i also put a lot of pepper in things. i am starting to think this is diminishing the taste in most things? i should probably cut down on it and focus on enhancing the other flavours in the dishes. pepper is quite a strong flavour

pepper is good in a lot of things when the recipe calls for it. It definitely makes my tomato-based foods(soups, sauces, salads) more flavorful.

don't shy away from the pepper. celebrate pepper!

i love pepper! i just didn't want to be a hypocrite for never using salt. salt really masks a lot of flavours and ruins dishes for me (mainly because i am used to not having it)

They always give you a hot towel when you take the shinkansen/hispeed train during breakfast/lunch/dinner hours. It's like you're expected to eat. (although last time I went I had a 1st class ticket so idk if they do it in second class too, but I think they do.) To the point where I'd say you should take the shinkansen once just to have lunch there as a tourist attraction.

the meals on the trains in china consisted of instant noodles and questionable fruit/vegetables being sold loudly by tired train workers pushing gross carts thru the aisle

the dining car was OK when it was open but it was all just oily meat and egg soup

the dining car was OK when it was open but it was all just oily meat and egg soup

*drools noticeably*

it's on my list. right after visiting the mountains in china.

hi i'm breakfast tangent

Made some date porridge. Not exactly the most exciting or complicated food, but it's probably the first time I have ever appreciated dates, so I'm pleased.

Also breakfast related, here is my "phenomenological bacon substitute" for people who don't eat meat but do eat cheese. It is salty, fatty, red, smoky incredibly bad for your health, and quite wonderful as a component of a cooked breakfast (this is what it's for). I have probably posted about it before, but I'm so pleased with it that I'm doing so here. It's probably the best food I've invented.

It is the answer to the following questions:
1. What do you use instead of bacon in a nonmeat cooked breakfast?
2. How do you get cheese into a cooked breakfast?
3. What shouldn't you ever eat if you are trying to lose weight?

Bonus Technique: Play Sam Cooke while preparing or eating your cooked breakfast. This makes it taste better for some reason.

Ingredients
About two potatoes
A block of Hamoumi cheese (250g? i'm not sure)
A whole lot of smoked paprika
A good amount of pepper
A pinch or so of ground cloves
Some salt
Cooking oil

Method
Grate the haloumi and the potato. Dry the potato with paper towels or a potato ricer. Mix the spices together (not the salt). Mix the spices with the grated things, adding a little cooking oil. Cook. There's two options for cooking it:

1. Shape into palm-size cakes, fry, pat down to remove excess oil. Put in the oven for a bit to finish off (they burn easier than hash browns.)
2. Stick the whole lot in the oven. This can come out a little drier.

After it's cooked, add salt to taste.

I've said this before numerous times but just for the food alone a trip to Japan is worth it. Every part of the country has its own specialties and it's fun discovering them and trying them out.

yeah with china the food is shit until you start getting out west, then it gets ridiculously good.
Sichuan and Xinjiang food is incredible. Once I got to Sichuan I was eatin' like a king.
check out this vegan feast i had at some buddhist farm:

Indian train food was super mixed. On most trains it was something like boxed biryani, usually veg/chicken; tomato soup; samosas & assorted fritters; and chai/coffee. Everything's cold, since it's made before the trip and it's at least twelve hours long. Same droning yell on every ride, zero fresh fruit/vegetables. But on one train (Falaknuma Express afair, but maybe the East Coast Express) they served a hot dinner that was pretty delicious (mostly just hard-boiled eggs in a tomato curry). I never got sick on train food, but I also avoided the gross-seeming cold dinners because why would any tourist view those as edible? My brother rode some train to the northwest, ordered cold chicken biryani because I said train food should be okay and he interpreted this differently, (I assume) vomited and pooped his guts onto the tracks, and also started shedding his mouth lining due to either extreme spice or onions

Japan sure is easy to non-sexually fetishize

My go-to was Herbs de Provence, but recently it's a mix of cumin, coriander and assorted red pepper. Going through an Aleppo phase because I just got some, but as gourds become more plentiful it'll probably be more garam masala. Also some Szechuan peppercorns (so I can make dan dan noodles forever), file powder, and chipotle powder, among others

which sort of leads into dinner, which is basically shakshouka but the tomato gravy's leftover & a little sparse so I just made an easy-over egg and tossed it over pasta w/ some feta, plus leftover eggplant

That looks absolutely fantastic. And I bet you did not pay much for it, either.

it was free. i got connections dogg

what's that bowl of pink & white sliced stuff

looks like cold pork and chicken

it looks like a really thinly sliced fresh cheese + german-style bologna, but it is definitely not the latter & i didn't think chinese buddhist farms messed around with dumb vegan bacon

omg looking at chinese ham led me to the best ever name for a dish http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha_Jumps_Over_the_Wall