Feeding the Lily: Breastmilk

When I was pregnant, I had no opinion about the breastfeeding vs formula feeding thing. When I was asked, I would answer: Why not both?:)) Companies (and a friend) would offer me free samples of formula and I would take it. After all, the best things in life are free, right? And both are free! *happy dance*. My husband though had an opinion about it and he convinced/encouraged me to feed Lily breast milk exclusively and I'm glad he did. I couldn't have done it without his support. Immediately after I gave birth, he lovingly reminded me to give Lily colostrum. He would relay to me information friends provided him to build up my supply. He also encouraged me to join to the breastfeeding support group in our area and sometime drives me to those meetings. When I went back to work, he would constantly remind me to drink water. He volunteers to wash the bottles and pump parts at home. Aside from breastfeeding, marrying this man is one of the best decisions I have made in my life. Naks! Ayii! But enough about him, thank God! He made the decision me by giving me the biology/anatomy for making it even possible, a partner who is very supportive and a child that is not hard to please. I'm glad that Lily is exclusively breastfed at least for the first six months and there is no horror story to tell. Except for a bout of mastitis and lack of supply collected sometimes, there is nothing that antibiotics or diligent pumping/galactagogues can't cure. And did I mention that I didn't need to exercise because I was losing weight just by doing this?:))

During one of the breastfeeding support meetings that I attended

You know you're living in the first world when there is breastfeeding support.:p After I gave birth, there is already free service to a lactation consultant is available. At first, I found it silly that there was such a job title but I'm glad I took what I can get.:)) The NW Tucson Breastfeeding Support Group has meetings every Wednesdays: one in the afternoon, one at night. I attended the night session due to availability of the our van and eventually due to my work hours. A meeting usually involves having the baby weighed for them to determine whether she is gaining normally, then a round group introduction and sharing of concerns. Being the clueless mother that I am, it gave me some direction on how to go about with this breastfeeding thing and was very helpful...so helpful that I couldn't even remember the issue/s that I had if any. By the time we are leaving, Lily was latching contentedly.

Lily's first stash...na ubos na agad pagbalik ko sa work @ 6 wks

Lily having her first bottle

Introducing Lily to the bottle at 1 month was a good decision for us. Aside for me being atat for me to be able to do more things aside from nursing all day :p, it helped Lily transition when I got back to work.

Celebrating Breastfeeding Week (August) by making lactation cookies

My first attempt at lactation cookies was actually useless. Brewer's yeast which is an essential ingredient for this purpose wasn't sold in the grocery so I substituted with regular yeast which is not the same.:)) It worked slightly on my next attempts already using brewers yeast which I had to buy via Amazon. Other galactagogues I tried:

• Natalac malunggay capsules that I requested mom to bring from the Philippines as recommended by Alpha. According to indication, this should be taken once daily. I couldn't  really tell if it worked and it was too late when friends told me that I should have increased the dosage.
• Fenugreek capsules. This was 2 capsules twice daily. Did not work. Boo!
• Mothers milk tea. Forgot the name of the two brands that I tried. I took it in increasing frequency and it worked slightly better when I didn't drink it that much.
• Honestly, there was no specific formula that worked for me to increase my supply. Surprisingly, I produce better when I feel warm and relaxed like after eating some goto or getting a massage from hubby. [UPDATE] I guess that's why I got this on Valentines day: 

A  record for me. Bwahaha!

By the way, I use a Medela Pump in Style which seems to be the best pump in the market nowadays. Aside from being one of the pumps offered by insurance for free (United Healthcare at that time), it was also recommended by Alpha. Being a first time mom, I felt weird using the contraption at first ("So this is how a cow feels like") and had to ask help from my technical support guy aka Tatay (FTW!).  Unless somebody invents a pump that is more portable/mobile (so I can do it while sleeping or working), this is the best I could ask for. Tip: always check if parts need to be replaced as it helps with the output.

Cultural Night: Korean, Chinese, American

Like my period, I'm so late with my Cultural Night blog entries (LOL) so I'm making it a quarterly instead of a monthly update this time. Anubayan, pa-"low-key" ng pa-"low-key" mga dates namin..transitioning to parenthood ba itech? :))

Korean

We planned to have this last December when we went to east coast but we forgot with all the other kinds of food and activities already provided to us so it was moved to January when we were back in Tucson.

Food: Seoul Kitchen

We almost forgot the name of this restaurant if it weren't for the pictures that Pop took. I was telling him that it's just sad that it meant that our date nights were becoming less and less memorable but then he reminded me that he chose this restaurant because it seemed more appropriate as he will be dining with his Seoul-mate...acheche! sige na nga, pasado na!

Let's see... we had some kind of korean pancake made of vegetables and tempura for appetizer. The pancake looks like okoy but with vegetables so it was kind of oily and I'm not really a fan of the vegetables used. The tempura is not really that Korean-y...we just ordered it because Popy was craving for it. For the main course, I ordered Kalbi Tang and Pop ordered Beef Bulgogi. They came with miso soup, rice and kimchi. Needless to say, we were so full afterwards and still had enough for take-away. I tried the kimchi for the first time but I didn't like it, maybe because it is an acquired taste or it's made of vegetables (Sorry, baby!) but everything else was satisfying. In terms of ambiance, it was casual dining and there was a TV playing what looks like a Korean reality show with no sounds. It looks dramatic but we couldn't take it seriously because of the man's blond hair. :))

Bean Dae Deok: Korean Style Pancake

Movie: 작업의 정석 The Art of Seduction

We were initially planning to do a Korean TV series marathon but things got busy and I'm too lazy to read the subtitles. Being our anniversary month, we decided to watch this light romantic comedy. Like most romantic movies, it does not make sense but it is good for entertainment. :))

Chinese

With all the chaos of transferring homes, we squeezed this in February.

Food/Activity: siopao and siomai

Since we were already planning on making siopao and siomai, we counted it as our chinese food (and activity). I know that it is really more Filipino-Chinese than Chinese but we didn't want to spend after our biggest purchase yet (aka house) so that will have to do. For siopao, we made asado. Admittedly, this was the shortcut version: using McCormick asado mix for the filling and Panlasang Pinoy's recipe for the dough and siopao sauce. It turned out ok though I remember the Goldilocks bake book we did before was tastier and had better texture. Oh well, I guess that's the price we pay for time and effort or beginner's luck. For the siomai, we made pork (with some shrimp) siomai. For the filling, I used the usual recipe from PanlasangPinoy but bought the wrapper from Walmart instead of our local Asian supermarket (Leelee). Since Pop is the master wrapper for the dimsums ("Intcheck it out, y'all!":p) and I'm the official mixer, I'll leave to him to review which wrapper is better.

Movie: Man of Tai Chi
Damn, another movie with subtitles! Pop thought that there weren't that much subtitles, since Keanu Reeves is in it, but apparently not, so I'm out of luck. There were A LOT of fight scenes... I guess Pop is taking advantage of watching all those violence while baby is not yet out.

American 
Monthsary Date for March

Food: Red Lobster

Since I was craving for some seafood and I felt the baby was not getting enough omega-3 due to lack of fresh seafood in Arizona, this was our choice of restaurant. We took advantage of the Lobsterfest promo and coupon. Pop got the Dueling Lobster Tails (A roasted Maine lobster tail topped with tender shrimp in a creamy garlic sauce paired with a golden-baked Maine lobster tail with crab-and-seafood stuffing. Served over mashed potatoes, roasted tomatoes and green beans.) and I got the Lobster Lover's Dream (A succulent rock lobster tail and sweet split Maine lobster tail, roasted and served with lobster-and-shrimp linguini Alfredo.). Both came with biscuits, salad, and a choice of side dish which I wasn't aware of until our waiter took our order (which I wish I read somewhere in their menu so I could have planned for a more balanced plate). Also, I couldn't choose among the salad dressing options because the only vinaigrette they have is red wine vinaigrette. Anyway, fishy ambiance smell, unbalanced plate and limited salad dressing aside, my craving was satisfied.

Movies: Academy Award movies
This made a perfect excuse to watch a couple of movies that won in the Academy Awards which was held at the start of the month. The first movie on our playlist was Dallas Buyers Club. Matthew McConaughey is so freaking thin in this movie so I guess he really deserved the best actor award for doing that to himself.

The second movies was 12 Years a Slave. Pinagma-"Lupita"n ng todo si Lupita dito. Wakoko! I guess the pattern now is to have a tortured movie role to win an academy award.:p 

Lastly we watched The Wolf of Wall Street, we got to learn some loop holes in the stock market that we could use if there is a readily available DeLorean that actually travels back through time. DiCaprio was good but was outshined by McConaughey in Dallas Buyes Club.

There was not much to add to our playlist because we have already watched the other winning (and nominated) movies before namely:

• The Great Gatsby: We watched this last October, I think. It was our drinking game movie with "Gatsby" as the trigger word. Needless to say, we got drunk and wasn't able to finish the movie.::))
  
• Frozen: We watched this in the cinema on our trip to Long Beach last Thanksgiving. I haven't seen the trailer before I watched it so when I heard the title and knowing the people who invited us to watch it were Pop's guy friends, I thought it was some sort of suspense (like Taken) in a snowstorm filled place. Little did I know that it was a Disney movie.:)) Given the raves and different covers done by other people, the movie and music were obviously a hit.
• Gravity: We watched this the previous month if I remember correctly. Yung feeling ni Sandra Bullock nung mauubos na yung oxygen sa helmet nya pareho siguro ng feeling pagbarado ilong at tenga ko due to pregnancy. :p
• American Hustle (nominated): Naumay kami ni Pop sa dibdib ni Amy Adams dito so no props for costume design for this.:)) Di ko rin mashado gets yung con at entrapment na nangyari...kala ko parang Leverage lang. Hindi rin bagay kay Jennifer Lawrence yung pang-nanay na role kasi mukha pa siyang may baby fats.
• Captain Philips (nominated): Nainip ako sa tagal nila mahuli yung hijackers. In fairness, thriller nga talaga sha. Tapos di ko ma-differentiate yung itsura nung mga hijackers kaya ni-labelan ni Pop para sa kin: si ipin (ung leader), si tangkad, si bata at yung drayber. Sana po hindi ko mapaglihian ang mga to.

Moving Phase Food Trips

Because I got worried that I was not gaining enough weight for the baby and we were too tired from home moving to cook, our eat-outs became more often.

Red Devil Italian Restaurant

It was dinnertime when we arrived in Phoenix from our flight in New Jersey so we were already hungry. I wanted some pasta with white sauce at that time so we looked for one using Yelp and our GPS. We were lead to this restaurant. I got Fettuccine Alfredo while Pop got the Chicken Parmigiana with additional sausage. My duckface below shows how hungry I am but I was kind of disappointed that my order doesn't have the taste I was craving for....it was kind of bland. I guess that's what I get for eating something that I'm supposedly not be eating (as those kind of sauces might have raw eggs in it).

Ihop

This is our first time eating out for breakfast. I can't believe we already missed the heavy breakfast in Jersey!:)) Pop ordered hot chocolate and Split Decision breakfast combo while I ended up with a big steak omelet since the other options had bacon and deli meat in them and those without looks too heavy for breakfast. It was overkill because all components were too heavy on the stomach....so much for balanced diet. :)) Pardon our bagong-gising-slash-wala-pang-ligo appearances below. (In fairness, I guess the sustenance did us good since one waitress complimented me despite of that.) 

[Topeng: The waitress actually said "Sorry for staring, but you look very pretty!" ]

In and Out

We have this for take-away and now seems to be Pop's favorite burger joint. Their menu is pretty simple and straightforward. It boasts of fresh ingredients on its burger and cholesterol-free fries so it gives an impression that it is not unhealthy.

Lil Abner's Steakhouse

I was craving for steak so we went here for our anniversary. The place has an outdoor grill, walls are covered in grafitti and license plates so it looked pretty laid back but the prices were not.:)) Pop got the 1 lb rib-eye steak and I got the "Cowgirl" steak (1 lb T-bone). Every meal comes with salad, unlimited texas toast, beans and salsa. We also shared a pecan pie ala mode for dessert.

Pop's review: "Big Abnoy sa presyo pero masarap naman sha".

Mush's review: It was ok but I guess it was not such a good idea for a pregnant woman to get steak cooked in an outdoor grill since "well done" meant there were some burnt streaks. Popy's steaks pa rin ako.

Warning: When our bill came, we realized that we fell into the the trap of saying yes when they offered corn on the cob which we thought came with the meal. Tsk, tsk! Oh well!

Mantis Chinese

We learned about this from Bert/Alpha when they ordered fried rice from them when we came to their apartment. It's 'sulit': all kinds of meat are there so we decided to eat there one night. Their dinner special came with soup (egg drop or hot and sour), 2 crab puffs, 2 egg rolls, rice (brown or jasmin) and a choice of chicken, beef or shrimp dish. For my dinner special, I chose the egg drop soup, brown rice and snow peas chicken (chicken with broccoli, napa, snowpeas, waterchestnut,mushroom). Popy chose his with hot and sour soup, brown rice as well and black pepper steak (beef with chili pepper, onions and black pepper sauce). Lamon mode na naman kami and the best thing is it was only about $10 for each meal. Of course, if you want a less oily alternative, then there are other restaurants for that and you will have to pay more but its another story.

Tip: If you do not want to smell like food, it is best to get their food as takeaway. However, take note that their lunch serving is smaller than their dinner serving.

The Cracker Barrel

Wanting to try another breakfast place, we went here one weekend morning. I have to say I like this better than Ihop. They have more variety and options and they have a cute shop. I ordered Smokehouse Breakfast (Two scrambled eggs with Grits, Sawmill Gravy and Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits along with real Butter and the best Preserves. Served with Turkey Sausage Patties) while Pop had the Double Meat Breakfast (Three soft sunny side up Eggs with a full order of Bacon and Smoked Sausage Patties. Served with Grits, Sawmill Gravy and Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits along with Real Butter and the best Preserves). Sobrang busog na naman, nabinyagan na tuloy ung CR ng bahay.TMI!

El Guerro Canelo
For Valentine's Day, I couldn't think of anything special to do so I indulged Popy by getting our dinner from his favorite El Guerro Canelo and just having a movie date at home. We ordered almost the same food from our Mexican cultural night plus Pop ordered a couple of sonoran hotdogs.

[Nowadays you know you like your food more than your photos when there isn't any photos of your food - Topeng]

Texas Roadhouse

We initially were going there for lunch but then the Comcast installation guy arrived early so we had to go home first. By the time the installation finished, we were so hungry so we decided to just eat at home with leftovers for lunch. 

When we finally decided to eat there for dinner, it was almost closing time as they were closing early for the Super Bowl. Anyhoo, long story short, we arrived just in time for dining in but not for taking out. They had complimentary peanuts and bread with apple butter while we waited for our order which is prime rib with a slab of rib. (This came with two sides but I can't remember which ones we ordered). We shared the plate: mostly Pop having the prime rib while I had the slab of rib. I guess we were too hungry that we forgot to take a picture of the food when it arrived so this is the only picture we have of the experience.  

From the looks of things, Pop will be recommending this place as he enjoyed the prime rib.

God is building 2 homes for us...

One in Tucson and one in my womb! :D \:D/

The one in Tucson will be ready when the one in my womb comes out and Pop is writing a separate entry for that. The one in my womb is now 33% occupied. There are so many new things I'm learning/experiencing and this was harder than I thought! I initially thought that being pregnant, I could still do the things I do, just heavier. Now that I'm actually experiencing it, I realize that it takes more sacrifice, paranoia and annoying symptoms to deal with.

First 5 weeks

It's only now that I came to know that they count the weeks of pregnancy starting from the LMP so they still count the first two weeks prior to conception. No wonder doctors always advise to stop drinking and eat healthier as part of preparation. When my monthly visitor didn't come, I thought it was due to new medication that I was taking so I didn't think much of it. But then, it seems that my body didn't want me to ignore as I experienced some severe itching. (Ugh #1) The cold weather did not help with my dry skin as well. Symptoms aside, I was still continuing what I planned to do for the month which consist mostly of spoiling Popy on his birthday month. Maybe its a good thing I did that because now he has to spoil me for the next 8 months. Bwehehe! On the other hand, I hope I won't regret not being aware of my food and activities during that time.

Baby's first flight

Week 6

On Halloween night, after we came back from trick or treating, I concluded that there is a big possibility that my speculation was right. Since I haven't confirmed it yet through a test, I thought to let Popy know indirectly. That night, I put a hotdog bun in the oven with a sign indicating "Trick or Treat?" I thought he would see it the next day when he prepares some breakfast or dinner. I was wrong! He didn't prepare breakfast and it was taking him a while to start making the dinner so I started it myself. He turned on the heat on the oven without checking it! Needless to say, the bread burned. At this point, I was so furious! I threw the bread in the sink and cursed in frustration. I've been stopping myself from opening the oven ALL DAY so that he would open it! I was starving myself for nothing! Hello, mood swings! So much for telling it indirectly. :-|

Non-existent photo of trick or treat bun in the oven

The following weekend I bought a test during grocery shopping. It immediately came up positive so I confirmed it to Popy by handing him the Prego jar from our fridge. I won't reveal how long it took him to get that. :p I guess he was still in denial at that point because his instinct was to look up reviews for the test that I bought.:)) Being the miser that I am, of course it was the cheapest one in the store and the reviews were not that good. In my defense, if the HCG is there then is no denying it! :)) So for additional confirmation, Pop bought a more expensive and "more accurate" kit. The kit contains two tests. As expected, it was positive for 3+ weeks. 3+ weeks was the maximum period on the test. There was no need to test it one more time so (shameless plug) I have an extra test if anyone else needs it! :)

The cheap one

The "more accurate" one

We also had our first prenatal visit on the last day of this week. The assistant mostly asked questions about medical background and provided us some printed information on pregnancy. The OB did not see us as there was not much to see yet. The ultrasound could be done after week 8.

Week 7

We wanted our parents to be the first to know so we had a little project to announce it to them. Initially, it was suppose to be through a postcard but Pop was so excited, he wanted a frame to go with it too. :)) Here is a sample of the picture that we sent them:

I also borrowed some materials from the library to get some ideas on nutrition and exercise. Career mode!

• What to eat when you're expecting / by Heidi Murkoff, with Sharon Mazel and Arlene Eisenberg
• Pregnancy cooking & nutrition for dummies / by Tara Gidus.
• What to expect when you're expecting [videorecording] : the workout / Lions Gate Entertainment.

Review: The first two above are recipe books while the last one is a dvd. I don't know if it's the nausea (Ugh #2) or I'm just not used to the "American" way of healthy eating but I cant seem to find the appetite for some of the recipes: most of which are salads and ginger-based ones. Ginger is said to help with nausea but it seems to have an opposite effect on me! The dvd offers 6 classes: 3 for cardio, 2 for toning/sculpting and 1 for relaxation/cool down. It was helpful, just need to bypass the annoying intro to each class every time.

Speaking of cooking, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my husband for being my houseband. Since I became sensitive to smells, he has taken up most, if not all, of the housework without me needing to ask for it. He also makes sure that I drink my medicine, vitamins and water. Ang swerte-swerte ko talaga! :D Thank God na siya napangasawa ko. (Bawi-bawi lang kase sinungitan ko sha nung last week. Hehehe!) Sobra-sobra yung pagdamay nya, nagpapalaki rin ng tiyan at nakiki-utot. Bwahaha! TMI!

Week 8

I found online a free Healthy Pregnancy Class for first time parents at Tucson Medical Center so we took the opportunity to attend it. Either they haven't advertised enough or June is not a very popular birth month as there was only one other couple in the class which is not bad as it made the class more interactive. Our instructor gave out some informational materials, had us watch some videos interviewing real-life pregnant couples, showed life size illustrations of a growing belly and demonstrated some pregnancy exercises/relaxation techniques. My husband also got to experience how heavy and uncomfortable it will be by wearing the empathy suit below.

 Work it!

The last part was the tour around the hospital: birthing rooms, nursery, etc. Though it was very nice, I didn't bother taking pictures because I probably won't be delivering here because this is a little bit farther from where we live but it's good to know the options.

Week 9

Finally, we got to see our baby and hear the heartbeat for the first time via the ultrasound. Wow, thank you Lord!

So relieved that I haven't screwed it up completely so far. Pop also rewarded me with a maternity pillow since I was having "sleep disturbances" (Ugh#3) and difficult time finding a good position to sleep. After an afternoon nap with it, it was the best sleep I've had in days.

Week 10

Thankfully, the doctor said that it was safe to fly/travel for me so went to Long Beach for Thanksgiving. We stayed with my high school friend Frida. I missed this girl and our visit was very timely as well. Aside from being a registered nurse, she is also in her second trimester of her second pregnancy so I got a lot of tips, advice (and baby formula!) from her. We were so spoiled with her during and even after our half week stay that our stomachs were full for a week. Amazing how diligent she is cooking, hoping I would get my diligence back on my 2nd trim as well. Our genie granted us Kare-kare and hilaw na mangga with bagoong. Yum! On top of that, may take home pa kami: SANSRIVAL!!! (topeng), baked mac, giniling, tinupis and leche flan. The baby definitely never went hungry this week!

Frida's kare-kare

Week 11

This was a rough week. I guess eating too much and lack of exercise during the last week has taken its toll on my body. I also went shopping for maternity clothes which might have been unhygienic. I just didn't know what to do with myself so I had to call in to triage to report my symptoms. I was advised to use some medication for the infection (Ugh#4) and was scheduled an appointment earlier than should be to consult with doctor regarding the abdominal cramps (Ugh#5) and vomiting (Ugh#6). The doctor concluded that it was gastro-intestinal related and I should try heartburn medication and should make sure I get a lot of fiber and water. (Frida also advised to have 30mins walk daily to release possibly compressed air' as the gastro-intestinal system tends to be slower during pregnancy). I was so relieved that the symptoms were secluded to me and was not affecting the baby and the heartbeat is still strong. Heartbeat 

Week 12

Everything is so itchy! Avoiding the stretch marks is harder than I thought. :( I tried calamine lotion and cocoa butter lotion but my skin is still so red and itchy. I wish I knew how to resolve this. On a better note, at least I can still sleep it off most of the time.

Also, I never thought that I would have a problem gaining weight but it seems that my nauseous dates with john are inevitable. I guess I was wrong in thinking that I should already be past this. I now have less than 2 weeks to gain the recommended two pounds for the first trimester. 0.8 down, 1.2 to go! Holiday binging, here I come!

Week 13

We flew to New Jersey for the holidays to visit my Lintag relatives. This is perfect with my weight gain goal since Filipino holidays = lots of food! Also, we decided to say our greetings and share our gift through Facebook.

 

Cultural Night: Italia

Having stayed there the longest during our Europe trip, there are a lot of cultural aspects to Italy. For our July cultural night, we decided to focus on art and food.

Food: Pop was raving about this pizza restaurant he went to and he wanted me to try it. It was one of his hole in the wall places. Unfortunately, he couldn't remember the name of the place so we couldn't look up the delivery number and he had to get it to-go. We were supposed to eat it during the movie but he later found out that the restaurant was already closed for business so we had to change our plans. We contemplated on making pizza but we lacked some ingredients and it was already late so we decided to just have dinner at Olive Garden.

 

Movie: After dinner, we watched a movie named The Agony and The Ecstasy. It is about Michaelangelo's life. This movie was recommended to us by a guide during our tour of the Vatican Museum. Technically, this is more of the Vatican City not Italy which are two different countries but since we will not be doing a Vatican City night, this will do.

While watching the movie, we decided to do some wine drinking as well. 

Activity: Italian food is considered as one, if not the most, popular food in the world so we decided to make cooking as our activity. Since we just ate pasta from a friend's house the previous week and making pizza from scratch takes time (according to previous experience), we decided not to do those. The dish of choice: risotto, since we have never tried making one before and they do not have this in Olive Garden's menu. We ate gelato for dessert.

I would like to apologize to the Italians for this lackluster attempt at exploring their culture. Their are definitely some more aspects to know about Italy including but not limited to:

• art (most of the famous artists like all the names of the ninja turtles originated from there),
• architecture/sculptures (you could really see the great amount of detail they put on the churches and statues), 
• sports (soccer; Ferrari is a popular sports car)
• fashion (Armani, Gucci, Prada....none of which I dare afford though :)) ) 
• music (opera singer Pavarotti is Italian)
• literature (Roman mythology)

.

Cultural Night: Ethiopia

Inspired by the interesting things we learned about different countries during our Europe tour, our travel project #2 was conceptualized. We decided to generally call it as Cultural Night. It will be celebrated every 17th or 22nd of the month, whichever is closer to the weekend, and it will serve as our monthsary date. It will consist of three elements related to the country/region of choice: food, movie and activity. Since there are about 200 countries in the world and for it to be achievable, I limited our draw lot entries to those countries/regions with food/ingredients that can be found in the Tucson area.

For our first cultural night, the theme drawn was Ethiopian. According to Yelp, there are two restos serving Ethiopian cuisines in Tucson: Zemam's and Cafe Desta. Since Popy has been to to Zemam's before and its review score is a little bit higher than Cafe Desta, we decided to go to the former.

We ordered the combination and meat sampler, Ethiopian coffee and Ethiopian tea. For the combination sampler, I chose the spinach wat, zigni and doro wat. For the meat sampler, Popy ordered lega tibs, yedoro alicha, and mincheta bish. In Ethiopia, "often women feed the men with their fingers as a mark of love and devotion to them" so I made sure we didn't miss out on that. hehe!



Eating Ethiopian food for the first time, my notion of the food is a little bit different. As expected, some of the wat was on the spicy side but it was good. One is even similar to our afritada. Initially, I thought that the injera is just like a pita bread but it is more like a spongy sour bread so it is dipped rather than wrapped into the wat. I found the coffee too bitter inspite of the sugar and milk put into it so I swapped it with Pop's tea. Coffee originated in Ethiopia so I guess they haven't perfected it yet during that time.:p Unlike the coffee, the tea is sweet and I haven't quite pinpointed what it tastes like. We ordered too much because the platter was meant for sharing so we had the rest as takeout.

For the movie, Pop purchased from Amazon and we watched Atletu(The Athlete), which is based from the life of Ethiopian runner Abebe Bikila. Interesting fact: he is what inspired the Bikila shoes for Vibram. The movie was a bit of an artsy fartsy documentation but one thing that you can see in the movie is Abebe's very patriotic thinking and here are several quotable quotes.

-  "I wanted the world to know that my country, Ethiopia, has always won with determination and heroism"

- "Men of success meet with tragedy. It was the will of God that I won the Olympics, and it was the will of God that I met with my accident. I accepted those victories as I accept this tragedy. I have to accept both circumstances as facts of life and live happily."

- “It took an entire Italian army to conquer Ethiopia, but only one Ethiopian soldier to conquer Rome”



Obviously since Ethiopia is famous for long distance runners so we planned to have running as our activity. Unfortunately, this was not quite possible because of Pop's foot problem so we opted for the tamer alternative: walking/jogging.