i left the house by 8:30am, taking the bike. i was in a convoy of cyclists 8 bikes long, as we headed towards the city. i was anchor for much of the ride, my heavy utility bike no match to some more expensive faster speed bikes.
i got to MGH pretty quickly, and was already up in the GI unit on the 5th floor of wang by 8:50am. this was my first time coming here since they did away with mandatory masks. a nurse took my vitals around 9am, then abandoned me in the waiting room. everyone else seemed to be seeing their doctor while i waited until 9:40am before the nurse came to bring me to an exam room, where i waited for another 5 minutes before a practicing physician (PP) - not even the doctor i was here to see - came to talk with me. since they didn't sign me up for any imaging or lab works, there was no numbers to work with and we basically chatted about weight loss. the PP left and came back minutes later with the primary doctor. i nearly ran out of patience, and thought about leaving on more than one occasion. i basically spent 1-1/2 hours mostly waiting and then a few minutes chatting with the doctors.
i finally left by 10:15am. originally i thought i'd be finished by 9:30am. i headed to haymarket. this is actually my first visit this month; my last visit was back in late may. it's cherry season, and you can get them for $2/lbs. here. i bought a 2 lbs. bag of rainier cherries ($6) and a 2 lbs. bag of regular cherries ($4). the middle eastern mother-daughter vendors had water spinach on sale for $1/lbs. i ended up buying 2 lbs. worth. an old caribbean black lady as the seller what it was, and she told her to ask me, because she didn't have any idea. i told her you eat it in a stirfry, for the crunchy hollow stems. while paying, a different caribbean lady asked me the same thing. and before i left, an elderly chinese woman pointed to the water spinach poking out of my bag and asked me where i got it. so i very popular item, with not many people knowing what it is.
i left haymarket by 10:45am and headed towards chinatown via tremont street. i had my eye on the clock, as my mother was working alone at the cafe while my father went to baifu to get some supplies (chinese noodles, dumplings). no time for browsing as i quickly grabbed what i needed at ming's market (baby cucumbers, bokchoi, chinese cabbage, carrots, scallions). i was dismayed to learn that a sleeve of garlic only costs $1.29 here (i paid $2 at haymarket), and even worse, they were selling cherries at 99¢/lbs. i also bought two more containers of plum drink (50¢ each). while paying for my items, the cashier gave me another bottle of plum drink for free. i thanked her profusely, before realizing the store was offering a free bottle for every customer, trying to get rid of their stock.
i left chinatown a bit after 11am. i returned via the esplanade, then crossed the charles river via the MIT bridge. instead of taking my usual route, i decided to go straight down mass ave, riding newly partitioned bike lanes, through central square then harvard square, to get to the cafe. i actually made good time, getting there in 35 minutes, though i was a sweaty mess afterwards.
today was very busy, probably one of the busiest days we've had so far this year that wasn't a wednesday where my sister piggybacked her catered meals on top of our existing business. we sold at least 21 bento boxes, and 3 servings of tea eggs (each serving contains 2 eggs), so in a single day we nearly used up an entire batch of tea eggs. honestly, we weren't expecting it to be busy at all today, figured a lot of people had left town to take advantage of a rare 4-day 4th of july weekend. not sure what's in store for tomorrow, but given the trend this week were every day has been busy, i think it'll be much of the same.
i examined the lodge enamel cast iron pot that i had soaking in some hot water and oxiclean powder from yesterday. the fact that the water was a dirty brown was a good sign, meant it was definitely cleaning. i poured it out and scrubbed the inside with a sponge, which managed to remove all the black charred bits. it did not however whiten the bowl, and revealed numerous scratches. the pot however was still relatively smooth on the inside. when my father saw it he was impressed, because he didn't think the oxiclean would work, or at the very least would damage the finish (which was already damaged from neglect).
so my father used the cast iron pot to cook the water spinach. he first took some time to sort through what i bought: some stems he saved for propagation, while the rest he used for cooking. cast iron cookware and induction cooktops work perfectly with one another. the higher iron content made the pot heat up super fast and retain all that heat afterwards, versus cooking in a traditional pan. he cooked up some chopped garlic and salt in some oil before stirfrying the water spinach. we were left with two large plates of cooked water spinach, which we all ate (including my 2nd aunt who showed up at the cafe today).
i returned home shortly after that, after 5:30pm. cutting across the harvard smithsonian center, i saw my roommate waiting for the light to change so she could cross. i rang my bell and waved to her as i quickly pedaled home. before she got back, i took a quick shower and changed out of my sweat-soaked clothes from earlier this morning.
lauryn paid next month's rent and told me she wanted to move to the apartment above my sister's place in august. i already knew of her plan. apparently it's the room facing the street, which i thought was currently occupied, but the chinese researcher who currently lives in that room will move to the back room once fei fei and her husband move out.
lauryn didn't make dinner tonight, so she must've eaten something at the office. i didn't have dinner until late, got lazy and decided to bake two frozen french bread pizza in the oven around 9pm.