#and not even because of how spicy it is or whatever its the huge chunks of raw fish + the insane rock hard porotos + raw onion

[prontaentrega]

i dont have sensory issues with food like in general but ceviche is probably the most sensorially awful food in the world

[abiteofnat]

If you’re reading this, I’m coming back to Chicago, beetch

The non-existent rumors are true. After a brief 10-month exit from the city to soak up the fresh air and social distance-friendly suburbs, I am now returning to Chicago as a single, slightly more anxious version of myself. While I’m still trying to kick some of the anxiety and OCD that COVID-19 pushed from “lifelong tagalongs” to “all-controlling demons”, I feel 97% ready to be back where I feel most myself, and cannot wait to welcome that change. While that 3% still makes me a little uncomfy and hesitant, I’m a believer in pushing your boundaries to allow yourself to grow, and also, I am really sick of suburbs food. 

Ha! I joke. I wouldn’t move downtown simply for access to more diverse & higher quality food... or would I? All I know is while there are plenty of gems in the North Shore, I’ve eaten take out from all of them ten times over, and I did not foster my dislike of cooking out of nowhere. My parents do not enjoy cooking, my sister pretends to enjoy cooking, and I will cook if it is 5 ingredients or less. My latest speciality is a toasted bagel with butter, hummus, and EBTB seasoning. Voila. So when it comes to dinner, we are living off of a carousel of suburban favorites, and are losing steam as we are still not comfortable with dining inside (or dining inside in the city, where the fun food is). 

All of this to say, it’s exciting to imagine what life is going to be like in a few short weeks. While I’m still extra precautionary, I can’t wait to have my own space downtown, where I can enjoy coffee on my little balcony (!!!) and dream of the days friends can come squeeze into my studio safely while I lay out an entire table of sharable spreads and snacks from Ema (Charred Eggplant Spread is the best one, don’t fight me). 

So you may ask, how did you come to this decision to move to the heart of downtown out of seemingly nowhere, you hermit? 

It starts with my mom and I having a brief, simultaneous breakdown and coming to the conclusion that we would both feel comfortable doing a staycation downtown, as long as we wore masks, sanitized always, and braved the cold to eat outside. This was big for me! As a person with real OCD, not cute TV show “I have to keep my pens straight” OCD, this would be the most exposure I’d had to a lot of uncontrollable variables since the pandemic started. If you’re thinking, “you get to spend a weekend downtown in a hotel with your mom, shut up”, know that I hear you. I am unbelievably grateful that I’ve gotten this time with my parents, and that we can do a staycation. However, having anxiety comes at a cost, and that cost is blowing everything way the fuck out of proportion instead of being able to rationalize it sometimes. Let’s! Normalize! Having! This! Discussion!

So, we went downtown in early March for a two-night stay, and oh my goodness. The realization that we got to be in a different space, and do different things, and eat different food for a weekend made it feel like a legit vacation, and not like we drove 30 minutes to get there. The view from our room was of Michigan Ave, and hearing the traffic and seeing the people out and about instantly made me feel a sense of peace I wasn’t expecting. I’ve lived downtown for 6 years, but it always shocks me how much the city feels like an extension of me once I’m in it after being away. My mom and I went out for a walk (gentle yet forceful reminder to please wear a mask), then decided to grab dinner while we were out. The plan was to bring it back to the room, but there was a warm spell, and there just happened to be a table for two at Topolobampo on Clark, and suddenly we were sitting on the patio under the lights eating masa quesadillas dipped in a spicy salsa verde. It just happened!!! 

Before getting downtown, I was tentatively looking at apartments for the spring. I was looking at Lincoln Park, Old Town, maybe Lakeview, and came across a listing in the Gold Cost that caught my eye. That one was swiped out from under me within days, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the area. Then I discovered another unit that was available, and couldn’t shake it from my mind. Over mushroom tacos I discussed it with my mom, and we decided to go see it. Totally not what I had been planning for in terms of location, but why not? 

Once we polished off breakfast the next morning (Eggs Benedict with fried eggs, extra hollandaise) we headed out to see the place. Let me say I have never seen my mom fall in love with a single apartment I’ve lived in, and she was ALL. FOR. IT. Unreal reaction on her part. Once I saw the west-facing views and the incredible natural lighting, I was 100% in as well.

We spent the rest of the weekend wandering the downtown area, enjoying another dinner outside at The Gwen and my mom’s first visit to the Starbucks Reserve Roastery, which was 95% more empty than I’ve ever seen it given we went in a pandemic at 8:30PM. Shit on Starbucks all you want, but that Roastery is an incredible use of space (in non-pandemic times) and the coffee & Princi pastries are really, really good. 

When we got back home feeling refreshed and like we had actually gone on a vacation, I jumped into apartment shark mode real fast and signed as many documents as the very kind realtor could send over. One week later, whabaam, I was a Gold Coast girl. Ahem, *lady*. What better way to celebrate than going to Somerset and having the Rapini & Roasted Garlic Flatbread and Wild Mushroom Risotto? No clue. As I sat outside, yet again with my mom, I felt a wave of excitement come over me and realized, this is it. This is the sign and feeling I’ve been waiting for, telling me it’s time to move back to the city and start over. The creamy, herbacious risotto also helped solidify that. 

SO. After all of that, the news is I’m moving, and you’re probably wondering why I shared all of this on a blog about food. I meant for this post to be about everywhere I ate during my staycation, but realized quickly we ate at some very basic places - DELICIOUS, but still basic. Oops. Below are all the dishes I had and a rundown of the flavors, textures, etc., however don’t expect to find any new, revolutionary restaurants. Sorry! 

1. Topolobampo 

This Rick Bayless restaurant has been around forever, and unfortunately, you can tell by the interior. We’ve eaten here as a family a couple of times before, but never had a noteworthy experience. I can confirm that in a pinch, the patio covered in fun lights & mini piñatas, and the sharable, filling bites will do just fine. This was my first time going to a Mexican restaurant as a non-alcohol drinker, and instead of my typical mezcal margarita, I opted for a Fresh Limeaide which was refreshing and flavorful. We split the Guacamole and Chips, which if you’ve ever stopped at the Frontera in O’Hare, you know is good as fuck. It’s smooth, creamy, tangy, and topped with chopped onions and cilantro for a little crunch. It’s not the most life-changing, but it is consistently satisfying. Next, we got the Mushroom Tacos and Masa Quesadillas. The Masa Quesadillas were a fun surprise, as instead of a tortilla, the masa is what makes up the outside. They are almost like empanadas and stuffed with gooey, melty cheese, and come with a spicy salsa verde on the side. I would come back for these alone - they’re rich yet light, warm, and comforting, all the things you would want when dining outside when it’s still a little chilly. The Mushroom Tacos were quite frankly unreal, because whatever they seasoned the mushroom slices with and grilled them on made them taste unlike any mushroom I’ve had before. There was definitely some meat crossover on the grill, so don’t order those if you’re vegan, or ask them to prepare the mushroom separately. I however was LOSING MY MIND. Over mushrooms. The joys of being vegetarian! 

2. The Gwen

On a happening Saturday night in Chicago, Upstairs at The Gwen is sure to be a packed scene. Located in River North, this hotel bar/restaurant offers a somehow cozy rooftop filled with loungey couches, fire pits, and ambient lighting, even though you’re surrounded by apartments and skyscrapers and there is nothing “cozy” about River North. Every table was filled, yet since you’re outside and it’s fairy spread apart, it still felt safe. I got my new classic, a Lemonade, and we got the Burrata to start. With sourdough, roasted beets, squash, pomegranate, pistachio, & arugula, this plate was nothing short of mouth-watering. It has textures! It has flavors! It has pomegranate seeds, the TikTok must have of the moment! The bread was 10/10, the burrata was 8/10, and all of the toppings made for a very find bite of salad on their own. For my main I got the Lobster Fettucine, a beautiful bowl of “charcoal fettuccine with saffron-tomato sauce, lobster, calabrian chili butter, and basil-brioche crumbs” as listed on their website. Take any of those ingredients and it’s going to be delicious, but all of them TOGETHER? INCREDIBLE. The chunks of lobster were huge, absolutely making the dish worth its price tag, and the sauce was flavorful, unique, and unlike any sauce I’ve tasted in the last few years. It’s typical to do a squid ink pasta with seafood and tomato sauce, but the saffron added a new element I very much appreciated. 

3. The Starbucks Roastery 

I KNOW. THIS IS A TOURIST DESTINATION. All I am saying is if there’s no line, go get an iced latte with two packets of sugar in the raw. That’s all. It’s really good after something like, I don’t know, Lobster Fettucine. 

4. The Penninsula 

You cannot go wrong with hitting up The Penninsula for breakfast or brunch, especially if you are staying there and have the option to do room service. Typically we would go to Pierrot Gourmet, the cafe in the ground floor of The Penninsula, however it has been closed temporarily. If there’s one thing to order with your breakfast, it’s the smashed fingerling potatoes. Delish. 

5. Somerset 

Somerset is becoming a quick go-to of mine for an impromptu dinner downtown, given it’s in the heart of Gold Coast and is cute if you’re sitting indoors or outdoors. The food is nothing too innovative, but it is done well, which is the most important part with “cuter” restaurants that may focus on the Instagram appeal over the food sometimes. Each time I’ve gone I’ve gotten the seasonal flatbread and a pasta or risotto, usually something with mushrooms, and it’s always been plate-licking good. To drink, I got -you guessed it- a Lemonade! For dinner I went with the Wild Mushroom Risotto which was everything you could hope for in a risotto, topped with olive oil, herbs, and local parmesan. We split the Rapini & Roasted Garlic Flatbread which was as it sounds, flatbread covered in rapini, garlic, and ricotta, which added a nice crunch and had enough rapini to feel like it was replacing a boring vegetable side dish or salad. The patio vibes were wonderful, the judgemental girls in the greenhouses looked like they were having a good time, and our waiter couldn’t have been sweeter. I will be going back to try the Fontina Arancini, which I just noticed on the menu. FRICK. 

So there you have it, a very long-winded explanation of the last few weeks of my life and where you can find me on a staycation in Chicago. Hopefully once I move back to the city I’ll have endless new spots to try and won’t be basic anymore! 

Until next time, Happy Eating!

-Natalie 

[artemismoon12writes]

Title: The Difference Between Hanging Out and a Date is Flowers

Daltonfic Big Bang; Week 9, Day 3; Julian Larson/? Julian is forced to go to the Valentine’s Day Fair, despite last year’s sparking a whole lot of horror for him. Can’t he just have one good day? 

---

The Valentines Fair was huge this year; so huge they’d teamed up with Dobry Hall and just rented a fairground outside of town. Julian had planned to just stay in his room all day, given what happened last year. Murdoch refused, telling him he couldn’t have any special privileges when everyone else was out helping with the event.

So instead, he was there… and doing nothing to help because fuck his fellow Stuarts. They’d been following him all week, babying him like this was supposed to help him out emotionally or something. He knew he had baggage, but that was his own business. Let him just ignore these dramatic boys and try, in vain, to have a good day.

Between Logan pretending he’d had feelings for him all along, Sebastian reappearing to say ‘le fuck your healing process’, and whatever bullshit Derek hadn’t grown out of; he was planning to just avoid anyone he knew. Maybe he’d find some of the Day students. Wait, no, Riley Paige would get him to help with something. Fuck; maybe he could find one of Royal’s booths and just chill with Merril. It was almost enough to make him give up on boys altogether; shit, girls were so much less dramatic than these assholes he lived with.

He was looking for Merril’s booth (she’d texted him a pile of apple and pear tarts, so surely he could just follow the smell?) when he saw a short girl chasing Dwight Houston and Bancroft’s sister through the tents, yelling something about rocks. They looked frantic, escaping through a hole in a Hanover tent while she slipped on some of the half-frozen grass; still frosty in the February sun. That sucks… he should do something.

“Hey, need help?” He asked, walking up cautiously; she could be a fan after all. “You took quite the dive there.”

“No, I got it.” She sighed, standing up and brushing herself off. Her hands were red, but not skinned despite the fall. “I just suck at walking I guess.”

“I couldn’t help but notice you trying to kill Houston and Bancroft. Anything those two idiots do to annoy you?” Julian asked, genuinely curious. Dwight Houston did a lot of stupid shit; but his first thoughts usually revolved around whatever Derek did to piss off girls, and that didn’t seem like Houston’s style.

She shook her head, “They lost the collection of gems I had on display for our booth for Prima. Now I have nothing to sell, so Royal is going to take the prize for Dobry.”

“And why’d you trust those two with it?” He knew them by reputation alone for getting into trouble; but not much else.

“Because those two happen to be my best friends.” The girl said, sounding like she couldn’t quite believe it herself. She put on a faint smile though, looking up and sticking out her scraped hand. “Sadie Moore, maybe you’ve heard of me.”

“Julian. Shame enough, I haven’t.” He shook her hand. “You’re new aren’t you?”

“Yeah, I transferred up here from Florida for Junior Year; but from the way the girls in Dobry go on, I’ve become some kind of one woman rumour mill.” She shivered. “It’s freaking cold up here. I don’t know how you all deal with it.”

“Don’t ask me. This winter is just as bad to me. I’m from California and everytime it snows here I get whiplash.” Julian smiled as she laughed. It was a nice laugh. “And one-woman rumour mill? What’s with that?”

She rolled her eyes, “Dobry girls see romance everywhere they look; a chunk of them think I’m dating Dwight, the other half won’t shut up about that time I kissed Laura, and the rest of them think I’ve gotten both of them, when like? Fuck you just cause I’m bi doesn’t mean I’m a slut. Jeez, it’s 2012, I just want to enjoy the Valentines Day Fair without all that.”

“You’re bi?” Julian asked, before he could stop himself.

She wrinkled her nose, suspicious. “Yeah. You got a problem with that?”

“No! Just, I don’t meet many people who just say that aloud to people they just met, you know?”

Julian didn’t like being on the back foot with people. Let alone being caught off guard. Sadie kept looking at him until her expression cleared and she judged him not a biphobic asshole- which, wouldn’t that be ironic?

“I guess you’re right. Hey, you want to walk around? I guess I’m off booth duty until someone can find my gems; unless you have your own booth to get to?” She looked over his jacket, “Stuart? I don’t want to get you in trouble.”

Julian laughed, “I was ordered to show up and nothing more than that. And gems? Like? Rubies or something?”

“Semi-precious at most.” She explained, launching into a long diatribe about online ‘healing crystals’ versus her own, far superior, ethically mined quartz.

By the time they rounded Hanover’s Ferris Wheel (the compromise for a less dangerous ride this year), Julian’d caught himself laughing at Sadie’s geology jokes; sharing the time he snuck up to the Hollywood sign; learnt Sadie liked heavy metal; and told the entire story of Clark, Marcie, and him engaging in a spicy noodle challenge back in LA. He hadn’t even realized they’d walked that far; engrossed in conversation.

The air was turning colder, nipping his ears and turning the tip of Sadie’s dark nose red. She coughed, sticking her hands under her arms. “Fuck, this place is shit. How do people live up here?”

“You were here for December right? You saw it snow, and that didn’t scare you away?” He asked.

“Oh no, snow is pretty!” She insisted, “I’ve gone skiing with my parents in Whistler, that’s fun! But this? Where it’s just grey and gross and cold? Uh, it’s so stupid.”

“Well you not wearing gloves, so maybe that’s why?” Julian pointed out.

She rolled her eyes. “Logic. Facts. Maybe I don’t like gloves?”

“You forgot them didn’t you?”

She flushed. “I lent them to Laura actually, she forgot her own back at Prima.”

Julian looked down at her biting the inside of his lip considering. Ah fuck it. He pulled off one of his own gloves and handed it to her. “Here, put your other hand in your pocket. It should be fine.”

Her eyes widened. “You sure?”

“Yeah, whatever.” He looked over at the booths; they were squarely in Hanover territory. Huh. How long had they been walking? He should say hi to Abbot. But he was probably busy running things over here.

“Thanks.” Sadie said, her left hand stretching experimentally with a too-large glove and the right nudging his elbow. “That was pretty nice of you Mr. Larson.”

He snorted. “I was wondering when you’d realize.”

“I don’t watch many dramas. So, it took a bit to realize you were that movie star who goes here.” Sadie said, “Sorry I can’t say I’m a fan of you stuff.”

She looked genuinely apologetic; he shook his head far too quickly. “No, no, that’s… that’s a good thing.”

Julian could count on one hand the amount of people he’d known who were fans first, who he’d genuinely come to like as people. It was nice to talk about work and that was it; it was just work. Half the reason he’d decided to come back to Dalton was to have just a slice of that normal experience. And if he was bombarded by fans? Well, how normal was that?

“Oh, okay.” She said, confused by the quick refusal. “I guess, you want to keep walking?”

“Yeah. Tell me more about skiing, I’ve never gone all the way up to Whistler. Are you good at it?”

It continued like that; making the rounds of the booths, pocketed hands bumping against each other as they avoided the clusters of people pushing their way forward. Every so often Sadie would spy another Dobry girl and lament the loss of her inventory for her booth; but thankfully, Julian was so out of context next to her, there wasn’t an awkward encounter. It was weird, every second Dobry girl they ran into seemed to ask about Bancroft or Houston, expressing surprise they weren’t with her.

“I guess you were right about the Dobry rumour mill. It’s going full force this year.” Julian joked.

Sadie rolled her eyes. “It’s annoying, but hey, considering they’re off hiding together the rumours will hopefully leave me out of it after today.”

“You’re not worried they’ll start to connect you and me then?” Julian asked, the notion suddenly appearing in his own head.

“Like half of them even realized who you were. You’re not going around advertising you’re the famous Julian Larson; and standing next to Dobry’s current resident witch doesn’t help put two and two together.” She pointed out.

“I just haven’t turned on the charm.” Julian joked; it was an old Hollywood myth, but it had some truth to it about hiding in plain sight. He could stride forward, and let everyone know who he was, but it was nice to not have to chase off a horde of teenaged girls (and boys) this year. God knows last year was a shitstorm for that kind of thing.

“Julian!”

“I guess you turned it on.” Sadie smiled, before turning to see Derek coming towards the two of them. She frowned. “Oh, its that guy.”

“You know Derek?” Julian asked before Derek cut him off.

“I’ve been looking for you everywhere! You haven’t been answering your phone. We needed you to help with the Lunch Tent.” Derek was annoyed. That much was obvious.

“I’ve had my phone on silent. Murdoch told me to show up, and that’s all I’m doing. I don’t care if Stuart loses again this year; I just want to have a Me Day.”

Derek’s eyes flicked over to Sadie, “Me Day huh?”

“Come off it, not everyone is a Don Juan wannabe like you.” Sadie’s gloved hand went to her hip, daring him to say anything further.

Derek blinked, alright then. He looked back to Julian, reaching out to pull him away. “Come on, I’m not doing Logan’s prefect duties alone.”

“Why not just let Logan do them?” Julian countered, stepping backwards.

Derek gave him a look. “You know it’s a two-person job, if not a three person job trying to control these freshman on any project.”

“Sounds like not my problem.” Julian shrugged. “Ask Murdoch for help, I’m out of here.”

“Julian!”

“He said no.” Sadie said firmly before Julian reached out and tugged her hand, motioning towards the gap in the booths. His almost laugh met her mischievous eyes.

Before Derek even knew what was going on, Sadie and Julian had taken a page out of her own pursuit that morning and ducked between the booths, darting down and around staves and tent poles to lose him. Maybe they ran for longer than necessary, maybe that was half the fun. They reached the Windsors row, gasping for breath and laughing.

“Do you think he tripped and fell?” Sadie asked, brushing her curly, brown hair out of her face.

“No, he’s more coordinated than that.” Julian said.

Sadie shrieking with laughter and shoving him, “You’re so rude!”

“You’re the one who faceplanted!”

“By accident!”

“It was funny.” Julian pointed out, avoiding Sadie’s playful shove and instead catching her hands and looking down at her like he was lecturing her. “These are dangerous weapons, I ought to report you for use of deadly force. Except I won’t, because you’re tiny.”

“Short jokes? Really?” Her grin betrayed that she found it just as funny. “Well, at least I don’t hit my head on doorframes.”

“You laugh, but I always have to duck getting into limos.”

“Oh that is the most Hollywood thing you have said yet.”

“I’ve babysat Angelina’s kids.”

“Angelina Jolie?”

“I can go on.”

“Oh my god, you’re a dick.” Sadie laughed, “I’d hex you, but I don’t think it would stick.”

“So they’ve been saying about me, since the day I was born.” Julian said, dramatically put upon. “I endure such slings and volleys of-”

“If you start quoting Shakespeare, I will lose it.”

“Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage-” Julian grinned, ignoring Sadie’s protests to get him to quiet.

“I suck at English, come on!”

“And then is heard no more: it is a tale, told by an idiot,” Julian continued.

“Yeah! You’re the idiot!” She tried to interrupt.

“Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

“Yeah, my fury. Goddamn you actors.” She said, looking up with pink cheeks to stick her tongue out at him. “If I could just recall lines like that, I’d never have to use a spell book again, I’d just memorize them all.”

“It’s a gift. What can I say? Not everyone is as good as me.” Julian teased to Sadie’s exasperated smile.

They paused, realizing Julian was still holding her hands and sprang apart; not realizing how close they were. Julian felt his own face flush but hid it well enough. Now wasn’t the time, nor the day, to really get close to someone; even if she was quite pretty, he had to admit to himself.

“Uh, so back there you seemed to know Derek. Even though it took you a bit to realize who I was?” He tried.

She coughed, waving a hand carelessly. “Yeah, well everyone in Prima got to witness what can only be described as the most pathetic display of pining in the history of the world. Casey’s already told everyone to stay away from him because she said he’s a cheater; but then he showed up one day before Winter Break with this giant apology bouquet, and get this, it’s full of white lilies- which I didn’t know she was allergic to, but if you really feel that way about her, maybe? I don’t know? Know her allergies? But also, those are funeral flowers. As far as apologies go, it’s pretty shit.”

“You’re friends with Casey?” Surprise tinged Julian’s voice.

“Not friends per say, but she’s part of the welcoming committee. She’s pretty cool.” Sadie clarified. “How are you friends with a guy like that?”

Julian shrugged. “Derek’s pretty cool. He’s a really good friend when you get down to it, but yeah he is kind of shit with girls. I guess that’s what happens when your best friend since childhood is a gay guy. It’s not like he’s really been comparing notes. Logan and him aren’t that bad once you get to know them.”

“Well, I guess I have pretty biased sources.” Sadie said, waving around at the Windsor tents. “If my friend Morgan’s cousin wasn’t one of yours, I think I’d probably just see a Stuart badge and kick you guys on sight.”

“So violent Miss Moore.” Julian smiled. “We are kind of dicks though, so fair enough.”

“You’re not half bad though Mr. Larson.” She teased back. “You’re fun enough to hang out with.”

“I’m an exception to every rule I will assure you.”

“Don’t start quoting shit again. I will end you.”

“Only if you can reach that high.”  

“Oh you!”

“Hi Sadie! Oh, and Julian? I didn’t know you two knew each other.” Reed Van Kamp said from behind the table of the nearest booth. “You two enjoying the fair?”

The pair smiled; Reed was always a welcome sight, no matter who you were.

“Yeah, it’s been pretty fun. We’ve just been walking around. I thought you’d be out with Shane?” Sadie asked, coming under the tent top to talk more easily. “He mentioned something about Valentines plans.”

Reed looked down bashfully, “Well, last Windsor party got us all banned from Warbler activities; Blaine thought it’d be good if I was sitting down for all of the Fair. So, we’re doing our date on the weekend instead.”

“Aww, that’s cute. Then you won’t have to deal with Valentines Day crowding.” Sadie pointed out. “Really its working out in your favour.”

“I guess.” Reed said, then looked over at Julian. “I’m surprised to see you here. I thought I heard you were staying in all day.”

“What Murdoch wants; Murdoch gets.” Julian shrugged.

Reed smiled. “It’s good to see you anyways; at least someone gets to have a date today.”

“Oh we’re not-”

Reed flushed, “Oh heck, I’m sorry! I just assumed. That was bad of me. Here, have some cookies on me.”

“You don’t have to.” Sadie said even as Julian took what was offered.

He nudged her. “They’re good, take some. Wait, these are some of Kurt’s right?”

“Yeah, it took David and Wes all day to clean up the aftermath. He was a man on a mission!” Reed said, pushing a little ribbon-wrapped packet at each of them; then pushing them out as he cut himself on the edge of the plastic and had to call for a band-aid.

Julian and Sadie wandered off, happily snacking on their free cookies. They really were quite good, even if Sadie said there was nothing magical about them.

“You know, that’s the second person to assume we’re on a date.” Julian pointed out.

“And what of it?” Sadie asked.

“Well, what makes a date not a date?” Julian crunched down on another cookie. “You have two people sharing food and talking, and what makes it different between just hanging out and a date per say?”

“I think someone needs to ask and the other needs to accept. But yeah, its pretty arbitrary.” Sadie nodded. “Most people hold hands or some shit, or kiss. You saying you want this to be a date?”

“I’m just saying it could be an option.” Julian said, mulling the idea over in his mind. It would be nice to be on a normal date; not one where he had to sneak around with a guy and pretend they were just friends, or hide from paparazzi with a girl because his agent wanted maximum exposure for their upcoming film together. “It doesn’t need to be a thing. But I’ve liked talking to you. We should do this again, whatever you want it to be.”

She pursed her lips. “Hmm. I accept. You need to get me flowers though.”

“A date it is.” Julian confirmed, laughing at how easy that was. He offered his ungloved hand; hers slipping into it easily, with a crinkle at the corner of her eyes.

“So, flowers? What kind do you like?”

“Not lilies.” Sadie joked.  

“Belladonna maybe? What do witches like?”

“Well this witch likes roses.”

Julian froze, “Uh maybe something else?”

He face paled; she’d probably heard from Dwight and Laura. “Oh shit! I’m sorry! Look don’t worry about it.”

“No, no, it’s just, they’re not-”

“Marigolds then.” She said, hurried.

“I can work with that.” Julian recovered, the awkwardness still lingering. “You shall be showered in marigolds. You’ll be covered in pollen before the day is out.”

“Now that’s a picture.” Sadie said, letting him lead her towards the nearest flower booth and moving her head so he could tuck a marigold into her curls. “Aww, that’s so cute.” Julian agreed.

The rest of the day was much of the same. It was like they’d said; there wasn’t really much of a difference between hanging out and a date beyond the declaration of intent. It was fun though. He liked being able to wander around and feel like, yeah, this was a date. It was something he could say aloud. And she was nice. Maybe it wouldn’t go anywhere, but as far as dates went he’d had far worse ones. It was certainty better than dealing with all the romantic drama an all-boys school seemed to kick up.

By the time everyone started packing up, they were sitting on a bench near the entrance and exit gates, sharing a basket of chili fries. Sadie was telling him about her last boating adventure around the Florida Keys, and Julian’d been wistfully imagining a surf contest between the two of them if she ever ended up on the West Coast.

The Prima and Royal prefects were gathering their girls near the gate. Julian looked over, “Do you need to get going?”

“Probably. I wish I had been able to drive here on my own, but the roads are too icy for my bike.”

“Why the hell would you bike all the way here? The fairgrounds are like, ten miles from Dobry.”  

“No, motorbike. I ride sometimes with some other students, but I can’t do shit in the winters up here.”

“You have a motorbike?” Julian asked, “You realize that makes you like, ten points hotter.”

She blushed. “You’re an idiot. But yeah, I guess it does. Maybe I’ll take you out sometime when the weather gets warmer.”

“It’s another date I guess,” Julian said, crumpling up the paper from the finished fries. “Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around though? The girl clinging to the cool guy on the motorbike?”

“Well, it’s either you or Allison, and she’s still in her baby gay phase so I don’t want to mess with that.” Sadie stood, before bending down to kiss the corner of Julian’s mouth. She flushed. “I’ll see you around.”

Julian looked after her, a little shocked but in a good way. “Yeah, I’ll do that.”

She waved as she went to join the other Dobry girls at the buses. Maybe he’d have to join the rest of his own House at some point; but either way… it had been a good day. Yeah.

[realityhelixcreates]

Lasabrjotr Chapter 4: The Universe; Behind the Scenes

Chapters: 4/? Fandom: Thor (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe Rating: Teen And Up Warnings: Mentions of Past Death Relationships: Loki x Reader Characters: Loki (Marvel), Thor (Marvel), OFC Additional Tags: Thanos Is A Tool, Influence is Not the Same as Control, God I Want That Bathtub Summary:  Reader learns what she remembers, but not why.

“What the hel was that?” Loki demanded. “She was fine one minute, and then she falls apart over a mere face full of dust? Who does that?”

“I can think of a reason.” Thor said softly.

“Brother?” Thor was rarely introspective, and Loki didn’t quite know what to make of it.

“She’s had a hard day. She will need rest, but I have some questions first. “

“I’m sure we all have.” Loki grouched. “Seems like that’s all we have.”

                                                                                             *****

The bath was nice, though the toiletries all smelled of him. You were surprised by how much mud had gotten in your hair. You weren’t made for such bizarre happenings: magic, and kidnapping gods, and ancient civilizations being built anew. Nothing about today seemed quite real. Even time was wrong. A few hours ago you were clocking in for the morning shift at work. Now the sun hung low in the sky. Evening was coming. You’d lost an entire day. You supposed that made its own kind of sense, since technically, aliens were involved.

Where were you now? This couldn’t be your country. Yes, the U.S. was pretty big, big enough to cover several time zones, but you didn’t think there was any part of the continental United States that was night while another part was morning. You had to be all the way across an ocean, or somewhere similarly as far. What a pity. You would have liked to see that. Flying over an ocean must be beautiful.

The towels were nice, much nicer than you were used to. Everything was probably going to be higher quality than you were used to, since royalty was involved.

How were you supposed to talk to them? There was no real royalty in your country; you didn’t know the etiquette. How did one address a prince? A king? A god?

Someone had taken your clothes while you bathed. Of course you couldn’t put them back on while they were still so filthy, but it made you feel vulnerable all the same. The tunic you had been provided in their place did not fit correctly at all; it was too loose in the shoulder, too long in the arms, and too tight in the hips. This was obviously a man’s garment, olive green and incredibly soft. You didn’t want to think about it. At least the provided slippers fit correctly. Your legs remained mostly bare, but you didn’t think they were all that much to look at anyway. The tunic was made for someone taller than you, so it covered enough.

This little set of rooms was odd to you. Like a whole house inside of another building. Here a bath, there a library, there and there a bedroom. And when you tried to leave back out into what you thought was the main corridor, there was a young man in armor there to stop you. He was polite, but he spoke a language you didn’t know.

“I’m sorry.” You told him. “I don’t understand.” He led you back into the library and pointed at a chair. “Oh, I get it. Sit down and wait, huh? I can do that.”

He waited until you had gotten yourself seated before going back to his post. He must have had orders not to let you leave. Annoying, but fair; they wouldn���t want you running off, and after that small panic attack earlier, it might not be safe for you to wander around without a guide.

You started browsing through the books, but most of them were in unfamiliar languages. When Loki came to collect you, you were going through illustrations and diagrams that you couldn’t read, but found interesting nevertheless. You looked up from a beautiful drawing of a huge tree with little worlds hanging it its branches, and he was just there.

“Uh…How long-“ You began.

“You make so many little noises when you read. Do you fear silence, or are you simply that lacking in self-awareness?”

“It’s just a habit.” You said defensively. “No one’s ever complained before.”

“You live completely alone. Who is there to complain? You will have to break that habit while you are within these walls. We cannot have incessant noise disturbing our guards, or my contemplations.”

You turned back to the illustrations, cheeks burning slightly. So it was just a little habit! It wasn’t that big a deal.

“You say it like we’ve gotta be joined at the hip all the time, but that’s obviously not the case, because I just had a nice bath without you. So unless you were waiting just outside the door-which would be creepy-then I’m sure my ‘incessant noises’ won’t be as big a problem as you’re making them out to be. “

You both let the moments pass in increasingly uncomfortable silence.

“I was harsh with you.” It was a statement, not an apology, but also probably the closest you were ever going to get.

“You were. I was…rude.” You conceded. You really must have crossed a line when you called him a monster. You had let your temper and fear run off with you.

“You were.” He agreed. “You were frightened. It’s only natural. And I was…frustrated. But that time is passed, and now the time has come for greater things.” He beckoned for you to follow him, and you did, curiosity growing.

Where could you possibly be going now? Some kind of magical laboratory, to run tests on your rune? A spiritual center, to meditate on this magical connection that sapped or restored energy based on how close the two of you were? A medical area, where they might operate on your hand to learn more about it?

“Where are we going?” You asked softly.

“Dinner.” He said airily, and you snorted. Greater things, huh? Still, something as mundane as dinner sounded amazing right now. You’d technically gone the whole day without eating. Something mundane sounded very nice right about now. You might not get that again for some time.

He looked oddly normal as well, which struck you as strange. It somehow never occurred to you that he didn’t look the same all the time. But all you’d ever had for reference was video footage of the battle. He wore armor to intimidate, horns to add height. Not that he needed it. The top of your head barely reached his shoulders. You would have never expected someone like him to even have casual clothes, if all those pin-tucks and diagonal shapes counted as casual. You tried to ignore the similar shapes on the ill fitted tunic you currently wore.

It was hard to believe how much different he looked without that helmet. How much the sharpness of his face was softened by letting his hair fall lose around his shoulders.

“Like something you see?” He asked. “You’re staring, you know.”

“Sorry.” You said, embarrassment creeping in. “It’s just that you look…”

He turned to watch you, the corners of his mouth lifting, ever so slightly. “Yes?”

“You look like a man.”

He paused, the tiny smile fleeing. “As opposed to a monster?” Then he quickened his pace, and you struggled to keep up.

“That’s not what I-“

“Oh don’t worry.” He cut you off. “After all, I’ve never shown this world anything different.”

“Lo-“ You started, then held your tongue. No, you couldn’t call him by name. You weren’t friends. Whatever reasons he might have had, he was the architect of a major disruption in your life. There was no way you had a job anymore, and if you ever got home, you probably wouldn’t have your apartment either. Your houseplants were going to die. Your friends and father, and coworkers had no idea you were still alive. And all of this was quite literally by his hand.

How were you supposed to address him?

“Your…Highness?” You tried, and he made an affirming noise. “Can you tell me where we are?”

“Yes.” He said, and nothing else. It took you a moment to realize he was doing that obnoxious thing some teachers do in order to amend their students’ grammar.  How annoying.

“Please tell me where we are, your highness.” You said in a voice pitched higher than normal. Years of working in retail with difficult customers gave your demeanor a false show of being chipper. He noticed instantly, giving you a strange look.

“Within the kingdom of Asgard, but you would know this island as Iceland.”

“Iceland? How did-how am I-I…I’ve never been to Iceland.” You spluttered lamely. You had never been so far from home in your life. You’d never really wanted to. You were well and truly trapped, weren’t you? If you found that you really needed to leave, there really was nowhere for you to run. Even if you could make it out of the unbuilt city, you didn’t know where any other towns were. You wouldn’t be able to speak to any people you might find.  They would know you shouldn’t be there, see that you had no passport, no identification. They’d haul you right to jail. That was all that awaited you outside the city. Death in a foreign landscape, or prison.

“Oh god, I’m an illegal immigrant.” You murmured.

“What are you talking about?” He led you into a large room with a huge table in the center, and then right past that table, and into a much smaller room, with a much smaller table, set with three dinners, and furnished with the king of Asgard.

“Yes.” He asked. “What are we talking about?”

“I don’t have a passport! I’m illegal, I’ll be put in jail!

Thor shrugged. “You’re a guest of the Crown, at least for a little while. You don’t have to worry about it. Sit with us; eat. Ease your worries. We’re going to take care of you.”

You took a seat opposite Thor; Loki sat next to you, not, as you expected, next to his brother. It almost felt like they were fencing you in, putting themselves between you and the door. Or between you and anyone who might come through the door.

The food was simple, and looked good, if a little unfamiliar. A bowl of hearty stew, full of vegetables and tasting of herbs your tongue had never met. A little pot of creamy white stuff, topped with orange sauce that turned out to be sweet instead of spicy. A chunk of something that was trying to be bread but was actually dried fish that you were supposed to spread butter on as if it was bread. And a glass of strong cider that you had trouble actually drinking. Alcohol was usually too pricy for you, and so you never drank much.

It was warm, and it was good, and it was what your body, confused by time zones, desperately needed. You ate every bit, even the buttered fish. But you said nothing, not until Thor addressed you directly.

“I know you have had a very rough day, and I know you must be tired and confused, but would you be willing to entertain a few questions?”

What choice did you have? He was right about being tired; the hot food and cider had hit you pretty hard. But it wasn’t like you could just tell him to go stuff it either, could you? You put your customer service face back on.

“Sure, ask away!”

He raised one eyebrow at the fake cheer in your voice, but made no comment on it.

“I’d like to assure you that we keep this place very clean. No dust, unless you go near construction zones. But, if it’s not too uncomfortable, could you tell us why you reacted like that? So we can keep you safer in the future.”

Damn. You should’ve known they wouldn’t let that go. Six months ago, you had been sure he would have an answer for you; now you just didn’t know. Would he think you were crazy too? But he was a god; was it possible to lie to a god?

“I’ll know if you’re lying.” Loki said, as if hearing your thoughts.

“There’s no need for threats.” Thor chided him.

“I wasn’t.”

“If you are comfortable talking about it.” Thor concluded.

“It’s difficult.” You said. “It’s not that I don’t want to; I kinda do, and I have for a long time. But it seems like some great big secret that I can’t bring up, because most people don’t believe me, and the ones that do are sort of paranoid of being thought crazy. Look, something happened about a year and a half ago, except it didn’t, but it did. And I know you probably won’t believe me, but-“

“Half your world turned to dust.” Thor said grimly. “People, plants, animals, everything. And then it all went back to normal, as if nothing happened. But not for you. In the time between the two events, you suffered. You mourned. You struggled and starved. And now you remember, when it seems no one else does.”

Loki stared at you. “That shouldn’t be possible.”

You had gone very still and very pale as Thor spoke out that list of everything you had gone through.

“I knew it.” You whispered. “I knew it. I knew it was real. That many people couldn’t have the same hallucination. I knew you knew something!”

Thor nodded, still looking very serious.

“That’s why I went to the tower in the first place! That’s why I tried to approach you! I knew one of you knew something!”

“But the spell-“ Loki began.

“What happened?” You demanded, excitement overcoming your sleepiness.

“It’s a lengthy tale, if you’re up for it.” Thor warned, but you only nodded in enthusiasm.

“Very well. It begins when the universe does.” Wow, he wasn’t kidding.

“Thor, are you sure this is a good idea?” Loki broke in.

Thor shrugged. “Looks like something went wrong. She’s not supposed to remember, but she does.”

“That spell was cast for a reason.” Loki protested.

“Which do you suppose was worse? Being one of the lives initially lost, or being one of those left behind to live in that broken universe? Do you know what that was like? Being the only one left? I say she deserves an answer. “

Loki rolled his eyes. “No, if you recall, I was dead at the time. Whatever, tell her what you will, but I’ll not be taking responsibility when it blows up in your face.”

“Wait, you…you died? Did you turn to dust too?” That even happened to the gods?

“Not exactly,” He muttered. “It was more of a hand’s on experience.”

“He was very brave.” Thor said.

“I was very foolish.” Loki retorted, but he looked more proud than angry.

“What happened?” You asked again.

“Yes, the story. Directly after this universe came into being, there also spawned a handful of concepts; embodiments of the things that make up the universe and everything in it. These things were given physical forms, shaped into shining gems of incredible power. Wars were fought over them, and with them, but only certain powerful individuals can actually use them. I have a friend who has seen what happens when someone who is too weak tries to handle one. Not pretty, apparently. However, Loki has used two of them before.”

Pride colored those last words, and Loki looked unsure of how to take being bragged about.

“For certain definitions of ‘used’, I suppose.”

“There was someone else who wanted them, a homicidal lunatic, name of Thanos. An absolute waste of space who brought nothing to the universe but mountains of corpses. Twisted. Worthless. Seems like all he could do was destroy. The Chitauri invasion? That was him.”

“That was him.” You pointed at Loki.

“Certain definitions of used.” He repeated.

You looked back and forth between the brothers. “What are you trying to tell me here?”

“He used the Mind Stone.” Thor said. “While at the same time, it used him. It affected everyone around it.”

“Wait, you mean mind control?” You asked, shocked by this revelation. “These things have their own will? Why haven’t you told anyone? Everyone thinks-“

“Do not mistake me.” Loki interrupted. “No matter how much my brother would like to paint me as an innocent in this, I still did what I did. Those were my actions and my decisions. One can very easily be a victim, and be guilty at the same time. Take it as a demonstration of what I am capable of, just not everything that I am.” He sighed, but his expression remained neutral.

“It is however, correct to think that, without Thanos, without the influence of that stone, I don’t think I would have done any of it. But I did, and there is no way to erase that. Do not make of me something I am not. I was the person who did all those things. But I am not now, and will not be again.”

“I don’t know what to think about this.” You said, but internally you were a bit relieved. You hadn’t actually stopped being frightened of him, but it was very reassuring to know that all that malice, all that bigotry and hatred hadn’t all been him. If his words could be trusted, anyway. Thor wasn’t objecting though, so maybe he really was on the level.

“He did take his stand against Thanos though.” Thor continued. “We all did; heroes of Earth, of Asgard, of the stars. And every last one of us failed. Most of us died, either in his quest for the stones, or in the event he caused. He came into possession of all of the stones, which allowed him to reshape the universe as he wanted it to be. “

“Which was…nearly empty?”

“He was a madman. He was obsessed with his savior complex, but his bloodlust was far greater, and I think he forgot how to separate the two. So yes, instead of thinking up ways to change reality for the better, he felt the logical choice was to kill everybody.”

“He had no creativity or finesse, unless he was causing harm.” Loki muttered.

“Now this is the part I really can’t tell you about, which is a shame, because it was amazing. However, because of the forces involved, the fewer people who ever know about it, the better. But we few survivors took our battle to reality itself, and we succeeded. We regained what Thanos took from us, and erased his nightmarish vision of the universe.”

“Before separating the stones and returning them to their proper guardians, the sorcerers among us used them to cast a spell over everything and everyone; that none save those of us involved should have any memory of the event we erased. We wanted to undo that suffering, but we also wanted to prevent mass searches for the stones. We can’t risk it happening again.”

“Then how come I remember?” You asked. There was much more mystery surrounding you right now than you were comfortable with.

“That is an excellent question!” Thor said. “And since you don’t seem to have any answers for us yourself, we will simply have to add it to the pile of things we have to figure out.”

“I would like to have answers too, but right now, I’m so tired.” An involuntary yawn punctuated your words. “Pardon me.”

“Yes, of course.” Thor said. “Loki will take you to bed.”

“Absolutely not!” You screeched.

“Phrasing!” Loki snapped.

Thor looked like he was having a very hard time not laughing, which you didn’t appreciate at all. That was a terrifying prospect, and one you were not in the least willing to entertain. Loki looked perturbed as well, so at least you were both on the same page.

“I’m sorry, ____, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that!” A little laughter did escape him, fueling your annoyance. It wasn’t a laughing matter. Neither of these men had better start getting ideas. Just because they were divine rulers didn’t mean they could take liberties. You still had rights. Didn’t you?

“Buffoon.” Loki grumbled. “Come. I’ll see you to your room.”

You got to have your own room? That sounded promising. You followed along behind him, sleepy and quiet, swimming in the events of the day. It was all so much to take in, but maybe sleeping on it would help. Loki led you back to the set of rooms you’d earlier had your bath in, letting you inside and addressing the young man standing guard at the door. You couldn’t understand what they were saying, but the young man seemed mildly confused and upset. He kept shooting you curious looks, and eventually he patted you reassuringly on the shoulder, and nodded at you. Then he went into the smaller of the two bedrooms, gathered his things, and left. He even waved at you on his way out, as if he was trying to convey no hard feelings without being able to actually speak to you.

“Uh…Your Highness? Did I just kick that guy out of his room?” You asked, feeling very guilty.

“No.” Loki assured you. “These rooms are mine, and I decide who may use them, and for how long. There is room for him in our guardhouse, it was just more convenient for him to be close by. Now it is more convenient for you to be here.”

“Because we don’t know how far apart we can be, or for how long. I get it.” There wasn’t much in the room; a bed, a desk with a chair, a small dresser, and one window. The floor and walls were bare, and there was one lamp on the desk, but no other lights. Well, you didn’t need much right now, and you owned practically nothing here, not even the shirt on your back, so this was much better than you had feared it would be.

“I feel like we can probably have a respectable distance between us, just not miles, and certainly not an entire ocean. However, I also feel like we should sleep closer together. Partly for your own safety, and partly because it seems to me that the focus of this draining sickness was our mutual dreams. “

He took a seat in the chair while you crawled into the plain little bed.

“Will you tell me about them?” He asked. “I know we were both having dreams, and I think we were connected through them, but you said yours were nightmares. Mine were not. I wonder about the differences.”

“Ugh. They weren’t anything complicated, but they were always the same. There was this big blankness that I just wanted to sink into so that I could finally rest, but you wouldn’t let me. You just kept dragging me away, and you wouldn’t let me sleep. You were scary, and it was torture, not being able to rest.”

He nodded slowly, writing something down in a small notebook you were sure he hadn’t had just a second before.

“Mine were…similar, but the perspective was different. That void was death, and I was compelled to keep you from it.”

“Do you think we’ll still dream?” You asked.

“Only one way to find out.”

“Right. Can you, uh…”

“Oh. Yes, of course.” He left, closing the door behind him. You might have heard the lock turn, but you were already drifting off.

                                                                      *********

The void beckoned you, a promise of rest and freedom, but now you knew it might not be as benign as it seemed. Loki clutched your arm, frightening with his horns and cold eyes, but now you knew he might not be as malign as he seemed. You spent the rest of your dream there, between two deceivers, not sure which one to choose.

[interpreterslinguistics]

On PC Spirits and trickery

Disclaimer: This isnt meant as an attack, and all my vitriol (which you wont see here, but I have it) and in fact even all the mild ill feelings about this are directed completely at malevolent spirits, not people just trying to live their lives with their own beliefs. I was a PC pagan working with PC spirits, I don't hate anyone like me. After five years of lies though I can't not talk about this.

Anyway, here’s an explanation of spirits pretending to be characters and how possible and widespread it is. I encourage anyone involved in PC spirit work to at least skim through, or read a chunk every now and then because I know its long, and then you can make your own decision and conclusions. I don’t like suggesting people read any of my posts because I prefer just... leaving them and if you read them you read them, so hopefully you can understand my intentions with writing this up are to help and that i think this shit is necessary and has to be said, not to get my personal opinions and voice heard or make fun of anyone. 

If any of this does hit home I know its extremely hard to hear this shit, i was a PC pagan and all criticism felt dumb at best and like a stake of pain and rejection through the heart at worst, a completely isolating reminder that i apparently didnt fit in with the world at large and me and my spirit fam would never be understood, but my god do i wish i knew this when i was caught up in it. 

(read more break) 

I think not many people realise that all a spirit needs to trick you into thinking they're a character is three tiny things:

An awareness of the characters name, attributes, and energies they'd be connected to

A good ability to mask themselves OR their target practitioner not having extremely keen spiritual senses, a stable mind, a good network of friends irl and spiritual, etc

A way to fool your spirit family who may try to warn you through intution (eg: your fam doesn't know this person or realise that they're talking to you, your fam does the same thing with masks and doesn't see anything wrong with it, they're fooling your family too, etc), and a way around your own intuition (eg: a strong mask, not being super familiar to you so you recognise them through the mask, etc)

All you need to do is put on an appearance and say you're that character, and give off those energies/do things that character would do, and you're sorted. You now look, act, and for all intents and purposes are this character, this character is you. The more advanced the practitioner the more you will need to keep them fooled, like friends/family involved in it, a big enough energy to pretend to be multiple characters tied to different names of yours, a very in-depth knowledge of the fiction, etc - those three being what my ex and his brother (PC spirits who turned out to be asshole gods having a good ole bloody time) had 

It's not necessarily malicious to approach someone as a character and I need to make that clear before I go further, there's a number of reasons someone is coming to you as a character that aren't "They're taking advantage of you":

Some relate to these characters: 

Spirits are just people on different planes, if you can understand the huge fad of fictionkin on earth then you basically have an idea.

Sometimes people aren't comfortable with their actual selves so they hide behind these masks, or they relate to these characters more than they relate to themselves, or they're suffering from delusions and dissociative disorders with fictives, or whatever

It’s easier to get and hold your attention:

And also to leave signs, if you know the character they’re pretending to be. Especially if youre super absorbed in fiction and your family needs to get your attention, its easier to do so through your interests

Its less scary for a practitioner:

I mean, really, whats easier to stomach: "a fae whos kinda spicy and wont take shit is coming to see me, oh god i heard fae are super violent and dangerous and tricky and will steal your shit and abuse you", or "oh hey its _____, a character i know who is kinda spicy and wont take shit, but ive gotten used to them in media and theyre actually really nice!"  

It's also just fun for either party:

Especially if it's a character based off the spirit or super close to them. Ushiwaka from Ookami is basically just Japanese Hermes lbfr, for one example of what I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised if he showed up as that dude to someone somewhere.

Its also fun to be on the receiving end! Like Elsa ("Elsa", its really an actress) showing up at a birthday party for a kid, or for teens and adults it can be cool as hell to "meet" your favourite character, or even a character more likely that you never put much thought into but now you can get to know them. Its fun to explore fiction in a more interactive way, that’s why people play games based in worlds they really enjoy like buying Elder Scrolls games to go visit Tamriel.

-

Unfortunately though, there's a number of questionable to malicious reasons a spirit may do this, and given how it requires trickery and/or lying and sometimes outright completely hiding your identity and gaslighting when they start figuring it out and fooling family members and creating a huge web of lies, its very often malicious, or at the very least its careless with regards to the practitioners mental health and stability.

Questionable to malicious reasons include:

You're more familiar with characters so it's easier to approach you with them:

That's not necessarily malicious, but don't forget characters in games and shows rely a lot on parasocial relationships with them and you feeling like you know them. Thats why you make fanart of your "blorbos", why you call xyz character "mom", why you bought a keyring of another character's symbol representing a group they're in because you relate to the group, etc. 

If you can understand why a famous youtuber suddenly going to a fans house and wanting to make friends with them and live with them at least some of the time sounds verryyyy skeevy based on similar events irl (referencing all the times we hear about youtubers sliding into fans DMs looking to abuse them), unless that youtuber has a very very good alibi and list of reasons thats a really suspicious thing to do, you can understand why the ability to show up as a famous character can attract a lot of skeevy spirits to the act

It’s easy if the spirit finds the right person, or knows you and knows you’ll fall for it or trust them: 

It’s a way easier route, using that feeling of trust and familiarity, to get into your life than just presenting yourself normally.

People feel like they know what a character is capable of, has done, will do, who they're friends with, etc. A spirit approaching you saying they're (random actual name) with no ability to background check (who on Earth really does, bar advanced practitioners, have a stable and consistent way to background check when spirits can alter divination results) will likely get you suspicious of them.

If they tell you, however, they're such and such from a book and you know their back story because you just read it, it now becomes a matter of just proving they're really that spirit and some questions about their history really being what you read, then you'll likely drop the suspicion, because oh yes, it is the person you know all this info preemptively about! 

And yeah, proving is completely possible for a lot of spirits, I'll get into that in a moment, so effectively it means all the spirit needs to do is convince the you enough that you are indeed familiar with them enough for them to be safe

People want the fairytale experience:

Similar to the parasocial relationships thing, who doesnt want a character they like to walk out of thin air and come say hi? I’m sure most of us could say at least once in their life they wished a character or world was real. Or even the drama of a villain coming round? 

Who of us, if a character knocked on their door and showed proof it was them, wouldnt be at least a little excited to welcome them in? And its natural, no hate, especially for socially cut-off or isolated people to want a friend thats somewhat of a celebrity. It makes you feel important and chosen to be friends now with this somewhat-to-famously-known person, to prove that theyre real, to be loved by them, to talk to them, etc. Its a huge, huge draw like a lotto ticket, and thats super easy to play into, and an easy ticket into getting what you want from a practitioner. It’s not shameful, that’s all how our socially-oriented brains work.... Which is why it’s such a surefire thing to tap into to get a practitioners attention. The allure of “maybe” is so intense when you start getting “proof” that Tamriel or the Pokemon regions actually exist somewhere, that a person from your favourite show as a kid actually is real and you can tell them thanks for comforting you, or that you really can be a pokemon trainer irl. It’s..... Really, really depressingly alluring. It’s all I ever wanted, honestly, which is exactly why it’s so easy to take advantage of

-

The key here to me, if the rest of this talk is a chest then this is that important small and final piece.... Well it's two things joined together. Its that spirits CAN prove they're "really" a character no matter how spiritually skeptical you are, and spirits CAN have intimate knowledge of books and media beyond what you know, including things that haven't been released to the public yet, that both "prove" what theyre saying and add to the rich fiction of their lies.

My ex and his brother had knowledge of the game Bloodborne outside of what the public knew. The two big things that couldn't be chalked up to them noticing things I didn't notice and then pretending they knew outside of me (though everything lined up so weird and they were incredibly apt at exploring the fiction, outsiders could argue each of the hundreds of experiences away so I’ll leave it out, as much as that’s evidence for them lying) were:

 a) the smallest, remembering specifically what a certain place looked like "in the past" and constantly referencing it, and it looked exactly like that when the concept art was officially released ages later, and 

b) the biggest, my ex had the personality, speech mannerisms, and voice, of a version of a character in game that was only made public years and years later. The character he said he was (we’ll call M for now) acted wildly different to him in official content which was the only version of M the entire fandom knew for years. Then the cut content was released like 5 years after launch and suddenly we see M’s first draft, cut from the game and public eyes entirely, used to act and talk exactly like my ex - keeping in mind my ex had weird and specific mannerisms that were all there, including how he used to say stuff like “sleepless sleep” a lot, was soft spoken but could change from calm to erratic at any moment, and whatnot: it was very specifically him. Basically, i "found out" after wondering for years why he was so different to canonical M, it was because he was based off the version of the character, completely, wildly different than canon, 5 years later. How else could you explain his existence at that point other than agreeing his theory of the game being created created him was viable?

For all intents and purposes, through all his "memories" he had, and all the things we spoke about (and that he was and remembered), he completely proved himself to be that character, time and time again he knew exactly what he was talking about, he'd introduce me to things I'd later discover existed in the game/etc, and specifically, since the game is highly and deeply spiritual and encoded, he spoke its language like it was second nature, he was weaving talk about alchemy and the nature of the world that was supremely in line with this librarian scholar character who in-universe knew all this. I was skeptical, used to be ANTI pc pagan before him, didnt even fully believe in spirits, he slowly proved he had a connection to the game to the point there was no way he could've known all he knew if he wasn't intimately involved..... Except it was all lies. 

He was keeping my spiritual family and his own from me, lying to them, using wards and shit, isolating me and making me go separate ways with family and whatnot so there’d be less and less people to question him. He was even pretending to be other characters and gods from Bloodborne to build up his fiction with his brother, tapping into my intuition, answering prayers and whatnot to other characters of the game under different masks, lying to me as M and as a myriad of other characters to keep me involved and quash my questioning... and all of that came undone. He got busted by his own family, i made connections and friends with my actual spirit family who saw him going about his business as his actual self without the M mask and who knew him as that actual self for years until Bloodborne came out... We saw his attempts at keeping people out both socially and magically. It was an elaborate facade. 

He kept me away from the reality of spirit work and my spirit family because they wouldve pointed out he was pretending, because people who knew him outside of this persona knew he wasnt this character. I was the most skeptical I've ever been and I couldn’t logic my way out of his manipulation, he and his brother planned it, had all the proof lined up, and it was all faked. Spirits put on masks including characters, and no one told me that so i was left thinking the only last option must be that they were telling the truth. TLDR: i had pop culture spirits I could thoroughly prove with hours of evidence that they were connected to the game, even that was all lies. 

-

Do i think if you have a pc spirit with you theyre inherently trying to drag you away from reality? No, they could just be trying to get your attention and be friends with you because theyre friends with you off this plane/your higher self, or were your friend in a past life. But I do suggest at the very least you consider if youre ready or not to put down the fictional and pressure them a little into showing you whats really going on behind the surface. Yes, it will hurt. Its a lot to lose, but having put down five foundational years of my life of daily study to move on... Its worth it

And on the matter of thoughtforms, to paraphrase a friend: Spirits are people not on this plane, you cant think a (separate) person into being - because then why would sex and conception exist. Thoughtforms are a thing but remain a part of you and your energy, not separate to you. If this spirit with you genuinely is a thoughtform based on a piece of media, which is actually genuinely possible, then theyre still attached to someone else who exists because they were born/created by the ALL, and you probably should find out who. Its a known thing, apparently really well known, in the spirit world to create thoughtforms to go feed for their hosts/actual selves, whether the thoughtforms know theyre an extension of someone or not.

[ouraidengray4]

31 Healthy Snacks for When You Love Fruit but Have a Sweet Tooth

Fruit is never a chore. Nature’s candy ranks up there as one of our favorite things about being people.

However, the same way we won’t just stroll out the front door stark naked, we also don’t have to limit fruit consumption to the way nature intended it.

Tatjana Zlatkovic/Stocksy

Would humanity really be humanity unless we found ways to dip everything in chocolate, make it into pizza, or shove a skewer through it? Of course not.

We found 31 amazing ways to make your fruit snacks a little more… fruity.

Sweet

When dessert puts on its healthy hat.

1. Chocolate kiwi ice pops

Photo: Show Food Chef

On the days when the strawberry/chocolate combo seems a little overdone, you can pull this surprise out of the bag and turn your snack time on its head.

The recipe calls for just three ingredients (kiwi, dark chocolate, and coconut oil), but we love ours with nuts or coconut flakes sprinkled on top.

Easy, delicious, and different.

2. Chocolate-covered fruit

Photo: Chelsey Amer Nutrition

Pick your favorite fruits, dice ’em up, and skewer ’em. Dip them into melted dark chocolate, pop them in the freezer for a few hours, and it’s a job done — you have yourself a cool, sweet treat with minimal work.

3. Vanilla roasted strawberries

Photo: Simply Recipes

This is a Swiss army knife of a sweet option. Get this right and you’ve got a topping for ice cream, oatmeal, and yogurt.

Roasting the strawberries kicks their flavor in the pants and makes it go — plus, it creates a rich syrup that brings an extra zhuzh to whatever the strawberries are sitting atop.

You probably never thought of roasting your strawbs before, but give it a go. It’s a great way to boost their already exceptional taste without adding sugar.

4. Almond butter, banana, and strawberry chia jam sandwich

Photo: Days Like Laura

“We didn’t turn up to a renowned Greatist recipe roundup just to have sandwiches thrown in our faces!”

We know, we know. But hear us out. This one’s a special take on PB&J that pushes all the right buttons.

Swap in almond butter, add some homemade strawberry chia jam, and you have yourself a bomb-ass concoction.

For a quicker recipe, you can also just add some sliced strawberries. The whole-grain bread and strawberries offer a great dose of heart-healthy fiber, the almond butter is rich in protein, and the banana’s packed with potassium.

How can you stay mad at us with all that potassium?

5. One-ingredient banana ice cream

Photo: Garlic Matters

Ice cream doesn’t have to be unhealthy — as long as you define “ice cream” pretty loosely.

Simply peel a few bananas, stick them in the freezer, and let them hang out for a few hours or until they’re solid. Put the frozen ’nanas in the bowl of a food processor and process them until smooth.

Finally, add your choice of mix-ins (if you like). Dark chocolate chips, diced strawberries, and a PB swirl are Greatist favorites.

6. Papaya punch smoothie

Photo: Exploring Healthy Foods

Idina Menzel, eat your heart out — this fruit, veggie, ice, and chia smoothie is the real delivery of frozen perfection.

It’s loaded with papaya, a tropical fruit that has tons of flavor and fiber. Papaya is also relatively low in sugar compared to other fruits, with just 11.3 grams per cup.

Papaya’s got a brand new bag.

7. Summer fruit spring rolls

Photo: Bigger Bolder Baking

There’s no way you’d expect these flavors from spring rolls. Who knew they could taste this sweet?

This inventive take on the sushi restaurant favorite fills classic rice wraps with fresh fruit for a simple, slightly sweet (and super fun) snack.

8. Strawberry Nutella bruschetta

Photo: Simple Vegan Blog

It’s a recipe that rhymes satisfyingly and tastes even better than it sounds.

Strawberries plus Nutella is a classic combo. Just add a slice of toasted whole-grain bread for a fiber-rich, filling snack. You can also sprinkle some chia seeds, honey, or coconut flakes on top for an added flavor boost!

9. Lemon raspberry cheesecake ice pops

Photo: Simply Recipes

The word “cheesecake” might make this recipe sound like a rich dessert, but it clocks in at half the calories of the classic cheesecake. Plus, you can hold it on a stick, so it might already be beating the original.

In this version, “cheesecake” is actually just the sweetened lemony Greek yogurt mixture that gives these pops a creamy texture.

10. Frozen yogurt bites

Photo: I Heart Vegetables

This recipe is an awesome way to get creative with some items you probably already have in your kitchen.

Freeze some Greek yogurt with granola, pop whatever fruit you like on top, and boom! It’s a cute breakfast treat for the next morning!

11. Spicy fruit salad

Photo: Minimalist Baker

If you’ve ever thought of fruit salad as boring, you have to give this recipe a try (you’re also wrong — sorry).

Sprinkle some lime juice and chili powder on top of your favorite fruity mixture for an added kick in flavor and heat.

Can’t take the heat? You don’t have to get out of the kitchen — just try cinnamon instead.

12. Two-ingredient banana chocolate chip ice cream bites

Photo: The Baker Mama

Two of our favorite foods take center stage in this recipe: bananas and chocolate chips. You can’t go wrong here.

Blend up some frozen bananas in a food processor, and then dump in some chips. That’s it. These guys store for 2 to 3 months in the freezer, so feel free to make a giant batch to dip into whenever you feel the munchies.

13. Frozen grapes

Photo: Zen and Spice

This is so simple it barely qualifies as a recipe — it’s more of a recommendation, because, well, these bang.

Buckle up, because here are the steps:

Remove grapes from vine.

Freeze.

Get snackin’.

This easy, naturally sweetened treat is perfect to keep in the freezer for when that sweet tooth comes calling.

14. Vegan blueberry oat bars

Photo: Happy Healthy Mama

These breakfast-on-the-go bars are a healthier twist on blueberry cobbler.

The blogger uses just blueberries, but feel free to throw in some strawberries, raspberries, or blackberries for a mixed-berry version.

15. Pineapple and blueberry fruit salad

Photo: Food Doodles

The key to this recipe is what goes on top (like a great hairdo or a zany hat).

Pineapples and blueberries are awesome, but when you add some lime zest, lime juice, honey, and Greek yogurt on top, you get a next-level treat that’s creamy, zingy, and healthy in equal measure.

16. Cherries Jubilee chocolate chia seed pudding

Photo: Real Food Whole Life

Cherries Jubilee is a classic dessert, but it isn’t exactly the healthiest snack.

This recipe keeps the awesome cherry flavor but adds some healthier substitutes (like cacao) and nutritional bonuses (like chia seeds). Plus, this looks great in a mason jar, so you can seem fancy at all times.

17. Yogurt breakfast parfait with plum compote

Photo: Cake and Whisky

This fall-inspired breakfast has an awesome combination of some pretty underrated fruits and nuts.

Plums, blackberries, and hazelnuts shine in the classic parfait-style snack. And if you’re really in the fall mood, try sprinkling some pumpkin pie spice on top (because you know full well it’s pumpkin spice everything season).

18. Fruit sushi (frushi)

Photo: Dinner at the Zoo

Time to play with your food! (Also, “frushi” is an excellent name. You might want to consider it for a pet in the future.)

This is a super fun snack recipe. Put some sliced kiwi, oranges, and raspberries on top of sushi rice for a fancy treat.

Of course, feel free to improvise — sliced strawberries, mango, or apple would also make a tantalizing topper.

19. Melon salad with chili and mint

Photo: Simply Recipes

No matter your age, making spherical chunks of melon is always a baller move (not sorry — that was great) and a lot of fun to boot. It rolls up just like ice cream.

Chili and mint make this a sophisticated, interesting array of flavors — you’ll never think about melon the same way again.

20. Breakfast yogurt pops

Photo: I Heart Naptime

Tired of your same old yogurt-and-granola breakfast? Try changing up the shape. Yes, it all ends up in the same place, but shapes are fun and ice pops more so.

This recipe takes the classic combo and freezes it into a (very ’grammable) ice pop.

Just make sure to prep these the night before, since they need to sit in the freezer for at least 4 hours.

21. Blueberry coconut protein balls

Photo: One Broad’s Journey

Making a ton of these little protein balls is the perfect way to meal-prep some snacks for the week.

The secret ingredient here is lemon. The combo of lemon juice and lemon zest adds a burst of flavor to the blueberry-coconut one-two punch.

Pop one of these in your cakehole for a kick-ass start to the day.

22. Sesame oat square bars with pear compote

Photo: Cooking Melangery

Oat bars are a great way to save some time in your week — and these are on the fancier side. Make a bunch on Sunday so you’ll be able to grab them on the go during your busy workweek.

Coconut oil binds all the oats together — there’s not an egg in sight, which makes these bars super-duper vegan-friendly.

The recipe includes a homemade pear compote that will satisfy any fruit lover’s craving.

23. Chewy raspberry apple granola bars

Photo: Amy’s Healthy Baking

Granola bars are far from boring when you make them at home. You can customize the flavors however you want, and there’s none of the processed ingredients and preservatives you’d find in store-bought options.

This simple version has just seven ingredients like milk, honey, oil, and cinnamon. Raspberries stand out and do jazz hands as the vibrant, delicious star of the show.

Fruits still have a lot of sugar

While fruits are amazing and can boast a huge range of vital vitamins and minerals, they come with a heavy hit of fructose — a natural sugar, but still a sugar.

If you’re on a sugar-restricted diet or have a condition that can impact your blood sugar levels, such as diabetes, it’s best to eat fruit in moderation and be selective about the fruit you eat.

Some fruits are better than others for people with diabetes — we rounded them up here.

Savory

A mix of flavors is the mark of enlightened kitchen work, so try to switch up your fruit game entirely and get creative.

24. Grilled fruit pizza

Photo: The Chunky Chef

Oh, boy… is pizza not just bae? Well, we’re willing to wager that you haven’t had one with fruit and honey as a topping before. (If you’re one of those who falls on the angrier side of the pineapple-on-pizza debate, this one might not be for you. Or maybe it’ll convert you.)

Just grill up some pizza dough, naan, or tortilla and sprinkle your favorite fruits on top.

25. Strawberry and goat cheese bruschetta

Photo: Homemade Hooplah

We’d eat goat cheese with pretty much anything, but it’s especially good with fruit. The creamy saltiness offsets the sweetness of many fruits beautifully. But strawberries hold the starring role here.

This bruschetta recipe features the gooey combo with a balsamic glaze on top that really brings out the strawberryishness (definitely a word) of the strawberries.

26. Peach quinoa tabbouleh

Photo: Jo Eats

Peaches and quinoa might not seem like a match made in heaven, but this sweet and salty Middle Eastern-inspired dish has other ideas.

Honey, mint, and parsley dance around the peach flavors, adding all kinds of busy mouth sensations. Even as a side or a standalone snack, this intriguing tabbouleh stands all on its own.

27. Honey-lemon toast with figs and pistachios

Photo: Ambitious Kitchen

Getting creative with toast is all the rage these days (thanks, avo toast!).

This honey-fig version is the perfect savory way to eat your fruit. With ricotta slathered on the base, stopping your snack at a single slice is the most difficult thing about this recipe.

28. Creamy cheese fruit pizza

Photo: The Frugal Foodie Mama

Fruity pizza: round two. (Wait, how is there more than one? Where the f*ck are all these fruit pizzas coming from?)

This one features peaches and blackberries, but feel free to make your own version with any fruit-cheese-dough combo.

Get as creative as your brain wants — they broke the seal with pineapples many moons ago. This is just the natural consequence.

29. Mango, avocado, and fresh cilantro salsa

Photo: The Frugal Foodie Mama

You’ve heard that it takes two to tango — well, it can take two fruits to salsa. And, yes, avocado is a fruit.

This two-fruit salsa (yes, avocado is a fruit) is a way to give sweet flavors a savory twist when it’s served alongside classic tortilla chips.

Avocados are brimming with healthy monounsaturated fat and tons of vitamins, including vitamins E and B6.

30. Fig and prosciutto crostini

Photo: Mama’s Gotta Bake

Fresh figs — does it get any better?

Well, when you wrap a fresh fig in a slice of salty prosciutto and stick it on top of some toasted bread, you’ll learn that there’s more to the already mighty fig than meets the eye.

31. Melon, prosciutto, and mozzarella skewers

Photo: The Comfort of Cooking

Here’s another awesome salty-sweet combo (because savory doesn’t mean you need to kick all the sweetness out).

Prosciutto and melon is a classic duo. Add fresh mozzarella, put it on a stick, and things get seriously tasty.

Takeaway

Fruit wears many disguises, and almost all of them are delicious (when put together right).

Whether you’re in the mood for sweetness or a broader experience for your taste buds, you don’t need added sugars. You can use the natural sugars in fruits to bolster the flavor of your meal and take advantage of their natural goodness.

Had your fill of pizzas made of fruit? Fine, here are some desserts made from vegetables (and if you think carrot cake is the limit, you are very much mistaken).

from Greatist Health RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2HZWbKL 31 Healthy Snacks for When You Love Fruit but Have a Sweet Tooth Greatist Health RSS Feed from HEALTH BUZZ https://ift.tt/327t1kl

[tl-notes]

Gabriel Dropout Episode 2 Notes

Eating lunch alone (in school) is strongly associated with “bocchi” characters: people with no friends (or at least no friends at school). I’m sure that’s true outside Japan as well, to varying degrees, but it’s worth noting for its mimetic nature in modern anime/manga/etc.

Friendless characters as an archetype—specifically those who want friends (whether they admit it or not) but are unable to make any—have seen a big boom in popularity over the last several years*, and this “eating alone” trope has risen along with it. There are several terms used to refer to it: -Benjo-meshi (toilet meal): eating lunch in a bathroom stall (so people won’t see you eating alone). -Hitori-meshi (one-person meal): general term for eating alone. -Bocchi-meshi (“bocchi” meal): like a student slang version of hitori-meshi, but especially for “bocchi.”

Aside from the bathroom, the roof or the landing of the stairwell leading to the roof are popular anime/manga locations for bocchi characters to eat their lonely lunches.

*See series like Haganai, Watamote, or Sanova B**chi for stuff that deals with it directly.

This says “Hitori-meshi Set.” Note the non-lunch box shaped bag. That’s why it’s part of the set: it doesn’t look like a traditional lunch (the ubiquitous bento box), but more like the bag you keep your gym clothes in, so people don’t realize she’s taking her lunch off to go eat alone. (I might be reading too much into this part.)

An example of a real life (Disney-themed) bag designed for carrying school gym clothes.

Melon bread is an incredibly common snack food item in Japan; it can be found in any store that sells bread, from 7-Elevens to fancy bakeries—there are even specialty stores that sell only it. Basically it’s a hunk of white bread with a layer of cookie baked on top of it. It generally is not melon flavored; the name is widely accepted to come from how the shape looks like certain varieties of melons that are common in Japan (think cantaloupe). There are many varieties though, such as chocolate chip, various fruit flavors, various fillings, etc.

Some real melon breads. And a demonstration of concept.

I didn’t notice this until going back through to take screenshots, but I think this shot is intended to show “normally an anime character would be eating up on the roof or landing, but Satanko’s a good girl who obeyed the ‘no entry’ sign.”

This exchange, and several others throughout the show, was basically rewritten by the translator or editor. Not that that’s a bad thing necessarily; instead of trying to force a joke that doesn’t translate well they just wrote a new one. I don’t plan on pointing out every instance because frankly you’re not missing much, so here’s just a couple of examples:

The original joke above is that the words she used, keitai (“framework” here) and shouaku (the “grasp” bit) are the wrong words for what she’s actually trying to say. Instead of “I completely understand everything about how the school works” it turns out something like “I completely control how the school is organized.” Gabe and Vinnie then just repeat the incorrect words back at her confusedly. Note all the hand metaphors immediately before and after this exchange were added in translation as well.

In this one, she just says more or less: “I’d like our group to get started cooking too, but…” “This is who I have to work with...”

And here’s it’s basically just “Your job is to not get in the way.”

So yeah like I said you don’t really miss out much on these and really most of the changes make it more interesting (good on the TL), so I’m not going to bring them up in the future unless it’s something big or of particular interest.

These machines are super common in certain types of Japanese restaurants: ramen shops, “set meal (teishoku)” style places, katsu places, beef bowl places, etc. Basically they automated most of the “taking your order” part of the experience; you get your ticket from the machine, hand it to the employee, and wait for your food. There are buttons for stuff like “extra rice” or whatever options as well.

Udon is usually sold as “X udon,” where X is the main topping. Curry udon, tempura udon, etc. “Kitsune” refers to a slice of tofu prepared by deep frying it twice (so called because in folklore kitsune love to eat fried tofu). “Tanuki” refers to bits of fried tempura batter (tenkasu). There are several theories as to where the “tanuki” came from, but my favorite is that people would order tempura udon without (nuki) the [thing in the tempura, usually prawn or vegetables] (tane), i.e. “tane-nuki.” Which sounds like tanuki, and tanuki are similar animals to kitsune sort of, and we say kitsune udon, so hey why not?

You usually get a little tenkasu even when just plain udon, which is what’s in the anime picture. The pink and white thing is kamaboko, slices of loaves of steamed pureed fish. It’s good! The deep fried tofu on the right (aburaage) is also very good, and a lot sweeter than it might look.

Shichimi is an extremely common condiment in restaurants in Japan, you can find it pretty much anywhere. It’s up there with soy sauce or salt. It’s great if you like a bit (or a lot) of a spicy kick to your food. However, if you’ve not been exposed to how the kanji are read before, it’s easy to read them the wrong way—I see this a lot with foreigners who have some level of Japanese knowledge (like college courses) but are in Japan for the first time. Usually if someone gets it wrong they say “nanami,” not “nana-aji,” though. “Tougarashi,” the other three kanji there and the word for (spicy) peppers, is also easy to misread if you’re not familiar.

In both cases, someone in a Japanese high school should be familiar already.

The word translated here as “husband-hunting” is “konkatsu.” Konkatsu is a fairly new word: coined in 2007, it won the national annual “trending new word/slang” contest in 2009. It’s a play on the phrase for “job-hunting,” shuukatsu. Instead of looking for a job, you’re looking to get married. There’s a bit of added nuance though: shuukatsu is especially common when referring to the period of job hunting by a college student before their graduation. Due mostly to the strong (though fading fast) tradition of lifetime employment in Japan, if you don’t have a job lined up before you graduate college, you’re going to find it much harder to find one later, even moreso than in somewhere like the US—most college students basically spend a huge chunk of time skipping classes to attend job interviews at dozens, sometimes even over a hundred, companies. (The difficulty level of just passing a college course in Japan, on average, relatively low, and GPA doesn’t matter much.)

So there’s more than a hint of desperation and racing-the-clock to konkatsu. “I need to find someone to marry my ass ASAP, before I’m too old to get anybody.”

She actually uses “chuuni” here, if you’re familiar with that term (I know you are). More specifically, the line is more like “a chuuni despite being in high school already.” The “...at your age?” nuance kind of got lost in the translation.

Food break.

The phrase Leonardo uses here, yokkyuufuman, has a strong nuance of being sexually frustrated, hence the reaction by Her Highness.

She actually says “that would be tiring,” not that she’s already tired.

Maybe worth pointing out here that Our-Future-Lord-and-Antisavior’s style of apartment is much newer and nicer than the one Gaber and Vigs are living in. The benefits of being born into an important family, I guess.

That Cafe au Lait has mochi (rice cake) in it for some reason. Also the milk brand in the back means like “Hella Milk.”

[juniorformulamotorsport]

January/February 2020 – The Great British Chefs Cookbook Club

As if I don’t have enough to do, I’ve recently allowed myself to be sucked into a rather fun group on Facebook (I know, I know…), the Great British Chefs Cookbook Club. The idea of this is that every month a cookbook by a British chef is chosen as the book of the month, then everyone who wants to buys/borrows a copy and sets about cooking whatever takes their fancy from the book, before posting about the recipe, usually with photos.

There have now (not including March 2020) been 24 books, but I only started to join in in January this year, so I have no opinions on 22 of them as yet. There is a throwback Thursday where you can cook from/post about previous books, but I’m not going to buy them just for that, and I may well not buy every book on the grounds that a) I have more than enough cookbooks, and b) I’m not a baker! The books so far that I have not even touched on are:

Hong Kong Diner – Jeremy Pang

New Classics – Marcus Wareing

Planted – Chantelle Nicholson

Little Viet Kitchen – Pham Thuy Diem

Eating Well Everyday – Peter Gordon

Happy Food – Bettina Campolucci Bordi

Great British Chefs Cookbook

Simple – Yotam Ottolenghi

80 Cakes From Around the World – Claire Clark

Scandinavian Baking – Trine Hahnemann

Andina – Martin Morales

Asma’s Indian Kitchen – Asma Khan

Crumb – Richard Bertinet

Casablanca – Nargisse Benkabbou

Bazaar – Sabrina Ghayour

Moorish – Ben Tish

Island Kitchen – Selina Periampillai

Charred – Genevieve Taylor

Mandalay – MiMi Aye

Salt & Time – Alissa Timoshkina

The Book of St John – Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver

Adventures with Chocolate – Paul A Young

The two I have used are Wok On by Ching-He Huang, and Fire Islands by Eleanor Ford. So how did that go? Well, it was a somewhat mixed bag, it’s fair to say.

I’ll take “Wok On” first. It was a winner for the UK in the World Gourmand Cookbook Awards 2020 in the Easy Recipes category and does what it says on the tin. And what it says on the tin is: “Perfect for sautéing, braising, frying and steaming, cooking with a wok is a way of life all over Asia. In Wok On, bestselling author Ching-He Huang celebrates the huge versatility of this magical 2,000-year-old cooking pot with a modern collection of recipes that are simple enough for every day as well as every cook.

Featuring dishes from across Asia, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Macau, almost every recipe can be made in 30 minutes or less and has been created with nutrition, taste and affordability in mind. Many are suitable for those with gluten and dairy allergies, and because Asian food typically includes lots of vegetables, many are also vegetarian or vegan too.”

So what did I make of it? On the plus side, it has some incredibly easy recipes that can be flung together in double quick time with minimal prep and one pan, usually a wok, but on the negative side, you may need to make quite drastic cuts to the amount of soy sauce used, unless that is you want to only be able to taste salt. It’s an award winning book and there are certainly some very appealing recipes in there that I have still to try, but I will be cautious about the seasoning after my initial experiences.

I discovered this issue with the first thing I tried to cook, which was Macanese Rice (with Portuguese Chouriço, Baby Scallops and Coriander). I went for that because, as some of you will know, I have a history with Macau going back to 2001, and the idea of this dish was too much to resist. I couldn’t get the correct chourico and had to settle for a Spanish chorizo instead, which I find to be slightly less intense and definitely less meaty than the Portuguese variety, but beggars can’t be choosers and out here in the sticks you sometime have to settle for what you can get. With the correct seasoning, it would have been very tasty indeed, but instead it left us in need of water, lots of water… I suggest reducing the amount of soy sauce used by half.

Another dish that suffered from too much soy was the Boozy Drunken Prawns, and again, it would probably have been fine with less soy.

By the third dish I’d decided the fault was either with the book or the brand of soy sauce I was using and not with me! As a result, the Chunky Black Pepper Honey Beef (which became venison because that was what I had to hand) was fabulous, because I only used half the soy sauce that the recipe suggested. The result had just the right amount of saltiness but you could also taste the other ingredients!

Chunky Black Pepper Honey Beef

Serves: 4 Time: 15 minutes preparation. 5 minutes cooking

Ingredients:

500g sirloin steak, cut into 5mm thick cubes

Pinch of salt

Pinch of cracked black pepper

1 tablespoon tamari or low sodium soy sauce (I recommend the low sodium variety use half the quantity)

Small handful of coriander leaves for garnish

For the stir fry:

1 tablespoon rapeseed oil

1 garlic clove, whole, peeled and crushed

2 large white onions, cut into 5mm chunks

1 tablespoon Shaoshing rice wine (or dry sherry)

2 red peppers, deseeded and cut into 5mm chunks

For the sauce:

100 mls cold chicken stock

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 tablespoon tamari or low sodium light soy sauce

1 teaspoon dark soy sauce

4 tablespoons runny honey

1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper

1 tablespoon cornflour

Method:

Put the beef in a bowl with the salt, black pepper and soy sauce and mix well.

Put all the ingredients for the sauce into a small jug or bowl and mix well.

Heat your wok over a high heat until smoking then add the rapeseed oil and swirl it around. Add the garlic and cook for a few seconds, then add the onions and stir fry them until they are translucent.

Add the beef and sear on one side for 20 seconds, then turn them over and cook to your liking (medium is probably best). Season with the rice wine or sherry.

Add the red peppers and toss for 30 seconds or until slightly softened.

Remove the beef, onions and peppers from the wok and set aside on a plate.

Add the sauce to the wok and cook it until it reduces and becomes sticky.

Return the beef, peppers and onions to the wok and toss it with the sauce.

Garnish with coriander and serve it with jasmine rice and Garlic Wok Tossed Baby Pak Choi.

Far more successful was the fabulous “Fire Islands”, which has a catch-all description of “recipes from Indonesia”, and which became an even better experience when it became clear that the author, Eleanor Ford, was happy to get involved and comment on what people had done, and how it had gone. She even agreed to a live Q&A session on Facebook where she proved most engaging. As a result I intend to lay hands on her other book, “Samarkand”, as well, especially as there is a plov recipe in it! As for “Fire Islands”, it’s already won two Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in 2020 (in the categories International and Spices), plus it won in its category (Food and Travel) in the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards for 2020 as I type this. I think those awards are thoroughly well deserved.

But first, the blurb: “Steep verdant rice terraces, ancient rainforest and fire-breathing volcanoes create the landscape of the world’s largest archipelago. Indonesia is a travellers’ paradise, with cuisine as vibrant and thrilling as its scenery. For these are the original spice islands, whose fertile volcanic soil grows ingredients that once changed the flavour of food across the world. On today’s noisy streets, chilli-spiked sambals are served with rich noodle broths, and salty peanut sauce sweetens chargrilled sate sticks. In homes, shared feasts of creamy coconut curries, stir-fries and spiced rice are fragrant with ginger, tamarind, lemongrass and lime. The air hangs with the tang of chilli and burnt sugar, citrus and spice. Eleanor Ford gives a personal, intimate portrait of a country and its cooking, the recipes exotic yet achievable, and the food brought to life by stunning photography.”

This time I got started early in the month, when I’d planned a few of the dishes for Sunday dinner (and the leftovers to be used up during the following week). An unexpected visitor meant it turned into a late-ish lunch instead. I had realised that I had all sorts of things that were suitable for use with these recipes, and thus we ended up with a veritable feast.

There was an excellent, tangy Sweet and Spicy Mushroom Tongseng, the luxuriously creamy Potato Tuturuga, a melting Sumatran Lamb Korma, with Golden Lace Pancakes, and portions of Spice Rice to mop it all up with. Our guest went back in for seconds of everything so I’m taking that as a vote of confidence! There certainly weren’t as many leftovers as I’d been counting on once we all slumped on the sofas to nurse our food babies. The only thing I didn’t succeed with were the pancakes, and that was because people were getting very hungry so I didn’t have time to mess about making them thin and lacy. I just needed to get food in front of them as soon as possible.

Sweet & Spicy Mushroom Tongseng

Serves: 4 Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

2 lime leaves

1 lemongrass stick, trimmed and bruised

2 cm galangal, skin scrubbed, bruised

1 tablespoon oil

500 g (1 lb 2 oz) oyster mushrooms

3 tablespoons thick coconut milk

1 1/2 teaspoons dark palm sugar (gula jawa), shaved

2 teaspoons kecap manis

1 1/2 large red chillies, seeded and sliced

1 ripe tomato, cut in wedges

For the Bumbu spice paste:

1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds

4 peppercorns

1 small red Asian shallot, roughly chopped

2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

1 candlenut or 2 blanched almonds

1 cm ginger, peeled

1 cm turmeric, peeled, or 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

Method:

Start by making the bumbu spice paste. For this small quantity I find this easiest to do with a pestle and mortar. Start with the coriander seeds and peppercorns, then add all the other ingredients and grind to a paste.

Put the bumbu in a large frying pan with the lime leaves, lemongrass and galangal. Drizzle in the oil and stir-fry until fragrant. Loosen the paste with a ladleful of water.

Add the mushrooms and turn to coat in the spices. Add the coconut milk, palm sugar and a good pinch of salt. Cook for 5–10 minutes. The mushrooms will release liquid as they fry. Towards the end of cooking, stir through the kecap manis, sliced chillies and tomato. Taste for seasoning.

Another night saw me tackle the equally delicious Javanese Sea Bream and Spinach, which became Monkfish, Water Chestnuts and Spinach because there was stuff which needed using up before I could even consider shopping for new ingredients. The Sweetcorn Rice went with it brilliantly and my version of Vegetable Urap with Dessicated Coconut was good too with all sorts of things (sausages, steak) as well as the fabulous fish dish. Again, I made changes to the recipe, and used yellow peppers and leeks in place of the edible fern tips or seasonal greens, the fine green beans and the beansprouts because that’s what I had to hand.

Vegetable Urap with Fresh Spiced Coconut

Serves: 2-4

Time: Varies according to your choice of vegetables!

Ingredients:

140 g (5 oz) edible fern tips or seasonal greens, roughly chopped

100 g (3. oz) fine green beans, cut in thirds

100 g (3. oz) beansprouts

1 tablespoon coconut oil

6 small red Asian shallots, sliced

4 garlic cloves, sliced

1 large red chilli, seeded and sliced

100 g (3. oz) grated fresh coconut or 80 g (1 cup) desiccated coconut

100 g (3. oz) cooked black-eyed beans (optional)

juice of a kaffir lime or lime

1 tablespoon crisp-fried shallots

Method:

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and add the fern tips and green beans. Cook for 2 minutes or until just tender. Add the beansprouts for the last 20 seconds of cooking. Drain and leave to cool. If you have used greens that retain a lot of water, gently squeeze them dry.

Set a wok or frying pan over a medium heat and add the coconut oil followed by the shallot and garlic. Cook, stirring frequently, until pale golden, then add the chilli and cook to just softened. Lower the heat and add the coconut along with a good pinch of salt. If using desiccated coconut, also add a splash of water to soften and help the flavours meld. Cook just for a minute, then remove from the heat and leave to cool.

Toss the vegetables and black-eyed beans (if using) with the spiced coconut and lime juice and taste for seasoning. Scatter over the crisp-fried shallots.

Food 2020 – The Great British Chefs Cookbook Club January/February 2020 - The Great British Chefs Cookbook Club As if I don't have enough to do, I've recently allowed myself to be sucked into a rather fun group on Facebook (I know, I know...), …

[pravasiga]

July 18, 2017 - Dépaysement: (n.) The feeling that comes from not being in one’s home country, being a foreigner. Wandering, abroad, and far away from home. Origin: French

I remind myself to look up as often as I can, so I don’t miss out on the feeling of standing under a sky I’ve always seen, while my feet are rooted in earth that I had never yet walked. I constantly remind myself that in just a few weeks’ time, every moment I have had in India will become past, will become part of my history, will become part of the stories I have cloaked my body in. It feels traitorous to be homesick when I realize how fleeting these 8 weeks are, cocooned away from the rest of the world, fully aware of how difficult it will be to return. And yet, I am. It’s taken me two weeks to come up with another blog post because it’s much harder to write about home when traveling abroad. There’s a certain guilt, a certain discomfort that you aren’t dedicating your entire self to the incredible experience in front of you. But in many ways, I have been making a home or sorts here among the trees and farmland. Sometime in the last few weeks, my body settled in with the food, my rhythms became calibrated to the quiet hum of the Indian countryside, and even my cravings for chicken have subsided. Though not by much because that KFC burger I had last week damn near made me cry real, ugly tears in the middle of a mall food court.

The truth is I could write about all the happy, huge, significant moments, and turn every interaction over until I find a silver lining and big writeable moment with a moral lesson, but there’s something that feels just as right about settling in the same way I would when I come home. Being vulnerable and letting India seep into my bones was a slow process that I wasn’t even aware had begun. The first month in India felt like a constant barrage on the senses – new places to see, new people to meet, new lessons. The second month feels like a quiet retreat back in a familiar shell in a strange, new world, leaving me unsure of where home begins and ends.

************************************************************************** What makes a place a home?

I thought long and hard about this question as I fiddled with the rice and sambar on my metal meal tray. It’s more than just the people, it’s definitely more than just the location, and it’s certainly more than what could be described concisely. Months ago, I had struggled with the mere feeling of rice and sauce and vegetables under my fingers in class. Eating rice with my hands when I had spent so much of my life learning to eat it with chopsticks felt like alien and almost heretical. I had to sit on my left hand to prevent myself from using it to grab food or tear parts of the bread. Now, I absent mindedly rip perfectly sized portions of chapatti with a quick flex and roll of my fingers while I drink water that six weeks ago, would rumble my stomach ominously. I flickered back to my first interview for this program, where I was asked earnestly about my ability to eat spicy food. I had worried about that the most during pre-departure and even during the first dinner I ever had here, where I managed to bite down on something that erupted hot flames down my throat. The pure agony of it, combined with jet lag and fatigue almost managed to turn my stomach inside out. Luckily, I did not.

I roll another ball of rice, beets, onion, and sambar.

My fingers, no matter how much I wash and scrub, always carry a faint smell of food. It reminds me of how I used to unlock the front door and smell the sweet, crisp aroma of my mother’s botanical garden of home-grown, freshly picked vegetables on the table, or the long, dark, strips of pork that my father used to dry out in the laundry room downstairs. The smell of the marinated meat filled every crevice in the house. When the pork went up, it meant that dinner for the next few days were going to be excellent. It also meant that doing the laundry would require some concentration as to not knock all the meat over.

I always thought that I would miss American food here – that’s typical right? I talk about craving cheeseburgers and fries and onion rings and everything that’ll give me a heart attack one day. Even at Cornell, I don’t even know what cuisine of food I typically eat. Most days I’m in ‘eat this fast before you have to run to finish whatever the hell you left until the last minute’ mode. But the cravings that hit the hardest are always the kind of food that no restaurant on this planet could ever serve. Home tastes like fan chei cao dan, with a recipe that only my dad makes correctly, but changes every time the tomatoes are bubbling sweetly in the pot, fluffy scrambled eggs waiting to be added. Home is how he holds out the spoon for me to taste and knows just what to add, digging through the cupboards to put in a pinch, a dash, a splash. I’ve tried recreating this dish on my own, even with my dad on the phone telling me word for word what to do. It never comes out right. Home tastes like my mother’s soup, boiled from the bones of the meal we had last night, where we were all ordered to neatly strip the meat (but not all of it!) from the bones of chickens and ducks. I hear hipsters were calling it bone broth now. It doesn’t matter that what’s a new trend has nourished me through twenty winters and so many nights around the same dining table that has followed us from coast to coast. I can trace the scent, the taste, and the warm path it traces down my esophagus. Home is white rice, where every member of the family prefers the texture slightly differently. When I decide to be a contributing member of the household, I pour a little less water, to avoid making a mushy mess. I swear my brother always adds more than he needs to. My mom just wants rice on the table. My dad wants it to still be hot when he comes home.

White rice here clumps together more than the grains that come out of our rice cooker. I love it in its own way.

But when the kitchen staff comes out with hot, fresh puri from the stove, my tongue etches brand new memories into my mind of what home feels like too. I flash to memories of watching puri inflate on the stove at Saumya’s house and noting how much I loved those doughy little balloons of joy. I flash to memories on the streets of flushing as my grandfather hands me a straight from the fryer you tiao, still crackling with oil. I flash back to the plate in front of me where I reach for another puri. I reach for another experience of familiarity.

The cook recently has been adding dill to several of the dishes – from the potatoes to the lentils to the vegetables. My taste buds remember an echo of the dill plants in my house that stand where other mothers have put flowers. My mom bakes and roasts her potatoes with dill and rosemary. I fight with my brother to pick out the best chunks from the oven tray.

But some memories here stand on their own. Like how I sunk my teeth into a slice of deep, rich golden-orange toned mango and knew that I had ruined the experience of eating mangoes anywhere else in the world. I will remember Kenchanahalli for many things, both big and little, and among them – the fact that I learned to like bananas again in this little parcel of land. The tiny little fruits, about a third of the size of the bananas I was used to eating, were pure and sweet, soft without being mushy. I have to admit that I’ve had better apples though. That still belongs to upstate New York.

Food is a memory that fills you in two ways, both the physical sense and spiritual. It carries stories of home, it carries stories of discovery, it carries echoes of love.

But other things carry hints of home – like staying up late and staring at the ceiling, playing Sound of Pulling Heaven down by Blue October in my iPod as I think about nothing in particular. Lazing around in the golden hour of the day as sunlight filters in through the screened windows. The same motions of getting out of bed at home, getting down a small stepladder at school, and here, ducking out of a mosquito net that has been pretty inefficient at keeping bugs out – they become familiar parts of the fabric of living here. Knowing which part of the bed to not apply extra pressure on because the metal buckles and will snap back with a great hollow thud. Remembering to lift the bathroom door latch up slightly so it won’t scrape against the ground. Getting into the habit of checking whether or not the toilet paper roll is empty or not in new places. Being kept up at night by the screeches of monkeys. Or birds. Or bird monkeys. I’m still not sure and I don’t know if I want to ever find out. Even sprinting up the stairs by the room I’m staying in at night to avoid the possibility to confronting a monkey face to face has become part of life here.

As are the monsoon rains that crash down spontaneously and leave as quickly as they come. Or the feeling of mud and gritty rocks and dust and sand in my sandals at the end of the day. The feeling of the soft green soap that we scrub our meal trays with. The desperate mewing of Kenchanahalli’s resident cat and two kittens (Whiskers and two kittens we can’t differentiate so both are now Furgie). The game of how we can best feed the dogs without attracting attention. The game of how to pet said animals without attracting attention. The same stingy little blue fucker that keeps flying into the office at choice times, disrupting us from our work all the time. Draining cups of hot tea and milk every day, feeling the warm, kashaya slip into our stomachs. Getting into the routine of switching into the charging spots, like a day-long game of musical chairs around the same table. Memorizing where passing oxen and cows have taken a dump on the sidewalk so we can avoid them on our walks in the dark. Gazing up at a pitch black sky, alight with a pinpricks of light, far more clear than any starry night I’ve ever seen. All these details have been worn into my skin, my hands, my memory, and I fear the day that I take these for granted. Life moves fast outside of this bubble, and I am aware of how quickly all of these tiny realities get swept away in the storm. Here, it is quiet and I have time with my thoughts and my hopes and my dreams. I’ve had time to question myself over and over again, wondering about what my future will be. But as it turns out, at the end of the day, I have come to accept Kenchanahalli as home. Just like the day I stopped referring to my Cornell dorm as ‘my Cornell dorm’ and simply just as home, I have simply begun to refer to returning to this little room in this little health center in this little corner of the world as another place where I have not only rested my weary head after a long day, but have allowed it to take residence in some nook and cranny in my heart.

Home turns this big, blue world, into a manageable microcosm of memories. And though I miss home, I know that forever, wherever I roam, a part of me will always yearn to return home here, too.

Matte Siguva, Winnie

PS oh dear god we only have a week left

PPS OH DEAR GOD WE ONLY HAVE A WEEK LEFT

PPPS The first snake has appeared on campus and I still don’t know how to feel about this. But also frogs so many frogs are here and they are cute.

PPPPS Shoutout to the wifi for crapping out on us for this entire weekend because while frustrating, I have never gotten so much nap time in my entire life.

PPPPPS How can we only have a week left???

[abiteofnat]

72 HOURS OF “RESTAURANT WEEK CHICAGO” LATER I’M A NEW WOMAN...

Because when you have very little funds after traveling for five days and have food poisoning that just won’t even let you eat crackers, you should go out for 3 really nice multi-course meals. Logically. It all makes sense. 

Restaurant Week in Chicago is like a frenzied Olympics of the mind, stomach, and Instagram (especially when you’re a food blogger) because the goal is to eat at as many places as possible, and you want all those places to be new and exciting so you can write fresh takes on fresh foods for the followers. And to show other bloggers, “I am relevant and cool.” So I did JUST THAT and even though one of the three places I tried a Restaurant Week menu is a long-time favorite, I strayed from my usual choices to expand my taste bud horizon. If you know me, this is rare, because once I find my favorite menu item at a repeat location it’s probably never going to change unless I experience a horrific interaction with it (aka &Pizza in D.C. a couple weeks ago, RIP to the mushroom-truffle pizza sauce that was my #1 Saturday night and then caused me to sleep in the bathtub so I could vomit freely Sunday night. Why do I tell you this? Because years from now I’d love to read this and laugh, even though now I still just gag at the remembrance of it. Oh, &Pizza... the shortest love affair ever had). 

ANYWAY, since I am one to not back down from a challenge of the food variety, the first Friday of Restaurant Week I was lucky enough to be taken out for dinner at Fleming’s Steakhouse in River North, and then had a lovely early dinner Saturday night at Ema, also in River North, and ended the weekend at Siena Tavern... in River North. There’s a theme here- it’s almost like there’s a section of the city that houses some realllyyyyyy good restaurants... hmmm. I’m going to walk you guys through the menus and what was had by all, and hopefully since Feb. 8 was the last date to try out the pre-fixe menus you can store these places in your brain until next year! It’s always fun to treat this week like a reason to go out and get a little bourgeois, because most of the places on the Restaurant Week Chicago list are a killer steal for the $44 set price. 

Here we GO:  

1. FLEMING’S STEAKHOUSE 

Fleming’s was a choice that shook a lot of people because they follow up, “Wow that sounds so nice!” with “But what does a vegetarian eat at a steakhouse?”

Well, I’m a girl who tends to eat my weight in sushi multiple times a week, and I will never turn away from a big plank of salmon dripping in sauce, which is exactly what came my way course #2... and oh my god, that salmon was so good that I almost didn’t feel guilty it wasn’t still swimming in a creek somewhere. (Whatever, a bear probably would have gotten it before me anyway). 

Fleming’s is a somewhat modernized steakhouse off Ohio Street that has an incredible wine bar on the first floor, worth sitting in for a pre-dinner drink for SURE, and their upstairs is a plush, warm environment that gives you steakhouse vibes while still being slightly intimate and even “cozy”. It might have been the entire bottle of red wine we drank but I recall the room being all orange, red, and gold colors so you’re for sure not sitting in some dark cave ripping into a steak (which is how some of the suburban ones can feel- Morton’s in Northbrook is literally a dimly lit daddy cavern). Our waiter couldn’t have been nicer, even when we quizzed him on his age because he looked like a rather tall fifteen year old to be handling wine (he was 25 and engaged- wow), and he made sure our meal was entirely to our liking. The meal was as follows:

Course One: Bread + various butters, all delicious. Then, a lobster bisque that was super creamy, rich in color, garnished with herbs and crème fraîche, and worth every single calorie since it was clearly made with an entire cow’s worth of cream. Not to mention a whoooole lot of butter, however when you’re committing to a bisque, you want it to be so heavy that United makes it pay for it’s luggage, and this bisque did not disappoint. 

Course Two: A whole salmon smoked + grilled perfectly, giving it a robust woody flavor but then slathered in a BBQ sauce that had just the right amount of molasses in it to make it sweet, savory, and even a tad salty. This slab of salmon was the first real plate of food I’d had in what felt like years, and WOW did my body need that iron. I asked for it well-done to give it that meaty texture and they made it the most perfect, succulent salmon ever, however most steakhouses blow my mind with how they can make a wiggly fish into a 5-star meal. My now-boyfriend (Fleming’s was a pivotal turning point for us) got the steak and entered a new dimension upon eating it, so for all you carnivores try the steak because it looked + smelled beyond awesome. Can’t give you more details on the taste tho! 

Course Three: A couple of sides that can’t really be counted as a separate course, but given how long it took me to enjoy the mashed potatoes it turned into a 20-minute flavor endeavor. We got the Fleming’s potatoes that have jalapeños stirred in- delicious - and then the good ole mashed potatoes that I knew would absolutely kill and THEY DID. A pound of butter, some salt, and the red potato skins mashed in there for texture... job well done. They deserved every single minute spent on them, which were a lot of minutes, because I was so full but my love of mashed potatoes meant leaving a little behind as possible. 

Course Four: DESSERT! Because it’s stupid to have two of the same thing on any table, I got the carrot cake and he got the cheesecake, and then I proceeded to eat two bites of the carrot cake and then eat most of the cheesecake since that was easily the star of the show. Everything was delicious though so there was no wrongdoing!!! Fleming’s is worth it even not during Restaurant Week, so go check it out if you want to have a fancy lil night out. 

2. EMA

So Ema is somewhere very familiar but I’m never sick of, given the atmosphere is literally perfect and the food is insanely flavorful and fresh for its price! It’s normal to start the meal with a spread or dip anyway, so getting to pick two for the first course for Restaurant Week?? I was sold on heading back there for a girl’s-night dinner to see if anything new peaked my interest. 

Course One: Anything with their fresh, hot house pita bread that has olive oil, salt, and rosemary sprinkled on top is a friend of mine so I got the spicy hummus and the charred eggplant spread as my two appetizers... AND WAS SHOOK. Usually I’m a hummus girl but sometimes it can taste a little too much like nuts (due to the chickpeas) and that evening, the hummus was sooo overshadowed by the charred eggplant. I’d never had that before and since eggplant can be slimy, I was nervous, but near the end I even started eating the eggplant with a spoon since the bread was gone and I couldn’t fathom wasting the flavor. GET THE CHARRED EGGPLANT SPREAD. It’s so smooth and has a lemony punch that plays with the savory nature of “char” flavor very well. 

Course Two: Risotto! They had a butternut squash risotto on the Restaurant Week menu which I’d somehow never noticed on their usual menu, and my #1 choice for dinner at Ema is always the octopus because it’s a huge serving and comes with even more delicious sauces. However, on a wintery afternoon, butternut squash risotto with parm and crispy sage seemed much more appropriate. Then- the flavor punch NO ONE SAW COMING- SQUASH VINAIGRETTE DRIZZLED ON TOP. It all played together beautifully and had the rich, oatmeal-like texture of risotto but with a light kiss of balsamic and then the punch of sage that is so unexpectedly important. This dish felt like a blind date that ends up being your life partner... yup. 

Course Three:  DESSERT AGAIN!

I got the small chocolate cake that was a thick dark-chocolate gnache with a very smooth vanilla whipped-cream dollop on top, and it had chunks of freshly-ground sea salt sprinkled on the plate so if you got the perfect bite it would be like jumping into the ocean on a hot day. Refreshing, insanely pleasing, and then that flicker of salt on your tongue. This dessert did a lot for me and was only the size of a granola bar, so it wasn’t overly indulgent. 

You can see photos of this meal on in a saved story collection on my Instagram, just go to @abiteofnat and hit “Top Meals”. Enjoy!!! 

3. SIENNA TAVERN 

Oh Sienna Tavern, how I adore you. After going once freshman year for an over-the-top date with a friend to avoid the bars, I really got hooked on the intimate restaurant experience this place gives you. It’s low lighting, plush leather and dark wood accents, and upscale Italian-inspired food- what more can you want??? On Super Bowl Sunday this is where my sister wanted to celebrate her 18th birthday so away we went, enjoying the empty highways and empty restaurant since everyone was watching the Patriots get their ass handed to them, and my final Restaurant Week menu commenced. 

Course One: Since main courses at Sienna Tavern are delicious pizzas and pastas that you don’t want to miss out on, starter was a kale caesar salad that had truffle mixed into the dressing and made kale not taste so much like dirt. I loved this salad and the portion was huge, so everyone could take a little and it was ideal for sharing since the dressing was decadent. Eating kale makes you feel healthier too, so when the pasta laden with pasta came to the table we all felt slim + like we could bear to splurge. 

Course Two: BUTTERNUT SQUASH PANSOTI! It’s like triangle ravioli! To be fair this wasn’t on the Restaurant Week menu, but my sister got a pizza selection off it and I ordered this pasta so it all worked out. This pansoti is astounding: the al-dente pasta alone is at least 1/2 centimeter thick, which makes it a voluminous shape when also filled with sweet butternut squash paste, and then five of them are plated and covered in a heavy brown-sugar-butter “Alfredo” of sorts that you just want to coat your whole body in. And the black cracked pepper on top? Beautiful. It is easily the most filling, indulgent dinner on the menu and you can fight me on this, but it’s worth being uncomfortably full after finishing it. 

Course Three: DESSERT FOR THE THIRD NIGHT IN A ROW! We HAD to get their house favorite, the bombolini donut holes that you get to FILL WITH FILLINGS YOURSELF. These fat, meaty potato-based donuts are deep fried and coated in sugar, and then come in a little paper bag with caramel, chocolate, and raspberry syrups to infuse with. The raspberry is easily the most delicious since it’s a crisp, fruity finish to an otherwise dense meal, and the crunch of sugar makes the citrus in the syrup pop. OOOO SO GOOD. 

Sienna Tavern, you can do no wrong. 

So there you all go! I ate so much fucking food in one weekend that I genuinely don’t know how I made it to the gym without passing out the following Monday, and I want to thank each and every one of you who helped me accomplish this horrifying feat! To my boyfriend, thank you for one of the best meals + company to enjoy it with, to Luzi, I’m always thrilled to spend the evening with you and your beauty, and to my family, thank you for teaching me to love food and a good dining experience from my childhood through right now. AND TO YOU FANTASTIC READERS: GET OUT THERE FOR RESTAURANT WEEK 2019. SEE YOU ON THE BATTLE FRONT! 

Until next time, Happy Eating! 

-Natalie

[woodenspoonblog-blog]

Stuffed Squid in Brunswick Heads

I spent my Easter uni-break at home in the far north New South Wales town of Brunswick Heads. Brunswick is a classic coastal town, complete with a winding river, a bridge to jump off and numerous fish and chip options.

My family doesn’t take Easter too seriously.  We normally have fish on Good Friday (because we love seafood) and eat a few chocolates over the weekend, but generally it is just an excuse to spend time together at home.  

This year Easter weekend fell a week after my dad’s birthday so we decided to spend the Saturday celebrating it.  My aunt Leah was in town from Brisbane and my grandparents came down from the hills near-by to join my parents, my brother Gus, my girlfriend Rennie, myself and our neighbour Ben.

My dad loves to cook, even at his own birthday celebration.  This year he was carrying the seafood on from the night before by making stuffed squid.

But we will get back to the squid later.  

First we ate cheese and dips: sharp siracha cheddar, middle of the range brie and whole chickpea spicy hummus.  We sipped fancy Slick Rick’s red ale and sat around the round dinner table while we waited for my grandparents to arrive.  My mum had bought pepita and cranberry crackers, which contrasted the brie in the most unique way; soft and rich blended with hard and sweet.

Our tiny dog, Socks, a pug x Tenterfield terrier, scampered around scabbing bits of cracker and whatever else she could get a hold of.  I think she might be part cat because she has a way of using her eyes to get what she wants, kind of like Puss in Boots.

At around 4 o’clock my grandparents arrived with their dog, Bella.  Bella is a big black farm dog, she’s dirty, jumpy and undeniably cute.  

Sadly, Socks and Bella are not the best of friends.  In the past they had had quarrels, mostly started by Socks but ended by Bella.

By now, only remanets of the cheese remained and it felt like most of it was in my stomach.  I could tell Gus was feeling similarly by the mixed look of satisfaction and regretfullness on his face. Ben also looked as if he was questioning his decision making in regards to the cheese.

What thoughtless boys we had been.

As the sun began to set, we had run out of Slick Rick’s and had moved on to a variety of new drinks.  Rennie, my mum, my grandmother and myself had moved onto prosecco, the tasty Italian cousin of champagne.  Gus, Ben and my dad were now drinking their favourite ‘affordable’ beer: Ottinger, a cheap, crisp German pils that comes in tall blue and silver cans.  My grandfather as always, drank his cloudy strong home-brew beer from a schooner glass.

At my parent’s house the dining room and the kitchen are separated only by a benchtop, so while the cheesey stage of the day was winding down, my dad was in and out of the kitchen.  Chopping and slicing, the blender whirling; soon a tasty, fishy smell began to spill into the dining room.  

Somehow I was hungry again.   The cheese was a distant memory.  The squid was seeping into my thoughts.

When the squid came out of the oven, covered in thick slices of lemon, the smell intensified.  I could barely contain my excitement.  

My dad proudly plated the squids, listing off the ingredients as we carried them over to the table to take up our positions once again.  

“Cherrie tomatoes, bread crumbs, white wine, lemon zest…” he took a moment to breathe in the smell, “and of course, prawns and scallops.”  He took another deep breath, inhaling all the ingredients before tasting them.

Leah had made a sprout heavy garden salad with a chilli and lime dressing.  I heaped the salad onto my plate next to the squid and poured a heavy amount of the dressing on top, chunks of red chilli scattered throughout the meal.  I added a little Byron Bay Chilli Company coriander and chilli sauce for good measure.

Citrus and seafood, is there a better combination?  The next 10-15 minutes were a blur of huge bites and silence.  The only words that were spoken were muffled compliments to the chef, which my dad accepted quietly but proudly.

From the first incision of my knife, the squid spilled its scrumptious guts all over the salad.   The blended tomatoes gave it a strong red colour but it was the taste of scallops (my favourite seafood) that jumped out of the blended mess.  

The crunchy sprouts and the chewiness of the squid played with the two different types of chilli to form spicy, textured mouthfuls.  

I looked down at the dogs, who had put their differences aside and chosen to sit next to each other.  Both staring forlornly at the people they thought to be the weakest links.  Socks had chosen me, but I stayed strong.

“Not today Socksy, not today.”  

She continued to stare, so I looked away, I refused to fall for her traps.

Before I knew it I only had a few bites left, which I savoured to the best of my ability, cutting them into even smaller ‘half-bites’.

Somehow, after the meal we all managed to eat almond cake and ice-cream with crushed mango that my grandmother had made.  

I don’t know how we managed, but it was definitely worth it:  one cannot simply say no to cake made by a grandmother, they have a certain touch when it comes to the sweets department.  

Finally, bloated and defeated, we sipped slowly on white wine and talked.  

Soon my grandparents left, Socks watched them go, glad that the house was now undisputedly her domain once more.  

Leah, Ben, Rennie and I wandered down to the pub, surprisingly quiet for holiday season in Brunswick.  I indulged in another fancy beer, this time White Rabbit dark ale and lost four dollars on the pokies.  

As usual, it felt great to be home.  

J.D.

[cookwareview]

New Post has been published on http://cookwareview.com/how-to-prepare-a-sangria-recipe-with-red-wine/

How To Prepare A Sangria Recipe With Red Wine

by WordRidden

College parties are always sure to have those huge garbage cans filled with red wine that has chunks and pieces of citrusy fruits floating in it, with just a little hint of brandy in every mouthful taken. That, my dear friends, is sangria. The normal and most common sangria recipe with red wine is so easy to prepare that even a young child could do it. All that is needed is some cheap variety of red wine, a cheaper variety of brandy and some fruits. Mix up everything, chill it as much as possible and your sangria is ready. Well, after all, the main motive behind the invention of sangria was getting drunk and being high at the least possible expenditure.

Sangria originated in Spain sometime around the 300 BC. The earliest sangria recipe with red wine mentioned the usage of any quality of red wine. There existed no rigid rules to the fruits that could be used and it generally depended on the type of fruits available in the region concerned. Moreover in some regions, spices were also used in the place of fruits to add a distinctive taste to the sangria. Somewhere down the line, brandy got added to the concoction and further down, soda also became a popular ingredient of sangria.

The most important component of a sangria recipe with red wine is of course the wine itself. Personally I feel that cheap quality wine should be used for making sangria. This is because the wine anyway is going to be mixed with a lot of stuff. And there is no point in ruining an excellent wine. So it is prudent to be economical when choosing the wine base. The fruits to be added can be whatever the chef prefers or anything that is seasonal. However the citrus ones are known to give sangria a special tangy taste. Throwing in some herbs and spices like dried orange peel, ginger, cinnamon, etc can give it a sweet yet spicy flavor.

There is no definite answer as to which wine is the best option for a sangria recipe with red wine. Fruits are generally put in to tackle the bitterness and it is dry red wine that is normally bitter. So using a dry red wine is a good idea. It is the maker’s personal preferences and tastes that decide on the wine that is best for the recipe. After all, what matters most is the appreciation of people who are going to drink it. Another practical tip to make a sangria recipe with red wine more authentic is to go as cheap as possible as far as the red wine is concerned. Studies have revealed that it is the cheaper varieties of wine that produce a more tasty result and is favored by most people.

Since the name of sangria is influenced by its blood red color, it is traditionally prepared with red wine. However, the recent times have witnessed the use of white alternatives on an experimental basis on many occasions.

The author invites you to create a sangria recipe with red wine at http://www.sangriarecipewithredwine.com where you get a detailed help for creating this recipe.

Recipe

Recipe Amazon products you should keep an eye on:

Moleskine Passion Journal – Recipe, Large, Hard Cover (5 x 8.25) (Passion Book Series) Your cooking tips, all in one place. Fully embossed cover, 3 ribbon place markers and double expandable inner pocket. Informative …

Oceanstar Bamboo Recipe Box with Divider, Natural Store your favorite recipes with the Oceanstar Bamboo Durable Natural Recipe Box. The design and simplicity of the recipe box allo…

Quick and Easy Recipes: 30 MINUTE MEALS: Quick Recipes You Will Love (Quick and Easy Cooking) 30 Minute MealsQuick and Easy Recipes You Will LoveAre you tired of slaving away in the kitchen FOR HOURS everytime you fix a meal…

Recipe