Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@Yousef- it’s fine, it’s not really a health scare for me! I need to be aware of it and do my best to avoid getting it. I am probably going to avoid eating a lot of sugar after today because for the past few weeks I’ve eaten way too much, usually for special occasions.

@Eel Lemme guess, laxative? I've heard that happen in some Reddit stories.

@Pastellioli I have it now. Currently, it's still in the box, laying across my queen-sized bed. It's way too big for me to try and mount on my TV stand by myself; I'll need help. I told my folks (who are coming back from vacation as I type this) to delete the footage of my neighbor and I getting it out of my mother's car (since it was the only vehicle big enough to transport it) and into our house from our security cameras. I want them to be surprised at what it was that I won. They know I won something (since I texted my mother and told her that I needed to borrow her car yesterday), but they don't know what or how large it is.

@AstroTheGamosian nah it was a regular box of normal chocolates. That he gave her himself.

Just my mother’s Chaos Magic in action.

@AstroTheGamosian Oooh! It’s going to be a great surprise for her once she sees it. Still so cool you won a large TV!

@Eel That is indeed impressive.

@Pastellioli I just hope that I can fit it onto my TV stand. My room is not particularly large. Right now, I have a 32-inch HDTV mounted onto the TV stand, but its resolution only goes up to 1080p, and it's not a smart TV. I got that one ten years ago. They say you should upgrade your TV every five to ten years, and I was looking at getting a 4K Smart TV anyway, so it works out. Although, I would have preferred a Roku over a Samsung, as I am more familiar with Roku's user interface.

@AstroTheGamosian Hoping that it does fit the stand too, it would be a bummer if it didn’t. It stinks getting stuff and then finding out it doesn’t fit or work.

I didn’t know that people recommend to change TVs after every 5 or so years, usually I don’t think of TVs having shelf lives or times before they get damaged and need to get replaced, cuz me and my family used to have a Vizio TV for maybe almost a decade until a few years ago and I think it was still useable before we replaced it with better quality TVs. The only damage it really had was a scratched up screen. Same for an older Samsung Smart TV we currently still have after years later for gaming. I think we got that one sometime in the early or mid 2010s and it’s still been good quality. But, all TVs have different manufacturers and of course do wear and tear differently depending on how much they are used or what they are made of.

@Pastellioli surprisingly so many things have sugar. Mostly junk stuff.
@Eel Indeed true. My younger brother has contracted it likely due to my father already having it.
@Ten-Zero Welcome back. Doing quite good.

@Yousef- Yeah, junk has a lot of sugar. Luckily it’s mostly that, every food, even the least sugary ones, can have sugar, but it’s junk food that mostly does. I had way too much junk today when I went out. I had a red velvet cake slice as a late birthday treat but it was way too rich and sweet, and I ate it after eating Chinese food, so I felt slightly sick after. I’m probably going to cut my sugar intake tomorrow and the weeks after that, sugar is tasty but I’ve had way too much as of late and I’m getting sick of it. I also had snickerdoodle cookies and finished my last chocolate croissants, I had way too much sugar for today and I’m regretting it already. My sister got frozen yogurt when we were out, and I’m glad I didn’t get any because that cake slice was too much and I’d regret even more alongside the cookies, croissants and cake slice if I got it.

Gonna go to bed now. Hope everyone had a good day or is having a good day! Had fun chatting with everyone here. Hope to have more fun chats later today!

Planning out colors for next drawing. I can’t decide on a subject, so I’ll probably use a big piece of paper to draw more than one. I’m gonna use markers and experiment with different coloring…September is virus season and my throat feels sore and itchy, but luckily it’s only like that because I cleared it too much from something that was bothering me. I want it to go away already, it is seriously annoying me. Almost every time in September I get sick, but this time I won’t!

@Pastellioli yes, my friend. You can easily avoid it. Especially in cooking, and even in some kuwaiti food. While I wanted to talk about chicken and how you can just spice it with things like dry lime powder, cumin, termuric/kurkum, ginger powder, paprika powder, cinnamon poweder and whatnot, halfway through writing this I felt it may be valuable to discuss a common food here; Samoon Mushakal. It’s exclusive to kuwait as far as I can tell, when I drive to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, I couldn’t find it. It’s probably in Iraq but I’ve never driven to Iraq.
Samoon Mushakal is quite good. It’s a little specific, requiring Samoon bread which is a common Kuwaiti bread (but has similar breads in other countries that only share the name rather than features), if you can find any small fluffy long bread you should be fine. The ingredients are probably even more specific, but obviously common to us. It’s falafel, soft fried potatoes, eggplants and tahina sauce. Some people add cabbages, those people are losers (joking, of course. Nothing wrong with it but it can be a bit boring and risk making it dry). Some people like my dad and I are just content with the sliced fried potatoes and eggplants. Makes it juicier and easier to taste all the ingredients.

@Yousef- Interesting dish! I don’t really read into cuisines of other countries, the only ones I know the most is Mexican cuz I’m Hispanic and my grandma made a lot of popular dishes, plus I know a lot of Mexican candy as well. I’d love to learn more cuisines and super popular dishes, Mexican cuisine is the one I’m the most familiar with but also the only one I’m familiar with. I am a bit familiar with Chinese cuisine, but that’s the Chinese-American cuisine at places like Panda Express. Are there any other Kuwait dishes that you like? I’m really curious!

I have used paprika, cumin and some of the spices you listed when I’m preparing chicken. But, I never thought of using cinnamon and ginger with it. When I make chicken, I tend to use just salt, pepper, and maybe garlic powder or onion powder. There was this one time I tried to experiment and spice things up by using Tajin (a brand of Mexican spice mix) and lime to make spicy and sour chicken, but I don’t think it ever turned out well. There was a time when my brother made this sweet mustard chicken and it tasted so amazing. We do change things up with the spices and ingredients we use for chicken, but nothing too crazy. But, plain and simple can taste good.

The samoon you listed sounds like it’d be super tasty. I tried to search it up, but I only found recipes on how to make the bread and not the dish. It must be really rare in America! I don’t think I’ve ever eaten eggplants.

@Pastellioli how silly of you to ask me that. Because the only answer there is of me to give is that I like all of our dishes.

I’m not being stiff though, I understood the intention of the question was to just acquire about knowledge. I just like being silly and fixate on wording sometimes. It’s the writwr in me being a little gremlin so think of it. it’s in jest, and not a callout of any means, old bud.
Obviously what I really meant to say is that it’s difficult to mention all of them in detail as there’s too many to talk about off the bat, and would likely prefer to mention one at a time for easier informational digestion, pun intended. But also do give myself future conversation pieces of course. Can’t exhaust myself right away, right? Slow and steady wins the race.
In case you want the demonym though, it’s “Kuwaiti” with an I at the end, though you’ve likely knew that already. I’m just forgetful.

I love knowing you’re Hispanic, that’s super interesting to find out. I’ve always had a hunch Arabs and Hispanics would get along due to similar cultures, so it’s good you’re proving my words right. Latin American food and culture is something I’m very much invested in.

I prep chicken with liquid based marination sometimes, I typically use Laban; a yogurt based drink common to our region. The spices I mentioned are of course, also great and yeah. Ginger and cinnamon are also great. The more you know, right?

Y’know, I’ve never actually used regular lime for cooking. Only Dry lime. It’s super great, I recommend it. I use regular lemons though they’re great. Especially on Aish (Kuwaiti rice).

That’s because my wording wasn’t very clear, so let me explain again. “Samoon” I used in my previous was message was more akin to the context of which “sandwich” is used. And obviously, if you look up “sandwich” on its own you’ll find equally vague results. Difference obviously is that Samoon is more related to the bread, and isn’t just a vague word for sandwich. Hopefully that clears it up. Looking up something like “Samoon Batat” or “Samoon Naqaniq” should yield better results.

Tajin sounds interesting. We don’t find many Mexican spice mixes, especially since we don’t buy spice mixes in general but rather choose to make our own, but I’ll keep an eye on tajin next time I’m at a hypermarket, where I’m more likely to find foreign products compared to a local grocery market. Thanks for the tip!

Yeah, simple is sometimes best. No need to be super fancy. Also, garlic and onion powder? I knew I forgot to mention something so thanks for reminding me. I should mention I’m a gigantic onion and garlic freak.

I’m not sure how close it it’s to Arab culture, but Turkish soap operas were huge here in Mexico for several years.

It’s only winded down recently and that’s just because they’re running out of new ones to air.

@Yousef- I can tell you’re just being funny! I like it when people inject some humor into what they say

Yeah, my grandma and mom sometimes cook a lot of Hispanic dishes, my grandma especially, she used a lot of beans in her food and tortillas. The Mexican supermarket near us has a lot of good stuff. It has a small section of pan dulce and cookies that you can grab with a pair of tongs and put in a bag. Some American stores here also have small sections selling Mexican candies. Whenever I go to the pan dulce section, it’s so hard to pick! Usually I stick to only one.

Tajin also tastes super good on fruit. I need to search the recipe I used for the Tajin chicken that one time. They also have hot sauce too, that tastes amazing as well!

Garlic powder and onion powder are awesome. They can make any sort of chicken dish taste amazing.

I went outside and heard my cat crying and wailing like he was in some sort of desperate situation.

The issue? A small obstacle blocked the route he usually follows to enter the garden. Mind you this is not the only way in, and I’ve seen him jump over way taller objects (sometimes he remembers he is, indeed, a cat).

But he did not stop until I picked him up and moved him inside myself.

Guys. I did it! I beat The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom! It was amazing! The final battle was perfect!!

Oh, I guess @ThatZeldaNerd will want to hear lol...

@CaleBoi25 congrats, I just beat it last night lol

@Eel
During 90's era, we got a lot of Telenovela with Indonesian dub. Some titles such as Maria Mercedes, Marimar, Cassandra, Rosalinda, Carita de Angel, etc.