DillyDaily

Food I cook is starting to taste more and more like my mother's cooking. Moving out of home I always assumed my mums poor cooking was down to technique, boiling the brussel sprouts, steaming the peas until they were grey, water frying everything. As soon as I learned to cook properly it was amazing how much flavour everything had. Letting things brown fully, using oil, not overcooking everything.

But recently, no amount of skill can save the sad veggies sold in store.

It makes the hyperprocessed foods even more appealing when there's nothing you can affordably do to improve the simple produce and staples. When potatos cost the same as Pringle's, calorie for calorie (and they do, ) it's easy to see why "just eat beans, rice, and in season produce" isn't helpful advice - yes it's frugal, but it's depressing, and not as easy as it used to be. Why waste money on already rotting food that tastes bland when the same money can buy me a more nutrient dense food that lasts longer and tastes better?

I've got a few things growing on the 2m concrete slab my landlord calls a back yard, it helps having home grown spring onion, parsley and pea shoots to dress up a dish.

I'm a terrible gardener, I can't even get mint to take. "grow your own" is thrown around too readily when people complain about produce quality. It's not always an option, there is a physical skill, a cognitive skill, and resource requirements.

I feel like I can comfortably assume you are not European.

Are you thinking of ~10 more well known progressive countries with strong social policies, high GDP and strong economies.

There are 50 countries in Europe, many experiencing civil unrest, some who's economies famously tanked in recent years, several that are currently at war with each other, dozens that are recovering from recent wars, terror and loss of territory or government control.

If we look at Europe as a whole and split the idea of a "functional" society into select criteria, then yes, we can point to individual European countries and identify the structures, policies and practices that make that country functional in that aspect of a society. But that dies not make "much of Europe" a functional society.

I stand by my statement that no one place on earth is fully functional, ethically and equitably simultaneously serving all its peoples.

It doesn't depend on knowing the type of snake though.

Every hospital I've ever heard of have detection kits that can tell them exactly what anti-venom you need without needing to get closer to the snake that bit you.

You can bring the snake in, but that's just going to delay your care as a bunch of untrained doctors and nurses try to figure out what to do with a venomous snake in their emergency room.

There's less than 5 snake bite deaths a year, and most of those are due to delayed care, none are due to "didn't know the snake"

Name a functional society

I remember during Covid lock downs extroverts were loosing their minds and blaming their extrovertism for their cabin fever.

First of all, true isolation is unhealthy and crazy inducing for everyone, that's why they still use solitary confinement in prisons for further punishment, so no, extroverts, you're not special for feeling depressed during a global pandemic. (but yes, it did suck extra for them)

But so many extroverts seemed to assume lock downs were an introverts wet dream. There was very little attempt to understand each other. I'd see introverts empathising with extroverts who were struggling, but the reverse rarely happened, extroverts just seemed to assume "you introverts must be loving this solitude" and when myself and others tried to open up about how we were struggling I would hear "yeah but you like being alone, you're used to it" like that makes it easier.

At no point did I really see any of the extroverts I know, or anyone online posting about how "wow, being pushed this far out of my comfort zone by lockdowns sucks, is this how introverts feel when I force them to actively engage in crowded, highly social parties?"

Not that I expect the middle of a planet wide plague to be the time I'd suddenly expect people to show self reflection and emotional maturity, but it was still worth the observation.

Yes stealing food is unethical. If someone steals your food you should take it right back off them.

That's why I do all my shoplifting at the duopoly stores that are currently under government investigation for wage theft and price gouging.... and not the community grocer who isn't stealing from the public.

Australian Magpies aren't corvids, they're butcherbirds, unrelated to the European magpie.

They're cute, but they're definitely dicks.

Having had a defecography this is very similar to the encouragement the radiologist gave me....

I also can't fathom how they stayed on the shelves after Vegemite was invented. It's the superior black toast tar.

And I'm not just saying that because I'm Australian and eat Vegemite off a spoon.

I was raised on Marmite, and promite, and I found them disgusting. Genuinely thought all the black yeast biproducts were the same, mum was of the opinion that "we have Vegemite at home" when what we had was Dick Smith's Ozemite.

Was introduced to name brand Vegemite in my late teens and finally understood why this product has survived capitalism. It's so fucking good.

I've never tried bovril (was raised vegetarian, and developed an alpha-gal allergy later in life), but I've definitely tried every application you can think of for Vegemite - it's good in gravy, including making a vegetarian "beef tea" and "Vegemite cordial" for hot days.

In Australia we call this "skimpflation" because they aren't shrinking the final product, they're skimping on ingredients to lower production costs.

It's the bane of my existence because brands I know and love will change their ingredients without warning and without changing anything on the packaging (sometimes not even changing the ingredients list! If the ingredients list has always just said "starch" they don't have to change anything going from arrowroot starch to cheaper potato starch)

I have allergies and I've bought two boxes of the same product at the same time, and had an allergic reaction to one, but not the other.

I used to always blame it on my housemates not washing the cooking utensils properly, but I now use separate cooking equipment and I clean down the kitchen before I start and cook at odd times so I'm the only one using the kitchen.

I've started emailing companies after my allergic reactions to determine if they have changed an ingredient, and 90% of the time they confirm they have changed the ingredients. Usually they put some PR spin on it about the new ingredient being more allergy friendly or sustainable (they don't clarify "environmentally" so I assume they mean "financially sustainable for the profits of our company")

Reliable access sounds like a dream.

You ever feel hungry but you're not sure what to eat so you stare blankly into the fridge hoping something takes your fancy, but you're not really craving anything because you never really get cravings. But you are hungry, so you want to eat something, so you have a choice, you can grab a protein shake because it's quick, easy, and a pragmatic solution, but that gets boring when that's always your "go to" when you're hungry. Or you could order a decadent meal to enjoy, since you're not really craving anything so you might as well set yourself up for a pleasurable experience.

Now replace being hungry with being horny.

You're horny, but you don't have any attraction to any options, and you never have. You could go for the pragmatic approach with masturbation. Or you could find someone that you think is a great person in all the important (non sexual) ways, and have sex with them because sex with fun people is fun, even if there's nothing about that person (or any person) who flicks the sexual attraction switch.