i ♥ pork

if it wasn't abundantly clear, i love pork.

and i was finally able to manifest my dream yesterday. heritagefoodsusa.com is having a 20% special on quarter hogs, and i had a 15% off new subscriber coupon (ok so i actually had to use our family email to re-subscribe to get the coupon but you get the idea.)

going in with two other households (Hun & Lily-Tommy), we bought a quarter hog of red wattle--the rarest and most endangered and most succulent porcine breed that we have to eat in order to save from extinction. eat the pig, save the world. google it, but don't cute overload yourself into vegetarianism. red wattle makes niman ranch look like trichinosis. only eating unicorns could be better than this. ok, or maybe an acorn-fed ossabaw.

having limited freezer space, the only way Lily & Tommy could go in for their portion (~12 lbs) was for Lily to start slangin' pork on the side. word got out on the street that we had exclusive, high-quality product, and to make a long story short, now there's folks who want in on the next shipment. it's the urban hustle to survive. over vacation, i'm going to work on setting up a community sponsored agriculture co-op for organic heritage pork. something else to add to my eclectic resume. so you see, your honor, i started with good intentions and that is how i became a dealer. to paraphrase Nancy Botwin "I'm a pork dealer , there, I said it, I'm a f*cking pork dealer"

as for Hun, weo i think he sleeps with his pork under his pillow. he misses Sylvia. she misses the pork. though i'm sure the pork in cambodia is quite tasty.

separately, T & i also got some trotters to make soups. vinamese people believe that pig's feet soups increase milk production in breastfeeding mothers. you ever hear of a sow who doesn't have enough milk for her piglets? so this is my personal lactivism in action.

the pork was delivered FRESH in a cooler on ice. T. is still confused by the physics of that. on sunday, that hog was in pasture; on monday, it fulfilled its' life's purpose; and by wednesday, it was in our bellies. as animal-likers, we won't dwell on the former two aspects. the movie BABE is also being banned from our house and will be added to the n2 contraband list.

it was mostly packaged individually by cuts; the smaller ones in smaller portions, the roasts in huge chunks. i won't get into the listing of cuts. we really should have take a photo last night at the carnage.

so since this is the best pork i have ever had up to now, i figure i will chronicle our eating of it.

last night, using a recipe that i got from Bruce Aidells's Complete Book of Pork: A guide to Buying, Storing, and Cooking the World's Favorite Meat (henceforth referred to as the pork bible) that T got me for my birthday one year, i made Pearl Balls--a pearl-ly rice-encrusted meatball. a lovely dim sum-like dish flavored with shallots, minced ginger, sesame oil, bragg's amino acids (essentially a healthy soy sauce), brown sugar and fresh ground malaysian black pepper with your basic soy sauce, rice vinegar, & hot sauce condiment. we ate this with a vegan butternut squash soup grown by T's mom's neighbor; i modified an america's test kitchen recipe for this and hand-milled the squash for a rustic texture (i learned about this from too much Food Network channel while on maternity leave from Ina Garten) and a brown and sweet brown rice mixture inspired by my venture into kimbap-making for work. T. made pea sprouts.

the flavor of the pork was umami and distinct without being gamey or cloying. not that slight baconish porky like niman ranch porkchops (which are also mighty fine) but another kind of pork flavor that was tantalizingly delicious. can't wait to try the next one.

may the pork be with you.

loch ness teeth

VL is sproutin 2 teeth! the left broke gum on sunday. the right one yesterday.

nanny diary

doing some blog housekeeping. this is an OLD POST FROM JULY that i never finished since i went back to work right after.

now that we have officially joined the ranks of the middle class by being upwardly mobile, swapping refugee blue collars for white collars, and buying a house with an mortgage which is about 50% of our income and operating on consumer debt, we are further entrenching ourselves in middle class culture by looking for a nanny since we can't afford for me to forgo a salary to stay home with the baby. not that i'm sure that's what i would want to do anyways. (side rant: people are wierd about claiming class especially amongst the socially conscious spectrum of born-into-the-middle-class who tend to idealize/glamourize poverty. call a spade a spade. me & grew up on welfare & food stamps and we don't aspire to go back to poverty. i'm just L from the block, i used to have a little and now i have a little more. i have two college degrees, a socially responsible invested retirement fund, and life insurance; i have some privilege. it's not entitlement nor is it bootstraps nor is it a silver spoon. it is however cultural and social capital that i choose to be honest & forthright about. so if you have someone who is not blood-related that takes care of your child for 20+ hours a week every week, she is not a "babysitter" nor a "caretaker" nor a "childcare provider", she is your nanny. you are an employer. you might not be The Man, but you are a Boss. deal with it.)

with our idealism and our roots and our small budget, we decided to hire a vinamese nanny. we placed an ad in the local weekly at the beginning of june to run for 4 weeks. our ideal was to have the nanny start the first week of july on trial since i was going back the second week of july at parttime. we had decided that having the nanny at our house was best since we have cloth diapers and all the gear here already.

we've interviewed around a dozen give or take. i have concluded that vinamese people are insane. okay, not insane, just not... acculturated to professional jobseeking protocol. the number one assumption being "One looks for a job if one is able to work."

the first nanny we hired co Huyen had 20 years of experience and had just retired after caring for a set of american twin girls for a pair of Berkeley doctors for 8 years. after a year of missing them and being bored, she decided to work for a vinamese family for a much lower payscale. after i expressed my desire to hire her, she regretfully informed us that her other employer (of the twins) whose 3rd baby she watched 1-2 days a week wouldn't let her quit and offered her an additional day instead. being emotionally tied to the twin girls, she couldn't quit.

so we went with our second choice, co Thu. she had 8 years experience and had a minor hand disability but we worked out an arrangement of how to compensate for that since VL almost exclusively uses the potty to poo. after coming over to her house a few blocks away from us, she regretfully informed us that her younger brother didn't want her to work because she was disabled and he provided for her so that she wouldnt have to work.

out of frustration i hired nanny #3 di 3 (her birth order name) or di Helen. she was in her 60s, a source of some concern for us since our girl is thick, but this is the friday before our trial week. she started on the 1st. being older and from an older model of childcare, she was responsive to the baby's cries, but wasn't interested in playing with her so much, much less let her stick her toys in her mouth and she refused to go on walks with the baby; it was either too cold or too sunny. granted van lang wasn't taking the expressed breastmilk in the bottle and so therefore wasn't napping very long due to hunger, and i have been known to get bored playing with baby, but by day 2, when she thought i wasn't looking, di ba would read the newspaper while VL lay somewhat disgruntled on the couch next to her. and when i pointed out that VL was making irritable and frustrated sounds, the nany told me she was training her to not need to be held (or presumably played with). trung and i deliberated over whether to let her go. and decided to give her one more day. on day 3, di 3 shows up and announces that she is moving to antioch the next day (july 4th) and is quitting. whatever.

so we have placed another ad in the vinamese paper. we've gotten some calls and i was most interested in a call from what turns out to be my next door neighbor co Thanh a women in her early-40s. she used to own a HK-style dim sum restaurant and it went under so now she stays home watching her grandson. she thought she'd try earning some extra income. she came over and was very sweet with the baby and wanted to work from her house since she still is watching her grandson. i made an appointment to come over and see her house. weo, as it turns out, her son, the baby's thuggish father who is playing world of warcraft in the middle of the workday, doesn't want her to do childcare for another baby because she wouldn't be able to be mobile and get out of the house if need be. so she regretfully turned down the job (which i didnt offer to her yet).

postscript: after all those false starts, we found a great nanny!

karaoke revisited

so clearly when i say, "oh yeah i'll post about that later", i never get back to it (VN trip, my homebirth story, etc.) weo, in june of 07, i posted about translating Purple Rain for my homey Bao, a national champ of spoken word. he had only needed the chorus and that's all i got around to translating though i promised the blog-iverse i would come back it.

now, Dr.10 had introduced me to vinamese translation bot that i never got around to testing out really. whatever sprite of mischief and procrastination has taken my fancy now to try the bot out by finishing my translation of Purple Rain into vinamese.

so, for your Karaoke Pleasure, i give you his Purple Majesty:

Tím mưa, mưa Tía

Purple Rain

Tôi không bao giờ có nghĩa là bạn để gây ra bất kỳ đau đớn

I never meant to cause you any sorrow

Tôi không bao giờ có nghĩa là bạn để gây ra bất kỳ đau

I never meant to cause you any pain

Tôi chỉ muốn xem một thời gian bạn cười

I only wanted to one time see you laughing

Tôi chỉ muốn xem bạn cười trong mưa tím

I only wanted to see you laughing in the purple rain

Tím mưa, mưa Tía

Purple rain Purple rain

Tím mưa, mưa Tía

Purple rain Purple rain

Tím mưa, mưa Tía

Purple rain Purple rain

Tôi chỉ muốn xem bạn tắm trong mưa tím

I only wanted to see you bathing in the purple rain

Tôi không bao giờ muốn được yêu của bạn ngày cuối tuần

I never wanted to be your weekend lover

Tôi chỉ muốn được một số loại bạn bè

I only wanted to be some kind of friend

Baby Tôi không bao giờ có thể ăn cắp được từ các bạn

Baby I could never steal you from another

It's như một xấu hổ của chúng tôi đã có hữu để kết thúc

It's such a shame our friendship had to end

Tím mưa, mưa Tía
Tím mưa, mưa Tía
Tím mưa, mưa Tía

Purple rain, purple rain

Tôi chỉ muốn xem bạn dưới mưa tím

I only wanted to see u underneath the purple rain

Mật ong tôi biết, tôi biết, tôi biết là lần thay đổi

Honey I know, I know, I know times are changing

Đó là thời gian tất cả chúng ta đều đạt ra cho cái gì mới

It's time we all reach out for something new

Điều đó có nghĩa là bạn quá

That means you too

bạn nói rằng bạn muốn có một lãnh đạo

You say you want a leader

Nhưng bạn có thể không có vẻ để làm cho tâm trí của bạn lên

But you can't seem to make up your mind

Tôi nghĩ rằng bạn tốt hơn đóng nó

I think you better close it

Và để tôi hướng dẫn bạn đến tím mưa

And let me guide you to the purple rain

Tím mưa, mưa Tía

Purple Rain, Purple Rain

Tím mưa, mưa Tía

Nếu bạn biết những gì tôi đang hát về lên đây

If you know what I'm singing about up here

C'mon nâng cao tay của bạn

C'mon raise your hand

Tím mưa, mưa Tía

Purple Rain, Purple Rain

Tôi chỉ muốn xem bạn, chỉ muốn xem bạn

I only want to see you, only want to see you

Trong mưa tím

In the purple rain.

n-squared home training

so i recently sent out our family groundrules for VL to my immediate family since we have our set of values that may or may not be shared and the holidays (prime gift giving season) are approaching. our primary value is protecting our daughter from materialism/commodification and toxins. nothing controversial, no comment on religion or politics, no judgement on other families' rules.

the reactions i got were kinda funny. my ma sez "Sorry dear, your daughter will be so sad with no funs for the first 5 year in her life." which i think is hilarious because like my ma's own childhood in rural VN did not have any of the things we ban from our house and i'm sure she had funs (weo after doing her chores that is). and she herself pointed out to me that all the food she grew up on was organic because pesticides (and agent orange and napalm) hadn't been introduced yet. and for the first five years of his life and the first three years of my sis' in central VN, my siblings played with family, household objects and objects in nature with little detrimental impact on their imaginations or body burden unlike the toys & material objects of today's modern household.

my step dad who would be chief offender on all counts (especially candy, red dye and princess stuff) said nothing. he doesn't ever check his email except for once a year when he has me un-close his email account or set up a new email for him when i come visit for the holidays. to be fair, he also generously gives us lots of cash to buy clothes and savings bonds for school and helps us with travel money too.

my bro who might be potentially a giver of the battery-operated, plastic kind (like Whack-A-Mole which would be so cool if they made a wood version) didn't respond either. it's cool. as an uncle, i fully expect him to pass along his gourmand predilections to the child with full appreciation for the ways he's introduced me to good food all my life (first caviar, first truffles, first crab cakes, first clam dip, first sake bombers, first gourmet meals, first fine champagne... and the list goes on.).

my sis who gives very thoughtful and wonderfully handcrafted gifts sez "It's truly more blessed to give than receive." sure, at the same time, i guess i'm more pragmatic when it comes to gifts, why waste other people's money on things i don't want or we don't allow? we didn't register for wedding gifts, we went the traditional route (and by this i mean vinamese tradition) and got cash gifts which paid for the reception; for the baby registry i asked people to get stuff used from craigslist and asked for cloth diapering supplies mostly and most folks gave cash with which we were very grateful to purchase all the stuff we needed, some new, alot of it used. registries themselves are wishlists of things you want, which practice i find eminently practical, but it's only socially acceptable to have registries on major social rites of passage rather than events like holidays & birthdays. and sometimes, people buy you things off registry anyways which can result in something delightful that you wouldn't have bought for yourself (like a digital labeller! awesome!) and sometimes results in something that makes you go huh? (like the talking Stewie doll. you do realize one, i'm like in my 30s and don't collect dolls from animated TV shows. and two, i didn't have a TV for most of the nineties & 00s, right bro? i didn't even ever watch the family guy or the simpsons.)

i don't care for the social ballet of receiving gifts with one hand with genuine appreciation for the gift giver's intention of course, and some white lie nicety about using it, and passing it behind my back and with the other hand returning or recycling it.

my ma frequently gives me new & used clothes, shoes & avon products (she's an avon lady) and while i love her care & thoughtfulness, i always have to return them to her because it doesn't fit (i have a very different body type from my ma--i take after my paternal grandmother--and a different style sensibility because i'm in my 30s, not my 50s nor what she projects 30s ought dress like [um, ma, i don't go clubbing anymore and certainly not while i was pregnant. weo, only once and it was really just a bar and it was really no fun hanging out with smoking, emeryville quasi-hipsters at Kitty's, and anyways, i don't wear sheer blue leopard print chiffon because no one needs to see my big belly, navel & stretch marks. but then, in her 30s ma was a clubbin' disco queen and i have the photos to prove it!] and she thinks i'm bigger than i am or my feet are smaller than they are.) and i'm allergic to the cheap synthetic toxic chemicals in avon products. for some years i took the gifts and re-distributed them to friends, but nowadays, i don't have room in my luggage nor space in my house nor time to do that. so i thank you ma, and i can't use this because... happily, my ma isn't neurotic (in that way at least) and doesn't take it personal.

of course, our choices are political and spiritual in essence especially because what we want for our daughter and how we choose to go about getting there runs counter to dominant popular culture (and unfortunately what constitutes popular culture is corporate marketing). my cousins have nicknamed the baby "Moonbeam" for a reason. shrug. we love each other; we don't have to love each other's parenting choices. (and funnily enough i had considered naming the baby Moon something in vinamese Nga or Nguyet, but the english transliteration would really butcher the cadence of it. and we ended up choosing a historical name rather than a poetic one.) so this is how we do it in the n2 household:

• no princess stuff
• all natural materials like cotton, wool or wood are preferred
• no plastic toys, no battery-operated toys. toys should be educational or stimulate the imagination
• no corporate logos on the clothes (example: anything that has Disney on it, Tommy, Polo, Old Navy, etc). she's a baby not an advertising billboard
• no commercialized product tie-ins. no Disney, no Pixar, no Hello Kitty/Sanrio or TV cartoon characters like Dora or Sponge Bob. no hypersexualized toys like trampy Barbie or hooker Bratz dolls.
  
• no TV until she is 5 yo
• gently used, second-hand & hand-me-downs in good condition are great. what's important is the sentiment and utility, not the cost
• no princess stuff
• no dairy (this means no butter or milk or ice cream), no candy or artificial dyes in food (especially red)
• homemade is lovely too
• oh, and no princess stuff.

postscript: actually, it is socially acceptable to have "wishlists" so we started one for VL on alternativegiftregistry.org.

the morning after

the nice benefit about living in the digital age is the instantaneous access to news across the country and worldwide and the global connection to individual events. the invention of phallogocentric writing systems created history and led to the social construction of the patriarchal nation-state. and so, history is written and sometimes, surpasses individual remembering. benedict anderson pointed to newspapers as a key technology constructing the imagination of a national political community though it may be fractured, nevertheless it remains conceptually cohesive via this print medium of national mythos and ethos (and pathos). maybe your morning newspaper delivery (you still get hard copy?) was stolen today and you don't have $500 to shell out on ebay, or maybe you still see value in print media as an artifact--virtual news is after all so very ephemeral. to see how the world (okay corporate & independent media) scribed this moment in history, click on this.

OBAMA WINS

i can't hardly believe it!

my coworker and i (and VL) were just giving a community needs assessment survey design training for seven black and brown youth leaders who are building a center for the young people of West Oakland. the dream they dare to dream is built on hope and the determination to make change, to stop the violence, to unite young people, and envision a positive future. the news came via text message midway thru the training and electrified us with possibility. what blessed company to be in when history was made.

i just read this:
"Rosa sat so Martin could walk. Martin walked so Barack could run. Barack is running so our children can fly."

as much as i believe in social change and social justice, i never thought it would happen in my lifetime. shame on me for giving into the culture of fear that dominates used to dominate american politics.

hot damn. i guess my breast pump was right. she called it back in april. voteforbarack-voteforbarack-voteforbarack (blackhope! blackhope! black hope!).

car seat PSA

so VL is growing so fast, we had to replace her infant carseat that we inherited from aunty Tuyet. we got a sunshine radian 65 convertible (though she's growing so fast we prolly should have gone 80, but who knows if she will be over 65lbs by the time she's 53" tall? i dunno). in the process of doing all the consumer research, i learned that 85% of parents install the carseat WRONG and that car accidents are among the leading causes of death for children in the US. we had been driving around blithely for 8 months all unawares that VL's seat was installed improperly. we can only thank the heavens we weren't involved in a crash. those darn instruction manuals are not user friendly!

so here's what i learned about correctly installing a car seat:

• babies should be rearfacing at least until 20 lbs and 1 year old but the longer you can keep them rear-facing, the safer they would be in an accident. the max weight is determined by your carseat, our max is rear-facing up to 45 lbs.
• though all positions in the second row are safe, the center seat is the safest seat in the car. we had previously had VL installed on the right side to make it easier for curbside loading. though i had wondered about what would happen in a side impact crash.
• cars made after 2002 mandatorily have the LATCH system in addition to the standard seat belt install. the LATCH system was designed to make car seat installation easier since so many parents weren't installing car seats correctly with the seat belts. you should use LATCH or the seat belt to install NOT both. using both undermines the efficacy.
• because of width issues, most sedans/compacts/etc only have two outboard LATCH installed (meaning the outside seats only) and do not allow you to "borrow" the two inside LATCH for a center install. check your owner's manual (if it doesn't say you can borrow, then you cannot install in the center).
• top tethers are now standard with all car seats and the anchors are standard in newer model cars. the tethers need to be attached to the anchors or to some immoveable part of the car frame. in the case of rear-facing car seats, it can be to the passenger side seat leg. check your car owner's manual for anchor locations.
  

there are plenty of places that provide FREE car seat checks, find one in your city or town www.seatcheck.org/

and the technicians & forums at www.car-safety.org give specific advice about installation for your specific car seat & make/model of your car.


oh and one fun thing. if you've got two kids in the car and you want to keep them entertained, you can macguyver bungee cords or rope between the oh-shit-handles (i know those have a proper name but this is what i call 'em) and hang toys off the line to create your own car mobile. you can also zipline stuff from front passenger seat to the back row for older kids. disclaimer: i make no claims as to how it may distract the driver.