So I've been cooking my pasta wrong.
I just found out that I'm supposed to boil pasta is a lot more water than I thought necessary. The Italians boil them in about a litre of water per 100g of dried pasta to keep the water boiling when the pasta goes in.
And the salt. I've always been very stingy with salt, usually adding only a pinch or two to everything I cook regardless of how many people the food is supposed to serve. The time when I was the most generous was when I cooked a dish for three with a whole teaspoon of salt.
So when I boil pasta, I add only a pinch of salt to a whole pot of boiling water. I'm more generous when it comes to olive oil though.
Hence my surprise when I read that I'm supposed to add 10g of salt per litre of water. TEN whole grams!? What are you? Nuts?
A teaspoon of salt is only roughly 6g.
Part of the reason I use so little salt is to compensate for all the stuff I eat indiscriminately when I'm not cooking, eg my weekly meal deliveries.
Yet I'm not enthusiastic about changing my pasta cooking preference because I believe the main reason for the salt is to raise the boiling point, presumably to make sure it cooks correctly
Can't I just watch the pasta constantly and do frequent taste test to make sure it's al dente?
Anyways, I'm not sure if it's just me, but I find that linguine sticks together so much more easily than other kinds of pasta. I think it's because of the large flat surfaces, but I could be wrong. In contrast, spiral pasta, shell pasta and penne are so easy to boil.
I'm thinking that instead of simply keeping a budget of S$50 for each of my weekly meal delivery, I should set $3000 aside annually for this. 52 weeks of $50 is $2600, and I rounded it up to $3000 because that's not a huge difference when spread over an entire year.
This will give me some flexibility on what and when to order, guilt-free. The benchmark is still $50, so the plan is to allow me to order more than once a week sometimes, or 8 weeks a year if I keep to the $50 limit all the time.
When I look at the EU, I see history repeating itself.
Just like how Prussia became Germany, Germany is going to be the next version of Western Europe.
The only thing standing in its way is France, while the UK, still prideful over its past, will only end up like Ireland if it doesn't join.
Funny how this turned out, how everyone got sold on the idea of democracy and peace.
Democracy they didn't get, but peace is probable.
The EU was meant to be a democracy and every country gets to vote on issues, but has it been so in practice?
Like I said previously, democracy is based on the ideal, and the assumption, that everyone is equal. It just cannot work when the relationship between the members is that of debtors and creditors. I mean, what equality?
The peace of Euro, though, is ironic. The idea behind the unified currency is that if every country is using the same currency, disrupting one economy will ruin everybody's too.
Leaders who preach peace assume that an absence of war automatically protects their sovereignty.
See the joke?
And of all the countries, it's Germany winning the game.
If only Hitler was still around to see this.
I have this feeling that if he hadn't been so hell-bent on war and anti-Semitism, he could have pulled this off himself, being the charismatic and opportunistic speaker that he was.
What he couldn't achieve through war, his country is going to get through peace.
I'm not going to say that it's a bad thing. No, the same happened in China and thus far, having a unified culture is working pretty well. Of course, there is a certain tragedy in the extinction of all the other cultures that we can only learn of from ancient records, but the bottomline is that it made life a lot easier for many generations of Chinese, and maybe it wasn't so bad that it happened.
Or we can also look at France and its indigeneous cultures, but I'm far less familiar with them.
Another thing about the UK is that it's what I imagine the Romans were like in the few centuries before the Ottomans finally wiped the last trace of the Byzantine off the map.
No chicken for a week. Decided this morning that I shall buy no meat but pork.
Not sure why, just felt like it.
So I went to the butcher and asked for 3kgs of minced pork, somewhat fatty and minced twice.
His wife, who was taking the order, raised three fingers to confirm that that was the number I said.
Also asked her to split it into 6 bags and she was surprisingly compliant. The last time I went there for 2kgs, I asked for extra bags instead so that I could split them myself, and the butcher himself added a large handful of the small plastic bags when he saw 2-3 she gave me. Actually I only needed three, but there's always a use for more bags.
Kinda stalled the queue a little but it wasn't a problem since I don't go there often.
So it's just pork and random vegetables from now on.
And fish.
But fresh fish is expensive. Bought three salmon fillets for S$45. I've got to remember to buy only when they're about to close, not early in the morning like just now. $15 a fillet is not cheap at all.
I never knew that the AR-15 was so durable. Now I respect the rifle a lot more than before.
Even though I appear to rarely mention my work here, the truth is that I have more things to say about it than anything else right now. I've typed a number of rants on that topic but most of the time I just cut and paste them elsewhere after I'm done.
Many reasons.
It's only after watching this video that I learnt the difference between chinos and khakis. Surprisingly, this actually isn't explained in Wikipedia.
Apparently, I've always been wearing khakis, even the ones without the utility pockets on the sides, until recently when my bro bought me a pair of chino from JShopper for around S$50.
Now I know that this is the only pair of chino I have.
Found this video after googling for the difference between dress pants and chinos, and that in turn was due to the current Amazon Deal of the Day in which there are several dress pants and chinos going for below S$50 shipping included if I order at least two pairs.
When I found that the cheapest pants there with my size cost about S$45 and they were dress pants, I had to know for sure what I'm buying before I place my order.
Now, I'm not sure if I want two pairs of that. I think I'll fork out a little more and get a pair of chino plus that dress pant.
But if I do that, I'll exceed the $50-per-pant benchmark.
Therefore, I'm not going to buy.
As for the website the second half of the video reviewed, the prices are obscene. US$200 for a pair? NO FUCKING WAY!
At least, not till I make a lot more than I do now. That inner lining part sounded really cool to me.
Also bought a 1.5kg chocolate fudge cake when I saw the promotional price of about S$22.
Very nice but I'm getting an overdose of cake. For dessert, I can take like a giant slice of about 350g, but it stops being delicious beyond that point.
After two days, I've only finished about 50% of it, with another 10% taken by my bro. My guess is that tomorrow is the last day I can call it "fresh" at all, so I'll probably have to persuade someone to finish it with me.
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