Tuesday, April 25, 2023

Good Old Cheap Ol' Dai Thanh

 I had time to pack 8 things, and was considering doing a combination of taking some things to the FedEx on the Alameda and taking used books to the book store to cash in. I'd even woken up early enough, at around 2:30. 

I'd practiced a bit last night. That old trouble again, that the deep breathing used in playing is the same or at least close to the technique I use to go to sleep. The good part is I can be asleep inside of 10 minutes, often inside of 5. The irksome thing is practice makes me sleepy. 

I finally decided to just take some post office and some FedEx stuff with me and to go up to Dai Thanh. I left at 5, dropped off the FedEx things first, then went to 99 Ranch where I got some dim sum, three for $4.50 where it used to be something like 3 for $3. It was decent, sure not keto though. 

Then since I had so much time left, rode on up to Dai Thanh. I found some beef to buy, a bit over a lb, for about $7, and a big bag of shrimp for about the same. Deal! I got some angel wing/elephant ear cookies and some made of the same stuff but not looped around but with raisins because they reminded me of the kind of cookies my father used to always buy and we'd eat when we went to Kahana Bay when I was little. 

(Dad loved Kahana Bay and loved to walk down to the end, I guess the Southern end, of the beach where few people went and where there were always these little white clam shells, delicate and translucent and really too nice to be called a crude name like "clam shells". You had to duck under lots of tree branches which is why few people went to that end. Kahana Bay is not *that* magic, the sand's too fine and gets everywhere and the water is always full of itchy stuff and is brown and the waves are too weak to surf but Dad never thought about those practical things. To him it was a magical place and I can hardly wait to visit it again now.)

Shopping done, I stopped by the post office to drop off my small packages there, then stopped by the back of H Mart to see if anything interesting was being tossed out. There were lots of things but they were either candy or other things I should not eat, or sweet potatoes that Tom likes but I want to leave some for someone else, and ultimately I just picked out a package of kim chee gyoza to try, for myself. 

I rode back here and put things away and put the trailer on the bike and first picked up all but two cans (one was rusty and one had lard(?) on it) of food from the latest food drop, and took that stuff up to Tom's and stacked it all on the table in front of his place. Colin was there and said Tom's resting 'cos they're going to the gym later. I told him there's a can of black beans in the bunch and a jar of peanut butter that's not full of hydrogenated oils. 

Leaving Tom's, I remembered why I wanted to go there - not just to drop things off but to pick up boxes from the Imperfect Foods place. For some reason, the large boxes they toss out are really useful and I use them all the time. So I went over there and picked up four of them, then rode for home, going good and fast so the zombies on Rogers wouldn't bother me, and got back and put things away. 

Thanks to Dai Thanh I got shrimp and beef for less than $2 a serving, and I picked up a big head of broccoli from the veggie dumpster tonight also. Cooking at home is great. 

I need to continue to be more frugal as I prepare for retirement. A lot of it is going back to how I grew up. Like who could ever afford a prepared sandwich from the deli at the supermarket? I'm not sure I was aware such things existed. But I could buy a package or two of Leo's lunch meat at 75c a package and a soda and there was a meal that would hold me a while. These days, two tea eggs for $3 and a can of coffee for $1.50 is a workable meal. Or a "bong" fish sausage and a soda. Or a piece of fried chicken and a soda. 

Sadly, I may not be doing nearly as much home cooking when I'm first back in Hawaii. But being such an Asian-culture place, there a whole sort of sub-economy of small, single-serving things and the 7-11's there, if not as good as the ones in Japan, are a few levels above the ones here on the mainland. 

I cut up the beef and portioned out the beef and shrimp and put them in the freezer, and dinner was the kim chee gyoza with pork, garlic, and ginger. It was really good!


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