since i was there early, i started making a new batch of tea eggs. my father told me he might be using the deep fryer later today so i cut up a bunch of russet potatoes and soaked them in cold water. after about 2 hours, i drained them and use a salad spinner to spin the potatoes dry.
my mother went out to throw out some recyclables. when it took her a long time to return, i went outside to take a look and saw she was talking with my sister who was holding esmei. they'd just gone out to a dog park and esmei played so much she was ready to sleep. in fact, at one point she just plopped on the floor and fell asleep right there. my sister took her back home. she said esmei got crushed by some larger dogs, which is a good thing, because it makes her learn about hierarchy, otherwise she thinks she's the alpha and will bully other dogs and humans as well. my aunt came by in the afternoon. after she finished eating, my sister took her to her backyard to see esmei. she was still sleepy and had no energy.
around 1:45pm we started to fry the potatoes. we had so many they had to be cooked in two separate batches otherwise not everything would be submerged in the hot oil. my father had also cut up some taro to fry as well. we fried the fries at 325°F for 7 minutes to cook them so they were done. at that point you could probably eat the fries but they wouldn't taste very good, still soggy and pale. we then increased the temperature to 375°F and fried the fries a second time for 4 minutes, turning them a crispy golden brown color. my aunt was still there and she said she likes darker fries, so for the second batch we double fried them 6 minutes. we tossed the fries with some sea salt and gave her a box to take home.
fresh out of the fryer the fries were super delicious: crispy on the outside, and hot and soft on the inside. once they cooled though, they turned soggy. still edible, but not as crisp anymore.
my father fried the taro at 375°F. they cooked through, but there was no browning, even though the outside was actually crispy. i suggested we cook them again a 2nd time for just a minute. all the taro pieces then expanded from the trapped heat, to the point where i was afraid they might explode. so in the future, it's important to fry them first at a lower temperature before a second fry to crisp them up.
after we finished making the fries, my father used the deep fryer to make the salt & pepper chicken, while my mother made m some rice noodles for a late lunch. while i was eating, casey showed up expectedly, asking us for a sewing needle. at first we thought she had a tailoring emergency, but she needed the needle to dig up a splinter trapped in her finger. fortunately i was almost finished with lunch and didn't have to watch while she performed minor surgery on herself.
i left the cafe by 4pm. business today was okay, really busy in the morning for some reason, then it sort of tapered off by the mid-afternoon. sunset was at 4:22pm and i had my bike lights on.
i finally got around to applying for the energy star appliance rebate on the midea dehumidifier my parents bought a month ago. belmont lights actually doles out a $75 rebate check (though you can only apply for it twice for the life of the account), compared to eversource in cambridge which is just $30 (though you can apply twice annually). it wasn't hard, applied online, they just wanted a copy of the invoice and the energy star certificate. the dehumidifier works fine now, though it hasn't been running in over a week because it's been so dry due to the changing season (the basement humidity hovers around 45-50%).
there was a celtics-76ers game tonight, battle of the top two teams in the eastern conference. boston would be without kristap porzingis (knee contusion) and jaylen brown (non-covid illness), so it was a chance for the bench players to get major minutes. this was also a stress test to see just how resilient the team is without two of their starters. boston lead in the first quarter, but philly came back in the second quarter to give them a 58-57 lead going into halftime. celtics padded a big lead in the third quarter, and even though the scoring was nearly evenly matched in the fourth, the lead was just too insurmountable for philadelphia. boston won 117-107 and takes the top spot in the eastern conference. even without porzingis or brown, we still had tatum and holiday, but most importantly we had derrick white, who always made a timely shot/steal/rebound/assist when it mattered the most, preserving our lead.
i watched the game while eating a square of leftover lasagna, the only piece i kept from last night. after the game there wasn't anything else good on television, so i decided to make an early night of it, going to bed before midnight.