Photos of Easter

Rather than rant and rave about the merits of children wearing pastel colors and eating baskets full of Palmer hollow chocolate rodents, I'll simply share a few special images of my Easter.

Easter morning. We flew back from San Diego and went straight to Easter Brunch. Neil and Lou made some fabulous Easter offerings including a stunningly beautiful Malt Ball Cake from Food and Wine magazine inspired by the holiday cheer and Miette Confiserie. They took some gorgeous photos that already appear on Neil's Foodphiles blog (foodphiles.blogspot.com), and deserve to grace the pages of Food and Wine.

But who cares when you've got Peeps? In addition to the Easter delicacies enjoyed in their home, Neil gave me the gift of Peep bunnies and Easter Grass!!

I would title this Anna Nicole Smith Peep and Baby Danielynn Peep, but that would be insensitive

Still life with lemons, chocolate cake and Easter Grass

Little Bo Peep

Even when separated, Peeps learn to relate

I see Peepie in the toilet

Attack of the 50 cent Japanese sponge from Daiso

Ok, that last photo just made me realize that I have to comment on Daiso. According to their website, Daiso is, like, the largest junk store in Japan. One opened not so long ago next to the classy Serramonte Mall in Colma, and my friend Mark and I dropped by there, thanks to Brad's recommendation. Essentially, everything in the store, with some exceptions, is $1.50. And they carry everything. It's like being in an Osaka suburb, but instead you're in a downscale San Francisco suburb. Mark and I spent a long time in the store picking out weird wooden heads with lips drawn on them, Woody Town Characters, pink fish sponges and steel soap dishes. Everything is in Japanese, so it's hard to really know what's going on. I might have to get my friend Anne to swing by to translate those weird lotions and nets. But if you ever go to Japan and come back and realize you forgot to get a gift for your best friend, swing by Daiso! And you'll be happy you did. According to their website, "Daiso offers around 90,000 products, nearly all of which are original products developed by Daiso through repeated trial manufacture with customer satisfaction uppermost in mind. As cheap stock and dead stock are immediately rejected by customers, we have focused on improving quality even if it means higher cost prices." Exactly. It doesn't make sense. I like it.