Day 2, Level 2.5: Work stuff, sweet & sour pork, and cooktops

A bit of a "chore" day today - washing sheets and towels and whatnot. 

Did some writing - including an article about the lovely Scandrett Regional Park to pitch to the Herald. I wrote about this wonderful little bay on the Mahurangi Peninsula on 9th August when I visited on the day NZ noted 100 days of no community cases and was the shining star of the Covid world. 

Hmm, that all went pear-shaped pretty quick. On 12th August Auckland went to Level 3, rest of NZ to Level 2. And we're still restricted to a degree.

Complacency ... never good. But always prevalent if idiots are about. 

Short beach walk late in the afternoon - it was pretty nice down there but virtually completely deserted. Is everyone back in town? Picked up a few supplies from the local Superette, enjoyed a read of the newspaper and tackled the cryptic crossword on the deck in the late afternoon ... the wind got up. What a nuisance. But it's Tuesday, it's another work day, I'm not actually on holiday and don't have time to sit and lounge about. Being up here is highly productive and I'm working through projects and deadlines on all sorts of things that I never could in un-Covid days or even back in Auckland with distractions etc. I'm appreciating the solitude and productivity. 

Time to cook dinner ...

I was going to do a simple pork noodle stir-fry dish but decided instead to do a pork sweet & sour concoction from scratch. A bit more complex but glad I did - it was delicious. It's simple to make a tasty sweet & sour sauce but doing all the coating and double frying involves a bit of work and time. Worth it!

While I was cooking the said sweet & sour pork, Sam sent through some photos of their time spent this weekend in Lake Como. Mix of rain and sun; there was a big group of them and they had a great time. That's how it should be. 

Lake Como, courtesy of Sam

Sam and Anna are booked to go to Portugal on Thursday, hiring a campervan and driving from Lisbon to Porto - but alas that UK travel corridor may be closing soon. They're still keen to go even if they must self-isolate again. They're all still working from home or furloughed anyway. But at least they can TRAVEL!!!!! Having driven that stretch of coast I've given them some inside info. It's a fantastic part of the world. 

Tomorrow is the Full Moon - earlier weather reports leading up to tomorrow had been dismal - but tonight they reassessed and said - good weather coming. Of course it is - it's a spring September Full Moon. And my birthday, haha!! I've always aimed to ski on my birthday as much as possible - and have managed that for quite a few years. If this year wasn't Covid compromised, I would have planned to go skiing this year, particularly given Full Moon (bound to be a bluebird day) - but being in Omaha is a superb alternative. I'll watch the Full Moon rise over the horizon as I add another year to life in the beautiful place where I spent much of my childhood! Can't be bad.

SHARE-NOTE OF THE DAY:
Gas versus induction cooking ...

What sort of cooktop do you have? Gas? Induction? Ceramic?

At home in Auckland we've got ceramic - and it's worked perfectly well for years. 

At Omaha, I opted for a combo of induction and gas. We have 4 induction plates - which can be combined for a bigger surface area. And two gas plates. 

I'd only ever cooked with gas when living in the UK and loved it. Back in NZ I grappled with old-style electric elements in various homes - does the trick but not the best. I'd never used induction before until having it installed at Omaha.

So now I've used all cooking styles.

And I have to say each one has it's pros and cons. Not sure that one stands out better than the others, they all have merits.

Here are my thoughts - lets forget about electric elements as they are surely gone for good. We had them on our cooktop at Omaha before renovation - gone! And surely they're not available any longer.

Ceramic: flat surface, means you can use it as an extra working surface if you're not cooking on it; reasonably controllable temperature for most cooking styles; surface remains hot for some time after you turn the element off.

Gas: fully controllable, versatile, great for stir-fries and best option for dishes where you are hands-on cooking.

Induction: great for rapid boil and getting to high temperatures quickly, more tricky to control variances; electronic controls mean you need to know them inside out; need to have compatible cookware.

Having a combo of Gas and Induction at Omaha is just perfect - everything covered!