The Off Topic Topic

[Tamas]

Try that with phones or computers or cars or bicycles etc :p

[The Larch]

It is often difficult for tourists to find the best places.

My worst case of gastronomic envy occurred in Galicia, some time ago. It was a fish restaurant and we ordered a fairly basic lunch as we were travelling with young children. Then I noticed six guys dining at a table heaped with seafood. Our lunch was pretty good but their lunch was magnificent! There were discarded shells from lobsters etc and new dishes kept on arriving for them and they were still hard at it when we left an hour later. I wondered if it was some sort of dining club, along the lines of "on the first thursday of each month we will gorge on seafood and the expense be damned!" 

I guess those guys were having a "mariscada", a meal consistent entirely on seafood that tends to be associated with celebrations or big events.

Galician weddings are famous all over Spain for their endless parade of seafood dishes, to the astonishment of any guests from the rest of the country. 

Sounds great 

If you get married in Galicia invite please 

Nowadays that kind of seafood largesse is seen as kinda gauche, though. 

Unadventurous I would think; quite a lot of fish fingers and frozen cod/haddock in breadcrumbs I would suspect.

Yes - and possibly lots of tinned fish. And not good Spanish style tinned fish

While our good tinned stuff is pretty good, our regular fares are pretty pedestrian and short on variety. Portuguese tinned fish is where it's at, not only their variety of products and preparations is much larger, even the cans are pretty to look at. There seems to be a conscious effort in the last decade or so in the Portuguese food industry to "dignify" tinned fish products, and there are even some specialized gourmet shops that sell the most amazing, rainbow-coloured displays of tinned delicacies your mind can only imagine, as well as restaurants that only serve dishes prepared with tinned stuff. Check this place, for instance: https://lojadasconservas.com/

I think you should start planning a Portuguese holiday at some point, S, if you love oily fish so much, you wouldn't imagine what the Portuguese can do with sardines. 

[Jacob]

In other news: Assad won the election in Syria. He got 95% of the votes, with more than 78% participation.

[Grey Fox]

Our stagnation is the intended results of the Reagan policies.

[mongers]

Unadventurous I would think; quite a lot of fish fingers and frozen cod/haddock in breadcrumbs I would suspect.

[Admiral Yi]

Our stagnation is the intended results of the Reagan policies.

wut?

[grumbler]

Our stagnation is the intended results of the Reagan policies.

wut?

Reagon is a favorite subject of the wacko conspiracy types.

[Grey Fox]

🙄

[DGuller]

In other news: Assad won the election in Syria. He got 95% of the votes, with more than 78% participation.

This level of support for Assad kind of makes you wonder why they even had a civil war.

[Valmy]

Clearly the civil war made them see how wrong they were to have ever doubted him.

[Admiral Yi]

We shouldn't call it until the absentee ballots have been counted.

[mongers]

We shouldn't call it until the absentee ballots have been counted.

Dead people (opposition and rebels) don't tend to vote in Syria 'elections'.

[Sheilbh]

While our good tinned stuff is pretty good, our regular fares are pretty pedestrian and short on variety. Portuguese tinned fish is where it's at, not only their variety of products and preparations is much larger, even the cans are pretty to look at. There seems to be a conscious effort in the last decade or so in the Portuguese food industry to "dignify" tinned fish products, and there are even some specialized gourmet shops that sell the most amazing, rainbow-coloured displays of tinned delicacies your mind can only imagine, as well as restaurants that only serve dishes prepared with tinned stuff. Check this place, for instance: https://lojadasconservas.com/

I think you should start planning a Portuguese holiday at some point, S, if you love oily fish so much, you wouldn't imagine what the Portuguese can do with sardines. 

I've been to Portugal before and will return in a week or two

[The Larch]

While our good tinned stuff is pretty good, our regular fares are pretty pedestrian and short on variety. Portuguese tinned fish is where it's at, not only their variety of products and preparations is much larger, even the cans are pretty to look at. There seems to be a conscious effort in the last decade or so in the Portuguese food industry to "dignify" tinned fish products, and there are even some specialized gourmet shops that sell the most amazing, rainbow-coloured displays of tinned delicacies your mind can only imagine, as well as restaurants that only serve dishes prepared with tinned stuff. Check this place, for instance: https://lojadasconservas.com/

I think you should start planning a Portuguese holiday at some point, S, if you love oily fish so much, you wouldn't imagine what the Portuguese can do with sardines. 

I've been to Portugal before and will return in a week or two

If you're anywhere near the north of the country let me know.

[Syt]

For the Brits: Mr Blobby takes a Voigt-Kampff test.

https://twitter.com/MisterABK/status/1398216463375376384?s=20