Zombie Purification Ritual?
May. 20th, 2006 08:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daidoji_giseiYesterday was a bad day; I woke up in the early morning hours from a nightmare involving zombies (or, at least, corpses that would not behave correctly) and never managed to shake off the malaise.
Today I woke up to my alarm, not a zombie, so right away my day was improved. After a quick shower and some clothes (my dry-clean-only linen dress: I so need to do laundry this weekend) I grabbed a banana and my backpack and walked quickly to the bus stop. Saturday morning there is a Farmer's Market in the Haymarket area of downtown, and even though the nearest bus stop is about five blocks from the Haymarket parking is so bad around there that I figure I'd be walking almost that far anyway.
The Market doesn't officially open until 8 AM and the bus gets me downtown about 7:30 AM, so I had plenty of time to walk around and scout out which stalls have veggies I want. Just about everyone sells radishes, but I'm fussy about where I'll buy because I use the green tops as well, and I want fresh, full greens. In the course of my investigations I also find a stall that has green beans AND pineapple sage plants. I plant myself in front of the table with green beans and herb in hand and wait for the whistle to blow.
"The whistle"--the Market has the inviolable rule that no business can be done before 8 AM, when the coordinator blows the start whistle. There is no rule against early birds picking out their veggies and waiting for the whistle, however, so most people do just that. This gets very amusing in the vicinity of the asparagus-sellers, where you can see the table surrounded by a crowd of people, all of them holding bundles of asparagus in one hand and a wad of money in the other. When the whistle sounds the vendor springs into action, grabbing money and handing out change to a frenzy of hands. I usually skip the asparagus, though. I don't dislike it, I just like spring radishes and fresh green beans more.
After getting my veggies and plant I stroll around the Market looking to see if there's something else I want. Ten years ago there was a Vietnamese restaurant named Vien Dong that would set up an egg roll stand in the Market and I used to go there for breakfast. The egg rolls would be HOT-HOT-HOT, having been fished out of the fryer just seconds before being put on the paper plate and handed out and on more than one occasion I burned fingers and tongue in my eagerness. Vien Dong closed down a few years ago (sob!) and today a newer place called Cafe de Mai was selling egg rolls, steamed pork buns and something else I didn't pay attention to. The egg rolls were not just-out-of the fryer, but I was curious about CdM's food, not yet having eaten there, and when you come right down to it you don't have to work too hard to get me to eat an egg roll. I bought a few and walked off to munch reflectively. They were cool enough to eat without danger, but hot enough that the shell shattered nicely when I bit into it. The filling was rich with pork and cellophane noodles, seasoned with what I think was fresh black pepper. I licked my fingers, walked around the Market again and went back for seconds.
After that I walked back to the bus stop and waited for my bus home. It would be 20-ish minutes before I could get a bus home, but I had come prepared with 4 volumes of Bleach in my backpack. I have a cracktastic essay rolling round in my head and have been going through my collection for supporting evidence. After reading for awhile I got distracted by some sparrows hopping around the area. After watching for minute I realize that two of them were significantly smaller than the third--I'm seeing an adult and two juveniles hunt for their breakfast. They are beyond cute, and I'm a little sorry when my bus finally shows.
When I was in grad school I went to the Market every week it was opened, but when I started working at the co-op Saturday was a work-day so I lost the habit. Last year I got my Saturdays back, but still never managed to get there. I think I'll work to get the habit back--it's a nice brisk walk, it's fresh radishes and egg rolls, sparrows are nifty. Maybe it will keep zombies away, too.
Today I woke up to my alarm, not a zombie, so right away my day was improved. After a quick shower and some clothes (my dry-clean-only linen dress: I so need to do laundry this weekend) I grabbed a banana and my backpack and walked quickly to the bus stop. Saturday morning there is a Farmer's Market in the Haymarket area of downtown, and even though the nearest bus stop is about five blocks from the Haymarket parking is so bad around there that I figure I'd be walking almost that far anyway.
The Market doesn't officially open until 8 AM and the bus gets me downtown about 7:30 AM, so I had plenty of time to walk around and scout out which stalls have veggies I want. Just about everyone sells radishes, but I'm fussy about where I'll buy because I use the green tops as well, and I want fresh, full greens. In the course of my investigations I also find a stall that has green beans AND pineapple sage plants. I plant myself in front of the table with green beans and herb in hand and wait for the whistle to blow.
"The whistle"--the Market has the inviolable rule that no business can be done before 8 AM, when the coordinator blows the start whistle. There is no rule against early birds picking out their veggies and waiting for the whistle, however, so most people do just that. This gets very amusing in the vicinity of the asparagus-sellers, where you can see the table surrounded by a crowd of people, all of them holding bundles of asparagus in one hand and a wad of money in the other. When the whistle sounds the vendor springs into action, grabbing money and handing out change to a frenzy of hands. I usually skip the asparagus, though. I don't dislike it, I just like spring radishes and fresh green beans more.
After getting my veggies and plant I stroll around the Market looking to see if there's something else I want. Ten years ago there was a Vietnamese restaurant named Vien Dong that would set up an egg roll stand in the Market and I used to go there for breakfast. The egg rolls would be HOT-HOT-HOT, having been fished out of the fryer just seconds before being put on the paper plate and handed out and on more than one occasion I burned fingers and tongue in my eagerness. Vien Dong closed down a few years ago (sob!) and today a newer place called Cafe de Mai was selling egg rolls, steamed pork buns and something else I didn't pay attention to. The egg rolls were not just-out-of the fryer, but I was curious about CdM's food, not yet having eaten there, and when you come right down to it you don't have to work too hard to get me to eat an egg roll. I bought a few and walked off to munch reflectively. They were cool enough to eat without danger, but hot enough that the shell shattered nicely when I bit into it. The filling was rich with pork and cellophane noodles, seasoned with what I think was fresh black pepper. I licked my fingers, walked around the Market again and went back for seconds.
After that I walked back to the bus stop and waited for my bus home. It would be 20-ish minutes before I could get a bus home, but I had come prepared with 4 volumes of Bleach in my backpack. I have a cracktastic essay rolling round in my head and have been going through my collection for supporting evidence. After reading for awhile I got distracted by some sparrows hopping around the area. After watching for minute I realize that two of them were significantly smaller than the third--I'm seeing an adult and two juveniles hunt for their breakfast. They are beyond cute, and I'm a little sorry when my bus finally shows.
When I was in grad school I went to the Market every week it was opened, but when I started working at the co-op Saturday was a work-day so I lost the habit. Last year I got my Saturdays back, but still never managed to get there. I think I'll work to get the habit back--it's a nice brisk walk, it's fresh radishes and egg rolls, sparrows are nifty. Maybe it will keep zombies away, too.
