Charles Gutjahr
Charles Gutjahr
Melbourne, Australia
April 2020
Charles Gutjahr
A short opinion
My initial review of the COVIDSafe tracing app
COVIDSafe: Looks like government has does a decent job on privacy, it doesn't track your location, it doesn't store unnecessary information. You should feel safe installing the app.
The problem is it probably doesn't work. I installed it on two iPhones yesterday and then logged all the Bluetooth activity between them overnight. They were notably chatty at first, exactly once a minute contacting each other with COVIDSafe data — which is how the apps can trace who you are in contact with. The apps kept doing that while the screens remained on. Then when I went to bed I pressed the side button to turn the screens off. Communication stopped immediately. As far as I can tell for the rest of the night the apps didn't talk to each other. Looks like the iOS apps only work when both phones have installed the app, both are running the app at the time, and both have screens turned on.
That's not how people normally use their phones. They takes calls, watch TikTok videos, message their friends. My concern is most people will install it, think they're doing the right thing but because they use their phone like a normal person their app won't record even a single contact.
I don't want to be too harsh on the app. They tried something, and we should be trying new things to deal with this pandemic. I don't think the app works right now, but with more time (and probably adoption of the Apple/Google Exposure Notification protocol) they might be able to make an app that is useful.
Charles Gutjahr
Charles Gutjahr
Are you sick of okonomiyaki yet? Not me!
Today I had a few different ingredients around today so this is quite a different recipe to what I posted the other day. I used wombok cabbage which is crunchier and more moist, spring onion instead of a brown onion, Amy's homemade kimchi, and some lovely fatty free-range bacon!
This combination was particularly nice. Only problem is it didn't cook quite as well; it was a bit soft. I think I had too much liquid from the kimchi and wombok. I used 100ml of water like last time... perhaps it should be halved to 50ml? Try using as little water as possible while making sure the flour isn't dry.
Ingredients:
* 200g wombok / napa cabbage
* 1 spring onion / Chinese shallot
* 5mm slice of ginger
* 75g flour
* 50-100ml water
* 1 egg
* A whole chilli
* A big spoonful of fried shallots
* A really big spoonful of kimchi
* Two rashers of streaky bacon, fat separated from meat
* Vegetable oil (canola, peanut, etc)
To serve:
* Kewpie mayonnaise
* Otafuku okonomi sauce
* Shaved bonito
Start by chopping the vegetables finely. If the cabbage is chopped too coarse I find it doesn’t cook, so chop thin slices.
In a mixing bowl add the flour and water (but not the egg), then mix it into a paste. Then mix in all the vegetables and fried shallots into the paste, including the kimchi. Give it a good stir to make sure everything is coated. Finally break an egg on top and mix it through.
Heat a frypan to a medium-high heat, and add the bacon fat (keep the meat for later). My induction cooktop has heat levels 1 to 9, I use 7 for this. Once the fat has rendered down, discard the pieces of fat leaving the oil coating the pan.
Spoon the mixture into the pan then flatten it out into a thick pancake shape. Cook for 6-7 minutes on one side. While it is cooking lay the bacon meat on top of the pancake, then flip over and cook another 8-10 minutes on the side with the bacon. I find it needs a bit more cooking on the bacon side to properly cook through.
Serve it with the mayonnaise, okonomi sauce and shaved bonito on top. Eat!
Charles Gutjahr
OK okonomiyaki fans, here is the recipe I used for today’s okonomiyaki pancake. The recipe varies depending on what I have around… I wouldn’t normally use onion but I have a lot right now so in it goes!
Ingredients:
* 200g cabbage
* 70g onion (half a small one)
* 5mm slice of ginger
* 75g flour
* 100ml water
* 1 egg
* A whole chilli
* A big spoonful of fried shallots
* Mysterious rice seasoning
* Vegetable oil (canola, peanut, etc)
To serve:
* Kewpie mayonnaise
* Otafuku okonomi sauce
* Shaved bonito
Start by chopping the vegetables finely. If the cabbage is chopped too coarse I find it doesn’t cook, so chop thin slices.
In a mixing bowl add the flour and water (but not the egg), then mix it into a paste. I have a mysterious pack of Japanese rice seasoning so I added a spoonful here. Then mix in all the vegetables and fried shallots into the paste. Give it a good stir to make sure everything is coated. Then break an egg on top and mix it through.
Heat a frypan to a medium-high heat, with a little oil. My induction cooktop has heat levels 1 to 9, I use 7 for this. Spoon the mixture into the pan then flatten it out into a thick pancake shape. Cook for 6-7 minutes on one side, then flip over. Cook another 6-7 minutes on the other side.
Now the fun saucy part! Slide the okonomiyaki onto a plate. Squeeze some mayonnaise in lines across the whole pancake. Squeeze some okonomi sauce in lines in the other direction. Now throw a small handful of shaved bonito on top. Eat!
Charles Gutjahr
Charles Gutjahr
Charles Gutjahr
Charles Gutjahr
A short opinion
Welcome to April
Welcome to April, the month when most of the first Australian Government stimulus package is rolling out.
It is interesting how things have changed in three weeks since that was announced. Back then the Government was still in politicking mode: saying things like "we will not be pursuing a cash splash in the reckless Rudd-Gillard fashion", and setting up stimulus that was mainly delayed until April — which seemed suspiciously like an economic gerrymander. Packing all the economic damage from the bushfires into the first quarter and pushing most of the stimulus into the second quarter looked more like a plan to avoid the political embarrassment of a technical recession than exemplary economic management.
Fortunately now I reckon the Government has switched their focus away from the politics and more towards finding the best response to the crisis. We've had two more stimulus packages since, each bigger and more immediate. By the third stimulus on Monday the newly announced JobKeeper payment started that day — which is even before many of the measures from the first stimulus had started.
This is good! It's amazing how in just three weeks we can go from prioritising politics to prioritising getting the job done. It gives me hope that Australia will come out of this pandemic as well as possible.