July 24th:
I had a deep sleep from 9 pm to 7 am. The days of treating myself continued as my partner and I grabbed some coffee and pastries for breakfast. This is much more his kind of breakfast than mine, I always want something savoury, possibly eggy. But I had chosen what we ate last night, so this was out of my hands. My order was: iced filter coffee-cardamom bun, his was: iced filter coffee-almost croissant. The bun was delicious! Soft, fluffy, not too sweet and the nuttiness of cardamom in each bite. Surprisingly, I enjoyed the coffee too, without any milk or sugar. My stomach didn’t fall apart and I didn’t get the shakes. My housemate said that maybe it was a cold brew?
I did a food shop right after breakfast, keeping in mind that I start my new job tomorrow and would have to pack my lunch. My go to sandwich for packed lunch is.. Bread-mayo-lettuce-cucumber-salt n pepper-fish sticks-lao gan ma-mayo-bread. So I bought all that. For lunch, I made myself a combination of two things I’d usually have for breakfast: toast and a seasoned fried egg + toast-butter-tahini-cucumber-chilli flakes. The cucumber toast had been my breakfast for months before I went home, so I was really craving it. I also had some prawn crackers leftover from the takeaway last night. My housemate and I shared the bag, while watching tv and they brought out a new bottle of sambal they had bought while I was away. We ate the crackers with that, and it was spicy-crunchy-salty, and cleared both our sinuses.
Post lunch we played some table tennis, with my other housemate and his sister who is visiting. I had a can of Ting after, and did some work while they watched tv. Dinner was planned to be a group activity, with friends, one of whom is leaving to go to the US tomorrow on holiday. We shared Vietnamese food in Deptford, the restaurant was really busy and noisy. I shared a whole fried sea bass-rice-prawn and sweet potato pancake with two friends. I love when things are cooked whole, and eaten in the middle. To see everyone’s favourite part of the fish–my housemate went for the cheeks, while my father usually goes for the eye. I also had cà phê đá, Vietnamese iced coffee made with condensed milk as I felt sleep coming on in IST. We were all so full, and still had full boxes of food to takeaway. It really felt like a Sunday.
Hi all I’m Ru (she/they), a designer and researcher based in South-East London. I’m part of Em–Dash Press, a small press that produces (amongst other things) a series of zines on our shared love of eggs. I’m also a part of à la carte, a collective that explores the relationship between food and care through a series of workshops. Find my instagram here.