Sweet and beautiful

I have never been a big fan of those supermarket sheet cakes. You know the ones - dry, crumbly cake covered with ten pounds of sugary frosting and decorated with artificially-colored flowers. Just thinking about it makes my teeth hurt. But growing up, I knew to expect those at every birthday, graduation party, and even at weddings.

During the two years I lived in Japan, cake took on an entirely new meaning. Sugar is not a staple of the Japanese diet like it is here, so cakes were only subtly sweetened. And Japanese cuisine focuses on quality over quantity, so the cakes were small, tastefully decorated, and made with the best ingredients.

Happily, I've realized that more and more cakes like this can be found in Chicago - and one of the best places is Sweet Thang, in Wicker Park. As the popularity of this bakery grows, their cakes seem to keep popping up all over the city - I was lucky enough to taste some at a recent bridal shower at Heat, a sushi restaurant in Old Town. Sweet Thang outsources cake to other restaurants and supermarkets as well... I can't wait to try one again! おいしかったね！

Sweet Thang

www.sweetthangcakes.com

1921 W. North Ave., Chicago

773.772.4166

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おひさしぶりです

Time for the second coming of 外人ガール・サバイバル日記 in Japan. For months, I wrote of my adventures as a foreigner living in Japan, struggling to create a bilingual account of my most memorable moments. The English came easy, but writing in Japanese was a painstaking exercise impossible without my dictionary and my husband's liberal feedback. As the months passed and we both became busier with other things, my blog entries became fewer and farther apart - and sadly months have passed since the last update. Maybe I set the bar too high by trying to keep in blog in language I'm still struggling with.

But I miss writing, sharing my random thoughts and recollections about the things which I like most - visiting cafes, exploring new places, spending time with interesting people. So I'll try this blog thing again, this time sticking to English. If I can still share my stories with friends back in Japan, great! I'm so amazed by their ability to master English. I will still try to improve my Japanese, but for the time being writing a daily blog 日本語で　is still a bit daunting given my lack of time..

So for what it's worth, I hope you enjoy! I know I will.


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