. So I will be better about that myself.

So there you go. I’m trying to raise nice kids and I’m nonstop monitoring their behavior and interjecting where I feel it is appropriate. As I’m trying to raise these nice kids (and I do think they are pretty wonderful) I know that I need to walk that talk myself which is going to end up with me betting a better person too.

I can also think of another recent example of this.

We had a school parent call about a “Tom’s Club” that our 7 year old had supposedly started. This would be in reference to Tom’s shoes. I guess their child felt a bit left out & was bugging them about Tom’s. Nothing major but they wanted to let us know.

So we went on an inquisition and I guess our child had made some remarks about this with a few other kids that were also wearing Tom’s to school a while back. She doesn’t typically wear these but had that day. After our investigation (as our kids are very good about being honest and owning up to things), we came up with 4 other schoolmates that might have been affected by this.

First of all, we hate “clubs” and anything exclusionary – especially with kids. My wife cannot stand the thought of our kids ever becoming one of “the mean kids” (which I completely agree with).

toms 300x213 Parenting Can Make You A Better PersonSo we took away our daughter’s Tom’s for good and she is going to donate them to the child at school that her class sponsors. Then we had her call all 4 kids and apologize to them and tell them she won’t be starting anymore clubs. She was quite embarrassed. Of course the parents were wondering what the heck was going on so we had a number of conversations with them as well. Most of the kids had no idea what she was talking about so I guess it wasn’t anything to the degree that we were worried about. She also was actually really, really good about the whole thing. She was regretful and not at all resentful of losing her Tom’s.

The thing that we realized is that we (my wife and I) are kind of brand junkies – especially with our interest in marketing and branding. We’re huge, huge fans of many brands and have talked about them that way in front of our kids. We love brands like Lululemon, American Apparel, Tom’s, etc. So it’s us.

I know I remember a very specific recent example of this. I love the Olu Kai brand of flip flops. I think they’re well made but they also really give me a strong connection to the time when I lived in Hawaii. We saw kid’s Olu Kais at Nordstrom Rack a couple of weeks ago and made a big deal of it – and got the girls each a pair.

So again, this behavior is being modeled from us. So we need to be better. We need to quiet down about that kind of stuff as neither of us think it is truly important. No more referring to “your Vans”. They’re “your black school shoes.” No more “your Olu Kais”. They’re “your new thongs.”

So trying to make sure that these kids grow up to be nice and good people makes us look at ourselves and change our behaviors where we see it to be applicable.

Want to be a better person, have some kids! :)

–

Image credit: Animosity by Andrew Senay on flickr

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4

Parenting Is a Matter of Will

by Chris on

I believe that parenting is primarily a matter of will. It’s so easy to give in or give up when the kids resist or don’t cooperate.

I think that much of being a good parent is not giving in when that happens.

bicep 221x300 Parenting Is a Matter of WillOne of the things that I believe (heard it at a school session on their disciplinary program/philosophy) is that “a parent’s job is not to make happy children; it’s to raise good people.” This resonated with me in a huge way and it’s something both Heather and I fully embrace.

I guess I should say that being good people is one of our fundamental goals. We care a lot more about that than we do about making money or getting famous or living a life of leisure or anything like that. Of course we’re not perfect in that attempt but it is something we try to live our lives by.

With that in mind, I believe that a parent’s job is to raise their children according to the values that they hold. Don’t let your kids become people that don’t have those same values because it’s too hard or too much work. Going that route is just copping out.

These thoughts all kind of came together as I tried to put my 1 year old to sleep today. It’s his birthday today and he was not going down easily. So my choice was to let him win (as it’s his birthday!) and let him stay up and get overtired and probably have a miserable day or to just suck it up and do whatever was needed. I figured it was more important to get him to realize that he is going to have to stick to his routine and nap at the appropriate times no matter what. So it probably took me an additional half hour of standing there in a dark room holding him, ducking my head back as he tried to play and grab my face and glasses and then eventually he succumbed to his tiredness and knocked out.

Same thing with our other kids. We constantly monitor their behavior and intercede whenever we see things that aren’t in line with our value system. Of course we miss things and of course we aren’t completely consistent but we try damn hard. Raising great kids is one of Heather and my main priorities so we do our best not to let things slide. We still feel the urge to avoid battles many times a day and we do let little stuff go that isn’t really important.

On the big stuff that we think is truly important though, we just can’t fail there.

 

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15

Pro-tip: Don’t Put Your iPad in the Plane Seat Pocket Unless…

by Chris on

you have a John San Diego…

dreamforce 300x300 Pro tip: Dont Put Your iPad in the Plane Seat Pocket Unless...I was flying back from Dreamforce 2011 on Southwest and happened to run into a buddy, Brandon Willey. We secured seats together and had killer conversation all the way back. Prior to Brandon finding his seat, I’d pulled out my iPad though I had a suspicion that I’d not end up using it. I figured my buddy and I would end up talking throughout. So at some point I stuck it in the seat back and I think somewhere in the back of my head, I realized it probably wasn’t a good idea.

So of course we do get into killer conversation and then by the time we get to the gate, I just grab my stuff and roll. It wasn’t until many, many hours later when I was unpacking that I realized my iPad was missing.

Pro tip: Dont Put Your iPad in the Plane Seat Pocket Unless...I checked the Southwest website, called in directly and logged my missing iPad. I contacted the airport lost and found with no luck there either. I also reached out to @SouthwestAir over Twitter. Customer support said if they found it that I’d hear back in 2 weeks. @SouthwestAir asked if I’d logged a case. So as much as I do love Southwest, I really had very little hope that I’d ever see the iPad again.

And then out of the blue, I get a call from a number that’s not in my phone.

It turns out that a mechanic, John San Diego, from Southwest had found the iPad and then went out of his way to find my info and contact me directly. He figured that he could ensure that it made it back to me rather than inject it back into the system and never hear what happened.

ipad 300x93 Pro tip: Dont Put Your iPad in the Plane Seat Pocket Unless...So he called & I met him at CostCo and got my iPad back.

I tried to give him a reward multiple times but he wouldn’t take it.

Also turns out that he is from Hawaii. I’d guessed that he might be from the way he spoke. When I saw him, he had a UH shirt on which sealed the deal. He is a super nice guy and we talked about paddling outrigger canoe, stand up and more. Won’t be surprised if we end up hanging out & paddling in the future.

johnsandiego 291x300 Pro tip: Dont Put Your iPad in the Plane Seat Pocket Unless...I’m still pretty blown away that he actually found the iPad and then went out of his way to return it. And then I can’t believe that he wouldn’t take a reward. I guess sometimes I am way too pessimistic when it comes to human nature.

Life is pretty cool sometimes.

Big, big mahalo to…

John San Diego

A&P Mechanic
Phoenix Maintenance Station
Southwest Airlines

 

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0

Kappou Gomi in San Francisco

by Chris on

Kappou Gomi is amazing. This is EXACTLY what I want. EXACTLY… I would *kill* to have this restaurant in Arizona. I think that the only reason that this place wasn’t hours deep in wait and priced through the roof could be that it’s a bit of a hike from downtown?

It was phenomenal though. First of all there is a huge, huge menu and it’s pretty tough to determine what to order. They have each fish listed with 7-10 different preparations. Then there is a specials menu and a beer and sake menu. I was pretty overwhelmed so I put myself in the hands of the lovely older ladies that were manning the restaurant. You never see the chef as he’s actually in the kitchen. They soooo did me right.

I ended up ordering or having 4 dishes ordered for me.

I got the bonito sashimi. That was fantastic and the presentation was gorgeous. It comes with the fish’s head and tail. I don’t know if I’ve seen a more beautiful fish in recent memory. Looked pristine and fresh as could be. Served with a light ponzu with fresh grated ginger and chopped scallions. Wonderful dish.

IMG 6224 300x224 Kappou Gomi in San FranciscoThat was followed by one of my favorite dishes in recent memory. One of the ladies asked if unagi sunomono sounded good. I much prefer to put myself in the hands of those who know so while it sounded good but really not terribly exciting, I said sure. I had no idea what was to come. It came out as a shallow bowl of vinegared vegetables (sliced cucumber, daikon, lotus root) and peaches. There was also a bit of a creamy sauce with the sliced cucumbers. There was a good amount of the sunomono dressing and also a square sheet of gelee over the unagi and another one beneath it. The dish was nice to look at but it didn’t really give any indication of what was to come. When I dug in, the combination of flavors and textures and temperatures was amazing. The sweet, fatty, warm unagi was beautiful with the cool vinegared vegetables. Just perfect juxtaposition. I ate it up to the last bit and almost embarrassed myself by drinking the remains of the dressing. I’ll be thinking about this dish for a long time.

That was followed by a dish called grilled golden yolk tako. It was basically lightly grilled octopus that I believe was sauteed in egg yolk and oil and then presented in a hollowed out apple. It was lovely and I way dug the egg yolk, oil broth. I was again hard put to not put the apple to my lips & drink the last of it.

The sole disappointment of the night was that they were out of uni. I actually tried to order this dish with uni but they had sold out. I can’t even imagine what this would have been like with uni.

Did I mention that Kappou Gomi rules btw?

IMG 6228 300x224 Kappou Gomi in San FranciscoOk on to the next dish. My final dish, as the ladies were recommending that I kind of follow a traditional pattern was ochazuke. Ochazuke or chazuke if you’re not familiar with it is basically a simple dish where you pour tea over rice and add some savory toppings. While ochazuke typically comes with tea, (with the cha connoting tea) it was actually replaced with a gorgeous bonito broth. You could have it with a selection of ume, cod roe, salmon, salmon eggs and maybe a couple other items. I opted for the ikura (and I guess I’m smart because it was absolutely perfect). It also came with some fresh wasabi and some other condiments. Inside the bowl was some shaved nori, some pickled radish, some other herbs and something that looked like bee pollen? This dish was amazing. The flavors were super subtle but they were so clean and everything went together just perfectly. I’ve had so many meals where the chef puts together combinations that don’t better the ingredients. I’ve had many where the chef really does elevate the ingredients and then I’ve had a few dishes here and there where it’s absolutely perfect. This was perfect. Same with the unagi sunomono. Perfect…

I think most of these dishes with the exception of the sashami were $10 or under. The value here is off the charts.

This place is a freaking gem and it has immediately jumped into the very top of my favorite restaurants anywhere.

The ladies were lovely as well. I think it helped that I was completely open minded and grateful. I can see how some of the posters here might have differing opinions but if you’re very open to trying new things and you’re nice and polite enough (as the ladies do seem a bit charmingly shy at first) and you let them lead you, I don’t see how you cannot absolutely love Kappou Gomi.

If you’re looking for your standard sushi place or the same dishes that you might be a fan of elsewhere, it’s not that.

Absolutely transcendent meal for me…

I will not come back to San Francisco without coming here.


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Today by Liz Danzico – #Trust30 Day 2
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