the lull gave me time to make some smoked sprat bagel sandwiches with sliced onions, cucumbers, dill, and capers. for my money, white fish salad is still the way to go for a far more delicious bagel sandwich. smoked sprats are okay, but they can be a little bland, and messy to eat with all that fish oil.
heading into 2pm did we finally get busy. nothing crazy, but a sudden stream of customers. why didn't them come earlier? who knows. chinese sausage was the most popular bento variety, we sold half a dozen, when normally we might get one or two. once again we exhausted our tea egg supply, i'll need to make a fresh batch tomorrow.
ideal fence got in touch with me. eddie wasn't able to send the estimate to my e-mail, so he took a photo and texted me the estimate instead. he's asking for $4250 for a wooden fence, or $4000 for a vinyl. the way he was talking, it sounded like vinyl was going to be way cheaper, but only just $250 difference.
given that our latest rice fermentation experiments will end in failure, i decided to make a proper batch of makgeolli with the leftover bag of nuruk and 5lbs. of long-grain glutinous rice. first i had to soak the rice for 2 hours. at 4pm i steamed the rice for 40 minutes, switching the pans at the midway point. i then dumped the cooked rice into a large stainless steel dish and stirred the rice to help it cool faster. i boiled nearly 3L of water, then left it to cool. to help the rice cool faster, as soon as it was warm enough to touch, i broke apart the rice by hand and separated them into smaller clumps.
my godmother called the cafe today, spoke with my mother. she'd been back home from taiwan for a week now, but wasn't able to visit us because alex took her car. she could probably get to the cafe by bus, but i don't think she's ever taken public transportation before.
from 5pm until we closed we got busy again. my mother left early around 6pm to walk home, after cooking some pork & pepper stirfry and fulfilling what turned out to be our last order of the day (beef noodle soup and bento for here).
my father helped me mix the rice with the water (2.3L) before we added the nuruk. we reconstituted the nuruk in some water to form a slurry, but it would've been easier just to dump the nuruk powder directly onto the rice and water to mix. we then scooped the mixture into our 7L jar. the makgeolli should be ready by next thursday. my father decided he wouldn't add any additional water to see if that'll make any difference.
after we closed for the day, we heard people talking outside. turns out it was my sister speaking with a prospective baker who wants to buy the business from the currently vacating bakery. they also gave her some samples, a strawberry cream sandwich and a tiramisu sandwich. i had a few bites of the tiramisu sandwich: the bread was salty and savory from the butter, dusted in dark chocolate, with a tiramisu filling. it was pretty good. if these guys can actually take over that'd be great. we actually got a lot of new business by having a bakery next door.
i left with some pork & pepper bento my mother had already packed for me. first thing i did when i got home was to e-file my sister's godmother's federal taxes. hopefully it worked, i'll ask my mother to ask tomorrow. i also replied to paul about the fensu fence contractor he met yesterday. they want $800 to just replace the gate, or $1900 to replace the whole thing including the post. paul told me they were gone for the next 2 weeks.
after a shower i ate my bento. there was a knicks-hornets game, i watched just to see if no.3 new york would lose, provide a little separation against the no.2 seed celtics. sure enough, knicks lost, now boston is a game ahead. unfortunately the knicks have an easier remaining schedule. but after the celtics beat the thunder last night, i can easily beat their remaining opponents. the april 9th celtics-knicks game is going to be key.
old habits die hard: i went back to cyberpunk again. yes i finished the game, but i went back to a previous save, one where i impersonate aurore cassel. in this mission, instead of siding with reed, i betray him to help songbird escape. alex managed to kill kurt hansen (i didn't have the pleasure, so i wasn't able to loot his iconic weapons), while evil AI-possessed songbird and i escape the stadium. i didn't have erebus, but i still had plenty of formidable weapons in my stash. the barghest militia was no match.