Rant 1170 / Custom-made Sauce

Attack on Titan must be one of the most confusing manga I've ever read. I've just gone through 48 chapters only to find out... that I don't even know who the villains were - if they existed at all in the first place.

Not the titans; the titans were simply a symptom. The other titan problems? We don't even know for sure which side they harmed!

So not only has the manga artist(s) failed to show us a villain, he/they has/have yet to show us a root of the titan problem. C'mon, even if there's going to be a great twist, you have to throw us a decoy first, right?

In any case, is this manga exciting? Sure. Is it interesting? Definitely.

Yet in truth, after reading the whole series so far, I feel as if the artist(s) has/have just produced 48 chapters of prologue and counting.

On the other hand, you've got to hand it to him/them for creating 48 exciting chapters without producing a real problem since, after all, all plots are about problems.

...

Okay, on second thought, there was the problem of the titan invasion. Yet in a way, I feel that this, too, was just a symptom or a complication of the symptom that was the presence of titans.

Bought this packet of spices today. Went around at the wet market asking for ready-made bottles of the "lu shui"

but nobody was selling it. I guess only supermarkets have those.

But when I asked the vendor I was the most familiar with, the one selling fishballs (since I always buy a lot), they tried to tell me the recipe... except the mother (they were mother and daughter) who knew the recipe couldn't give me the names in mandarin and I can't speak Hokkien that well.

In the end, they gave up and pointed me to the traditional Chinese pharmacy. It didn't really make sense to me that I would go to a pharmacy to ask for food recipes but it does make some sense since they sell herbs and spices.

Turned out that elderly pharmacist not only knew the recipe but also sold most of the ingredients. The only things he didn't sell was the dark soy sauce and garlic, but those were extremely easy to find anyway.

That's the packet he gave me. Packed all the spices, of which I could only recognize by sight and smell the star anises, and ground them for me before sealing them in the filter bag. Awesome guy. Bought some chrysanthemum and rock sugar from him too.

The stuff is so strong, just touching the bag makes my finger smell of star anise.

Now I'm all prepared for this new pot. Even bought a piece of fatty pork for $5, 20 of the largest eggs available ($3 for 10) and 4 whole chicken legs. All I need to do now is melt and reboil the old pot of lu shui (still with eggs inside) and keep it in my reusable containers, and then I'll be able to start a new pot.

Probably not going to wash the pot in between.


...


Failed badly. Today I learnt that sugar can only reduce saltiness to a small degree. When the saltiness has reached the point where "overwhelming" becomes a suitable description, adding more sugar only makes it a very salty and sweet mixture.

It was definitely not a happy experience to pour everything away but there was no way I could have saved it. Adding more water would only have diluted the spices till it became merely a dark brine.

Tomorrow I'll get another packet from the pharmacy. Maybe also ask him to put in slightly less star anise.