The Off Topic Topic

[Valmy]

Hooray!  I just got an email back!  I got the job as a part-time Deli-guy at a local grocery store!  A local employee-owned store!

Fab! And you will not be alienated from your labor as you will have a stake in the means of production! 

Just kidding. Glad to hear it pal.

[HVC]

Congrats Raz

[Tamas]

Hooray!  I just got an email back!  I got the job as a part-time Deli-guy at a local grocery store!  A local employee-owned store!

[Josquius]

Went to a high street I don't normally go to, about a mile away.
There's a new Uyghur restaurant.
Now this is a food I've never tried. I'm intrigued.

The other week I also tried a sri lankan bakery in a completely random part of town. It was great.

[Valmy]

Went to a high street I don't normally go to, about a mile away.
There's a new Uyghur restaurant.
Now this is a food I've never tried. I'm intrigued.

The other week I also tried a sri lankan bakery in a completely random part of town. It was great.

Europe has fallen to the Uighur menace! Soon <insert popular Uighur name here> will be the most popular boys name in <town high street was located in>

[Grey Fox]

What's Uyghur food like?

[Sheilbh]

What's Uyghur food like?

Very tasty - although according to a Chinese food writer I follow what we have is very much the Han Chinese idea of Uighur food. So it's the Uighur food that is popular in Shanghai or Beijing.

But basically Chinese food with some flavours you'd expect from Central Asia/Middle Eastern influence. So big smacks of cumin and chilli for example, a lot more lamb too - some spiced skewers (the lamb is fantastic as normally little of meat intersperced with delicious, globules of spiced fat). Most famous dish is probably big plate chicken which is a big spiced chicken stew with potatoes and peppers (to share) and then as you've picked out the chicken etc you'll get some thick, chewy hand-pulled noodles to pop in the sauce.

Where I live used to be the home of London's only Uighur restaurant - and it was legendary. People would travel from all over town to eat there. It went downhill after the grandma sadly died. It's now just okay. But there's a load of other Uighur places around now - it really kickstarted a trend.

And as with all the (very exciting) regional Chinese places a large part of the demand is from Chinese international students. Which I always kind of love that restaurant and hospitality trends I get to experience are being shaped by what's cool halfway round the world - although, disappointingly, I'm not a fan of hotpot

Edit: Also - I went to one place and I think it might be more properly Xinjiang as it had dishes I've not seen anywhere else and there was a rice dish that to me seemed a lot like a plov which is very Central Asian.

[Josquius]

I'll see, I need to try it. A Ukrainian guy I know locally is very excited and keen to go, they get a lot of Uzbek food in Crimea and he reckons it could be similar. If its Beijingised though then thats a shame.


Meanwhile in Czechia...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g7xl4p53ko?fbclid=IwdGRjcAMra_1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHuimUNMB5CJumX_25WE-nXHL7LLOTPsSi09GCpbuCdxWI3g-Ra3ToN-9bv2h_aem_NIHFXbrKrepURPpwjvP1LA

Czech police finally catch up with 'phantom racing car driver'

Police in the Czech Republic have finally arrested the driver of a Formula 1-type racing car which had been spotted on the motorway on numerous occasions since 2019.

The red racing car, decked out in full Ferrari livery, was followed to a property in the village of Buk, some 60km (37 miles) south-west of Prague, after the latest sighting was reported to police.

Video emerged on Sunday morning showing the distinctive car driving along the D4 motorway and stopping for petrol.

The driver - a 51-year-old man - was arrested at his home and taken into custody after briefly refusing to get out of the vehicle.

Video footage captured by local media showed him sitting in the car in front of his garage, arguing with officers and saying they were trespassing on private property.

Eventually he relented and agreed to be taken to a police station for questioning - still wearing his red racing driver's outfit and helmet.

According to subsequent media reports he refused to answer any questions when he got there.

A man identified as his son told local media that the house had been surrounded by several dozen police cars and a helicopter, in what he said was a disproportionate response "to a supposed traffic violation of ours."

He said police "allegedly saw us towing a Formula 1 car which they claimed had been speeding along the motorway a few minutes earlier - of course we know absolutely nothing about this."

Police first managed to speak with the phantom F1 driver in 2019, when images and video of the car on the motorway first started to appear online.

They tracked down the vehicle and questioned its owner, who denied ever driving it on the motorway. It is unclear if that is the same person police have now arrested.

Because the driver wore a helmet in the videos and photos, they could not be identified and police were unable to take the matter any further.

The vehicle has frequently been described as "a Ferrari Formula 1 car".

However, according to the website auto.cz it is in fact a Dallara GP2/08 - a racing car developed by the Italian manufacturer Dallara for use in the GP2 Series, a feeder series for Formula One.

The contest has since been rebranded as the FIA Formula 2 Championship.

Regardless of its exact provenance the owner now faces a fine for driving a vehicle on the motorway without headlights, indicators or number plates, and could have his driving licence suspended.

[jimmy olsen]

Mwhahaha!

I win the first game of the fantasy season over by less than a point on the back of a staggering 41.26 point game by Josh Allen!

[Norgy]

A plov is delicious.

Mongol grills were big here in Norway for a while. Just meat and veg, and not heavy on the sauce.

It is difficult to say which cuisine I enjoy the most, but cooking at home, a rump steak in onion and garlic cooked in the oven for 3-4 hours until the meat is so tender it almost falls apart was a hit with my girlfriends. And me.

My go-to dish at home is salmon pasta with lemon. I have found I actually have some talent for cooking. Better late than never.

I have to say Albania was fairly disappointing, food-wise, except for the spicy sausages named Kosova (of course) sausage. Irrendentism and sausage in bread.

One dish I like to make is a chicken breast with gnocchi. But after boiling the gnocchi, I fry it it in olive oil and a bit of butter until crisp. This works well with any lean meat or fish, really. With salmon, it is just too rich.

An irritating thing here in Norway is that chicken breast with the skin on is hard to find, and that makes filling it with herbs and spice more of a challenge.

This winter, I perfected chicken scallopini. Easy to make, once you master butterflying the chicken breasts. And it really doesn't need a side except salad. I served it to my uncle when he was visiting, and he just said "Is there more? You should've been a cook, not a journalist". 

I don't know if that was an insult to my ability as a journalist.

[Josquius]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gq2gdlnygo

Learned about this morning from a friend. Not surprised it's being picked up in the media.

The Great North Run is a big deal. Biggest half marathon in the world. 60,000 people start in Newcastle then run along the south end of the Tyne to the coast.

This year the medals show a map of sunderland labelled as tyneside.

I have to suspect AI played a role here. But how quality checks didn't pick it up....

[Jacob]

...although, disappointingly, I'm not a fan of hotpot

Oh how come?

[Sheilbh]

I don't know. I've never thought about it - just not enjoyed it as much as other meals.

And weirdly I have no issue with, say, big plate chicken which is basically a massive bowl of broth with loads of things that you pick out - so maybe there's some base anxiety about being responsible for the cooking myself Which would be mad - but possible.

[Jacob]

I ask mainly because I wonder whether you've had "the real stuff" (as defined by my wife) and didn't like it, or whether you've had something "not good" and might be turned around if shown the good stuff.

[Sheilbh]

I almost certainly haven't had the real stuff - I've had it in very popular hotpot restaurants here.

But I didn't have it in, for example, Taiwan because I think "hotpot for one" is maybe the saddest short story ever told - and in fewer than six words.