When my daughter got a stomach flu in Hawaii, I picked Homeopathic pills for her fever (She had 104 degree), called Belladonna. However, I totally forgot that the pill form doesn’t work for babies. Babies don’t know if the pill should be swallowed or not. So, my daughter kept rejecting them. Because I am not supposed to touch the pills, I couldn’t push them into her mouth. So, when she got another high fever (104) last week, I decided to get a liquid form remedy. I went to Prelandra in Brooklyn Heights, which carries quite a lot of herbal medicines. They recommended “Children’s’ Fever Reliever” from King Bio. It is a homeopathic remedy and a spray type. It has no taste and color, so its easy for a baby to take. In fact, my baby was even having fun when I sprayed it into her mouth. She liked the sensation of wet air coming in. Then, her temperature went down within the next day, so I decided to share the experience with you. Of course, I highly recommend that you discuss your baby’s condition with your health care professionals.

I have to confess that even though I became a health counselor, I still love “Hawaiian Sweet Bread”. It is similar to brioche but softer and sweeter I wasn’t planning to have one, but I couldn’t resist when I was offered by a friend of mine at her house. “Hawaiian Sweet Bread” is not healthy at all. It uses white flour, white sugar, and many eggs. The one I ate was from “King’s” (local grocery store), so I am sure it is a lot worse …

However, I did find a healthy version of the soft and chewy (“mochi-mochi” – how Japanese describe chewy) bread at “Down to Earth” health food store. I was looking for some snacks for my daughter and saw fresh bread (still hot) on the shelf. There were two kinds from Anges’ Portuguese Bake Shop, ” McDougall Diet Multi-Grain Rolls” and “Whole Wheat Pita Bread”.  The roll has no egg, no milk, and no oils while the pita has no milk and no eggs. I am not so familiar with the Mcdougall diet, but he recommends no dairy and whole grain. I don ‘t know how they make it, but they are so soft and moist and very tasty without using milk, eggs and oils!  I highly recommend to try both of them. Apparently, this place is famous for “Malasadas – Portuguese donuts”.  Because it is located in Kailua, we didn’t  have a chance to visit. Instead, we went to Leonard’s for Malasadas. I highly recommend that you try one if you haven’t yet, even though it is not so healthy. Compared to regular donuts, Malasadas are very light adn airy, not doughy at all.

Leonards Malasada

When you go to a heath food store, you can find many organic cookies. I found this organic cookie about a year ago at Green Grape Provision store in Brooklyn. The first impression was ” Oh, a Japanese is making this. It has very interesting ingredients”. So, I purchased and tried them. Then I became a fun of this cookie. However, I was not able to find the cookie at Provision any more.

Then last December, one of my best friends suggested that we should order dessert for our Christmas party from Akiko. I didn’t know my friend was talking about the Akiko who makes that cookie at that time. My friend got to know Akiko from “Chiyono” restaurant. Akiko makes fabulous Sweet potato ice cream for “Chiyono” restaurant. So, we ordered sweet potato cake and sweet potato ice cream. They were a real hit! Then Akiko and I got to know each other.

Now she created vegan cookie, called “Vegan Valentine” It has “aged rum” in it and cocoa base. It is a great gift for Valentaine’s day!

Akiko has 3 more different flavors, Kagoshima (Green tea and shochu), Enlightment (blood orange and black pepper), Aphrodite (chocolate, macademia nuts, cocoa and vanilla veans).

The great thing about her cookie is “Absolutely no additives and no preservatives. Each cookie is handmade to make you happy.”
She doesn’t have a website yet but you can go to her facebook page “akiko’s cookie” to place an order.  If you are planing to have a party, instead of buying a cake at wholefoods, order one from her. It might be a little bit pricey compared to WH, but you can trust her sweets and it tastes GOOD.

It is nothing special for Japanese people who live in Japan, but for me who live in United States more than 20 years and don’t go home as often as I want, this was a nice surprise. So I want to share…

We need to recycle and be sustainable as much as possible. Compare to Japan, US recycling system is very money/political oriented. There is no government regulated standard rules. NYC”s recycling policy changes based on who runs and how much money the government has.

So, when you try to recycle a bottle which has a plastic spout attached to it, you spend quite long time to remove the top. You may need a scissors, knife, or even pliers to take it out. Some of bottles are impossible to remove, so I give up on recycling those.

However, all Japanese bottles are 100% recyclable. Each bottle has a “easy to remove” top, so you just peel off! When my mother told me about this, I was so surprised and happy to find out how smart it is. Soy milk container, orange juice container or any other cardboard containers has a plastic spout. You might need to scissors to take it out or rip it off. When it comes to Japanese cardboard containers, yes it has special “easy-to-remove” top.  I don’t why the government and those manufactures don’t think about this simple eco-friendly approach???