Inspiration
Not sure what prompted this thought, but as I am finishing up this post, at 3 pm on the 29th of June, it’s 93 °F outside in New York City, with a perceived temperature in the triple digits. Maybe the heat caused this thought to cook and boil-over in my head, until it had to come bursting out.
Soy Salt Sauce
I went for a run around the main reservoir of Central Park this morning, proceeding at a respectable pace, surprising myself given my relative inactivity over the past weeks combined with the torrid heatwave over the past days. I was bathed in a sticky layer of sweat and grime at the end of it, yet satisfied at a workout well done.
When I arrived back in my apartment a few hours later, having gone on a haircut errand to Chinatown in the interim, I noticed that the time was approaching noon. It was then that I realized that I had little by way of nourishment the entire morning. For once, I was well-prepared, as I had taken the advice of a friend to prepare overnight oatmeal the evening prior. I had also hardboiled a few eggs for good measure.
Now, normally I go back and forth between soy sauce and salt as my condiment of choice for consuming hardboiled eggs. But, as I reached for the soy sauce bottle on one of the fridge shelves, a third option came to mind – why not both? Indeed, why not? Entering my apartment, I had cooled down quickly from the inferno outside, as the AC unit kept my apartment at a tidy 60F. Even so, I still felt my shirt clinging to my body, a shirt two shades darker than when dry.
Has anyone ever tried sweat as a condiment? Though hypotonic with respect to serum, sweat nevertheless has a respectable amount of salt, which is partly why it is so important to replenish electrolytes after physical exertion. Moreover, sweat can also be viewed as a literal ‘soy sauce,’ at least in Spanish-speaking countries. I mean, I did make all the sweat myself through a hard run in the park.
So, perhaps the best condiment for hardboiled eggs, combining the best of salt and soy sauce, has been sitting on my skin all these years. No more do I have to decide on whether to grab the saltshaker or the soy sauce bottle. The choice is clear…
I thought about it for a minute more, weighing the gravity of the decision.
Then I peeled the egg, inundated it with soy sauce, popped it into my mouth, and stepped into the shower.
Reflection
After showering, I wrote this up on the Notes app on my phone in the span of forty-five minutes or so while on the bus to Costco for groceries. What a productive day!