What's on your mind?

[Dead1]

46 minutes ago, FatherAlabaster said:

Not talking about meals that are cooked together like a stew or curry. A "bowl" around here usually means something like a cup or two of rice in a bowl, with vegetables and meat and maybe eggs and sauces served on top of it, placed separately, but meant to be eaten together. 

Why I'm talking about this like it matters, I have no idea.

 

Sounds like a semi-deconstructed curry or stew or salad.  Though when you eat it it gets mixed together anyway.  Even rice served cold with vegetables etc is a rice salad.

The ones I have seen advertised locally are all mixed together.  My wife has ordered them and got a mixed salad either with rice or just vegetables.

Sorry I am like a dog with a bone with this.  I hate trends, hipsters and reinventing words with a passion.  3 of my worst pet peeves all combo'd into 1.  If there was a city inhabited by people who did all 3 and if I was king of Russia or America I would literally launch my entire nuke arsenal at it and then salt the soil Roman style! 🤬

In fact calling a rice salad a "rice and vegetable bowl" is just making us all stupider. 

[FatherAlabaster]

11 minutes ago, Dead1 said:

 

Sounds like a semi-deconstructed curry or stew or salad.  Though when you eat it it gets mixed together anyway.  Even rice served cold with vegetables etc is a rice salad.

The ones I have seen advertised locally are all mixed together.  My wife has ordered them and got a mixed salad either with rice or just vegetables.

Sorry I am like a dog with a bone with this.  I hate trends, hipsters and reinventing words with a passion.  3 of my worst pet peeves all combo'd into 1.  If there was a city inhabited by people who did all 3 and I was king of Russia or America I would literally launch my entire nuke arsenal at it and then salt the soil Roman style!

In fact calling a rice salad a "rice and vegetable bowl" is just making us all stupider. 

I'm talking about something like this:

...or with whatever other ingredients you might want to put in.

I guess I don't think the terminology is too important. Maybe you're just finally seeing our name for it imported down there? I've been eating meals called "rice bowls" that look pretty much like this for years. Usually at Mediterranean or Asian takeout places, usually hot. The food carts near some of my old jobs would serve a less pretty version of this in a styrofoam container and call it a "rice platter". I don't think I've ever heard anyone refer to something like this as a "rice salad"... I assume that's Antipodean.

[Dead1]

That's a salad that hasn't been tossed!

 

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

21 minutes ago, Dead1 said:

That's a salad that hasn't been tossed!

Does this mean you're offering to toss the good Father's salad?

 

 

[SurgicalBrute]

My god man...do they not have anything similar to Chinese food or Tex-mex in Australia? Think along those lines, except instead of having stuff wrapped in a tortilla or using a plate to mix your sweet and sour shrimp with your rice, it's all layered in a bowl so each bite gets you a bit of everything

[FatherAlabaster]

16 minutes ago, SurgicalBrute said:

My god man...do they not have anything similar to Chinese food or Tex-mex in Australia? Think along those lines, except instead of having stuff wrapped in a tortilla or using a plate to mix your sweet and sour shrimp with your rice, it's all layered in a bowl so each bite gets you a bit of everything

Back in my day, we didn't have any of this mixed food! A bite was a bite and men had hair on their chests! I eat my rice salad with the pitchfork I used on the last Prime Minister!

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Seems there are two kinds of people in the world. One kind mixes all their food together and wants a little bit of everything in their mouth all at the same time. The other kind like my friend Steve for instance likes his food to stay separate, and he eats each item on his plate one at a time. All of the meat, then all of the potatoes, then all of the veggies. If he can he will only put one food item on his plate at a time. Unless he's eating a burger, but he's weird he doesn't get a lot of toppings on his burger. He gets cheese and bacon and I suppose he'll put ketchup but no veggies while I get basically everything imaginable on my burger. Except never ketchup, and definitely not beets of course, that's silly.

So bowls do not work for some people. But me, I cook a lot of one dish meals for myself where everything is all mixed together. The more ingredients the better. I've been doing this for many years, I just don't market it to myself as "bowls" although I do normally eat my concoctions out of a bowl as opposed to off a plate. Funny my kid also likes his stuff separate so when I cook I'll pick his ingredients out of the pan with a spoon individually and put them in separate little piles for him. He will eat my Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken, mushrooms and zucchini all mixed together in a bowl though, that's his current favorite. 

The one fast food item I do eat regularly is burrito bowls. I've tried making them at home which will do in a pinch, but it's just not the same as getting them from Chipotle. But I don't want to eat them there at the Chipotle, I have to bring them home and doctor 'em up a bit. More cheese, more guac, more hot sauce and liberally sprinkled with cayenne pepper. The kid will eat them too, he just gets a couple less ingredients on his than I get on mine, no hot sauce, and he does try to pick out some of the items and eat them separately.

And to Surge: no, Tex-Mex is not really a thing down under like it is here. I'm sure there must be a Mexican restaurant or two somewhere in Australia, but overall they are far more enamored with Asian food. There's noodle shops and curry places everywhere you look in Sydney. I wish we had curry take-out places here, I would gladly eat a curry 3 times a week. But I would have to bring it home and doctor it up a bit. That's another thing I like to make at home but it's not authentic, I use sauce from a jar and I add lots more veggies. What you and I think of as a typical Chinese food take-out joint does exist down there, but it seems like those places sell more fish & chips than they do Chinese food.

[AlSymerz]

Mexican places are more sit down restaurants here. Taco Bell and one other chain I can't remember has worked in some cities but generally if one wants Mexican it's privately owned a sit down meal or a take away meal not a snack. Many are also run by Asian too. Where as Asian style eateries are everywhere. Our closest take away shop does ribs, pizza, fish and chips and Chinese all off the same menu. While in town there is maybe 8 Asian restaurants/take aways, but there is only 2 Mexican and only one of them is take away.

5 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

Back in my day, we didn't have any of this mixed food! A bite was a bite and men had hair on their chests! I eat my rice salad with the pitchfork I used on the last Prime Minister!

Back in my single days I only needed one pot and a fork. No point making extra dishes when one pot can cook it all as well as be the serving dish.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

I used to deliver to a place on E 60th St in Manhattan that was Asian/Cuban fusion. The owners were a married couple, she was Asian, he was Cuban. Remember thinking that was a weird combo at the time, but thinking back I kinda wish I would have tried it. 

[FatherAlabaster]

1 minute ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I used to deliver to a place on E 60th St in Manhattan that was Asian/Cuban fusion. The owners were a married couple, she was Asian, he was Cuban. Remember thinking that was a weird combo at the time, but thinking back I kinda wish I would have tried it. 

Do you remember what it was called? My mom and dad used to go on about a place in Manhattan called Asia De Cuba that they loved going to before they got "in the family way".

[AlSymerz]

Fusion restaurants are one thing that's never really moved out of the CDB in Australia. There is no doubt a few somewhere but generally in the burb's and further into regional areas restaurants may do multiple cuisines on the same menu but don't often fuse them. 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

I tried to look it up on the map but it must have closed. It had a one word Latin sounding name that I can't seem to remember. It was definitely up on E. 60th St, either between 2nd & 3rd or between Lex and Madison, because I remember parking on the west side one of the southbound avenues and walking west halfway down the block.

Asia de Cuba is permanently closed but it still comes up on the map. It's downtown in the Village on Lafayette between 4th & Astor over by NYU. 

[RelentlessOblivion]

Things have changed a little bit since you were down here mate, there are chain fast food Mexican restaurants now though I vastly prefer the sitdown style. Adelaide in particular has a thriving food culture though you could find anything from potion to Ethiopian food within the space of about a 40 minute drive. 

[AlSymerz]

Shit, there is more Taco Bells here than I thought. Last I knew there was one in the city that was on the verge of shutting down.

What other Mexican chains do we have?

I seem to remember one popping up in supermarket food courts but I can't put a name to them.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

19 minutes ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

Things have changed a little bit since you were down here mate, there are chain fast food Mexican restaurants now though I vastly prefer the sitdown style. Adelaide in particular has a thriving food culture though you could find anything from potion to Ethiopian food within the space of about a 40 minute drive. 

Are you saying Mexicans have built rafts and floated their way down to OZ or are these sit-down Mexican restaurants run by non-Mexicans? I'm not neccessarily a purist hold-out, I'm just curious. I do prefer authentic sit-down Mexican and Latin food, but as I've said I do also enjoy Chipotle Mexican Grill quite a bit, which is a ff chain and they aren't run by actual Mexicans. Although they do use fresh ingredients (they boast no freezers, microwaves or can openers in their kitchens) and use authentic recipes to cook their meats. Mexi-chains over here like Taco Bell and Del Taco are straight garbage.

[markm]

I started seeing Poke Bowls show up at somewhat trendy high priced stores like Wegman's, maybe Trader Joe's. I'm sure Whole Foods has them, but don't really shop there. Following on  F.A. point, I don't mind them for what they are. I like the fresh, basically healthy ingredients and Asian flare, but they tend to be overpriced and wouldn't make a full meal for me. 

[Dead1]

45 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Are you saying Mexicans have built rafts and floated their way down to OZ or are these sit-down Mexican restaurants run by non-Mexicans? I'm not neccessarily a purist hold-out, I'm just curious. I do prefer authentic sit-down Mexican and Latin food, but as I've said I do also enjoy Chipotle Mexican Grill quite a bit, which is a ff chain and they aren't run by actual Mexicans. Although they do use fresh ingredients (they boast no freezers, microwaves or can openers in their kitchens) and use authentic recipes to cook their meats. Mexi-chains over here like Taco Bell and Del Taco are straight garbage.

 

Mainly chains but in my town we've always had Mexican restaurants although not run by actual Mexicans.  Most are shit and I wouldn't eat them.  We have tried and found they used rice from packet mixes from supermarkets.  WTF.

What saddens me is the death of European style restaurants (French, Italian and Spanish) as the old migrants die out.  

Also a lot of the new Asian restaurants look horrible - other than some horrible garish pictures of food they literally look like some sort of Communist era cafeteria at the local steel mill or collective farm circa 1957.  The older ones used to and still have a lot of flare but the new ones are cheap and horrible looking.

 

 

[RelentlessOblivion]

8 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Are you saying Mexicans have built rafts and floated their way down to OZ or are these sit-down Mexican restaurants run by non-Mexicans? I'm not neccessarily a purist hold-out, I'm just curious. I do prefer authentic sit-down Mexican and Latin food, but as I've said I do also enjoy Chipotle Mexican Grill quite a bit, which is a ff chain and they aren't run by actual Mexicans. Although they do use fresh ingredients (they boast no freezers, microwaves or can openers in their kitchens) and use authentic recipes to cook their meats. Mexi-chains over here like Taco Bell and Del Taco are straight garbage.

I know of two that are run by Mexicans, one very authentic the other a little more Americanised call Emma a third that is Korean Mexican fusion with Korean and Mexican chefs. The fast food chains are just run by whoever they can get in to cook the food though

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Haven't been able to access this site through my desktop computer since yesterday afternoon, but I have no problem getting on with my phone. This is annoying me. I restarted a couple of times and it worked very briefly earlier this evening,  but now I'm getting the same error message as before: "This site can't be reached." All the other sites I've tried to open seem to be unaffected. 

[RelentlessOblivion]

Strange, I only access through my phone so can’t help there.

[AlSymerz]

I haven't had any issues for a month or so now, but they still come and go.

It is entirely possible that mobile devices get priority connections on the server and there does seem to be less complaints from mobile users for the most part. But it's still a problem that can only be fixed at server level, although without server level access that job is made a bit more difficult.

[SurgicalBrute]

9 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Haven't been able to access this site through my desktop computer since yesterday afternoon, but I have no problem getting on with my phone

Have you tried clearing the websites cookies from the browser, then restarting (don't clear all cookies, just the ones from this site)? That's usually the first thing they'll tell you to try

[GoatmasterGeneral]

I did that yesterday and then it worked for a litte while. Watched something on Netflix then came back and it didn't work again. I've just cleared the one single cookie that was there and now it works again. Guess I'll just have to keep clearing the cookies every time I come back to a Metalforum tab. Which is simple enough, but weird that in a year and a half I've never had this problem before. Maybe an update changed a setting or something. I've had problems lately where the computer won't boot after an update, I'll have to go into the BIOS and manually change the boot order to put Windows Boot Manager as the first option, then it will boot on the restart.

[SurgicalBrute]

Are you still using your old computer or did you switch it? If it's your old computer, it might be a script problem...basically something on the website is incompatible with your computers older hardware/software. I know when my old one started really getting up there in age, I had to put a script blocker on my browser to actually look at a lot of websites

[GoatmasterGeneral]

The old one, but it's not that old, it's only just coming up on 5 years old in Nov. I'm not an advancd user, I just Googled script blocking and I still don't fully understand what Javascript is. Isn't an ad blocker basically doing the same thing?