i went to reliable market in union square to look for beni shoga. they have a lot of stuff, but it's always so expensive. they had beni shoga in the refrigerated department, but at $7.99 a jar. i've never had it before, but at that price, this has better to be one of the best things i've ever eaten otherwise i'm going to be pretty annoyed. just a reminder, i need the beni shoga for my japanese gyudon recipe which i'm going to making again this weekend.
next i went to market basket to get some tofu. i called my mother asking if they needed anything, and i ended up getting a few things for the cafe. she also told me to pick up her prescription from harvard vanguard.
before heading there, i took a detour to check out a large baking tray i saw someone had tossed out onto the sidewalk. it was a little stained, but was otherwise in good shape. i also picked up a spherical ice cube tray, interested in trying it out.
i picked up the prescription at harvard vanguard. my favorite pharmacist wasn't working today, so no interesting banter about avatar or cryptocurrency. i returned home briefly to drop off a few things before heading to the cafe for my friday shift.
the handyman came by today and took apart the backyard deck. last year we didn't disassemble the deck until mid-november. later in the afternoon my father and i moved everything down into the basement, piece by piece. each square is too heavy for one person to lift, it's a two person job.
for some reason people started showing up at the cafe, right when we started to get busy: a friend of my parents, my aunt, xiaojun, my 2nd aunt. it got so busy there were a few orders we missed because of miscommunication, but luckily they weren't complicated orders so we were able to fulfill them in short time. my aunt stopped eating to play with esmei when my sister brought her to the cafe parking lot. later my aunt brought her food outside to eat, and that's when we heard esmei barking. apparently esmei thought that food was for her and got angry because she wasn't getting any treats. for such a young dog, esmei has a really bad temper. xiaojun's appearance at the cafe was especially baffling, as she just stood in the kitchen and watched everyone work. we were all relieved once she finally left. later around 3pm casey and her grand sons showed up as well.
a neighbor had tossed out a bunch of shelving and bookcases. i helped my sister take one of the plastic shelving for her shed.
a junk removal company came at 4pm to take away a bunch of stuff from the basement. the bulk of it were old furniture we were never going to use. it was sad seeing them go, especially a trio of wooden cabinets that used to be in my parents' living room. i can't count the number of times i rifled through the cabinets looking for things. furniture back then were better made too, compared to cheaply-made modern furniture. the cafe basement is big enough that those furniture weren't taking up very much space anyway, but my sister wants to hire people to clean up some mold and water damage, and needed the space cleared out (as much as possible anyway). we got a dumpster just last year (july), already threw out a bunch of stuff, but apparently that wasn't enough. this time around we hired people to move things for us, which made it a bit easier. my mother felt bad for the movers and gave them $50 tip each, but later we found out they increased the price on us.
i made another batch of tea eggs. i used tetley tea bags this time, not sure how the flavor will be. my mother ended up cracking the eggs for me because i was busy with moving the wooden deck pieces into the basement and later coordinating which items needed to be tossed or saved.
i finally left the cafe by 6pm. my mother packed me some chicken broth and precooked rice noodles for dinner. earlier at the cafe my father received his new wireless earbuds. back at home, two packages were waiting for me: my good earth tea and my memory cards.
i made some korean pickled daikon radishes. i used a maangchi recipe. hers just used a pound of daikon, while i had 1.7 lbs, so i increased the ingredients: 0.57 cup of sugar, 0.57 cup of white vinegar, 1 tbsp of kosher salt, 1.3 cups of water. i cut the daikon into small cubes and mixed everything together. the recipe is similar to my pickled taiwanese paocai, except i don't add any water, and i reduce the vegetables with salt before rinsing them off. if this recipe doesn't turn out well, i may try it again but following the same steps as my pickled paocai.
i cleaned up the found baking tray using some dish soap and steel wool. it cleaned up pretty well, i got it to like new condition. the tray had no branding, but did say it was 18/0 stainless steel. i'd never seen that before and looked it up. 18/0 is actually the cheapest form of stainless steel (18% chromium, 0% nickle) and has the least amount of corrosion resistance. whatever the case, this tray is better than any of the trays i currently have, which are all aluminum and some so thin they buckle when i use them in the oven.
i didn't have dinner until 9:30pm. the chicken broth wasn't that good, very bland, almost like water, despite adding more salt. and the noodles were way too much, almost like 3 servings, but i ate it all, much to the consternation of my weight loss efforts. i ate while watching the NBA in-season tournament. at first i thought it was sort of gimmicking, another way for the NBA to make more money, but the games were actually pretty exciting. the knicks-bucks game was close, as well as the mavericks-nuggets game.