Has anyone else been struggling a bit this week? I’ve seen this sentiment on social media that this week in particular has been more difficult for a lot of people, whether in their work lives or their personal lives. Personally, I’ve been feeling it a lot at work, vacillating between period of virtually zero productivity and periods of highly rare focus but getting blocked by something or other.Read More »
Category: Finds
Quotes, images, videos, essays, etc. produced by someone else. All other content on this blog is my own original work unless otherwise indicated. Also includes other things I have found online somewhere.
14-Day Quarantine Workout?
As I’ve mentioned on this blog before, I am not great about working out and, when I do commit to it, I prefer doing classes because the external accountability keeps me on track.
Of course, with shelter-in-place and self-quarantines abound, the scant classes I was attending are no longer an option to me. So many fitness studios and individual instructors have made workouts available online, via YouTube and Instagram Live and IGTV and more, and I’m really grateful for it! However, I do feel overwhelmed by the choices that are available to me! Do I try dance fitness? Or a HIIT (high intensity interval training) class? Maybe boxing? Yoga??
It’s been a bit too much, which is a convenient excuse for me to just do none of them. 🙃
I’m learning a bit about what kind of home classes I like doing. For example, I don’t like spending so much time on Instagram, so the plethora of amazing classes on IG Live or IGTV don’t appeal to me as much. Live classes are still helpful for me because the external accountability of being on time and going through a full class help. (Although I will be honest and admit that I have just stopped partway through a too-hard tabata class, I’m grateful that I can work out with my camera off.) I’ve also had some success following along with YouTube workouts when I am looking for a specific type of workout, for those truly rare occasions when I actually know what I want.Read More »
Favorite Frozen Asian Foods
Inspired by a post I saw on subtle asian cooking, the cooking offshoot of the famous subtle asian traits, I thought I’d share some of my favorite frozen items to get at the Asian grocery. I wish I had more of these in my freezer right now, but I’m glad that I started quarantine with a lot of these in my freezer already.
The most important and critical and essential item:
My family has been purchasing Way Fong Chinese Brand Pork Dumplings for as long as I can remember, and we’ve only ever ventured to other brands a handful of times. These are the best store-bought dumplings I have ever eaten, other ones pale in comparison, and they’re a high bar for many homemade dumplings to meet as well. I always have a bag or 2 (or 3… or 4…) in my freezer and I get quite anxious when I have one or fewer bags. (I currently have 5 dumplings left in my freezer and I don’t know when I’ll be able to buy more again. I learned later that the SeriousEats team came to the same conclusion after trying many dumplings, so I’m glad that I’ve really only ever tried the best.
Friday Favorites (7?)
Now seems as good a time as any to bring back Friday Favorites. (What a throwback, am I right?)
“Is Anyone Else Barely Functioning Right Now?” – Carolyn L. Todd on SELF
I first read this piece last week while I was completely overwhelmed with quarantine and caring for my husband. While it has been great that people are finding ways to cope and even thrive during shelter-in-place (Instagram Live workouts! sourdough starters! Zoom happy hours!), I was really struggling and doing much less than I ordinarily do with my time at home, even before my husband got sick.
Dalgona Coffee
Even though this whipped coffee beverage has gone beyond viral, just a month ago, as an Internet trend, it was still localized primarily in South Korea. (Dalgona is the name of a Korean street candy that the whipped concoction closely resembles.) However, an artist I follow — Dami Lee — posted this video, and it looked so achievable that I was inspired to immediately try making my own.
“But Starr, you don’t even drink coffee?”, some of you may be wondering.
This is very true. BUT even I had some instant coffee packets that I’ve pocketed from hotel stays abroad, and they came in very handy for this.
Here was my first attempt from literally a day after Dami Lee posted her video. (Oh, by the way, I have a kind of foodstagram on the side that I run with a friend?) It was delicious and, yes, very caffeinated. I have a low tolerance for caffeine so this is a lot for a non-coffee drinker but it’s still really pleasant! I’ve since purchased instant coffee expressly for the purpose of making more whipped coffee but will probably go with decaf in the future.
Rainych’s cover of “Say So”
Indonesian singer Rainych recorded this cover of Doja Cat’s hit song “Say So” in Japanese and, to be honest, I like it better than the original. I regularly vibe to her viral cover, which Doja Cat saw and loved, and hope it opens the doors for cool things in the future!
“Backward Hippo”
Zefrank made a short and silly video that brought me some needed smiles. I thought maybe it could do the same for you.
Headspace is a popular meditation app that has guided meditations for different situations, like helping you sleep or managing anxiety. They have responded to the coronavirus pandemic by adding additional resources like their “Weathering the Storm” series and giving healthcare providers free access to their premium app.
New York state is currently the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, with my home of New York City having one of the highest confirmed case counts per capita in the world. So, Headspace has put together a page of resources for New Yorkers to take advantage of, with free guided meditations, sleep sounds, and even meditations for kids. This has been a nice reprieve.
Ideal Asian Breakfasts
I was recommended these videos by Party Kitchen, and they are on the same chill frequency as my Calm Foods video playlist, which I love. I love all breakfast food, and Asian breakfasts are especially comforting to me. I hope they bring you some comfort, too, and maybe inspire a breakfast for you to come.
I didn’t mean for this Friday Favorites to be so video-oriented, it’s almost another video playlist. It’s not on the list up there but today Instagram allowed users to access Direct Messages from the web app, which is great because I really have been cherishing the ability to DM people, especially now, but I hate spending so much time sucked into my phone.
Anything fun lined up for the weekend?
Quarantine Video Playlist (Calm Foods)
I don’t know about you all, but I’m really struggling to make lemonade from the proverbial global pandemic crisis lemons I have been allotted during this time. I just don’t currently have it in me to do a bunch of home workouts (as someone who has more success with the external accountability of a class), to bake all day? (I don’t even have… the ingredients…?), or even to binge-watch shows. I’ve had an aversion to the commitment of starting a new show for a long time, and that has only been exacerbated by the toll of living during a worldwide catastrophe.
What I do have an appetite for, however, is videos. Specifically, I watch a lot of food preparation videos (which has always been a guilty pleasure of mine), and lately, I’ve been really enjoying calm and relaxing food preparation videos.
I tend to watch videos at 1.5x speed or faster, but with these, I am able to sit back and watch at the intended speed (haha) to really attempt relaxation. It’s almost meditative, to watch someone prepare something delicious.
So here are a few of the videos that have brought me a few minutes of peace and calm. I hope they can do the same for you.
I have really gotten into watching Li Ziqi 李子柒 because she is connecting viewers with the traditional ways to make Chinese foods. I can be completely enraptured watching her harvest soybeans to make soy milk to make tofu in order to make mapo tofu 麻婆豆腐. Or even planting rice to make rice cakes and scorched rice. I spend a lot of time unwinding and craving Chinese food watching, so it’s no wonder that she is perhaps one of the most influential online creators in China, with a rumored reach wider than even CCTV.
Haegreendal 해그린달 is a Korean woman who is part of a wave of content creators that make these supremely cozy videos that really add the homey to home. She cooks simple dishes, does household chores, with little bits of commentary that give you a bit of insight into her thoughts and sometimes ask you to take time to discover insight into your own. I discovered her videos very recently but know they will be something I come back to when I need to quiet my mind and feel motivated to take care of my living space and myself.
I would be remiss if I failed to mention Alvin Zhou, from BuzzFeed’s Tasty team, as this video actually introduced me to Haegreendal. She is one of the people he cited as inspiration for the above video, which is one of the quarantine videos that was released recently. It’s a very simple concept – he makes a series of 3-ingredient recipes all day – that is really pleasantly executed. I felt super at ease watching, and because all the recipes are just 3 ingredients, I felt like I could easily get up and make one or all of them myself if I so chose. I hope he enjoyed making this one as much as I did watching.
This insanely gorgeous cheesecake recipe from HidaMari Cooking appeared in my suggested videos so many times that I finally relented, being a huge fan of peaches and a disliker of cheesecake. This Japanese creator’s channel is full of these absolutely beautiful creations, all with the goal of being pleasing to the eyes and ears. I would consider this part of the wave of mostly Japanese creators who were creating this ASMR cooking content last year.
Another prime example in this genre is Peaceful Cuisine, who makes soothing food videos with and without music. (There are 2 versions for many of the recipes he makes.) This is his most popular one, and he’s been creating little moments of peace and tasty treats for years now.
If you haven’t seen yet, Dalgona coffee has been a beverage trend in South Korea for over a month now as Koreans in quarantine learn to make something delicious and beautiful in the confines of their home. This video, from Cho’s Daily Cook, is part of a trending genre in Korea called #homecafe, where people create sumptuous-looking beverages in aesthetic as all heck videos. (Eater did a great write-up about this trend.) This was one of my favorite videos from early on before Dami Lee blew up the trend’s spot in the United States and it started going viral on TikTok and Instagram here, too.
I hope you enjoy these videos and that they help you find a bit more calm in your day. Relax your jaw, take some deep breaths, release the tension in your shoulders. There are cozy food videos waiting for you.
If you have any relaxing food videos to share, please do! I’m always looking for more to enjoy.
Sip of Starrshine 