Eisregen_NA

Hell no. I buy them peeled, in a can. They're Italian, meant to be used in pasta. Once you cook them they just melt away.

For the most part, the beans extend the amount of edible matter and glue the final product together for me. I can totally live without them, but beans and corn are in many of the chilis I've had around.

Wow. I put a teaspoon of sugar and salt each with the meat and that's it. I also don't like pork all that much, to be honest, so I usually go with straight ground beef.

Same on the beef, but I prefer to do my onions first without anything so they don't get too soggy, then add sliced paprika (usually at least one red and one green for a pound of beef), garlic when I feel like it and once I'm convinced they're all crunchy, I toss in the salt, beef and sugar.

And while I personally don't mind the kick from chili seeds, I hate the sudden surprise of hitting one. I like things hot, but evenly so. I do have a mill to grind dry-ish seeds into fresh flakes though (and the same for black, white and green peppercorns). I like to think that gives the chili and pepper flakes more bang than just adding bagged flakes or cayenne powder.

But as I meant to imply earlier, I don't claim any authenticity with this approach, I just like it best that way. I will admit that I really love to dump that chili on a plate of fries rather than going with a side of rice or whatever is the classic approach. Though sometimes I just manwich it in Turkish flatbread with sesame seeds and caraway for ease of use.


Ye Gods, I'm hungry now.

Well. Curry doesn't equal curry, since it's a spice mix. That said, I think curry makes most things better. As does powdered paprika.

Sauce? I make a pretty heathen chili, reducing added ingredients to red onions, two to three kinds of peppers, very few beans and peeled tomatoes. Wouldn't want it to get soupy after all.

Edit: IMO the sugar's best added to the ground beef to get it to carmelize to a crisp rather than get too chewy or soft. It'll still do the job.

Same way they always have. Back when, someone stumbled over something, made a mixtape and passed it on. Nowadays, it's become even easier as they'll just send each other links to the band's websites, or straight-up swap MP3s. Youtube actually helps a huge amount, too with its related videos. I know I stumbled over a lot of stuff I ended up liking that way.

Like these guys from Switzerland who do some kind of folky music I can't quite classify. But I stumbled over them because they also did a cover of Tom Wait's 'God's Away on Business'.

Maybe it's me who has to feel terrible for the state of any food in the US?

Reality is relative.

I figured. My first thought was 'hey, look, Kali's got a second account'. Then I noticed the post count and signature.

Only that microwaves are both unhealthy and unsanitary, take up more space and expand vastly more power. I've got one. I use it to thaw frozen food or warm up leftovers. At how many watts and for how long do you need to run a microwave to actually get water to boil? And how do you get your container full of boiling water out of the microwave without oven mitts? It'll be almost as hot as the content. Meanwhile, the kettle comes with a handle that doesn't heat up.

Moreover, the only food you can actually prepare in it is pre-cooked. 90% of which is store-bought and usually indistinguishable in taste from its packaging. The other 10% having been made on a real stove and given to you by kind strangers. Or your mom.

Uhm. Ramen. All kinds of hot instant drinks and soups. Instant sauces if you absolutely must. Soaking several varieties of Asian noodles that don't actually need to be cooked to be edible.

Hell. Some ten years ago when I moved to Berlin, I was literally living out of one of those babies for a couple weeks until I had my kitchen set up. Not every day, but many a day. You can get pretty far with one of those unless you want to fry things. You definitely CAN make noodles, dumplings and rice IN them, and of course you can make sauces and soups of all kinds. Just a bit more of an effort to clean.


Edit and totally off-topic: Oi, someone changed their name. This will take some getting used to.

Maybe people thought you meant the actor?

I thought this was common knowledge. At the time, Malibu had pioneered, cross-hatch digital colouring. Which is part of why Image got them to be their publisher. With the addition of the higher grade paper Image wound up using, the digital colours took comics to a whole new level of plain good looks. Terrible plots aside, I don't think I've ever been so visually shocked than when I was looking at the first issue of Spawn (the others didn't quite make the same amount of impact; WildCATs had most panels too crowded, Savage Dragon and Shadowhawk used a subdued palette for the backgrounds... but Spawn stood out as a visible quantum leap in production values).

When the speculator bubble burst and Malibu fell on harder times, Marvel bought them up to get at their colouring processes, essentially. They didn't really care for Malibu's Intellectual Properties.

Heh. It's handy when you're having to drive long distances on little to no sleep. I'll simply stash a couple single cup bags for when you get those inevitable downtimes and your concentration wanes. Not like I can actually make myself a proper coffee behind the wheel, nor do I care to stop everytime I get drowsy.

Ever try eating instant coffee? It's amazing. Not sure if it can match Turkish coffee, but it's gonna be a close one.

Barbarian.

Since I almost exclusively make single cups, I plain don't like using two different pieces of kitchenware, personally. Now if we're doing kettles, certainly, why not pour it through a dense sieve. But for my purposes, teabags are simply far more sensible and less annoying. Then again I have a lady at work who makes hers in her own samovar (which, yes, she keeps at the office; I presume she has one at home as well). Which, frankly, beats all other methods of preparation for sheer coolness.

Just FYI: That's because Earl Grey's been flavoured with dried orange peel more than anything else. Yes, green tea is a different animal from black tea, the base for Earl Grey, but they're still primarily made from the same substances. The killer difference really is the bergamot.

Personally, I find that stirring in ANY milk, at ANY point ruins the flavour of the tea. Sugar's fine, depending on the tea, but I never understood the point of adding milk as I find it waters down the taste of the tea.

I can't for the life of me get into KMFDM. Which is weird. I'm not averse to electronica, avant-garde or whatever. Plus, you know, German. But KMFDM just never grabbed me.

My current personal tastes are far and wide-reaching, and I've gone over them so many times that I probably forget about half of the stuff I listen to each time. But as long as I forget different parts each time, the message gets out there.

My absolute favourite bands do however include (in no particular order) New Model Army, the Clash, Danzig-era Misfits, PLI, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Current 93, Death in June, Subway to Sally, Tanzwut, Wumpscut, the Merlons, Tristania, Lacrimosa, Kreator, Suicidal Tendencies... I'm all over the ******* place.


What I actually listen to while playing CoH actually starkly changes depending on the character I play however.

My Nazi super soldier turned mutant supremacist goes well with Death in June (especially Take Care and Control and Operation Hummingbird, but his playlist wouldn't be complete without All Pigs Must Die), Darkwood, der Blutharsch, Sonne Hagal, Forseti and of course Richard Wagner.

My overconfident macho junior God of Death on the other hand is all over Danzig, Suicidal Tendencies, Body Count, Motörhead... juxtaposed with some darker, more thoughtful stuff like Current 93, the Cooper Temple Clause or Okkervil River (though he insists they're called Overkill River...). He gets very bi-polar.

There's also my changeling who goes best with Glam Rock, but that's probably born out of the fact that he was inspired by the movie Velvet Goldmine. Don't ask me how I got a superhero out of a movie mostly concerning itself with sodomy and drug abuse.

Considering that you need to opt-in for your real name to be broadcast, this is a non-issue, though.

Plus, we really have no idea how foolproof this thing is. Chances are, there'll be a workaround found in no time that allows people to portray someone else's ID entirely. Unless Blizzard wants to walk the mile and visit everyone who signs up for their message boards to see if they're the real them at any rate.

Or am I the only person who has a cover ID they've been reliably using online when they don't want to enter their real details and has summarily gotten away with it? Of course you can't use credit cards with your fake ID unless you want to walk the mile and commit a proper crime.

Mind you, I don't even have anything to hide, and more than once I'd have welcomed some internet tough guy to come by and actually try to do what they said they would. But I'm just a rather private person. Kinda relaxed around here, but still.

Sounds like an effort. Why not have everyone give their real name as 'George Orwell' when the transition happens?

That sounds more like middle management though. Guys like Patrick Bateman.

Helpful link indeed. It didn't even turn up my online phone book entry. Which is actually kinda weird. And sad, cause I'd like some roses and a dildo in the mail. Well, I don't really need the dildo. Maybe a Russian mail order bride instead?

Since we're talking name trivia. There are exactly two guys with my name in this city, which isn't uncommon, but I guess the exact combination is. Fun fact: The other guy's a lawyer. Which is fun because his clients and once even a judge call me and leave case details on my answering machine. I have considered going into blackmail.

Anyway, anyone going after me has a 50% chance of finding themselves buried in legal hassles, and a 50% chance of having their head caved in by the sword I keep behind the door.