i haven't been to haymarket in months, not since early october. winter is not a good time to visit haymarket because the produce get frozen when they're out in the freezing weather for too long. but today was a cold day (not a freezing day) so i figured i'd be safe from frost damage. i wasn't really looking for anything, just wanted to check out what they had. there wasn't anything very interesting, but i still left with a haul: a bag of mandarin oranges ($3), 2 bags of clementines ($5), a bunch of swiss chard ($1), 3 hachiya persimmons ($2), a large bag of scallions ($2), a sleeve of garlic ($2), 2 boxes of figs ($4).
i left haymarket around 10:25am, called my mother to let her know i might be late arriving at the cafe. i went back on boston's cambridge street, crossing the longfellow bridge to return to cambridge. i got back by 10:50am. i used the bathroom then left for the cafe a few minutes later. i wore the wool watch cap i washed yesterday. it was really tight, must've shrunk from the washing, but after wearing it it loosened up a bit. i was expecting how small it was, barely covered my ears. hopefully it'll stretch out a bit more.
it wasn't too busy today at the cafe. the nearby private school already started their winter break, and harvard begins theirs late next week, and students won't be back until 3 weeks later. a lot of regular customers though, including a woman who's ordered every single day this week. that gave me time to make another batch of taiwanese paocai. i made 7 containers (12 lbs. of cabbage) 1-1/2 weeks ago, but that big 40 bento order we got last week used up 2 containers. making extra isn't a big deal, the stuff keeps well, and it's actually better if it has time to age for a few weeks, the cabbage turns a pale color. i bought 3 heads of cabbage from chinatown yesterday totally 10-1/2 lbs. that was enough to make 6 containers. it took a total of 4 hours to make, from chopping to reducing and finally pickling and packaging.
my sister brought esmei over to the cafe a few times. my 2nd aunt came to the cafe as well. later around 4pm my aunt showed up too. she went over to my sister's place to see esmei. i went and visited as well. esmei is so used to people giving her treats, she doesn't even look at people's faces anymore, instead focusing on their hands, to see if they're holding any food for her.
i had a mantou sandwich stuffed with suancai and leftover charsiu pork. i got a chance to use the ice paddle again, this time to cool down some beef noodle soup stock. it had already cooled down to 120 degrees, the ice paddle got it down to 90 degrees by the time i left. in the sky was a thin crescent moon, which i could see through the window in the kitchen.
i returned home by 5:30pm. i'd already decided i'd be having ramen for dinner. i started cooking around 7:30pm, so i could eat and watch the magic-celtics game. celtics were missing their big men: porzingis, horford, kornet. 
even worse, they have a losing streak against the magic, and one of the few games they lost this season was to orlando. plus this was game 2 of a back-to-back. all signs pointed to a boston loss tonight. but celtics played aggressive, both on offense and defense. they won every quarter except the 4th (30-23, 34-27, 37-27, 27-33), but by that point it didn't matter, they had a solid comfortable lead. i think at one point they led by almost 30 points. the magic went through a dry spell, couldn't score any buckets while the celtics piled on the points. what's more impressive is we played a lot of bench players, and they all contributed in major ways, nice to deepen our depth. final score 128-111. celtics play the magic again sunday afternoon. hopefully we get a few players back.