1
Forum Games - The Beer Cellar! / Re: Word Association
« on: May 09, 2024, 11:12:05 PM »
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2
Food Discussion - The Jolly Boar Kitchen / Re: What have you been eating?
« on: May 09, 2024, 05:33:52 PM »
Right, an update from me!
I bought some tempeh, partly because I had little idea what temph was and thus to challenge myself to work out what one does with tempeh. I got some mediterranean-herb version of it so it didn't need marinading: the two things I came up with were a fried bread/red pepper/tempeh mix with salad and a sour cream/salt/sumac dip, which worked well, and an olive/red onion/orange/tempeh hot salady thing with garlic bread, which was possibly a more out there idea but also worked.
Whilst I'll have more full things to say on Liechtenstein later, I'm going to share with you the overpriced food here. I perhaps cheekily saved a bit by making my lunches out of the hotel breakfasts (which had the amusing designations of "lactose free milk" and "milk milk" among offered drinks), but the evening meals were about forty euros each which is a lot for what they were. They were nice, and the little Italian restaurant in Vaduz where the owner just walked out and gave me the menu verbally was quite fun, but everything was definitely pricey.
The bottom right meal is not from Liechtenstein, but Konstanz, and besides therefore being better value it's also a more interesting local dish, maultaschen, basically large dumpling-like constructions made of sheets of pasta dough with minced meat inside. Definitely an interesting take on how to combine meat and dough and worth looking out for if one is in Swabia.
And finally, it's been asparagus (Spargel) season here in Austria so as usual I've made some asparagus dishes. I have to say probably the most successful of these was the top right: steaming asparagus above some pasta as it cooked, and then using a mix of sour cream and lemon juice as a sauce, with tomatoes added in and sumac sprinkled on top at the end. Top left is asparagus with speck (tiny bacon bits), and at the bottom is a non-pasta option which can work quite well, wrapping the spears first in some kind of meat (parma ham or similar) and then in pastry and cooking them. It's easy to overcook them doing this, the asparagus may want more brushing in oil or similar than I gave it, but it's a nice meal or good finger-food if there are guests around.
I bought some tempeh, partly because I had little idea what temph was and thus to challenge myself to work out what one does with tempeh. I got some mediterranean-herb version of it so it didn't need marinading: the two things I came up with were a fried bread/red pepper/tempeh mix with salad and a sour cream/salt/sumac dip, which worked well, and an olive/red onion/orange/tempeh hot salady thing with garlic bread, which was possibly a more out there idea but also worked.
 |  |
Whilst I'll have more full things to say on Liechtenstein later, I'm going to share with you the overpriced food here. I perhaps cheekily saved a bit by making my lunches out of the hotel breakfasts (which had the amusing designations of "lactose free milk" and "milk milk" among offered drinks), but the evening meals were about forty euros each which is a lot for what they were. They were nice, and the little Italian restaurant in Vaduz where the owner just walked out and gave me the menu verbally was quite fun, but everything was definitely pricey.
The bottom right meal is not from Liechtenstein, but Konstanz, and besides therefore being better value it's also a more interesting local dish, maultaschen, basically large dumpling-like constructions made of sheets of pasta dough with minced meat inside. Definitely an interesting take on how to combine meat and dough and worth looking out for if one is in Swabia.
 |  |
 |  |
And finally, it's been asparagus (Spargel) season here in Austria so as usual I've made some asparagus dishes. I have to say probably the most successful of these was the top right: steaming asparagus above some pasta as it cooked, and then using a mix of sour cream and lemon juice as a sauce, with tomatoes added in and sumac sprinkled on top at the end. Top left is asparagus with speck (tiny bacon bits), and at the bottom is a non-pasta option which can work quite well, wrapping the spears first in some kind of meat (parma ham or similar) and then in pastry and cooking them. It's easy to overcook them doing this, the asparagus may want more brushing in oil or similar than I gave it, but it's a nice meal or good finger-food if there are guests around.
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3
Food Discussion - The Jolly Boar Kitchen / Re: Kitchen Gardening
« on: May 09, 2024, 05:10:01 PM »
So my gardening this year has an unusual drawback, which is that my decking is collapsing:
As my landlord is a useless arsehole I'm not sure when this will be fixed, it's very frustrating (and somewhat concerning for that matter).
Also, secondarily, most of my plants died over winter: even my fig tree didn't have a very good time of it, and that's a tree! Nonetheless I've bought a bunch of new plants and have planted them out: I've got a couple of cucumbers, a courgette, a tomato, an aubergine, and a pepper, and some new herbs as well (tarragon, rosemary, thyme and oregano).
Here's where things have got to anyhow and we'll see as ever how it goes...
If there's one thing that I have learned from the last few years of plant keeping it is that urban gardening is, whilst often fun, exceptionally inefficient as a way of actually producing food: in an average year I've probably spent ca 40-50EUR on plants to obtain, at a generous average estimate, 5EUR of produce. Economies of scale and better locations make a lot of difference when it comes to plant growth!
As my landlord is a useless arsehole I'm not sure when this will be fixed, it's very frustrating (and somewhat concerning for that matter).
Also, secondarily, most of my plants died over winter: even my fig tree didn't have a very good time of it, and that's a tree! Nonetheless I've bought a bunch of new plants and have planted them out: I've got a couple of cucumbers, a courgette, a tomato, an aubergine, and a pepper, and some new herbs as well (tarragon, rosemary, thyme and oregano).
Here's where things have got to anyhow and we'll see as ever how it goes...
 |  |
 |  |
If there's one thing that I have learned from the last few years of plant keeping it is that urban gardening is, whilst often fun, exceptionally inefficient as a way of actually producing food: in an average year I've probably spent ca 40-50EUR on plants to obtain, at a generous average estimate, 5EUR of produce. Economies of scale and better locations make a lot of difference when it comes to plant growth!
15
Discussion and Debate - The Philosopher's Plaza / Re: UK Politics 2024
« on: May 06, 2024, 08:18:37 PM »
I'd say in the UK the Tories are likewise strongly pro-Israel's government, Labour varies depending on its leadership but the current centrist leadership is also quite strongly pro-Israeli govt. The Liberals, SNP and Greens are all much more "ceasefire now" parties and more supportive of recognition for a Palestinian state.
The Lib Dems and SNP both have prominent representatives with links to Palestine (Layla Moran of the Lib Dems is half Palestinian, Humza Yousaf who just resigned as Scots first minister has family there on, IIRC, his wife's side of the family). There's also a stark tonal difference between the pro-Palestinianism of the SNP or Lib Dems, which tends to be focused around ceasefires and recognition, and that of the very left of Labour or of George Galloway and his followers, which is framed in much more anti-Israeli ways.
The Lib Dems and SNP both have prominent representatives with links to Palestine (Layla Moran of the Lib Dems is half Palestinian, Humza Yousaf who just resigned as Scots first minister has family there on, IIRC, his wife's side of the family). There's also a stark tonal difference between the pro-Palestinianism of the SNP or Lib Dems, which tends to be focused around ceasefires and recognition, and that of the very left of Labour or of George Galloway and his followers, which is framed in much more anti-Israeli ways.