Post-Lockdown Day 4: Scallions! — Pickle Deli Square

Saturday, I went out bright and early (9:45-ish!) to see if jianbing lady was back. I passed by our guard spray-disinfecting the packages that have come in.

Jianbing lady was still not at her usual location. So I decided to head on over to IAPM to see if Citysuper had scallions this morning, given that I had struck out twice yesterday.

I saw some “Market Supervision and Law Enforcement Corps” doing some kind of inspection. Didn’t look like they were doing much…

Meanwhile, staff were busy restocking shelves.

And this morning, I struck gold! All of the scallion I could want to buy!

I brought back three bags of scallions, along with two lemons.

My lunch would have to include scallions. I wanted to try a recipe I had found on YouTube, which used tofu skin (I kept this in my freezer since just before the lockdown started), and the peppers from our last government delivery. I had actually seen two recipes that treat tofu skin in the same way: by coating them in egg. Along with this, I also used up some pureed tomato that I had leftover, and miso paste as a stand-in for Chinese soy bean paste.

The tofu skin is fried with the egg coating.

With all of the seasonings (including the chicken bouillon that we got in the Tramy box!), plus the green peppers and of course the scallions, this was one of the best-tasting dishes I’ve made recently!

Also very good was the rice. Perfectly chewy, with each kernel separate.

I have a lot of rice now of different brands and varieties, and I decided that it would be interesting to try out a new bag. This was one that we got at the very beginning of lockdown. It’s a “japonica” rice, supposedly served at various Olympics. Well, I certainly thought it was an excellent rice!

I finished lunch with some watermelon.

Unfortunately, because of the cases very close to us, including one case in our subdistrict, we have gone back to testing every day now, and doing antigen tests too. I didn’t have a very fresh-looking antigen test in my collection, so I did do a new test.

I had my very last mung bean cake 绿豆糕 today as a snack.

And then I made Nigella’s almond flour chocolate cake, because I finally have enough eggs. I did run out of olive oil though, so substituted butter for part of the fat. I packed some slices to to for my friends and colleagues.

Then I waited and waited for the testing to start. Entryway lady had told us that it would start around 6pm, but it wasn’t until 8:30pm when she called us downstairs. Thankfully I was already outside with my friend, so I could get in line right away. A very long line soon formed.

Today it was one vial per person.

After the testing, I gave my friend her cake, and accepted her gift to me - a 2.5kg bag of flour from her government delivery, and a small watermelon she bought. Very nice!

We went for a walk around the neighborhood. I was craving ice cream, so I hopped in a Lawson’s convenience store and got one of these milk-flavored ice cream bars.

It was very dense and chewy, “很浓” as my friend put it. The shape is like a traditional Chinese tile.

We walked for a while longer, reflecting back on the last two months. It really has felt like living through a parallel universe, and we’re all just kind of waking up from a nightmare.

On my way back, I saw that our little health code scanning machine was covered up. Already not in use? I think I used it only one day.

I had a late evening supper snack - two falafel patties and a mantou, with hummus. This was a much larger mantou than the Tramy ones, so I only had one.