A cold winter day’s after school treat is well deserved when your kid has spent a full day at school learning and then staying after school for violin or going to tennis practice.
Once a week, I take that special time with my daughter to her favorite Japanese restaurant in Los Angeles for an after school snack. Some may say it will spoil their dinner, but I always find that it gives her so much more energy to do her homework when we get home that I would rather give her a great snack and have her eat a small dinner than to have her exhausted and grouchy and too tired to do homework or eat dinner.
Last week after a rather rainy day, B dressed in her fur hooded puffer coat and knee high leather boots ran straight into the car with her violin and backpack and asked if we could go to her favorite restaurant for her 2 favorite appetizers. She loves the hijiki seaweed and the agadashi tofu.
The agadashi tofu is this fabulous fried tofu confection with dried fish curls, green onions, grated fresh ginger that sits in a ponzu broth. The warmth of the aromatic broth with the freshness of the scallions and grated ginger give the dish a harmony of flavors that my 8 year old loves and finds rather comforting on a cold rainy day. Her other favorite is the salty sea water taste of the hijiki seaweed that balances out the agadashi tofu just right. We always share a bowl of the warm soba noodles to go with these 2 dishes and it is just enough to hold her over until dinner time.
Los Angeles is such a melting pot that it is never surprising that my mixed race daughter enjoys all the different ethnic foods that are available to her. One week we may have sushi as an after school snack and another week we may go for Greek or Persian food. It just depends on how we feel that day and of course the temperature. In LA it can be 90 degrees one day and the next day it could be 60 and rainy in the months of January.
The after school snacks are always a nice way to catch up at the end of a busy day and to regroup with your kids. Where do you like to go for after school special snacks or what do you like to make your kids?
Fur hooded puffer jacket seen on B by Ralph Lauren and can be found here for $154.99.
Black leather Primigi knee high boots seen on B are by Primigi for $101. 
