even though haymarket is open earlier, 9am is still early. many vendors aren't completely set up yet, price signs are missing, sellers are still arranging their produce. some tents were also empty, the fishmonger and the oyster shucker weren't there, i even overheard an old lady asking a beggar in a wheelchair where the fish sellers were. not much in terms of haul. no rainier cherries, so i ended up buying a single bag of regular cherries for $3 (not sure how much, maybe a pound?). i also got two sleeves of garlic for $3, two bags of mandarin oranges ($3), and a bunch of cilantro for $1. nobody had dill, that was also something else i was looking for. somebody was selling cartons of figs for $3; normally i'd get some, but i couldn't imagine getting them home without smooshing them, so maybe next time.
i left haymarket around 9:45am. from there i headed towards chinatown via tremont street. it took me just 9 minutes to get to c-mart. i wasn't buying too much here, just came in to check prices. occasionally they have good deals: i bought nearly a pound of garlic chives for $1 ($1.28/lbs.). i also got two bags of cherries (3 lbs) for just $3 (98¢/lbs.).
nearby ming's market was where i bought the bulk of my produce. my haul: shanghai bok choi ($1.79/lbs.), longan ($2.99/lbs.), baby cucumbers ($1.49/lbs,), bean sprouts ($1.59), taiwanese cabbage (69¢/lbs.), bananas (59¢lbs.), 5 lbs. of long glutinous rice ($3.99), rock sugar ($2.49), a packet of MSG ($7.49). i always have to be careful because i have to take into consideration if i can haul everything back on my bike baskets with a supplemental messenger bag.
it took me nearly 10 minutes of repacking to get everything to fit into my baskets. noncrushable items on the bottom, more delicate items on the top. a chinese man standing next to the light post i parked my bike basically ignored me, even when my bike toppled over and some of my produce rolled underneath his car. later when a car in front of him car tried to parallel park and almost hit his vehicle (he was yelling and beating on the trunk of the other car to get the driver's attention), he looked back at me with an incredulous, "can you believe this is happening?" look. i stared back at him with dead eyes, like now we're friends even though you didn't help me earlier?
i left chinatown at 10:45am. it took me over half an hour to get back home. i went back via mass ave, cutting through harvard square. by going this way, i made a loop where i never once back-tracked my steps, in case i was being followed. not that it's ever happened before, but maybe i watch too many spy movies. nevertheless, i like using different routes to get where i'm going, if nothing else, for the variety, but if i was being followed, you could never tell where i was going since i always take a different way back.
i got back home by 11:20am. i had 10 minutes to strip out of my sweat-soaked clothes, take a quick rinse in the shower, then head back out, to the cafe to work. i was in such a rush, by the time i got to the cafe, i'd already sweated through my new change of clothes.
i unloaded my haul. i got extra longans this time, figuring my aunt and 2nd aunt would both be there. but my mother said my 2nd aunt wasn't coming in today. besides the longans, besides the cherries, besides the mandarins, my godmother also visited the cafe yesterday and dropped off some lychees as well. it was a bonanza of fruits.
the oil strainer container arrived yesterday and my father brought it to the cafe today. he was impressed with the quality, particularly the stainless steel strainer portion, which he said was worth the entire cost of the container alone. it has a perforated mesh that's numerous enough to see through, yet at the same time the stainless steel material can act like a mirror, so it gives this weird optical illusion.
my mother made some rice noodle soup for me for lunch, but it suddenly got busy that i wasn't able to eat it in one sitting, and kept going back repeatedly until i finally finished. my aunt showed up around that time, said she and matthew biked to deer island last weekend, even had lunch at belle isle seafood. the free ferry to east boston however is closed in the afternoons until after 3pm (weekend schedule?) so they decided to bike back through chelsea and everett, passing by the encore casino.
i noticed 2 screws attaching our collapsible table was starting to pull out from the wall. the screws are just embedded in the sheetrock, where weren't able to penetrate the studs. i told my father, and we ended up taking down the whole table because it was unsafe. we'll need to get some better sheet rock anchors this weekend to make the repair.
i finally started making my taiwanese paocai in the afternoon. the cabbage i got this morning weighed 6.6 lbs. after shredding it by hand, i added 6 tbsp of salt to reduce it. i wonder if in the future i can use less salt, because it seems like a waste of sodium, especially since i rinse it all off anyway after the reduction. i think less salt will still work, maybe it just takes longer to reduce. my mother helped me cut a large carrot into matchsticks. i mixed everything by hand until everything looked properly reduced, about 1-1/2 hours later.
for the pickling solution, i mixed 3 cups of white vinegar with 3 cups of sugar. seems like an awful lot, but i do have more cabbage this time. i also chopped up two chili peppers. when it came time to add the peppercorns, that when we discovered there wasn't any at the cafe. so i rushed home to get my private supply, 18 minute round trip. the jar felt oily, which can only mean my roommate had been dipping into my private stash as well. these were sichuan peppercorn i bought in changshou in 2016. to be honest, they're a bit old, and probably losing their flavor, but still, it has sentimental value, and definitely not for sharing with roommates.
back with the peppercorn, i finally mixed all the ingredients together, including the rinsed cabbage and carrots, which i made sure to squeeze out as much water as possible before adding to the pickling solution. i ended up with 3 tall tubs of paocai. my mother tried a piece, said it was too spicy.
with taiwanese paocai finished, i could finally go home for good, and left around 4:45pm. i'd turned on the AC when i was there earlier, so the house was nice and cool by the time i got back.
i brought home the temu alarm clock which arrived in belmont a few days ago, and set it up in the bathroom. it uses a single AA battery. the silent sweep seconds hand is a little strange, i'm so used to clocks that tick. the clock i got featured glow-in-the-dark hands and numbers, but it's a weird feature, because it needs bright light to recharge. if i have a light, why do i need glowing numbers? however, i'm a sucker for anything glow-in-the-dark, and it costs the same as the non-glow-in-the-dark version, so i got this one. it fits into my bathroom cabinet perfectly. i tried the alarm, the sound is a little on the soft side, but it's not a function i'd be using anytime soon.
later in the evening my father called me. he said the 12v 55L liter freezer we bought wednesday - which wasn't supposed to arrive until 2 weeks later - actually showed up today. he didn't plug it in just yet because the freezer was left on its side, and if there's any coolant, he wanted to wait 24 hours for the liquid to equalize before starting up the fridge.
lauryn didn't get home until after 7pm. i thought maybe she had dinner already, but i heard her in the kitchen preparing food. i didn't have dinner until after 9pm, some simple frozen ravioli with readymade pasta sauce. maybe not the best choice for another hot evening, but was simple to make. i also had some cherries afterwards.