Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@Octane Ah, damn... I stand corrected. Bad example. Corrected as we speak.
Still: trying to make fun of a Dutchified American, who's simply trying to educate his fellow Americans on the intricacies of the Dutch language... tssss....

@bimmy-lee I am Groot!

Err... no, I'm Thanos, dammit. Bit of a mindf**k there...

On a side note:
R.I.P. Grumpy Cat...

@Link-Hero Yeah, it is sad. I reckon the owners made millions off of the videos and the merchandise.
The poor cat was unfortunately never going to get old, due to her affliction, which caused her deformity, and although animals, like humans, all react differently to various situations, it could very well be the case that the stress of constantly being in the center of attention didn't really have a very beneficial effect either.

@Tyranexx i often wonder who frequents these establishments. I never do. I don't know anyone who does...i never see people go... Who goes there that keeps them in business, let alone moreso than any other business?

Speaking about Pizza Hut...

During Ramadhan, there is a local Pizza Hut restaurant in my town offers unique menus like on above.
Honey Chicken pizza, anyone ?

Sounds good to me. I'm open to anything though. I'll always try food at least once

That does look good, I’d give it a try. I’ll try any kind of pizza that doesn’t contain fruit, and isn’t totally loaded with veggies.

Tomatoes are a fruit often considered a veggie, and pizzas are loaded with them.

@Morpheel - Good point. I often forget the fact tomatoes are a fruit, though in my book, they exist somewhere in the middle of the spectrum between fruit and vegetables. They’re one of the most important ingredients too as I’ve had many otherwise fine pizzas ruined by bad or too much sauce. I don’t like sliced tomato on top of pizza though.

I'm In the same way. @bimmy-lee love tomato sauce but don't like tomatoes sliced on pizza. I do however like a good caprese salad though

@NintendoByNature - Mmmm, caprese salad. It tastes like summer. I don’t like what happens to whole or sliced tomatoes when they’re baked. They get too soft and acidic for my taste.

And here I am, the only way you’ll make me eat a tomato is in sauce or if it’s very very very well baked.

We’ve brought the tomato ketchup thing full circle, I see.

@HobbitGamer So... what's up with the whole reverting to the original name thing, poster formerly known as AlohaPizzaJack, formerly known as JackEatsSparrows?
Aww... did you miss your original self?

@bimmy-lee Depends on the type of tomatoes, basically. There's about 30 or so different kinds (edit: if not more). In dishes that I make, I never use bog standard tomatoes. I make pasta sauces with them, oven dishes, and raw salads, all of which are pretty damn tasty, if I do say so myself...

Of course, it's also the combination of the various ingredients. I don't really eat plain tomatoes. Come to think of it, I hardly eat anything plain, it's boring, unimaginative and tasteless.

@ThanosReXXX - I like them all, or all I’ve had, I just prefer them raw. I actually enjoy eating a single thing plain just to savor the individual flavor. I prefer a lot of my vegetables raw over cooked in any way, though I like just about any veggie cooked on the grill with flame.

When things are mixed up in a dish, something with a lot of ingredients like paella or a casserole, I like all the flavors to melt together and prefer not to taste one individual ingredient over the other. I don’t like green peppers in a dish because I feel their flavor stands out above everything else. But I like them raw. Also, I’m basically a crazy person.

@bimmy-lee Many of us are, we're just in constant denial, when confronted directly with the accusation...

“Crazy” seems to be the one great variable. Seems like the vast majority of us have fairly similar stats with small differences here and there, but the “Crazy” category can vary wildly.

@ThanosReXXX Yeah, figured it was time to revert, what with E3 coming. Continuity and such.

@bimmy-lee perhaps we should categorize ourselves as something different. The Dutch have a label for a certain type of people, namely "prettig gestoord", which cannot be translated directly, but "gestoord" means crazy or mental, and "prettig" means comfortable, cozy, happy, pleasant or nice, depending on the context.

So, basically, "prettig gestoord" (pronounced: preh-tigg guh-stored) means crazy, but in a good way.
And that's a label that suits me just fine...

EDIT:
I've decided on a translation that comes closest to the original intent: pleasantly deranged. Because the original intent of it, is to offer a contradiction, which immediately makes clear that the "crazy" part isn't really a negative.

@HobbitGamer Aha. Good to see you still profess your love for pineapple by means of your avatar, though...

Detective Pikachu wasn't bad at all. I'd definitely watch it again, but it's not a movie I'd go out and buy either. They borrowed some of the concepts and plot elements from the actual game, but past that they kind of ran off with it. I do agree that the second act out of all three acts went straight into "WTF" territory though.

I'm generally not that picky about ingredients on my pizza, but there are some toppings I tend to avoid. Anchovies are an automatic avoidance since I don't think they work on pizza. Pepperoni...Eh, I'll eat it, but I don't particularly care for it; most of the kinds I've had seem pretty greasy. Green bell peppers just ruin everything. "Just pick it off, Tyranexx!" they say. But the juices corrupt the cheese and surrounding toppings.... I'm not against fruit on pizza as long as it's a dessert-minded pizza, like with a streudel-y crust and cinnamon. But on normal pizza? I think only pineapple works. Now that I've been branded as one of the pineapple heretics in this thread....

@ThanosReXXX Sometimes I do cook larger portions and freeze some of it like with a double batch of spaghetti that I had awhile back. I was trying to use the whole package of ground beef (1 1/2 lbs.) but didn't want to eat on the same meal (and red meat) for a whole week. Unlike most of the female species, I'm not fond of shopping at all barring bookstores and the occasional game run (which I'm trying to curb for a little while due to backlog and more urgent expenses); if I lived near a Barnes & Noble, I'd be in trouble. Disregarding the rare emergency store run, I try to do grocery runs every two weeks. I'm the only one I have to feed, so at least nobody can complain about what I'm buying. XD

Some may wonder how I handle produce on a two-week basis. It's not always easy, but I buy some of the frozen steamed veggies (which are just the veggies and are often stored right after they're harvested) and generally have pretty good luck with most fruits and fresh veggies as long as they're stored correctly....Other than intermittent cucumber issues.

I've tried a couple of bean recipes, but only with pinto beans. What I've found works best with me is just straight boiling them in a pot and then adding the ingredients (usually some garlic, ground cumin, some chili powder, onions, and sometimes a tomato and some cucumber) about halfway through the process when I have to add more water. It's easier and quicker for me to keep an eye on versus a couple of crock pot recipes that I've tried; I'm usually not home during the day to mind the beans like they should be, so they were often undercooked even on higher settings.

Black beans are easy to get a hold of too, but I avoid them due to a bad experience in the past. XD

Thanks for the meal prep tips! I've kept some things fairly basic up to this point since I first transitioned into less processed stuff at home last year (I'd say 50-60% of what I ate was frozen processed stuff loaded with too much sodium, or canned soup). I've gradually started expanding more into seasonings and spices but have mostly avoided sauces and marinades; I don't do much with the latter mainly because a lot of the pre-made stuff has some questionable ingredients and haven't had the best luck the couple of times I have tried making my own sauces. I bake a lot of my meat and use pots or my skillet otherwise. I know someone who swears by their charcoal grill, but I'm not fond of the smell....I do have an electric indoor grill but don't really use it often. I sometimes order grilled food when out and about however. I limited some of that too due to the carcinogens from blackened meat. Some people think I'm nuts since I now stay in the medium/medium-well range, but that means the meat is less burned and is more flavorful besides.

@NEStalgia Around here, depending on where a market sets up, they're fairly popular.