Corn Fritter recipe

This simple recipe is fromĀ The Korean Table by Taekyung Chung and Debra Samuels. J posted pictures.

Corn Fritters (Ockssusu Jeon)

2 cups (350 g) corn kernels

1 Tbs miso

3/4 cup (100 g) flour

1/2 cup (125 g) water

1/4 tsp salt

Mix. Fry in oil ~3 min on each side. Serve with dipping sauce of choice.

Modifications

We added some kimchi (~40 g) and some finely chopped leftover pork ( ~20 g), and ate it with mayonnaise and tempura dipping sauce. The fritters were pretty good! Surprisingly sweet because of the sweet corn, but a pleasant change from eating it on the cob.

New Displays at the VTA Light Rail!

The old screens were pretty good. The times from around the world really gave the station a nice international feel. They didn’t show when the train was going to come, but at 87:59pm you shouldn’t be expecting the train to come anyway.
But the new screens are even better! Wow that high-resolution display looks great!

10+ intermediate tips to help you produce less waste

Here are some more tips you can use to reduce the amount of waste you produce! Please start with this post for simpler, and more beginner-friendly tips.

These tips are more difficult, simply because you can’t just swap out a reusable product for a disposable one. These require behavioral change (which is hard!). But do your best! You may find some of these simple to adopt. Continue reading “10+ intermediate tips to help you produce less waste”

How to refill your Clipper Card

The Bay Area has this great public transit card called Clipper. It’s really easy to use! In this post I’ll show you just how easy it is to refill.

First, find a machine that looks like this. Just move the screen protector off to the side.
Push some buttons and put your credit card in. When you see this screen, you’ll know you did it right.
Wait for a couple of trains to go by, and eventually the dialup modem in the machine will connect.
“To take one step forward, you must first take one step back.”
And we’re done! Super easy!

Why zero waste?

Zero waste is a philosophy advocating for the indefinite cyclical reuse of materials and resources, often in a way that mimics how resources are reused in nature (e.g. composting). The idea of zero waste has been around for a while, since the 1970s, but has recently been adopted as an individual lifestyle, thanks in large part to Bea Johnson of Zero Waste Home. The goal of a zero waste lifestyle is to produce zero waste.

However, “waste” is rather ambiguous in this context. It can refer to garbage sent to the landfill, or garbage and recycling, or sometimes garbage and recycling and compost.

Additionally, I don’t like the phrase “zero waste”. It’s unreachable, depending on how waste is defined, and thus misleading. And it encourages perfectionism, which is exclusionary and off-putting. I prefer to talk about “waste reduction” or a “low waste” lifestyle, which everyone can adopt to some extent.

So the question becomes:

Why would anyone want to adopt a low-waste lifestyle?

Continue reading “Why zero waste?”