Fondots

joined 2 years ago
[–] Fondots 1 points 41 minutes ago* (last edited 5 minutes ago)

Philly area

Yes cheesesteak, hoagie, soft pretzels.

But I believe strongly that a roast pork Italiano sandwich loaded up with sharp provolone, roasted long hots, and broccoli rabe is the best Philly sandwich.

Go a little out into the suburbs around Norristown, and you'll also find the "Zep" a sort of pared-down hoagie, one kind of meat, cheese, oil and spices, tomatoes, and plenty of onions.

I'm not going to wade into the minefield of which sandwich shops are best except to say Pat's and Geno's are garbage, but maybe worth it for the experience if you're a tourist. Avoid anywhere that advertises as a "Philly Cheesesteak" look for cheesesteak, steak sandwiches, or even just steaks. For a Zep I don't think it's controversial to say Lou's ro Eve's are the places to go.

Tomato pie- close relative of pizza, thick sort of focaccia-like crust, square, thick tomato sauce, dusting of Parmesan cheese, served cold. Staple of many parties here.

Also in the suburbs - Franzones pizza, Bridgeport is the original location, but the original owner sold it to a relative and opened the one in Plymouth/Conshy location and another in Manayunk. You're going to either love or hate the pizza, thin crust, very sweet sauce in a spiral on top of the cheese. There's a few imitators out there but Franzones is the original.

This is the right time of year for them so "Irish Potato" candies. Sweet cream cheese and shredded coconut, rolled in cinnamon. Nothing Irish about them but they kind of look like potatoes.

Zitners Easter eggs- chocolate candies with various fillings.

Goldenbergs Peanut Chews- chewy molasses candy with peanuts covered in chocolate

Mallow Cups- like a Reese's cup but full of marshmallow and coconut instead of peanut butter

Scrapple - don't ask what's in it, just eat it.

Pork roll (kind of a jersey thing, but ubiquitous in Philly too) it's basically round spam

Pepperpot soup- this is old Philly food, like revolutionary war Philly, it's damn hard to find these days but every few years some local restaurant gets the idea to recreate it. It's a hearty, slightly spicy beef and trip soup. There's some Caribbean pepper pot soups that are kind of similar.

[–] Fondots 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

That article pretty much just rehashes what I said, and doesn't touch on what you said about "being made with a starter" so I'm not really clear on why you linked it.

The legal requirements for Tennessee Whiskey are the same as for bourbon + it must be made in Tennessee + charcoal filtering

And since bourbon can be made anywhere in the US, and at least until the next civil war kicks off, Tennessee is still in the US

And since the legal definition for bourbon doesn't say that you can't charcoal filter it, and since it's purpose is to "remove impurities" I think it's safe to say it's not adding any color or flavor which would disqualify it. (And one of the big producers doesn't even need to do it)

I think it's safe to say that Tennessee Whiskey is bourbon. It just checks a couple extra boxes so it can be marketed as "Tennessee Whiskey" because it makes it sound a little extra special.

[–] Fondots 2 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

Careful, when the couple bottles I already have kicking around run out I might try to take you up on that offer.

Assuming you're Canadian, I've had the pleasure of visiting a few different parts of your country a handful of times, and each one was of the most memorable trips of my life, so I'm always happy for an excuse to return.

Depending on where you are, it may not even be the longest drive I've taken to get some whiskey (current record is about 12 hours)

[–] Fondots 3 points 22 hours ago (3 children)

Jack isn't really a bourbon

It checks all of the legal boxes to be a bourbon, at least 51% corn, aged in new charred oak barrels, the aging and proof requirements, made in the US, etc.

Being "made with a starter" isn't a requirement for bourbon, and I'm honestly not even too sure what you mean by that. I assume it's probably some reference to it being a sour mash whiskey, but that's not something that factors into the legal definition of bourbon.

The only thing that arguably makes it not a bourbon is the "Lincoln County Process" of charcoal filtering it before aging in the casks, which is a requirement to be called a "Tennessee Whiskey," all the other requirements are pretty much the same as bourbon (and it's worth noting that the 2nd biggest Tennessee Whiskey brand is Prichards, which is actually located in Lincoln County, and doesn't use that process and has a grandfathered exception to that requirement)

The main nitpick is whether that Lincoln county process can be considered to add color or flavoring, because if it does that would disqualify it from being a bourbon. I'm personally of the opinion that if it's a filtering process, it's probably removing flavor and color if anything so not a disqualifier, and even if it did, in the relatively short time it's in contact with the whiskey it's probably pretty insignificant and not gonna be all that distinguishable from what the charred oak barrels are going to impact to it over the next 2+ years.

And Tennessee is really the only place that makes the Lincoln County Process a requirement for "Tennessee Whiskey" Pretty much any other government or trade organization (like NAFTA) that has a definition for it basically just leaves it at something like "a straight bourbon whiskey made in Tennessee"

[–] Fondots 8 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (4 children)

I'm not much of a JD fan in general, it's an OK whiskey but it doesn't do anything that plenty of other whiskeys don't do better.

I had a personal boycott of JD going for a few years, my wife and I are both whiskey drinkers and we visited TN for the 2017 eclipse. We decided while we were there we might as well make a detour to the distillery. I'm sure with the eclipse it was probably one of the busiest tourism weeks they've had there, so we weren't surprised to find a long line waiting for us. We made the most of it, it took us about 45 minutes to get to the front of the line, it snaked through a little mini museum, and it gave us some time to decide which tour we wanted to do.

But when we got to the front of the line we were informed that all of the tours we were interested in were sold out, and the only one available was the one that didn't allow you to try any whiskey at the end.

At no point during the 45 minutes we were standing around did they make any sort of announcement or put a sign up or anything to let us know that the other tours were sold out, if they had we probably would have decided to just go on that tour, but that really pissed us off, so we left.

I decided that I wouldn't give Jack any of my money after that, not that I was buying a whole lot of it anyway.

A year or two ago they ran an ad campaign with some drag queens. I decided that my personal boycott had gone on long enough and I could reward that little bit of token wokeness, although I have to admit that I still haven't bought any JD since then.

And like too many other companies it looks like they've now rolled back their DEI initiatives, so fuck 'em, back on the boycott list they go.

Now as a whisky drinker in the US, I'm disappointed that there's going to be tariffs affecting Canadian whisky, I'm a little torn as to whether I should support my favorite Canadian brands or avoid them since the tariffs are going to be funneling money to the trump administration.

I'm certainly going to be cutting back on my American whiskeys and many other American products in protest. I encourage my fellow whiskey drinkers to the north to do the same, you guys make some fine rye, I'll gladly take some Alberta Premium over almost anything made in the States.

I suspect I'm going to find myself drinking a lot of Scotch, Irish, and Japanese whisk(e)ys for the next few years, but I look forward to the day when I can hopefully enjoy some Canadian rye again without Trump's tariffs.

[–] Fondots 2 points 1 day ago

If you keep an eye out for restaurants and such going out of business, you might be able to pick one up for pretty cheap, around me a lot of them seem to go to auction sites like hibid for liquidation

And of course weird things turn up on Facebook marketplace, Craigslist, etc. from time to time.

I suspect some of the newer slicers probably weigh less it looks like they're mostly stainless sheet metal these days, but mine is made of some pretty massive solid metal castings and probably weighs close to 100lbs, so if you track one down like mine probably plan on bringing a friend to help move it. I can muscle it around to clean it and such, but I wouldn't really want to carry it to or from my car, or up or down the stairs by myself.

[–] Fondots 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Connective tissue can break down at a lower temperature, it just takes a lot longer, that's the concept behind sous vide cooking after all.

I don't think I'm breaking down a lot of that tissues, but it does seem to be doing something, it does seem to come out a little more tender from my smoker than the oven at a higher temperature, not a massive difference, but a little.

But yes, the thin slices is definitely the bigger factor, and I don't really want it falling apart tender anyway so it can slice down cleanly.

[–] Fondots 1 points 1 day ago

I have a globe 150, which is definitely more of a commercial slicer, although one that's probably 60+ years old.

I couldn't be happier with it, and they do turn up occasionally on Facebook marketplace and such once in a while, so if you see one for a decent price snatch it up. With a little searching you can even find replacement parts for them online.

[–] Fondots 2 points 1 day ago (3 children)

It probably would be if I were slicing it by hand, but slicing it down to lunch-meat thickness on the slicer kind of makes up for that.

And while I'm not going as low and slow as if I was BBQing, I'm normally aiming for about 250° when I do it in my smoker, which is a bit lower than I'd normally do one in the oven, so it does get a little extra time to break down the connective tissue.

But even when I do them in the oven I find that they come out just fine.

[–] Fondots 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The model I have is a Globe 150, which is probably at least about 60 years old, still does its job just fine though.

Globe is still around and making slicers (I think they're actually sort of the brand for slicers,) but you're not gonna find them new for around $200, looks like their cheapest model is just shy of $1000, they're definitely geared towards the commercial market.

I find it to be useful, but I wouldn't say that everyone would. I work a weird night shift schedule, which leaves me up by myself at night, so I have plenty of time to roast something up, slice it, and break down and clean the slicer while my wife is asleep. It's heavy and takes up a lot of space so you kind of need to have a dedicated table or counter space for it, you're not going to want to move it around a lot. I also live close to a restaurant depot that's really liberal with their guest passes, so I can buy whole deli meats and cheeses from there too.

If this slicer ever dies on me, I don't know that it would be worth it to me personally to replace it with a new one, but if I could snatch up a used commercial slicer for less than $500 I'd jump on it.

[–] Fondots 3 points 1 day ago (11 children)

Not exactly what you're talking about, but I was gifted a full sized deli slicer from an uncle who found he wasn't using it much anymore, so I've been making a lot my own lunch meats. Chuck roasts and those boneless butterball turkey roasts are probably the things it's seen the most of.

I do them in the smoker a lot, but I'm treating it more like an oven than BBQ, taking it to about medium rare. They still pick up a nice smokiness, and slice down beautifully on the slicer and it's of course just a better tasting product.

Initially I kind of thought I'd be getting prime ribs for the slicer, and got a chuck as sort of a test, I was so happy with how the chuck came out I never really felt the need.

It probably could save me a bit of money, but I'm definitely loading my sandwiches up with a lot more meat than when I was buying deli meat, so I'm probably about breaking even on it.

I've also started dabbling in curing and smoking my own bacon and such, and again the slicer works wonders for that.

[–] Fondots 61 points 2 days ago (6 children)

don't use colloquialisms, or soft language.

Honestly, part of the problem with the current crop of right wing assholes, is that a lot of them are so fucking brainwashed that they don't even realize that what they're supporting is just outright fascist/Nazi bullshit, so if you ask them point-blank "Are you a Nazi/fascist" they're going to answer "no" and truly believe that, even as they're supporting rounding up immigrants into concentration camps and "ironically" making Nazi salutes.

They have absolutely mastered 1984-style doublethink and duckspeak. They'll prattle on about being free speech absolutists while wanting to remove books about trans people from libraries or banning people with different opinions from their social media sites. They'll talk about being fiscally conservative while absolutely fucking the economy. They'll rant about draining the swamp and eliminating the deep state while they give some unelected goon unprecedented power to do whatever the hell he wants in the government with no consequences.

And they see absolutely no contradictions there.

So you kind of have to play fucking word games with them if you want to actually sus out what their actual thoughts are.

 

This is gonna be a bit of a weird one, try to keep an open mind.

I went to a nudist resort with a couple friends a few times last year, it was a good time, we're hoping to go back a few times this year once the weather warms up again.

It's not a sexual thing, it's just nice to hang out without pants, no laundry to do when you get home, etc. There are some swingers who frequent it, but they're very respectful about it, they'll ask if you're "in the lifestyle" but if you're not they don't pressure you and let it drop. None of my friends involved in this story are swingers.

I've been kind of floating the idea to a few other friends I thought might be interested. It's a mixed bag, some are open to it, others aren't, not really surprising there, my own wife isn't interested, and I get that it's not everyone's thing.

Two of the people I floated the idea to are a married couple. We'll call them Will and Janet (not their real names.) Will wasn't interested, but Janet was open to it.

The resort posted their event schedule for this year recently, so I've been talking with the friends I went with last year to figure out when we want to go. We narrowed it down to a couple events we're interested in, and I've been letting my other friends who were interested know so we can figure out our plans.

Janet messages me back after I tell her what weekends we're planning on. Said she asked Will and that he wasn't comfortable with her going so she's going to pass.

And that just kind of rubs me the wrong way. Every relationship has a different dynamic of course, but personally I have a hard time imagining telling my wife that "I'm not comfortable" with her doing something she wants to do unless it is something outright dangerous.

Little extra context, we're all in our 30s, we're all mutual friends, it wouldn't be particularly unusual for any of us to go hang out with anyone else in this group. I've hung out with with just Janet before, we have spare keys to each other's houses, and I'm pretty sure my mom regards them as basically extras of her own children, in short we're all close and trust each other.

The other friends I went with last year are similarly close, a couple, we'll call them Erin and Steve. Will's actually known Erin longer than I have, and probably worth mentioning, went skinny dipping with her and some other friends once back in their teens or early 20s. They never dated or anything like that, she's just kind of "one of the guys" the dudes there were gonna jump into a frozen creek naked so she joined them. And Steve is a very chill dude.

Will is also not a controlling guy. This is the first time I've ever heard anything like that from him (albeit second-hand through Janet) very much a live and let live kind of dude. He's maybe a little prudish and old fashioned in his own tastes, but accepting that his tastes aren't for everyone.

I'm not really planning on pushing the issue, for all I know Janet got cold feet and is using him as an excuse, and unless I see any other sign of him getting weird, I'm just gonna chalk it up to their relationship dynamic being different from my own. But I just kind of wanted to see if that rubs anyone else the wrong way.

7
Blower not blowing (self.auto_repair)
submitted 1 month ago by Fondots to c/auto_repair
 

I got in my 2007 4runner (SR5, V6, 4WD for you AutoZone types) to go to work last night and got nothing out of my vents. Made for a chilly commute to work.

I'm not mechanic but I know how to Google a problem and can generally be trusted with a wrench or screwdriver if I know what the problem is, so I narrowed it down to 2 most likely issues- bad blower motor (duh) or a bad relay.

So I came home, tapped on those parts with a tiny hammer (allegedly sometimes that works) and poked at some things with my multimeter.

It looks like I'm getting 12v at the connector to the blower motor, so am I right in thinking that's a pretty sure sign that it's the motor itself that's bad? I'd think that if my problem was the relay I wouldn't be getting anything there.

Just kind of looking for a little sanity-check, already ordered a new blower and it should arrive sometime today (prime same-day shipping is a magical thing sometimes) but should I be steeling myself for a cold drive to AutoZone to pick up a relay?

 

Also of note-

It's their 80 year anniversary

They've chosen not to raise their rates this year

Rates are 50% off during their "shoulder seasons" in May and September

Still kind of dipping my toes into social nudity, but I made my way there twice last year and had a great time and look forward to going back. Last year I camped out for their beer fest and came up for the day one other weekend.

For those who have strong opinions one way or the other, they do have a pretty active community of swingers, I was asked a few times if I was in "the lifestyle," but it never felt pushy and never made anything weird, and everything out in the open stayed pretty much PG except for the fact that everyone was naked.

I've heard that some of the regulars can get kind of cliquey that wasn't my experience, but I haven't been there enough to really comment on that.

Hopefully I'll see some of you around this year.

54
submitted 3 months ago by Fondots to c/goodoffmychest
 

The other day I saw a post somewhere on Lemmy, it seems to have been taken down or at least I'm unable to find it again, by some dickwad asking, pretty clearly it bad faith, why people felt like they needed the day off from work or school after the election. It was full of him bitching about basically people being too soft if they couldn't handle their feelings being hurt and that sort of garbage. This was basically going to be my reply to that.

I work in 911 dispatch, that should tell you that I'm the kind of person who can handle stress well, i've dealt with some crazy shit both at work and in my personal life, I don't think anyone is going to claim I'm someone who's easily rattled.

And still, despite all of the things I've seen, done, heard, and been a part of, I have never felt as physically sick from stress as I did watching the election results coming in Tuesday night.

I was at work, and in the midst of it as it was becoming clear that Trump was going to win, right around 2AM, I got one of those really insane calls, the kind of thing that makes the evening news and that they make true crime TV shows out of, that normally leaves even a hardened tough guy like me a little bit shaken-up, and all I felt was relief because something finally came along to wrench my mind from the election.

I woke up the next day still feeling sick to my stomach. My wife woke up in tears. I spent the day feeling like I was lost in a fog, and by the next day the fog lifted giving way to a simmering rage that I'm not sure will ever go away entirely. Luckily Wednesday and Thursday were my scheduled days off this week, I genuinely don't think I could have worked Wednesday night feeling like I felt.

I'm an old boy scout, I took the scout motto of "be prepared" to heart, I believe that most people don't really rise to the occasion but instead they fall to their level of training, and all the other sayings and such about preparedness and self-reliance and all of that, and I've prepared myself so that I am rarely at a complete loss of what to say or do in any given situation, I have plenty of training and life experience to fall back on.

No one ever trains you how to watch democracy die.

Or how to handle something like ¾ of your country turning their back on your most deeply-held values either by actively voting against them or by not even caring enough to bother showing up to vote.

And nothing prepares you to look around you in a 911 dispatch center, surrounded by people that people are supposed to be able to trust to stand for justice, safety, law, order, security, fairness, equity, compassion, basic human decency, who are supposed to stand up for and provide assistance to vulnerable members of our community when they need it most, who like to pat themselves on the back for being the "calm voice in the night" or the "thin gold line"...

... And realizing that most of them either don't care or are actively rooting for a man who stands for the exact opposite of all of those values.

For the first time I can remember I feel well and truly lost. I tend to be the guy people turn to when they have a problem because I know how to fix it or I at least know how to find someone who can. I don't know how to fix this, and I certainly don't have a guy for this. I'm gonna keep on soldiering on until I figure it out or I guess I'll die trying, but I really don't know what my path forward from here is going to be. And if I need some time to figure this shit out. I certainly won't think less of anyone who needs the same.

And everyone deals with different kinds of stresses differently and more or less successfully than anyone else. Despite the crazy shit I've managed to deal with, there's other more mundane situations that some people can handle just fine that I can't hack. Put me in a regular office environment with reports, paperwork, deadlines and presentations, and I'd probably be burned out in a week. It's like the old saying about trying to judge a fish by its ability to climb trees.

It's ok to not be ok right now, honestly I think anyone who says they're ok right now is either faking it or a psychopath. Don't be afraid to ask for help, if you have it in you, try to check in on others to make sure they're doing ok and getting what they need too. The only way we're getting through this is together.

 

Looking for some inspiration, my wife's out of town this week babysitting he grandmother with dementia, so she's been eating a lot of very bland, old-white-lady-palate-approved meals (her grandmother once described some jarred vodka sauce as being "too spicy")

We're both pretty adventurous eaters and spice-lovers, and I know it's driving her mad by now, so I figured I'd welcome her home in a couple days with a dinner full of all the biggest flavor bombs I can find

Help me light her taste buds on fire, decimated my spice cabinet, and make my toilet tremble in fear of what is to come.

 

The wife and I have been looking for a good excuse to dress to the nines and have a fancy night out

So what do you got for me, Philly? Fancy restaurants, swanky cocktail bars, jazz clubs, the opera, black tie galas, anywhere we're not gonna be "those overdressed weirdos" if we show up in a nice suit and fancy dress.

 
 

I recently got my hands on a very old but still totally serviceable full-sized deli slicer, and my local restaurant depot is very liberal about handing out day passes to anyone who walks in and asks for one, and the savings buying a whole log of meat and slicing it yourself are pretty bonkers, totally worth the pain in the ass that is breaking it down to clean when I'm done.

Of course it's just the wife and I, and 6lbs of Pastrami is a lot for us to go through before it goes bad. So far I've mostly been getting a few friends to chip in and divying up stuff between us or doing a little bartering and trading lunch meat for homemade bread and such, but I'd like to start freezing some to have on-hand.

Anyone have any experience with this to share? I have a vacuum sealer and a deep freezer to work with.

Which meats freeze well, which don't? Is it worth trying to slice it then package and freeze it in smaller portions, or should I freezer larger chunks of meat then thaw and slice it as-needed? Should I just abandon the idea of freezing and stick with the little ad hoc food co-op thing I have going?

Of particular interest to me is homemade roast beef and turkey, I'm never going back to the deli counter for those after I've been making my own (those boneless turkey roasts are amazing for this purpose, even if I'm sure there's a little meat glue involved in them)

Also cheese, I've never really contemplated freezing cheese until I found myself with a 9lb block of Swiss in my fridge. My gut says cheese doesn't do well in the freezer, but my gut has been wrong before.

I also kind of like the idea of having pretty much a lifetime supply of prosciutto in my freezer, although a quick Google search seems to tell me that prosciutto does not freeze well at all, which seems odd to me, since it's pretty low-moisture I would have thought it would freeze spectacularly well.

Besides that, anyone have any other cool ideas about what I can do with a slicer? I've already sliced down some beef to make cheesesteaks, and when I get my smoker up and running when the weather gets nicer I'm going to have a go at making my own bacon, and will probably use it to slice down beef for jerky as well.

 

This is a true story.

My dad and sister went out shopping on black Friday one year. The went to a local mall that was of course packed. They went to drop a couple of their bags off in the car to free up their hands for more shopping. On their way back to the car, a lady who was driving around looking for a spot pulled up next to them and asked

"Are you two going out?" Hoping to nab their parking space if they were leaving.

To which my dad answered "No, we're related" earning some befuddled looks from the lady and some amused Snickers from my sister.

 

Sunny is, as far as we know, a purebred Malinois, she's almost 4 years old, and is a strong contender for being the Laziest Malinois in the world (which still means she has more energy than any other dog I've ever known)

Some Malinois like to catch frisbees, run up walls, chase bad guys, parachute into hostile territory, etc. Sunny just like to wait for you to get up so she can steal your chair.

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