Lunch Box – 便當 – biàn dāng

Traditionally, 便當, consists of rice, meat, and vegetable. However, in recent years, anything that can fit in a lunch box and eaten for a meal can be considered a 便當. For me, coming up with ideas to pack for lunch is always hard, especially my 2 school age kids have very different taste pallettes. Here are some ideas that have worked in the past. If there are anything you do for your kids’ lunch boxes, please respond as I would love to get more ideas!

Too keep the lunch boxes cool on hot days, I put in a frozen gogurt, juice box, or cheese stick. On cold days, I use a thermo funtainer, such as this Disney Cars one, available at most Target stores, to pack mac and cheese or chicken noodle soup. In addition, I also found this really cool Dinosaur sandwich crust cutter from the grocery store this week, and my 5 year old is over the top with his dino grilled cheese and ham and cheese sandwiches, all WITHOUT crusts!

Wow – didn’t think I would ever find this, but check out this vintage Chinese Palace Lantern.  This is one of the traditional lanterns that I would see in Hong Kong when I was little.  Very pretty.  Available at JaysTreasures.

Back to School – 開學 – kāi xué

For New Jersey, school is right after Labor Day weekend. We are all getting anxious about new teachers, new friends, new schedules, new clothes, new shoes, new stationary, new backpacks, you name it.  Be safe and Happy Back to School!

In keeping with our Back to School theme for this week, here is another excellent find for your lunch bag!

According to the manufacture, the Kid SIGG Bottle is a smart, safe and stylish step up from the world of plastic sippy cups. Kids SIGG’s are durable and leak proof. Designed and manufactured in Switzerland from a single piece of aluminum, the innovative Kids SIGG Bottle 0.3L is surprisingly rugged and crack-resistant. The special liner ensures great taste and easy washing out – even after you realize it’s been under the car seat with grape juice in it for a week. Sigg water bottles are available in many stores, including Whole Foods, but this cute design is available at getgreen.com.

Just in time for back to school! September 7th for my family in NJ. Ok, I know for those of you in other states, you’ve already started school, and may have gotten everything on your supply list, but one can never have too many pencils and colored pencils, right? Plus, these are manufactured with recycled Chinese newspapers so they are environmentally friendly:-)

The colored pencils and regular pencils come in a set of 12. The colored ones are packed in a handy tube while the regular pencils are packed in a box with the stamped green recycled symbol and green eraser. These cool supplies will sure make headlines in your child’s pencil box!

You can find them at Barnes & Noble as well as fredflare.com.

As we approach the end of summer, Chinese people from around the world are getting ready to celebrate the second largest Chinese holiday, Mid-Autumn Festival, aka Moon Festival, or Moon Cake Festival according to my son.  This year, this very special holiday will fall on September 22nd, or the fifteenth of August on the Lunar Calendar.

Chinese families would all gather around together on this date to enjoy a nice meal, and some moon cakes.  The moon is said to be the brightest and roundest on this day throughout the year.  There are many stories of the Moon Festival.  These lovely tales have been around many years and children are especially fascinated by them.  The most famous tale should belong to Lady Chang Er.

Once upon a time, there were 10 suns that took turns circling the earth-one every 10 days. One day, all 10 of the orbs circled, together, causing the earth’s surface to burn and threatening mankind.  The emperor ordered his most famous archer, Hou Yi, to shoot down all but one of the suns.  Hou Yi did what he was told, and the emperor rewarded him with a pill, the elixir of life, and advised: “make no haste to swallow this pill, but first prepare yourself with prayer and fasting for a year.”  Hou Yi took the pill home, hid it under the pillow.

When Hou Yi was out of the house, his beautiful wife, Chang Er, discovered this pill and swallowed it.  Soon she discovered that her body was flowing in the air and started flying.  Hou Yi came home just in time to watch his beloved wife flying away to the moon.  When Chang Er reached the moon, this pill is no longer powerful, and therefore she is then stuck at the moon eternally.  Once a year, on the 15th of August, Hou Yi visits his wife, and therefore the moon is the brightest on this special day.

There are many versions of this story, but this is my favorite version.  I hope you enjoy it and will share it with your child too.

Pillow Pets, who ever invented this is a genius and probably a millionaire! It’s a stuff animal made with ultra soft chenille fabric, with what seems like hundreds of different designs. This one to the left is the panda, (of course, we LOVE pandas) but there are also other cuties such as Ms. Lady Bug, Wiggly Pig, Friendly Frog and many more.

The trick to this stuff animal is that it is fastened with a velcro. Once undone, the animal all the sudden flattens out and becomes a cozy pillow. On a recent trip, we brought with us Sir Horse and Wiggly Pig, picked out according to the kids’ Chinese horoscope signs, and it was an instant hit!

Watermelon – 西瓜 -xī guā

Watermelon or 西瓜 is a summertime favorite at my house. Growing up, we didn’t have refigerators until about 1979. To  make the watermelons cool, they were wrapped in ropes and dropped in a well until ready for consumption. Watermelons in Shanghai back in those days were also a lot smaller than the ones we see in the US, so it’s not uncommon to have more than one at a time. At the same time, since refigeration is not available, everything has to be consummed right away in order to avoid spoilage. So my mom would cut the watermelon into little triagles, and we would all sit around the table and enjoy the refreshing taste of this delicious fruit.

When China’s 2008 earthquake devastated the world’s largest protected panda habitat, many of the bears were moved to the Befengxia Panda Preserve, a national research and breeding center in Sichuan Province that’s now home to more than 80 Giant Pandas. Among it’s 21 new voluntourism projects, Planeterra offers volunteers the chance to work with a trained panda master to deliver hands on care to the masked mascots of global conservation. Participants can also make visits to Shanghai, Beijing, and the great Wall. For more information, contact Planeterra.

There are currently 1,600 Giant Pandas in teh wild and 200 in captivity.

Asian American basketball player, will be the first NBA player since 1947, certainly made us all Asian Americans proud.  Of course, being a Chinese mother, I am also equally fond of him graduating from the Harvard Crimsons.  He was just signed by the Golden States Warriors, and he will be one of the guards in the team.

Jeremy grew up in Palo Alto, California.  His first exposure to professional basketball started at the age of 5, when his father took him to his first basketball game.  Yeah, so this has been a good year for us, first Ed Wang to the NFL, and now Jeremy Lin to the NBA!!!!

Check out his highlights here at his Harvard days.