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after a matcha latte and the last piece of fried chicken (thigh) for lunch, i was ready to head out to chinatown then haymarket for the third consecutive friday. i was just looking for an excuse to log in some biking, and with the weather today on the dry side, i grabbed the opportunity. it was however still a bit cold, temperature in the upper 50's with some wind. i wore a light jacket but it was cold riding in the shadows, and took a while before i warmed up from the pedalling.

i arrived in chinatown by 1:45pm. i went to ming's market first, to get some watermelon seeds. i called my mother asking if she needed sichuan peppercorn, she also told me to get some sour mustards. i bought enough cafe supplies to use the cafe debit card to pay. next i went to c-mart, i search of buldak ramen. they had them but only sold them in 5-packs instead of individual servings, so i left with some heysong sarsaparilla on sale.

from chinatown i cut across downtown crossing and post office square to haymarket. i got there by 2:30pm. i was hoping to get more cara cara oranges, but the vendor i bought them from last week were only selling regular navel oranges, and now they were 7 for $2 (not 9 for $2 from last week). so instead of juicing oranges, i bought some peeling oranges instead. one vendor was selling "shalom" oranges for 5/$2. i asked them how they were, he said very sweet, which convinced me to get 10 instead (he gave me 11 as a bonus). i also bought from another vendor that was selling "sweet" oranges for 5/$1 (bought 10) which later i discovered were just sumo oranges.

i left haymarket by 2:50pm and crossed the longfellow bridge into cambridge.

my final stop was to mulan on broadway, to get some smoked duck for my mother in honor of mother's day this weekend. while waiting for my order, i noticed a sign for "suanmeitang". after that i pedaled the 2.8 miles to the cafe to drop off the supplies.

my 2nd aunt was there, knitting at the table. we tried the two types of oranges. first the shalom oranges, which the sticker said were shoham (israeli) orri (a type of mandarin orange). they were easy to peel, had thin skin, flatter (like a persimmon) instead of round, and were pretty sweet and juicy, though my mother thought they weren't sweet enough. next we tried a sumo orange: they had thicker skin and the flesh inside seemed a little dry but still juicy. they were okay, slightly tart, definitely not as sweet as the orri oranges.

my mother also prepared the sichuan peppercorn by first roasting them in a pan before pulverizing them into a fine powder with the electric grinder. my father realized how dangerous it was after we finished grinding, because the grinder was still plugged there. there are no safety features with the grinder, had we accidentally pressed the button, it would've chopped our fingers off. the grinder is not a toy!

i returned home by 4:45pm. i thought about going to the community garden to water my plants, but it was getting colder (temperature dropping down to the lower 50's) and i'd been cycling all day, it was time for a rest. waiting on my doorstep was the pair of vivosun seedling heat mats. i was going to try it out with some of my ungerminated seedlings, but when i looked in my grow closet, i was surprised to find 3 of the hyacinth beans had sprouted. i'd planted them on april 27th, and just 10 days later they germinated. compared that to my father, who's hyacinth beans are heading into the 4th week waiting to sprout. i moved the germinated beans to the lighted shelves. also a second bitter melon had sprouted.

i didn't start making dinner until 9:30pm. once again i was having luxury korean ramen. i had some baby bokchoi and bean sprouts that my mother gave me earlier, and i also added some tofu wedges this time. depending on whether or not you count an egg as meat, i inadvertently made myself a big bowl of vegetarian ramen. i tried one of the tiger sugar drinks (2/$5); it tasted just like milk tea, nothing particularly special about it other than the brand.

i spent the rest of the evening watching more legend of the seeker episodes.

i got a chance to compare the night vision capability of the eufy versus the wyzecam. because the camera sits behind the glass window, i can't use the infrared led's otherwise it'll reflect on the glass and i won't be able to see anything. i just have to rely on the built-in sensitivity of the cameras. both cameras have pros and cons. the eufy is a lot more detailed (given that it's 2K) and can capture colors, but it's not good at resolving areas that aren't illuminated. the wyzecam has a built-in night vision mode that doesn't rely on led's. instead it boosts the sensitivity at the expense of colors. it can get blown out in areas that are highly illuminated, but just a little bit of light is all it needs to resolve details in the dark.