#western egg recipes

[lazypot-kitchen]

【美式起司炒蛋 】 Cheesy Scrambled Egg

——————————————

【美式起司炒蛋 】一种典型的西式炒蛋的料理。鸡蛋料理千變萬化，幾乎人人都喜歡，来试试滑嫩爽口的炒蛋！包你爱不释手！

Cheesy Scrambled Egg is a typical Western cuisine of scrambled eggs. Egg recipes are so versatile that almost everyone loves them. Try this scrambled egg cuisine that are tender and delicious! You would love it much!

——————————————

【主要食材｜Main Ingredients】

1）鸡蛋 Eggs. - 3粒/beats

2）起司 Cheese. - 1片/slice

3）牛奶 Milk. - 50毫升/ml

4）牛油 Butter. - 适量/ appropriate

【配料部分｜Side Ingredients】

1）欧芹 Parsley Flakes - 少许/ a pinch

2）盐 Salt - 少许/ a pinch

——————————————

【食材准备部分｜Preparation Ingredients】

1）首先，准备3粒鸡蛋。 First, prepare three eggs.

2）然后，将3粒鸡蛋打入碗中。 Then, crack three eggs into a bowl.

3）之后，把鸡蛋蛋散。 Beat the eggs and stir well.

4）过后，加入少许的盐 Next, add a pinch of salt.

5）然后，加入50毫升的牛奶 Afterwards, pour 50ml of milk.

6）最后，搅拌均匀。 Lastly, stir it well.

——————————————

【烹饪部分｜Cooking Part】

1）首先，打开电炉。 First of all, switch on the electric stove.

2）然后，把平底锅热一会儿。 Then heat up the pan for a while.

3）平底锅热后，调制小火。 While the pan is heat, turn over a low heat.

4）之后，在平底锅上再加入适量的牛油。 Then, add moderate amount of butter.

5）等待牛油融化 Waiting the butter to melt.

6）加入1片起司 Add one slice of cheese.

7）之后倒入蛋液 Then pour the egg mixture into it.

8）用小铲或者木铲不停的，轻轻的搅拌 Use spatula or wooden spatula to stir constantly and gently

9）等待蛋液成凝结和细化乳霜状 To make it become smooth and creamy.

10）稍微带点黏稠时，就可以关火啦！ When it slightly become sticky, turn off the heat.

11）最后，把蛋液倒入盘中。 Finally, dish the egg into a plate.

——————————————

【摆设部分｜Decorating Part】

1）撒点欧芹碎粉在蛋液上。 Sparkles with a pinch of parsley flakes on the egg.

2）最后，可以开动啦！ Lastly, enjoy your dish.

——————————————

【介绍美式起司炒蛋的秘诀】

1 | 美式炒蛋要用什么油？ What’s oil is suitable to cook American scrambled egg?

2 | 加牛奶、加奶油有什么区别？ What’s the difference to add in milk or butter in the scrambled egg?

3 | 用什么火候最合适吗？ What’s type of heat is most suitable to cook?

——————————————

👇记得多多支持和关注哟! Don't forget to 按赞 Like👍 订阅 Subscribe 🔔 关注 Follow 👆分享 Share

[effyeahtombraidergirls]

Western Omelet This quick and simple option for a hot, healthy breakfast is a Western-style omelet filled with ham, scallions, and green bell peppers.

[local-grill-masters]

Best Western Omelette Recipe - How to Make a Western Omelette

Cowboys will love this hearty Western omelette! The classic filling includes sautéed bell peppers and onions, shredded pepper jack cheese, and chopped ham—a great use for leftover ham or lunch meat from the week’s sandwiches.  Two techniques will give you a perfect stuffed omelette every time. The first is the snow plow: Drag your spatula through the uncooked eggs in the pan from the outside to…

[what-even-is-thiss]

I feel like giving video links to help people new to cooking again.

How to chop an onion:

How to mince garlic:

Safe handling of meat and how to avoid cross-contamination:

How to restore and care for cast iron pans:

An in-depth look at methods of preparing spices:

Making homemade chicken stocks and broths:

Homemade veggie broth:

Basics on cooking eggs:

How to make basic European “mother sauces”. Basically these sauces are the bases of a lot of Western European cooking:

Basic curry paste recipe:

And that’s as many videos as I could fit on one post

[oni28]

May 2024 Recipe_Lunch Box

[Recipe Information]

※ Need Recipe Pack Mod Latest Version (24.05.08 version) ※

Egg Roll Rice Corn Dog

1, 4, 8 serve

Category : Lunch Box

Cooking Level_02

Lactose free. It is an egg roll corn dog made using rice instead of batter.

Required Ingredients for 1 serve : Egg(1), Instant Rice(1)

Required Ingredients for 4 serve : Egg(2), Instant Rice(2), Sausages(2)

Required Ingredients for 8 serve : Egg(3), Instant Rice(3), Sausages(3)

Lots challenge 'Simple Living' Compatible.

Hayashi Rice Bento

1, 4, 8 serve

Category : Lunch Box

Cooking Level_03

Lactose Free. Hayashi rice is a Japanese western-style dish. It usually contains beef, onions in a thick demi-glace sauce which often contains red wine and tomato sauce. This sauce is served atop or alongside steamed rice.

Required Ingredients for 1 serve : Egg(1), Instant Rice(1)

Required Ingredients for 4 serve : Egg(2), Instant Rice(2), Wrapped Red Meat(1), Carrot(1)

Required Ingredients for 8 serve : Egg(3), Instant Rice(3), Sausages(3), Wrapped Red Meat(2), Carrot(2)

Lots challenge 'Simple Living' Compatible.

Cooking Time Reduced Compatible

All ingredients are optional

Instant Rice, Sausages can be download Here

[Language]

Korean (by_oni)

English (by_oni)

📌T.O.U

-Don’t re-upload

(Latest patch compatible)

👩‍👩‍👧‍👦 Public Released on May 28th, 2024 (KST)

DL_Egg Roll Rice Corn Dog

DL_Hayashi Rice Bento

[kcrossvine-art]

hi birds of paradise and of prey! I sincerely hope your 2024 has been kind to you so far, and if it hasn't, I hope it starts being fucking nicer soon. We got eyes on it and are ready to take it out should it fail.

I'm coming to the end of my list here soon, so if anyone has ideas on what they'd like to see next, please do hit me up! Even if its just a piece of media with interesting food in it and not a specific dish you wanna see. My roommate got me a recipe book from that TikTok fantasy tavern guy, "recipes from the lucky gryphon"? So we could also take a shot at a few of those, although im not really familiar with his work. Regardless-

We will be making Stuffed Cabbage from Lord of the Rings Online today!

(As always you can find the cooking instructions and full ingredient list under the break-)

MY NAMES CROSS NOW LETS COOK LIKE ANIMALS

SO, “what goes in to this Stuffed Cabbage?” YOU MIGHT ASKYou cant kinda put whatever you want for seasonings and even the meat filling. I used ground beef but pork and lamb are also stellar candidates.

Yellow onion

Garlic

2 eggs

Ground beef

Rice

A head of cabbage

Oregano

Thyme

Red pepper flakes

Cumin

Crushed tomato

Tomato sauce

AND, “what does this Stuffed Cabbage taste like?” YOU MIGHT ASKBa bawsa

Very, very filling wow

2 rolls filled me up for a meal and i made about 20-ish from one head of cabage

A bit plain tbh, the texture is great but I'd really double up on the seasonings

A blank canvas for you to impart your spice preferences onto

Reheating makes it taste almost identical to fresh

Would pair well with a hot sauce dip

could also go well with an artichoke dip

If you run out of room and need to layer the rolls, I'd try experimenting with pouring some of the crushed tomato and sauce inbetween the stacked rolls. Otherwise the ones at the bottom lack a lot of the tomato flavor. However it might make the bottoms on the rolls laying ontop soggy?

. Where rice called for, used long grain white rice

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've never blanched anything before. Theres not much western food that calls for it, meanwhile whenever my friend from malaysia shows a dish they ate, 9 times out of 10 the vegetables are blanched. Much easier process than the fancy name might suggest- boil water and dunk the thing in until its done. Whatever 'done' may be for the thing you are cooking.

Also for the ground beef (or whichever meat you use) you don't have to cook it beforehand, but in doing two tries at making these cabbage rolls i would recommend you at least season your meat before mixing it with everything else. The meat will cook to a safe temperature inside the cabbage rolls, i just prefer the taste and texture of it when cooked twice.

I give this recipe a meandering 7/10 (with 1 being food that makes one physically sick and 10 being food that gives one a lust for life again.) I want to review more horrible recipes, truly i do, so that the rating scale isnt always a 6 and above, but whenever i try something horrible its like "why the fuck would i put all the effort into making and sharing a review of this thing i Do Not Want others to eat????" yknow?? Would people be interested in roasting horrible recipes? 

🐁 ORIGINAL RESIPPY TEXT BELOW 🐁

Ingredients:

1 yellow onion

6 cloves of garlic

2 eggs

2 lbs ground beef

1 1/2 cup cooked rice

1 large head of cabbage

28oz crushed tomato

14oz tomato sauce

Oregano

Thyme

Red pepper flakes

Cumin

Salt/pepper

Method:

Saute garlic and onion in butter over medium heat until onions are caramelized. When done, remove from heat and let cool.

Season the beef to your liking with cumin, red pepper, and salt. Very, very lightly cook the beef in the same pan used for the garlic and onions. Cook until it starts to brown, but dont let it darken. 

Beat eggs thoroughly with oregano, thyme, salt, and pepper.

Add all of the above ingredients together in a bowl with (cooked!) rice. Mix thoroughly then cover and let rest in the fridge.

Core and blanche your cabbage in boiling water, peeling them off as they become limp.

Once you've separated all the leaves, cut off any thick stems that would prevent the leaf from folding.

Put roughly 2 tablespoons of meat filling into each leaf. Fold the sides of the leaf inwards and roll it up. Place each cabbage roll seam-down into a casserole dish.

If they don't all fit in one layer, its more than okay to stack. Try not to stack more than 2 layers though.

Once you've used all the cabbage, take your can of tomatos and pour them over the rolls. Mix some oregano into the tomato sauce and pour that over the rolls as well.

Bake uncovered in the oven at 350 for about 2 hours. Dont worry if a bit of tomato on top looks burnt.

IF REHEATING LEFTOVERS: Bake 10 cabbage rolls in the oven at 320 for about 40 minutes. Reduce time for less rolls.

[everythingseasoning]

What the JJK men eat for breakfast

[Y’all already know what Gojo’s one is gonna be like… ]

Warnings: none! Pure fluff <3

Nanami - A medley of things: usually his breakfast consists of salmon and rice, yogurt with berries, and a leafy salad with extra kale and tomatoes. Nanami starts the day off right, ensuring he’s got enough energy to get through the day with the grueling task of fighting curses. —After all, Nanami takes his job seriously & his goal is to save people; Nanami eats well so that he’s not in a weaker state— in the case that his energy level is the difference between somebody living or dying. [bonus note: Nanami carries protein bars and runner’s gel on him at all times, in case he needs a pick me up.]

Choso - the traditional Japanese breakfast of miso soup, fish, pickled vegetables, and rice. This breakfast array is filling for the stomach, and satisfying for the tastebuds, while also being healthy and a great way to start off the day with lots of energy! —These things are important to Choso, at least nourishment is important for him to serve to his brothers. He also enjoys this typical Japanese breakfast when he’s not totally neglecting himself while in search of his brothers. [bonus note: Hundreds of years ago, Choso used to cook for his younger brothers, juggling making meals with a bunch of other things. So, he can do lots filling & healthy recipes.]

Toji - this booger will eat anything he can find. He ain’t doin no meal prep the night before. He worries about it the day of. [bonus note: he’s gotten his breakfast by stealing lunch boxes from unsuspecting children more times than he can count.] [bonus note two: Toji actually really enjoys the typical western breakfast of bacon and eggs, toast, and coffee. He would eat this a lot back when his wife was still alive.]

Geto - this pretty prince likes having a solid meal for breakfast, something both nourishing and enjoyable. His favorite breakfast meal is fried rice with lots of meat bits, miso soup, green tea, and a salad. [bonus note: Though Geto doesn’t have a sweet tooth to the extent Gojo does, Geto does enjoy a pastry in his breakfast a few times a week.]

Gojo - He loves donuts for breakfast. They’re just such a sweet treat— he loves that it’s sugary glaze (or chocolate) melts on his tongue like a shot of liquid happiness, as the first taste he experiences in the morning. Gojo will also have a berry smoothie to accompany his sweet tooth. He honestly doesn’t eat super ravenously, so this suffices as a breakfast for the almighty Satoru Gojo. [bonus note: back when Satoru and Suguru were in each others’ lives, on top of his own, Satoru would often end up eating whatever Suguru was having for breakfast.]

➜ M’s JJK masterlist

teehee I did toji dirty— or did I? (Nah he did this to himself).

Comment for a part two for the JJK students!

Comments/Feedback highly appreciated 💗!

➜ M’s JJK masterlist

Taglist: @satorulicious (it’s a small headcanon but I hope u like the Gojo part!) @kapeeshkapoosh (ily <3 hope you like hehe) and @sysysysysysysysysysysysysysy (from my taglist!)

[demonslayedher]

The first fanbook tells us that lately, Mitsuri is hooked on "youshoku" (Western food) like pork cutlet and omelette rice, so her expenditure on food is pretty extreme.

Nowadays, these Japanese-style "Western foods" are pretty ubiquitous but not actually things you run into much in "the West." The ingredients and recipes have changed here and there with how long they've been around, so a nerd buddy who knows Tokyo better than I do (and who is a Mitsuri fan) insisted I try out what these things would have tasted like in Taisho. That's why she took me to Rengatei, where some of Mitsuri's favorite dishes were born.

I'm going to let this food blog do the talking about the restaurant itself and how it has the credit for creating many well-known dishes, including pork cutlet and omelette rice. It's an interesting, short read.

We'll focus most on what Rengatei might mean for Mitsuri, and on that note, I'll call your attention to the fact that this food blog article first mentions looking for a similar restaurant with a long history in the Azabu Juban area. Mitsuri is from a spot that was known as the Iikura neighborhood of the Azabu area in the Taisho period, and what is now known as the Azabudai area. Back in the Taisho period, this was a glitzy shopping and entertainment area where Mitsuri would have had many options for popular Western style restaurants. Even today, Azabudai feels like an area meant for people who make far more money than I do.

So, if she was spoiled for choice closer to where she lived back then, would she have bothered going over to Ginza, another glitzy shopping area of Tokyo, to visit Rengatei? The restaurant opened in 1895, a year or so before she was born, so it would have been well established, but not exactly new. To that I say, let's assume she'd have had plenty of opportunities to go to Ginza. It's perfectly reasonable to assume she might have visited the restaurant that developed some of her favorite dishes. Even today, Rengatei plays up the retro atmosphere with the table setting and wait staff uniforms.

Thing is, despite the retro feeling of modern-day Rengatei, this building was constructed in the 1960s. Mitsuri's wouldn't have seen the place in the same way you can see it today.

The kicker is that it would have been the same Meiji era recipes.

My friend who took me along asked for my thoughts on the food afterward, and we arrived at the same conclusions about it being not amazing, but feeling a little imperfect compared to many other versions of these recipes that we've had. Like you can tell these were freshly developed and on the homestyle side. I had the omuraisu (omelet rice, as it is better known today instead of the long o-mu-re-tsu-rai-su* as it used to be known), and she had the tonkatsu (pork cutlet, which is also a shorter way of saying po-o-ku-ka-tsu-re-tsu*, with "ton" for "pork").

*Both the KnY fanbook and the Rengatei menu use old, long names, though there was some linguistic variation like ka-re-ka-tsu or ka-to-re-to until the current names were settled on.

So why were these sorts of foods such a big deal? There were a lot of new foods introduced to the Japanese diet over the course of the Meiji period, especially meat, since Japan was very influenced by Buddhism and not widely in the habit of eating it (but you can always find exceptions, and different strains of Japanese Buddhism vary in how much they condemn certain lifestyle choices). Many new meat dishes, like curry and sukiyaki (or rather, gyunabe as Rengoku knew it in his bentou), were fancy and expensive and novel in the Meiji period. Perhaps more surprisingly, eggs were also a luxury item (though they have a complex history in the Japanese diet).

Granted, by the time the Taisho period rolls around, a lot of high society in Tokyo has already had some time to get used to these new menu items being a thing, and how much they were adopted into people's lifestyles varied as much as how much they adopted Western attire and houses. On that note, it is very interesting how in the flashback to Mitsuri's family life, they live in a very Japanese-style home and visit Japanese-style establishments and eat Japanese-style sweets, but by the time we join Mitsuri for Hashira training, there are Western elements to her home (though it is not clear if she lives with family or not), and she eats Western style sweets (beekeeping has a long history, and Western methods of beekeeping were introduced in Meiji long before Mitsuri was born). We can see how quickly what was normal for Mitsuri changed over the course of her life, so it's possible she really hadn't been in a habit of eating Western food until closer to when she joined the Corp. While I'm sure Rengoku was happy to eat anything, his home and tastes still seem to lean distinctly non-Western in comparison.

Anyway, so how was the food at Rengatei? Back to that topic!

I usually associate restaurant omuraisu with being impeccably fluffy, and with a variety of sauces and rices seasonings to choose from, even if ketchup is traditional. However, this omelet had a distinctly flatter, more inconsistent texture than you usually get with standard restaurant omuraisu. It's closer to just the usual flat, bumpy, but at least smoothly beaten omelette you'd be more likely to accomplish at home. Even the ketchup had a bit of a freshly-blended quality to it, but I can't exactly say I'm ketchup connoisseur. For all we know about Mitsuri, she might be.

The pork cutlet was, as you get into it yourself instead of having somewhat pre-cut strips like at many tonkatsu establishments, very clearly a hunk of meat. My usual image of tonkatsu is a evenly tenderized, evenly cooked hunk of white meat, with a stretch of fat along one side. Not so with this--the textures and darkness and lightness of the meat, as well as the amount and distribution of fat, was more typical of a cut of meat that is first and foremost meat; not a uniform product. My friend really loves tonkatsu, and says she prefers this juicy, not-quite-perfected version. Because it is a greasy dish, this is why Rengatei introduced the convention of serving it a bed of shredded cabbage to aid in digestion, which all of Japan has copied ever since.

As a brief note, most online sources say "yeah, Rengatei invented tonkatsu (but we're all probably copying the same source)." It seems there is another restaurant (Ponchitei) that claims to have invented tonkatsu before or after 1897, and for what I've poked around, the claims for Rengatei's invention aren't clear, but 1899 seems like the most likely time it entered the menu (I saw a claim for 1890, but the restaurant didn't open until 1895...).

Anyway, tl,dr; I did feel I was eating something closer to what Mitsuri would have known and loved by having eaten at Rengatei.

I also felt it went to show why her food bill was so high, because Rengatei is not cheap (like, about twice what I'd typically be willing to pay). You're paying for some ambiance and history here, as opposed to just a standard meal. Also, it is worth noting that although there is scant official information for the parent restaurant in Ginza, there is a lot more information for an off-shoot restaurant in Fukagawa that opened in 1928. That includes a short, cute English article introducing Western foods.

But hey, despite the stiff prices, I was full and satisfied after one plate of omuraisu and a couple bites of pork cutlet. Mitsuri-chan has a Hashira salary, so she can afford as many servings as she likes.

[dduane]

The Novel as Cake

    I was reading through the 'writing' tag on your blog, and came across your wonderful post about how you outline your novels using Cherryh's 'Shopping List' technique. My question is - how do you decide/come up with the 10 things in the novel? I have about 3-4 things I know must happen in my idea, and other random details about the world. But what is important enough to be one of the 10 things? And also, how do you generate your ideas for those 10 things? - Asked by Anonymous

…Okay, let’s take this from the top. (And for convenience’s sake, let’s stay in the shopping-list idiom; it’s useful enough.) (ETA: the blog entry that discusses the Shopping List outlining method is here.)

Let’s say you want to make a cake. …This cake also being your novel.

To have a solid story (in the western-novel tradition, anyway), you need at least two things: plot and theme. The plot is what happens. The theme is the why of what happens, and (to a certain extent) the book-wide spectrum of thought and emotion that underlies that; the answer to the question “But what’s the book about?”* …Think of this duality, for the moment, as the equivalent of having both liquid and solid stuff in your cake. You’ve got to have both or it won’t rise. A book with a plot but no theme has no soul.

So: you’re going to make a cake. What kind?

As an example, I’m going to ease myself out onto a limb here and equate “chocolate-chip devil’s food with chocolate buttercream frosting” with “epic-fantasy quest fiction with strong political, exoreligious, and quasiromantic components.” (A favorite for me, over time, as some folks will have noticed. I just can’t get enough of those chocolate chips…)

So how do you determine the ten things you need (or whatever number you like, but ten works for me) as major ingredients / sections?

Well, ideally from some familiarity with what has gone in other/similar cakes/works of fiction in the past: because (in genre fiction, anyway) you have at least some reader expectations to manage. If you haven’t been reading in your chosen genre, you really should be. ...Now, this doesn’t mean you have to do what other people working in the genre have done. Indeed, at all times you remain at liberty to “flip the punchcard” and do exactly the opposite of what everybody else has been doing, if that’s what suits you. But they’ve set out possible recipes for you, so (as a beginner at this work) it'd seem wise to examine those recipes and see what’s in them that might be useful for you. Once you’ve been doing this for a while, you don’t need to go looking, just as an experienced baker doesn’t need to run for the recipe book every time they want to make a cake.

Naturally you can substitute ingredients, add some or lose some, when you’re creating something new; just as you like—while always making sure you don’t throw away anything routinely required/expected in your genre. (Such as, for example, the Happily Ever After at the end of a genre romance.) But certain basics must be in place, things that make what you’re creating recognizably A Cake, as well as your own additions and embellishments.

In this case, that could be:

For a cake: flour, milk, eggs, butter, baking powder, cocoa, chocolate chips, vanilla extract, seasonings, a little bit of salt (because without that, even the sweetest cake tastes just a little insipid somehow)

For a novel: a protagonist/pairtagonist (is that a word? It is now…); an antagonist (not necessarily a character: an antagonistic or stymie-ing situation that keeps the antagonist from easily getting what they want/need will do just as well. This is where at least some of the interior drama will derive from); a change in interior or exterior conditions that sets events in motion; a “ticking clock” or similar construct that means the desired result must be achieved within a certain time or before certain conditions change or expire; various reversals or hiccups in the flow of the story that will inject a sense of realism (because when does anything ever go perfectly smoothly…?); a crisis point at which everything assembled against the protagonist rises up to be dealt with, and the protagonist rises up to meet the challenge and deal with it; and finally, a set of resolution events that (even if it doesn’t absolutely finish the story proper) brings about an end state that will leave you, and any theoretical reader, satisfied with the completion of the current story arc.

…Needless to say, this is an incredibly oversimplified take on the kind of strategizing needed when you’re creating the recipe for a novel that won’t simply collapse the minute you take it out of the oven. But starting simply is often best. The more you do this kind of work, the easier it gets.

Now: “How do you generate your ideas for those 10 things?”

There are a lot of possible answers to this, but the simplest is: Make them up out of nothing, as usual. :)

…This isn’t meant to sound like sass. You made up those first three or four things you came up with out of nothing, and now (because they’ve been there for a while, probably) they may well have started to acquire a kind of secret, temporally-based superiority in your mind—starting to feel somehow more valid than what needs to come next to fill in the gaps. This kind of creeping sense of validity-via-temporal-primacy is a commonplace when you’re in mid-process, and I invite you to ignore it.

Just insert those three or four things into your shopping list in (roughly) story-temporal order, and then spend some time thinking about what kinds of events could usefully come between / flow from them. Hints:

Events that could realistically have been caused by the ones you’ve got already, and could also realistically be seen as causal to later ones you’ve already established, are always useful. Ideally, you’re trying to establish a chain of events in which none of them look accidental, or coincidental (because readers are rightfully sensitive to plots that only work because all the characters are idiots, or keep having “lucky accidents”). What you’re working toward is an event flow that seems, when viewed in completion, inevitable: as if it couldn’t have happened any other way. You will almost certainly not achieve this easily, early on in your novel work, and maybe not at all. But it strikes me as a good thing to be striving for.

Events that badly screw things up for the main characters are also always useful. Heroes do not become heroes by having everything go their way. Their heroism is achieved and manifested by having things go to shit around them again and again and AGAIN, and nonetheless still finding their way through all that shit to do what needs to be done. The lines attributed to the Confucianist philosopher Meng-tse (sometimes translated from Japanese into English as “Mōshi”) are a touchstone in this regard:

When Heaven is about to confer a great office upon a man, it first exercises his mind with suffering and his sinews and bones with toil: it exposes him to poverty and confounds all his undertakings. Then it is seen if he is ready.

So put your protagonists through the wringer. This is the greatest service you can do them: showing who they are by showing what they're made of.

A variant on this theme: Spend a little time thinking, “What is the absolute worst thing that could happen to these characters in this story / in this world?” And when you’ve figured that out, stick it into one of those gaps as a Main Thing—ideally one between the story’s midpoint and its already-planned crisis, if you’ve got that in place—and then start thinking about how to best exploit it to show how terrific your characters can become if you kick them around a bit. (Addendum: you are allowed to have one Absolutely Terrific and Beautiful Thing happen to assist your characters in recovering from this awfulness. Because they deserve it; but also, all invented worlds [if you ask me] should have beautiful things in them—things to long for, things that make your reader wish they could live there. And that you find beautiful, and worth returning to. You are absolutely allowed to keep yourself entertained, and emotionally refreshed, while you’re creating.)

…Anyway, take your time about getting those gaps filled in. It may take a little while: laying down basic story structure is worth not rushing, if you can avoid it. Once you’ve got everything major in place, the secondary lists will follow more easily.

HTH!

*This is a hilarious oversimplification, but my job at the moment is not (as the saying goes) to explain the workings of the entire universe while standing on one foot. :)

[k-tarotz]

hellooo!! ^^

i’m really sorry if ur not doing these anymore, i tried to look for anything on your account that said you closed requests for this, but i didn’t find anything. please don’t mind me asking if its not available anymore ㅜㅜ

i saw the fs reading candy did for sunghoon, and was wondering if you could do it for wonbin (riize)? i love tarot readings but there’s not much for anyone in riize currently (and i’m not into any other groups atm). thank youuuuu >.< 💗

I would loooove to do it sweetheart!

disc.; the format is a bit different because it’s been a few months already!

personality;

seven of cups reversed, three of coins, queen of coins

alright so his person’s energy feels very feminine yet powerful which was the very first thing that stands out to me. it reminds me of reds and blues, but especially the first one. (if you are thinking of femme fatal no, his person isn’t one. the energy here is much more soft and loving.) this person can stand on their own feet and is someone that is very independent. now, the thing I want to point out is that they also don’t mind relying on other people. they aren’t stuck up neither are they someone that feels weak when receiving help. they can accept help, and also give it. so they could very much likely be a mutable sign or cardinal sign, although the later is much more likely. (mutable = gemini, virgo, sagittarius & pisces, cardinal = aries, cancer, libra & capricorn) although they might sometimes run from their own problems even tho they know it’s not the right choice to do, so they could get scared about how serious life can get sometimes. though once they collected themselves they are very loving, powerful with words and giving. they seem like a very mature and friendly person who just happens to have anxiety. their personality could also be cutesy and child like in a natural way, rather than a forceful way. someone who doesn’t take things to heart and tries to understand situations even if it’s their first time experiencing something like that? their energy also seems very healthy, as in they take a lot of care of themselves in order to try to be their best self. Also, they could be very rational, but in a way it makes them a dreamy person? They can find the silver lining in any situation which could be a strength of theirs. No eggs while they try to bake? Oh well try to try out new recipes! Maybe they will be just as good, or even better. So they have a very unique personality, and can easily get along with many different kind of people!

appearance;

- monolids

- pretty hands (elegant, thin! long nail beds)

- considered tanned in asia, very pale from a western stand point

- skinny, yet muscular (regardless of gender)

- cannot stress this enough but they look beautiful in red (maybe wonbin’s fave colour to see them in)

- really pretty, striking eyes, light in colour

- blond hair (probably dyed)

- possibly taller than average but not taller than him

that’s all! please remember these are my own interpretations. thank you for requesting and reading 🫶🏻🤍

- Candy

[najia-cooks]

[ID: Rice noodles topped with yellow fried tofu and chives; piles of chili powder, peanuts, and chive stems to the side. End ID]

ผัดไทย / Phad thai (Thai noodle dish with tamarind and chives)

Phad thai, or pad thai ("Thai stir-fry") is a dish famous for its balance of sour, sweet, savory, and spicy flavors, and its combination of fried and fresh ingredients. It's commonly available in Thai restaurants in the U.S.A. and Europe—however, it's likely that restaurant versions aren't vegetarian (fish sauce!), and even likelier that they don't feature many ingredients that traditionalists consider essential to phad thai (such as garlic chives or sweetened preserved radish—or even tamarind, which they may replace with ketchup).

Despite the appeals to tradition that phad thai sometimes inspires, the dish as such is less than 100 years old. Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram popularized the stir-fry in the wake of a 1932 revolution that established a constitutional monarchy in Thailand (previously Siam); promotion of the newly created dish at home and abroad was a way to promote a new "Thai" identity, a way to use broken grains of rice to free up more of the crop for export, and a way to promote recognition of Thailand on a worldwide culinary stage. Despite the dish's patriotic function, most of the components of phad thai are not Thai in origin—stir-fried noodles, especially, had a close association with China at the time.

My version replaces fish sauce with tao jiew (Thai fermented bean paste) and dried shrimp with shiitake mushrooms, and uses a spiced batter that fries up like eggs. Tamarind, palm sugar, prik bon (Thai roasted chili flakes), and chai po wan (sweet preserved radish) produce phad thai's signature blend of tart, sweet, and umami flavors.

Recipe under the cut!

Patreon | Tip jar

Serves 2.

Ingredients:

For the sauce:

3 Tbsp (35g) Thai palm sugar (น้ำตาลปึก / nam tan puek)

2 Tbsp vegetarian fish sauce, or a mixture of Thai soy sauce and tao jiew

1/4 cup tamarind paste (made from 50g seeded tamarind pulp, or 80g with seeds)

Thai palm sugar is the evaporate of palm tree sap; it has a light caramel taste. It can be purchased in jars or bags at an Asian grocery, or substituted with light brown sugar or a mixture of white sugar and jaggery.

Seedless tamarind pulp can be purchased in vacuum-sealed blocks at an Asian grocery store—try to find some that's a product of Thailand. I have also made this dish with Indian tamarind, though it may be more sour—taste and adjust how much paste you include accordingly.

You could skip making your own tamarind paste by buying a jar of Thai "tamarind concentrate" and cooking it down. Indian tamarind concentrate may also be used, but it is much thicker and may need to be watered down.

For the stir-fry:

4oz flat rice noodles ("thin" or "medium"), soaked in room-temperature water 1 hour

1/4 cup chopped Thai shallots (or substitute Western shallots)

3 large cloves (20g) garlic, chopped

170g pressed tofu

3 Tbsp (23g) sweet preserved radish (chai po wan), minced

1 Tbsp ground dried shiitake mushroom, or 2 Tbsp diced fresh shiitake (as a substitute for dried shrimp)

Cooking oil (ideally soybean or peanut)

The rice noodles used for phad thai should be about 1/4" (1/2cm) wide, and will be labelled "thin" or "medium," depending on the brand—T&T's "thin" noodles are good, or Erawan's "medium." They may be a product of Vietnam or of Thailand; just try to find some without tapioca as an added ingredient.

Pressed tofu may be found at an Asian grocery store. It is firmer than the extra firm tofu available at most Western grocery stores. Thai pressed tofu is often yellow on the outside. If you can't locate any, use extra firm tofu and press it for at least 30 minutes.

Sweetened preserved radish adds a deeply sweet, slightly funky flavor and some texture to phad thai. Make sure that your preserved radish is the sweet kind, not the salted kind.

For the eggs

¼ cup + 2 Tbsp (60g) white rice flour

3 Tbsp (22.5g) all-purpose flour (substitute more rice flour for a gluten-free version)

1 tsp ground turmeric

About 1 ¼ cup (295mL) coconut milk (canned or boxed; the kind for cooking, not drinking)

¼ tsp kala namak (black salt), or substitute table salt

Pinch prik bon (optional)

To serve:

Prik bon

2 1/2 cups bean sprouts

3 bunches (25g) garlic chives

1 banana blossom (หัวปลี / hua plee) (optional)

1/3 cup peanuts, roasted

Additional sugar

Garlic chives, also known as Chinese chives or Chinese leeks, are wider and flatter than Western chives. They may be found at an Asian grocery; or substitute green onion.

Banana blossoms are more likely to be found canned than fresh outside of Asia. They may be omitted if you can't find any.

Instructions:

For the eggs:

1. Whisk all ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Cover and allow to rest.

For the noodles:

1. Soak rice noodles in room-temperature water for 1 hour, making sure they're completely submerged. After they've been soaked, they feel almost completely pliant. Cut the noodles in half using kitchen scissors.

For the tamarind paste:

1. Break off a chunk of about 50g seedless tamarind, or 80g seeded. Break it apart into several pieces and place it at the bottom of a bowl. Pour 2/3 cup (150mL) just-boiled water over the tamarind and allow it to soak for about 20 minutes, until it is cool enough to handle.

2. Palpate the tamarind pulp with your hands and remove hard seeds and fibres. Pulverise the pulp in a blender (or with an immersion blender) and pass it through a sieve—if you have something thicker than a fine mesh sieve, use that, as this is a thick paste. Press the paste against the sieve to get all the liquid out and leave only the tough fibers behind.

You should have about 1/4 cup (70g) of tamarind paste. If necessary, pour another few tablespoons of water over the sieve to help rinse off the fibers and get all of the paste that you can.

3. Taste your tamarind paste. If it is intensely sour, add a little water and stir.

For the sauce:

1. If not using vegetarian fish sauce, whisk 1 Tbsp tao jiew with 1 Tbsp Thai soy sauce in a small bowl. You can also substitute tao jiew with Japanese white miso paste or another fermented soybean product (such as doenjang or Chinese fermented bean paste), and Thai soy sauce with Chinese light soy sauce. Fish sauce doesn't take "like" fish, merely fermented and intensely salty, and that's the flavor we're trying to mimic here.

2. Heat a small sauce pan on medium. Add palm sugar (or whatever sugar you're using) and cooking, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot often, until the sugar melts. Cook for another couple of minutes until the sugar browns slightly.

3. Immediately add tamarind and stir. This may cause the sugar to crystallize; just keep cooking and stirring the sauce to allow the sugar to dissolve.

4. Add fish sauce and stir. Continue cooking for another couple of minutes to heat through. Remove from heat. Taste and adjust sugar and salt.

To stir-fry:

1. Cut the tofu into pieces about 1" x 1/4" x 1/4" (2.5 x 1/2 x 1/2cm) in size.

2. Separate the stalks of the chives from the greens and set them aside for garnish. Cut the greens into 1 1/2” pieces.

3. Chop the shallots and garlic. If using fresh shiitake mushrooms, dice them, including the stems. If using dried, grind them in a mortar and pestle or using a spice mill.

4. Roast peanuts in a skillet on medium heat, stirring often, until fragrant and a shade darker.

5. Remove the tough, pink outer leaves of the fresh banana blossom until you get to the white. Cut off the stem and cut lengthwise into wedges (like an orange). Rub exposed surfaces with a lime wedge to prevent browning. If your banana blossom is canned, drain and cut into wedges.

6. Heat a large wok (or flat-bottomed pan) on medium-high. Add oil and swirl to coat the wok's surface.

If you're using extra firm (instead of pressed) tofu, fry it now to prevent it from breaking apart later. Add about 1" (2.5cm) of oil to the wok, and fry the tofu, stirring and flipping occasionally, until golden brown on all sides. Remove tofu onto a plate using a slotted spoon. Carefully remove excess oil from the wok (into a wide bowl, for example) and reserve for reuse.

7. Fry shallots, garlic, preserved radish and tofu (if you didn't fry it before), stirring often, until shallots are translucent. Add mushroom and fry another minute.

8. Add pre-fried tofu, drained noodles, and sauce to the wok. Cook, stirring often with a spatula or tossing with tongs, until the sauce has absorbed and the noodles are completely pliant and well-cooked. (If sauce absorbs before the noodles are cooked, add some water and continue to toss.)

9. Push noodles to the side. Add 'egg' batter and re-cover with the noodles. Cook for a couple minutes, until the egg had mostly solidified. Stir to break up the egg and mix it in with the noodles.

10. Remove from heat. Add half the roasted peanuts, half of the bean sprouts, and all of the greens of the chives. Cover for a minute or two to allow the greens to wilt.

11. Serve with additional peanuts, bean sprouts, banana blossom wedges, chive stems, and lime wedges on the side. Have prik bon and additional grated palm sugar at table.

[risingwinter]

Vegan, autistic meals

As an autist working toward veganism, one of the trickiest things is finding recipes that don't take dozens of ingredients, more than half an hour, are texturally strange, or all of the above. What I would have loved at the beginning was the reminder that there are existing things we eat commonly that are either already vegan or easily made vegan. Examples below the cut.

"longevity soups": these usually incorporate sauteed vegetables (potatoes, carrots, celery, and the like) seasoned simply with salt, pepper, maybe some garlic and paprika and whatnot. Vegetable broth, tomato paste/stewed tomatoes/etc., cooked beans, and uncooked pasta are added and boiled until the pasta is tender. This one may take up to an hour but half of it is downtime. For those with gluten issues, you can skip the pasta, with bean issues you can skip the beans, add or replace with TVP, these are very flexible.

peanut butter and jelly: bread isn't inherently vegan, but it's a lot easier for it to be vegan I would remember. You don't need eggs or milk, just water and yeast and you'd be surprised how many breads are done that way. Maybe unique where I've been living, but there's always been a vegan option available in the store aisle. Similar note with pasta--most of the shelf-stable kinds just use water.

Asian recipes! So many of these, like peanut noodles, different varieties of chow mein, yakisoba, etc. A lot of Asian countries didn't grow on the same reliance western countries have had for animal products (insert caveat for fish) so I feel like there's a lot more easily-modified recipes to work with.

Salads: I used to imagine just leaf salads and that's not sufficient for getting your nutrients. What I've been making lately is a pasta salad with beans and chopped vegetables like cucumber, tomato, broccoli. I add some vinaigrette dressing with some salt when serving.

Notice the lack of vegan meats and cheeses. I love the growing availability of these, but they can take some getting used to as an autist and are not the same as their animal counterparts. Fake cheeses can really up the quality of the salads if you do want to try them, and fake burgers camouflage well with other burger condiments. I also love tofu, whether it's firm and fried or silken mapo tofu, and can be added to most recipes.

Hopefully this helps someone else either in their current journey or who wants to try dabbling. (Don't forget your B12, though.)

[not-available-for-comment]

So I needed to use up an open carton of chicken broth and I also had some tofu I’d been planning to make crispy tofu with, so the obvious answer was ramen. But I don’t really like brothy soups and I generally try to eat buckwheat soba or very small amounts of western noodles in noodle dishes due to the diabetes. I also tend to like Vietnamese food so I was like fuck it let’s make a pale imitation of pho with soba noodles.

I need to go shopping so I have like nothing in the house, but I mix up the tofu and put it in the oven and then I put the stock on the stove to boil with some water (because I only had 2 cups stock). I try to remember what goes in pho or in ramen for that matter, and I’m very sad that I have no bean sprouts or cilantro in the house but I do have some very elderly carrots and some reasonably fresh garlic, so I matchstick the least pathetic carrots and thinly slice an enormous clove of garlic and add those to the simmering broth.

Then I sit down for a bit because I exploded my spine a few months ago and sometimes that means you sit down a lot.

When the tofu was ready to come out of the oven I set it out to cool and then added two bundles of soba to the broth because I didn’t want a ton of broth and I did want leftovers. (Mistake; should’ve just done one bundle. Oh well.) My green onions are even more pathetic than my carrots but I slice up the best bits and roughly chop a small handful of salted roasted peanuts.

When the soba’s cooked I take the broth off the heat, lift out as many noodles as I want, and ladle some broth over them. I add the scallions, the peanuts, a few dashes of fish sauce, a few dashes of soy sauce, and the juice of half a lime. I stir in a fistful or so of arugula until it’s partly wilted. (Because I think bitter greens go better with Asian food and that’s the one I have on hand.) I add a handful or so of roasted tofu. I realize a ramen egg would be killer with this but oh well too late to make one now. I dig a lemon ginger kombucha out of the fridge.

It is… almost unfairly good? I genuinely don’t understand how I made something this good out of the pathetic scrapings of my fridge. Aren’t you supposed to suffer for good food? (Whoa where did I learn to think like that?)

I am incapable of eating noodles like a sane adult, which is another reason why I don’t eat much ramen. I slurp them and I bite them and they make a mess and I generally look like a weird little noodle gremlin. But I don’t care. I MADE these and they’re GOOD. How did I do it? I don’t know. It has something to do with my girlfriend though. She can’t cook for me right now, but she cooks for me like she loves me, and it makes me want to cook like I love myself. I took a picture for her, see?

This recipe won’t win any awards. It’s not authentic. It would be better with sprouts, and cilantro, and a ramen egg. But it was good, and I made it myself, and I made it for myself, and I ate it. I’m proud of this recipe.

[harker-jonathan]

3 May. Bistritz. —Left Munich at 8:35 P. M, on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have arrived at 6:46, but train was an hour late. Buda-Pesth seems a wonderful place, from the glimpse which I got of it from the train and the little I could walk through the streets. I feared to go very far from the station, as we had arrived late and would start as near the correct time as possible.

The impression I had was that we were leaving the West and entering the East; the most western of splendid bridges over the Danube, which is here of noble width and depth, took us among the traditions of Turkish rule.

We left in pretty good time, and came after nightfall to Klausenburgh. Here I stopped for the night at the Hotel Royale. I had for dinner, or rather supper, a chicken done up some way with red pepper, which was very good but thirsty. (Mem. get recipe for Mina.) I asked the waiter, and he said it was called “paprika hendl,” and that, as it was a national dish, I should be able to get it anywhere along the Carpathians.

I found my smattering of German very useful here, indeed, I don’t know how I should be able to get on without it.

Having had some time at my disposal when in London, I had visited the British Museum, and made search among the books and maps in the library regarding Transylvania; it had struck me that some foreknowledge of the country could hardly fail to have some importance in dealing with a nobleman of that country.

I find that the district he named is in the extreme east of the country, just on the borders of three states, Transylvania, Moldavia, and Bukovina, in the midst of the Carpathian mountains; one of the wildest and least known portions of Europe.

I was not able to light on any map or work giving the exact locality of the Castle Dracula, as there are no maps of this country as yet to compare with our own Ordance Survey Maps; but I found that Bistritz, the post town named by Count Dracula, is a fairly well-known place. I shall enter here some of my notes, as they may refresh my memory when I talk over my travels with Mina.

In the population of Transylvania there are four distinct nationalities: Saxons in the South, and mixed with them the Wallachs, who are the descendants of the Dacians; Magyars in the West, and Szekelys in the East and North. I am going among the latter, who claim to be descended from Attila and the Huns. This may be so, for when the Magyars conquered the country in the eleventh century they found the Huns settled in it.

I read that every known superstition in the world is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians, as if it were the centre of some sort of imaginative whirlpool; if so my stay may be very interesting. (Mem., I must ask the Count all about them.)

I did not sleep well, though my bed was comfortable enough, for I had all sorts of queer dreams. There was a dog howling all night under my window, which may have had something to do with it; or it may have been the paprika, for I had to drink up all the water in my carafe, and was still thirsty. Towards morning I slept and was wakened by the continuous knocking at my door, so I guess I must have been sleeping soundly then.

I had for breakfast more paprika, and a sort of porridge of maize flour which they said was “mamaliga”, and egg-plant stuffed with forcemeat, a very excellent dish, which they call “impletata”. (Mem.,get recipe for this also.)

I had to hurry breakfast, for the train started a little before eight, or rather it ought to have done so, for after rushing to the station at 7:30 I had to sit in the carriage for more than an hour before we began to move.

It seems to me that the further east you go the more unpunctual are the trains. What ought they to be in China?

All day long we seemed to dawdle through a country which was full of beauty of every kind. Sometimes we saw little towns or castles on the top of steep hills such as we see in old missals; sometimes we ran by rivers and streams which seemed from the wide stony margin on each side of them to be subject ot great floods. It takes a lot of water, and running strong, to sweep the outside edge of a river clear.

At every station there were groups of people, sometimes crowds, and in all sorts of attire. Some of them were just like the peasants at home or those I saw coming through France and Germany, with short jackets, and round hats, and home-made trousers; but others were very picturesque.

The women looked pretty, except when you got near them, but they were very clumsy about the waist. They had all full white sleeves of some kind or other, and most of them had big belts with a lot of strips of something fluttering from them like the dresses in a ballet, but of course there were petticoats under them.

The strangest figures we saw were the Slovaks, who were more barbarian than the rest, with their big cow-boy hats, great baggy dirty-white trousers, white linen shirts, and enormous heavy leather belts, nearly a foot wide, all studded over with brass nails. They wore high boots, with their trousers tucked into them, and had long black hair and heavy black moustaches. They are very picturesque, but do not look prepossessing. On the stage they would be set down at once as some old Oriental band of brigands. They are, however, I am told, very harmless and rather wanting in natural self-assertion.

It was on the dark side of twilight when we got to Bistritz, which is a very interesting old place. Being practically on the frontier–for the Borgo Pass leads from it into Bukovina–it has had a very stormy existence, and it certainly shows marks of it. Fifty years ago a series of great fires took place, which made terrible havoc on five separate occasions. At the very beginning of the seventeenth century it underwent a siege of three weeks and lost 13,000 people, the casualties of war proper being assisted by famine and disease.

Count Dracula had directed me to go to the Golden Krone Hotel, which I found, to my great delight, to be thoroughly old-fashioned, for of course I wanted to see all I could of the ways of the country.

I was evidently expected, for when I got near the door I faced a cheery-looking elderly woman in the usual peasant dress—white undergarment with a long double apron, front, and back, of coloured stuff fitting almost too tight for modesty. When I came close she bowed and said, “The Herr Englishman?”

“Yes,” I said, “Jonathan Harker.”

She smiled, and gave some message to an elderly man in white shirt-sleeves, who had followed her to the door.

He went, but immediately returned with a letter:

“My friend.–Welcome to the Carpathians. I am anxiously expecting you. Sleep well tonight. At three tomorrow the diligence will start for Bukovina; a place on it is kept for you. At the Borgo Pass my carriage will await you and will bring you to me. I trust that your journey from London has been a happy one, and that you will enjoy your stay in my beautiful land.–Your friend, Dracula.”

[eggtrolls]

I was checking on my seed-sowing area this morning (no growth yet) and found the invasive species of the day: garlic mustard!

Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) is a biennial plant in the, yes, mustard family Brassicaceae (that also includes cabbages, and radishes) that smells like garlic when its leaves are crushed. It's native across Europe, the Maghreb, and as far east as Pakistan and western China. Garlic mustard was introduced to the United States by European settlers and it has since spread across the East Coast into the Midwest and southeastern Canada. It was introduced for erosion control but mainly for culinary purposes - it's one of the oldest herbs in Europe with a history going back to 4000 BC. That being said, young garlic mustard plants contain a level of cyanide that is toxic to most vertebrate life, so be sure to chop it first to release the cyanide gas. They might not have beat Jesus with this thing but they might have fed him with it.

Garlic mustard has a few key properties that make it an excellent and dastardly invasive species. Like porcelainberry (see previous post), it cannot be composted and has to be removed by the rooted, bagged, and thrown in the garbage.

1) It's a biennial so it lives for two years in two distinct stages. In its first year of life, it stays close to the ground in rosettes (think of the circular shape of dandelions) and grows an extremely deep taproot, so out of sight, out of mind for people who want to remove it or animals who might eat it (more on that below). In the second year of life, the rosettes turn into small white flowers and the plants shoots up with new growth, up to 39 inches (about 1 meter) in height; the biggest plant that I pulled this morning was about as wide as my shoulders. The plants grow what's called a silique (basically a bean pod with confidence) that contains hundreds of seeds which can be yeeted several meters from the parent plant. These seeds can survive, dormant, in the soil for five years. Neat, eh?

2) Garlic mustard is simply so nasty that no one wants to fuck with it. The taste of garlic mustard is horrible to most browsing animals (i.e. deer), so they avoid it. In fact, deer trampling the plants instead of eating them helps the seeds spread more effectively. Insects won't lay their eggs on it and the leaves are actually toxic to some native moth and butterfly species. Below the ground, garlic mustard releases what are called allelochemicals that suppress the mycorrhizal fungi that helps tree seedlings grow and thus reduce competitive pressure from other plants. While the plants in garlic mustard's native range are adapted to these, the plants in North America are not. It can and will completely dominate an understory and then persist because of the long-term seed bank survival + weakened mycorrhizal fungi. It is simply a huge pain in the ass to get out and keep out.

However if you are not a moth or other species of Lepidoptera, garlic mustard is edible and garlic mustard pesto is a classic foraging recipe. And if you really want to get wild, you can make this garlic mustard...martini.

There was a lot more garlic mustard pulled that didn't make the photo shoot but here's the above area post weeding:

[talesofedo]

One thing that has been endlessly fascinating to me while studying Edo-period Japan is the fact that so many assumptions made about the world are rooted in the Western perspective.

Take bread, for example.

I'm sure you've seen quotes like "bread is a universal food that exists in every country" and "without bread civilization wouldn't exist the way we know it today." That's all nice and good but not necessarily true across time periods and places.

In Japan, bread was first introduced by the Portugese in the mid-1500s, but it didn't actually catch on until much later.

The oldest surviving Japanese bread recipe was written down in 1841 by Egawa Tarozaemon, governor of Nirayama, teacher of Western gunnery, and builder of coastal artillery defenses.

Tarozaemon's bread recipe (from Yahoo News).

Tarozaemon's 1841 bread recipe is for a German sweet bread and substitutes amazake for the yeast and sugar content of the original. However, the written recipe does not include amounts for any of the ingredients, making it somewhat difficult to replicate without much trial and error.

The researchers studying Tarozaemon's records speculate that it was actually his mother who had an interest in baking and who was known for her excellent castella. They believe she may have been interested in other Western recipes and Tarozaemon, who employed at least two scholars of Western learning, might have been happy to oblige by copying recipes for her to try.

Alongside the German sweet bread, Tarozaemon also wrote down recipes for a kind of hardtack to be used by his troops, and two kinds of confections, which were perhaps more suitable to his mother's baking interests.

One bread-like product introduced to Japan by the Portugese did catch on: castella, a kind of sponge cake still popular today.

Matsudaira Mikinosuke and friends enjoying enormous slices of castella during the late Edo period.

During the time of Tokugawa Iemitsu, castella was served almost exclusively to the emperor and foreign envoys. By the time of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, its popularity had spread across the country, but it was still only available to the upper classes of high-ranking samurai and wealthy merchants. That's because it was made with expensive ingredients: specifically, eggs and white sugar. It finally became widely available to the masses by the end of the 1700s.

Edo period castella was more crispy than today's moist and fluffy Nagasaki-style castella. Described as a "simple, crispy pound cake", it was commonly eaten alongside miso soup or with grated daikon and wasabi.

Fun fact: castella was also used as a nutritional supplement for tuberculosis patients.

...

Speaking of eggs and their expense:

Even with today's soaring egg prices, eggs in the Edo period were more than 20 times more expensive than they are in 2023. By the early 1800s, an individual egg cost 20 mon, while a whole bowl of soba only cost 16.

The reason eggs were so expensive is that people did not generally raise animals for consumption until the very end of the Edo period, though that didn't really take off until the Meiji period, which is when we first see large-scale egg production in Japan.

People did keep chickens during the Edo period, specifically for their eggs and not their meat. In fact, many lower-ranking samurai raised small flocks of chickens to supplement their incomes by selling the eggs, something that had been encouraged since the time of Tokugawa Iemitsu. However, chickens at the time were not bred to produce large volumes. They often did not lay eggs regularly, and sometimes did not lay at all if the weather was particularly hot or cold.

Eggs, as well as meat, were often considered medicinal - something you purchased for a sick relative or to increase your own strength, though in many cases the primary reason for the medicinal label was getting around the feeling of guilt for consuming them, since it was frowned upon under both Shinto and Buddhist beliefs.

Even with those religious beliefs, meat was actually eaten pretty regularly in the Edo period by those who could afford it.

By the end of the 1700s, at least one restaurant in Edo specialized in wild boar, the most commonly consumed meat in the Edo period based on archeological finds. Others include deer, serow, assorted wild birds such as pheasant and quail, occasionally bears and, at times, dogs.