I Had a Dream

I don't normally dream.  I'm the type that once I fall asleep, I would sleep like a log and descend to the dark quiet ocean floor.

Once in a blue moon I would dream but I would dream of ordinary stuff.  No fantasy, no nightmares, no excitement, nothing weird. Just normal everyday stuff.

I had a dream last night.  I dreamed that while brushing my hair, I discovered that my ponytail had a white tip like Dexter's tail.  I flipped my hair (in my dream) and found that all the hair underneath was white!

UGH!!!

I woke up and realized that it will happen to me someday.  Maybe it's a sign that I need to check out hair colors soon.

That was a very scary dream.  *sob*

Red Tomato and Soy Sauce

How do you eat a tomato?  When I was a kid, I loved to eat my tomato like an apple but I liked to dip it in coarse brown sugar first.  The sweet crunchy sugar made the juicy tomato tasted like candy.  Adults, on the other hand, liked to dip tomato in a thick sweet savory soy sauce laced with freshly grated ginger.

Wait a minute, you might say, I never had it like this before.  This is actually an old recipe that's very popular in my parents' hometown, Tainan.  It can be an appetizer or a afternoon fruit snack.

The color contrast of this dish is striking too.  Black and red.  How beautiful is that?  Sweet and salty.  Mild tomato and spicy ginger.  A simple dish but it makes your senses explode.

I saw some nice looking fresh tomatoes yesterday and they reminded me of this dish.  I got some and asked mom how to make the sauce.  Dad was really excited because he hasn't had this dish for a very long time.  He kept reminding me, "Need ginger, lots of ginger!  Need sugar, Make sure you get that sweetness!"

As I was preparing the sauce, I was thinking that there are actually many dishes that have contrasting elements like this red tomato and soy sauce combo.  To name a few:

• Deep fried crispy noodle with gooey sauce on top
• Sweet and sour dishes and drinks
• Fresh mango and sticky rice
• Cucumber and hot chili sauce
• Grilled bacon and mochi
• Deep fried ice cream
• (I'll add to the list as I think of more)

So this is not a funky dish.  It takes some imagination, but, heck, it's not odd.

Here's the thick soy sauce recipe for your fresh tomatoes:

1. Boil soy sauce and some water
2. Add enough sugar to balance the taste
3. Add a dash of licorice powder
4. Thicken the sauce with corn starch
5. Add freshly grated ginger to the sauce
6. Let cool. Serve with tomato slices (refrigerate the tomatoes until serving)

Give it a try, peeps.  Try other combos too.  Let your taste buds go wild!

Need Matching Bags

On April 22, 2013 - Earth Day - few counties around SF Bay Area started banning use of plastic bags and started charging for reusable bags if customers did not bring their own bags when shopping.

Environmentally, I'm all for it.  I never liked plastic bags and very annoyed with ones that were super thin and ripped easily with a slight stretch.  What's the use for bags when they can't even hold stuff?  But of course, these plastic bags - with holes or not - can be useful for other purposes.  I mainly used them as garbage can liners and dog poop bags.  They were also great as dust covers.  I know I'll miss the free supply of plastic bags when mine is depleted.

San Francisco was the first county to ban plastic bags.  It took some getting used to.  The question you hear all the time now is, "Do you need a bag?"  The most frequent scene you see on the street now is people's hands full of their purchases if they don't have a bag.  People adapt though, and you see all sorts of bags, boxes, sacks, baby strollers, etc... anything to hold stuff and not pay that darn ten-cent bag fee.

One thing that I keep thinking is how businesses feel about people using bags from their competitors in their stores.  Would I want to see a Lucky's bag coming out from a Safeway store?  Do I want to see a Walgreen's bag going into a CVS store?  I don't think so, but how do you stop customers from advertising/marketing the wrong brand?

Case in point:  I was at BevMo yesterday with a red Trader Joe's wine bag in hand.  I had a good chat with the Store Manager and picked up couple of wines at his suggestions.  He saw me putting the wines in my TJ bag and handed me a green BevMo wine bag and said, "Here, this is from me.  Tell the cashier no charge."  I joked, "I used the wrong color bag, huh?"  He smiled and said he hoped I will use their bag for shopping next time.  We had a good laugh and I felt obligated to transfer my wines to the green BevMo bag before I walked out the store.

Very soon, I think this will become a business problem.  How to increase your visibility and minimize inadvertent advertisement for your competitors?  Is there a way to convince shoppers that they should use your store's bag when shopping in your stores?  Better yet, how do you make shoppers carry and use your bags even if they go shopping elsewhere?  Hmmmm.... I think this is a good thesis topic, yes?

For me, I'm thinking of using a basket for my shopping like the old days.  I remembered Mommy - liked all other moms - leaving the house with a basket when they went grocery shopping.  There were no plastic and paper bags back then.  Everything was placed in the basket.  I also remembered that moms liked to recruit somebody to tag along to carry the basket for them.    Observation: the newly in-love men would happily tag along; kids usually dreaded being volunteered.

Anyway, welcome to the new brave world where plastic bags will be a thing of the past and fashionable shopping bags will become the norm.

Use Matching Bag!