Pan fried noodles with tofu block

This is a bit difficult because you have to cook four components and combine them, so logistics is complicated. They are: fried vegetables + al dente cooked spaghetti + scrambled egg + tofu.

One method is to scramble the egg before hand and set aside. Fry the tofu and keep it warm in the oven. Boil the noodles and keep ready. Fry the vegetables, add the noodles, add the egg, serve with the tofu.

You will need soy sauce and oyster sauce. This recipes is for 2 or 3 servings. Cook enough noodles for that, or scale the quantities. It is supposed to be mostly noodles.

To cook the eggs: mix a small amount of corn starch slurry into two eggs. Wisk. Pan fry in a large table spoon of oil. Use salt and pepper.

To cook tofu: take a block of tofu and slice it through the midline of the shortest dimension - so you have two large blocks, each 1/2 a block thick. 

Try to dry these out a bit with a towel but do not press hard. Leave the tofu alone. Dust each piece thoroughly with corn starch. Fry in a shallow layer of oil: slowly, to drive off the moisture, one side at a time, and until it is crispy and golden brown/burnt on each surface. Remove to a plate and keep warm in the oven. No seasoning at this stage.

To cook noodles: try not to overcook, as the noodles will be cooked slightly more later. Drain and set aside.

To cook vegetables: Take small amount of all vegetables (<1/4 cup, finely chopped of each): onions, carrots, green onions, mushrooms, cabbage. Fry onions, add a teaspoon of chopped ginger. When onions are started, add carrots, then mushrooms and green onion (white part). When all else is softened, add cabbage and wait for it to wilt. Now add scrambled eggs and 1 Tsp soy sauce, 1 Tbs of oyster sauce (really key!). Stir in cooked noodles. Top with green onion (green part). Put on serving dish but keep frying pan hot. 

Put tofu back in hot frying pan for 45 sec while you pour a small amount of soy sauce over the two pieces. Serve over/beside the noodles.

2+2=4

Saw an article talking about how we do not know why 2+2=4. Seems pretty simple to me. It has to do with representing counting and translation along a fixed ruler, with the observation that counting '2' from a starting point, and '2' from the new starting point - take you to a place on the ruler that is aka '4'.

If what you are missing in this account is an underlying ontology, seek no further than topic structures (dude!). The point is not that the two ledgers are identical ('2+2' is not the same as a direct '4') but the final state of the ledger is the same. In this version, we consider '1' to be a type with multiple instances. 

There should be nothing surprising or deep about having a single name for a place ("4") and having different ways of getting there: direct counting versus repeated counting. Maybe it is a bit magical that we can do the counting in our head and always get the same results. On the other hand it looks like I am saying '2+2=4' is an empirical statement.

The sleight of collection

An idea from graduate school that I was quite proud of was based on observing different kinds of "1". There is the counted number '1'. There is the ordered 'first'. There is the distance from the zero to one along the real number line. I liked the idea of using the same name for a collection as for the last element of the collection. Thus '{1,2,3}' is identified with '3'. I called this the "sleight of collection" because it is like a sleight of hand whereby some underlying dynamics get captured in the naming of things.

Ashtray

 

My life in a still life

I call the notation my "jalopy". I told Barb I was hoping it would become a spaceship. Also arrowheads and you-know-what in the Altoids box. The hint of pills is correct too. I have an ear infection.