i spent this rainy friday cleaning the bathroom. i gave it the full deluxe treatment, scrubbing the toilet, cleaning/disinfecting the wall tiles and the bath tub and sink, washing mildew from the shower curtains, and plunging the tub drain. clearing the slow drain gave me the most satisfaction as i went to work using two plungers. by the time i finished, the bathroom had a fragrant chemical smell of artificial lavender from the soft scrub paste i used to scour the tub. that is the smell of cleanliness. i had a weird lunch, another breakfast sandwich, but one with 3 different drinks: black tea, coffee, and chocolate milk.

there was a lull in the rain by the afternoon. i took the opportunity to make a quick trip to haymarket, which i haven't visited since the end of september. it was so warm and unusually humid (upper 60's) that i rode the bike in just a t-shirt, it felt like summer weather. i got there by 3pm. produce selection in november isn't the greatest, but i still left with a decent haul: 4 pears ($1), bag of clementines ($3), $1 worth of ginger (about a lbs.), 2 hachiya persimmons ($1), 5 yellow dragon fruits ($5), bundle of scallions ($1), box of mission figs ($3), and a bag of mini sweet peppers ($1). usually when i come to haymarket it's to buy some fruits or vegetables for my parents, so it felt a little strange knowing all of this was just for me. i wanted to get some fresh "wild" mushrooms (there's one vendor who sells them) for my tempura but they seemed too expensive, if i really wanted them i could just as easily get them from market basket. i also called my sister who asked me to get her some soluna garden farm spices at the boston public market next door.

i left boston by 3:30pm and made it home by 4pm. afterwards i went to star market briefly to get some cooking oil for frying (wesson canola $4.49).

i sampled some of the haymarket produce. the clementines were very sweet, occasionally i get a bag that's still a little sour. the hachiya persimmons still need some ripening; if eaten now they're still very astringent. i chopped up the pears right away to make fermented fruit kvass, along with some ginger slices and honey.

the black mission figs were in good condition, but it's only when they look like they're about to go rotten do they achieve their heavenly sweetness. there were a few that had already turned soft; those i ate, like eating candy.

for dinner i heated up the leftover rice and tonkatsu from yesterday. i chopped up some new cabbage and pickled radish, along with a garden tomato.

i was hoping these yellow dragon fruits i bought (only one vendor had them) would be just as sweet as the yellow ones i got back in august. up until that point i never knew dragon fruits came in yellow (i thought they were all magenta or small ones like prickly pears). despite a little mold on the outside, the one dragon fruit i sliced opened was okay, though not as sweet as last time. maybe they need a few more days to ripen.

i found a new favorite show: your pretty face is going to hell. started on adult swim in 2013, it's kind of like the office if it took place in hell. episodes are short, 11-12 minutes each, and so far there's been 3 seasons. i discovered the show when reading a retrospective on too many cooks and they kept mentioning your pretty face so i checked out a few free episodes on the adult swim website before downloading the rest online.