Random Rants Q': I protest against subtitles

[Sofista]

As a recipe....

Perhaps you can provide me the recipe

OK. This is basic comfort food, as I ate it at my grandparents' table, as I have it now.

Get the pastina (=very small pasta, specifically designed to be made as soup. Examples include stelline ('little stars'), ditalini ('small thimbles'), risoni ('big rice') which inspires you most. There are also varieties with egg (accept nothing with less than 20% egg). It's going to be cooked in broth - the one you prefer. Me, I go for beef.

Proportions: 40g (1,411oz) pasta for 250g/one quarter of L (8,818oz) of broth. Adjust for evaporation, especially if you're making a single bowl (in that case I simply go for 1/3L[11,75oz], just to be sure the result won't be too dry.

Any serious producer will have specified the required cooking time on the package, so add the pastina once the broth is boiling (it doesn't have to boil as fiercely as a river of Hell; you can lower the flame once your soup is just above simmering level).

Pour in the bowl(s), add grated hard cheese according to your personal tastes. Stir with your spoon, enjoy.
Adding vegetables kind of requires that you make it proportionally, unless you have leftovers around. A small cubed carrot and/or potato cooked alongside the pastina could be welcome, as long as you're cooking for a family or a group. You can also sprinkle with a pinch of finely chopped parsley if you just want a dash of color in your dish.

You actually once posted:
"And for the record, in Italy pasta and chicken just. don't. mix."
And now you're proposing to boil pasta in chicken broth. With actual chicken in it.

Need to expand on that, evidently.
In Italy you're not going to find pasta coupled with chicken (I mean the strained variety of it, which in our older cookbooks used to be called 'minestre asciutte', dry soups'). Or chicken on pizza, for the matter. Or chicken parmigiana.
OTOH, bolognese tortellini are traditionally served in thick capon broth and eaten with a spoon.
As far as I can tell, meat ≠ broth, like grapes ≠ wine ≠ brandy. Also, in the past broth was made with whatever was left in the kitchen, meaning that it rarely was made with a single source as we can afford to prepare it today.

It depends what you mean by an alternative to instant noodles. Instant noodles primary features are they contain everything in one little packet, they only need hot water and a container, are dirt cheap and last for ages. Now couscous is a pasta, and is about the only thing I know of that really gets close on all axis, but you have to add some flavourings in a way you do not with instant noodles.

That's true.
But pasta also needs hot water and a container (the pot, which surely everyone has), is dirt cheap and lasts for years. That you have to flavor it yourself... is actually a feature, unless you're just perfectly happy with what you've bought.

 

[Samson]

OK. This is basic comfort food, as I ate it at my grandparents' table, as I have it now.

Get the pastina (=very small pasta, specifically designed to be made as soup. Examples include stelline ('little stars'), ditalini ('small thimbles'), risoni ('big rice') which inspires you most. There are also varieties with egg (accept nothing with less than 20% egg). It's going to be cooked in broth - the one you prefer. Me, I go for beef.

Proportions: 40g (1,411oz) pasta for 250g/one quarter of L (8,818oz) of broth. Adjust for evaporation, especially if you're making a single bowl (in that case I simply go for 1/3L[11,75oz], just to be sure the result won't be too dry.

Any serious producer will have specified the required cooking time on the package, so add the pastina once the broth is boiling (it doesn't have to boil as fiercely as a river of Hell; you can lower the flame once your soup is just above simmering level).

Pour in the bowl(s), add grated hard cheese according to your personal tastes. Stir with your spoon, enjoy.
Adding vegetables kind of requires that you make it proportionally, unless you have leftovers around. A small cubed carrot and/or potato cooked alongside the pastina could be welcome, as long as you're cooking for a family or a group. You can also sprinkle with a pinch of finely chopped parsley if you just want a dash of color in your dish.



Need to expand on that, evidently.
In Italy you're not going to find pasta coupled with chicken (I mean the strained variety of it, which in our older cookbooks used to be called 'minestre asciutte', dry soups'). Or chicken on pizza, for the matter. Or chicken parmigiana.
OTOH, bolognese tortellini are traditionally served in thick capon broth and eaten with a spoon.
As far as I can tell, meat ≠ broth, like grapes ≠ wine ≠ brandy. Also, in the past broth was made with whatever was left in the kitchen, meaning that it rarely was made with a single source as we can afford to prepare it today.



That's true.
But pasta also needs hot water and a container (the pot, which surely everyone has), is dirt cheap and lasts for years. That you have to flavor it yourself... is actually a feature, unless you're just perfectly happy with what you've bought.

I think you need to define what you mean by broth. Something like some bones boiled up with a carrot, celery and onion?

 

[Sofista]

The product of slowly simmering meat, fish or vegetables in water.
Bones would also do (although, correct me if I'm wrong, that would properly be called stock), but take longer.

 

[The_J]

My god, what a crap evening I had yesterday.
I went to go dancing Salsa, on the beach, around 9:30-ish (earlier than I wanted, but the last regular bus went at that time). The scenery was nice, but when I arrived nobody was dancing. So I had a walk over the beach, looked a bit around, and spend some time discussing with my borderline-antivax-soon-to-be-former-brother-in-law about the last video he sent me (*urgh*).
When that was over, people were dancing . Probably double the amount of men compared to women, most of them in couples. I managed 3 dances within 2 hours.
Then I had to get back. My options were:
- Walk 5 km (~1h)
- Take the last night bus, leave at the closest possible point, walk 2.5 km
- Take the last night bus, to the center of the city, take the last metro/last other night bus, be close to home
I was early at the bus station, so wasted 20 min there, the night bus was late, and got horribly crowded with people, many of them not wearing masks (thanks god I'm vaccinated). Due to the crowding, the bus got delayed. I missed the closest stop, since the display was broken, and I'm not used to this city at night. Ended up in the center of the city, where due to the delayed bus I missed the last metro/last other night bus. Which essentially made me also walk 2.5 km home. I stopped in between at another Salsa bar, where the bouncer wouldn't accept my cloth mask, but made me put up a surgery mask. When I was inside, obviously nobody was wearing any masks. It wasn't busy enough, so I directly left. Just right in time to see the last night bus depart, apparently I was wrong before.
I ended up taking 2h for my way back home. I was 5h out, for effectively less than 15 minutes of dancing.
What a crap evening.


EDIT: And this whole journey gave me a bit of a cold too .

 

[Takhisis]

Need to expand on that, evidently.
In Italy you're not going to find pasta coupled with chicken (I mean the strained variety of it, which in our older cookbooks used to be called 'minestre asciutte', dry soups'). Or chicken on pizza, for the matter. Or chicken parmigiana.
OTOH, bolognese tortellini are traditionally served in thick capon broth and eaten with a spoon.
As far as I can tell, meat ≠ broth, like grapes ≠ wine ≠ brandy. Also, in the past broth was made with whatever was left in the kitchen, meaning that it rarely was made with a single source as we can afford to prepare it today.

Important question: is a good pasta ripiena, e.g. sorrentini allowed to include chicken in its stuffing?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Didn't live just stayed with an ex for a couple of weeks. The single mega ad break wasn't really a bad thing, just weirdly pointless. Surely everyone just did something else for a bit? Hell, Sofista could cook a meal.

I got most of my NaNoWriMo writing done tonight during the commercials when Big Brother was on. As a bonus I had time for two turns in the computer game I was playing.

There's a chap with a noisy motorbike who likes revving past, but it's only infrequently. The biggest noise pollution in my area is people's lawnmowers and noisy children.

Is it weird that I immediately thought of two Harry Potter spells that would solve these problems? (and no, they were not "Avada Kadavra")

 

[Sofista]

"Allowed"... if you're making your own ravioli (sorrentini seem to me large round-base ravioli, right?), you can fill them with what you want. Searching our web suggests that it's a thing we learned from South America and China.

The commercial, supermarket level, where the tastes of the masses are measured, shows another picture though (but again, we're talking about a praxis, not what we would call fixed rules, like 'no ketchup on pasta' or 'pasta is not a side dish'). I just went to the websites of the major stuffed pasta makers I could think of, and found no recipe with chicken.
Interesting wrinkle: the largest one has an Italian website without a trace of chicken... and a USA one, with a markedly different offering, including chicken pasta, stuffed and not.

 

[tjs282]

Is it weird that I immediately thought of two Harry Potter spells that would solve these problems? (and no, they were not "Avra Kadavra")

"Crucio", then?

Seriously, though, "Silencio" is the only one that immediately occurred to me — so what was the other one you thought of?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

"Crucio", then?

Seriously, though, "Silencio" is the only one that immediately occurred to me — so what was the other one you thought of?

"Crucio" would get me carted off to Azkaban, as it's one of the Unforgivables. I can think of people on whom it would be very tempting to use, though.

Actually, "Muffliato" would do, as would "Stupefy".

Hm. So would "Langlock." All of these enforce no talking, no movement.

 

[Arakhor]

Do they work on inanimate objects though? If you're going to use Stupefy on a motorcyclist in transit, I rather suspect you'd end with similar results to Crucio.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Do they work on inanimate objects though? If you're going to use Stupefy on a motorcyclist in transit, I rather suspect you'd end with similar results to Crucio.

Crucio attacks the nerves, so you feel excruciating pain even though nobody is even touching you. It's part of how Bellatrix tortures Hermione when they're in Malfoy Manor.

Using Stupefy on a motorcyclist would mean nobody was controlling the motorcycle and it would probably crash. The person on the cycle would be paralyzed irrespective of injuries sustained in the crash (the result could be death).

It's been argued by fans over what spell Bellatrix uses against Sirius when he falls through the Veil. Apparently Avada Kedavra is green, but that's not the color used in the movie. So the theory is that she used Stupefy on him and it was just his bad luck that he had no way to avoid falling in the direction of the Veil, rather than in a different direction (if he had, he'd have survived).

 

[Lexicus]

Using Stupefy on a motorcyclist would mean nobody was controlling the motorcycle and it would probably crash. The person on the cycle would be paralyzed irrespective of injuries sustained in the crash (the result could be death).

Not paralyzed, that would be the Full-Body-Bind curse (Petrificus Totalus). Stupefy only knocks one unconscious.

It's been argued by fans over what spell Bellatrix uses against Sirius when he falls through the Veil. Apparently Avada Kedavra is green, but that's not the color used in the movie. So the theory is that she used Stupefy on him and it was just his bad luck that he had no way to avoid falling in the direction of the Veil, rather than in a different direction (if he had, he'd have survived).

I think Rowling may have confirmed this in an interview. IMO, the text of the fifth book strongly implies that it is Avada Kedavra (and, also IMO, the books are presumptively a "higher level" of canon than any other Harry Potter media or materials), but it is worded in a way that is unclear.

 

[choxorn]

All of these enforce no talking, no movement.

If that's your goal, "Petrificus Totalus" also works.

It's been argued by fans over what spell Bellatrix uses against Sirius when he falls through the Veil. Apparently Avada Kedavra is green, but that's not the color used in the movie. So the theory is that she used Stupefy on him and it was just his bad luck that he had no way to avoid falling in the direction of the Veil, rather than in a different direction (if he had, he'd have survived).

Whatever the color is, she pretty clearly says "Avada Kedavra" in the movie, but in the books it's not clear what spell she uses.

 

[Lexicus]

Do they work on inanimate objects though? If you're going to use Stupefy on a motorcyclist in transit, I rather suspect you'd end with similar results to Crucio.

In the books, spells often hit inanimate objects (particularly when Harry is dodging). Some of the more powerful curses which can kill or badly injure a person can put craters in stone, cause things to burst into flame, cause stone statues to explode, and so on. At one point Harry refuses to use the nonlethal Stupefy on another character because that character is on a broomstick fifty or a hundred feet above the ground and would fall to his death.

 

[Narz]

Recovery from major surgery is hell :\

 

[thetrooper]

Recovery from major surgery is hell :\

Get well soon Narz!

What kind of surgery?

 

[H4run]

Recovery from major surgery is hell :\

I think months ago you were also talking about considering surgery, but I forgot exactly what surgery. Anyway, get well soon Narz.

 

[Narz]

Thx guys. I got my gallbladder out 10 days ago.

 

[Zkribbler]

Thx guys. I got my gallbladder out 10 days ago.

Oooouch!

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Thx guys. I got my gallbladder out 10 days ago.

That's not fun. Especially when the cat doesn't understand why he's not allowed to jump up exactly there (holy crap, that hurt; I don't think he ever heard me scream before, and must've jumped at least a foot).