I stopped by Whole Foods after work today since a few things were on sale that I wanted, and was a little shocked to pass through the dried pasta and canned goods aisle to see that almost the entire shelves were wiped clean. There were a handful of canned beans or tomatoes left, but for the most part, the shelves were empty. Whole Foods workers were diligently in the midst of restocking these shelves, but as they did this, more people came to take anywhere from 10 to 20+ packs of pasta or beans and fill their carts.

I realized that mass hysteria has descended upon society with COVID-19 being a concern, but I stupidly didn’t think that this would affect my local Whole Foods that much. I went to the fresh seafood counter to pick up some shrimp on sale, and it was a bit comical to see how idle the seafood workers were. They were more than thrilled to hear I wanted to buy something from them and could actually use their services! It was clear no one wanted to buy fresh seafood, and everyone just wanted things that were non-perishable that they could store up in their pantries.

As I passed through the aisles, I noticed how inexpensive the canned organic beans were. The cans were BPA-free, too. So… I thought I’d toss in a couple cans myself… because why not? Granted, I’m not even close to freaking out about this or thinking we will all need to go into seclusion, but I guess it couldn’t hurt to have a few more of these in our pantry.

Regardless, I will NOT be one of those people who spends $50 for a desktop-sized hand sanitizer bottle. This disease spread has really only shown how crazed and racist people can be in these times.

Every couple of months, Chris and I do a trip out to Jackson Heights in Queens for our dosa fix, as well as Indian groceries ranging from his favorite banana chips and mixture to my pantry staples of different pulses, beans, spices, curry leaves, and frozen Asian goods. When we went to Patel Brothers on Saturday with my friend to introduce her to several of our favorite ethnic neighborhoods in Queens, we found out that they are actually doing a pretty economical delivery service and will deliver to our zip code in Manhattan. The delivery charge is only $3, and it’s a $35 minimum (before tip). Depending on the item, some of the items are the same price as in store, while others are a little bit more.

I took a look at some of the potential things we could buy. Dosa batter mix (refrigerated). Curry leaves (fresh). Ghee. Endless types of legumes. Frozen grated coconut. Frozen vegetables, pre-cut up. Fresh tomatoes, onions, and even okra. Wow. This is actually very impressive. It was almost like having FreshDirect, but even better because of all these amazing South Asian goods we could buy, plus the delivery fee was so much less.

This could end up becoming dangerous, but I will try this out to see how it is.

I’m embarrassed to say this, but the last time I visited the New York City Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) was likely way back in 2010. The permanent collection here is quite notable, with works varying from Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Surrealism, and the surrounding times. But what has been most notable is the recent change to the MoMa to be more representative of diverse artists of diverse backgrounds of our modern time. More artists of who have historically been lesser represented, as well as subject matters (racial segregation and discrimination from the 1930s to the 1970s) that have not had the level of exposure that they should have had, are now prominently on display at the MoMa. It was really refreshing to actually be able to see many of Picasso’s cubist works in the same room as this white/black violence portrayed in the painting “Die.” It makes you wonder what the future holds for us, for our future children and generations that we will not be around for. It is less of a “what happened then?” question in art, but rather a look forward to what the future could potentially hold depending on the decisions our people and governments make today. It is like art history in the making and asking us tough questions for the now.

The COVID-19, or Coronavirus, has slowly made its way to the U.S. We now have reported cases in California and Washington states, and it’s only a matter of time before it gets everywhere. With that, panic is everywhere: companies are issuing travel bans for International travel and severely limiting domestic travel; people are wiping out entire shelves of face masks, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, and hand sanitizer; Non-perishable foods are slowly being sold out everywhere. Panic instead of prevention seems to be the theme right now.

The only real “change” I may have made is using hand sanitizer a little more often. I already wash my hands all the time. I’ve been buying food the way I normally do. I’m not sure what else any individual can do to help the situation other than try to remain calm and collected, and do what is practical.

I’m getting into a good groove with video editing for the YouTube channel. It’s been fun to look for music that suits a video theme, and it’s been entertaining for me to use creative juices to edit and cut video for my final versions of my vlogs. The travel ones always require more time, thought, and work, but the process has actually been very enjoyable despite how time consuming it is. Even though I am at a computer most of the day at work, working on this at night is actually something I’ve looked forward to this week. It’s my creative outlet away from the humdrum of work, which has zero creativity.

If I could edit video all day long and get paid for it… that would be really fun. But, I don’t think I’m quite that good just yet.

After posting about my Chinese radish cake making on Instagram, a number of people responded and said they were inspired to make their own after watching my videos. Another said she’d tried making a few different versions based on different recipes, but they never came out quite like she wanted. Some were too dense; some totally lacked flavor. I wonder if she actually spent the money on the right ingredients, as the fillings for these cakes are not cheap, hence why so many places skimp out on the fillings. A small handful of Chinese dried scallops or shrimp can easy be $5-10 alone. A former colleague messaged and said he and his wife had just went out to buy all the ingredients to make this same cake, but he had a hunch that mine would turn out better than theirs.

I realized that because there are so many different versions of all these recipes that sometimes you just have to combine multiple and tweak them until you get the result you want. I probably used four different recipes to get to the version I made, and I’m really happy with it on the first go. Next time, I might sub in Chinese bacon instead of the Chinese sausage since the bacon takes more prep work and time, but I’m lucky it was the perfect taste and texture the first time around.

After years and years of making wu tou gao, or Chinese taro cake, I decided this year to branch out and also try making the equivalent version with radish this time. At dim sum and at dim sum takeout spots, this cake is always just a bunch of rice flour filler, pan fried with pretty much no filling. I will eat it if my mom gets it, but it’s usually just for the sake of eating rather than because it’s any good. It never is outside. But when I made it today, I was surprised by exactly how simple it was to prepare; it’s exactly the same as with the taro cake, except there’s no fuss around peeling an unruly and hairy taro. It actually felt much simpler to make.

And when we actually pan fried it, it was light and airy, almost custardy. The texture was so much lighter than the taro (understandably so), and it didn’t feel as heavy and dense as the taro. The outside edges were perfectly crisp, especially since I used my stainless steel All-Clad pan to pan fry them evenly to a golden brown on both sides. Chris actually admitted he liked this one more than the taro cake, even though he complained when I told him I was going to make the radish cake. He liked it more than the taro cake! I was shocked.

I went on a cleaning spree today through the apartment, vacuuming, dusting, and mopping. Mopping does not happen frequently in the apartment. I don’t particularly like the act of it, and I hate constantly having to ring out the soap and water, even if we have a more modern “mop” and it doesn’t have all those nasty stringy things on it. But I suppose I am addicted to that feeling afterwards of a super clean hardwood floor, the lack of sound I hear when I walk across the floor with my flip flops, and even better when my barefoot touch the floor and I feel not a hint of dust or stickiness. It’s ridiculous to think how quick the kitchen floor gets; all it takes is a few crumbs of spinach of flour, some smudges of water, and then feet to walk across it to get the whole place dirty. It’s no wonder my mom always had a rag on the floor to wipe things up when I was growing up. I might need to start doing something like that when I am cooking.

This is one of those situations where you thought you wouldn’t be like your mom, but in the end, you end up being exactly like her…

A good friend from college is coming to town the last weekend of this month, and when I asked her what she wanted to do, she said, “eat!” She has a list of things she wants to try: Peruvian chicken, Levain Bakery chocolate chip cookies, Xiao long bao/soup dumplings, Indian food, and Thai or Malaysian food. When I asked her what she wanted to actually do outside of meals, she said she wasn’t sure and would have to get back to me. Food is the priority when she’s visited New York a number of times (and some of those times were with me when we were in college together!).

New York City is one of those places where you can finish doing all the “touristy” things such as the Empire State Building, Central Park, Times Square, but still never get enough of it because of the massive diversity of cuisines here. I suggested that because she wanted a lot of different Asian foods that I take her to Queens; outside of JFK airport, she’s never really seen Queens. It’s a very under loved and under appreciated borough, so we have that on our plan for Saturday of her weekend with us.

Reading the news has become far too depressing in a day and age of climate change, a global move toward the political right, and an age of President Dipshit, so I’ve tried to lay off reading too many breaking news stories unless they are through my round-up news summary e-mails and top headlines. What I’ve been trying to focus on more are long-form feature pieces that tend to have more research and paint a bigger picture story of a given topic. It’s likely the only way to stay sane in today’s life.

Podcasts on food, politics, science, and history are always fun, and so the intersection of all the above topics can be found in my absolute favorite podcast of all time, Gastropod. The latest podcast they released is on McDonald’s and how it became so ubiquitous. What it also touches upon is how they actually helped create jobs for black Americans during the 50s and 60s when “white flight” was happening, and the inner city was left just to black Americans. McDonald’s obviously did not discriminate “white” money from “black” money; they just wanted *all* money and then some. And so they allowed black Americans to become franchise owners in urban areas, which led to more and more black Americans eating in McDonald’s in inner cities; many of these black-owned McDonald’s franchises ended up being some of the best performing McDonald’s of that time.

The sad truth, though, is that while McDonald’s created these opportunities for black Americans, they did it 100 percent motivated out of greed and capitalism, to line their own pockets more. It was hardly because they wanted to help the black community at a time of extreme racism and segregation. Forget the government taking over the responsibility of creating opportunities for its citizens; why not just let a corporation do it so that it can profit and make money under the guise of “helping the local community”? The racist conservatives loved this idea because the idea of “black enterprise” was a more palatable solution to them than integration (because, oh, no, what would happen if people from different ethnicities mixed and actually interacted with each other!). The liberals liked it from a superficial perspective because this brought money and ownership to black communities.

Today, discrimination still persists across people of color working at McDonald’s at all levels, and sadly because of this history, fast food has become part of the stereotype of the black American diet. So when conservative commentators from Fox News talk deprecatingly about black Americans, they say they make the conscious choice to eat junk food and get fat, completely ignoring the history behind how this stereotype even came to be.

Racist stereotypes persist. Racism persists against pretty much all people of color. It’s so depressing to think about.

Oh wait. Didn’t I just say that Gastropod was my favorite podcast? It is. It helps shed light on nuggets of history like this for me that I wasn’t quite aware of before. It’s depressing, yes, but at least I am informed in an entertaining and fully researched way.