Quarantine Diary Day 17: Special Delivery - Fresh Fruit!

Today’s breakfast seemed to follow yesterday’s formula, with twists on each category.

There were two sets of two small bread items. Yesterday there were two scallion buns and two custard buns. Today we had this very special osmanthus steamed rice cake. Two of them.

Then we had charsiu buns, also in a pair.

Instead of the steamed pumpkin, we got steamed corn.

Instead of the pickled cucumber, we got pickled sugar snap peas and what I think were mustard tubers and something else…

Today, in the rice congee there were mung beans instead of red beans.

And excitingly, for the very first time in more than two weeks, instead of a plain hardboiled egg, we got a tea egg!

Barely any tea and soy sauce flavor came through the shell, though.

In the morning, I also placed an order for fresh fruit from Hema/Freshippo. On the app, you’re able to select a time slot, and I chose one just before the lunch delivery window.

The delivery person called me to tell me he had dropped it off with the security guard on the delivery shelf, and sure enough, at lunchtime, I got my delivery of fruit!

But no delivery of my set meal! I called the operator, who said they’d look into it for me. Shortly after, I got a ring on the doorbell, and a staff was waiting outside to hand my meal to me. I had expected him to place it on the stool outside to minimize contact, but I guess he wanted to be sure I got it!

I was impressed they managed to fold a whole pomfret into what’s probably the smallest compartment besides the middle one.

The bean sprouts (again) were nice and crunchy.

I think this was celtuce, with pork.

My favorite dish of the four for lunch was the sramble with pork and edamame. There was just something very comforting about this. And I actually ate most of the rice this meal, much of it with this scramble. Even though this lunch came late, it was still fairly hot.

After lunch, I tucked into my fruit. Yes, I did have an orange (as always, I miss a tartness in oranges in China). But I was most excited about the cherries and strawberries. These weren’t cheap, but good. The cherries were crunchy, though they weren’t the sweetest. The strawberries were standouts. I can see why they each have their individual space in the tray, because the texture is more delicate than the ones we usually get in the US, while the flavor was so sweet and intensely … strawberry flavored.

Dinner came with a lemon tea, which I’ll save for another day. Most of the dinner was unfortunately room temperature by the time I got out of my meeting to open the door and bring in the tray.

The bok choy-type vegetables were good.

Though I’d had broccoli the whole week in San Francisco, it’s felt like ages since I’d seen broccoli! This was cooked with the right amount of crunch, together with sliced pork. Most of the dishes here are delightfully devoid of sauce and low in oil, thankfully.

The chicken drumettes had a kind of Western seasoning.

The only dish I didn’t like as much were the braised pork belly and vegetables. There wasn’t a lot of meat, and it just tasted rather heavy and sweet.