#Potatos from south America

[nivalingreenhow]

I have many thoughts now on food an colonialism that I need to write down but I am at work and on mobile

[rotting-bones-will-sing]

another thing that makes the human facade a little more bearable: eating potatoes, humanity's greatest agricultural achievement. delicious, varied, nutrient-dense and calorie-packed, easy to grow, extraordinarily versatile, it is the perfect plant. chips, fries, hashbrowns, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, tator tots, potato salad, baked potato soup, forever and ever it goes. no matter how miserable being a wolf trapped in human society is, at least i have the capacity to enjoy potatoes.

[elbiotipo]

You see, the thing is that first worlders (and wealthy people in general, this is an increasing trend) have never had to think where their food comes from. Their all-(US)American cup of black joe comes from coffee beans harvested in South America, from a plant originally domesticated in the Arabian Peninsula. From the way most fantasy is with potatoes, you would think they come from say, Germany, and not the Andes (and I'm sure some people believe that). People in the first world have unprecedented access to food (and other items) from all over the world, including items that were luxuries to most people not long ago, and they don't really think that much of it.

Of course my space captain drinks coffee, I do! How hard would it to get coffee in space (really hard), I drink it all the time! Of course my fantasy wizard eats a stew with potatoes and tomatoes (domesticated in the American continent) and seasons it with pepper (an item so incredibly valuable in medieval europe it was worth its weight on literal gold), I do, I mean, you get potatoes and pepper from like, the store, right?

I'm not saying you have to include a cited ethnobotanical paper on the history of food in your world detailing domestication centers, varieties and social effects (I'm actually 100% saying that), but the mere act of researching where your food comes from, not only now but its history, will make you not only a better writer but also increase your concioussness about the world. You will learn history, ecology, botany, zoology, culture, social issues, perhaps even a few recipes. And hey, maybe instead of making another Standard European Fantasy World, you might set your next novel in some other place with more spice, or maybe include a Turkish or Persian space captain interested in the history and culture of tea, something that isn't your Standard USAmerican Space Crew.

try it.

[alexlwrites]

You ask and you shall receive!

Here's part 2 of "Yoongi never had a crush until you" from my notes app. I'm always open to more requests <3

(Check out part one here)

(Buy me a coffee on ko-fi!)

....

Tonight was the night. Yoongi could feel it, from the tip of his long luscious hair to his weirdly long toe. There was something in the air - whispers of certainty and peace that could either be a sign that Jungkook had left the premises or that tonight was the night that Yoongi was finally going to gather all the courage within his tired body and ask you out!

Furthermore! - he shook his fist in front of his mirror, eyes slightly crazed with a decidive stance - you'd say yes!

From there, everything would fall into place, stars aligning and errors corrected. His shoes would fit better, the wifi faster, the coffee tastier. Everything improved by your presence in his life.

He just couldn't stand all this nervous, jittery energy anymore! It was all so unlike his cool, calm, collected persona and he didn't know how to deal with his sudden difficulties to form full coherent sentences when you showed up. He had to put a stop to it and act on his new and, to be honest, slightly concerning feelings.

You see, he was a man with a written plan! In the depths of his pockets, under seven layers of coffee shop receipts from 5 months ago and guitar picks he thought he had lost, there was a small piece of paper with his plan detailed step by step: first he would calm the fuck down (crucial). Then, check for sweaty hands, unknown food stains on his outfit and bad breath (Just in case!!!!). Then, present his five slide power point showcasing his feelings and finally - finally! - ask you out.

In case you'd say no, he had an extra slide with more appealing arguments (i'm rich, it said). Otherwise, he'd move to south america and live his life as Carlos, the potato farmer.

Of course, as Yoongi's life was never as simple as a power point presentation, all his plans were forgotten when you showed up in his studio dressed up in a way he'd never seen, skin tight dress clinging to your body in the way he wanted to, rendering him speechless and brain dead.

"Yoongi! Sorry for the late hour, I just had to drop these documents before I left and I rushed here because I have plans for the evening..."

Ask her out, his heart said, beating so loud he was surprised you didn't hear it. Ask her out, make her yours, rip this sinful devil sent dress into pieces. Fuck the power point, fuck your canva vision board, ask her out, ask her out, ask her out, ask her...

"Out" he spluttered at last and he swore his heart shattered at the hurt in your eyes.

"Oh, im sorry" you said, dropping the stack of papers on his coffee table, lips pouting and eyes saddened in a way that made yoongi want to choke on his own fucking wrist "I'll leave you be, mr. Min"

"No-nO! I DIDN'T MEAN..." but it was too late and youd already left.

BUGGER.

BUGGER IT ALL TO HELL!

(Part three)

[mysticsublimeperson]

I want to express my frustration because... im trying to write some time travel Merthur fanfic as one does...

and I keep hitting my head against the same wall. Because just in case you didn't know England SUCKED before imperialism and colonialism.

Not that that made it better but, the English isles didn't have a variety of fruits or vegetables, the did have meat and fish and salt I think, but no sugar or way of producing it but honey if I remember correctly.

And admittedly climate change is a pain in the ass, but in medieval times the winters probably consisted in huge blizzards and freezing for 4 months.

They didn't even had tea!!!

All the good stuff its because of colonialism which is horrible for the world but whatever.

Im trying so hard to ignore this facts... to be free and write about silly angsty boys but I needed someone to know how difficult it is.

Because Merlin having lived in a 21 century would have spent since the 16th drinking bloody tea, and now he is back in time and doesn't have tea, doesn't even have sugar, it's a pain in the ass to get milk, and he can't even get his favorites foods because the fruits and vegetables aren't even evolved yet.

BECAUSE YES! All of the greens have suffered a tremendous amount of change because of selective farming!! so even if there were apples back there, they probably wasn't the same apple, probably weren't even half as sweet as they are now a days!

Same with animals, and plants. Many of the species have gone extinct but they existed back then. And im dying for a chance to bring this into the fic, to prove just how difficult the transition it's, but a the same time, it doesn't matter right? not really.

bUT I NEEDED TO VENT A LITTLE SO thank you for listening to my rant.

Also im not even a history girly, im an art babe, so all of this I know by logic and assumptions from my art history clases, and my hyper fixation, so obviously take everything with a grain of salt.

((It's just that I was cooking and I was trying to think which ingredients were available at that time to make the most simple dish but no, there was almost none, no spices, no tomato, I think the had cabbage, and like broccoli because its the same plant, but probably wasn't evolved into all of the different versions we know, they had beans, and lentils I think, the potatoes come from South America, so no potatoes, the had bread but what kind of bread??? sO YEAH, this is my head.. all the time))

[probablyasocialecologist]

The oft-used description of early humans as “hunter-gatherers” should be changed to “gatherer-hunters,” at least in the Andes of South America, according to groundbreaking research led by a University of Wyoming archaeologist. Archaeologists long thought that early human diets were meat-based. However, Assistant Professor Randy Haas’ analysis of the remains of 24 individuals from the Wilamaya Patjxa and Soro Mik'aya Patjxa burial sites in Peru shows that early human diets in the Andes Mountains were composed of 80 percent plant matter and 20 percent meat. The study, titled Stable isotope chemistry reveals plant-dominant diet among early foragers on the Andean Altiplano, has been published by the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE. It applies methods in isotope chemistry and statistical modeling to unveil a surprising twist in early Andean societies and traditional hunter-gatherer narratives. “Conventional wisdom holds that early human economies focused on hunting -- an idea that has led to a number of high-protein dietary fads, such as the Paleodiet,” Haas says. “Our analysis shows that the diets were composed of 80 percent plant matter and 20 percent meat.” For these early humans of the Andes, spanning from 9,000 to 6,500 years ago, there is indeed evidence that hunting of large mammals provided some of their diets. But the new analysis of the isotopic composition of the human bones shows that plant foods made up the majority of individual diets, with meat playing a secondary role. Additionally, burnt plant remains from the sites and distinct dental-wear patterns on the individuals’ upper incisors indicate that tubers -- or plants that grow underground, such as potatoes -- likely were the most prominent subsistence resource. “Our combination of isotope chemistry, paleoethnobotanical and zooarchaeological methods offers the clearest and most accurate picture of early Andean diets to date,” Haas says. “These findings update our understanding of earliest forager economies and the pathway to agricultural economies in the Andean Highlands.”

[rarepears]

Imagine if South America/Mexico got hit by an S rank gate, what would be the world wide repercussions of the avocado industry going down? Would people beg Sung Jinwoo to clear it? Would he already be on his way as soon as he hears about it?

I don't think avocado is big enough to result in people begging Sung Jinwoo to clear it per say. A polite invitation from the avocado cartel? Sure - but I think the Korean Hunter Association filters out such requests before it would even be sent to Jinwoo and his guild lol. Plus there's S ranked Hunters in South America too! I think people would look to their local hunters first for help - and for domestic pride too. It's kind of embarrassing to be needing to request foreign aid plus what kind of compensation can the countries really provide when they have already been decimated by such a gate? They can't afford it nor afford to own a favor. That's a pretty risky political position to be in, to say nothing else of the geopolitical implications and existing alliances they have to balance.

If this was a staple crop like a wheat, rice, or potato where it would be a catastrophic failure, sure. But the good news is that staple crops are far more diversified in where they are grown so while one region getting hit raises prices (cough see Ukraine war, wheat, and fertilizer), it's not going to result in massive shortages akin to the toilet paper crisis of 2020. Avocados are a large export item. The United States is the number one market for Mexico's avocado exports, with an 81 percent share, followed by Canada, Japan, and Spain, so I think the first foreign hunters called in to help would be the American guilds. (Plus they would be more personally motivated to keep their supply of guac going.) Koreans? I don't think they are as keen about avocados.

[natalieironside]

This may be a hot take but the potato test makes you sound like Neil Degrasse Tyson. There's a conversation that needs to be had about how often we ignore the enormous strides in agricultural technology made by indigenous peoples, but no part of that conversation involves saying that a book with dragons and wizards in it is "wrong" for also having a vegetable from South America.

[drewstarkeyupd]

Queer Makes Drew Starkey a Movie Star. Its Impact on Him Was Even More Profound

The Outer Banks star redefines himself as Daniel Craig’s enigmatic lover. Over lunch with Vanity Fair, he calls the role “a wake-up call for me.”

By David Canfield

September 13, 2024

media.vanityfair.com

Photo by Greg Williams

“This is my breakfast,” Drew Starkey proclaims as a plate of medium-rare steak and potatoes gets placed in front of him, a near-empty cup of black coffee to its side. He woke up at noon, coming off of a late-night screening of his new movie Queer, for his final day in Toronto. It’s the last meal the 30-year-old star will have before he flies home, taking a pause from the glamorous fall-festival circuit. He’s just walked the same Venice red carpet as Angelina Jolie and Nicole Kidman; he’s newly swept up into the A24 family. Things are moving fast. As he searches for a fork, it’s natural to wonder how he’s taking it all in.

The answer to that is hardly simple, in part because Starkey’s been on a journey of introspection since he was cast in Queer well over a year ago. An adaptation of William S. Burroughs’s semi-autobiographical 1985 novel, the film directed by Luca Guadagnino takes an elliptical approach to the story of a slippery romance between two men in mid-century Mexico City. Lee (Daniel Craig) becomes infatuated with a beautiful, enigmatic younger man named Allerton (Starkey), whose sexual proclivities prove maddeningly difficult to read. They become intimate—as captured by Guadagnino in explicit, passionate detail—and eventually travel both around South America and into the depths of their own subconscious (via a trippy ayahuasca sequence). One piece of dialogue, spoken at different points by both of them, haunts their courtship: “I’m not queer, I’m disembodied.”

Starkey references the line at one point over our meal. A feeling of disembodiment rushed up in him about as soon as he finished production on Queer, one of many reasons he’s still processing the film’s impact on him. Its professional impact may be clearer: The star of Netflix’s Outer Banks and teen films like Love, Simon reintroduces himself here with a rich, complex, and brave performance that ought to open new doors. But as we chat, he sounds more interested in the personal doors Allerton may have introduced him to.

At the film’s Toronto premiere the night before our interview, Starkey revealed on stage that Guadagnino first described Allerton to him as a “nasty bitch.” Naturally, we began there.

Vanity Fair: Let’s start with “nasty bitch.” How do you react when you get that description for your character?

Drew Starkey: Luca was being cheeky, but in earlier conversations we had, he talked about Allerton as cold and slippery and very hard to read—and Lee is always trying to put his finger on the pulse or define him in some way. He’s always just out of grasp or just out of reach. There’s a quote that Burroughs had in the original Queer from 1985, one of the last paragraphs. In the sentence, it says something to the effect of, “What happened to that knife called Allerton?” That image was always really an anchor for me. So, a nasty bitch. [Laughs]

You’ve talked about how you are still figuring him out.

I’m going to give you a Burroughs quote. For the last few days, I’ve had his quotes in mind.

Just for the last few days?

[Laughs] Well, the past year-and-a-half. But he was talking about writing Junkie versus writing Queer. He said that he felt like he was the one writing Junkie but he felt as if Queer was writing him. That kind of mirrored my experience in the filming of it. I felt like I did all my work, and I had to let Allerton lead me—which is so different from the way that I’ve worked in the past. It was a lot of meditating and letting things happen. But it was tough. It was really tough.

What does surrendering to the material feel like?

It feels like you’re holding onto a plane crash. You’re like, “I hope I survive this.” There’s an energy to it. [Costume designer] Jonathan Anderson is a friend of Elton John’s, who was an incredible help in terms of the wardrobe and what he wears. So much of it was the image of Allerton, what Lee is drawn into and sucked into. That was really a lot of the focus: What’s the silhouette going to be here?

I was going to ask you about the physicality. You move in a very specific, alluring way.

Well, I lost a lot of weight for it. There’s only a few photos of Lewis Marker, who Allerton was based on, but he was very thin. The bodies of that time were not very muscular.

There was just a great essay in TheNew York Times that touched on that, specifically related to the show Fellow Travelers.

Yeah, I wanted to avoid that. I see it a lot, in a kind of mid-century period setting—because that’s such a modern look. This was about a four-month process of losing about 30 pounds. At first, I stopped eating. Not a great idea. Then I worked with a nutritionist. I got a little bit too skinny at one point and then he was like, “Wait, wait, wait.” But that really did change the way I felt and moved. It felt very natural. And then [Daniel and I] were in, essentially, a dance class with each other. My body felt a lot more fluid and I think that kind of informed my gait. It felt like a lot of outside-in work, which was fun.

You clearly sensed this was a major opportunity. What scared you the most?

Living up to material. I felt a lot of pressure, maybe too much. I was quite nervous, and usually I feel okay. And this was like my heart was racing on the first day. One, Luca and the words of Burroughs, and then Justin Kuritzkes did such an amazing job with [the script]. But then working with Daniel and Lesley [Manville] and Jason [Schwartzman], it was an amazing cast. I felt like I was being found out. I never really had that before.

And given the weight loss, you had a lot of time to think about it before even stepping on that set. Could you think about anything else?

No. I was just engrossed with everything. All my responsibilities went out the window. I mean, every day I woke up and thought about it. It really felt like who I was for a year and a half. I’m not one that can really detach from a role and work in that way. It has to be: Blinders on. I can’t separate.

Everyone’s last day of shooting was the final scene you see in the movie. It was Daniel and me, and it was very emotional on the last day. I never really cry. And I’m crying! Just because it was so—it was so much. It was such a release.

Did you feel generally nervous to do sex scenes as you would be asked to do in this movie?

Not more than any other film, any other sex scene. But there was so much conversation around it, too. Luca made it a point during the first two weeks in Rome, when we had table readings and rehearsals, to separate those and talk about those as their own thing. Get comfortable with it. Daniel and I had been familiar with each other enough that by the time we got there, it felt like any other day.

Really?

It, strangely enough, did. There was such a comfort in our bodies. We were really, for months, essentially in a kind of choreographed jujitsu. There was no trepidation. There was no shying away from the nude scenes at all. Dan and I just wanted it to exude a type of truth and normalcy, how two people would be intimate with one another. You don’t want to put anything on top of it. Yeah, so strangely enough, no, it didn’t. It really didn’t.

To your point about the choreography though, there are specific sex scenes that indicate where the characters are in relation to each other, in terms of power and connection. How did you balance the jujitsu you’re talking about with that sense of intimacy?

We would talk with Luca about how he had a picture for it, his ideals for a given scene. We would just walk through it, but then left some freedom to let things happen. That’s the way Luca works in general. He’ll have a specific idea like, “Here’s my idea for what I think it should be, how I think it should be played out.” And then it’s a very intimate, small, closed set. Only the camera operator, Bianca [Butti] was with us. Months prior, of course, that was something that I was weighing like, “Oh, my God”—I was pretty nervous about it. When you read the script and you see the scene, you go like, “Oh, man.” But Luca was very, very particular about, “I will do nothing that you are uncomfortable with.” We had an open dialogue about all that. And Daniel is also such a giving person. He’s a great partner. Once we got into working, all of that was fine.

The final chapter of the film centers on Lee and Allerton doing ayahuasca. Have you done ayahuasca before?

No, but I’m interested. I feel like I’ll know when it’s time to; I don’t think right now is the right time. It hasn’t called to me. But we had some crew who had done ayahuasca and it was a great reference. It was like: “Okay, how did it feel in your body? How did it feel to walk? How nauseous were you?” That part was really fun. Yeah, I’ve never done ayahuasca—yet. But it seems, I don’t know. I certainly have some things that I need to address.

What can you share about that?

This year, I definitely got happier with myself. The past five years or so it’s been fast-paced and always going. Funnily enough, the strike happened and I felt incredibly disembodied. I had nothing to latch on to. I actually thought about Burroughs in that time, and his relationship with what he calls the ugly spirit. It’s this version of yourself that only wants to destroy, and how to make destruction your friend. I really did a lot of soul-searching, because we finished right before the strike happened. It was like boom-boom—I had this very intense, beautiful, creative kind of experience, and then nothing. I was a little mad.

Did you feel like work was important to keeping those feelings at bay?

Yeah, and maybe it’s not really that active. It’s just, I care so much about this and I want to do this, and that’s a byproduct. You lose a sense of yourself. That’s definitely my relationship with acting. I don’t feel like a confident person. I love life and I love tackling life, but in some way, I’m substituting the job for therapy. I never have admitted that I was doing that. And then this past year, I was like, “Oh, that is what I’m doing.” Now I need to actually ask questions about myself and consider myself, and talk and communicate. I didn’t do that a lot about what I was going through. I love to work and I love to distract myself.

It’s interesting to be going through that while you’re playing a character who is so non-verbal.

Mm-hmm. I’ve thought about this a lot. Even though Allerton felt like the hardest person to be, he also felt like the closest person to me in a way. In a lot of ways I really, really understood him and it felt like me—the way he moves through the world, the way he interacts with people. It was like, “Oh, right, that’s how I would be.” Maybe he was a wake-up call for me.

You already alluded to it, but I was going to ask you: What does, “I’m not queer. I’m disembodied” mean to you? Clearly, you’re someone who thinks a lot about Burroughs these days, and it is the core line of the film.

Oh, I’ve thought a lot about Burroughs. I think it’s the inability to define yourself. He doesn’t use language to express anything, to show his admiration or how he feels. Luca always said in the beginning of this, “It’s not a story about unrequited love. It’s a story about unsynchronized love.” Having that type of love can make you feel more detached from yourself. These are two people who do have this love for each other, and it’s beautiful—you see fleeting moments of it, and you see Lee attach himself to those moments. But they’re operating on two different planes of time in some way. That can make you feel more disconnected, experiencing that and confronting that with your counterpart, than even being alone can. [Pause] Yeah, I think I answered?

Very much so. It’s a movie that prods some deeper introspection, so I appreciate the answers.

Yeah, I know it’s a movie that if I saw it at 14 or 15, it would open doors for me, like: “Oh, my God.” My parents weren’t prudish in any way, but there was definitely some censorship. It was my grandma who was watching us, I was maybe 10, when she was like, “What rated-R movie do you want to watch? Pick one. Go pick one.” Me and my brother were like, “Okay!” I think we watched The Patriot or something. [Laughs] But yeah, I’ve had to go off and find those things on my own.

This interview has been edited and condensed. This story has been updated.

[something-tofightfor]

Smutsgiving Feast 2023: Scalloped Potatoes - Javier Peña

Pairing: Javier Peña x Female Reader

Word Count: 1,132

Rating: M.

Author's Note: This is - surprisingly - the least smutty of them all... but it's Javi, so you know the undertones are there.

Summary: Javi needs a little reassurance.

You found him outside on the porch, a cigarette hanging loosely from between his fingers. 

“Javi?” Letting the door shut behind you, you stepped cautiously toward him. “Is everything alright?” 

“I fucked it up.” He scoffed, shaking his head without making eye contact. “I had to do one fuckin’ thing for this, and I couldn’t -”

“Javier, they were just potatoes.” Leaning against the railing in front of where he was sitting, you crossed your arms over your chest and sighed. “And people will still eat them, they just got … a little crispy around the edges.” 

“They burned.” He finally looked up at you, and you saw the disappointment in his eyes, his lips set into a frown so deep you would have classified it as a scowl. “I couldn’t even follow the recipe on a goddamn box. I spent how many years in fucking Colombia and it’s a recipe that makes me feel like …” 

He trailed off, shaking his head and looking away, and you used the opportunity to watch him for a few seconds, composing your thoughts.

You understood that his reaction to a simple mistake was due to him still acclimating to being home and a civilian, and expectations on him changing. You knew his inexperience with cooking was because while in South America, he’d relied on takeout and the occasional frozen meal to tide him over in the event that he even remembered to eat. 

His offer to cook something for the get together had been a huge deal - not because of what he planned to make, but because he’d been the one to bring it up in the first place. And he needs to know that. “I almost burned my house down when I was a kid.” That got his attention, Javi’s head shooting back up, his eyes wide. “I wanted to make a cake, and so I did everything I needed to - mixed everything up, put it into two cake pans, had the oven at the right temperature … but I must have gotten a glob of the Crisco on the outside of one of the pans.” 

You paused, thinking back to the day - the smoke filling your kitchen, the acrid smell of burning scaring the hell out of you while you ran to get your mother before anything bad could happen. 

“It got hot and melted, and it dripped onto the bottom of the oven.” You shrugged, chewing briefly on your bottom lip. “The house smelled for days, and I wasn’t allowed to cook or bake anything for two months.” He smiled briefly at that, his eyes following your movement as you pushed off of the railing and stepped closer to him. “My point, though, Javi….” You sighed as you lowered onto your knees in front of him, resting both hands on his thighs. “Everyone makes mistakes when they’re learning to cook.” 

“But it’s a holiday.” He frowned again, shaking his head back and forth slowly. “And I’m thirty s-” 

“It doesn’t matter. It’s a learning curve.” You squeezed with one hand, purposely picking the knee you knew was ticklish. When his leg jerked beneath your touch, he hissed, swatting at you with the hand not holding the cigarette. “They’re still edible. Hell, if no one wants to eat them, that’s more for me later.”

“Don’t do that.” He rolled his eyes, stubbing the cigarette out in the ashtray beside his chair. “Don’t try and make me feel better.” 

“Why?” Tilting your head to the side, you arched a brow. “I’m not going to lie to you. If your food was shit, I’d tell you.” He considered your words for a few seconds while you waited silently, eyes on Javi’s face.

You loved looking at him - loved the way his dark hair was just beginning to thread with silver, could have spent hours mapping the freckles on his skin, and knew exactly what kind of mood he was in from a quick gaze into his eyes. But what you loved most was that underneath all of that was a man that cared deeply about other people - and about what they thought of him. It’s not just potatoes to him.

“We can just tell anyone that asks that they stayed in the oven a little too long because we got … distracted.” 

His eyes flashed at that suggestion, but he didn’t reply right away, instead staring back at you with thinly veiled interest. Got you. I know that look. But I’m not going to make it easy on you. When he finally answered, he did so after leaning forward and covering your hands with his, both thumbs rubbing over your knuckles. “Distracted by … what?” 

“Something on TV?” You wrinkled your nose and then shook your head. “Nah, that won’t work. We still would have heard the timer.” His hands moved up and toward your forearms, your knees sliding across the floorboards as Javi pulled you slightly closer. “Something outside? Maybe we heard a noise in the yard, or -”

“Or,” he started, leaning in and lowering his head so that he could speak into your ear. “We could just tell ‘em that we lost track of time because we were busy.” Javi took your earlobe between his teeth and then flicked it with his tongue, making you gasp. “People know me. They’ll believe it.” 

“No, they won’t.” You answered immediately, and Javi pulled back right away, too, confusion on his face. “If that’s what we’d been doing, those potatoes would have been charcoal, Javier.” 

It took a few seconds but he actually laughed - the sound deep and rich and wonderful - something you heard far too little of. I love that, too. “Buen punto.” He rubbed a hand over his face, fingertips lingering at the space between his brows and then said your name, the sound leaving no question about his intent. 

“There’s nothing in the oven now, right?” You mouthed the word no, watching as Javi’s smile widened. “Then I say we go and let ourselves get distracted for real.” You always wanted him, but at that suggestion, the desire coiled in your belly bloomed, heat surging through you. “Unless you want to run to the store and get a couple more boxes of -”

“Absolutely not.” You stood, holding both hands out for him to take. He did, standing too, and when you were face to face, Javi’s expression softened. The man reached up to hold the side of your neck, his thumb settling over your pulse point. So he knows how fast my heart’s beating. “Fuck the potatoes, Javi.”

He grinned then, shaking his head. “The potatoes aren’t getting fucked tonight.” It made you laugh, your eyes closing briefly - but they flew open at his next words, which were spoken with his lips hovering just over yours. “Can’t say the same thing about you, though.”

—-  Buen punto = good point

[whencyclopedia]

Walter Raleigh

Sir Walter Raleigh (c. 1552-1618 CE) was an English courtier, soldier, mariner, explorer, and historian. A one-time favourite of his queen, Elizabeth I of England (r. 1558-1603 CE), Raleigh organised three expeditions to form a colony on the coast of North America in the 1580s CE. The colony was abandoned but the expeditions were notable for introducing tobacco and the potato to England. Unsuccessful at colonisation and falling out with his queen when he married one of her ladies-in-waiting, Raleigh turned instead to finding El Dorado, the fabled golden city of South America. Once more, success was elusive. Back in England, the adventurer was accused of treason by King James I of England (r. 1603-1625 CE) and imprisoned in the Tower of London for 13 years. Writing poetry and an important work of history, the beached mariner was improbably freed in 1616 CE to explore one last time South America. This final expedition was another failure and led once again to imprisonment. Raleigh was executed in the Tower in 1618 CE.

Early Life

Walter Raleigh (or Ralegh as he himself preferred) was born c. 1552 CE in Devon, the son of a member of the local gentry. Educated at Oxford University, Walter volunteered to serve in France to assist the Huguenots there against Catholic oppression. Moving on to Ireland in the mid-1570s CE and establishing a plantation there, Walter was a young captain involved in putting down the Irish rebellions against English colonialism. Raleigh hardly covered himself in glory, though, when he participated in the massacre of 600 surrendered Italian troops at Smerwick in 1580 CE.

From 1581 CE Raleigh arrived at court and his family connection to Elizabeth I's childhood nurse was a helpful point of introduction to his monarch. He made a positive impression with his height, good looks and quick wit. Although 20 years her junior, Raleigh's charm and poetry soon attracted the good favour of his queen. Polite and chivalrous - at least in outward form, Raleigh's eccentricity is illustrated by the likely fictional story that he once lay down his cloak upon a puddle so that the queen need not get her feet wet. Raleigh's good relationship with Elizabeth was helped by his position as captain of the Yeoman Guard which gave him more access to his queen than most. The relationship thus had practical and often lucrative consequences. Over time, Raleigh accumulated large estates in the southwest, Midlands and Ireland which went along with his political influence as a Member of Parliament for Devon and Cornwall. He was given royal monopolies for tin and playing cards, and licences for taverns for 30 years. Rich and proud of showing it, critics once quipped that Raleigh's jewelled shoes alone cost a ridiculous £6,000. The pinnacle came when he was knighted in 1585 CE. All this social progress came despite the rumour Raleigh was said to have denied the immortality of the soul and questioned Elizabeth's foreign policy as not aggressive enough; Raleigh once joked, "Her Majesty did all by halves" (Guy, 289). Perhaps, for this very reason, Raleigh was never admitted to the Privy Council, England's executive seat of government.

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[elbiotipo]

I'm not kidding when I say worldbuilding is extremely easy and fun, you can make easily all sorts of new fantasy worlds on like half an hour, follow this guide:

take a rectangle, draw a line through the middle, that's your equator, draw another two lines south and north, those are your tropics, draw another two lines further north (you can see a real world map to guide yourself), those are your arctic/antarctic circles

Draw continents, any shape you want, it's better to combine large soft blobs (like Africa or South America) with coastlines full of peninsulas and islands (like Europe or South Asia). Draw some island chains in between where you feel it's appropiate. Some inland seas like the Mediterranean are good too.

Decide where you will place mountain ranges. In real life, they are where oceanic-continental plates (Andes) or continental-continental plates (Himalayas, Alps), collide. These are very important.

Place rivers, just the most important ones. The places where you place big river systems are gonna be big plains.

Now, the fun part. With your first step, you've already decided where arctic, temperate, and tropical climates are there. You can mark it as letters in your map. Mountain ranges, of course, are colder.

Here's the tricky part: vegetation: vegetation mostly follows precipitation, and precipitation is mostly decided by altitude and distance from the ocean. The interior of your continents should be dry with plains and deserts; the coasts should be rainy with forests and plains. But remember, if you have a mountain range, that's a rain shadow! Picture the wind coming from the ocean with rain, and it should get less rainy when it "clashes" with a mountain range, with the other side a desert.

Deserts are tricky to place, but as a quick cheat, you can place them in your tropic lines. They can even border oceans: see Australia and the Kalahari.

WHEN IN DOUBT, LOOK AT SIMILAR AREAS ON A REAL WORLD VEGETATION/CLIMATE MAP. THIS IS WHY DRAWING THE EQUATOR AND THE TROPICS IS SO IMPORTANT AND SHOULD BE YOUR FIRST STEP ALWAYS.

Now you already have a quick and dirty vegetation map, you're halfway there! Don't worry if there are some doubtful areas, real world geography can be weird.

Now for the REAL fun stuff (if you aren't having fun already, I sure am): making civilizations!

You have to decide center of origins for your domesticated crops and animals. Basically, every early civilization had its own "package" of staple crops and animals that are still used today.

With this, you can decide:

the primary civilizations of your world

roughly how different animals and vegetation are distributed, if you want an Earth-like world (for an quicker method, you can apply the biogeographical realms to your own continents as you wish)

A quick cheat sheet of centers of origin, what they have, and where you can place them:

(this is just a quick thing, do read the article it's so much better)

Middle Eastern: wheat, barley, cows, sheep, goats. Place them in a dry area with lots of rivers (the Fertile Crescent!)

East Asia: rice, soybean, oranges, pigs, horses. Place it in a rainy temperate area bordering the tropics.

Mesoamerica: Corn, beans, pumpkin, chilli, tomato. Place it in a dry area near the tropics.

Andes: Potato, quinoa, llamas. Place it in a mountain range.

Tropical South America: manioc, peanuts, pineapple. In the tropics.

Tropical Asia: Rice, banana, sugar cane, beans. In the tropics, again.

or, just straight up use this fucking map, it's so much better:

You can mix and match the crops, animals, and such as you wish, and you should definitively read the wiki page on center of origins and see some other less known crops.

If you have non-human civilizations, of course they'll have different packages. Carnivore or subterranean civilizations might be very different. But at this point, your imagination should be flying already and I don't have to hold your hand here.

Now, you have a rough map of your world at the dawn of agriculture! Congratulations! Depending on the historical period you're setting your world, you can start to draw countries and civilizations. This is where it gets complicated again. I might have to make a part two... But just with this, you already have a new world to use as you wish.

I'll make a worked example later to show you how easy it is if you don't believe me.

[hetaologist]

World Meeting (pt. 1)

England: *Enters the meeting room* Right, I want to address a particular Tweet as today’s meeting topic…

*All Nations stop what they’re doing to look at England*

England: Just last week, I read a Tweet from a *specific* individual, talking shit about my food.

*All Nations groan, America snickers to himself*

England: *Narrows eyes at America*, I’ll have you know, my ‘Pie and Mash’ is a good, hardy meal and a British classic!

America: *Stands from his desk with a cheeky grin* Come on dude, don’t tell me you actually look forward to eating dry ass meat pies covered in nuclear green gravy and a side of wall paste~. *He laughs mischievously*

England: WHY YOU CHEEKY BAST-

France: *Clears his throat* Mon amie~, I’m forced to agree with America…unfortunately.”

England: *Snaps his head towards France* WHAT!? Says you, you snail sucker! Your food is overrated and overly complicated to make.

France: *Clutches pearls* Sacré bleu, you heathen! At least my food is desired for and doesn't make people fat, no~?!

*America and England both glare at France*

America: Excuse me bro...?

*Germany stands up and places hands on table*

Germany: Now's not the time to talk about frivolous topics as such. The three of you, sit down und shut up!

America: Hmph, says you. You think it's perfectly okay to eat boiled sausages with boiled potatoes and noodles with no seasonings.

*Germany gasps and gets taken a back*

Germany: DON'T TALK SCHEISSE ABOUT MY FOOD, YOU LARD COVERED ARSCHLOCH!

France: And no, covering everything in mustard or paprika doesn't count~.

*Germany is fuming like a hot baked potato*

England: Hehe~. Now you know how I feel in this situation, you bland Kraut!

America: HAHA! And your beer tastes terrible~.

*Everyone deadass looks at America*

America: What?

Russia: That's some bold words coming from you, Америка~. Germany's beer is pretty good, your beer tastes like man pissed into bottle before closing it.

America: HEY! At least my food is well seasoned and diverse...

China: Yeah right, your shit is just our stuff but with too much sugar and salt.

*All Nations nod their head in agreement*

America: No it isn't! I just like lots of flavor....

*England looks over at America's Stanley cup on his desk*

England: I bet that coffee cup is filled to the BRIM with pure sugar and syrups, you fat ass.

America: Nah dude, it's filled with my *:･ﾟ✧special sauce*:･ﾟ✧.

*America opens up his giant cup filled with sauce*

America: It's a combination of ranch, hot sauce, chicken tender sauce, tangy BBQ sauce, ketchup, mustard, mayo, bacon bits, chipotle, sour cream, sweet n' sour and chili sauce~.

*Everyone looks in horror at America's concoction*

England: What in the ACTUAL FUCK AMERICA ?! Why do you have a huge ass cup of JUST SAUCE?!

America: To quench my thirst, of course!

*Everyone's jaw drops in disgust, some start to gag*

Russia: I should have bombed you when I had chance...

America: Nah, I'm just playing! It's for my chicken tenders.

*America pulls out a box of fast food chicken tenders out of coat pocket*

Germany: WHY DO YOU HAVE THAT WITH YOU?!

America: It's my snackies :3c , this is the sauce I use for everything! Like tacos, burgers, pizza...

*North Italy faint after hearing 'pizza'. South Italy gasps and tends to his brother.*

South Italy: You sick fuck, you always fuck up our beloved pizza and pasta!

America: Wha- no I don't!

South Italy: You are the bastard that put pineapple on pizza and fucked it all-a up!

America: Actually, that's Canada's invention...

South Italy: WHAT?!

*Everyone looks at Canada*

Canada: ...damn it. It's really not that bad, honestly.

South Italy: You're just as bad as your brother!

Canada: Fair...

*America gets on the desk and stands on it*

America: How about we once and for all decide who has the best food in the world and that person can talk all the shit they want about other countries food!

*All Nations agrees to the motion, except for Germany*

Germany: Gott in Himmel... *facepalms*

(to be continued...)

[howtodrawyourdragon]

Honestly interesting that Cressida chose to add in that page of Hiccup imagining what a potato would look like because kids wouldn't know that potatoes originally originated from South America. (to my knowledge)

Just another little thing that I love about this book.

[kindredqilin]

The thing that fucks me up most about mdzs is Nie Huaisang’s fucking canary. I may be a bird nerd but a CANARY????? A domestic bird that was created from a wild species on the canary islands????? That he supposably found in the wild!?

I need someone more familiar with the og chinese to tell me if the book actually says canary, i beg of you.

AND THEN the untamed later made it 100% worse bc that is a RED FACTOR CANARY!? Which only exist as a result of hybridizing domestic canaries and RED SISKINS, which are native to SOUTH AMERICA!!!!!!!

I consider the potatoes that are also present in the setting to be a more neutral addition because sure, if a xianxia explorer went to the americas they could bring back some plants and animals for cultivated use. But a WILD RED FACTOR CANARY IN THE WOODS!?!?!?!?!?!?!?? That is literally like if he was wandering around and found a purebred chihuahua, man. Why is it here? How is it alive?? Are there more??? What the fuck????

[mariacallous]

Back in the 1980s, when polenta was the hot new item on restaurant menus, I was eager to try it. I knew it was a traditional Italian dish, but it was foreign to everyone else, including me. I bought a package of cornmeal, began the preparation, and when it was done I realized I had been eating it all my life. It was the same dish Jonathan Harker ate before his encounter with Count Dracula in Bram Stoker’s novel, known in the American South as “cornmeal mush” and “pap” in South Africa. But I knew it as mamaliga, which had been a staple in my grandma’s Romanian kitchen. 

Because mamaliga was such an essential in our lives, I didn’t realize that most of my Jewish friends had never heard of it. The hallways in the buildings we lived in all had the same familiar scents of Ashkenazi staples we all knew — chicken soup, challah, braising briskets, and roasting chickens. Shared values and menus.

Except when it came to mamaliga, which I learned was limited to those of us whose ancestors were from Romania. 

While our family was dining on cornmeal mush, everyone else was eating kasha varnishkes, a dish I ate regularly only after tasting it at my future mother-in-law’s house (it was love at first bite).

It all has to do with geography, I think. Polenta/mamaliga is based on cornmeal, which had been unknown anywhere except the Americas, where corn is indigenous. Christopher Columbus and other Spanish and Portuguese explorers brought corn to western Europe and Africa, where it flourished. Cornmeal became a staple.

Turkish traders noticed corn grain in the markets of Africa and brought some “granoturco” back to Southeast Europe, including the region we now know as Romania, which then belonged to the Ottoman Empire. In 1692, a Romanian nobleman tried some, thought it worthy, and introduced it to Romania. It became the country’s national dish. 

A few years ago I visited “the old country,” including the city of Iasi, where my grandparents were born, and laid stones on the graves of my great-grandparents who are buried in the one remaining Jewish cemetery (when my grandparents lived there, the city was about one-third Jewish). 

Naturally we sampled mamaliga, which is ever-present on every restaurant menu. It’s usually served as a side dish, much like any starch, but in my childhood, my grandma, and later on my mother, served mamaliga in a multitude of ways, including our favorite, mamaliga cu branza si smetana – mamaliga with cheese and sour cream, served for lunch or as a side dish at dairy dinners. 

In my own kitchen, I’ve learned that mamaliga is incredibly versatile. I’ve used it as a substitute for potatoes, noodles, and rice (complete with butter, sauce, or gravy). I’ve served it as a full meal, as a topping for brisket or chicken pot pie filling, with mushroom ragout, and with caramelized onions and cheese. I’ve even mixed it with molasses and cream to make a quick Indian pudding. 

The leftovers are spectacular, too. In fact, in Romanian households they make extra mamaliga to pour into a loaf pan, let it firm up, and then cut slices to fry to crispy goodness. I’ve served fried slices of “Romanian toast” for breakfast, topped them with gravy or cheese for lunch, or with a fried egg for dinner.

It’s no wonder that the Romanians called dried ground corn mamaliga, a word that translates to “food of gold.” It’s a tribute not merely to the grain’s beautiful yellow color, but to its adaptability. Whatever you call it, this dish is an enduring winner and, as far as I am concerned, another treasure of the Ashkenazi kitchen.