#japanese allspice

[trippingthemoonlightfantastic]

Sweet and Spice

Watercolor On Birch Panel

2022, 40"x 30"

Japanese Allspice, Wintersweet, Chimonanthus praecox

[ayanos-pl]

蝋梅も咲いていた（1月31日）

Zimokwiat wczesny (Chimonanthus praecox)

Wintersweet or Japanese allspice (Chimonanthus praecox)

[falseandrealultravival]

Today's Haiku with Picture 361

Japanese allspice

Yellow blossoms bloom

In the winter sky

蝋梅の

黄色い花や

冬空に

(2023.01.05)

[silvercopen]

「1月といえば ～蝋梅～」 Canon EOS70D  CANON EF 100mm f2.8L Macro IS USM f/4 1/2000s ISO100 -0.3step 100mm 2023/1/22 茨城県つくば市 筑波実験植物園にて

[faguscarolinensis]

Chimonanthus praecox / Wintersweet at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University in Durham, NC

[yuka-p]

蝋梅

[morethansalad]

Vegan Birria Ramen

[ayakill]

#tokyo #walk #chimonanthus #praecox #wintersweet #japanese #allspice #ice #flower #shape #view #美 #香 #studio_hortz #phent_quyh #東京 #日本 #studiohortz #phentquyh #japan #color #ロウバイ #蠟梅 #形 https://www.instagram.com/p/CpFdZkPPxE5/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[lazyevaluationranch]

*pats askbox gently* there are more Thermoreceptors?

(I'm sorry ur dome was so hot; I hope its much cooler now!)

My bluff has been called! Hooray!!

I am not a neurologist, a biologist, or a scientist. If anyone with better credentials than "obsessed with emergent properties" contradicts me, listen to them instead.

Cell membranes include little portal proteins that open under certain circumstances based on the shape of the protein and let chemicals into and out of the cell. These portals are useful for all sorts of things: managing water and nutrients, sending messages to nearby cells, serving the whims of tiny intercellular cats. Science hasn't found the tiny intercellular cats yet, but we all know they're there; the existence of a door that can be opened necessarily implies an indecisive feline.

Some protein shapes open up if the temperature is within a certain range. This means that if a cell with that sort of protein in its membrane experiences a temperature in the right range, it will move some chemicals around. This is used to make nerve cells that send a message towards the brain whenever they experience a certain temperature.

Because evolution does all its best work the night before the deadline while on a Code Red Mountain Dew bender, the opened-by-temperature portal proteins are mostly copied from opened-by-a-specific-chemical portal proteins. All of them, in fact, still open for specific chemicals, which means there exist out in the world liquids you can put in a bottle that most animals will instead perceive as "a temperature between 8 and 26 degrees" So things can get a little weird.

Temperature-opening portal proteins:

TRPA1 Opens for temperatures below 12C (not air temperature, skin or body temperature, so you might be kind of in trouble when this happens). Used by hunting snakes to detect where heat isn't so they can find prey. Feels painful in an itchy sort of way.

This one also opens for allyl isothiocyanate. Many plants have evolved to take advantage of the existence of a chemical most animals perceive as itchy pain, especially horseradish and wasabi. Allyl isothiocyanate is harmful to plants, so they keep two separate components in tiny compartments. When an animal bites the plant, the compartments break open their contents mix to create allyl isothiocyanate.

"This plant tastes like itching" is a good defense against almost all animals, but some humans have taught themselves to appreciate the taste of itching.

TRPM8 Opens for temperatures between 8 and 26 degrees. Opens for menthol (peppermint, spearmint, wintergreen) and linalool (roses, orange blossoms, basil). Feels cool or cold.

"This plant tastes like cold" is a somewhat less effective defense against being eaten than "this plant tastes like itching" but it's a more widespread defense because TRPM8-activating chemicals don't harm plants and don't need elaborate two-part storage.

TRPV4 Opens for temperatures from 27-37 C. I'm not sure what this one feels like, or if even feels like anything, since it covers normal human body temperatures. Whatever feeling we get from this one, we're feeling it nearly all the time.

Plants do make a chemical that tastes like this temperature, and it can repel nonhuman creatures with different body temperatures: allicin, the flavour of garlic. Like allyl isothiocyante, it is stored in two compartments inside the plant, and combined when the plant is bitten.

Maybe this is why vampires abhor garlic. There is a feeling that, as humans, we always have. Something we don't notice, something deeper than touch. That feel disappears forever when you become a vampire, except those unbearable moments when garlic returns to you for a fleeting moment the experience of lost humanity.

TRPV3 Opens for temperatures 33-39 degrees. Opens for eugenol, found in cinnamon, nutmeg, bay leaf, holy basil, ginger, allspice, and cloves. Feels like warmth.

Plants with high quantities of eugenol, like holy basil and Japanese star anise, are sometimes sacred to buddhists because they smell nice and bugs don't like to eat them, so you can burn them as incense without worrying about all the little crawly guys.

Humans apparently think food that tastes like "warm" is comforting.

TRPV1 Opens for temperatures over 43 degrees. (The one I was experiencing in the overheated dome, which I had never felt from air before) Opens for capsaicin, the active chemical in hot peppers. Opens for the combination of temperature and acidity of fevers and infected wounds. This one we feel as pain, as burning, as flame.

TRPV1 says: Your flesh is failing, and your doom is very near.

Humanity says: This is incredible. We are going to breed plants that cause this sensation as much as possible, and we will spend thousands of years getting it right. We are going to dry this and powder this and flake it and grill it and ferment it and eat it with everything.

And when we leave earth and go into space, we take hot peppers with us. Without gravity, fluid builds up in nasal passages, and astronauts sort of have colds the entire time they're in space and can't smell food very well. But the Nearness Of Your Doom is not a smell and is not perceived by the nose, so - with their doom always on the other side of ten centimeters of insulated aluminum - astronauts can taste hot peppers. In 2002, Peggy Whitson, commander of the ISS, jokingly refused to let a replacement crew on board until they handed over the hot sauce.

We are a strange and wonderful species.

[najia-cooks]

[ID: First image is a close-up on a plate of small flatbreads topped with ground ‘meat’; second is a cross-section of one of the breads. End ID]

صفيحة فلسطينية / Safiha falastinia (Palestinian topped flatbread)

Etymology and origins

صَفِيحَة (“ṣafīḥa”), also transliterated “sfiha” and “sfeeha,” is a flatbread eaten in Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria, comprising a yeasted dough topped with a filling made from ground lamb or beef, spices, and chopped aromatics and vegetables. It may also be called “اللَحْم بالعَجِين” (“al-laḥm b al-‘ajīn,” “meat with dough”)—this phrase is the source of the Turkish “lahmacun” and the Armenian “Լահմաջո” (“lahmadjo”), which describe a closely related dish.

The word “صَفِيحَة” literally means “thin plate” or “sheet”; it comes from the root ص ف ح‎ (ṣ f ḥ), which produces words related to flatness. Compare for example “صَفَّحَ” (“ṣaffaḥa”) “to flatten,” “صَفْحَة” (“ṣafḥa”) “page,” and “صَافَحَ” (“ṣāfaḥa”) “to shake hands.” This term has been borrowed into Brazilian Portuguese as "esfirra" or "esfiha," when the flatbread was brought to Brazil by Levantine immigrants—mostly Christians—beginning in the 1890s. Today, esfiha has been naturalized as a "'typical' Brazilian bar food"; it is said that the typical resident of São Paulo is a "Japanese who speaks Portuguese with an Italian accent while eating an esfiha."

In English, lahmacun (also transliterated "lahmajoun") is sometimes called "Armenian pizza." Similarly, it may be called "صفيحة الأرمنية" ("safiha al-'armaniyya"), "Armenian safiha," in Palestine, indicating that it is regarded as a borrowing from the local Armenian immigrant community. In Armenia, lahmadjo is a very thin, soft flatbread typically topped with beef or lamb, tomatoes, tomato paste, bell peppers, onion, garlic, parsley, red chili paste, and black pepper. With Palestinian safiha, lamb is the typical choice of meat; the dough may be thicker, and enriched with the addition of milk, milk powder, or yoghurt; bell peppers are ommitted; and fried pine nuts may be added. Palestinian restaurateur Nassar Odeh remembers lahmadjo being served in Jerusalem's Old City decades ago; he says that "Armenian dishes" such as this have become "part of the Palestinian culture."

Though the Arabic-derived "lahmadjo" and related terms may be heard, [1] the most common Armenian-language name for this dish is "լոշմիս" ("loshmis")—presumably from "լոշ" "losh" "lavash, thin bread" + "միս" "mis" "meat." Some Western Armenian variations on the name reverse this order (meat-dough, rather than dough-meat): "մսաշոթ" ("msashot"), from "մսա" "msa" "meat" + "շոթ" "shot" "thin bread"; and "մսալոշ" ("msalosh"), from "մսա" "msa" "meat" + "լոշ" "losh" "thin bread."

The dish

A common part of everyday Palestinian cooking, صَفَائِح‎ ("ṣafā'iḥ"; plural of "ṣafīḥa") are often eaten as a snack or a portable lunch. They may also be served as a مَزَّة ("mazza"; "appetizer") for عِيد ("'īd"; "feast," "holiday"; often transliterated "Eid") or Christmas.

Safa'ih are shaped into pinwheels in the port city of يَافَا ("Yāfā"; often transliterated "Yaffa" or "Jaffa"), stuffed with ground meat or spinach. In the Bethlehem region the topping is often mixed with tahina, as well as vinegar or lemon juice, and perhaps pomegranate molasses. Other versions of the meat topping omit tahina and vinegar, and are more tomato-heavy instead.

This recipe is for Bethlehem mazza-style safa'ih, with thick crust that's crisp on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside. Vinegar and pomegranate molasses provide a bright, slightly fruity lift to the topping, while tahina grounds it with a toasty, nutty aroma. Black pepper, allspice, and a green chili pepper add complexity and heat.

[1] There is a proliferation of possible spellings for "lahmadjo" in Armenian, which would indicate that it is a loanword (probably via Turkish, ultimately from Arabic). These spellings include "լամաջո" ("lamadjo") [common]; "լահմաջո" ("lahmadjo"); "լահմաջու" ("lahmadjou"); "լահմաջոն" ("lahmadjon"); "լահմաջուն" ("lahmadjoun") [literary; uncommon]; "լահմաջին" ("lahmadjīn"); and "լահմաջի" ("lahmadjī") [rare]. The letter "ջ" is pronounced as "dj" (IPA: [d͡ʒ]) in Eastern Armenian and a "tch" (IPA: [t͡ʃʰ]) in Western Armenian (timestamp: 40:33).

Support Palestinian resistance by donating to Palestine Action’s bail fund; buying an e-sim for distribution in Gaza; or donating to help a family leave Gaza.

Ingredients:

Makes 24 small safa'ih. Serves 24 as an appetizer, or 6-7 as a main dish.

For the dough:

5 cups (600g) white flour

1 cup (230g) non-dairy yoghurt (لبن رائب) (I used soy)

1/2 cup (125 ml) olive oil

1 1/2 Tbsp (15g) dry yeast

1/2 Tbsp (4g) kosher salt

1 tsp (5g) sugar

A scant cup (220g) of water

A more "everyday" preparation of this dish might make larger, flatter safa'ih out of a dough without dairy. This holiday variant includes yoghurt and makes smaller, fluffier safa'ih; but the yoghurt may be omitted (or milk or milk powder may be added) without injury, and the flatbreads can be made any shape you like.

Leila al-Haddad writes that, in Gaza, white flour used to be eaten as a treat and for special occasions before it later came to replace whole wheat white flour in many kitchens.

For the topping:

500g ground beef substitute (as a replacement for minced lamb)

1 medium tomato, minced

1 medium onion, minced

1-2 green chili peppers, minced

2 tsp kosher salt (1 tsp table salt)

3/4 tsp black pepper

3/4 tsp allspice; or Palestinian 7-spice / mixed spices (بهار مشكل)

1/4 cup white tahina

2 Tbsp pomegranate molasses

2 Tbsp white vinegar, or lemon juice

For a tomato filling, omit the tahina and vinegar, and instead use 2 Tbsp tomato paste; or 8 diced or puréed tomatoes, cooked down.

Instructions:

For the dough:

1. Combine all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

2. Make a well in the center and add in the yoghurt, olive oil, and water. Mix them together and then combine them with the rest of the dough. Add water or flour as needed to obtain a soft, slightly tacky dough.

3. Knead the dough on a clean surface for 5-10 minutes, until it bounces back when pressed. Allow to rise, covered, in an oiled bowl for 1-2 hours, until doubled in size.

For the filling:

1. Mince vegetables, or run them through a food processor. Mix all filling ingredients together.

To assemble:

1. Divide dough in half, and then half again; roll out each quarter of the dough into a cylinder and cut it into six equal pieces.

2. Roll each piece of dough into a ball between your hands, and then flatten it into a disc about 1” (2 1/2 cm) high and 3” (8cm) wide. Place on a baking sheet prepared with parchment paper, leaving an inch of space between each circle.

3. Press the center of each dough circle down to create a crust around the edge. Add a few spoonfuls of filling to the center of each safiha and press flat.

4. Bake safa'ih in the middle of an oven at 450 °F (230 °F) for 25-30 minutes, until crust is golden brown.

Serve as an appetizer alongside vegetable salads, pickles, olives, &c.

[eraserisms]

Shota + 🍙 Food Preferences

Let's talk about what Shota likes & doesn't like! Shota isn't particularly picky and eats whatever he can get his hands on. As far as Aizawa is concerned, a cooked meal is a cooked meal, even if it isn't something he favors.

Sweets

Shota is fond of sweet things. Some sweet things that he likes in particular are his jelly pouches (mostly the apple ones), strawberry & matcha cake, and mochi. He loves iced lattes, shaved ice and ice cream during the summer months. Matcha flavored things is his default preference. Shota does like chocolate here and there but there is a kind of richness to it that sometimes Shota can find to be too much. He does enjoy it in small doses though. Shota doesn't particularly care for floral flavors. Shota doesn't like the taste of lavender, jasmine or sakura.

Sour

Shota is a fan of sour things. He enjoys things like sour/green apples and citrus fruits. He loves yuzu lemon, oranges, grapefruit and limes in that order. He enjoys cherries when they are sweet, but he also loves when they have a tartness to them. He is a huge fan of pickled and fermented vegetables. Some of his favorite things to eat are kimchi, pickles of all kind of varieties; cucumbers, carrots, garlic, onions. Umeboshi is another sour food that he likes. He enjoys them cooked with rice and also loves them as a stuffing for onigiri. While Shota does enjoy sour things, he doesn't really like things that are more on the artificial side of things. Things covered with citric acid are usually a no-go such as Sour Patch Kids or Warheads.

Cuisines

Western cuisine really isn't his thing, but that isn't to say he hates it. Shota's favorite Western fare is Italian, but he also enjoys haute cuisine and Spanish dishes as well. American food isn't his favorite, but there are some things that he does really enjoy; burgers, fries and ribs. American foods that he isn't really fond of are turkey and mac & cheese. Some other victual that Shota has a distaste for is Indian and while Shota isn't all that familiar with African, Latin or South American food, those too wouldn't fall under one of his favorites. But that isn't to say that Shota would be incapable of finding a dish or two from those places that he would enjoy. The reason why Shota would dislike these continental cuisines comes down to Shota's spice preferences. Shota isn't a huge fan of herbs and spices such as cumin, nutmeg, allspice coriander, cloves and cilantro (it tastes like soap to him). This is also why he doesn't care for pumpkin spice flavored things. Some other foods that Shota doesn't like are avocado and eggplant due to their texture. He does like the flavor of okra, but it has to be prepared in a way that the texture isn't slimy. On the flipside, Shota loves Korean, Chinese and Thai food.

Favorite Dishes

Japanese: Yakimeshi, Tonkatsu, Ramen, Tempura, Onigiri, Korean: Kimchi-jjigae, Japchae, Jjajangmyeon, Dubu-jorim Italian: Carbonara, Spaghetti alla puttanesca, Pizza, Tiramisu Other: Ban Mi, (Vietnamese) Mapo Tofu, Congee, Peking Duck (Chinese) Tom Sum, Pad Thai, Pad see ew(Thai)

Alcohol

Shota's favorite liquor is whiskey, but Soju follows as a close second for him. Given Shota's close relationship with his maternal grandmother, Shota finds it nostalgic. He used to drink it with her, especially when he spent his summers in Korea. They usually would do either shots of it or make somaek (Soju bombs). Shota also enjoys having a beer or two after work or on the weekends when he has the time. He usually ends up going out onto the porch to drink and have a cigarette with it. If he is going out with co-workers, beer is his his liquor of choice. Shota isn't a fan of tequila or gin. He straight up just doesn't like tequila, and doesn't like the floral taste of gin. Shota dislikes seltzers such as White Claw because they are too dry for him and don't have enough sweetness.

Spice Tolerance

Having spent so much of his childhood in Korea, Shota has a decent tolerance for spice. Sometimes his tolerance can vary though, if Shota hasn't had spicy food for a while, that obviously plays a factor in how much he can handle.

Temperature

If food is supposed to be served warm, and isn't boiling lava hot, Shota probably isn't going to want it.

[trippingthemoonlightfantastic]

Sweet and Spice

Watercolor On Birch Panel

2022, 40"x 30"

Japanese Allspice, Wintersweet, Chimonanthus praecox

[fatehbaz]

In 1678, a Chaldean priest from Baghdad reached the Imperial Villa of Potosí, the world’s richest silver-mining camp and at the time the world’s highest city at more than 4,000 metres (13,100 feet) above sea level. A regional capital in the heart of the Bolivian Andes, Potosí remains – more than three and a half centuries later – a mining city today. [...] The great red Cerro Rico or ‘Rich Hill’ towered over the city of Potosí. It had been mined since 1545 [...]. When Don Elias arrived [...], the great boom of 1575-1635 – when Potosí alone produced nearly half the world’s silver – was over, but the mines were still yielding the precious metal. [...]

On Potosí’s main market plaza, indigenous and African women served up maize beer, hot soup and yerba mate. Shops displayed the world’s finest silk and linen fabrics, Chinese porcelain, Venetian glassware, Russian leather goods, Japanese lacquerware, Flemish paintings and bestselling books in a dozen languages. [...]

Pious or otherwise, wealthy women clicked Potosí’s cobbled streets in silver-heeled platform shoes, their gold earrings, chokers and bracelets studded with Indian diamonds and Burmese rubies. Colombian emeralds and Caribbean pearls were almost too common. Peninsular Spanish ‘foodies’ could savour imported almonds, capers, olives, arborio rice, saffron, and sweet and dry Castilian wines. Black pepper arrived from Sumatra and southwest India, cinnamon from Sri Lanka, cloves from Maluku and nutmeg from the Banda Islands. Jamaica provided allspice. Overloaded galleons spent months transporting these luxuries across the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans. Plodding mule and llama trains carried them up to the lofty Imperial Villa.

---

Potosi supplied the world with silver, the lifeblood of trade and sinews of war [...]. In turn, the city consumed the world’s top commodities and manufactures. [...] The city’s dozen-plus notaries worked non-stop inventorying silver bars and sacks of pesos [...]. Mule trains returning from the Pacific brought merchandise and mercury, the essential ingredient for silver refining. [...] From Buenos Aires came slavers with captive Africans from Congo and Angola, transshipped via Rio de Janeiro. Many of the enslaved were children branded with marks mirroring those, including the royal crown, inscribed on silver bars.

Soon after its 1545 discovery, Potosí gained world renown [...]. Mexico’s many mining camps [...] peaked only after 1690. [...] Even in the Andes of South America there were other silver cities [...]. But no silver deposit in the world matched the Cerro Rico, and no other mining-refining conglomeration grew so large. Potosí was unique: a mining metropolis.

Thus Don Elias, like others, made the pilgrimage to the silver mountain. It was a divine prodigy, a hierophany. In 1580, Ottoman artists depicted Potosí as a slice of earthly paradise, the Cerro Rico lush and green, the city surrounded by crenellated walls. Potosí, as Don Quixote proclaimed, was the stuff of dreams. Another alms seeker, in 1600, declared the Cerro Rico the Eighth Wonder of the World. A [...] visitor in 1615 gushed: ‘Thanks to its mines, Castile is Castile, Rome is Rome, the pope is the pope, and the king is monarch of the world.’ [...]

---

For all its glory, Potosí was also the stuff of nightmares [...].

Almost a century before Don Elias visited Potosí, Viceroy Francisco de Toledo revolutionised world silver production. Toledo was a hard-driving bureaucrat of the Spanish empire [...]. Toledo reached Potosí in 1572, anxious to flip it into the empire’s motor of commerce and war. By 1575, the viceroy had organised a sweeping labour draft, launched a ‘high-tech’ mill-building campaign, and overseen construction of a web of dams and canals to supply the Imperial Villa with year-round hydraulic power, all in the high Andes at the nadir of the Little Ice Age. Toledo also oversaw construction of the Potosí mint, staffed full-time with enslaved Africans. [...] Toledo’s successes came with a steep price. Thanks to the viceroy’s ‘reforms’, hundreds of thousands of Andeans became virtual refugees (those who survived) and, in the search for timber and fuel, colonists denuded hundreds of miles of fragile, high-altitude land. [...] The city’s smelteries belched lead and zinc-rich smoke [...].

The Habsburg kings of Spain cared little about Potosí’s social and environmental horrors. [...] For more than a century, the Cerro Rico fuelled the world’s first global military-industrial complex, granting Spain the means to prosecute decades-long wars on a dozen fronts – on land and at sea. No one else could do all this and still afford to lose. [...]

By [...] 1909 [...], mineral rushes had helped to produce cities such as San Francisco and Johannesburg, but nothing quite compared for sheer audacity with the Imperial Villa of Potosí, a neo-medieval mining metropolis perched in the Andes of South America.

---

Text by: Kris Lane. “Potosi: the mountain of silver that was the first global city.” Aeon. 30 July 2019. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

[anon-e-miss]

Goth Thanksgiving one was a success.

Goth Chicken had a pomegranate and orange glaze with rosemary

Regular Chicken had a honey, raspberry balsamic reduction, with thyme and oil

Roasted vegetables were purple yams, Japanese sweet potato, yam, purple , white and orange carrots and beets with brown sugar, canola, raspberry reduction, cayenne and cinnamon.

Basic ass mashed potatoes

Pies are pumpkin with white chocolate skulls and peach and blueberry with cinnamon and allspice

Used my grandmother lard pie crust recipe.

Cocktail is gin, Cointreau, pomegranate, tonic and simple syrup.

Yes, your Miss can cook.

[thisworld1]

Japanese scented allspice. Text and image by Japanese photographer 雅ぴこ写真垢 @miyaby99

[earthanthem]

Japanese allspice

(via Pinterest)