#yellow fish soup

[buffetlicious]

With mum’s limited selection of food she enjoyed, we were just rotating among the same few stalls. When I tried bringing her to new establishments, she is always saying things like “doesn't look nice or taste good” even before she is eating the food. So, we are back to XO Minced Meat Noodle (XO 肉脞麵) at Sembawang Shopping Centre for dinner.

My XO Minced Meat Noodle (XO 肉脞面) or Bak Chor Mee in local dialect came first. One can select from small (S$5), medium (S$6) or large (S$7) but I chose the small portion one. I asked for mee kia or thin yellow noodles with chilli added. My bowl is topped with fried dumpling, minced pork, sliced pork, fishcake slices, Fuzhou fish ball and plenty of crispy tempura bits.

Mum’s S$5 Chicken Cutlet Noodle (炸鸡扒面) has the same thin yellow noodles but with no chilli sauce added. Hers had only crispy and boneless chicken cutlet and tempura bits. Since ours are dry style noodles, it also came with a bowl of soup each.

[sykling]

🥺

cleaning out the fridge and making budae jjigae mutuals come here and get a bowl 🍲

[themodernwitchsguide]

altars for titans and protogenoi

This post more than any of the others is going to be mostly upg or spg. Hardly anyone in antiquity spent a lot of effort worshipping most of these deities, especially the protogenoi, so resources are limited. If you have suggestions or personal addendums, feel free to leave them in the comments. I made a lot of decisions based on what the herbs/crystals are usually associated with: for example, black tourmaline is associated with Nyx (the night) therefore Chaos (the embodiment of the primordial soup and basically the universe) has black tourmaline too.

Also, all the deities on this list can be honored with libation of wine, milk, honey, and oil; offerings of meat or desserts; and burning frankincense/myrrh.

Disclaimer: this is not all of the protogenoi or titans that exist, these are just the most recognizable ones that have the most lore attached. I used theoi.com to research all of these deities.

CHAOS: the first to emerge at creation, the protogenos of the space between heaven and earth, and the air

Colors: black, grey, purple for the concept of chaos Offerings: feathers, burning incense, cinnamon, anise, cardamom, clove, black pepper, representations of the four elements Crystals: obsidian, tourmaline, labradorite, lava rock, angelite, amethyst Animals: birds

PHANES/EROS (the elder): protogenos of procreation

Colors: red, pink for love/procreation. blue, green for nature and creation Offerings: heart shaped objects, eucalyptus, flowers, egg shells Crystals: rose quartz, rhodonite, rhodochrosite, malachite, azurite, garnet, desert rose selenite Animals: birds

NYX: protogenos of the night

Colors: black, dark blue, purple for association with the night, anything galaxy patterned Offerings: blackberries, blueberries, plum, dew (morning is fine but after sunset is best), dark feathers, dark chocolate, night-blooming flowers (like moonflower or wisteria), black tea/coffee, mugwort Crystals: obsidian, black tourmaline, labradorite, moonstone (especially black moonstone), selenite, lapis lazuli, amethyst, smokey quartz Animals: owl

also, she is associated with symbols of keys and veils/cloaks

EREBOS: protogenos of darkness

Colors: black for darkness Offerings: dark chocolate, black pepper, black salt, charcoal, asphodel Crystals: black tourmaline, obsidian, smokey quartz, lapis lazuli, azurite, red jasper Animals: moths

AETHER: protogenos of light and the heavens

Colors: yellow, orange, white for sunlight. blue for the sky Offerings: sunflowers, bee pollen, morning dew, fruit, feathers Crystals: honey/blue calcite, yellow/bumblebee jasper, angelite, celestite, milky quartz

HEMERA: protogenos of the day

Colors: blue for the sky, white for the heavens Offerings: chamomile, sage, lavender, basil Crystals: angelite, blue calcite, selenite, celestite, milky quartz, sapphire

GAEA: protogenos of the earth

Colors: blue, green, brown for the earth Offerings: flowers, wood, dirt, anything from nature, really. doing good deeds for the environment Crystals: unakite, jaspers (various), agates (various), lava rock, tiger's eye, bumblebee jasper, jade, nephrite, serpentine, amber Animals: serpents, bull, pig, bees

OURANOS: protogenos of the sky

Colors: blue, white, grey for the sky Offerings: rosemary, sage, mint, leaving your windows/curtains open Crystals: angelite, celestite, selenite, blue calcite, moonstone, sunstone, star jasper, blue lace agate Animals: birds

OCEANUS: protogenos of the ocean

Colors: blue and white for the ocean Offerings: shells, gull feathers, fish scales/bones, sea water, pearls, sand from the ocean Crystals: larimar, aquamarine, turquoise, lapis lazuli, azurite Animals: gulls, pelicans, fish

TETHYS: protogenos of fresh water

Colors: blue and green for fresh water Offerings: lake/pond/river water, fish scales/bones, cattails, sand from a fresh water beach Crystals: larimar, aquamarine, fluorite, amazonite, petoskey stone Animals: fresh water fish, dragonflies

THEMIS: protogenos of divine law and order

Colors: white, silver, gold for law Offerings: thyme, rosemary, anything resembling scales Crystals: pyrite, bloodstone, smokey quartz, obsidian, alexandrite, lapis lazuli Animals: owls

TARTARUS: protogenos of the depths

Colors: red and black for the underworld Offerings: sulfur, saltpeter, black salt, charcoal, deadly nightshade Crystals: jaspers (various), obsidian, black tourmaline, bloodstone, garnet/ruby, pyrite (contains a lot of sulfur) Animals: bats, black dogs

KRONOS: titan of time, harvest, and abundance

Colors: yellow, gold for his scythe. white, grey for the concept of time. green, brown for fertility Offerings: grain, bread, clocks/watches, vervain, poppy, nightshade, clove, allspice Crystals: jaspers (various), agates (various), labradorite, quartz (various), amethyst, honey calcite, serpentine, amber Animals: snakes

RHEA: titaness of motherhood, fertility, and generations (like of family)

Colors: red, pink for motherhood. green, brown for fertility Offerings: menstrual blood, milk, red clover, raspberry, allspice, clove, cinnamon Crystals: rose quartz, rhodonite, rhodochrosite, amethyst, pink opal, jade, nephrite, tiger's eye, cat's eye, amber Animals: lion

PHOEBE: titaness of bright intellect and prophecy

Colors: blue, white, and grey for intellect. purple for prophecy Offerings: sage, bay leaves, lavender, tests/quizzes/homework, yarrow Crystals: lapis lazuli, amethyst, labradorite, howlite, celestite, moonstone, selenite, celestite

LETO: titaness of motherhood, modesty, and womanly demure, protector of children

Colors: pink, red for motherhood. white for modesty Offerings: raspberry, allspice, clove, cinnamon, lavender, flowers, Crystals: moonstone, sunstone, selenite, rose quartz, carnelian, lepidolite, howlite Animals: wolf, rooster

also, she is associated with veiling

ASTERIA: titaness of falling stars, night time divination, and astrology

Colors: blue, black for the night. white/galaxy pattern for stars. purple for magic Offerings: star charts, feathers (especially quail), lavender Crystals: celestite, selenite, star jasper, amethyst, azurite, obsidian, black tourmaline, labradorite, jade Animals: quail

HELIOS: titan of the sun

Colors: yellow, orange, white for the sun Offerings: anything that refracts sunlight, sunflower, st john's wort, sage, cow pelt, chicken feathers Crystals: sunstone, yellow jasper, honey calcite, carnelian, citrine, milky quartz, celestite, angelite, amber Animals: cattle, sheep, white horses, rooster

SELENE: titaness of the moon

Colors: white, grey for the moon Offerings: yarrow, moon shaped objects/food, lavender, night-blooming flowers (like morning glories), nighttime dew Crystals: selenite, celestite, angelite, moonstone, labradorite, smokey quartz, howlite Animals: horses, oxen, mules

EOS: titaness of dawn

Colors: blue for the sky. white, yellow, orange, pink for colors of dawn Offerings: morning dew, morning glories, lavender, yarrow, sage Crystals: rose quartz, citrine, honey calcite, yellow jasper, milky quartz, moonstone, sunstone, selenite, celestite Animals: horses, cicadas

MNEMOSYNE: titaness of memory

Colors: red, yellow for memory Offerings: forget-me-nots, myrtle, rosemary, jasmine, Crystals: jade, amber, turquoise, fluorite, red/yellow jasper Animals: animals with good memory, like an elephant or raven

PROMETHEUS: titan of forethought, creator of mankind

Colors: red, orange for the fire of creation Offerings: fennel, burning things, charcoal Crystals: bloodstone, carnelian, citrine, amber, jaspers (various) Animals: eagle

divider by @vibeswithrenai

[mariacallous]

I’m not even sure whether I can taste pure Old Bay anymore, because the condiment is infused with so many memories of home. I grew up sprinkling it on everything—blue crabs, sure, but also watermelon, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese—and I can shuffle through decades of pictures from family reunions, county fairs, church picnics, and back porches where the iconic yellow, red, and blue tins keep popping up like someone’s second cousin, not quite front and center yet always in the frame.

If you’re new to Old Bay, get a tin and shake the contents liberally on popcorn or potato chips—a starter dish, from which you can and should expand. You’ll soon find that you can add the condiment to almost anything. One of my favorite dishes that uses Old Bay as an essential ingredient comes via an old family friend. Keith Davis is a Jack-of-all-trades: a fantastic general contractor, but also a church usher, a builder of wheelchair ramps, a Santa Claus when seasonally necessary, and, lately, a food-truck entrepreneur, grilling burgers and deep-frying funnel cakes for every community event and private party in the area. He goes by Mr. Keith; his food truck is known as Fat Boy’s Fixins, named in honor of the man who taught him to grill and whose Santa suit he inherited.

Of all the things Davis serves up, he might be best known for his crab soup, which he makes in ten-gallon batches and lets the local Ruritan Club sell by the pint every fall at the Waterfowl Festival, when somewhere between fourteen thousand and twenty thousand people descend on the Eastern Shore to see the work of hundreds of decoy carvers and local artists, listen to waterfowl-calling contests, and watch demonstrations of dock dogs, raptors, and fly-fishing. Davis is there every year, gossiping with his fellow-volunteers, talking with out-of-towners, and tossing hunks of crab meat into stew pots. Normally you’d have to shell out eight dollars for even just a cup, but here, exclusively for newsletter readers, free of charge, is the best crab soup you’ll ever taste, a shockingly easy, practically pre-made recipe for trying out America’s greatest condiment: Old Bay.

Mr. Keith’s Crab Soup

1 lb. crab meat (claw meat best) 64-Oz. bottle of Spicy V8 14.5 Oz. chicken broth 32 Oz. water 1 lb. mixed vegetables 1 Tbsp. Montreal Steak seasoning 1 Tbsp. Old Bay

Mix the V8, chicken broth, and water in a pot. Start heating the mixture, then add the vegetables, then the crab meat, and finally the spices. Cook on medium heat until the vegetables start to soften, stirring occasionally “so it doesn’t stick and burn on the bottom of the pot.”

[asunflowerana]

sunday couple — satoru gojo

summary: Satoru does anything for good and cheap food, especially making you his girlfriend.

warnings: satoru is on his early twenties, friends to lovers, lots of banter, gojo smooth like butter. wc: 1400+

a/n: satoru could take me to eat crickets, and I'd still follow this stupid gorgeous man.

The red, and yellow lamps hanging on poles illuminate Shibuya’s central square, crowded with citizens scouring the fair full of assorted supplies. The smell of cardamom powder from a spice stall enters your nostrils, making your nose numb as you try to follow your friend Satoru, the one who left you behind for a taiyaki seller. 

You never thought you’d be traded for a fish cake, but here you are. 

Satoru checks the pockets of his pants in front of him, taking the coins and handing them to the friendly old lady owner of the sweets. She gives him one small cake, and you can almost see him salivating with the piece of sugar in his hands. 

“Your grandma taught you to share, Toru.” You counter with arms crossed, at the same time as he fills his mouth with a good bite of cake, the chocolate ganache sticking out to the sides and smearing his fingers. He breathes in pure relief, and you wonder how hungry he really was since you both went outdoors. 

“It’s too small for two.” He has the courage — stupidity is better — to eat the last piece of the taiyaki in front of you, rubbing his hands together to get rid of the remains of bran and stuffing after that. You could cut his white hair right there. 

“Then buy me another one,Toru! I’m hungry too!" 

”Sweets aren’t good for your teeth, little ______.“ He sends you his special sunny grin, moving his hand to call you closer, his black jacket hanging loose on his shoulders. "C'mon, I’ll find you a diner. My treat.”

His smooth manner almost makes you forget for a moment that he had just refused to share that sweet with you. Not even a little apology, what a goon.

“You better,” Mumbling, you join his pace, walking right beside him as you both stroll through the park.

You were supposed to be at home watching the six-hour marathon of your favorite comedy show, but Satoru showed up at your door in the afternoon, puppy eyes asking you to help him pick out a present for Shoko’s birthday next week, and you couldn’t say no. Not only because you wanted her to have something nice, but because unfortunately, Satoru has a special power over your heart, that makes you want to say yes even if he shows up at 4 AM in the morning for a bike ride through town — which actually happened once, but that’s a story for another time. 

He had this infuriating power since third grade, when both became neighbors and he decided to kick a soccer ball right to your window, giving you quite the fright. You can remember the way you threw the ball on his chest, mad at the crazy boy who didn’t stop laughing and left without a single scratch. 

The crazy boy that owns a part of your heart, a part that you wish could be noticed by him. But Satoru has always been too unpredictable to read, especially when it comes to his emotions. 

A new smell, fried fish and miso soup catch your attention, and a man in his forty approaches you both, coming out of a small but attractive restaurant, izakaya type. He wears casual clothes, portraying a very large smile and belly. 

“Come close young couple, here at Goro’s house you’ll find Shibuya’s best of the best food to fill your hungry tummies, ho ho ho-” You both look at each other with the same frown on your faces. Does this man think you’re in kindergarten? 

Well, Satoru actually has the face, but anyway. 

“...and lucky for you, today is a couple's Sunday!” This caught your attention. 

“What do you mean by "lucky for us”, sir?“ The man’s eyes pop even more open, excited for more clients. 

"Every Sunday couples only pay half for the dinner combo! Here is on our board.” He points at the medium black slate place beside an array of plants at the izakaya’s entrance. 

“COUPLE’S SUNDAY: 50% OFF FOR COUPLES BUYING THE SPECIAL GORO’S FISH COMBO." 

"Wait,” Satoru gulps down, his hands almost trembling from such good news. “So couples really pay half for dinner?” 

He abruptly catches your hand in his, his warmth heating your skin and making your heart flutter in response. “Because we totally are!” He practically shouts that, with a huge grin on face like a kid spotting a candy store. He looks at you, shining marine eyes gazing at yours with excitement. 

“Right, baby?" 

You don’t even know how to react, completely shocked by the nickname that you’ve always daydreamed of him calling you. The way it comes out of his mouth, with his voice, it’s such a precious moment, you can’t believe it’s all for a ridiculous excuse to get a food discount. Before you realize your situation, you’re already seated by a diner table, your friend on the opposite chair in front of you, his goofy smile still on his face as he checks the menu.

His hand remains holding yours on the table, and you can already feel the sweat forming on your palm from the heat and your nerves.

"What… in the world just happened?” You blurt it out, confused as ever.

“Told you I’d buy you dinner, dear  _____. And guess what?” He leans his torso towards you, his chest pressing on the wooden table keeping you both apart. “They have free dorayakis for dessert." 

Rainbows could come out of him by now. 

”But we’re not a couple, you dumb!“ You hiss, leaning just the same as he did, worried that the customers around might notice your facade. 

”I know, we’ll just keep pretending and it’ll all be good.“ Satoru is really good at acting, talking to you like he was babbling sweet praises like those dorky clingy couples. 

He’s such a tease, and he doesn’t even know. Actually, you think he does know it.”Toru, this is not a—" 

A waiter comes to your table, making you both split from your previous position and sit right in your seats. From his trail, he places on the table bowls of udon, plates of unagi, portions of tempura, and green tea. The smell from the steam coming out of the dishes is so amazing, that the only thing your brain processes now is food.

“You were saying?” Satoru playfully questions, thanking the waiter before picking up his chopsticks and digging the thick noodles before him. 

“…..Fine.” You surrender, not really having the strength to refuse this. “But if there’s only one dorayaki later, it’s mine." 

"We can share." 

”But sweets aren’t good for your teeth, little Satoru.“ You mock him right after sucking a noodle into your mouth, the food tasting much better now that you can see his speechless face scrunching up. 

"That’s totally unfair!” He protests, crossing his arms with a pout, a piece of nori on the corner of his mouth. “I’m your boyfriend, you should treat me nice." 

You wish your heart wouldn’t beat so fast. 

But since you’re both pretending, you may as well enjoy it. "First lesson for you: don’t ever let your girlfriend be hungry. Ever." 

"If I give you all of my tempura, will you share the dorayaki?” You hum, pretending to think. “C'mon now, baby! I’m sorry, okay?”

“I’ll think about it.”

In the end, you let him have a good bite of dessert, which is kinda fair since he was the one paying for the whole meal. That dinner really made you heavy, tummy full of food, completely satisfied and pleased. You even wrote down the name of the place, to come back with your friends in another opportunity.

And it seems that your friend also had a similar idea. 

“Are you free next Sunday?” He asks, walking ahead of you, his gaze facing the starry sky as he ponders something alone. 

You know sometimes he likes to venture ahead to ease his mind when there’s something on it, so you don’t mind him going a few feets ahead, knowing he’s still aware of your surroundings even if you’re behind him.

Satoru never failed to protect you. 

“You’re not planning on doing the dating story again, right?” You chuckle, sensing that this will become a Sunday routine for both of you. “They’ll start suspecting if we keep coming every week, you know we’re not really dating.”

“Then let’s date for real.” And again, he turns his wholesome blue gaze towards you, offering another one of the famous, breathtaking Satoru’s grins. But in this case, this one is reserved only for you. 

“How about that?”

© asunflowerana 2024 — all rights reserved.

[shmreduplication]

HAPPY MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

Please try to have a few good moments for my birthday by:

listening to jazz at kcsm.org (and consider donating a little 🙏 [they're a local radio station to me and they also broadcast worldwide online, it's almost entirely listener-funded and they have some jazz history educational programming with the music, and the music sounds so nice with the lab machinery noises at my job])

watching some cute cat videos by heidiwranglescats (instagram link)(and consider donating a little 🙏 [she's my brother's friend and does cat TNR in Brooklyn and rescues the kittens and adopts them out. The videos of the kittens getting sulfur baths are my favorite because they don't know what's happening and then they're covered in yellow soup, it's adorable])

looking at baseball hats from a small artist on kickstarter (and consider purchasing 🙏 this one has a nice koi fish design as their next stretch goal link [i collect baseball hats and kickstarter has a lot that fit my design requirements of nice embroidery, no text, and something I'd actually wear and supporting one kickstarter will encourage other artists to also do baseball hat campaigns on kickstarter and then I'll get to support even more small artists worldwide by buying their hats!])

[mixelation]

worked on some async today. takes place immediately after tori attempts to turn minato into soup

Tori watched Minato disappear into the water in great satisfaction. She peered over the embankment. Steam clouded her view, but she could see his blue and green uniform under the rolling boil of the river. The bodies of dead minnows bubble up above him. 

Then he disappeared. 

Tori tensed automatically. She hadn’t caught him dropping any Hiraishin markers anywhere, but ninja were sneaky. 

Minato didn’t spontaneously appear behind her over the course of the next minute, and Tori relaxed ever so slightly. A bigger fish came to the top of the still boiling river, its body flipping over and over. 

So. Boiling someone alive did not kill them nearly as fast as she had expected. She’d seen various propaganda about Terumi Mei cooking people alive with steam, and that varied from “instant death” if you were pro-Mei, to “incredibly long and painful and cruel” if you were anti-Mei. But Tori had given little weight to the propaganda as actual evidence, aside from that she was positive boiling hot water could kill you. 

Hopefully Minato was currently dying of his injuries wherever he had gone. While Tori could not recall any stories about people being boiled alive, but she was something of a connoisseur in bizarre and horrific bodily harm. Sometimes adrenaline was enough to get a ninja through the initial part of receiving a major injury, only to collapse moments later. Tori balled her hands into fists, her fingernails digging into her palms. She hoped his pretty eyes were cooked solid. Then he’d never be able to trick a poor girl’s heart with a pretty face ever again. 

On the other hand, given Tori had no real data about boiling people alive, she could be royally fucked if he lived. It occurred to her that he definitely had Hiraishin markers back in the village, and if he had pulled some sort of main character ninjutsu bullshit and was still fighting fit, he could just come back to the river and kill her. 

I guess I’ll just lie out my ass again, Tori decided, trying to convince her brain not to panic. She was very obviously just a civilian woman who couldn’t even get her life together to wash her hair properly. She could act hysterical and say the Kumo-nin had told her the trap did something else, or else that she was just trying to protect her home and beg for mercy. It would be humiliating, but while Minato obviously had no qualms about killing ninja without asking questions first, he did seem to want to play nice with civilians. 

Also, if he did kill her, probably he would just abandon her body like he had the Kumo-nin. He was unlikely to stick around long enough to figure out Tori’s little problem with dying and attempt to kidnap or question her over. 

It’ll fine either way, Tori told herself. She still didn’t go back to the village. Instead, she walked stiffly down the embankment as fast as she could without breaking into a run. She was going to miss the dirty laundry and the cute crab mug she’d left behind, but all her other belongings were in a storage seal, and she didn’t want to risk going back and discovering a pissed off and half-boiled Minato. 

Minato did not show to bother her at all that day, as she marched forth in a random direction. He didn’t show up during the horrible three hours of paranoid sleep she got while camping. 

When a full twenty-fours passed, Tori finally started to calm down. She’d found a fisherman and convinced him to take her further down the river than she could get walking, and while she wasn’t untrackable, she gained confidence that Minato was at the very least too injured to hunt her down immediately. 

She tried to travel deeper into Grass Country as fast as she could, paying for transport more often than she would normally. 

Days passed and no news sprang up about the Yellow Flash mysteriously dying, but also there were no new sightings of him. Tori had no way to draw real conclusions from this. Konoha was unlikely to advertise him dying or being grievously injured, but also he was a key player in the war and his enemies would be sniffing around for information like this. That there was no news could mean she’d succeeded, or it could be she’d failed and so there was nothing worth gossiping about. 

The lack of knowing what had happen turned to a festering sort of anxiety that kept her up at night and made her head dizzy at random moments. And so, Tori switched up her goals. Even if she’d killed Minato properly, that his body was somewhere where she couldn’t hide what she’d done meant Konoha could potentially track her down. She needed to protect herself more than ever. She holed up in a cheap hotel in the middle of nowhere and spent every waking moment making drafts of seal diagrams and fussing. 

How to set up a barrier that could activate faster than a ninja could kill her…? She could paint i directly on her skin, then link its activation to being hit, or to an increase in her heart rate. This would mean she’d inevitably activate it on accident when she walked into a table or got excited about something, but perhaps for now she didn’t care…

Weeks passed. Tori’s anxiety hit a maximum where she didn’t sleep at all one night, and then slowly started to calm. She obtained a raw potato and stuck it in her room’s windowsill to sprout, hoping to use it to add to her chakra phylogeny. She walked into town and stole a library book to try and add to her notes on plant and animal relatedness. She did accidentally activate her seal multiple times, but at least she knew it worked. 

Her funds were running dangerously low, and she’d have to move on soon. She started talking to people again, asking about where war refugees in this area were moving to, and if she could join a caravan. 

She was organizing her things one evening, preparing to move out the next morning. She’d spread all her various fuuinjutsu and research materials across her bed, and stood over it with her hands on her hips, debating the best way to repack and also, how to best transport a sprouted potato?

She looked up at her window potato, now in a paper cup with dirt. It had grown three alien-looking shoots, jagging out at random angles before reaching towards the window. 

Then, as she regarded her potato, a shadow passed over the window. Tori frowned. The window started to move upwards, a hand appearing in the open space, and Tori’s eyes widened. 

She panicked, obviously, which activated her barrier. This was still somehow not faster than the Yellow Flash could break into her hotel room. 

He was toe-to-toe with her in an instant, kunai in hand. Tori yelped in horror as the barrier flicked up around them, a dark pink bubble that was supposed to keep her safe. 

Somehow, Minato looked exactly the same as before, like she hadn’t done her best to turn him into soup. 

The barrier pressed him up against her, his chest and shoulders blocking her view of the rest of the room as he boxed her in, and Tori’s back hit the other side of the barrier. Minato's arm was forced forward as he bent over her, and thank God he was competent enough to roll the kunai in his hand so the broadside pressed against her neck rather than the sharp edge. His chin brushed against the top of her head. 

Tori wished he smelled bad, so she could find this new predicament gross. Instead, he just sort of smelled like dirt and an inoffensive odor of sweat. His body against hers was also warm and firm and bigger than her in a way she regrettably found she liked. 

He also maybe wanted to kill her. She needed to focus on that. The rush of adrenaline and the increase in her heart rate was very confusing in this moment. 

“Oh,” he said, sounding mildly surprised but not at all upset. The hand not holding the knife reached around her, knuckles knocking on the barrier next to her head. “Interesting. Well, I still think this is my win.”

What the hell is he talking about? Tori thought. She was sure he could feel her rapidly beating heart, as sure as she could feel his completely steady heartbeat. 

Well, if he wasn’t already pissed off, she could test the waters a little to see if she could figure out what he wanted. 

“You haven’t won yet,” she said hotly. “What are you going to do? Trap yourself indefinitely in an enclosed space with my corpse?”

He shifted slightly, bringing the kunai away from her throat. He could only pull his head away a couple inches, and he didn’t step back so his body was still pressed against hers, but it was enough distance that she could peer up and see he was smirking at her. His eyes were exactly as pretty as they’d been before. 

Oh no, his smirk is hot, Tori thought helplessly, regretting yet again that boiling was a less efficient murder technique than she’d anticipated. Her insides squirmed with some bizarre contradictory emotion. She was terrified, yes, but also she was a little turned on. 

Then suddenly they were standing on the other side of the room, near the door. He must have chucked a kunai across the room in the tiny fraction of a moment before the barrier had gone up. The barrier was still in place around them. 

Minato’s smirk slipped slightly. Somehow, Tori found his apparent confusion even hotter. 

“Oh, did you try to teleport us both out?” she asked, and smooth and coy as she could make her voice given her insides were flipping out in either panic or arousal. “You’re not getting me out of this that easily.”

Minato was outside of the barrier a second later, and the kunai clattered to her feet, undoubtedly scratching up her shoes. He’d left Tori where she stood, with the marked kunai still in the barrier in case he wanted to go back in. 

He hadn’t gone far— just back to where he’d stabbed a kunai into the wall over her bed. Somehow, on top of planting multiple kunai and outrunning her barrier, he’d also left her window potato completely untouched. Damn him for being so thorough. 

“How’d you do it?” he asked, sounding genuinely curious. His eyes were bright and inviting in a way that made Tori want to answer. Even though he’d literally held a knife to her throat only a moment earlier, he just seemed like he’d be really easy to talk to. 

Touché, she thought. 

“Do what? This barrier?” she said. “Believe it or not, you’re not the only ninja who wants to kill me. A girl learns to protect herself.”

Minato flopped down to sit on her bed and cocked his head. 

“I don’t want to kill you,” he said plainly. 

“Uh-huh,” Tori replied. 

“So how long does your barrier last?” Minato asked, leaning back on his hands. “I have all night. Do you?”

Tori twitched in annoyance. The barrier was tied to her, so it would be up as long as she was alive and producing chakra, or until she chose to deactivate it. But she didn’t want him to know he could just teleport back in and kill her. It was better if he thought the barrier had a time limit, like most barriers would. 

The barrier was also draining her chakra, so it could “kill” her in a day or so without food to replenish herself. She supposed that was the time limit. 

That, or Minato could attempt to deactivate the barrier himself, which meant he’d have to teleport back inside the barrier and then remove her shirt and…

Tori’s face went hot as she imagined what his hands would feel like on her bare skin. This idea should frighten her, and yet she kind of wanted it to happen. What was wrong with her?!

Fortunately, Minato did not react to her blush and simply continued to just stare at her in mild interest. Tori turned her gaze to the kunai at her feet, desperate to distract herself. She had just enough room in her barrier to awkwardly squat down to pick it up. 

“How does this even work?” she asked, picking at the tag with the Hiraishin marker. It wasn’t hard, once she peeled up the edges, to pull the whole thing off the kunai’s handle. “This isn’t real fuinjutsu, is it?”

The tag was… well, technically it was seal script. But also it was just some characters. One of them was “love.” Why. 

Minato’s cheeks had actually turned pink. 

“It’s… it is a seal,” he spluttered. 

“What happens if I destroy it?” Tori wondered, tugging at the paper like she meant to rip it. 

Next moment, Minato was back in the barrier with her again, hands around her wrists as he pushed her back up against the barrier. 

“I stop you before you can,” he said, and somehow this made Tori’s stomach completely flip over. 

“So I can destroy it,” Tori said smartly. She wondered what he would do, if she continued to be sassy with him. 

Minato sighed dramatically. She felt the puff of his breath on the top of her head. She waited excitedly for his reply. 

He took a tiny half-step back, as far as he could get in the cramped space. He let go of her right wrist, but his other hand slipped up her arm to cover her left hand. He held it up in the small space between them, her wrist facing upwards. A brand new Hiraishin marker, written in black across the delicate skin of her wrist, glared up at her. 

Tori’s eyes widened. “When did you…?”

Minato’s stupid sexy smirk was back. “I don’t need ink to place one.”

Fuck, Tori thought. If she’d known this about the Hiraishin once upon a time, she’d definitely forgotten it. Truly this was an OP technique. 

Minato teleported back out of the barrier, this time appearing facing the bed. He put his hands on his hips and surveyed the notebooks and scrolls Tori had left out, his head leaning back to regard her window potato. 

He can also control how close he gets to the marker and his position around it, Tori thought. What the fuck, honestly. She was glad she wasn’t a ninja. She’d absolutely hate having to figure out how to fight that. 

As it were, she was a civilian. If she fought anyone outright, she’d just die. Finding out the Hiraishin was even more OP than she’d thought just meant she could figure out new ways to trick him into teleporting directly into his own demise. 

“Who taught you fuinjutsu?” Minato asked, picking up one of the scrolls and examining it. 

Tori did not answer, instead glaring at him as he went through her things and she was helpless to stop him. How rude! She liked her things! 

“I’m honestly not going to hurt you,” Minato said after a couple minutes of silence, picking up a different scroll. 

Tori eyed him, rubbing at her wrist. The Hiraishin marker didn’t smudge the way ink might. Clearly Minato was still underestimating her, if he thought she wouldn’t be willing to also destroy a marker physically on her. 

“Not the vengeful type, then?” Tori drawled. 

Minato actually laughed. He tilted his head back slightly, grinning good naturedly at her. 

“They managed to regrow all my skin, so no harm, no foul.”

They did… they did what?

The face Tori made at this statement must have been funny, because Minato laughed again. It wasn’t mocking or cruel; he sounded genuinely amused. He really did seem like he was telling the truth, that he was just here to ask questions. 

Except, Tori knew better than anyone how good a manipulation tactic playing kind and demure was. Minato was a killer and a tool of Konoha above anything else. She couldn’t forget that. 

“This is a Konoha scroll,” Minato said conversationally, holding up the scroll in question. “Where’d you get it?”

Tori narrowed her eyes at him. I’ll make him break, she decided. 

“One of your buddies decided it would be a good idea to get drunk and harass women,” Tori said, which was the truth. “So I decided he’d be better off with a pair of collapsed lungs and none of his stuff.”

Minato’s easy smile shrank slightly, and his body language turned stiff. 

There, Tori thought. Now show me your true colors. 

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Minato said, voice tight. 

“I’m not,” Tori replied. “What did Konoha tell you to do about me?”

Minato cocked his head to the side. He studied her for a bit, even as he tucked the Konoha scroll into the pouch at his waist. 

Eventually, he said, “They don’t think you could possibly be real.”

Tori actually laughed. It ripped out of her against her conscious efforts, a single, resounding Ha!

Minato’s lips quirked upwards, his body language loosening. 

“I already knew you’ve killed Konoha-nin,” Minato said. He picked up her notebook and flipped through it idly as he spoke, not really reading it. “And Iwa-nin, and Kusa-nin. I’ve been following you for a while.”

“Really?” Tori asked, and then wanted to slap herself at how obvious it was she wanted the attention. Minato picked up on her tone shift immediately, resummoning his stupid sexy smirk and then stepped towards her. 

“There were rumors of a fuinjutsu master, so naturally I investigated,” he said. Then he snorted with laughter. “Konoha doesn’t believe any of the rumors could be true. So I have no orders from them about you.”

“So…?” Tori prompted. She wasn’t sure if this was good news for her or not. Although, hearing Minato had been looking for her out of personal interest made her insides go all funny again. 

“So,” Minato said, eyeing her up and down. “I’m not lying when I say I don’t really want to hurt you. I’m here to make friends. I just really, really want to know more about the mysterious girl who nearly killed me.”

Then he smiled that smile again, the one that had made Tori feel safe and cared for, the one that she knew was fake. Her face went hot again, but not from whatever confusing hormonal responses she was having. Truly, if she could kill people with her mind, Minato would be dead right then and there. 

“For example,” Minato continued. He held up a page of her notebook, which contained a draft of the chakra phylogeny she was trying to make. “What is this?”

“You know,” Tori said tersely, “if you actually wanted to play nice, you wouldn’t be going through all my personal belongings like a creep. You wouldn’t have snuck in here waving knives around.”

Minato’s eyes widened slightly. His cheeks went ever so slightly pink. 

“I don’t think I want to tell you anything,” Tori said, crossing her arms. 

“I came in waving kunai around because last time we talked, you nearly killed me for no reason,” Minato replied, annoyance seeping into his voice, although he didn’t raise his volume. He jabbed a finger against the outside of the barrier. “What if this had been an offensive jutsu instead of a defensive one? I want to play nice, but don’t think you can play harmless civilian with me.”

Tori scowled. Okay. So. He had a point. And she did… she did want his attention. She liked him smiling at her as much as she hated it. 

“It’s a phylogeny,” Tori said finally, pointing at the notebook. “It’s a family tree that shows evolutionary relationships between species. I’m trying to see if more closely related things have more similar chakra than distantly related things.”

Minato stared back at her, mildly dumbfounded. Her explaining this probably just created more questions than it answered for him. 

Good, Tori thought. She wanted to be mysterious and unsolvable. 

She pointed at her window potato. 

“So my hypothesis is that that guy will have more similar chakra to the trees outside than yours or my chakra.”

Minato eyed the potato for a moment, and then stared down at the phylogeny, then looked back up at her. 

“So you’ve been carving seals into trees,” he said slowly, “to use… tree chakra…?”

“Well,” Tori said. It was unclear to her if this was a secret she should be keeping or not, but if  she wanted to establish a friendly rapport and not be killed by an upset famous ninja, probably she should tell him something. This she couldn’t exactly hide, and it was less risky territory than time travel or Orochimaru or Ame. Also… something inside her was pleased, that he’d noticed she’d been doing that. “Yeah, something like that.”

“Huh,” Minato said. 

“So will you be reporting my creative endeavors to Konoha?” Tori asked cautiously. 

“I think they’d be even less likely to believe me,” Minato said, grinning cheekily at her. “As that sounds like crazy bullshit.”

Tori felt her face collapse into a pout, and Minato’s grin broadened. 

“How about…” he said, lazily tossing the notebook back onto the bed. “Next time I bring you another plant, and you show me how you're using plant chakra?”

Tori bit her bottom lip. What was this angle? So he was threatening to come back to her, to make her show him her fuinjutsu experiments? Was he just curious, or was he mining her for information to report back to Konoha? What would happen if she said no? What would happen if she agreed?

“So you’ll bring me flowers?” she said instead of a real answer. 

He winked at her. “It’s a date, then.”

And just like that, he was gone. 

Tori sank to her knees. Her hands were shaking, and she wasn’t sure if they’d been doing that the whole time or not. The adrenaline seeped out of her, and Tori felt exhausted. 

Minato definitely could have killed her. That he didn’t must mean something, but she wasn’t ready to believe he wanted to be friends. That didn’t make sense. That wasn’t the crapsack world she lived in, or how the people of the Third Shinobi War behaved. 

She stared down at her wrist, at the Hiraishin marker now permanently affixed to her. He had acted all nice, almost flirty, but also he’d made it so she couldn’t back out if she wanted to. He wasn’t a good person, and he wasn’t as friendly as he claimed. 

He had won this round, she supposed. But he was still underestimating her. He had left her like this, assuming she wasn’t crazy enough to hack off her own skin… and assuming she wasn’t smart enough to remove the marker herself. 

Let’s see who wins the next one, Yellow Flash, Tori thought. 

[niteshade925]

April 16, restaurant again:

(btw idk how the Dehua white porcelain post ended up in my queue yesteday, but it's going to be posted next Friday)

Back from Xi'an, just in time for my cousin's birthday~

Layered chocolate cake decorated with fruits and macarons, ordered from a local bakery:

One of my favorite dishes, cumin lamb (孜然羊肉). Here's a good recipe of this dish if anyone wants it (video has Eng sub)

Left: seafood and mushroom stir-fry, also really good. Right: sugar and vinegar yellow croakers. Note that "sugar and vinegar" (糖醋) is basically "sweet and sour", but the sour flavor comes from Chinese vinegar, so it does taste different from what would be considered "sweet and sour" here in the US

Left: octopus stirfry with Chinese vinegar dip; the colloquial terms for octopus as food are 八带鱼 (lit. "eight-ribbons fish") and 八爪鱼 (lit. "eight-clawed fish"). Right: a salad with thousand island dressing

Red-braised turbot fish fillet, really good despite its humble look. Red-braised (红烧) is a specific method of cooking where the main ingredient (usually meat, but can be vegetables too) is slowly braised in caramelized sugar, soy sauce, and herbs.

Idk why they gave my cousin a shoutao/寿桃 or longevity peach, these are usually meant for people 60 and above, and my cousin is younger than me lol.........but anyway, open up the peach and there's a free bowl of Chinese chicken noodle soup. Pretty fancy.

[toastingpencils37]

Just a collection of various Ninjargon translations from DR S1E1 so I can keep them all in one place.

Also, just a warning, some of the shots on this post have pretty bad quality so that you can't see what's on the signs, but I'm using a different screen for the actual translations that I can't really just screenshot.

The wall painting right below the garage thing:

Fresh Fo-

I'm assuming the "Fo-" part is supposed to have a "od" after it, spelling out Food, given the Fresh.

And then the banner thing to the right of Sora:

J4- PK-

Less likely real words, given the letter placement and the numbers. So probably either some sort of store advertisement/sign or just some random tag sign of some graffiti artist.

(Had to get two shots of these signs in order to be able to translate everything in the second shot)

The Green sign with the Dragon on the building:

Dragon House

The orange sign with the bowl right next to it:

Fresh

Again, likely food. Especially since right below it there's a menu

The menu below the orange sign:

Specials Fish.......Fcs Soup.........vfd Chicken........Yjr Noodles........Fcs

There may be some mistranslations with some of the red letters on the menu, as they were hard to figure out.

The string banner below the Specials menu:

68392047

Yeah I have no idea what that means. Because I don't think it's a set number of sorts because a) too long for a regular set and b) i don't think there was a polybag thing for this either, even like a LEGO City one.

Also, this menu and string banner appear at least four more times in the episode, with the string banner sometimes being blue rather than red.

For this shot I'm actually just going to translate the neon pink sign, because I can't get enough focus on the smaller things such as the papers taped up to tell what I'm looking at.

Also the cut off large blue "S" in the planter is part of a much larger sign that appears earlier, spelling "Crossroads"

Neon pink sign:

Forward

Only translating the white paper in this shot, which have some pretty bad handwriting (and i'm pretty sure a couple of the letters might be actual English or just nonexistent Ninjargon letters as well)

White paper:

**a*** am*fg mf** a*** fhl 5****

I was going to translate the blue paper as well, but one close look at it, I decided it's not worth it and that I don't have enough brain power for this shit.

The Specials chalkboard and the blue string banner right next to the green fish sign says exactly the same thing as the previous Specials sign and string banner, so I'm not translating that.

Purple vertical lamppost sign with an arrow pointed to the right:

Somewhere

Thank you street sign that really cleared things up /s

The blue sign:

2828

Probably supposed to be an address sign, but like many of the signs around the Crossroads, it pops up multiple times on different buildings. So who truly knows.

The box shown between Arin and Sora:

It appears to be flipped upside down, so if flipped the right way, it should spell:

Kgbdy

Also translating the poster because it surprisingly has some interesting stuff:

Mechmaster Mechma Reward Track Pie

The second line is cut off on the poster design itself, so that "Mechma" is the whole thing it says. Also not sure if the pie is something actually involved as a reward for winning the race, or if the people on the actual Ninjago team making the poster just decided to put it on for another reason, possibly even foreshadowing of what'll happen in the next scene.

Sign of cat:

Deals

This sign also pops up quite a bit in this episode.

The orange sign right behind Sora:

Sale

I noticed it appear once more towards the end of the race as well.

Sora's Mech:

SA-Mark

Orange sign above Frohicky:

Mec- Mast-

Obviously it's supposed to spell out "Mech Master" but it's cut off

Yellow letters below the black screen above Frohicky:

Register

The front of the mech:

Fast

The arm:

So

There's also a brown mech shown earlier that appears to have this also written on it, but another mech in front of it cuts it off so you can only see the "Fa" and the dash part of the "S"

Kreel's Mech:

Speed

The blue, black, and yellow graffiti:

Htja

The orange/brown shop sign to the left of Riyu:

It's the same as the one behind Sora, but now we can see that below the "Sale", there is also some Ninjargon.

So the full translation is:

Sale 98

Then the yellow sign with the red dragon to the right of Riyu:

Great deals

The graffiti with the fish:

Pux4

Of the graffiti, this tag makes the most sense word wise.

This same graffiti also popped up earlier on the race track, but I couldn't make out some of the letters there, so I put this one with the more clear letters instead.

Also, I think the "x" is an "x". Only letter that really seems to fit that shape.

Graffiti with shuriken star:

Dfg

Graffiti with hamburger:

Tddhfj

However it appears to be mirrored so it should actually spell:

Jfhddt

And then the little piece of graffiti in the bottom left corner:

....cy

Which is all we see of the graffiti there.

So, that's it for translating stuff from episode 1. And yeah, for quite a bit of the stuff, it's just gibberish.

[zoesblogsposts]

o 625 words to know in your target language o

There is a really interesting blog called "Fluent Forever" that aids foreign language learners in tricks, tips and techniques to guide them to achieving fluency "quickly" and efficiently. One of the tricks is to learn these 625 vocab words in your target language, that way you have a basis to start delving into grammar with ease as you can understand a lot of vocab right off the bat. Plus this list of words are common across the world and will aid you in whatever language you are learning. Here is the list in thematic order

• Animal: dog, cat, fish, bird, cow, pig, mouse, horse, wing, animal

• Transportation: train, plane, car, truck, bicycle, bus, boat, ship, tire, gasoline, engine, (train) ticket, transportation

• Location: city, house, apartment, street/road, airport, train station, bridge hotel, restaurant, farm, court, school, office, room, town, university, club, bar, park, camp, store/shop, theater, library, hospital, church, market, country (USA,

France, etc.), building, ground, space (outer space), bank, location

• Clothing: hat, dress, suit, skirt, shirt, T-shirt, pants, shoes, pocket, coat, stain, clothing

• Color: red, green, blue (light/dark), yellow, brown, pink, orange, black, white, gray, color

• People: son, daughter, mother, father, parent (= mother/father), baby, man, woman, brother, sister, family, grandfather, grandmother, husband, wife, king, queen, president, neighbor, boy, girl, child (= boy/girl), adult (= man/woman), human (# animal), friend (Add a friend's name), victim, player, fan, crowd, person

• Job: Teacher, student, lawyer, doctor, patient, waiter, secretary, priest, police, army, soldier, artist, author, manager, reporter, actor, job

• Society: religion, heaven, hell, death, medicine, money, dollar, bill, marriage, wedding, team, race (ethnicity), sex (the act), sex (gender), murder, prison, technology, energy, war, peace, attack, election, magazine, newspaper, poison, gun, sport, race (sport), exercise, ball, game, price, contract, drug, sign, science, God

• Art. band, song, instrument (musical), music, movie, art

• Beverages: coffee, tea, wine, beer, juice, water, milk, beverage

• Food: egg, cheese, bread, soup, cake, chicken, pork, beef, apple, banana orange, lemon, corn, rice, oil, seed, knife, spoon, fork, plate, cup, breakfast, lunch, dinner, sugar, salt, bottle, food

• Home: table, chair, bed, dream, window, door, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, pencil, pen, photograph, soap, book, page, key, paint, letter, note, wall, paper, floor, ceiling, roof, pool, lock, telephone, garden, yard, needle, bag, box, gift, card, ring, tool

• Electronics: clock, lamp, fan, cell phone, network, computer, program (computer), laptop, screen, camera, television, radio

• Body: head, neck, face, beard, hair, eye, mouth, lip, nose, tooth, ear, tear (drop), tongue, back, toe, finger, foot, hand, leg, arm, shoulder, heart, blood, brain, knee, sweat, disease, bone, voice, skin, body

• Nature: sea, ocean, river, mountain, rain, snow, tree, sun, moon, world, Earth, forest, sky, plant, wind, soil/earth, flower, valley, root, lake, star, grass, leaf, air, sand, beach, wave, fire, ice, island, hill, heat, nature

• Materials: glass, metal, plastic, wood, stone, diamond, clay, dust, gold, copper, silver, material

• Math/Measurements: meter, centimeter, kilogram, inch, foot, pound, half, circle, square, temperature, date, weight, edge, corner

• Misc Nouns: map, dot, consonant, vowel, light, sound, yes, no, piece, pain, injury, hole, image, pattern, noun, verb, adjective

• Directions: top, bottom, side, front, back, outside, inside, up, down, left, right, straight, north, south, east, west, direction

• Seasons: Summer, Spring, Winter, Fall, season

• Numbers: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 21, 22, 30, 31, 32, 40, 41, 42, 50, 51, 52, 60, 61, 62, 70, 71, 72, 80, 81, 82, 90, 91, 92, 100, 101, 102, 110, 111, 1000, 1001, 10000, 100000, million, billion, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, number

• Months: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

• Days of the week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday

• Time: year, month, week, day, hour, minute, second, morning, afternoon, evening, night, time

• Verbs: work, play, walk, run, drive, fly, swim, go, stop, follow, think, speak/say, eat, drink, kill, die, smile, laugh, cry, buy, pay, sell, shoot(a gun), learn, jump, smell, hear (a sound), listen (music), taste, touch, see (a bird), watch (TV), kiss, burn, melt, dig, explode, sit, stand, love, pass by, cut, fight, lie down, dance, sleep, wake up, sing, count, marry, pray, win, lose, mix/stir, bend, wash, cook, open, close, write, call, turn, build, teach, grow, draw, feed, catch, throw, clean, find, fall, push, pull, carry, break, wear, hang, shake, sign, beat, lift

• Adjectives: long, short (long), tall, short (vs tall), wide, narrow, big/large, small/little, slow, fast, hot, cold, warm, cool, new, old (new), young, old (young), weak, dead, alive, heavy, light (heavy), dark, light (dark), nuclear, famous

[wizzard890]

Hey guys I invented a soup to use up all the leftovers in my fridge last night, and it turned out insanely, blisteringly good, so I’m gonna call it Emily’s Vaguely Thai-Inspired “Oops Everything Is About To Go Bad” Soup, and tell you how to make it.

INGREDIENTS (note: don’t be precious about the amounts, adjust as needed, I’m not your mom. you’re an artist and the heavy-bottomed dutch oven is your canvas)

three cups of any hearty mushroom, sliced (I used white and baby bella)

a stalk of lemongrass, bashed to reveal the tender insides and cut in two inch lengths

five large carrots, diced in rounds

one knob of ginger, around the size of your thumb, minced

three garlic cloves, minced

one red thai chili, diced

one large yellow onion, diced

fresh cilantro

3 cups veggie stock 

3 cups chicken stock 

(you can use better than bullion in water for either of these in a pinch, and if you want to bulk up the veggie stock, add all the trash bits of the onions and garlic and carrots and ginger and the tough outer leaves of the lemongrass with some peppercorns and star anise and let that puppy simmer for like ten minutes before straining.)

two giant handfuls of any sturdy leafy green, like bok choi, kale, or spinach

three eggs

one lime

fish sauce

coconut or brown sugar

frozen dumplings of any kind

gochujang paste

INSTRUCTIONS

add a few tablespoons of neutral oil to a large soup pot over medium heat

once the oil is shining, add the garlic, thai chili and ginger and sauté until fragrant

add the lemongrass and the onions, and continue to sauté until the onions are soft and translucent

in go the carrots, the zest of one lime, and three heaping tablespoons of your gochujang, stir stir stir until everything is tender and the paste has worked its way into all the nooks and crannies. 

pour in the strained veggie stock, bring to a boil, then down to a simmer. cover, and continue to simmer for ten minutes.

remove the lid, stir the reduced broth, and add your mushrooms and your chicken stock. make sure it’s all well combined. 

we’re going to start adjusting the flavor now: add two tablespoons of fish sauce, and a tablespoon of coconut sugar (brown will do if that’s what you have).

cover and simmer for another 10 minutes.

add more gochujang plus the juice from your naked lime and chopped cilantro to taste.

now you add your frozen dumplings and your greens and just keep an eye on them until they cook through. 

meanwhile, break the eggs into a bowl and scramble them with a fork. pour them into the soup in an even, unbroken stream while you stir. this will give you those pretty egg-drop ribbons.

serve in deep bowls and garnish with more cilantro and lime juice.

NOTES: like I said above, nearly everything in this recipe can be substituted, save for the aromatics, and if you’re a vegetarian you can just double the amount of veggie stock, instead of adding chicken stock. 

[buffetlicious]

A wholesome bowl of home-cooked Pork Ribs & Yong Tau Foo Noodles Soup for dinner. The yong tau foo (酿豆腐) is made up of pieces of vegetables or bean curd produces stuffed with fish paste. Grabbed a bunch of leafy lettuces and blanched them in the soup before scooping it and the other ingredients over the slightly flat yellow noodles.

[serpentface]

@mouseymagus

(response to tags where I mention Brakul making a crab soup)

IRL I USED:

3x snow crab clusters

1.5 onions

1 large habanero

Uncounted, substantial amount of garlic cloves

Thyme

Fennel Seeds

Cumin Seeds

About 1/4th of a lemongrass sprig

A lot of turmeric powder

Bit of fish sauce

like 2 sazon packets (mostly for MSG)

A substantial amount of sweet soy sauce later added to taste (used it as a balance because I went too hard on the turmeric+cumin, though some would have been used either way)

A lot of plain yogurt

Spinach

[No measurements used for basically anything I do things entirely to taste when making soup and adjust as needed]

In-universe version would have an overall similar tasting mix of herbs and spices. He also has access to meatier crab, and would be making larger batches. Two types of fish sauce would have been used, one that's intense and provides most of the salt content, and one that is very sweet and mixed with date wine (the sweet soy sauce was a substitute for this, some kind of sweet port wine mixed with fish sauce would probably be more accurate).

Vegetables are all finely chopped (outside of the lemongrass) as they will be eaten in the final product. Everything except the yogurt and spinach is combined with water and allowed to cook for several hours to make the broth.

The broth should be very strong, somewhat excessive on the spices because it's going to be balanced out with yogurt. Once it reaches a good point, the heat should be turned low and the soup allowed to cool before the yogurt is stirred in, which should prevent curdling. This should be A LOT of yogurt, it's the key ingredient. Cream could also be used for a sweeter result. The color should end up very light golden-yellow.

Continue cooking on low heat for a while after adding the yogurt (I let it go like 1.5 hours). You don't want it to boil again but want the yogurt-broth to thoroughly penetrate the crabmeat. Once that's done, you can either strain it to remove fennel/cumin seeds and the cooked down vegetables (and replace them with freshly chopped ones), or let it be and to eat as is. Either way this is the point where you add the spinach and let it cook for a while longer, until the vegetables are soft.

Resulting soup should be a thick broth that’s notably spicy, mildly sweet, and the bitterness of the spices should be subtle. Should have a distinct turmeric flavor with the cumin, thyme, and fennel being subtler. You can open up the crab legs and add the meat into the soup, or eat out of them on the side (ideally with bread to scoop up any remaining liquid, or over grain)

In context, Brakul really likes to cook and is like, Okay at it. He's got a good sense for flavoring and a very, very bad sense for timing. His soups are notably quite good because they are the one thing that is virtually impossible to burn. This crab soup is his favorite thing to make, it's kind of a fusion between familiar recipes he would have had back home (crayfish broth boils with herbs and chili-spiced yogurt) and flavoring more favorable to the Wardi palate (especially cumin and imported turmeric). He's bad at integrating the yogurt at the proper heat though so it usually ends up curdled.

Here’s photos of the process for the lore friendly curdled version

[echantedtoon]

To Where The Hand Extends

(This is the promised raffle prize for @iron-embers. If Shinjuro comes out too ooc I apologize it's my first time writing him. Warnings for mentioned drinking and alcoholism concerning Shinjuro and mentioned death concerning Ruka. Hatomi belongs to iron-embers. I had to look.up so many japanese dishes lmao.)

The day was beautiful this morning.

With the sunlight sinking into the room through the window as the ball of light was nearing to setting within a few hours. The birds singing outside. Beautiful fresh smelling air. Beautiful visions of nature right outside of you looked. A bright blue sky. Fluffy white clouds. Yellow sun. Flowers of every color. Green plants everywhere. Trees providing shade as the wind rolled by. A little blue pond in the distance full of fish.

Yes.

An absolute picture perfect scene for what could very much be a good day. Nothing in the world to worry about. Nothing to do. Just peaceful quiet and nature. It's why she left most of the windows and doors leading to the outside open today it could get rather stuffy inside. The gentle noises of dishes being moved about the kitchen area along with the distant sounds of a few pots bubbling away on the furnace. The heavy smells of delicious spices and not quite done yet rice lingered in the air before wafting out the mentioned open windows and doors. Small footsteps ran out from up the side hall and the chef knew without even looking around that a pair of eyes had found their curiosity wondering into the kitchen.

"HUNGRY!," A loud voice declared out.

"You're going to have to be patient now.  Food doesn't make itself."

"What we having?!"

"Miso soup and onigiri."

A small chubby face scrunched up in protest. "Soup again?"

"There's leftover ochazuke from lunch if you don't want what I'm making for dinner," her calm voice replied back despite the smile that still plagued her features. Petite hands reached out to grab a potato while the other held up a sharp cutting knife above the chopping board. "And we're having all the leftovers tomorrow night. We don't waste food around here."

"Can't I have some momiji instead?"

Her eyes turned, head looking over her shoulder. Potato sternly pointed out to seven year old pouting in the doorway. "You're not getting any sweets unless you eat something healthy young man. It'll spoil your appetite and give you a stomachache and it's not healthy."

His response was to pout more buuuut his mad face only made him look like an adorable chubby hamster. "That's an old wives tale! Just like saying the Boogeyman is gonna come out of the closet if I don't sleep."

"My answer is still no. Now go wash up. If you don't eat anything good you won't be getting desert and that's that." 

Softer but heavier sounding footsteps came down the same hallway just as the first fiery haired and eyed boy stomped away as all upset children do and second later a second child stood in the doorway. He was a perfect mirror copy of the first boy only older by about six years at thirteen years old and he was smiling instead of pouting like his baby brother. Kyojuro always seemed to be smiling to be honest and it was no exception for when he curiously watched his brother go before looking back on her.

"What was that all about?"

Her smile never left as she went back to what she was doing before, trying to chop up this potato. "He's upset with me for not giving him dessert on demand." The sounds of chopping filled the air as the knife easily sliced through the potato at last. "Although he does seem a little crankier than he was a little while ago. I wonder why."

"Oh...It was Father actually."

Chop-

The hands paused in their movements. Knife resting between two potato slices as her head turned back to him. Blinking wide eyed before a sigh left through her nose and a frown settled upon her face. Oh. Their father.

"Oh, I see. ..What happened?"

His orange eyes sadly looked at his shuffling feet. "W-Well.. There's a festival in town A-And we wanted to go bu-bu-but...Father said it was a waste of time."

"Oh..Well I'm sure he didn't mean it like that. He's probably just tired and cranky right now."

"No. He always says no. Every year...he doesn't like it when we ask him." Young eyes suddenly lit up in a pleased idea as he looked at her in a gasp and clenched his fists in excitement. "I know! Can you take us instead!?"

She blinked at him but couldn't help but smile at the cute face he made while all hopeful. "You want me to take you? Really?"

"Uh huh! You're really nice and responsible and he thinks you're really pretty so of course he'll say yes!" He ended that surprising sentence by throwing his hands up. "So will you ask him?!"

Her eyes blinked again slightly surprised. "Pretty? I doubt that."

"But you are pretty, Ms. Hatomi! You're about as pretty looking as a sweet potato!"

His sentence made her giggle again as she shook her head. "Well thank you. I'm glad you think so."

"So you'll ask?!"

"Alright. I'll ask him when dinner's ready. For now go wash up with Senjuro-"

A rush to her legs made her look down as two arms wrapped around her waist in a tight hug as Kyojuro hugged her tightly. "Thanks, Ms. Hatomi! You're the nicest person ever!"

Her smile didn't wain as she patted the top of the young boy's head. "Thank you. Now off you go. Food is almost ready."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Soft footsteps echoed throughout the hall. The delicious smells of the food in her hands on the tray. The soup in the bowl sloshing around slightly with each sway from her steps through the late evening. There was still plenty of light outside but it was nearer to sunset now about maybe one or two hours away. Hey that didn't stop her from walking down the hall and stopping in front of the one door in particular. One she's already visited two times today to deliver breakfast and lunch. Carefully balancing the tray into one arm, she reached out her other hand to knock on the door just loud enough to get anyone inside's attention.

"Master Rengoku-san? I brought you dinner. Can I come in?"

If no one answered then that meant he was passed out again in which case she'd just leave the food by the door and come back later, however a loud grunt from inside gave her all the go ahead she needed to use a foot and slide the door just enough to peek in first.

The room was dark inside despite the sun still being out. She saw why when her eyes saw the shutters still closed tightly on the windows and the only source of light being the crack in the doorway and a single candle lit on a table in the far corner.

"What is it? Can't you see I'm busy!"

Silvery light collided with the dancing gold of the flame in a beautiful glow making shadows dance against the walls and furniture. Reflection beaming off eyes unblinking within the strange alluring mixture of darkness and lights. The motions of writing ceasing in their motions completely and the emotions taking over. The one whom was working stopping to set the feather back onto it's rightful pedestal and sitting there unblinking. The one who had the emotions stirring around from his mind and down to his heart. Those eyes turned slowly, head turning to the doorway behind him as he sat as his table. The area behind him was dark, and almost hard to see but he saw what the eyes were searching for. Her head peeking in through the doorway and staring back to the man sitting on the pillow in the otherwise dark and silent room.

The master of the entire Rengoku estate. Sitting there with paperwork of some kind unfinished in front of him and a tired look to his face as she quietly shuffled in  holding up the food tray in her hands.

"I brought you dinner, Sir." Nevermind she already told him once outside the door. "I figured you might be hungry by now."

Fiery eyes seemed to glow in the dark as they eyed her..and then the tray in her hands before turning back to stare blankly at the unfinished papers. "Bring it in then."

She smiled walking in with the tray gently over to where she had left the last tray taking note of how it was empty now with the dishes from that lunch being left on top. That's good. That meant he was eating today and filling his stomach with something other than the sake that was usually seen around him. He paid no attention to her as she gently slid the old one away from his side and replaced it with the newer one filled with the delicious smelling good. And despite himself, she caught his head tilting slightly towards it. Good. He was showing more interest in eating again. That fact alone made her smile.

"What is it?", he bluntly asked.

"Miso soup and onigiri. I figured it'd be a nice day to have onigiri since a festival is going on in the next town over," she answered just picking up the tray.

"Is that right?"

"Mm hm...You know Kyojuro was just telling me about it today. I was told there's going to be a Kabuki theater there. It sounds like fun."

"Did that boy of mine put you up to this? If you're here to try and get me to change my mind then you can forget it!" A finger harshly jabbed down into the wood of the table. "Those two are staying HERE where they belong and studying until I decide they're improving!"

"No one put me up to anything." Maybe it was the matter of fact way she spoke of the fact she didn't react to his anger at all but he was taken off guard every time she looked at him like that. The silent calm stare that was both full of disapproval and sadness at the same time. "I was only stating that it sounded like fun. After all  everyone has need for a break sometimes."

"And sometimes someone needs discipline to make them learn."

"And sometimes someone can push someone else so hard to do something so much of the time that they burn out."

He flinched. Hard.

"But that is only my opinions on what might happen to someone if that happened, not that it is happening to anyone else I know." Her body bowed at the middle before turning her body. "I'll come back in a few hours to see if you're done eating."

"... Where's this dam festival at anyways?" 

She paused in the middle of stepping away, head turning back to him but he didn't look up from the papers on the table in front of him. 

"Just in the next town over. It's not even an hour away."

".....I want EVERYONE inside before any sunlight disappears. I do not care what any of those boys have to say."

It was curt, blunt, rude, and with a small time limit for fun...But that was a yes. An actual yes without even saying yes.

She nodded. "Of course. We do that every night." She went to leave aga-

"Hatomi."

"Yes?"

"The lunch you made me."

"Was it too much? I can make the portions smaller if you prefer or maybe you didn't like how I made it?"

There was a long moment of silence between the two of them but she couldn't leave until he finished talking to her. He remained silent sitting there still not looking at her.

"..It tasted good. It could use s-..some more salt but it was fine."

She could not see his face otherwise perhaps she might've seen the way a pink hue coated his features and thank goodness for the dark or else she might've seen the glow to his ears. Instead she blinked slightly in surprise... before smiling wider.

"Then I'll be sure to add some more salt next time I make that dish."

[thesnazzysharky]

Analyzing and reviewing some more stuff in the SOUP update for SJSM

So, in my last post talking about the SOUP update, I missed out on some things that I want to comment on. Obviously this won't be as long as my previous post, but I hope you enjoy regardless.

Miscellaneous Stuff

The funny red gummy worm mfs have 3d models now and judging from this still screenshot they'll actually move like worms. I really dig this change because not only will it make the pink and yellow room more surreal when you step into it, but it also makes it more clear that the worms are... well, worms, since that wasn't really made obvious in the original version where they were just 2d red lines moving across the floor. Very nice.

The bones that we see throughout the mansion will also be getting 3d models. A small but very great improvement. Always thought it was a bit lame and odd that the bones were 2d images. Especially since the skeleton of the Romantic Victim was a 3d model. Now all of them are 3d and will add to the atmosphere instead of looking out of place.

And there's this pic of Ringu showing her sharp teeth. Not much to say other than it looks cool.

Before we move on, I just want to talk about Beef Demon's redesign again. In the last post I kinda dunked on the dude, but after seeing him move around a bit and realizing he doesn't look as skinny as I originally thought thanks to that little showcase video Hoolopee posted on Twitter, I think he actually looks pretty cool and unnerving. I especially like the texture on him. It kinda makes him look like he's made out of meat, something I think the original model should have implied more. I think I'll start to prefer this model to the older once I get used to it. I think Jenbobby explained it best. The trailer just did my boy dirty.

Specimen 9

So, another design that I'm a bit mixed on. My guy do be looking like a cranky ass old man who just got woken up from his nap, but on the other hand, I do like how they lean more into the "disembodied head made out of clay" aspect. He actually looks like he's made out of clay here, which is pretty cool.

But, he just looks a bit odd to me and isn't as creepy as the original model in my opinion. I feel like the neck plays a factor into this as well as it looks a bit too long. Decent model I suppose, just think this one will take some getting used to.

As for his boss form, the redesign here is... decent. I think he is too brightly colored and his head and jaw looks odd which makes him look less creepy to me, but it's a solid model.

Specimen 13

Originally I thought Specimen 13's model wasn't changed at all, but they actually did alter it a bit. Her hair is now slightly shorter and has changed a bit in appearance. Her fish body has went from blue to a more teal looking color and the end of her tail is a more triangular shape rather than looking like a typical fish tail. It also seems like compared to her original model, her breasts got a bit of a buff... nice so have fun with that.

Anyways, I do like this model, but I think the textures could've been done better. Comparing the models, her hair and the scales on her fish half look lower quality on the new model, which is odd. I also don't like how the end of her tail went from resembling the tail of a fish to... I don't even know what it's supposed to be anymore. Again, the model is pretty great, but it unfortunately gets brought down by the textures and tail.

Specimen 7

Wow... now this... this is a glow up. I already enjoyed Specimen 7's design before, but holy shit, this is amazing. The faces look like they're in more agony than ever, overall detail has been improved, and it looks more scarier overall. I don't know what else to add other than that this redesign is similar to how Spooper's redesign was handled. Do exactly what you did before... but just better. Move over Old Specimen 10 Eel Thing, because THIS is EASILY the best redesign from this update hands down. Specimen 7 fans are eating 100%.

Anyways, that's about it really. Not much else to say other than although it seems to be pretty controversial so far, I'll be gladly waiting for the SOUP update despite its faults I'll never forgive them for what they did to Bab though.

One more thing though...

You're telling me the mf behind the redesigns in this update is the same mf behind this? A-am I the only one shocked?

[tilosecretbirb]

@wanderingarcherviola for a plotted starter with Fár

Fár's meditative trip was meant to ground her against the hectic life of a trade master. A soothing balm for calming fraying nerves. Saving her hide. Not on giving her surprises.

But here she was! Surprised and interrupted by a curious thing indeed.

A tiny orc- with hair! 

Peering from her pitch black spot among the cathedraled stone which chasmed the limestone walls,  her head tilts, watching her newest form of entertainment.

Curiouser and curiouser. 

Never before had she seen an orc with a full head of hair.And one so tiny!

Making- what was that?

Eyes narrowing in on the bubbling brew upon the fire. Her pupil reflecting the fire light, a humming yellow dancing like fire flies among shadowy cold stone.

It was soup?!

“ A mighty good soup you're fixing up, little one,” She calls down, funny referring to the orc as little when she herself stands just so. 

“I think it might be needing something though.” Taking an audible sniff she helpfully suggests, “ mushrooms would go lovely. You got any?”

 Taking another whiff, nostrils flaring, she inhales thick curtains of stale cavern air from her lofted perch. The tantalizing soup broth definitely could use some improvements and she had just the thing in her bag. “What about some fish?”