lull

Every alley south of Broad St. is perfect. Worth getting shoes and lower pant legs absolutely soaked by the rain for.

Also took the wide-angle lens into Gateway Walk, will post separately.

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In case you haven't found out yet, additional photos on facebook. For now, subject-centric photos go on fb, and style-centric photos go on blog. Trying to not clutter both places up as I figure out a more permanent solution for my photos. Gotta overhaul how they're stored locally too, ugh.

piazza

So far my film emulation choices is as follows:

• velvia for travel
• classic chrome for when lighting is good (and controllable) 
• provia for food 

Day 2 in Charleston has been with intermittent thunderstorms. Also ate too much sugared goods, now seriously craving some vinegar-y bbq. Actually change that to vinegar-y slaw, but so far only 1 bbq joint has actually had good slaw and not shreds of cabbage soaked in mayo.

Because of the rain, I also didn't take much photos and painstakingly hid my camera under my jacket since by body isn't weather-proofed. But here's the Aikens-Rhett house, one of the house museums. This one is preserved rather than restored. 

The first is so far my favourite photo of the trip. The slaves quarter has much more interesting lighting than the tightly controlled main house. But the view from the main house's porches (piazzas) are wonderful though.

palmetto

Today has not been the greatest in terms of physical well-being, but it was absolutely fantastic in terms of houses & gardens. Historic Charleston is a fine example of people being good at flaunting their wealth.

clouds

Okay I concede, sheng pu er is a different league than shou. While I'll forever love my yancha, sheng is such an exciting unexplored territory. I'm immensely looking forward to being in Yunnan this summer.

Today's tea is 云普之巅, it took several tries to figure out the corresponding Chinese characters.

In short, I've already found the cake on Taobao and briefly considered buying multiples of it to age further. Although the one on Taobao is dry stored whereas this one from CLT is wet stored, but I'm not certain that my palatte is able to differentiate the difference in storage yet. Also spent some time considering what my options are for pu er storage, since the climate in Toronto is abysmally dry (in pu er metrics) so that would entail the investment in a pumidor. Or I can leave some cakes in Chengdu? This is waaay getting ahead of myself.

Anyways, I probably used more leaf than recommended and steeped longer than recommended, but am enjoying the slight bitterness. Also strong huigan with a hint of sweetness and not drying at all, I almost prefer it to the actual taste of the tea. It's taking a lot of self control not buying a full cake of this.

piedmont

Today was the first day for the farmer's market at Piedmont Park, came home with some garlic greens and farm eggs. I do think that I'll upgrade to buying farm eggs because the yolks are actually that much more orange and they're not that much more expensive. Well depends on how you think about it, $0.50/egg is quite reasonable but it is twice the cost of Publix organic eggs. Don't think I'll miss $1.50 per week though, and am glad that I can afford this kind of lifestyle.

Whipped up a quick lunch with today's bounty:

French-ish omelette with garlic shoots filling, and a side of 凉拌芹菜. Is celery slaw the most accurate English translation? After a week of finely slicing celery for cold noodles and now this, I can say that my knife skills have visibly improved heh :D

Anyways the omelette. I fully intended making it French style with butter and cream, but somehow totally forgot that the key was to frequently stir it over a very low heat. Instead the butter ended up browning in the cast iron skillet while I was whisking the eggs, and I poured the egg in then proceeded onto chopping the garlic shoots without any stirring. No complaints about the final product though, in fact I love the crispy egg bits.

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While at the farmer's market, I also picked up a bar of local artisan chocolate.

Atlanta's answer to Mast Brothers, although the wrapping paper isn't quite their level. But with the possible scandal over Mast Bros, I'm happy with supporting a local business. Nice crunch with bits of cacao nibs, and a nice coconutty aftertaste.

Speaking of relative sense of pricing, I read a yelp review of this business that complained about how Godiva bars are larger at the same price point (~$10 ea). Usually I'm pretty immune to the stupidity (or perhaps just a difference in value) over the internet, but these two operations aren't exactly comparable. The scale that they operate at, ignoring the fair trade and organic premium, is a world apart. smh.

The girl at the stand did tell me that every bar is produced in their Krog St. Market store and that they give tours if you just ask. Will definitely make a visit.

mouth moves but no sounds

Music to fall asleep to

Everlane modern loafer

Yeah I did concede to the moc-toe of Everlane loafer. The fit is really good though, and surprisingly fully lined with a suede portion around the heel. It definitely fulfills the can-walk-for-a-full-day criteria. Unfortunately the leather feels not that great, though I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume it's an intentional finish...but the creasing isn't supporting that assumption. To put it in prespective, it's not like...Aldo level crappy leather, but Everlane chooses to make its leather a point of advertisement and this is not much to brag about. Then again for the price I can't complain too much. Somewhere between pas terrible, and pas mal. We'll see how it ages.

This is what I get for spoiling myself with nice shoes too early.