The Moffle: A Waffle I Can Eat

Stop waffling: Japan invents the "moffle"

"TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - Japanese pastry connoisseurs and technology fans have found a new obsession: the "moffle," a cross-over between a waffle and Japan's traditional "mochi" rice cake."

Gluten-free and delicious! I can't wait to find out where they first appear in Southern California. It can't be long. Or maybe I should just get my own moffle maker. Not surprising that the Japanese made it cute as well—just look at its little feet.

Going Out For Breakfast In The East Village

The Mission—East Village location

No we didn't go to New York City for Easter brunch. We went to one of our favorite breakfast spots, The Mission, which is located in the area of downtown San Diego know as the East Village. I think all of downtown San Diego could fit into NYC's East Village; it makes me giggle.

According to Matt's sister, the Mission has excellent pancakes and other gluteny breakfast fare, but Matt and I can only attest to their wonderful sweet corn tamales (not too sweet, just perfect), black beans, sausage and eggs. Their salsa verde is a perfect topper for such a meal. Oh yes, I must mention their seriously strong coffee—the kind where you add milk and it's still just as dark. I think the only time we've had stronger coffee was in Dubrovnik where I added 1/2 cup of cream with no effect.

Back to the East Village. This area is about a mile and a half from where we live–walkable if one has the time. It's close to the ballpark where the San Diego Padres play, and the area is a bit artsy with some galleries, restaurants and cool loft buildings. We looked into living here, but we're glad that we ended up in 'Downtown' downtown San Diego.

Here are some photos of the EV around where we ate.

Art & Industry: seems to be a welding studio of some kind, and the ICON where we looked at living (one can watch the ball games from the roof).


Before the ballpark was built, the area wasn't tony enough to attract a pilates studio or become the new headquarters of Pony .


Matt in front of Wheel Works, and bougainvillea which dresses up any neighborhood.

Hints from Matt

Shine your chrome with aluminum foil: "For sparkling chrome on your appliances, strollers, golf club shafts, and older car bumpers, crumple up a handful of aluminum foil with the shiny side out and apply some elbow grease. If you rub real hard, the foil will even remove rust spots. Note: Most "chrome" on new cars is actually plastic -- don't rub it with aluminum foil."

I think it was our friend Tyler who first brought this to our attention. Matt put it to good use for shining up the legs of a Barcelona chair when it arrived from my sister.

Matt very thoroughly shining one of the chrome legs.

The "apply some elbow grease" comment above is certainly true. The second chair is still wrapped in packaging awaiting his next burst of energy—which may take a while to arrive given his work schedule.

Matt enjoys the fruits of his labors.

These Weren't The Boxes We Wanted For Our Birthdays

They never seem to end. These boxes are actually now unpacked, tape removed, broken down and recycled. They've since been replaced by boxes for two bed frames, a mattress and five shelving units. We could have built our flat out of cardboard with all the boxes we've seemed to have gone through.

Birthday Celebrations

Matt and I both had our birthdays in March, and we were able to fit a little celebrating into Matt's crazy, busy schedule. Matt was too tired to go out on his actual birthday, but we made it the next night to a Normal Heights restaurant: Jayne's Gastropub. It was a cozy, nice place (though a bit loud due to the tin ceiling, tile floor and mirrors on the walls), and Matt loved his meal so much that he did something that I don't think I've ever seen him do: suck meat off the bones. He was sweet enough to let me take a photo.

Matt really enjoyed his pork special.

My birthday dinner is still forthcoming, as Matt was too exhausted on the actual day to go. However, an artistic, lovely bouquet of flowers arrived to brighten my day.

The roses smelled, and still smell, fresh and sweet.

The next day we headed up to Los Angeles to pick-up boxes, see Matt's parents and celebrate with some close friends at the historic Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood.

Abe, Shawn, me, Nico, Tyler and Matt—and the yummy peach bellinis.

I celebrated by ordering the outrageously expensive peach bellini and enjoyed every drop. The couches allowed us to lounge about in the renovated original lobby of the hotel. While the area was full for a Saturday night, we had lots of room and didn't even consider trying to go to the poolside club.

I think Abe got a little jealous about how well this photo of his boyfriend, Frank, and me turned out.

Tyler and I are actually very friendly people.

While our group was quite engaged with itself, Nico and I found some interesting people watching while in the bathrooms. I think all of our group was casually dressed in jeans: the bathroom ladies were in full-effect going out mode. The skirts were short and tight, and everything had a label. The effect was actually not so good, and the labels not so real.

Nico was able to keep the ever-fading Matt awake and engaged.

For me b-day, Shawn gave me two welcomed books on hiking in San Diego/ Southern California area.

I was hoping to spot a celebrity so that I could pass the news along to our friends who don't live in SoCal, but it wasn't to be. The closest I came was hearing someone mention Cuba Gooding Junior's name as we left the hotel. There was actually a one-degree removed celebrity sighting on Saturday: Matt's sister, Lindsey, saw and said hello to Moby at the Ritz in Laguna Niguel.

Things We've Noticed About San Diego

*A lot of tattoos—and not the kind that are administered with minimal discomfort and can be discreetly hidden for a job interview, wedding or family reunions. Not surprisingly, according to a post on Yelp, San Diego is also the city with the most people interested in tattoo removal.

*People are generally quite friendly—including sales customer service people.

*Gluten-free really hasn't caught on here yet. This makes me sad.

*Even bad traffic moves. After Los Angeles, I call this good traffic.

*Music in a time warp. It's been hard not to notice San Diegans' love of music from the last 80s and early 90s. I haven't heard Pearl Jam, U2 circa Achtung Baby and Zooropa, Dave Matthew's Band, Everclear, etc., this much since college. Even the alternative station has to sandwich a new song by Vampire Weekend between Nirvana, Rancid, Dead Milkmen and Sublime. Yes, Sublime (as well as Social Distortion, which we've heard) is a Southern California (Long Beach) band, but there are sooooo many SoCal bands that have put music out in the last 10 years.

*Real shocker: weather is lovely and air quality is excellent.

Cat Napping

While the cats are happy to have us back, I think they might be more thrilled with the amount of light we get in our new place. The light makes our lovely kitties even more photogenic.

Brea looks so forlorn, so dramatic. I love her black fur against the orange couch.

This picture really shows off Titchou's extra digits.

You've gotta love Ikea for the cute children's cushions. The crab is a Maryland symbol, so it's a reminder of the time they spent at my mom's house.

Matt put the Barcelona chair together last night, and Brea quickly found a comfy, cool spot to take a break from the sun.

Totally overexposed, but the floating couch effect is nice.

Hints from Amy

You can brush your teeth, wash your face (I do every morning), soak up cat vomit, safely scrub your pans, wash your clothes, deodorize your fridge/cat's litter box/ rug, and of course bake with it. What is this magic substance? Inexpensive and easily available baking soda.

I think this is the greatest thing ever, and so I wasn't surprised, just tickled pink, that one can also use it to remove the tarnish from silver. I had put some silver jewelry in storage in a very haphazard way, and most items greeted me with a dull, black coating when I unwrapped them. I have no patience for silver polish, and I was at the point of adding some less dear items to the the charity donation pile in lieu of spending the time/ money to clean them. A quick Google search gave me several options for non-polish tarnish removal, but none was easier or cheaper than lining the kitchen sink with aluminum foil, placing the objects in a single layer, generously coating them with baking soda and finally adding some boiling water.

Watch the process in action!

Silver items placed in a basket of foil covered by baking soda.

Boiling water catalyzes the reaction of the baking soda and foil.

Silver is clean and shiny!

Pin: before and after.

Jewelry: before and after.

Practical homemaking tips remind me of Hints from Heloise (hence the title of this post). Just discovered the HfH web site today while writing this post, and what did I find on the main page?: A post about baking soda and vinegar being her favorite cleaning products.

One more tip for today—using a razor to get rid of fabric pilling. I love the fabric on our couch (a vintage Alexander Girard design that I splurged for when I bought the couch years ago), but it does pill and having two cats doesn't help the cause. The look of the couch is diminished by the fibers matting on top of the fabric. I thought that I would have to buy a de-pilling gizmo until I read that one can shave away these unsightly nuisances. True one must be careful, but with a light touch the couch can safely look as good as new. I did discover that the cheapest single-blade razors are not quite sharp enough, and they end up costing you more as you run through them faster. An inexpensive, two-blade razor should do the trick nicely.

That's all the homemaking tips I have time for now. Hopefully one day soon I will be able to forward tips on how to make ones job easier (because that will mean that I have one!).

A ball of pilled fabric shaved and ready to be plucked off. Have fun!

Getting Settled In

That's our balcony on the bottom left.

The first wave of boxes are unpacked (we pick-up another 10 from Matt's parents' house this weekend), furniture (that we have) is in place, many trips to Ikea, Target, Home Depot, Trader Joe's and Whole Foods have been made—and our flat is beginning to feel like home.

Since our balcony did not come with a screen door, one of our first tasks was to construct one so the cats did not venture outside. We thought we could just buy a screen door at Home Depot, but it was way, way cheaper to make one ourselves. Matt and I realized that this was our first DIY project. There wasn't anyone in the screen door section of HD to help us, but we were able to figure out what we needed.

Matt testing the fit of the pieces.

We had no sandpaper, but a nail file did the job of smoothing down the edges.

There are some imperfections in the screen (buying the cheapest spline tool to push the screen into the frame wasn't the brightest idea), but it fits perfectly into the doorway. Most importantly it keeps Titchou and Brea inside while letting in the San Diego breeze (we're only a few blocks from the Marina).

And in case you are wondering, Matt did not become a MD while at Cambridge. The scrubs are compliments of our soon to be brother-in-law who is in medical school. I have a pair as well.

Dr. Matt completes his frame.

Now the job of inserting the screen begins.

Screen completed and in place. Titchou enjoys the afternoon sun and the prime seating.