Moving... facing high-class problems

Honestly, I love Ming's apartment in Foster City, it is after all the first place we lived together as a couple. So even though it was clearly too small for two, and it caused massive inconvenience to our lives, I have many fond memories. There was one time we cooked and ate around sixty dumplings in one sitting, and another time we had to sleep on the couch for half the night because we forgot to put our sheets in the dryer. Most of these stories I keep to myself, they're pretty mundane, even to Ming. But they float my boat, keeps me happy and grateful when life isn't at its best.
So when is life not at its best? Ming often like to use the phrase 'High-class problems,' we have nothing we deserve to complain seriously about. But moving is not exactly like hiking up granite peak in Tahoe or eating brunch with friends on a lazy Sunday. We are very excited about moving. The house is ideal, it is five minutes away from the muni stop, fully remodeled, with a charming backyard. Ming's six months of apartment hunting truly paid off. After negotiating with the landlord, we got the apartment by agreeing to move in early. So before we knew it, we were moving in ten days.

Random pictures from the old apartment: studying before my written test at the DMV :)

Sprouting tomato seeds at the balcony

Two days before the designated move, Ming and I transported fragile objects by ourselves,such as, vases, silk lamp shades, and paintings. We also took the opportunity to decide where we would put our furniture in the new house. Well, after two hours of talking, measuring, and discussing, the 'ideal' house isn't that ideal after all. When most of Ming's furniture was bought tailored to his old apartment, a lot of the dimensions, and setup of his furniture simply doesn't fit the house. The couch was too big for the media room, and there's no way all three of his dressers can fit in the master bedroom. So we spent hours looking at an empty house, visualizing how things would look in our heads and throw out suggestions. I really don't know how effective that conversation was, my head was blurry from exhaustion and it requires a lot imagination to decide if an arrangement fits your lifestyle and routine. I really hoped Ming had a better idea of what we were talking about. We made a rough plan of where things were going to go, and the next morning at 8 am, the movers are here!
As promised they came with boxes of different sizes, a lot of packaging paper, tape, and an experienced routine. As fast as the movers were, I underestimated the storing capacity of Ming's apartment, when everything was packed up and ready, it was well past noon. I realized although I have moved myself a handful of times, I only have four years worth of stuff. Compared to Ming, he has furniture, years of documents and paperwork, a full kitchen etc. When all the boxes arrived at the house, I was still in awe. How long would it take to unpack?

There was no way around it, one box at a time, I guess. I started with the kitchen, when it was done, half the kitchen cabinets were still empty. I remember when we were living in Ming's apartment, his kitchen was small, and I had ambitious dreams for our future big kitchen. I was going to get the KitchenAid station mixer, a rice cooker, a crock pot... and a long bucket list of things. But after three days of packing and unpacking I put all these ambitions on hold. If moving one one-bedroom-apartment can cause such havoc, what would a full house do? It's really ironic and a classic example of high-class problems. I have always dreamt of having a big kitchen, and when the big kitchen comes, I'm so scared I would clutter it up, I'm reluctant in putting it to full use. I'm sure this doubt would pass quickly though.
There is one sad thing about this move, my pumpkins didn't make it. They were weak and sick from powdery mildew, further stress on moving to a new climate was all it took to wipe them out. At least they made it to our final destination, where I shall happily settle down for a long time; tomorrow, I'll compost them in our new yard, and they will nourish the new Californian native plants garden. And the cycle of life goes on.

Finding a place to live - part 1

When Ming proposed in October last year, we have absolutely no housing plans. That wasn't our priority; we dived right into planning the wedding because the guest situation was... complicated. Back then my friends and I would be leaving college in May, so in order to make it possible for them to attend, the wedding needs to be held in within six months, and near Saratoga Springs. But then most of Ming's friends were living in California. And to justify all the time and money they put into attending this East coast wedding, the wedding better be a really enjoyable experience. So Ming and I based the wedding from a weekend-getaway destination wedding concept. We will host our guests for the whole wedding weekend, all food and activities included. It shall be fun, relaxing, entertaining, and all-age-friendly! We definitely started out with the best intentions, and a lot of ambition. The planning and execution of the wedding will be a very fun story to tell, I'll get to that in the future.

With the help of our beloved family, friends, and many smart, talented people, we had a heck of a weekend to remember :)

But, the point was that we did not have much free time nor energy to find a new home to move into after the wedding. Ming had to work, I was going to school; he was travelling on business a lot, and I was living in New York. So although Ming had started looking for potential homes since December, we still did not have a lease signed by May. So after our honeymoon, I moved into his place. A one bedroom apartment with simple taste. I'm sure there are many sayings out there that describes how a home expresses one's character. Ming's character is anything but simple, his apartment is the result of two conflicting personalities constantly in battle: if I can get by without it, then I'll not get it, fighting against, if I'm going to get it, then it needs to be perfect. Thus, when we shop, he would repeatedly ask me the same question, "Do you love it?" and I would always answer, "I don't know, I get it, I learn to live with it, then I'll love it."

I'm too impatient for perfection, nothing's perfect anyways, just keep moving and love would grow and hit you in the face. Come to think of it, that's similar to how we started dating and fall in love, but for now, back to the tale of us finding a place.

Ming's place is a one-bedroom apartment, and it's half an hour from San Francisco. We wanted to move back into the city, and we also need a bigger place. Hence, we spent most of our free time and precious weekends apartment hunting! Apartment hunting is comprised by passive prep work, and actively looking at actual properties.

The passive work

Elaine, 'Hey, I sent you a schedule of apartment showings with their information'

Ming, 'Thanks, I didn't get the attachment, where's the excel file?'

Elaine, 'I sent you a picture, in a text message.'

Ming, 'Omg! That's old skul...'

Looking at properties was fun at first, then at some point it gets frustrating. Especially, when we were viewing three to four houses or apartments in one day, in the end it was hard to remember which was which.  Through our mistakes, we learned fast. We started bringing measuring tape to apartment showings, we took pictures, and mapped floor plans (Thank you Anthropology fieldwork training!). But we would still miss some crucial details, "Was the closet on the left or right side of the room? And was it a standard door or does it slide open?" So then after all these apartment showings, we would discuss for hours, about how practical the property fits our needs and likings. The discussions were excruciating, they involved quizzing one's memory, interrogating one's lifestyle (Ming asks, 'Tell me, do you really want a garden.', and confessions (Elaine says, 'If I can see the TV while I'm cooking, that's a great bonus.').
Despite my impatient character, the one thing that kept me from caving in and renting a not-so-awesome home, is not quite Ming's perfectionist character; but the ridiculous price of San Francisco rent! (I mean, I refuse to break the bank for a crappy apartment) That said, I'm glad a while ago, we found a lovely place and quickly sealed the deal with the landlord. We'll move in soon and begin another adventure, can't wait!

It's not always all work and no play in apartment hunting. If we didn't have showings scheduled, we do fun things. 

Taken at Sutro Heights a couple of weeks ago in San Francisco :)

Cooking for a humble family of two- part 2

Substitution Vs Creativity

Memories are fragile; it is so easy to forget that cooking was a newly adopted interest of mine. When Ming occasionally messes up the kitchen or ask why I cooked an ingredient a certain way, I would roll my eyes and give him the don’t-you-know-you’re-not-supposed-to-do-that? or the I’ve-been-doing-that-like-for-forever look. Apparently, I haven’t done it for that long. I started cooking my own meals three years ago when I moved out of the dormitories and lived in a house. I wasn’t able to cook the food I grew up eating or watching other people make. Saratoga Springs, upstate New York has no rice cooker, no steaming racks nor dishes, no seasonings nor sauces to offer. Thus, I started a habit of using other ingredients or techniques as a substitution to my Chinese/Canto taste. Ming says that is being creative, but really there’s no creation involved.It is trying to achieve a certain result with all the available resources at hand. Two springs ago I found daikon radish for sale at the Saratoga Farmer’s Market, I bought it without a second thought. It was the first time I saw it available in the area and I love daikon radish!

Back in the kitchen when I'm calmly looking at all my groceries, I realized I don't necessarily like daikon radish... I like it when it's cooked in two separate dishes: slow-cooked briskets with daikon and turnip pudding. And between the two dishes, I prefer turnip pudding. My head brought me back to the one particular evening my brother and I looking at my mom making turnip pudding for Chinese New Year. I need Chinese dried sausages, shiitake mushrooms, dried shrimps, scallops, some scallions, and rice flour. Salt and grounded white pepper! That time my mom forgot to put those in, and my grandmother would not let her hear the end of it for two weeks straight. I looked at my lonely daikon on the kitchen counter, I did not have of those ingredients at hand and I didn't have the equipment to steam the pudding either! I started looking around for substitutes: bacon, portabella mushrooms, cracked black pepper, all-purpose flour, mixed with the shredded daikon, that would work. And I can bake the mixture in the oven! Turnip cake can't be that far away from turnip pudding. And in the end I was happy to consume that weird interpretation of turnip pudding thinking it's a taste I like.

Through many similar experiences, I started to love cooking. There's a lot of freedom, a lot of personality, and a lot of changes involved in this skill. Ming is my first client regarding my career as a personal chef, and he gives me free range to whatever I want to serve. In order to keep a high customer satisfaction rate, mere substitution is not enough, now creativity is called for. What I mean is creating an illusion for him. Ming is not a picky eater, and he's not allergic to new things, but from years of eating out he developed a habit. Leftovers are a foreign concept to him. To me, growing up leftovers are like a necessary evil in our family, it is heated up on top of the bed of rice in the rice cooker. And before we start eating, my mother would ceremoniously divide the leftovers in equal portions at hand it to us at the dinner table. While she mutters that as a family we have an obligation to share the responsibility of finishing the leftovers. When I asked Ming if he would like dumplings the third night in a row because I made them in bulk, he looked like a disappointed child.
"Okay... can we have something else though?"
"Why? You liked it so much yesterday."
"yeah, but we had that as dinner for two days already."
"Is that a problem?"
"Not really... but... Can we have something else?"
I mean, I have no intention of throwing leftovers away, but I don't want to shove it down Ming's throat either. Because leftovers is not a necessary evil, it's food! And as long as it's food, it should be enjoyed. Hence, the great transformation started, I started altering leftovers into something totally unrecognizable. Forth of July barbecued leftovers was diced to bits and made into fried rice.
"Wow, this rice has a smoky flavor in it!"
"Yeah, that's what sauteed peppers do."
Cooked rice became porridge on the second day, leftover salsa was used as a sauce to the rice paper wrapped chicken in the coming week, and the boiled potatoes was safely hidden in scallion pancakes. Masking food became such a fun thing to do, I started getting bolder...

The other day I was making lunch for Ming, and the fridge had a bit of cream left from last week. I was making scrambled eggs so I figured I will splash the last dash of cream in it, why not? It will makes the eggs fluffy and creamy. Only when I was whisking the eggs I realized the cream was sweetened previously because it was a dessert ingredient… well, what can I do? I'm not throwing it away, so I diced up some carrots and lettuce, and wrapped the whole thing in rice paper.

“Wow, this tastes great!"

“Is it too salty? I sprinkled a lot of salt in it at the end"

"Nah it's okay, the sweet carrots and crunchy lettuce balanced it out."

 "I’m glad you liked it…”

Patience is gold (a.k.a pumpkins)

I don't think before I do things... I get excited about an idea and I dive into it, like making decorative crafts, growing house plants, starting a worm bin etc. Sometimes there is not a lot of preparation nor research, just red hot enthusiasm! Hence in the middle of these projects, I make many avoidable mistakes, such as not having materials I need at hand, or end up with an ugly finished product because I did not have a plan in mind while I was making it. I have a couple of saving graces, I mean, I am relatively creative, so if I don't have the right material at hand I find a substitute: no electric drill? Hey! There's a fireplace poker in the basement. And I am relatively flexible, if I put a wrong stroke on a painting or drawing, I'm fine with changing the original plan and make that stroke work with the piece. If I have to sum up the whole point of this paragraph, that would be Elaine is freaking impatient and that gets her into trouble.

Like back in the day when I was trying to make Japanese cheesecake, I  didn't take my time to whisk the egg whites. The cake texture ended up feeling like a soggy sponge

In recent years the number of failed and unfinished works has been reducing, and I give credit to better tools and the internet. Taking art classes in College exposed me to skills and tools that work for specific materials, for example using different glues for wood, paper, fabric, plastic etc. No wonder things never seem to stick! And the internet is the perfect solution for an impatient person who needs a quick solution when she is in the middle of something she does not know what she is doing but something's definitely going wrong (run-on sentence intended). Last month I started knitting a baby blanket for my sister-in-law intending to make a building-block pattern comprised of different colors. Do I know how to knit building-blocks in different colors? No... Luckily many youtube videos offer tutorial clips.

Not a good picture, but you see the building blocks in different shades of blue right?

Looking back, it's not a smart decision, what was I thinking when I was paying for all these colorful yarn? I know what was I thinking: I want to start knitting asap, I'll make it work, but I don't want to wait. Maybe that's why I particularly like cooking and gardening, both give great training on personal patience. Like raising bread dough... you have to let the dough sit and rise for 2-3 hours, okay. And then, there's the second rise! $%^&*(&    When can I put the bread in the oven?!
A week ago, both of my pumpkin vines snapped because of strong wind, and I was devastated. The internet offered no help! People rarely propagate pumpkins (snipping a piece of stem and let the roots grow out), and when they do, they would cut off a piece of root with the stem. Both of my pumpkin vines are snapped from the base, and within half a day they were already wilting. All I could do was dig a really deep hole and plant the broken vine in, hoping that would keep it alive and the stem would slowly grow roots.

Before the vine snapped, all green and healthy

Pumpkins in Intensive Care, making a slow recovery

The wait was long and strenuous, every 15 minutes I wanted to touch it. Check the pumpkins and see if they're doing better, check if the stems were growing roots already, check if the soil's moist enough. But I know I had to wait so they can recover in peace, or die.





Thank god, thank god, by the third day the pumpkin vines stopped leaning limply by the wall, and started to stand on its own. Well, now I have to wait for another week and see if new leaves are growing out. If they are, then the pumpkins are likely to live. If not, then it's in fate's hands.

Because of the vine-snapping incident I started doing more research on pumpkins, and learned that they're not suited for living in pots at all. Pumpkins need vast space so they can expand sideways by gripping on soil. I can't do anything about that since I live in an apartment, but I do feel bad for not knowing what my pumpkins need when I started growing them. I guess another lesson learned. Plan better, know better, so my pumpkins wouldn't have to go through such disasters again.