The decimation wrought by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 2022 Feb 24 has been immense. Ukraine has crumbled, its economy severely damaged and its people scattered across the EU and the Western world. On one hand Ukraine has a bully neighbour intent on destroying it, while on the other Western countries have continued to provide Ukraine with enough weapons to continue its fight, the result being even more destruction of Ukraine. Ukraine’s predicament has had many other global implications, almost all bad.
The Covid-19 pandemic slowed down the world economy by messing up supply chains, but the real kicker to the world was Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the West’s response to it. Decisions by the West early in the invasion clearly helped Russia and decimated Ukraine, but no country and people will get off Scot-free. As oil and gas, and wheat prices skyrocket, coupled with supply chain problems with China, the world will soon welcome a global recession.
You would think that once you have attained sufficient resources to satisfy a specific need that, once satisfied, you would then redirect excess resources to a different need. For example if you needed a healthy snack and wanted to eat an apple, once you ate an apple or two you would be satiated and stop. Instead you would then look to your other needs, if you were still hungry, such as a sandwich, to balance out your meal. It would be illogical to simply keep searching for and buying various different apples for the sake of variety and interest. In my simple view that is not what I see in the world.
Yupin Brand of Fried Dace with salted black beans. There are 2 other flavours, but I didn’t try them.
Fried dace with salted black beans is a quintessentially Southern Chinese dish, one that I never grew up with. The dish was used to preserve food for Cantonese workers that were working in foreign countries. Fried dace with salted black beans comes in a uniquely shaped can, lasts a long time and can be simply eaten with white rice. The flavour is a savoury umami taste. I don’t think it is too salty. My Grandmother was said to eat it on a regular basis.
Galanz Soymilk maker DP15002C. There is no online user manual. Photo by Don Tai
A neighbour gave me this Galanz Soymilk maker machine 格兰仕 豆浆机, DP15002C, and I like to drink soymilk (豆浆). I thought that it would be pretty simple to find the user manual. Unfortunately, there is no user manual for this machine. While Google Search has almost nothing on this machine other than where to buy it, I did find a lot more on Baidu Search. There’s a lot more marketing and hype about this machine that actual useful information, such as a user manual.
Galanz bread maker MB15001 in yellow, max 750g loaf, Made in China
Kicked to the curb, this little Galanz bread maker MB15001A was. I could tell it was clean and little used. This little ditty did not need much work to get working, apart from brushing off some snow. I just plugged it in and it started beeping at me, telling me to feed it. Is this “Made in China” product any good?
Dark rye flour, 10kg bag, from Grain Process Enterprises, Toronto, $12.50. Underwhelming store, but adequate.
I have been baking bread for a good 9 months now, using white wheat flour and whole grain wheat. While it is nice, I’ve gotten tired of it. Many European people seem to really like rye in their breads. I do like rye bread as well, which has a very different taste. I searched for a source of rye here in Toronto, and found Grain Process Enterprises in Scarborough.
It seems almost quaint: Live so you are comfortable but still not deplete the world’s resources. This is called doughnut economics. The third world should strive to bring up their standard of living, but the first world should not live beyond their means and deplete the world’s resources. Huh?
Amsterdam Doughnut Economics
It seems pretty reasonable, really. China, India and other poorer countries strive to economically improve and pull people out of poverty. That can only be a good thing. But then you have the first world countries consuming way beyond their means, because they are rich and because they can. As China and India improve, why should they not also consume beyond the earth’s means as well? The reason is that the world will then be depleted and we, as a species, will all suffer.
This is not NoFrills but an example of their line of cashiers. The single line queue for a cashier would start where the photographer is standing. This results in significant delays and increased risk to shoppers. This has discouraged me from shopping at NoFrills and going to other grocery chains, which offer similar prices and sales, more convenience and less risk of contracting the CoVid-19 virus.
A neighbour gave me a freshly baked sourdough bread, and then some starter. I like sourdough’s flavour, and had been thinking about trying it, but hesitated on the 5 day wait for the starter to get going.
There are many variables when dealing with natural yeast. Ambient temperature plays an important role. The sourdough’s naturally occurring yeast takes time to rise. My first bread took 6 hrs, and I felt it needed more time.
