11.049
23 (Sun) February 2020
Cheese Pizza
1.5
by me
at home
-Dasmariñas Village, Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines-
with W and IZ
It had what seemed to be the right ingredients, including fresh buffalo mozzarella from Italy, ready-to-use pizza crusts from a local producer, and tomato-basil sauce from scratch.
I think the oven is where it went wrong: too much heat from the top, not enough heat from below, which kinda screwed up the textures of the crust and cheese.
Meanwhile, in more important matters …
Until last Tuesday (Feb 18), the rate of newly reported cases of COVID-19 in Korea had been about 1 per day, sometimes none (31 cases total). Then, Wednesday (Feb 19) saw a sudden spike of 20 new cases (total 51), followed by 53 new cases (total 104) on Thursday (Feb 20), 100 new cases (total 204) on Friday (Feb 21), 142 new cases (346 total) on Saturday (Feb 22). Today, Sunday (Feb 23), 256 new cases were reported (total 602).
International School Manila (ISM), where our kids go to school, is on administrative holiday from last Thursday through this coming Tuesday – a golden weekend of 6 days. During that period, many families have gone abroad on trips, and many families have had overseas visitors come in, including to and from Korea. We had decided to stay in the Philippines, though DJ was allowed to go with his friends to one of the nearby provinces for a couple days; he returns tomorrow. Yesterday, ES’s family, including her husband visiting from Korea, came over for dinner (see 11.048 Shrimp & Scrambled Eggs with Wood-Ear Mushrooms).
We just got a notice this afternoon from ISM that any students who’ve been to Korea or been in contact with someone from Korea over the week should be self-quarantined for 14 days. As far as I know, this measure is not based on any Philippine government recommendation, certainly not a WHO recommendation. But we will abide by it, even for DJ, who returns tomorrow, if only to keep the kids safe, not necessarily because we think that they’re/we’re infected.
My doomsday prepping from a few weeks back seems less farfetched now (see 11.027 Doomsday Pork Bellies).