Where's the protein?

I came home today to find that I forgot to defrost the char siu (Chinese BBQ pork). So now as I am writing this I’ve no idea what I am doing for dinner. Typically I would just make rice and that’s about it. The char siu heats up in the microwave, and the all important vegetables is in the form of kimchi. I am a simple man with simple tastes, and I can eat the same thing day after day.

Not that I wouldn’t mind variety. But variety costs time and money. My meager public servant salary definitely does not allow for nightly food orders from DoorDash.

Good news is I live a few blocks from a full-size mall with a proper food court. I’ll probably head over there soon as I finish typing the amount of words here I feel appropriate. Besides, today is the last mild day before a heat wave is suppose to hit all of California throughout the Labor Day weekend. Going to enjoy the mildness while it lasts before my friends with air-conditioning in their homes get to be smug about things.

It is indeed already September. This far into 2022 and I’ve yet to do anything special, really. The only vacations I’ve taken were all of the stay at home type. I am heading to Austin, Texas in two months, so there will be some excitement for that. Other than that it’s just going to continue to be the same old same old. And that’s perfectly fine: life’s treating me quite well these past months. Nothing to complain about, everything is going smoothly and flowingly.

Of course I probably just jinxed myself. Perhaps the forgotten-to-defrost char siu is the harbinger of a downturn!

Not on a school night

Amongst my friends, I jokingly refer to weekday evenings as “school nights”. Not only do I have a set schedule of studies and practice to attend to, I also have to go to bed early. Not entirely because of work the next day, but because I prefer to wake up early and type out a few words on this blog. I guess you can say it’s a bit neurotic to force myself to such a routine. All I can say, is that it feels weird when I have to deviate from the schedule.

Such as last evening. Instead of eating dinner at home then commencing piano practice, I went out with some friends to a burger place at the main drag of West Portal. It was a particularly warm day so the ambiance was quite nice to be sitting outside and taking in the small town atmosphere. They’ve chained Christmas lights between the light poles so it was rather festive for a random February evening. The burger place was right next to a record store that constantly played music, adding to atmospheric flavor.

See, I’m not so strict with my routine that I can’t break it for these random excursions. The lost time for piano practice and reading can be easily made up later. Quality time with friends, that’s something to grasp at the first opportunity. I even thanked them afterwards for coming out of a school night. One of them is doing his doctorate program, so it actually was a school night for him. There was homework waiting soon as he return home. NERD!

I guess that’s why people adore Fridays so much. They can go out and deviate from their regular work-life schedule without a care. Friday nights are their proverbial oyster. As for me? I also have a set routine on Fridays: I visit my friend’s kids and have dinner at their home. Not all that exciting from certain perspectives, but it’s quality time with people I cherish nonetheless.

Mom's cooking

One of the things that comes with being Chinese is that even though you’ve moved out, your parents will still constantly give you food. Of course, that’s provided you didn’t move too far away from the house. The independent-minded you may think this goes against the meaning of truly being on your own, and on principle I’m inclined to agree. However, there are certain days that you are glad there’s food in the fridge ready to go.

I can see why take-out ordering is so popular with my generation. After a particular tough day at work, you really don’t want to spend the half hour or so cooking up dinner. It’s far easier to order something on DoorDash and have it deliveredr while you go on about something else. Or, you know, hang out on twitter until the food arrives. What I’m saying is, I get it: the will to actually cook dinner is inverse to how hard you’ve worked that day.

Which is why some days I am glad to have my mom’s cooking ready to go for the microwave. It’s certainly faster than ordering food, and I save a boatload of money not eating out. I definitely don’t make the level of income to sustain a take-out ordering habit, though I think I would totally do so if I earned more. Good thing there isn’t a Hong Kong style restaurant nearby, because I would totally patronize that for dinner every chance I get.

I don’t know how my friends with kids do it. Cooking for myself after a tiring day is difficult enough. To make enough food for more than one person? Kids that bitch about the variety of dinner deserves to get slapped. You have no idea how hard it is to cook dinner after work on a weekday until you move out on your own, and have to do it yourself.

Time to heat up the food my mom gave me this week.

Healy Chen

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Where's the protein?

Not on a school night

Mom's cooking