Halloween!

On sunday morning, we finally got it together to head out to attend "Bring Your Own Kid" concert at TribecaY. Or we thought. It was cancelled due to yesterday's early snow of the season, since the band was coming from Pennsylvania. Bummer. So we headed a few blocks up to the Children's Museum of the Arts, and did some drawing and drumming at the music time, which I think is the best thing they offer. Taiyo always goes fot the real djembe drum, not a kid drum. The museum was way too crowded with west side brats, as our first visit last earlier this month, and Taiyo was ready to head out again sooner than I thought. I was happy enough to leave the crowd.

We went a few blocks up on Hudson and found EN, Japanese Brasserie at Hudson and Leroy, open for brunch. This was the most chichi restaurant we've been to. Interestingly, this kid-unfriendly restaurant (spacious but no high chairs) had many tables with families with babies or kids. They did bring Taiyo a plastic cut with water, but didn't have any wooden bowl or smaller utencils- they gave him a nice ceramic bowl and large silverware neatly placed in a wooden box. Taiyo did enjoy looking around the pretencious interior, and didn't feel totally out of the place with the presence of other small people, so he comfortably and happily screamed in his highest pitch that echoed in the place. When I mentioned the red bean pancake on the menu, his mind was so set for the pancake, so that's what we ordered, along with o-banzai, kyoto style little dishes. When the plates arrived, he snatched up strawberry halves off the plate, and started digging into the pretty pancake. I cut up some pieces for him because it was really tough. Oh, boy, it was the toughest pancake we were served anywhere. It surely looked pretty, but the pancake was this dense blob- obviously they didn't know who much baking powder to add to the batter. Taiyo spit out some of it, but ate alot of it. Small dishes were wonderful and delicious- Taiyo enjoyed sweet potato shira ae, and I truly loved yuzu-flavored mushroom ohitashi. But I could not forgive them for serving us that most horrible pancake for $15. Service was also terribly slow- not recommended.

Later for dinner we tried the fairy new Japanese place on Clinton and Rivington, Hachenber. It's more like a drinking place than a restaurant, but Taiyo got comfortable stretching out in a booth. Service is pretty friendly, and it was pretty low-key on sunday night. They also had a pre-fix offering which included a drink for mommy, assorted appetizer, a choice of entree and ice cream for dessert for $15. Good value. Although the shumai on the starter plate was strangely tough and crusty (shumai is supposed to be steamed and soft!) Taiyo ate it. Peppered edamame was too cold for my taste, and scallion salad was tasty but too strong (left onion taste in my mouth for hours!). Our choice of entree, okonomiyaki (cabbage pancake) had too much sauce on but Taiyo liked it for the plenty of tonkatsu sauce and mayo. Service was friendly, but I didn't enjoy the food too much. Not recommended.

Halloween was low-key for us. Yuka was dressed up as a cute Big Bird, and Taiyo with Elmo hat. This year I felt this is a holiday a parent can fear for- your kid can collect as many candies as he wants! I was happy that Taiyo didn't want to dress up to go trick-or-treating. How am I supposed to keep him away from his winnings? Without a costume, he still scored a lollipop at the Chinese market and licked it for an entire hour.