Well-summed indeed, and really, a sort of chronic, tragic phenomenon that goes on between the underdog that greatly appreciates the heroine for who she really is, while she has the hots for the more 'manly' man. (mix up the genders, delightfully as you will, still the same equation)

I think across my romantic attempted conquests, I only got scorched once or twice, until I kinda realised some fundamental things... 😅

1w ago

The magician

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JohnnyEnzyme @piefed.social 1w ago

Simple, yet brilliant, and especially poignant for these dark, dark times. oO

1w ago

Cover of MAD Magazine monthly #186, 1976... these blokes seem kinda familiar!

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JohnnyEnzyme @piefed.social 1w ago

In retrospect, maybe. In their heyday, I think they were more like what National Lampoon mag used to be. Borderline savage at times.

3w ago

Regarding Sci-fi: Do you prefer it to lean more into the Sci element or the Fi element?

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JohnnyEnzyme @piefed.social 3w ago

I see your point, but I think I tended to aim for a middle ground of sorts. For example, a big reason I fell in love with PKD's stuff is because he relentlessly imagined realities in which some new tech(s) was added to the mix, then we imagined how that would play out in real life. The tech didn't need to be super-grounded in science, just something plausible. Which more or less bypassed the kind of conundrum you're proposing.

Btw, I'm not sure I agree about Star Wars completely bypassing plausible science. The unique idea there ( The ~~Schwartz~~ Force ) is fairly consistently explained in metaphysical terms, not unlike levels of consciousness that can be unlocked by dedication to meditation and certain martial arts. That sort of thing, anyway.

There was also the later pseudo-science idea about "midichlorians" being analogous to mitochondria, FWIW. Perhaps better explained in some of the novelisations and other works, I guess. I didn't really see the need for all that myself, but I guess it may have satisfied some folks' burning curiosity. (cue Triumph)

3w ago

Doubt

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JohnnyEnzyme @piefed.social 3w ago

Of Course Not.

Damn, so close!

3w ago

Sardine cilantro roasted potatoes

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JohnnyEnzyme @piefed.social 3w ago

3w ago

Sardine cilantro roasted potatoes

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JohnnyEnzyme @piefed.social 3w ago

Can you separate the contents in half? Then you can try half as-is, then the other part marinaded with acid-agent of choice.

I'm setting up my weekend culinary experiment for this with plain & smoked sardines, in a spicy tomato-based marinade, as described in other comments here.

3w ago

Sardine cilantro roasted potatoes

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JohnnyEnzyme @piefed.social 3w ago

The weird texture (quite apart from freezing) is practically '#1 with a gun' in terms of why sprouted bread's probably not something I'm going to regularly eat. Hail no, for me it'll likely remain the occasional croissant and 'pan integral' from here on out.

I should be saving this for the upcoming post, but one of the things that made me completely wide-eyed is just how much the grinding-in-to-flour process changes the whole ground-grain bread taste (and for sure, added glycemic punch). Sprouted bread REALLY opened my eyes upon that, maybe not unlike your (IIRC) relative disgust upon typical fake-meat burgers. What I'm trying to say is that I find ground-grain bread to be incredibly* silky-smooth in the mouth, even loaded up a bunch of extra-grains, seeds, nut-fragments, as with pan integral.

Like-- you nail that foundation, and it's almost impossible to screw up, sort of like with pizza and sex. XD Whereas your foundation is pants, and it can be almost impossible to save the situation. Eh, something like that.

3w ago

Sardine cilantro roasted potatoes

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JohnnyEnzyme @piefed.social 3w ago

Love that, and over here that learned behavior's helped me get used to eating seaweed on the regular, with its lovely iodine content and whatnot. Btw, do you reckon it was moreso the baking process or the co-ingredients which vamoosed the fish smell?

Anyway, just came back from the store, where I picked up four tins of Chicken-of-the-Sea sardines, plus a jug of V8 spicy hot tomato cocktail as a marinade / cooking agent. Two of the tins are plain, in water. Two lightly smoked, in oil. I'll probably get to the 'speriment by this weekend, at least.

Still need to put together my conclusions on the "Ezekial" (sprouted) bread. Getting kinda late to post I guess, so I'll try to schedule for a noon release, tomorrow.

3w ago

Sardine cilantro roasted potatoes

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JohnnyEnzyme @piefed.social 3w ago

I like the idea of eating sardines due to them being a nutritional powerhouse meal, but as with some fish, the smell is a bit offputting for me. Okay, ready for the following rabbit hole?

Recently, I read that trimethylamine (TMA) is a breakdown product in salt-water fish, which is arguably the lead cause for that characteristic smell, which starts to develop after such fish are caught. Evidently the chemical (in oxide form) serves a critical purpose in helping the cells of such fish balance osmotic pressure. This prevents them from losing fatal amounts of moisture from their tissues. Humans don't commonly have to deal with that issue because we might only be in ocean water for a few hours at best, but oceanic salt water is murderous on skin over time, and will actually completely dissolve a submerged body (bones and all) eventually(!)

Anyway, where were we? It does seem that there are some things which can help manage the TMA smell. Acidic things, in fact.

The American Society for Nutrition specifically describes lemon juice, vinegar and tomato as reducing fish odor by causing TMA to bind with water and become less volatile.https://nutrition.org/is-fish-smelly/

This actually sounds kind of promising for canned sardines, from what I can tell. Worthy of an experiment on my end, anyway, which I'll post about if the results are interesting.

One other thing to note is that most freshwater fish don't have the TMA smell issue, but there are evidently exceptions, such as with tilapia. Also, TMA might be the leading cause of 'fishy smell' in a lot of cases, but there are of course other compounds and processes at work.