I bought some of these Egglings for Jonah from Giant Robot as an Easter present since he’s such a nature fanatic. He’d been pestering me to plant some flowers and herbs in the backyard but since I have the blackest of black thumbs, I didn’t feel like adding herbicide to my bad karma list. I’m probably the only person who can mess up a Chia Pet and make it sprout only mold.

These little Egglings are perfect for kids and horticulturally-challenged folks like me. It’s a total no-brainer. The white egglings are made of white, porous ceramic and look identical to a jumbo egg. But you crack the top gently with a spoon and inside there’s a peat-fortified mixture inside the eggs all ready to go. All you do is add water and set them out in a sunny place to grow. You don’t have to whip out the gardening gloves or mess around with potting soil. Minimal fuss and muss.

These handmade egglings are extremely popular in Japan and they come with a terra cotta tray and an extra seed pack to insure success. Ten egglings are available: three herbs (basil, mint and thyme), three flowers (chrysanthemum, phlox, petunia), and four special edition varieties (lavender, cactus, red pepper, and wild strawberry).

The Nyokki eggs (Japanese word for grow) with the little legs grow rye grass and you can trim it and style it any way you like.

These little plants are just so cheery and so cute and I’ve perched them all on my windowsill in the kitchen and water them daily. The instructions do warn about the dangers of overwatering since they can cause the roots to rot. So sadly, it is possible for me to kill these plants as well. I’ve been restraining myself from drowning them since it’s so much fun to water them.

But I think I’ve just discovered the perfect generic birthday/teacher/hostess gift and plan to stock up and stash them in my closet to have in a pinch. They come adorably packaged of course, since they’re a Japanese product. But overall, this is the rare fusion of form meeting function in equal measure.

LINKS: GiantRobot and Eggling.com

• LOW CARB — Only 3g of carbs per serving

• LOW CALORIE — 20 calories per 4 oz serving

• NO CHOLESTEROL

• NO SUGAR

• GLUTEN-FREE

• DAIRY-FREE

• CONTAINS 10% CALCIUM • GUILT-FREE

Spring has sprung and all the tank tops and strappy dresses are adorning the store windows. As much as I hate to diet, I’ve reached a frustrating plateau of postpartum weight loss. In my previous pregnancies, those last five were the most stubborn to lose and ironically, they only budged when I ate MORE. Guess I needed to trick the ol’ metabolism out of fat storage mode. This time around, however, my body knows all my tricks and has stubbornly decided to hang on to my last three pounds of belly fat no matter how much I work out or eat or don’t eat.

So this time, I’m cutting back on my carb intake and that’s no easy feat for a Korean girl who loves her rice and noodles. That’s why I love these “noodles” that aren’t really noodles at all. They’re only 20 calories a serving and you can substitute this into any pasta recipe.

The drawbacks: When you open the bag, you will want to pass out from the smell. It really smells like a bag of dead goldfish until you rinse and drain those noodles thoroughly. Just breathe through your mouth and avert your face during the rinsing process. Also, the texture takes a little getting used to. It’s kind of squeaky and slippery and slimy.

But it’s so easy to prepare. Just nuke these rinsed noodles in the microwave for a minute then toss with your favorite marinara sauce, curry sauce, or even low fat chili (which I did last night) and you have a healthy, low-cal dinner in a flash. Too bad I can’t convince my kids to touch the stuff. I find these at my local supermarket wherever they sell tofu in the refrigerator section. But then again, I live in L.A. with a good ethnic population.

Here’s a link to House Foods America for where you can find these noodles in your area.

This is definitely not for the squeamish. According to TrendCentral, the newest spa treatment from Japan is known as Garra Ruffa or Dr. Fish. Basically you stick your feet into a tank full of hundreds of live fish, where they swarm and nibble and feast on your dead, scaly skin. Apparently this doesn’t hurt at all, it feels somewhat ticklish and once you become accustomed to hundreds of tiny mouths sucking on your feet hungrily, it’s  supposedly relaxing. Originally intended for psoriasis sufferers, the fish feed only on the dead skin and leaves behind fresh healthy skin.

I experienced this inadvertently while snorkeling in a cenote (fresh water pond) in Playa Del Carmen. I dunked my feet in the water to get accustomed to the temperature and dozens of little fish started to nibble on  my toes. It definitely doesn’t hurt and feel good in a twisted way. But I don’t know if I’d feel comfortable with HUNDREDS of fish having a feeding frenzy over my calluses. I’ve seen enough bad 70’s nature-gone-awry movies like Pirahna  to feel  entirely comfortable with this scenario.

I’ll be the first to admit that the Asian palate is not like the others. If you’ve ever wondered what kinds of regional preferences that chains like Dominos and Pizza Hut accommodate in South Korea and Japan, here’s a link from Slice about Top Ten Crazy Asian Pizzas.

Yet even my salivary glands dry up at the mere thought of this Whole Shrimp Cheese Bite Pizza offered at Pizza Hut in South Korea and Japan. I wonder how this would taste cold the next morning?

But the craziest thing about all these uber-cheesy pizzas on this list is that the majority of Asians are lactose-intolerant. I can’t imagine the digestive torture that would ensue after downing one of these pizzas.

This April, when the first South Korean astronaut goes into space, he’ll have his beloved kimchi in his lunchbox. As a Korean girl, I totally understand the obsession with kimchi. But this excerpt from the article in the International Herald Tribune has me concerned about whether this is such a hot idea after all.

After millions of dollars and years of research, South Korean scientists successfully engineered kimchi and nine other Korean recipes fit for space travel. When the Russian space authorities this month approved them for Ko’s trip, the South Korean food companies that participated in the research took out full-page newspaper ads.

The other space food Koreans created include the national instant noodle called ramyeon, hot pepper paste, fermented soybean soup and sticky rice.

But kimchi - a must-have side dish at every Korean meal - was the toughest to turn into space food.

“The key was how to make a bacteria-free kimchi while retaining its unique taste, color and texture,” said Lee Ju Woon at the Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute, who began working on the newfangled kimchi in 2003 with samples provided by his mother.

Ordinary kimchi is teeming with microbes, like lactic acid bacteria, which help fermentation. On Earth they are harmless, but scientists fear they could turn dangerous in space if cosmic rays cause them to mutate. Another problem is that kimchi has a short shelf life, especially when temperatures fluctuate rapidly, as they do in space.

“Imagine if a bag of kimchi starts fermenting and bubbling out of control and bursts all over the sensitive equipment of the spaceship,” Lee said.

Is it me, or does this sound like the premise for a horror movie? Or worse, a doomsday scenario where the fourth horseman of the apocalypse is…space kimchi.