Thread 4 - TalkExiles: "The Planet Goes On Being Round"

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of previous lifeboat threads 1 & 2 & 3.

Gather here all ye refugees from the JTT Flat Earth Society, welcome to the reassuringly oblate spheroid of MN! Ye all already know the answers to the questions "How the heck do I format my post?" "Why can't I edit my typos?" "What do those acronyms mean?" and most importantly, "Where is everybody that I used to know?"

So really we're all here just to chat randomly.

A Cambodian family opened a shop here and, like the shop you know, MmePoppySeedDefage, it's small but absolutely stuffed with good things. It's wonderful having that place in town and just being able to pop out for ingredients we previously had to drive miles for. They even do those weird bubble milkshakes. I quite like a papaya one now and then.

Unfortunately my nearest Asian shop is still miles away. I also need a 'beginning to use new flavours' course - can anyone recommend a good online one (preferably one that will let me avoid very hot chili)?

Madhur Jaffrey's 'Introduction to Indian Cooking', from about 1980, is good. The recipes are quite lightly flavoured.

I have that, and use it. It's the newer stuff I'm a bit stumped by.

The rule I follow for my elders is to use about a third of the suggested amount of spice in the recipe and that works well. For myself too, I find that, as the years go by, I no longer tolerate very spicy food.

Tricyrtis2022 · Today 14:57

No sambal on the shelves there? That's a drag.

It's just that I hadn't previously thought to look, or ask.

If they don't have any, Sinner, they may well get some in if you ask nicely.

I like that Chinese supermarket Sinner.

I got a couple of packs of Chinese oyster meat there, a while back, supposedly good in beef stews. Our refugee lad won't eat red meat, so it remains in the freezer.

For now....

Sorry to bring up the unbringupable (I know it is okay to bring it up I just liked making up the word) but am I right in understanding that stuff from here was copied and pasted in the old place?! Were names included? That really is bad behaviour and bad faith. I know some of you still post a little there but many have left, for good reason, so why not just accept that and let people be. Good grief that's out of bloody order.

Referencing back to current activity in the old place (especially people) makes me very uncomfortable - in my opinion it's just as out of order doing it here as it is there, and there are some people who are stirring things up both sides. I really wish it would stop. Maybe there's a need for a separate thread for chatting with no reference to the old place?

I'm sorry you are uncomfortable UP. I am still shaken by the ongoing revelations about the unpleasantness and aggression of some members of an online community I was a member of for more than two decades, and I would feel equally uncomfortable not acknowledging that. Having a screenshot of one of my posts here posted there was creepy in the extreme - done for no other reason than to sow discord.

Some of them are hoping their exiles will return when the new management takes over at the end of the month, and the way they are conducting matters during the interim is relevant. There is nothing to stop any of them coming here to discuss matters they want to discuss - and this is the obvious thread for that. There is a clear ban stopping us from discussing anything relevant over here. The situation is not symmetrical.

If they show good will, next month there should be nothing more to talk about.

My current small town is - for its size - excellent for shopping. It has a proper old-fashioned high street with lots of little, independent food shops of most types. There's even a hardware shop with lots of little drawers of fixings and shelves of dusty random household items. But the old fashionedness means a regrettable absence of an Indian, Chinese, Caribbean, Turkish or similar 'exotic' food shop. Not even a Polski sklep. We recently got a French deli and a vegan health food shop, which have filled a bit of the ingredients gap, but there's still nowhere I can get a branch of curry leaves, sack of rice, or tin of giant beans.

But presumably they're all there in the city which isn't that far away? I'm now remembering trips to a Chinese supermarket when visiting friends in Belfast more than - eek - 35 years ago (how did THAT happen)?

Our small town has a Polski sklep, a Sami Swoi and a locally-owned minimart that does a lot of E European stuff - they're our major minority demographic. Actually, I must check out that minimart in case it's branched out into other stuff (the staff in the Sklep are lovely but haven't much English). About 15 years ago we had an Asian and African place but the economic crash did for it. Still, the city is full of wonders and it isn't that far away.

There's nothing like that round here (unlike where I used to live), I did eventually locate an 'Indian' shop with a great stock of spices, dals, etc, but had to go to Bolton to find it. Not that far away, though.

Nice afternoon at the match, six tries scored and pretty entertaining.

I’m back in Blighty and am demonstrating my MN addiction by posting on the Tube from Heathrow.

As a general rule IMO, most Indonesian or Malaysian brands of sambal will be good.

About the other thing, as I’ve previously said, I personally would be happy to never hear about (or from) them until the heat death of the universe.

My nearest Asian shop is Thai and only a couple of miles away, but they hardly ever have what I want and always try to sell me something completely different that I don't want. I think they're (unsurprisingly) about to go bust, though. While looking up their phone number, I spotted it up for sale on a commercial property website. When I mentioned this to the bloke who runs it (English) he was horrified as his Thai wife (who owns it) hadn't told him. Oops!

I just had another look. Really, that place is not for me any more. There's some lovely people, but the general mood...

I shall not be referring again. 🙂

I personally would be happy to never hear about (or from) them until the heat death of the universe.

Same here. Mostly nice while it lasted, but that time has gone.

Yes, Belfast has them, but not in terribly convenient locations. Needs a planned trip rather than just popping in. Although if we want enough to justify a delivery there's a Chinese wholesaler that will bring things to us.

Kucinghitam · Today 17:46

I’m back in Blighty and am demonstrating my MN addiction by posting on the Tube from Heathrow.

But you were only there for five minutes! Or so it seems...

Of course, the big news of the day is the last ever ep of Happy Valley. What a great series it has been. Counting down now watching the snooker.

Heh duc! There was a sneering article by Camilla Long in todays Times, but I think it's been so good.

And as regards That Place, this echos my feelings: "Same here. Mostly nice while it lasted, but that time has gone".

I've been reading a bit more novels & stuff around since The Schism/ Shi**ing From a Great Height on Women Who Point Things Out. And I find I don't miss it any more. Feel slightly embarrassed that I spent so much time there TBH.

Easy access to a range of ingredients would be the thing I would most moss If I left a big city.

Round here the Turkish/Kurdish grocers are the absolute heros of hard to find ingredients. One near to us is legendary and can kit you out for the most complex Ottolenghi feast and throw in a 20 kg sack of rice, 20 litres of bleach, a massive cooking pot, a plastic washing up bowl and a refurbished ipad of dubious provenance in the bargain.

Easy access to a range of ingredients would be the thing I would most moss If I left a big city.

That, art, culture and decent public transport are the things I miss most about cities. Would still be a wrench to move though. I’d miss the sea and am not comfortable in crowds. I love visiting London and other cities but short breaks are enough.