𝕮𝖔𝖋𝖋𝖊𝖊 & 𝖂𝖗𝖎𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌

Discussion on Youtube opened my eyes to something: the US, tofu is largely considered an alternative to meat, something used by vegetarians and vegans. But in Asia, according to the comments, it's often complementary to meat. Most famous example in the US might be ma po tofu, recipes for which are often "2 parts tofu, 1 part ground pork." At Philly's SE Asian market, one of the skewers I bought was a mix of fish cake and tofu. And just now, I had some miso noodle soup, that was pork slices, meatball, fried egg, and tofu (not much tofu, less than anything else).

Whether Asian cooks are motivated more by "meat is expensive, stretch with tofu" or "tofu is good for you", I don't know. Today's tofu didn't seem abundant enough to count as stretching...

Train back to Taipei Main, wandered and browsed shops.

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When I lived in Osaka in 2019, my minisplit had a dehumidifier mode that puzzled me. Later research suggested it's supposed to dehumidify the air (duh) with minimal effect on temperature. What is actually did was function as a super-duper air conditioner mode: despite being fairly quiet, it would quickly push the temperature lower than my remote control allowed me to specify. It also seemed to help dry my clothes.

This time around, I was more interested in the heating function of minisplits, but here in Taiwan I've been using the A/C again... and the dehumidifier mode. And it behaves the exact same way. After not that long, my room has gone from 20 to 15 C in temperature, and 80% to 55% RH, or dew point from 16 C to 6 C.

Various notes:

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I made the previous, grumbling, entry this morning. I could have mentioned that despite various noises, I got passable sleep 2 nights in a row, but didn't think of it.

This afternoon I got out, and had a pleasant time, perhaps because I mostly avoided traffic. ( Read more... )

In the US, small apartments are divided between '1BR' (one bedroom, separated from anything else especially the kitchen) and 'studios' (one big room, apart from the bathroom; fridge noise and cooking grease can waft to your bed.) Japan has finer grain: '1R' (studio), '1K' (door between bedroom and kitchen; kitchen is probably a kitchenette in the entranceway; you take food to your bedroom or eat standing), '1DK' (the kitchen area is big enough for a dining table), '1LDK' (I suspect blurry boundaries, but notionally an even bigger common area -- room for a couch? -- and maybe a counter walling off the kitchen.) I had the impulse to classify my housing. No promises of this being interesting to anyone but me.

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