#from the little i read i do prefer book tang fan

[flyingtoaster]

Falling, once again - I never learn -, head first in Chinese danmei dramas. And I have THOUGHTS !!!

For example: The sleuth of the Ming dynasty really be selling itself as a highly political, low-key romance drama (haven't finished the book ). And sure, at first the ML is sorta dull and the chemistry takes a while to be felt. But. Wang Zhi saves the day. He brings a fucking ton of chemistry, turn the volume at 1000, set the scene both as an antagonist and a love interest. Makes his own ships and even the main couple shine.

And then he snuggles himself right in. Tang Fan and Wang Zhi, big fat yes. Sui Zhou and Wang Zhi, yes sir we support that. Tang Fan and Sui Zhou, actually yes, they're very sweet.

OT3 poly ship for the win !

We need more fanfics that explore them, give them all the hurt/comfort feels. All the love.

It's not a tgcf or a mdzs, and even TA or Golden Stage - although in the same vein - hit a little different. But it has a different sort of potential. At least to me

#the sleuth of ming dynasty #wang zhi #sui zhou #tang fan #thoughts #from the little i read i do prefer book tang fan #I'll admit sometimes the drama is a littke dull to watch #worth it though #i love ot3s #don't get me started on the potential of having it as platonic ships #thats good too #im a sucker for exploring wang zhi's feelings as he is cherished

[leadenn]

EVEN MORE MOM TANG SHEN

part four I think I don't fucking know I write I don't do math

Raph follows Shen around like a little duckling, all the boys do when she's home since she's gone most of the day, but Raph is basically her little shadow. She calls him that, she arrives home from work and locks the door behind her and she asks where her little shadow is. Then Raph, upon hearing her voice fucking barrels towards her at high speed and demands he be picked up. Mikey and Leo also demand hugs when she arrives home but Donnie would prefer a little pat on the head when she ccomes home.

She's very much a boy mom not in the weird gross way but as in she just loves her sons and gets dirty and gross playing with them bc they're four boys that live in the sewers eight months of the year. Also, post move into the sewers Shen doubles her budget for hygiene bc she can deal with being the crazy widow recluse lady with a cane but she REFUSES to also smell while being that lady.

The risk of being stinky is the only thing she doesn't like about her family life tho, like she adores her sons.

She spends time with Donnie by helping him learn (he often doesn't need help, but she knows he doesn't want to hurt her feelings by telling her that. Shen finds it very sweet) and reading to him. Tbh some of the books he asks her to get for him are beyond her understanding but anything to make her little genius happy. If he wants to listen to free lectures online about physics? She'll happily listen with him. She never wants him to lose interest in learning or feel embarrassed about his passion for science and learning. Despite their situation, she knows that her boy will do great things.

Leo and her read together, and it's things more within her area. History and literature. Sometimes Mikey joins them, but books are usually a Momma and Leo activity. He also is the most interested in their heritage. She's happy to answer any questions about history or folk tales from their culture, and the way his little eyes light up remind her of Yoshi back when they were kids and Shen would tell him and his disgrace of a "brother" stories from her books. She also notices he likes helping her and Yoshi care for his brothers but she never lets him think that it's his job. She does enjoy watching him play big brother though, it was adorable

Mikey has a giant imagination, and he loves to play pretend. He doesn't need to hear stories, because he prefers to tell them. He makes plays up, he makes little puppets out of things he finds around their home in the sewers, and he puts on shows. He likes books, but Shen thinks he'd be better at writing them than reading them. She's happy to encourage his creativity, and she'll always be his biggest fan. If he wants to write or make art as he grows, Shen will move heaven and earth to show how talented and bright her boy is. How? She doesn't know, but she'll do it.

Raph, her little shadow, is happy doing anything she does. He helps her with chores, he helps her cook, he asks her questions about people and what the surface was like, and despite how much he loved their home and family she could tell he wants more. So Shen and Yoshi did their best to give him everything. He loved ninjutsu, he loved playing with his brothers, he loved the books and movies Shen provided them, but he wanted more. As sweet as her little shadow is, he acted out because he wanted to have more than what was safe. It breaks Shen's heart, but there was nothing she could do to make the world a safe place for her boys. Most days, he's content to be Shen's little shadow and be a good student for Yoshi. Shen knew that this wouldn't go away with age.

Also I think Yoshi would assume Shen no longer loved him or felt attracted to him bc of how he looks and just stayed to help take care of their sons. That isn't the case and it takes several years for Yoshi to really accept that Shen loves him no matter what he looks like.

"Are you still 6'1 and muscular?" Shen asked him, and he stopped cutting the cucumbers for the smashed cucumber salad they were making. He had casually mentioned it being okay if Shen was uncomfortable around him. She had just let out a sigh of annoyance. Yoshi was confused, but nodded in reply. "Then don't worry." She said, leaning over and kissing his cheek.

"I love you." He said, because he felt as if he never said it enough. He didn't save their daughter. He didn't save Shen from getting injured to the point of disability. He was a giant rat. The only thing he's provided her in their marriage that he didn't eventually ruin was their sons. Yet she stayed with him, she loved him, she ran her hands through his fur, she kisses him many times a day, and she melted into his arms when he held her.

"I love you too, Yoshi." She said, leaning over to kiss him. She stopped, and glared at the cutting board. "And if you want me to continue loving you, you'll cut the cucumber slices correctly."

He smiles, and kisses her nose. She pokes his with her finger. He smiles wider.

#hamato yoshi #tang shen #turtle tots #mikey tmnt #tmnt leonardo #tmnt raphael #tmnt donatello #tang shen mom au #this is such a mess #literally a dumpster fire but I enjoy the content #Like it's all word vomit but I think the vomit is fun #tang shen hates saki with a burning passion

[moontwyrine]

recs anon: yes please! i'm looking to get into it and aside from the MXTX's novels, i'm a bit overwhelmed lol

OH BOI I do feel you. There is so much around and without knowing your preferences or tastes it’s really hard to do some recs...

so i’ll go with some of what I read/I am reading, but tell me what you like and I probably have something for you? I checked a lot of stuff and I have even more in like 5 different reading lists based on my tastes (which are, unfortunately, very weird and not tumblr friendly. I like my angst and my villains.)

GUARDIAN  Modern era supernatural. I think a lot of people do the jump MDZS-Guardian due to the drama? Anyway, Guardian is a fantastic story, fantastic characters, Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei are an interesting pairing. 5000 years of yearning, longing and pining. (You thought Lan Wangji or Hua Cheng knew about longing? Shen Wei is the master of it) Personally I agree with people that said that it’s REALLY good up to chapter 60something. That’s because then Priest puts in a lot of chinese mythology and it gets confusing (it wouldn’t be confusing if it was only the mythology, it’s that we get like 3 versions of that mythology, each slightly different from the others and it’s really hard to keep track of what really happened or not.) The Drama, too, is a very nice watch despite being a whole different concept. (Generally, from what I heard, Priest’s work are a safe bet. I’m still waiting for Qin Ye to be translated because that book sounds like my jam. I will start Faraway Wanderes soon since there is a drama coming next year)

THE FOURTEENTH YEAR OF CHENGHUA  -This is still being translated. It’s ancient china detectives! What’s cooler than that ?!? Nothing. The translation is not great, there are clearly a lot of pronoun mixup and repetitions that i am not sure were in the original? But it’s worth it because Tang Fan and Sui Zhou are really made for each other, two smart detectives solving cases together and falling in love meanwhile. Found family trope present as well. Imperial intrigue. It’s very very good. This also has a drama, but Tang Fan, the main character, is VERY different, still I’m at ep 20something and it’s a DELIGHT. Also Food. So much food porn....

THE EARTH IS ONLINE -Modern era supernatural/sci-fi/horror. Basically there are a bunch of black towers all around the world and suddenly they come online, a fuckton of people die and those who survived have to play deadly games (most of them based on known fairytales/games). It’s GOOD. I’m at chapter 62 only but HOLY FUCK. Tang Mo, the protagonist, is not afraid of living in a post-apocalyptic world and do what it takes, which is refreshing tbh, the other male lead, Fu Wenduo is even better than Tang Mo??? Together they are scary and sexy as fuck. Super Mario commits War Crimes in this one (not kidding.) The survival horror is REAL. Just...it’s good. Read it. Pinocchio is a little bastard.

THE HUSKY AND HIS WHITE CAT SHIZUN I am not even at chapter 10, but this is a honorable mention. Xianxia with transmigration. Anyway, not even 10 chapters in and I’m hooked so there is that. From what I heard, there is a lot of angst and good plot. Drama coming next year. 

I put these in a Novel Update List for you to check. For the other 100 books I’m keeping an eye on I’ll need to know your tastes a little bit better. Do you prefer Xianxia/Wuxia/Fantasy, modern, supernatural, horror? Do you like master/disciple relationships? Do you like Main Character/Villain stories?  I’m not going to be able to rec much about transmigration novels (except a couple) and nothing about sport/e-sport because i don’t like that at all.

#anon books rec #Anonymous #answered

[lighttheabyss]

Khaida Ahmahno [Crystal] LFRP

The Basics ––– –

Age: mid 20′s (26-29ish depending on Time Bubble shenanigans)

Birthday: 23rd Sun of the 2nd Umbral Moon

Race: Keeper of the Moon Miqo’te

Gender: Female

Marital Status: Unmarried

Server: Goblin (Crystal DC) [I do have an alt on Balmung]

Physical Appearance ––– –

Hair: White, long, often up in varying styles

Eyes: PALE blue, nearly white

Height: 5’

Build: Curvy; has noticeable hips and bust, and is one of those who wears her softness on her belly, hips, arms, and legs well.

Distinguishing Marks: Has a stylized tattoo of a Blue Morpho on her lower back, right above her tail and butt.

Common Accessories: Khaida is always dressed for ease of movement. Her adventuring clothes are a little less flashy, but still have a good deal of jewelry and accessories. Her performing clothes are revealing, flashy, and she wears a great deal of jewelry and accessories that add another level of sight and sound to her dances.

Personal ––– –

Profession:  Dancer, adventurer, scholar of all things magical

Hobbies: Singing, goldsmithing, weaving, cooking

Languages: Eorzean, some Garlean, some Hingan and Doman. Can read Nymian, Allagan, Amdapori, and Mhachi fluently...but her spoken skills in them are lacking.

Residence: Has a home in the Cohrce village in the East Shroud and in the Rising Stones in Mor Dhona, but usually ends up crashing in inns or in her cousin’s Goblet apartment.

Birthplace: Urth’s Gift area of the South Shroud, but grew up in the East Shroud.

Religion: Devout follower of Menphina, but more spiritual than religious about it.

Patron Deity: Menphina, the Lover

Fears: Being truly alone, losing loved ones, dragonflies

Personality: Sweet, flirtatious, cheerful, affectionate. Tends to look after younger performers and adventurers, and has a serious soft spot for children. Can and will get lost in magical theory the moment you bring it up or she finds a book/scroll/tome on it.

Relationships ––– -

Spouse: None [in an open relationship with Telemakhos Spahr’da]

Children: None

Parents: Kahzu Ahmahno (mother, Deceased), Kenj’a Cohrce (father, alive, owner of the Swan’s Sundries merchant caravan)

Siblings: Kahzu’a Ahmahno (younger brother, status TBD)

Other Relatives:  Kenj’to Cohrce (paternal uncle, alive), Izhu Cohrce (paternal aunt, alive), Melisahnd Cohrce (cousin, alive), Brodi’a Ahmahno (DISTANT cousin, status TBD)

Pets: A recently acquired coeurl kitten she’s named ‘Citrine’.

Traits ––– -

* Bold your character’s answer.

Extroverted / In Between / Introverted

Disorganized / In Between / Organized

Close Minded / In Between / Open Minded

Calm / In Between / Anxious

Disagreeable / In Between / Agreeable

Cautious / In Between / Reckless

Patient / In Between /  Impatient

Outspoken / In Between / Reserved

Leader / In Between / Follower

Empathetic / In Between / Apathetic

Optimistic / In Between / Pessimistic

Traditional / In Between / Modern

Hard-working / In Between / Lazy

Cultured / In Between / Uncultured

Loyal / In Between / Disloyal

Faithful / In Between / Unfaithful

Additional information ––– –

Smoking Habit: No. Drugs: No. Alcohol: Is a fan of good alcohol, no matter the kind.

Possible Hooks ––– –

The Dancer: Khaida tends to perform in between adventures to keep herself in coin, and is good at it. She’s danced in all three of the main city-states, the Toll, and Idyllshire at this point, so it’s likely you’ve seen her at some point! Or perhaps you’re in need of a dancer for a party or show?

The Adventurer & Scholar: Khaida is, first and foremost, a scholar of magic and an adventurer at heart. She’s well known in the Guild for taking on jobs that let her delve into the depths of ancient ruins or putting up ads for fellow adventurers to join her in delving into places too dangerous for her to go alone. Have a job for her? Or want to join her on a job?

Former Crystal Brave, Current Scion of the Seventh Dawn: Khaida joined the Braves, wanting to make a difference and live up to the inspiring example of the Warriors of Light. She was heartbroken when the organization turned corrupt. She was one of those who defected early on after the fateful Banquet, and when Alphinaud returned to the Stones to disband the group officially, Khaida was one of those who volunteered to help rebuild the Scions. Since then, she’s been as much a Scion as an adventurer, and always happy to help when called upon.

Aetheric Oddities: Khaida’s aether is...a little odd. There’s always going to be the tang of the void lurking beneath the rest of her saturated aether, voidtaint from a Mhachi ancestress who dove too far into the void. Not that she knows this. Yet. She’s also more sensitive to aether than your average Spoken, and uses it as another sense, along with the others. Please note that it’s not a perfect sense, and she can miss things; so if you don’t want some aetheric oddity of your own character being sensed, that’s perfectly fine!

Other: Any combo of the above, or perhaps you’re a former fling? [She’s hopped around beds...fairly often.] Maybe you’re just looking for a fellow magic nerd? I’m up for plotting all sorts of things, and pre-established things, too! [Khaida is VERY poly, though, so no Exclusive Ships.]

What I’m Looking For ––– –

Contacts and Friends!: I’m still very new to in-game RP, and this verse for Khaida is, itself, very new. I would love to meet new people, make new friends!

Shipping: I love ships. I will not lie about that fact. Just be aware that Telemakhos is always going to be a part of her life. I love romance, trysts, one-sided crushes; I love it all. Give me that sweet shippy goodness.

Friendships: Khaida needs more friends, please! I want her to develop more bonds, meet more people.

Adventuring Shenanigans: Khaida is an adventurer and scholar, and she certainly would love other adventurers to join her in her shenanigans!

Slice of Life/Random Interactions: I love random stuff. I love meetings that may not be more than one-offs, but still happen. I just really like the little calms between the storms and action.

OOC and Roleplaying Preferences ––– –

I work fulltime and help my spouse with things [as they’re visually impaired], so my game time can be limited. But I try to be on when I can! If we need to schedule something, let me know! I’ll see what we can do!

I’m in the US Mountain Timezone, so I’m in this very odd space compared to a lot of folks. But I’m always happy to see how I can accommodate!

I’m on Discord a lot, except when at work, so it’s often the easiest way to get a hold of me off-Tumblr or out of game!

I’m still very new to in-game RP, so please bear with me. I’m happy to get more experience with it, however!

I love talking to my RP partners OOCly as much as ICly. I love plotting and seeing how things go within those plots. And sometimes just talking about other things or throwing things not related to RP or XIV at each other.

My home world is Goblin, so I can’t join anything but Crossworld Linkshells.

Regarding M/ERP: I am happy to write it, but the other mun(s)/muse(s) have to be 18+. And much as I love it, it is not the be-all and end-all for Khaida. I love development and plot and slice of life as much as I love smut.

Contact Information  ––– –

Discord - Please ask.

In Game - Khaida Ahmahno

Tumblr - @lighttheabyss

Items in this post subject to change if/when the need arises (regarding roleplay).

#Outoftheabyss #v; vamo alla flamenco #lfrp #crystal lfrp

[carrotlunch07-blog]

Yogurt and Oats for Breakfast

Yogurt is a super versatile ingredient or dish in itself. This recipe for yogurt and oats contains all kinds of extra goodies to help you start the day right.

You love yogurt. It’s a health food, isn’t it? It’s even what they call a super food. But, is it really all it’s cracked up to be, or are there some things you should take into consideration when you choose yogurt to enjoy at home?

Yogurt has long been considered a healthy food to enjoy on a regular basis. Not only is it high in protein and important nutrients, but it also can aid digestion, boost your immunities, protect against osteoporosis, and promote heart health and a healthy weight.

However, for years yogurt companies have stuffed their yogurts with sugar and additives making it a little less impressive as a healthy food. The junk they put in can detract from some of yogurt’s innate benefits.

So, how can you enjoy yogurt without all the bad stuff? 

Buy or make it plain and dress it up yourself.

Yogurt: Health food or junk food?

As you know, over the last few years I’ve been doing some serious food reading. Not about cooking per se, but about nutrition, portion control, eating habits, our food sources, government regulations on food, and the way marketers try to get us to buy stuff. It has been an education to be sure.

Some of the books that have had a tremendous impact in how I think about food include:

It’s through the reading of these books that I’ve made slow shifts in how I shop and cook and in how my family eats. We’re not as “crunchy” as they come, but we don’t eat exclusively out of a box, either.

Slowly but surely, I’m making changes to improve my family’s diet without busting our budget. I cook more from scratch, and we try to avoid chemicals, artificial ingredients, processed sugars, and unfermented soy. I am working on making healthy eating easier over all.

One of the new wrinkles in this healthier eating paradigm, has been to examine the yogurt we eat.

Yogurt has always been one of my very favorite breakfast foods. In my non-pregnant and nursing years, I haven’t really been a milk-drinker, so yogurt and cheese help me keep up on my calcium.

Years ago I was a diehard Yoplait or La Creme fan. Coupons and sales were plentiful for those items so I could keep the refrigerator stocked to the brim, buying as many as 60 cartons at a time. I thought that I was buying “health food.”

It was only later when I started to reduce our intake of processed sugars and processed foods in general that I found out how SWEET these yogurts actually were. Plus, often they had all kinds of ingredients I couldn’t pronounce.

How to switch to plain yogurt

So, I made some changes. I started buying large 32-ounce cartons of plain, or sometimes vanilla, yogurt, preferably Cascade,  Mountain High, or Fage brands.

Not all my kids liked that change. But most of them have gone along with it, especially when honey or maple syrup is drizzled over the top. Occasionally I buy Trader Joe’s vanilla and blueberry cups, but not often.

If you or yours are slow to be won over to plain yogurt, consider one or more of the following toppings for plain yogurt:

maple syrup

honey

jam

fruit syrup

fresh fruit

granola or nuts

It may take some time, but you’ll be a convert before too long.

Uses for plain yogurt.

Plain yogurt is an incredibly versatile ingredient to keep on hand.

It’s great to use in baking instead of buttermilk. Just mix half yogurt and half milk as your buttermilk substitute.

Use it as a thickener in smoothies.

Mix it with whipped cream to reduce the fat and increase the protein in your favorite sweet topping.

Substitute it for sour cream in recipes to give an equivalent tang without all the fat.

Can you make yogurt at home?

Believe it or not, it’s incredibly easy to make yogurt at home! A few years ago I experimented with making yogurt myself. One night I tested two different methods:

I also read about the microwave/oven and cooler methods, but decided to go with these first two methods. The next morning I compared the yogurts I had made. They were like Laurel and Hardy, one was thick, the other thin.

The slow cooker method was good, but thin like buttermilk. Folks suggested that I strain the yogurt to thicken it, but it was so thin, the yogurt went right through the sieve. I used some in baking and churned the rest into frozen yogurt.

The yogurt incubated on the heating pad was thick and creamy. Since we like THICK yogurt, you can guess that I’m a fan of the heating pad method.

Try them both out and see for yourself which you prefer. I originally tested with whole milk, but have since made homemade yogurt with nonfat milk and it turned out fine and thick, albeit a little on the tart side in comparison.

My preferred method for making homemade yogurt is to combine 1 quart milk, 1/4 cup powdered milk, 2 tablespoons yogurt with live cultures, and to incubate it for 5 hours according to the heating pad method.

Enjoy Yogurt and Oats for Breakfast.

As a born Francophile, I’ve loved reading The French Women series by Mireille Guiliano and have been encouraged by many of the suggestions she has to offer for life, work, and good eats.

One of those habits that I’ve adapted for my own is what Ms. Guiliano calls “Magical Breakfast Cream”. I can’t vouch for its magical properties, but I know that I like it, at least how I tweaked it.

I’ve made some significant changes to her recipe. Her recipe calls for shredded wheat cereal instead of oats, flax seed oil instead of meal, and orange instead of lime, as well as the addition of ground nuts. My tweaks are thanks to what I normally stock in my pantry.

This variation has become my daily breakfast, packed with protein and filling enough to get me through the morning.

Yogurt is a super versatile ingredient or dish in itself. This recipe for yogurt and oats contains all kinds of extra goodies to help you start the day right.

Cuisine: American, French

Keyword: oatmeal, oats, yogurt, yogurt and oats

1/2 cup plain greek yogurt

2 tablespoons rolled oats not cooked

1 tablespoon chopped roasted almonds

1 teaspoon flax seed meal

the juice and pulp of half a lime

1 teaspoon honey

In a small bowl, layer the ingredients in the order listed. Stir or not, depending on how you like it.

Level up your meal planning and prep.

Need a little extra motivation to get on your meal planning game? Want to make lunch packing less of a drag? Creating a kitchen survival kit to help you WIN in the kitchen this school year.

I’d love for you to join me for the next Mom’s Kitchen Survival Workshop!

Together, we’ll create a plan to help you get dinner on the table every night, fill your freezer with wholesome snacks and breakfasts, finesse your lunch-packing skills, and even make sure you get a daily dose of MOM food.

Learn more here so that when registration opens, you won’t miss out.

Source: https://goodcheapeats.com/2018/09/morning-yogurt-and-oats/

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

[carleencl]

Carleen Goes to Taiwan: Day 1 (Taichung)

Taiwan – the first country to explore this 2019! It is the country known for tourist spots’ such as the 91-floor Taipei 101, different memorial halls and parks, shopping districts, night markets, and more. It is also the origin of everyone’s favorite drink - Milk Tea!

My travel experience in Taiwan will be divided per day with our itinerary and expenses. At the end of each post will be my vlog. My blog and vlog will go hand in hand since some information and visuals will be on my blog but not on my vlog and vice versa. So I recommend for you to read my blog and watch my vlog to know my adventures in Taiwan.

Our flight to Taipei, Taiwan was last May 22, 2019 via Cebu Pacific and was originally scheduled at 10:35pm. It was delayed by an hour and we boarded at around 11:30pm. We arrived at Taipei at around 01:30 in the morning.

After landing, we went to the immigration, grab our luggage and claimed our sim card. We bought our sim card via Klook which costs PHP 377 each. (Tip: Double check if the claiming counters are open 24 hours especially if you have an early morning flight. Some options in Klook have counters open from 7am – 11pm only).

Since we arrived in early morning, we rode a taxi going to our hotel in Ximen named, Diary of Ximen Hotel. The taxi fare was NT$ 1,100 (PHP 1,870) good for 4 people with 4 luggage. It was an hour travel time from Taoyuan International Airport to our hotel and we arrived at around 03:30am.

Diary of Ximen Hotel is situated near Exit 6 of MRT Ximen Station which was a very good location. Also, the hotel is located in a building with other hotels too. We really did like the hotel since it was very near the Ximending night market, staff were very accommodation and nice, and bottled waters were given daily. There was also free flowing juice, tea, and coffee on the hotel’s reception. We booked our hotel via Agoda and no breakfast was included. If you would like to avail their breakfast buffet, it will be NT$ 100 (PHP 170) per person.

DAY 1 MAY 23, 2019

First day in Taiwan and we were greeted by the drizzling rain.

1st day’s itinerary was to go to the province of Taichung, Taiwan. We went there by riding the MRT first from Ximen Station to Taipei Main Station then transferred from MRT Taipei Main Station to HSR Taichung Station.

We preferred to ride their High Speed Rail (HSR) since it will only take 45 minutes to 1 hour from Taipei to Taichung. Other cheaper options were the bus  with 3-4 hours travel time, and the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) with 1-2 hours travel time. However, during that time, Klook has a promo of Buy One, Get One for HSR going from Taipei to other locations that costs PHP 945 (PHP 472.50/each). For our way back, we also chose the HSR but got the original price of PHP 886 each via Klook also.

Riding the HSR was actually comfortable. There were toilets, and vending machines in the train. WiFi was also available and each seat has a fold able tables similar to airplanes.

Upon arriving at HSR Taichung Station, we decided to grab a taxi going to Rainbow Village. Our taxi driver was very nice and friendly and suggested if we would want to avail his service to drive us around Taichung for NT$ 3500 (PHP 5,950) for 8 hours. At first we were hesitant but we compared prices in Uber and it was indeed cheaper to avail his service. We compared and saw that one way going to Rainbow Village is almost NT$900, which we computed with the other destination we would be paying either the same price or higher.

RAINBOW VILLAGE

Seeing Rainbow Village was literally colorful like the rainbow. There was no charge upon entering the site.

Rainbow Village is located at 408, Nantun District, Taichung City, Taiwan is open daily from 8am - 6pm.

The village was originally for demolition however, Rainbow Grandpa painted the houses and saved it from being demolished. The village was originally the place soldiers stayed at before. Neighboring houses were sold but Rainbow Grandpa remained.

At the end of the village is a room about its history and some information about Rainbow Grandpa.

I actually felt happy being in Rainbow Village. The colorful artworks brings so much joy.

ZHONGSHE FLOWER MARKET

Zhongshe Flower Market was next on our itinerary. This is widely popular because of the beautiful flowers you will be surrounded at.

It is located at No. 333, Section 5, Sanfeng Road, Houli District, Taichung City, Taiwan.

The Flower Market is open daily from 8am to 6pm and there is an entrance fee of NT$120 (PHP 204) for adults and NT$60 (PHP 102) for children.

Even though it as muddy during that day, we actually enjoyed having photos with the lovely flowers. Below were the photos from the flower market:

LUNCH AT WEST DISTRICT

We asked our driver to bring us to Chun Shui Tang since it is a well known milk tea place in Taichung. We were dropped at the West District if I’m not mistaken.

Before trying the milk tea, we looked for a place first where we could have lunch.

We saw a small restaurant and tried it. Name of the restaurant is in Chinese and that explains why I didn’t include the name here. 😅

The staff only speaks Chinese thus, we had a little difficulty ordering. However, there was a very nice customer of theirs that knows how to speak English. I think she noticed we had trouble ordering and helped us. The customer was the one translating, for us to order. We didn’t got her name, but to the lady who was in this restaurant last May 23, 2019 around 1-2pm, thank you for helping for us! 🤗

It was passed lunch time and the only choices they have were Chicken Curry Rice and Pork Noodle Soup. I’m not a fan of curry, so I ordered their Pork Noodle Soup which costs NT$ 100 (PHP 170).

CHUN SHUI TANG

Our first milk tea in Taiwan!

Serving was so large that one glass is good for 1-2 people. The glass is bigger than my hand and same size as my face! 😂

Both the original pearl milk tea and oreo milk tea tastes good! However, when the milk tea is compared here in Manila, our is way way sweeter even at 50% sugar. It seems that milk tea from Taiwan is not that sweet.

A medium Pearl Milk Tea costs NT$130 (PHP 221), and medium Oreo Milk Tea costs NT$ 120 (PHP 204).

FENGJIA NIGHT MARKET

I wasn’t able to have photo from the night  market in Taichung. However, I had some videos of it on my vlog. 😊

Fengjia Night Market is similar with Ximending Night Market. Both has shops for clothes and skin care. They also have street foods left and right.

I was able to try the Fried Chicken from Angel’s that costs NT$ 70 (PHP 119). I really do like the fried chicken since it was not dry and very tasty!

Afterwards, we actually went home already since our 8-hour trip with our driver is almost ending. We bought extra food before heading back to out hotel at Ximending Night Market

So that’s day 1 of our Taiwan trip. Next Taiwan posts, soon!

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To see more of what we saw in Taichung, you may watch my vlog below:

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Below was our itinerary and expenses. Hope this will help you to be able to plan your travels to Taiwan.

ITINERARY

DAY 1 Part 1: May 22-23, 2019 (Wed/Thurs) 07:00 pm - Meet-up at NAIA Terminal 3 10:35 pm - ETD from Manila 12:55 am - ETA to Taipei (Taoyuan International Airport, Terminal 1) 01:00 am - Immigration, Get Luggage & Sim Card 02:00 am - Go to the hotel 03:00 am - Check-in at Diary of Ximen Hotel

DAY 1 Part 2: May 23, 2019 (Thursday) 07:00 am - Wake-Up 08:00 am - BREAKFAST 09:00 am - Leave for Taichung 09:15 am - ETD:  MRT Ximen Station to Taipei Main Station 09:20 am - ETA:  MRT Taipei Main Station 09:30 am - Taipei to Taichung via High Speed Rail 10:30 am - Arrival Taichung Station 10:45 am - To Rainbow Village 11:15 pm - ETA:  Rainbow Village (Caihongjuan Village) 12:15 pm - Leave for Zhongshe Flower Market 12:30 pm - Zhongshe Flower Market 02:00 pm - LUNCH 04:00 pm - Fengjia Night Market 06:00 pm - Go back to Taipei Main Station 07:30 pm - Ximending Night Market 08:30 pm - Back to hotel

EXPENSES

SIM Card (Klook) - PHP 377 Taxi (Airport to Hotel) - NT$1, 100 (PHP 1, 870; PHP467.50/ea) Breakfast at 7/11

Chicken Teriyaki Rice Meal - NT$89 (PHP 151.30)

HSR Taipei to Taichung (Klook) - PHP 945 (Buy one get one; PHP 472.50/ea) HSR Taichung to Taipei (Klook) - PHP 886/ea Taxi in Taichung (8 hours) - NT$3, 500 (PHP 5, 950; PHP1, 487.50/ea) Rainbow Village: Free Flower Market: - NT$120 (PHP 204) LUNCH

Pork Noodle Soup - NT$100 (PHP 170)

Milk Tea at Chun Shui Tang (PHP106.25/ea)

Original Pearl Milk Tea (Medium) - NT$130 (PHP221)

Oreo Milk Tea (Medium) - NT$120 (PHP204)

Fengjia Night Market: Chicken - NT$70 (PHP119) Ximending Night Market

Fried Chicken - NT$120 (PHP204; PHP51/ea)

Family Mart (Bulgogi) - NT$65 (PHP 110.50)

Family Mart (Milk tea) - NT$28 (PHP47.60)

Total: PHP4, 650.15

*Items from Klook were paid in advanced

*Conversion of NT$ to PHP are rounded and used NT$ 1 = PHP 1.70

Other blog post related to Taiwan below: 🔗 TAIWAN DAY 2 BLOG POST

#Taipei #Taiwan #Taichung #Travel #Vlog #Blog #Traveller #Klook #Cebu Pacific #High Speed Rail #Rainbow #Rainbow Village #Rainbow Grandpa #Zhongshe Flower Market #Flowers #Flower Market #Pork Noodle Soup #Food #West District #Chun Shui Tang #Pearl Milk Tea #Milk Tea #Orea Milk Tea #Oreo

[gurguliare]

@vardasvapors was making vague noises about reading Dream of the Red Chamber so I decided to post another of my favorite scenes... this one is long and not as funny as I think it is, it’s just “two teenagers decide to cheer themselves up by being REALLY SCATHING abt one another’s poetry. then they are gatecrashed by a nun”

Imo the jankiness of the translation adds to the experience here because it makes the whole thing more reminiscent of. 2009 “writers’ society” forums where you got forum ranking points for the length, if not the fairness, of your reviews

*

Daiyu and Xiangyun had not gone to bed. This big family reunion in the Jia mansion, which the Lady Dowager still complained was less lively than in the old days, as well as her reference to Baochai and Baoqin celebrating at home with their own family, had made Daiyu feel so disconsolate that she had slipped out to the corridor to shed tears. As Baoyu was listless and distraught these days because Qingwen’s illness had taken a turn for the worse, when his mother urged him to go to bed off he went. Tanchun was in no mood for enjoyment either, with family troubles weighing on her mind. And as neither Yingchun nor Xichun was too intimate with Daiyu, that left only Xiangyun to comfort her.

“You should have more sense,” Xiangyun told her, “than to let this scene upset you. I have no family either, but I don’t take it to heart the way you do. With your poor health you ought to look after yourself. It’s too bad of Baochai and Baoqin. They kept saying our club must meet to celebrate the Moon Festival this year by writing a poem together, but now they’ve abandoned us and gone off to celebrate it on their own. Instead of our meeting to write a poem, the men and boys of the house have had things all their own way. As the old saying goes: ‘How can an outsider be allowed to sleep beside one’s bed?’ Well, if they won’t join in, why don’t the two of us write a poem together? Tomorrow we can shame them with it.”

As Xiangyun was trying to cheer her up, not wanting to spoil her fun Daiyu replied, “All right. But it’s too noisy here to have any poetic inspiration.”

“Enjoying the moonlight on this hill is good, but it’s better still by the water. You know that lake at the foot of this hill and Concave Crystal Lodge by the inlet there? A lot of thought went into designing this Garden. The crest of the hill is called Convex Emerald, and the creek in the lake below Concave Crystal. ‘Convex’ and ‘concave,’ so seldom used before, make fresh, original names. And these two places— one above, one below; one bright, one dark; one hill, one water—seem specially designed for enjoying the moonlight. Those who like to look at the moon from a height can come here; those who prefer to see its reflection in water can go there. But as these two words are usually pronounced wa and tu they’re considered rather uncouth. That’s why Lu You’s line ‘The old inkstone, slightly concave, brims with ink’ was scoffed at as vulgar. Ridiculous, isn’t it?”

“Lu You wasn’t the only one to use this word, so did many other writers of old—Jiang Yan in his poetic essay On Green Moss, Dongfang Shuo in his Miraculous and Strange Records, and Zhang Yanyuan in his Anecdotes on Painting when he described the frescoes Zhang Sengyou painted in a monastery. Why, there are too many instances to quote. But nowadays people not knowing this think these vulgar words.

“To tell you the truth,” Daiyu continued, “I’m the one who suggested both names. It was when we proposed names for places which hadn’t yet been given any and marked their localities. They were taken to the Palace and shown to Elder Sister who sent them to uncle, and he was delighted. He said if only he’d known he’d have asked us girls to help with the names, and he accepted them all without changing a word. Well, let’s go to concave Crystal Lodge.”

They walked down the hill, round a bend, and reached the lake. A path by the bamboo railings along its bank led to Lotus Fragrance Pavilion. The little building here, nestling at the foot of the hill on which stood Convex Emerald Hall, had been given the name Concave Crystal because it was on low ground close to the water. As it was so small, with few rooms, there were only two serving-women on night duty; and knowing that the ladies at Convex Emerald Hall would not be requiring their services, after enjoying their share of mooncakes, sweetmeats, wine and dishes, they had put out the lights and gone to bed.

“So they’re asleep—good,” said Xiangyun when they saw that the place was dark. “Let’s enjoy the water and moonlight under this awning.”

Sitting on two bamboo stools they gazed at the bright moon in the sky and then at its reflection in the lake, the moon above and its reflection below rivalling each other in magnificence. It was like being in some mermaids’ crystal palace. As a breeze ruffled the green water of the lake they felt thoroughly refreshed.

“What fun it would be to drink now in a boat on the lake!” exclaimed Xiangyun. “If we were at my home I’d take a boat out.”

“As the ancients often said: ‘What enjoyment can there be if everything is perfect?’“ remarked Daiyu. “To my mind this is quite good enough.”

“It’s only natural for men to hanker for more. Didn’t the old people often say: ‘The poor think the rich have all their hearts’ desire. Try to disabuse them and they won’t believe you—not unless they grow rich themselves.’ Take the two of us, for instance. Although we’ve lost our parents, we’re living in luxury, yet we have a lot to upset us.”

“We aren’t the only ones. Even their Ladyships, Baoyu, Tanchun and the others can’t have their way in everything big and small, even if they have good reason for wanting something. That applies to everyone. Especially girls like us who are living with other families, not our own....”

Afraid Daiyu would start grieving again, Xiangyun interposed, “Well, enough of this idle talk. Let’s get on with our poem.”

As she was talking they heard melodious fluting.

“Their Ladyships are in high spirits today,” Daiyu remarked. “This fluting is pleasant and should give us inspiration. As we both like five-character lines, let’s make regulated couplets in that metre.”

“What rhymes shall we use?”

“Suppose we count the bars from this end of the railing to the other to decide which category of rhymes to choose. For example, if it’s sixteen we’ll use the Xian rhymes. Wouldn’t that make a change?”

“That’s certainly original.”

So they got up to count the bars and found there were thirteen in all.

Xiangyun chuckled, “It would be thirteen! That means the yuan group of rhymes. There aren’t too many for a long poem of couplets, so it may be awkward. Still, you must make a start.”

“We’ll see which of us does better. But we ought to have paper and a brush to write it down.”

“We can copy it out tomorrow. There’s no danger of forgetting it before then.”

“All right then. I’ll start with a pat phrase.” Daiyu declaimed: “Mid-autumn’s fifteenth night is here again....”

Xiangyun reflected, then said: “As on the Feast of Lanterns we stroll round. The sky above is sprinkled with bright stars....”

Daiyu continued: “And everywhere sweet strings and pipes resound. Goblets fly here and there as men carouse....”

“I like that last line,” Xiangyun approved. “I must find something good to match it.” After a moment’s thought she said: “No house but has its windows opened wide. The breeze that softly fans the air is chill...”

“You’ve capped my attempt,” admitted Daiyu. “But your second line is trite. You should go from strength to strength.”

“A long poem with tricky rhymes had to be padded out a bit. We can use some good lines later.”

“If you don’t, you should be ashamed!” Daiyu went on: “But bright as day the fine night scene outside. The greybeard grabbing for a cake is mocked....”

“That’s no good,” laughed Xiangyun. “It’s not classical. You’re putting me on the spot by using an everyday incident like that.”

“I’d say you hadn’t read many books. This reference to cakes is a classical allusion. You should read the Tang dynasty records before you talk.”

“Well, you haven’t foxed me. I’ve got it.” Xiangyun capped the verse: “Green girls share melons, laughing themselves silly. How fresh the scent of jade osmanthus bloom....”

“That really had no classical source,” protested Daiyu.

“Tomorrow we’ll look it up for everyone to see. Let’s not waste time now.”

“Anyway your second line is no good, padded out with expressions like ‘jade osmanthus.’” She continued: “How bright the regal gold of the day-lily. Wax candles set the sumptuous feast aglow....”

“You got off cheap with ‘day-lily,’“ observed Xiangyun. “That ready-made rhyme saved you a lot of trouble. But there was no need to drag in praise of the sovereign on their behalf. Besides, the line after that is mediocre.”

“If you hadn’t used jade osmanthus. I wouldn’t have had to match it with day-lily, would I? And we have to bring in some opulent images to make it true to life.”

Then Xiangyun continued: “Wild drinking games the splendid park confuse. Opposing sides obey the self-same rule....”

“That last line’s good but rather hard to match.” Daiyu thought for a little then said: “Those guessing riddles hear three different clues. The dice is thrown and wins—the dots are red....”

Xiangyun said, “I like your ‘three clues,’ making something colloquial poetic. But you shouldn’t have brought in dice again in the next line.” She continued: “Drums speed the blossom passed from hand to hand. The courtyard scintillates with limpid light....”

Daiyu commented, “You capped my line all right but fell down again on the next. Why keep padding it out with the ‘breeze’ and the ‘moon’ all the time?”

“I haven’t brought in the moon yet. And anyway a subject like this can do with some purple patches.”

“Well, we’ll let it go for the time being. We can consider it again tomorrow.” Daiyu went on: “A silver splendour merges sky and land. For hosts and guests alike the same requital....”

“Why go on referring to others? Why not speak about us?” Xiangyun resumed: “Verses are written turn and turn about. One leaning on the barricade to think....”

“Yes, this is where we come in,” Daiyu remarked, then continued: “One ‘tapping the door’ to make the scene stand out. Engrossed as ever, though the wine is drunk....”

“Now we’re getting somewhere!” Xiangyun went on: “They savour the last watches of the night. Then comes a gradual end to talk and laughter....”

“Here’s where each line gets more difficult,” observed Daiyu, continuing: “Nought’s left now but the waning frosty light. By the steps, dew-drenched hibiscus blooms at dawn....”

Xiangyun exclaimed, “Now what parallel shall I choose? Let me see.” She stood up to think, her hands clasped behind her back, then said with a smile, “All right. Luckily I’ve hit on a word. I was nearly floored.” She resumed: “In the courtyard, mist the albizzia shrouds. Autumn rapids pour forth through the core of rocks....”

Daiyu sprang up with a cry of admiration. “This clever imp had really kept some good lines up her sleeve. Fancy coming out with ‘albizzia’—how did you think of that?”

“Luckily for me, yesterday I dipped into the Selected Writings of Different Dynasties and found this name. I didn’t know what tree it was and wanted to look it up, but Cousin Baochai said, “There’s no need for that. This is the tree whose leaves open out in the daytime and fold up at night.’ Not trusting her, I checked up and found she was right. So it seems Cousin Baochai really knows a lot.”

“It’s just the word to use here, and your line about ‘autumn rapids’ is even more felicitous, better than all the other lines. I shall have to cudgel my brains to match it, but I can’t possibly think of anything as good.” After a little reflection she went on: “Wind-swept leaves gather at the root of clouds. Lonely and pure the Lady of the Star....”

“The parallel will pass but the second line is a comedown,” was Xiangyun’s verdict. “Still, at least the sentiment suits the scene. You haven’t just used an allusion for padding.” She continued: “The Silver Toad puffs and deflates the moon. Elixirs are prepared by the Jade Hare....”

Daiyu simply nodded, then capped this: “The goddess flies towards the Palace of Cold Void. One soars on high to greet Weaving Maid and Cowherd....”

Xiangyun looking up at the moon nodded and continued: “One sails a barque to the heavenly maiden fair. The orb, for ever changing, wanes and waxes....”

“You’re using the same image again,” objected Daiyu, but went on: “At each month’s start and end, but its ghost is there. Clepsydra’s water had well-nigh run dry....”

Before Xiangyun could continue, Daiyu pointed at a dark shadow in the pool and exclaimed, “Look there! That looks like a man in the dark. Could it be a ghost?”

“You’re imagining things again. I’m not afraid of ghosts. I’ll hit it.” Xiangyun bent to pick up a stone and threw it into the pool. Splash! Ripples radiated out to shatter the moon’s reflection, which then rounded out again. When this had happened several times, they heard a cry in the dark shadows and a white stork took wing straight towards Lotus Fragrance Pavilion.

“So that’s all it was,” chuckled Daiyu. “I didn’t think it could be a stork. It gave me quite a fright.”

“How amusing—it’s given me an idea.” And Xiangyun declaimed: “The lamp by the window is no longer bright. A stork’s shadow flits across the chilly pool....”

Daiyu exclaimed in admiration again, stamping her foot. “This confounded stork had helped her! This line is even more original than the one about ‘autumn rapids.’ How am I going to match it? The only parallel for ‘shadow’ is ‘spirit.’ A stork flitting across the chilly pool sounds so natural, apt, vivid and original too! I shall have to give up.”

“We can find something if we both think hard, or else leave it till tomorrow.”

Daiyu still looking up at the sky ignored her. After a while she suddenly laughed and said, “You needn’t gloat. I’ve got it. Listen.

“The poet’s spirit is buried in cold moonlight.”

Xiangyun clapped her hands. “Very good indeed! The only possible parallel. Burying the poet’s spirit—wonderful.” She added with a sigh, “Of course that line’s distinctive, but it’s rather too melancholy. Now that you’re unwell you shouldn’t make such strangely sad and depressing lines which sound ill-omened.”

Daiyu chuckled, “If I hadn’t, how was I to beat you? But I worked so hard on it, I haven’t got the next line yet....”

Just then someone stepped out from behind the rocks on the other side of the balustrade and laughed.

“A fine poem, a fine poem!” she cried. “But it is too melancholy. You’d better not go on. If you continue in this way, these two lines won’t stand out so well and the poem may seem padded and forced.”

Daiyu and Xiangyun, caught unawares, were startled to see Miaoyu. “Where did you spring from?” they asked.

“Knowing you were all enjoying the moon and listening to fine fluting, I came out to admire this clear lake and bright moonlight too and on my way here suddenly heard the two of you poeticizing, which seemed the height of refinement. So I stopped to listen. You’ve made some good lines but as a whole it’s too mournful—or was that fated? That’s why I stepped out to stop you.

“The party broke up long ago and the old lady’s left the Garden. Most of the others here must be asleep, and your maids will be wondering what’s become of you. Aren’t you afraid of catching cold? Come back to my place now for a cup of tea. The day will break any minute.”

“I’d no idea it was so late,” said Daiyu.

The three girls went to Green Lattice Nunnery. They found the lamp before the shrine still lit and the incense in the censer not yet burnt out, but the few old nuns there had gone to bed leaving only one young maid dozing on a hassock. Miaoyu roused her to brew tea. Then came a sudden knocking on the gate, and the maid opened it to admit Zijuan and Cuilu with some old nurses come to look for Daiyu and Xiangyun.

Seeing them drinking tea they said laughingly, “You had us searching the whole Garden—even Madam Xue’s place—for you. We were looking just now in that small pavilion at the foot of the hill, and luckily the night-watchers were awake. They told us two people had been talking under the awning outside. Someone else joined them and they spoke of going to the nunnery. That’s how we’ve tracked you down.”

Miaoyu told the maid to take them to another room to have a rest and some tea. She herself brought out a brush, inkstone, paper and ink and asked the girls to recite their composition, which she wrote down from start to finish.

Finding her in such a good mood Daiyu said, “I’ve never seen you before in such high spirits. If not for that I wouldn’t presume to ask for your opinion. Is this poem worth polishing? If you think not, we’ll burn it; but if it is, will you please make some corrections?”

“I won’t venture to make rash comments, but as you’ve already used twenty-two rhymes I expect you’ve produced your most striking images and if you go on you may tire yourselves out. I’d like to round it off, only I’m afraid I may spoil it.”

Daiyu had never read any poems by Miaoyu, and as the young nun was so eager she urged her, “Please do! That may make out feeble attempts seem passable.”

“We must wind up the poem by reverting to the present situation. If we pass over true feelings and incidents and simply search for striking images and expressions, we’ll be losing our identity and departing from the main theme.”

“Quite right,” they concurred.

Miaoyu picked up her brush and wrote her addition straight off, then showed it to the other two, saying: “Don’t laugh at me! I feel this is the only way to get back to the theme. Then a few sad lines earlier on won’t matter.”

They took what she had written and read:

The incense in gold tripods has burnt out, And ice-white oil in the jade basin forms; Fluting recalls a widow’s lamentations As a small serving-maid the silk quilt warms. On empty curtains a bright phoenix hangs. The idle screens gay ducks and drakes enfold; Thick dew has made the moss more slippery, And heavy frost makes bamboo hard to hold. Strolling again beside the winding lake, Climbing once more the solitary hill, The rugged boulders seem contending ghosts; The gnarled trees, wolves and tigers crouching still. Dawn lights the tortoise pedestal of stone, On outer trellis now the thick dew falls. A thousand woodland birds begin to stir, In vales below a single gibbon calls. How can we stray on a familiar road? Why ask the way to fountain-heads we know? The bells chime in Green Lattice Nunnery, The cocks in Paddy-Sweet Cottage start to crow. With cause for joy, why grieve excessively, Or needlessly display anxiety? A maiden’s feelings none but she can vent— To whom can she confide her nicety? Speak not of weariness, though night is done, Over fresh tea let us talk on and on.

She then appended the title “A Poem Written Collectively with Thirty-five Rhymes While Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival in Grand View Garden.”

Daiyu and Xiangyun heaped praise on this ending. “We’ve been ignoring a talent right under our eyes, yet trying to seek what is far away!” they exclaimed. “We have such a superior poetess here, yet every day we pretend to be able to write.”

#hong lou meng #'fuck!! the stork helped her!' my forever collab mood #also good for the mention in passing of baochai's endless fund of trivia

[asfeedin]

Father’s Day Gift Guide | Serious Eats

Father’s Day Gift Guide | Serious Eats

Le Creuset Cake Stand

If you’ve ever been given a homemade birthday cake, return the favor by buying your favorite baker this iconic cake stand. Its heavy base keeps cakes secure and makes all types of decorating techniques a breeze.

Magnetic Knife Rack

Not only do magnetic knife strips save space, they also look pretty badass hanging on your wall. They’ll keep your knives from rubbing up against other utensils, which can make them dull (and can be dangerous, too).

Egg Cups

Any dad who loves soft-boiled eggs deserves the perfect cup to eat them from. These sturdy stoneware Le Creuset cups come in a range of beautiful colors. They’re totally classic, which is a good thing because they’ll also last for generations to come.

Kitchen-Helper Stool

Daniel’s one-and-a-half-year-old son has a new and urgent interest in whatever’s happening up on the kitchen counter that he can’t see. He begs to be picked up, but that means Daniel can cook with only one hand, which, while kind of, sort of, maybe possible, is extremely difficult. Plus, the kid is heavy. It’s time to add a learning tower to the kitchen so he can stand and watch, sometimes even help, while Daniel continues to get dinner ready. This one is great because it folds up for easy storage.

Taketsuru Pure Malt Japanese Whisky

Anyone who appreciates Scotch (or good spirits in general) will embrace Nikka’s exquisite whiskies. The Taketsuru Pure Malt is named for the company’s founder, who studied in Scotland before bringing whisky distilling back to Japan. This bottling has a slight fruity character, with lingering sherry on the finish.

Meat Cleaver

This meat cleaver has a well-balanced weight, sharp edge, and solid construction—a boon since a lot of more-affordable cleavers like this one feel very cheap and after repeat use get wobbly around the handle.

Smeg Toaster

After years of putting up with a cheap toaster that I picked up at the supermarket, I recently upgraded to this super fancy Italian job in cool mint. It’s sleek design and soothing pastel color transform the kitchen’s most boring appliance into a statement piece, and it really does a good job with the toast itself. Plus, I mean, it’s really dang pretty. If nothing else, you owe it to yourself to read this toaster’s priceless reviews.

Simple Coffee Maker

The Bonavita is one of the faster models we tested, and it earned high scores in nearly all of our tastings. A single switch governs all of its operations, making the brewing process incredibly simple.

Wüsthof Classic Carving Knife

This knife features an extremely sharp edge; a well-balanced, comfortable handle; and plenty of flexibility. It carves through roast turkey like butter, leaving very little meat stuck to the bones. It has a composite handle and a full tang to offer balance and support, with a bolster that is lightly angled and slim enough to make gripping the blade easy.

REC TEC Wood Pellet Grill

REC TEC offers high-quality pellet smokers featuring excellent digital controllers and sturdy construction. With a 40-pound pellet hopper, a 680-square-inch cook surface, and nine inches of headroom, the REC TEC 680 is a large, smartly constructed pellet smoker. It also looks awesome.

12-Inch Stainless-Steel Locking Tongs

Indoors, I prefer the control that a shorter, seven- or nine-inch set of tongs gives me. When flipping a dozen steaks over a blazing-hot fire, though, it’s better to keep your distance. I use these OXO Good Grips Stainless Steel Tongs at home, and their solid construction has lasted for a good six years of heavy (and I mean heavy) use so far.

Culina Stainless Steel Grilling Basket

A good grill basket should be durable, with a tight enough weave to allow very small foods to be cooked without risk of getting lost. Finally, it’s worth hunting down one that’s sizable enough to cook large batches of food in one go. One of our favorites is the simple Culina stainless steel basket. The metal mesh keeps even the smallest food items up on the grill grate where they belong. You can even toast or smoke nuts in it.

Set of Two Rectangular Grill Grates

If you’ve ever used a gas grill and grown frustrated with unfixable hot and cool spots and overall weak performance, this tool is for you. Made from hard anodized aluminum, the GrillGrate system sits directly on your existing grate, amplifying and evening out the heat, which allows for more even cooking, flare-up resistance, and exceptional sear marks.

A Nice Apron

There’s form, and then there’s function. The aprons from Tilit are great on both fronts. Made from waxed cotton, they offer breathability along with water resistance, but they’re also damned handsome. Several NYC restaurants have commissioned custom apron designs from the company for their chefs and cooks, and I’m pretty psyched to wear one of these bad boys at home, too.

My Mexico City Kitchen: Recipes and Convictions

Mexico City is one of Sasha’s favorite cities in the world, and he’s traveled there a fair amount with his family. They always make sure to have lunch at Chef Gabriela Cámara’s restaurant Contramar when they’re in the DF. Her food is bright, light, and absolutely delicious, and her newly published cookbook is everything.

Presto Tilt-N-Fold Griddle

Presto’s Tilt-n-Fold model is very simple to set up and operate, and it has a compact design that makes it easy to store in kitchen cabinets when not in use. It has a large, smooth, nonstick cooking surface that heats mostly evenly, can be set at an angle to drain grease, and is easy to clean. We love the price, too.

KitchenAid Food Grinder Attachment

The great thing about buying a meat grinder attachment is that you already know that the hardest-working part of your grinder—the motor—is going to be a workhorse that can power through even the toughest grinding projects. Stand mixer attachments are a great option if you make a lot of sausage. You can grind the meat directly into the bowl, then attach the bowl to the machine and immediately start mixing it with the paddle to develop protein. It’s a real time-saver.

La Venenosa Sierra de Jalisco Raicilla

If your dad likes to be on the cutting edge of what’s cool, impress him with a whole type of spirits he may not have tried. Raicilla is distilled from agave, like tequila and mezcal, but few people have heard of it, since it only entered American markets in 2014. Sierra de Jalisco has a vibrant acidity, with earthy-fruity-vegetal elements playing around it. If Dad’s a fan of funky mezcals, he’ll enjoy raicilla’s incredible complexity.

Affordable Mandoline Slicer

A great mandoline will rapidly make photo-worthy cuts of your favorite vegetables, whether it’s thin slices of radishes for a salad or potatoes for a gratin. This basic OXO slicer has three thickness settings and perches over a bowl to easily catch the slices as they fall.

Brooklyn Bartender

If your dad has a taste for a well-made cocktail, but isn’t that likely to take off on a bar crawl in Brooklyn, this book is the perfect solution. It features 300 innovative and classic drink recipes from the best bars of the borough; every cocktail I’ve made so far has been killer. The drinks Carey Jones has selected aren’t dumbed down at all, but, for the most part, you’re not looking at mile-long ingredient lists, either.

World’s Fair Barbecue Rub

Ariel discovered this spice mix 11 years ago, and it’s still one of her favorite things to give as a gift. It’s a perfect blend of everyday ingredients (shallots, garlic, paprika, and sea salt), but with unusual flavor notes from grains of paradise. She buys it by the pound to dump on meat, seafood, and even eggs, but you can start by picking it up a reasonably sized jar or bag.

Julep Cups

I don’t often recommend single-function items, but for the cocktail enthusiast, a couple of julep cups really are fun to have. There’s nothing like holding that metal cup frosted with ice on a blisteringly hot summer day—glass just doesn’t pull the effect off in the same way. If the recipient doesn’t have an ice crusher, check out my Lewis bag suggestion as well.

PDT Cocktails App

At drink o’clock, wefind myself turning to this app. Enter all the bottles you have at home when you start, and the app will tell you all of the drinks you can make, with recipes straight from New York’s famous PDT cocktail lounge. You can also search for drinks of a certain type or cocktails created by a favorite bartender, and save favorites for making again. (To give an app as a gift, look for the arrow to the right of the “buy” icon.)

The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

A New York Times best seller! The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science by J. Kenji López-Alt is his column from this very website, blown up to 900-plus pages (and seven-plus pounds) of concentrated culinary science. Gorgeous color photos, detailed how-tos, and elaborate explainers cover ingredients, technique, gear, and the secrets of the universe underneath it all. May include puns.

Big Ice Cube Tray

If you like your whiskey with a giant ice cube, then you’ll really be into Mammoth Cubes—unlike ice cube trays from current competitor brands, these make eight cubes (not six) and are actually stackable, so they don’t require a section unto themselves in your freezer.

Wooden Pizza Peel for Launching Pizzas

Wooden peels absorb excess moisture and have a rougher surface than metal, which means that your stretched and topped pizza dough will remain loose and easy to launch far longer, saving you from potential pizza-spilled-all-over-the-oven accidents. Though there are cheaper options around, I love my Perfect Peel Baker’s Board, handcrafted to last a lifetime from gorgeous solid cherrywood. They’ll even put your initials or logo on it if you’d like!

Espresso Cups

Espresso cups make a nice gift on their own for coffee fiends. But when they’re Le Creuset, they’re even better—mostly because everything from the French heritage brand is aesthetically pleasing and built to last. Oh, and these cups might be the most affordable Le Creuset pieces on the market. So, if you want in on the trend for a moderate price, they make a good starter item.

Lever Corkscrew

The OXO worked on every bottle and cork we tested it with. The two-step motion—push down, then pull up—yanks the cork out in about two seconds. Repeat the process, and the cork drops free of the opener. The capable foil cutter clips into the body of the tool.

Now & Again: Go-To Recipes, Inspired Menus + Endless Ideas for Reinventing Leftovers

This cookbook by Julia Turshen, author of Small Victories and Feed the Resistance, is full of simple, delicious meals for everyday eating, parties, and holidays. Better yet, each one includes a bunch of suggestions for how to remake it as leftovers. It’s a trove of great, creative ideas, and a must for any bookworm.

Misen Chef’s Knife

This is the holy grail of inexpensive chef’s knives: incredible quality and design, high-end materials, perfect balance, and a razor-sharp edge.

Uuni 2S Pizza Oven

There are a lot of custom-designed pizza ovens out there in various price ranges. I reviewed a bunch of them, and one of my favorites was the Uuni 3. It consists of a small stainless steel box with a pizza stone set inside it. You load up a hopper on the rear of the unit with wood pellets, light it up with a torch or lighter fluid, and let it preheat. About 15 minutes later, you’re ready to cook. This little powerhouse hits temperatures in excess of 900°F and bakes up Neapolitan-sized pizzas in just 60 to 90 seconds.

Serving bowl

There’s no such thing as too many serving bowls, and this simple two-tone piece goes with virtually everything. At 11.5 inches across, it’s the perfect size for dad’s favorite side dishes; in my house, it’s go-to for salads, roasted vegetables, mashed potatoes, and pasta.

AeroGarden Harvest

Cooking with fresh herbs makes every recipe better. Cooking with fresh herbs that you grew all by yourself makes life better. The AeroGarden takes the guesswork out of growing herbs inside, with an automated light to keep your parsley and thyme thriving and weekly reminders for water and nutrients. Just prepare yourself for epic amounts of basil.

Welding Gloves for Grilling

After countless failed grilling mitts, we got ourselves a pair of welding gloves to use when grilling or smoking and never looked back. With great heat protection, dexterity, and construction, these are a necessity for every backyard cook.

Chocolate-Hazelnut Spread

Marco Colzani is a great Italian bean-to-bar chocolate maker, with a number of excellent products under his brand, Amaro. But it’s his spreads that have Ed addicted, particularly the Cacao Nocciole, or hazelnut-and-chocolate variety. Imagine a Nutella-like substance, but made with the freshest roasted hazelnuts and extra-chocolaty high-quality cocoa powder.

Zojirushi Rice Cooker

A couple years ago, I managed to convince my wife of the necessity of buying a rice cooker. Not just any rice cooker: a Zojirushi. The only concession I was willing to make had to do with the size, since she wisely noted that we didn’t have the counter space for any rice cooker at all, let alone the kind of rice cooker that I had in mind. So I bought a little guy that fits, max, three cups of rice, but really is only usable for about two and a half. She’s since come around to the indisputable excellence of the cooker, and she loves everything about it, from the wonderful rice it makes to the “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” it plays when you turn it on.

Small Baking Steel Griddle

These days, I keep this solid slab of steel permanently atop one of the burners of my stove. One side has a pebbled surface—ideal for getting extra-crisp, better-than-a-baking-stone crust on homemade pizzas. And, unlike a baking stone, this thing is going to last forever. The griddle arrives as shiny steel, but with just a few uses, it seasons up into a dark, slick nonstick surface that Dad can use for pancakes, eggs, hamburgers, grilled cheese, and more.

KitchenAid Pasta Attachment

This is hands down the KitchenAid attachment I use most often. It takes all of the frustration and fussiness out of making fresh pasta, and, unlike the manual alternatives out there, it’s incredibly easy and efficient to operate on your own. Hello, homemade ravioli!

Mediterranean Power Snacks Gift Box

There’s nothing worse than a hangry family member. Make sure Dad always has a snack on hand with this Mediterranean-themed gift box, brimming with Spanish snacks like chorizo, crunchy almonds, crackers, and fig cake.

Charcuterie

Ruhlman and Polcyn do a great job of demystifying one of the more abstruse cooking arts, and, while charcuterie may seem daunting, it can be gratifyingly easy. Start simple, with the pancetta, confit, rillettes, and duck prosciutto, and you’ll find yourself with a mold-inoculated curing chamber in no time.

The One True Barbecue

Race relations, religion, the New South versus the Old: These are just a smattering of the heavy issues Rien Fertel writes about through the lens of—well—smoked meat in this new book. And, while you might be thinking, “Oh, man, another book about barbecue?”, this one stands out from the crowd thanks to Fertel’s superb writing and storytelling skills. In a book that’s part culinary history, part personal narrative, and part tale of an American road trip, Fertel travels throughout the South, documenting the men who have long stood behind the fires practicing the time-consuming pursuit of whole hog barbecue—the ones who have been keeping alive the embers of what once seemed like a dying art, and the ones who are inspiring a new generation of pitmasters today.

Mastering Pasta: The Art and Practice of Handmade Pasta, Gnocchi, and Risotto

If you’re looking for one definitive primer on pasta-making in its myriad forms, this is it: Superlative step-by-step photographs take the guesswork out of potentially intimidating fundamentals, like mixing and kneading dough, as well as more intricate tasks, like pleating teardrops of corn- and cheese-stuffed culurgiònes. Better yet, author Marc Vetri arms you with the tools and knowledge that allow for controlled, intelligent experimentation and exploration before sending you into the fray.

Ice Cream Maker

Homemade ice cream tastes better than almost anything you can buy in a store, and it’s a snap to make. This ice cream maker, from Cuisinart, is all the gear you need: an easy-to-use workhorse that makes delicious ice cream every time. The simple construction means that there are few moving parts to break, and the wide mouth at the top makes it simple to add mix-ins and scoop out your ice cream when it’s at its fresh, creamy best.

Salt Cellar

Proper seasoning is one of the most important parts of cooking, and if you’re still using plain table salt from (heaven forbid!) a saltshaker, you’re shooting yourself in the food. Using kosher salt from a salt cellar lets you feel exactly how much salt is getting into your food, whether it’s a tiny pinch or a big ol’ wallop.

Lewis Bag

If you’re following my advice to buy someone julep cups, you might as well go all the way and grab a canvas Lewis bag, too: It’s used to smash ice into a fine powder with a mallet. Unless, of course, the person you’re buying for already has an ice crusher.

Vacuum Sealer

Know someone who’s interested in sous vide cooking? They’re gonna want this. And it’s handy for way more than just sous vide cooking. A vacuum sealer makes it really easy to save meats or other foods in the freezer, and it keeps air (read: freezer burn) off it all. The Oliso sealer uses a unique resealable-bag system, which means far less wasted plastic than a conventional cut-and-seal vacuum sealer.

Electric Countertop Pressure Cooker

A pressure cooker is a cooking vessel that just keeps on giving: Once you discover the time-saving feats it’s capable of, you’ll never look back. The good ones aren’t cheap, but man, is it ever worth having one. A countertop electric model gives you set-it-and-forget-it convenience. With the Breville Fast Slow Pro Cooker, not only do you have complete control over your pressure cooking (including any pressure level from 1.5 to 12 psi), you also have a slow cooker and a rice cooker built right in. It’ll even sear meat for stews.

Wusthof Classic Chef’s Knife

If you’re dead set on a traditional German knife profile—characterized by a more curved blade that’s bigger and heavier than the Japanese options—the Wüsthof Classic continues to be a stalwart. It weighs more than most of the other knives tested, giving it a solid and sturdy feel, but it still handles well and has a sharp edge.

Introduction to Japanese Cuisine: Nature, History and Culture

The Japanese Culinary Academy has released a series of textbooks about Japanese cuisine and technique, and every one of them is gorgeous. It’s the ideal gift for a dad with an interest in Japanese cooking.

Cynar 70

Cynar (pronounced chee-NAHR) is often identified by the artichoke on the label, but that’s just one of the many flavors you’ll find in this complex liqueur. And, while we’re fans of the rich, sweet, and vegetal 1950s original, we’re really excited about the new Cynar on the block. Cynar 70 is 35% alcohol instead of 16.5%, and the extra booze makes a marked difference, rendering the liqueur a bit less sweet and accentuating its bold, spicy flavors. If Dad likes Negronis or other bitter drinks, this is a great choice for a gift.

Dyson Handheld Vacuum

Dad keeps his kitchen spotless because even just one crumb will summon all those Florida critters. This handheld vacuum (which I have, use, and swear by myself) ensures zero crumbs left behind, whether it’s hanging in that small space under the dishwasher or the crevice between the stove and the cabinets.

Anova Precision Cooker

Sous vide cooking—cooking foods in vacuum-sealed pouches in precisely controlled water baths—is no longer relegated to fancy restaurant kitchens. The Anova Precision Cooker is the best home water-bath controller on the market, with an easy-to-use interface, Bluetooth support, rock-solid construction, a sleek look, and an affordable price tag to boot.

Anson Mills Grits

It may sound nuts to mail-order cornmeal and grits, given that they’re found on any supermarket shelf. But I’d argue that you haven’t experienced the best cornbread, grits, or other classic Southern dishes until you’ve had them made with the kind of high-quality stuff Anson Mills is selling. It’ll change how you understand those foods and what they can be.

ThermoWorks Thermapen

The Cadillac of kitchen thermometers is indispensable when roasting meat, cooking steaks, making candy, deep-frying, or at any other time precise temperature control is needed. With a big display and a blazing-fast measuring time of under two seconds, you won’t find a better, easier-to-use thermometer out there.

Baratza Virtuoso Coffee Grinder

It’s not exactly cheap, but this burr grinder does an admirable job of grinding coffee for espresso, pourover, or drip, all at a significantly lower price point than similarly performing competitors.

Craighill Trophy Bottle Opener

We wouldn’t normally spend $9 on a bottle opener, let alone $95. But this beautiful creation from Craighill, made by Niki’s good friend from college, is both sculptural and functional, just as the website proclaims. When it’s not opening bottles, use it to decorate your coffee or dining table, or even as a paperweight on your desk.

Weber Spirit E330 Liquid Propane Gas Grill

The Spirit E330 was introduced last year to replace the E320. The two models are identical except that the 330 adds a 7,500-BTU sear burner between the left and middle main burners. Sear burners are one of our favorite extras for gas grills. You’ll love turning this baby up to 11 when searing steaks and burgers.

Miracle-Gro Twelve Indoor Growing System

After previously lauding Aerogardens for how easy they make it to grow herbs at home (and how having a constant supply of fresh herbs has changed her cooking), Ariel’s upgraded to this larger system from Miracle-Gro. The increased size—it’s about as big as a side table—and bright lights allow you to grow a bounty of lettuces, herbs, and other greens, and you can program the app to turn the lights off and on according to your schedule. An expensive but excellent gift for anyone who loves fresh produce and fears their own black thumbs.

Leave-In Dual-Probe Thermometer

The Smoke is designed for grillers and barbecuers, but it’s a precise two-probe thermometer that can be calibrated and is just as handy indoors. Use the meat probe to gauge the temperature inside a roast and the ambient probe to track the smoker or grill’s temperature.

Tiffin

I’m a sucker for bentos, tiffins, and other tidy ways to carry lunch to the office, and the fact that I don’t technically have an office to carry lunch to anymore has only slightly dampened my enthusiasm. This two-layer tiffin is neat and attractive without being too cutesy, and it’s small enough that it won’t occupy too much space in a shared fridge. In the warmer months, it’ll do just as well for packing sandwiches and individual portions of salad or fresh fruit for a picnic.

Beefeater Burrough’s Reserve Gin

Burrough’s Reserve is a rare thing indeed: a gin you can enjoy neat. It’s distilled in founder James Burrough’s original copper pot still, then rested in barrels that once held the aromatic aperitif wine Lillet, picking up a light straw color and a touch of oak. The barrel-aging mellows the familiar juniper-citrus character of Beefeater just a bit, for a spirit that’s smooth and satisfying. It makes a superior Martini or Vesper, but it may be at its most appealing served solo in a chilled glass.

Pistachio Spread

Since first getting his hands on a jar of this pistachio spread, Sasha hasn’t shut up about it. Made from Sicilian pistachios, olive oil, sugar, and sea salt, it’s sweet, slightly salty, incredibly creamy, and just flat-out delicious. While it’s not cheap, this is one of those specialty products that are actually worth the price tag, and it makes a great gift. Spread it on bread, drizzle it over ice cream, or just eat it by the spoonful straight from the jar.

Stainless Steel Food Scale With Pull-Out Display

A good digital scale is an essential tool for bakers or home charcuterie makers. The OXO Food Scale comes with an easy-to-clean removable stainless steel weighing surface, great accuracy and precision, and a pullout backlit display to make measuring simple, even for large or unwieldy items.

Mixing Glass

This hand-blown and -etched mixing glass from Japan looks stunning on a bar cart and even better in action, whether you’re stirring a Negroni, a Martini, or a Manhattan. Mixing glasses made from two parts joined together sometimes split at the seam, but this version, made in one piece with a beaker-like spout, can stand up to heavy use.

Stovetop Pressure Cooker

I tested dozens of stovetop pressure cookers before settling on Kuhn Rikon’s Duromatic. It has a heavy sandwiched-aluminum-and-steel base that gives you even heat and a pressure gauge that makes telling exactly how much pressure has built up inside visual and intuitive.

Tojiro Fujitora Honesuki

Over the course of his career, Daniel has slowly built up a decent collection of both traditional and Western-style Japanese knives. Next on his list is a honesuki—a small, triangular butchery knife that tapers to a fine point. It’s designed for breaking down chickens and other small pieces of meat. The blade isn’t meant to cut through bone, but instead to deftly slide through meat and connective tissue, and carve its way between joints.

Best Poultry Shears

Oxo’s poultry shears include an easy to engage and disengage locking mechanism, a looped handle that won’t allow greasy hands to slip when squeezing hard, and a take-apart hinge for thorough cleaning. But what really makes it our top pick is that it’s one of the only pairs of shears we tested that can both snip through squirmy skin and cleave through bone. If poultry shears can’t do that, you might as well not own a pair.

Sant’Eustachio Whole Coffee Beans

Sant’Eustachio is a coffee-bar institution in the center of Rome, and it’s where Sasha’s life as a coffee drinker began when he was a kid. The baristi at Sant’Eustachio perform coffee alchemy at espresso machines outfitted with custom-made metal partitions that keep their methods secret from curious onlooking customers. He always tries to bring back a bag of Sant’Eustachio coffee for his father every time he visits the Eternal City, but now he can just order some online. How convenient!

Rice, Noodle, Fish

Warning: Reading this book might lead to the purchase of some very expensive plane tickets. The Roads & Kingdoms crew will get you hungry for a journey to Japan: for onigiri basted with chicken fat, juicy one-bite gyoza, milky-white tonkotsu ramen broth, and briny sea urchin. Is Japan the best place on earth to eat? This book will convince you that it is.

Buttery Popcorn Seasoning

Ariel’s dad has long been a movie-theater-popcorn fanatic—he’s been known to go into the theater just to get popcorn, then leave. This popcorn seasoning will cut out the middleman, allowing her dad to make his very own cinema-worthy popcorn right at home.

Dark-Chocolate Sea Salt Almonds

You can find dark chocolate and almonds combined in any number of candy bars. What distinguishes these delicious nuggets from Nuts.com is the generous sprinkling of sea salt embedded in the thick chocolate shell. Just be sure not to open them for a taste—once you’ve had one, the rest will never make it to Dad.

Insulated Beverage Bottle

The Hydro Flask is designed to keep water cold for hours on end, but its vacuum-insulated walls don’t discriminate between beverages: The 32-ounce flask can also accommodate a full bottle of wine, or a big batch of margaritas. It’s ideal for picnics and trips to the beach, no matter what you’re drinking.

Cast Iron Skillet

Old cast iron has a perfectly smooth nonstick surface that’s surprisingly easy to maintain. You can sear, bake, roast, braise, stew, and deep-fry in it, and there’s nothing more thoughtful than a gift that you have to expend a bit of effort to find (check out eBay, yard sales, and flea markets). Of course, these modern Lodge pans will do in a pinch if vintage isn’t in the cards.

Frankies 457 Olive Oil

Fancy olive oil always makes a good gift, but there’s a difference between fancy olive oil and good fancy olive oil. The house oil from Frankies 457 Sputino in Brooklyn is delicious (i.e. great on fresh bread and in dishes), is DOC cerified, and comes in a nice tin that prevents the light from spoiling the product.

Metal Pizza Peel for Retrieving Pizzas

Wooden pizza peels are too thick to easily slide under a pie once it’s hit the oven; for that, you’ll want a thin-bladed metal peel. A thin-gauge aluminum peel is just fine for the occasional baker, but it’ll bend and warp eventually. If you’re going to be making pizza multiple times a year for many years to come, you might want to spring for something heavy-duty. I use the KettlePizza Pro Peel, which has a thick-gauge aluminum body that extends fully past the solid teakwood handle.

Whiskey Set

For the last few years, I’ve taken to buying my dad a nice bottle of whiskey for most special occassions. This year, I’ll be staying on theme, but changing things up by giving him something a bit longer lasting. This whiskey set from Snowe is durable and elegant, and I know it’ll get serious use in the years to come.

Cuisinart Blender

The Cuisinart is an easy-to-use, powerful blender that aced many of our tests. This model’s dashboard is intuitive, and it features a built-in timer that counts down for you or can be programmed to stop after a certain number of seconds.

Diaspora Co. Turmeric

This turmeric is as bright as a bar of gold, with a lovely, sleek label to match. Apart from the high-quality turmeric and nice packaging, the spice comes with a feel-good story: Diaspora Co. is run by queer women of color, and each jar purchased puts a much-higher-than-average amount of money back into the turmeric farmer’s hands.

Food Dehydrator

Elazar’s dad has always been into gardening, but recently he found a way to actually use all of the produce he grows. Since he got an Excalibur dehydrator a few years ago, he’s put more or less everything he grows through it. That means Elazar gets sent bags of dehydrated tomatoes, apple and pear slices, and more. This is a great gift for any dads who love to garden—or make jerky! Plus, if you’re lucky, you’ll start getting gift baskets from them.

Wine Fridge

Take it from us: Living in hot urban apartments makes storing age-worthy wines nearly impossible, unless you don’t mind risking the life of a pricey Burgundy by putting it through years of extreme temperature swings. Anyone with an interest in building even a modest collection of special-occasion bottles should get a wine fridge. It’s a small investment that protects your real investment.

Le Creuset Wooden Scraping Spoon

I have a problem with wooden spoons. I collect them like nobody’s business. But there are a few I always turn back to, and this one, from Le Creuset, is one of them. It’s gorgeous to look at; it has a flat front, which makes it great for scraping up fond or stirring vegetables; and it’s got a smooth, ergonomic grip that makes using it a joy.

Roccbox Outdoor Pizza Oven

The Roccbox is an incredible little oven with simple, reliable operation, whether you’re using gas, wood, or charcoal to fire it. It consistently hits wood-fired-oven temperatures and maintains them for as long as you are cooking, with no fussing or babysitting, which means Dad can spend more time enjoying pizza with his friends and family and less time coddling a temperamental flame.

Island Creek Oysters by Mail

Few things get me as excited as a good raw bar, but most of the time, I eat far fewer than I want because, after the first couple dozen oysters or so, it just gets to be too expensive. That’s even truer when the oysters are top-notch, like the briny little suckers from Island Creek up in Massachusetts. But here’s the good news: You can order Island Creek’s oysters online by the 50- or 100-count for much less than they cost at most restaurants and have them in your hands the next day for an at-home shucking extravaganza. (Obviously, it helps to learn to shuck first.)

High-Output Torch

Forget those puny kitchen torches designed to make crème brûlée for ants. If you want some serious torching power in the kitchen, for putting the final touch on fancy desserts or for finishing off a sous vide steak, you want a high-output torch like this one. You’ll get a deeper char than you’ll ever be able to get from using a skillet alone.

Fixed-Cup Spice Grinder

The sleek and minimalist design of the Krups means it’s easy to hold, handle, and store—perfect for anyone tight on space. Even without a removable bowl, cleanup is a cinch because spices never get trapped beneath the blade, and there are no unnecessary ridges or notches to clog with spices. The one-touch operation makes it easy to use, and it quickly yields a fine and consistent grind in both large, tough spices and smaller seeds.

Belgian Waffle Maker

Waffles are a pretty big deal in my family, and my dad knows full well that when I gift him kitchen equipment, I plan to use it whenever I come to visit (whether that’s buttermilk waffles on a whim, or a well-timed batch of yeast raised waffles on Christmas morning). Plus, my dad’s no stranger to the kitchen, so that iron will see plenty of use through the years.

Breville Smoking Gun

At home, my mom usually does all the cooking, so when my dad takes a crack at dinner it’s really an event. Without the burden of having cook every night, he’s like a kid at an amusment park, gleefully breaking out the pressure cooker and dusting off the blow torch. The smoking gun will make the perfect addition to his rowdy dive into the culinary world. It allows you to easily smoke anything indoors with just the flip of a switch. Equipped with an assorment of wood chips, the smoking gun offers instant dad-fun right out of the box. I can see it now—there’s probably going to be smoked dal along with smoked chana masala and smoked raitha at the next “dad” dinner.

Pizza Wheel

When it comes to portioning pizza, a knife simply won’t cut it. At least, not if you don’t want to drag cheese and toppings all over the place. For my money, nothing beats a traditional pizza wheel.

Tacos: Recipes and Provocations

My good friend Jordana Rothman cowrote this thoughtful ode to tacos with chef Alex Stupak, and it’s a must-have for anyone ready to take a deep dive into corn, masa, tortillas, and everything—modern and traditional—you can stuff into them.

Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling

In this book, Meathead Goldwyn, the founder of AmazingRibs.com, distills decades of research on the art and science of barbecue and grilling into a single volume that shows not just the best ways to take food to live fire, but why the techniques work. Far more than a recipe book alone (though there are tons of bulletproof recipes), this text will teach Dad the hard-tested fundamentals of outdoor cooking, giving him the confidence to cook anything, even without a recipe. The myth-busting and equipment tips alone were enough to get me hooked.

R. Murphy Duxbury Oyster Knife

I’ve used many, many oyster knives in my life, and the R. Murphy Duxbury knife is my hands-down favorite. It has a fat, grippy handle that’s easy to wield, and a short blade that tapers to a point and always manages to find the sweet spot on an oyster’s hinge. Pop! The slightly sharpened blade edges make slicing through the muscle and removing the top shell as smooth as butter.

The Chili Cookbook

This isn’t just a chili cookbook. Robb Walsh digs deep into the beloved dish’s ancestry, tracing threads through Mexico City, San Antonio, and Santa Fe—as you might expect—but also Hungary, Greece, and the Canary Islands (off the coast of North Africa). Walsh is one of food writing’s best storytellers, so the book is satisfying even if you never whip out your Dutch oven and get cooking. You should, though: The fascinating tale is best enjoyed with a big bowl of chili con carne. (Walsh’s recipe from El Real in Houston is killer.)

Snow Leopard Vodka

Snow Leopard stands out among vodkas for its texture—distilled from spelt, it’s fuller-bodied and richer-tasting than most vodkas. It makes for a pleasantly weighty martini.

Marble and Acacia Wood Cake Stand

Like a pretty Bundt pan, a beautiful cake stand has an aesthetic value of its own, even without a cake—but present it with your giftee’s favorite cake on top, and it will also be a nice reminder of the day.

Misono UX10 Chef’s Knife

A deft and nimble blade, Misono’s UX10 is one of the lightest-weight knives we tested. It’s razor-sharp right out of the box and handled every task we threw at it with ease, dicing an onion as if it were as soft as a blob of Jell-O and making paper-thin slices of smoked salmon as if the knife were a true slicer.

Fancy Glass Pitcher

I actually received this classic Waterford pitcher as a wedding gift, and it’s become a workhorse in my home. When I’m not using it to decant wine, it’s hard at work serving cocktails, ice water, and juices. And in between any special occasion, you can drop in some fresh flowers and use it as a vase.

Beyond Curry Indian Cookbook: A Culinary Journey Through India

Indian food has a reputation for being difficult and time-consuming, with hard-to-find ingredients and new techniques. I get it. It’s intimidating. But in this book, Serious Eater Denise D’silva Sankhé breaks Indian cooking down into simple techniques that any home cook can master to produce amazingly flavorful dishes with minimal effort. Over the course of more than 100 recipes, Denise introduces us to simple cooking from every region of India, focusing on home-style dishes that move well beyond the world of curries. I’m also super stoked that she includes notes with every recipe on whether it’s vegan, vegetarian, and/or allergy-friendly.

Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking

I’ve never been to Zahav, the Philadelphia restaurant where Michael Solomonov serves his Israeli cuisine, but its namesake book has nevertheless changed the way I cook. If Dad still cooks the occasional meal for you, you might point him toward the hummus tahini recipe, which includes a novel technique for incorporating garlic and lemon that alone is worth the price of admission. I’ve loved the Yemenite beef soup (and the accompanying hot sauce), his wide focus on vegetarian-friendly dishes, and a host of homemade condiments that will elevate almost any meal, even if you don’t follow the full recipes from the book.

Pralus

I don’t mind baking with supermarket chocolate bars, but when it comes to snacking I’d rather spring for the good stuff—especially when it comes to my dad. He’s decidedly a “bite of dark chocolate after dinner” kinda guy, which means every bite needs to count, and that’s where this stack of single origin chocolates comes in. It’s a fun way to explore the world of chocolate, and learn how different beans and countries of origin can impact its taste. Plus, I can steal some when he’s not looking.

Green Mountain Grills Davy Crockett Pellet Grill (Wifi Enabled)

Surprisingly, many of the portable pellet smokers out there still have an antiquated LMH controller, while Davy Crockett employs Green Mountain’s advanced digital touch-pad controller, with an integrated meat thermometer that lets you check internal meat temp with the flick of a switch.

Breville Crispy Pizza Oven

If our rice cooker got it on with a Roomba, we imagine their offspring might look a bit like the new Breville Crispy Crust countertop pizza oven. It’s a new plug-and-go appliance that promises “professional brick-oven results right in your own kitchen,” for about $150.

Glass Tumblers

My dad lives in Florida and never drinks enough water. These little tumblers seem like the perfect compromise to get him to drink just enough to not get totally dehydrated every day. And if he refuses to fill them with water, at least he can use them for alcoholic beverages. The final plus: They stack, so they won’t take up too much space in his cabinets.

Gin Mare

Friends have toted bottles of this fantastic gin back from Barcelona, but now you can buy it in the US. Macerated with Arbequina olives, thyme, rosemary, and basil, along with cardamom and coriander, it’s remarkably creamy, savory, and spicy. It makes for a wonderfully aromatic Martini and a super-complex, earthy G&T.

GelPro Floor Mat

If you love to cook and host parties, you’ll know that a lot of prep time is spent on your feet. Why not make at least the cooking part a bit more comfortable with one of these gel mats? It’ll provide some nice cushion under your feet, so when it’s time to put on your party shoes, you’ll be ready.

The Glenrothes Triple Pack Gift Set

Why give your dad one Scotch when you can give him three? This gift set includes three 100-milliliter bottles. A combination of 10 vintages from 1989 through 2007, the Vintage Reserve is mellow and fruity, the range of young and older whiskies contributing both bright, fresh citrus on the one hand and rich, oaky elements on the other. Sherry Cask (aged, as the name might suggest, in used sherry butts) leans toward dried fruit, and the Bourbon Cask (aged in bourbon barrels) toward creamy vanilla.

The Cocktail Chronicles

Having The Cocktail Chronicles at your side is like having a friend who always knows a good drink recipe for whatever you’ve got on hand. It doesn’t talk your ear off or suggest something with a dozen ingredients. Instead, it shares classics, recent spins on classics, and drinks you’ve never heard of but can easily mix up and enjoy, and the introductions are never preachy or boring. This book will appeal to full-on cocktail fanatics and newbies alike; there’s something delicious on every page.

Portable Kitchen Timer

I can’t tell you how many times I burn bread crumbs or forget about the nuts I’m toasting in the oven. At least, I used to. That was all before I got myself a couple of these easy-to-use, loud kitchen timers that I can hang around my neck, so I never forget about something in the kitchen, even if I leave the room.

Cooking Coat

Aprons get all the attention, but they don’t protect your clothes nearly well enough, leaving large swaths of sleeves and shoulders exposed to spatters and stains. You could always put on a shirt you don’t care too much about before donning an apron, but a protective work coat like this keeps your clothes safe without requiring a complete costume change.

Cuisinart ICE-21 Ice Cream Machine

The value-to-cost ratio on this lightweight model can’t be beat. It uses a pre-frozen, coolant-lined canister to chill down the ice cream base, eliminating the need for salt and ice or an expensive compressor. When properly frozen, the canister churns up in less time than any other model we tested, for creamy and smooth ice creams and other frozen desserts. This undemanding model has one button, a lid that easily snaps into place, and a small footprint for tight spaces.

Carbon Steel Omelette Pan

A good carbon steel has many of the qualities that make cast iron great—it’s durable, it forms a completely nonstick surface if cared for properly, and it’s inexpensive—but it’s lighter and easier to maneuver than cast iron, making it great for sautéing and searing everyday foods.

Espro Press P5

Thanks to a few simple innovations in the filter and beaker design, this French press fixes a few of the brewing device’s biggest drawbacks. The result is a cleaner batch of coffee that won’t accidentally over-steep.

Good Kitchen Shears

A good pair of kitchen shears is one of those things that are hard to appreciate until you have them. Sure, there are all the obvious uses, like opening food packages with a snip and cutting up poultry, but that’s just the start. Take another look at those things. Yes, that’s right, they’re also a nutcracker. Aha, yup, and a bottle opener. Did you see the flathead screwdriver built into them? Handy, right? Oh, they can also be used to unscrew stubborn jar tops. They’re way more than just a pair of scissors. Plus, the two blades come fully apart, so you can wash them really well—no icky chicken juice hiding in the recesses. Isn’t avoiding salmonella poisoning a gift worth giving?

6-Quart Instant Pot

The Instant Pot Duo60 is a fantastic value and performed almost as well as the top pick among countertop pressure cookers we tested. It’s easy to use, the company has a reputation for great customer service, and there’s an avid and helpful community of users online to boot.

Unicorn Magnum Pepper Mill

I’ll admit it: I’m a pepper mill snob. I need my mill to produce a shower of evenly crushed peppercorns. I want to be able to control the size of those grains, from a rough crush to a fine powder. Not only that, I want my pepper mill to last. With a solid metal burr and a unique, easy-to-load design, this is my favorite pepper mill of all time.

Cast Iron Combo Cooker

A combo cooker is the key to getting a gorgeous, shattering crust on homemade bread. It acts as its own little steam chamber, like what you’d find in a professional bread oven, and it costs way less than a kitchen renovation.

OXO Good Grips Two-Piece Grilling Set

A quality spatula and tongs are essential for good grilling. Seek out ones with long handles, such as OXO’s two-piece grilling set, to keep your fingers as far from the heat as possible. The nearly flat, scalloped edge on the OXO tongs is especially appealing—it’s extra easy to slide the tongs under meat, vegetables, and other ingredients on the grill.

Redbreast 15 Year Irish Whiskey

If Dad finds Scotch too smoky, bourbon too sweet, and rye too spicy, Irish whiskey is the ideal gift. Redbreast emerges from the barrels complex and substantial; some of the whiskey is aged in sherry casks, lending it a weight and dark hue, while some is aged in bourbon casks, imparting characteristic vanilla flavors. There’s a hint of fruit up front and spice on the finish.

Countertop Seltzer Maker

Make your own seltzer water at home with this easy-to-use unit. It comes equipped with LED indicators displaying three levels of carbonation and a BPA-free bottle that locks into the unit with no twisting, and it requires no batteries or electricity to operate. This model fits 14.5-ounce and three-ounce CO2 cylinders, which can be traded in for just the cost of the gas at your local hardware or home-goods store.

All-Clad Two-Quart Saucepan

This small 2-quart saucepan is perfect for making and warming sauces, cooking small portions of grain, and heating liquids.

Japanese Nakiri Vegetable Knife

A good gift for dads who are knife-curious, a nakiri is a double-beveled knife typically used just for slicing vegetables. This one is all carbon steel, so it’s easy to sharpen on a whetstone and holds its edge well. On the other hand, it’s susceptible to rust, so it needs to be dried after each use and periodically wiped down with mineral oil. Given its price point, this nakiri is perfect for a cook who wants to experiment with specialty Japanese knives or with caring for a non–stainless steel blade.

Precision Coffee Maker

While you can get it brewing with just the push of a button, the Breville offers layer upon layer of fine-tuned control for the coffee geek who wants to tweak brew variables. Finishing near the top of our taste tests, this spendy machine allows you to control brew-water temperature and time and the blooming phase. It can also make cold brew, and it’s compatible with popular pourover devices like the Hario V60 and Kalita Wave.

Terra Cotta Cazuela

Daniel’s owned these terra cotta dishes in several sizes for many years now. They’re attractive enough to go straight from the oven to the table, and versatile enough to be used as baking dishes for cooked foods or as serving dishes for snacks when you’re hosting guests.

Smuggler’s Cove

This remarkable book, from Martin and Rebecca Cate of San Francisco’s Smuggler’s Cove, traces the birth and evolution of exotic drinks and tiki bars—bars that embodied an American escapist fantasy. A lively exploration of our country’s drinking history (and the current tiki scene), it’s essential reading for rum lovers, offering the best categorization of the headspinning-ly diverse spirit that I’ve encountered. The Mai Tai recipe is great, too.

Liquid Intelligence

Dave Arnold (you might know of his bar, Booker and Dax in NYC) won’t just accept the common assumptions about cocktail technique—his mission in this excellent book is to dig into the science of how the very best drinks are made. If your dad is the inquisitive type, and likes to host cocktail hour at home, this is a must-read for him.

Chimney Starter

Lighter fluid is fun to play with, but it can impart an off flavor to your food. A chimney starter is faster, cleaner, more efficient, and better for the environment. It’s a tall metal cylinder with holes punched in it and a grate at the bottom for holding the charcoal. It works with the power of convection: When a lit newspaper is placed at the bottom, igniting the lowest coals, the hot air rises up, pulling fresh oxygen in through the vent holes and through the bottom. This constant supply of fresh oxygen, coupled with the fact that the metal efficiently reflects heat back toward the coals, means you require nothing more than a single piece of newspaper and a match to turn a full six quarts of coals into a roaring inferno within 20 minutes.

ThermoWorks ThermoPop

In the inexpensive-thermometer department, the ThermoPop is the new kid on the block, but he comes in an impressive package. An easy-to-read display rotates at the touch of a button, so you don’t have to twist your head to read it. It takes a few seconds longer to read temperatures than its big brother, the Thermapen, but it’s every bit as accurate.

Char-Griller Kamado Smoker

The Akorn is a double-walled, insulated steel egg that is much lighter and in some ways more durable than the popular Big Green Egg. It performs fairly close to traditional kamados at a fraction of the cost, so you can spend your saved bucks on getting some great meat.

Hands-Free Soap Dispenser

Messy cooks—or germaphobes—will love this easy-to-use soap dispenser. Unlike some other models that have finicky settings, this Simple Human dispenser changes how much soap you get based on where your hands are: Keep them up high for just the right amount to wash your hands, or move them lower for enough to clean a few dinner plates.

High West Barreled Manhattan

A premixed 2:1 rye-vermouth Manhattan with a few dashes of bitters, this stuff spends three months aging in used rye barrels, which integrates the flavors and adds a touch of woody character to the drink. Give it a quick stir over ice for chill and dilution, spray an orange twist on top, and you’ve got a drink worthy of any cocktail bar—no barrel required.

Joule Sous Vide Circulator

The ChefSteps Joule is the smallest circulator on the market. It’s sleek, compact design fits in a drawer and it heats quickly and accurately. It has the advantage of the ChefSteps community and legacy content built into its app, though its one downside is that it requires a smartphone or tablet along with a registered account to operate.

Ceramic Sangria Pitcher

This pitcher arrives sangria-ready. The pinched spout is a genius detail that keeps all the fruit and ice from splashing into your glass, and when it’s not filled with sangria, it can be used as a vase. We love a two-fer!

Magimix 14-Cup Food Processor

The Magimix impressed us with each slicing, chopping, grating, and puréeing test we tossed at it, especially with pizza dough, which it combined so well that no additional kneading was required.

Blackstone Pizza Oven

The Blackstone is the oven of choice for high-output, rapid cooking, as it takes very little time to preheat and recover, pumping out pie after pie at a nonstop clip. Users who are comfortable making frequent mechanical repairs and adjustments, and who care more about speed than about versatility and aesthetics, will be happy with this one.

MAC Professional Santoku Knife

This santoku from MAC’s professional line is an absolute pleasure to use, no matter the task. It’s lightweight, well balanced, sharp as can be, and comfortable to hold. It made perfect carrot cuts, broke down a chicken with ease, and filleted a whole fish as if it were a fish-shaped block of butter.

Granite Mortar and Pestle

With both parts made of rock-solid granite, the Thai mortar and pestle is (literally) a heavy hitter, and arguably the most versatile type of large mortar and pestle you can own. Its heft and weight, especially when combined with the stone-on-stone action that the all-granite build provides, make it ideal for one of its intended uses: making a Thai curry paste.

Iittala Essence Glasses

No matter what your father likes to drink, it’ll look good in these universal glasses from Iittala. They’re big enough to accommodate a 12-ounce beer, his favorite cocktail, or a monster pour of wine…because it’s Father’s Day, and he deserves it.

Pourover Coffee Brewer

There are enough coffee-brewing devices on the market to drive a person crazy, but it’s hard to beat a quality pourover brewer like this Japanese one. It’s compact and solid, making it ideal for home or the office, and it brews a mean cup of coffee. It claims to make two to four servings, but we find it’s perfect for a full 12-ounce single cup, too (note that you need these filters for it).

Digital Electric Gooseneck Kettle

This is the electric kettle of my coffee-delayed dreams. It has an elegant gooseneck spout that makes pouring a thin, controlled stream easy (very helpful for Chemex and other pourover coffee methods) and a base with controls that allow you to set a specific temperature and hold it there.

Recipe Journal

Trying to get your dad to finally write down all those family recipes? This sleek Moleskin journal will get him organized and become a precious family heirloom in the process.

Rancho Gordo Beans

A bean is a bean is a bean. Or is it? Once you go down the rabbit hole of eating quality dried beans (after they’re cooked, of course—raw dried beans aren’t so great), you’ll fall in love with their variety of flavors, textures, and colors. Some are starchy, some are nutty, some are earthy, and some are slightly sweet. Rancho Gordo is one company that sells some really cool ones to try. You won’t look at dried beans the same way again.

American Waffle Maker

The Breville produces crispy brown waffles the fastest and with the most consistent color of all the batches we tested, making it the best option if you prefer thinner waffles. Although it only makes one waffle at a time, it reheats and cooks rapidly, so you can crank out waffle after waffle with ease. The built in drip tray, non stick surface, and minimal design keeps clean up effortless.

Bamboo Steamer

Since I am now the best dad in the world, according to the bib I definitely did not buy my daughter, I get to pick something that I want for our Father’s Day gift guide, and I want several bamboo steamers for my wok. They are useful for steaming, particularly large-ish things, like a whole (if small) fish, like a porgy or a diminutive sea bass. They are super useful! Easy to clean! I want it! Buy me it!

Half Moon Orchard Gin

The New York–made gin is distilled from wheat and apples, resulting in a faint but perceptible dried-apple character alongside prominent juniper and cardamom—an exciting dimension that works especially well in cocktails.

Spaghetti con la Colatura Gift Box

One of our favorite recipes from the year thus far is Sasha’s spaghetti con la colatura di alici. Conveniently, Gustiamo is selling a gift box based on the building blocks of the dish: a bottle of colatura, a bottle of high-quality extra-virgin olive oil, and a box of pasta, for a tasty gift indeed.

All-Clad Immersion Blender

A high-speed hand blender is great for whipping up silky soups and purées, making emulsions like mayonnaise and Hollandaise, or smoothing out sauces, all right in the pot. No need to dirty up an extra blender jar!

Rice, Noodle, Fish

Warning: Reading this book might lead to the purchase of some very expensive plane tickets. The Roads & Kingdoms crew will get you hungry for a journey to Japan, for onigiri basted with chicken fat, juicy one-bite gyoza, milky-white tonkotsu ramen broth, and briny sea urchin. Is Japan the best place on earth to eat? This book will convince you that it is.

Louie Mueller’s Brisket

Brisket is Texas’s best-known contribution to barbecue culture, and though you can now get slow-smoked brisket in just about every major American city, you still need to go to the source to get brisket so good it will make you cry. But if you can’t make it to Texas, ordering Louie Mueller’s is the next best thing. The Muellers have been smoking the stuff since 1949. The key here? They ship the whole brisket, which means you get plenty of the critically important fatty half. Why is it critically important? Because we all know that fat IS flavor. Phone orders only: [phone].

Pasta by Hand: A Collection of Italy’s Regional Hand-Shaped Pasta

No pasta machine? No problem. This book is devoted to the art of handcrafted Italian dumplings, from yeasty, spindle-shaped cecamariti to classic gnocchi to golden-brown parallelograms of deep-fried crescentine. If the adage “practice makes perfect” fills you with excitement rather than dread, this is the kind of book that will make you utterly determined to prevail.

Staub Heritage Baking Dish

It can be easy to brush off appearances as unimportant, but tableside presentation is a big part of a baking dish’s appeal. If you want excellent performance combined with a handsome and classic design that will look great on your holiday table (or on your Instagram account), Staub is your best bet. This heavyweight dish heats evenly in the oven at temperatures up to 575°F (300°C) and has great heat retention, keeping food hotter longer when you’re serving. The generous four-quart capacity is ideal for large roasts and extra-deep casseroles.

The Original Bear Paws Shredder Claws

In addition to making you look like Wolverine, shredder claws make quick work of pork butts (hello, pulled pork!), smoked chicken, smoked chuck roasts, and other meats, allowing you to tear the meat into shreds in no time. Sure, you could try doing it with forks, but you’d better have a lot of time on your hands.

Inexpensive Wire Grill Brush

Grill brushes come in all shapes, sizes, and styles, but for a tool that sees so much use, I find it hard to justify spending a huge amount of money. This simple, heavy-duty wire-style grill brush has served me well for years, and if it ever wears out, well, it’s cheap enough to replace.

George Dickel Barrel Select Tennessee Whiskey

Made from whiskeys averaging 10 to 12 years in age, this bottling is all vanilla and toffee in the aroma but spice and char on the finish. It’s sophisticated and eminently drinkable.

[Header photograph: Shutterstock]

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Yogurt and Oats for Breakfast

Yogurt is a super versatile ingredient or dish in itself. This recipe for yogurt and oats contains all kinds of extra goodies to help you start the day right.

You love yogurt. It’s a health food, isn’t it? It’s even what they call a super food. But, is it really all it’s cracked up to be, or are there some things you should take into consideration when you choose yogurt to enjoy at home?

Yogurt has long been considered a healthy food to enjoy on a regular basis. Not only is it high in protein and important nutrients, but it also can aid digestion, boost your immunities, protect against osteoporosis, and promote heart health and a healthy weight.

However, for years yogurt companies have stuffed their yogurts with sugar and additives making it a little less impressive as a healthy food. The junk they put in can detract from some of yogurt’s innate benefits.

So, how can you enjoy yogurt without all the bad stuff? 

Buy or make it plain and dress it up yourself.

Yogurt: Health food or junk food?

As you know, over the last few years I’ve been doing some serious food reading. Not about cooking per se, but about nutrition, portion control, eating habits, our food sources, government regulations on food, and the way marketers try to get us to buy stuff. It has been an education to be sure.

Some of the books that have had a tremendous impact in how I think about food include:

It’s through the reading of these books that I’ve made slow shifts in how I shop and cook and in how my family eats. We’re not as “crunchy” as they come, but we don’t eat exclusively out of a box, either.

Slowly but surely, I’m making changes to improve my family’s diet without busting our budget. I cook more from scratch, and we try to avoid chemicals, artificial ingredients, processed sugars, and unfermented soy. I am working on making healthy eating easier over all.

One of the new wrinkles in this healthier eating paradigm, has been to examine the yogurt we eat.

Yogurt has always been one of my very favorite breakfast foods. In my non-pregnant and nursing years, I haven’t really been a milk-drinker, so yogurt and cheese help me keep up on my calcium.

Years ago I was a diehard Yoplait or La Creme fan. Coupons and sales were plentiful for those items so I could keep the refrigerator stocked to the brim, buying as many as 60 cartons at a time. I thought that I was buying “health food.”

It was only later when I started to reduce our intake of processed sugars and processed foods in general that I found out how SWEET these yogurts actually were. Plus, often they had all kinds of ingredients I couldn’t pronounce.

How to switch to plain yogurt

So, I made some changes. I started buying large 32-ounce cartons of plain, or sometimes vanilla, yogurt, preferably Cascade,  Mountain High, or Fage brands.

Not all my kids liked that change. But most of them have gone along with it, especially when honey or maple syrup is drizzled over the top. Occasionally I buy Trader Joe’s vanilla and blueberry cups, but not often.

If you or yours are slow to be won over to plain yogurt, consider one or more of the following toppings for plain yogurt:

maple syrup

honey

jam

fruit syrup

fresh fruit

granola or nuts

It may take some time, but you’ll be a convert before too long.

Uses for plain yogurt.

Plain yogurt is an incredibly versatile ingredient to keep on hand.

It’s great to use in baking instead of buttermilk. Just mix half yogurt and half milk as your buttermilk substitute.

Use it as a thickener in smoothies.

Mix it with whipped cream to reduce the fat and increase the protein in your favorite sweet topping.

Substitute it for sour cream in recipes to give an equivalent tang without all the fat.

Can you make yogurt at home?

Believe it or not, it’s incredibly easy to make yogurt at home! A few years ago I experimented with making yogurt myself. One night I tested two different methods:

I also read about the microwave/oven and cooler methods, but decided to go with these first two methods. The next morning I compared the yogurts I had made. They were like Laurel and Hardy, one was thick, the other thin.

The slow cooker method was good, but thin like buttermilk. Folks suggested that I strain the yogurt to thicken it, but it was so thin, the yogurt went right through the sieve. I used some in baking and churned the rest into frozen yogurt.

The yogurt incubated on the heating pad was thick and creamy. Since we like THICK yogurt, you can guess that I’m a fan of the heating pad method.

Try them both out and see for yourself which you prefer. I originally tested with whole milk, but have since made homemade yogurt with nonfat milk and it turned out fine and thick, albeit a little on the tart side in comparison.

My preferred method for making homemade yogurt is to combine 1 quart milk, 1/4 cup powdered milk, 2 tablespoons yogurt with live cultures, and to incubate it for 5 hours according to the heating pad method.

Enjoy Yogurt and Oats for Breakfast.

As a born Francophile, I’ve loved reading The French Women series by Mireille Guiliano and have been encouraged by many of the suggestions she has to offer for life, work, and good eats.

One of those habits that I’ve adapted for my own is what Ms. Guiliano calls “Magical Breakfast Cream”. I can’t vouch for its magical properties, but I know that I like it, at least how I tweaked it.

I’ve made some significant changes to her recipe. Her recipe calls for shredded wheat cereal instead of oats, flax seed oil instead of meal, and orange instead of lime, as well as the addition of ground nuts. My tweaks are thanks to what I normally stock in my pantry.

This variation has become my daily breakfast, packed with protein and filling enough to get me through the morning.

Yogurt is a super versatile ingredient or dish in itself. This recipe for yogurt and oats contains all kinds of extra goodies to help you start the day right.

Cuisine: American, French

Keyword: oatmeal, oats, yogurt, yogurt and oats

1/2 cup plain greek yogurt

2 tablespoons rolled oats not cooked

1 tablespoon chopped roasted almonds

1 teaspoon flax seed meal

the juice and pulp of half a lime

1 teaspoon honey

In a small bowl, layer the ingredients in the order listed. Stir or not, depending on how you like it.

Level up your meal planning and prep.

Need a little extra motivation to get on your meal planning game? Want to make lunch packing less of a drag? Creating a kitchen survival kit to help you WIN in the kitchen this school year.

I’d love for you to join me for the next Mom’s Kitchen Survival Workshop!

Together, we’ll create a plan to help you get dinner on the table every night, fill your freezer with wholesome snacks and breakfasts, finesse your lunch-packing skills, and even make sure you get a daily dose of MOM food.

Learn more here so that when registration opens, you won’t miss out.

Source: https://goodcheapeats.com/2018/09/morning-yogurt-and-oats/

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

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New York Asian Film Festival 2018: Highlights and Memories

The New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) turned 17 this year, a not-insignificant age if you, like me, have been attending the festival with regularity (like, say, the last 15 years). I've seen this film series grow over time, and would like to think my taste and sensitivities have grown with it. NYAFF used to be run by a group of white guys—Grady Hendrix, Paul Kazee, Brian Naas, Nat Olson, and Goron Topalovic—who had the necessary chutzpah and dedication to start a pop culture phenomenon. I know these guys: they paid for the festival with their personal credit cards and only really broke even during their first few years. 

Still, they persisted, for which I'm very grateful. Back when the festival began in 2002, NYAFF's programming was a big deal for New York cult film fans like me. NYAFF's organizers regularly highlighted moving dramas and crowd-pleasing comedies that spoke to a spectrum of audiences and experiences from around Asia. 

Like Uncle Boonmee, I vividly remember the festival screenings of my teenage years. Lines of ticket-holders coiled around 1st Street and towards Houston. A smaller slate of films and a different group of programmers, whose preferences and budgets necessarily limited what they showed. But those founding programmers and the current NYAFF selection committee—David Wilentz, Claire Marty, Karen Severns, and Koichi Mori, all led by Deputy Director Stephen Cremin and former Japan Society film programmer Samuel Jamier—remain some of the most influential among American film festival organizers.

The New York Asian Film Festival of today doesn't feel like the one from my already-calcifying memories. In 2010, they moved on up to the Film Society at Lincoln Center and now split their yearly program—a robust 48 films this year!—between the Walter Reade Theater and Chelsea's School of Visual Arts (SVA) auditorium. The festival's programming has become more diverse, which is something of a necessity when your international slate is co-assembled by various state-sponsored cultural institutions, particularly the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office of New York and the Confucius Institute Headquarters and China Institute. NYAFF's programmers also now give out several awards—more than just their original Audience Award—including a prize for the best action film, an honor that's dedicated to the memory of the late and much missed former NYAFF programmer Daniel Craft.

Still, the most important aspect of NYAFF remains a constant: the festival's consistently hearty and diverse crowds are great proof that American film distributors are wrong to think that only native language speakers want to watch new Asian film. Every NYAFF is like a party, and it's a party that everyone is invited to (and many seem to feel welcomed at). 

With this in mind: I tried to find movies at this year's festival that gave me the same feeling of discovery and excitement that I got back when I first started attending in 2004. Not the easiest task when you can't take off work for a day or five just to watch movies and feel connected with a typically energized NYAFF crowd. NYAFF screenings have a definite vibe, one that many film festival programmers envy and try to copy. You can see it in the way that attendees respond to Hendrix's high-energy, high-content carnival barker spiel. This crowd is EXCITED.

Still, I didn't want readers to think I'm some kind of stuffy ivory tower aesthete (my greatest fear), so I began this year's festival with some Serious Arthouse Cinema: Korean historical drama "1987: When the Day Comes," a great place to start given that the festival organizers previously showed director Joon-hawn Jang's hilariously weird comedic short film "Hair" back in 2006. Jang used to be known among Korean film devotees as the weirdo who helmed the unsettling 2003 sci-fi black comedy "Save the Green Planet." Now he is rightfully known for making "1987: When the Day Comes," a rousing, if doughy dramatization of the events surrounding the murder of several Seoul-based student protesters, particularly the journalistic and police cover-up of their deaths. "1987: When the Day Comes" has Jang's characteristically queasy mix of moods and tones—in this case, sentimentality for a bygone era and punk rock anger for rights-suppressing authority figures—and a lot of charming period detail, particularly its costumes and sets. Still, this is basically a prestige drama that, in any other country, would be as big of a to-do as "The Post" or "Spotlight." It's solid, if a little stiff.

Next came "The Bold, The Corrupt, and The Beautiful," a soapy Taiwanese political drama about three generations of women, two of whom act as power-brokers, facilitating various below-the-table deals between local politicians and businessmen. This movie won three of Taiwan's prestigious Golden Horse Awards (their country's equivalent of the Oscars) for Best Feature Film and Best Actress (Kara Hui, as imperious matriarch Madame Tang) and Best Supporting Actress (Vicky Chen, playing Tang's daughter). Its plot is convoluted and jumps between the memories of its three anti-heroines, particularly the young daughter of Chen's character. There's also a lot of melodramatic twists involving illicit trysts, political double-dealing, and drunken speechifying. So a fun time is guaranteed for everyone who meets the film at its sudsy level. Or maybe just anyone who wishes "All the King's Men" were more like "The Days of Our Lives."

Following that: "Crossroads: One Two Jaga," another ensemble drama, though this time concerned with Filipino immigrants living in Malaysia. This was a must-see for me because I still fondly remember when the festival's organizers screened their first Malaysian film: "Gangster," a mostly kinda bad crime drama that screened back in 2006. The Malaysian film industry is still in its nascency and that shows in the many technical rough edges that hold back "Crossroads: One Two Jaga"—a repetitive, and unpolished social issues drama—back from greatness. Still, the film is ambitious—switching between three or four main sub-plots about police corruption and systemic brutality that's passed on like a birthright from father to son—and smart enough to bring to get under your skin. "Crossroads: One Two Jaga" is a major step up after "Gangster," and is, I'm told, part of a new wave of Malaysian cinema. I'm eager to see what comes next.

The first film that I loved at this year's festival would, however, fit right in at any country's arthouse cinema: "Hit the Night," a funny, dialogue-heavy South Korean sex comedy that feels like a pointed reaction to the prolific (and now unbearably self-pitying) Korean auteur Sang-soo Hong. Like many of Hong's films, "Hit the Night" centers on a series of booze-fueled conversations—about adultery, philosophy, art, and personal freedom—between a filmmaker and their potential romantic conquest. The main difference between Hong's films and "Hit the Night" is that this film is directed in real-life by a woman (Ga-Young Jeong, whose previous credits, including "Bitch on the Beach" and "Cinema With You," also sound like direct rebukes/responses to Hong's films) and is told from a female protagonist's perspective. The conversations that drive "Hit the Night" are consequently a little more involving sine Jeong considers her two main protagonists' inherent loaded assumptions about sex and gender in dialogue exchanges that are sometimes scathingly blunt and sometimes slyly nuanced. Like Hong, Jeong doesn't know if there's a solution to the questions that her stand-in poses. But oftentimes, it's a pleasure just to listen to Jeong's characters circuitously gab about their respective talking points and not-so-secret agendas.

I also really dug the Chinese revenge drama "Wrath of Silence," a macho, but often moving action film that, like "No Country for Old Men" and "In the Valley of Elah," is a pulpy narrative from the Whatever Happened to My Country sub-genre of crime fiction. "Wrath of Silence" follows a mute coal miner (played by martial artist Yang Song) who searches for his missing son by actively pummeling his way through an exploitative, nouveau riche bussinessman's empire. Director Yukun Xin effectively translate Song's characters' mixed feelings—of loss, confusion, and awe—through gorgeous, desolate panoramas of desert hills and valleys. There's a lot of on-the-nose symbolism here too, so anyone who dislikes blunt metaphors should steer clear. Everyone else will probably find something to like about this effectively punishing revenge tragedy. 

Also, be sure to check out the rousing Filipino rap battle drama "Respeto," a corny, but satisfying story about a trio of teenagers who get schooled in the art of street poetry by a depressed used book salesman. "Respeto" is a NYAFF specialty: here's a film that breathes new life into tired coming-of-age tropes about growing up on skid row without real parents (imagine if "8 Mile" and "Finding "Forrester" eloped and had a child after moving to the Philippines). There's a real sense of loss and dynamism in every scene where our heroes attend and compete in local rap battles. And the filmmakers' unique brand of heart-felt, but sensational didacticism—Rap battle fame is fleeting! Teenage prostitution isn't glamorous! PTSD and rape are no joke!—is also pretty irresistible. I bet this movie takes home the festival's Audience Award.

"Respeto" screens right before this year's surprise screening, a can't-miss event for festival attendants both old and new. Last year, Hendrix programmed the delightfully bonkers 1992 sexploitation spy thriller "Naked Killer." And the year before that, Hendrix selected the John Woo-esque 1998 Hong Kong action-drama "A Hero Never Dies," a winningly nutty action bromance featuring the only wheelchair shoot-out you'll ever need. I'm not really sure if the typical NYAFF audience member attends these secret screenings, nor do I know if my reservations about the festival's steady growth matters much in the long run. I do, however, know that I'll be at this year's surprise screening at the SVA Theater. I hope to see you there.

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[surge42-blog]

No GOAT

Hello there all,here's something that has become the topic of the ages in hip-hop.....the status of The G.O.A.T THE GOAT: For those unfamiliar with this term,G.O.A.T is an acronym for Greatest Of All Time. Right now as you're reading you're probably thinking Tupac and Biggie aren't you? Well it's quite difficult to come up with a formulaic approach in unearthing the true, and singular entity of...The GOAT. This status is often attributed to the many artists and it seems no one can agree on a singular GOAT in the rap game mostly because we are just too subjective in our approach. -The Debate- Who are debating these things? no really,think about it. We have Backpackers who seem to be more inclined on towards the underground spectrum,we have the indigos and spiritualists who have an affinity for psychedelics,philosophy, and the third eye amongst other things,we have the trap heads who dabble in money,cars,clothes,women,and the selling of drugs which has been the stereotype for hip-hop to various onlookers(fake cough mom and dad fake cough). Of course there are many others in between such as Christian and Muslim hip-hop or Pop Rap(shout out to Drake and Nicki). The bottom line here is that there are just too many kinds of people with too many differing interests many of which are SUBJECTIVE. Oh let's not forget the Stans or as their derogatorily called d***riders,but we'll get to them shortly -The Artist- Ah the main man/woman,the person who this is all about...the artist as it should've been obvious above is definitely on one spectrum of hip-hop or another, sometimes hybrids. Genre-wise we have the Cloud Rap of A$AP Rocky,the Acid Rap of Chance The Rapper(or raper as some people without autocorrect say....I'm playing lol),the Alternative Rap of Danny Brown(not sure if he says Cha! or Check!),and the Gangsta Rap of Jay Rock. But let's move away from genre right now and delve into the actual rap structure Punchlines: Punchlines come in many forms,some corny,some awesome,some nasty,and some downright outrageous as I say it in a faux British accent. Punchlines are either metaphors or more regularly as similes like Childish Gambino's line from Arrangement which goes like "Bank account looking like when little kids break s***". Vocabulary: This is the artist's word bank right here. Statistics say right now the current artist with the most extensive vocabulary is Aesop Rock(don't confuse him with the cloud rapper). Language: Of course the language in rap by default will have to be mostly the jargon of hip-hop such "homie","stunt",or the one that white people use to feel more black is the timeless classic "nah mean". Lyricism: The actual artist's use of metaphors,wordplay,double entendres(or more),and all the lot. Flow: Is the artist's mastery of rhyme scheme. Subject Matter: The rapper's topic of discussion....that was a quick one lol. -Criteria- Again may I note that G.O.A.T is something that should be viewed in the most objective of forms but that's virtually impossible if we think about it. The GOAT is the guy or gal who is the best to have ever done it as some or most would say. Many of the names thrown in were those most revered in the rap pantheon such as the iconic Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G,Immortal Technique has been thrown in there,Eminem as well(he has literally been given the moniker of King Of Hip-Hop or more recently The Rap God). This artists are all too different in my eyes...or rather my ears lol,so what criteria do people use in their rationing? -The Stan formula- The d***rider formula is basic and is merely off of pure emotional investment in artist.... like it's so bad that even if their favorite artist were to intentionally make a bad song the artist nonetheless can do no wrong in the stans opinion. The Stan's lack of musical variety doesn't help the situation either. Stans have been prevalent over the years and often are on side of an argument from the Tupac vs Biggie,the Jay-Z vs Nas,the 50 Cent vs The Game,all the way down to Kendrick vs Cole.....Cole even says "Get off my d***" and stans ride his d*** heavy nonetheless lmao. Basically the Stan formula has always been flawed. -Non Stan Formula- Finally we're getting somewhere right? Well wrong! This one is also very difficult because of people's general interest. I once overheard a group of girls playing a Kendrick Lamar song...King Junta to be precise. One of the girls voiced here interest in the song and here disdain for the first single 'i'....these are both the same artist's songs and both are jazz rap/funk right? So what went wrong? Well I know the chick so i know she just wants a song she can dance to with her gal pals and at a clyb so 'i' in that respect lost her favour cause it was something your grandaddy might dance to(coolest grandpa ever am I right?). Another Cocoa Butter Kisses by Chance The Rapper....your girlfriend has the song unbeknownst to you,it's smooth,it's catchy,it's loveable off the bat but some might praise that song and hate on "Angels". These people are more interested in the sonic aspects of rappers. Some would prefer subject matter as the main argumentative basis in the case of Tupac's anti establishment and thuglife stories being put over...I dunno....Drake's raps about exes we don't know of nor care about lol,no shots at Drizzy. Others like storytelling, others are more inclined towards metaphor and punchlines,others might just prefer relatabilty to an artist. -The Sound- I often come across these situations...a trap song comes out,people play it like there's no tomorrow,and I ask...."What is he saying?"....they wouldn't know the lyrics aside from the hook but in their defence they would say that "the beat is sick though". This can lead many astray from the actual rap. Of course the beat is essential to the music like how I like the "Waves" beat by Joey Bada$$ which induces such irrational nostalgia or how the "Bonfire"beat of Childish Gambino gets me turnt or how "The Book of Soul" beat by Ab-Soul can get me in my feels....someone please hand me a Feels Guy meme. At end of the day we're judging rapping prowess. -The Untouchables- There are certain "elite" groups which have released timeless classics to the public that now challenging their GOAT status is considered blasphemy. Often this are artists that unleash the inner Stan hidden in most of us. Tupac and Biggie being center stage at all of it,with practically everyone else taking second place to them in the hierarchy.... Some people who lack the knowledge of hip hop just assume these two men impregnated each other and birthed hip hop. Although they have been essential to the evolution of hip hop it was not really a two man job. Others such as DMX,Snoop Dogg,Wu Tang Clang and more also did their part in shaping hip hop in it's golden ages and many are arguably in Pac and Biggie's league. I bet a will be crucified for this part lol so let me end it there. -Sales- Let me get to it......Sales don't mean jack!!!!! This is perhaps one of the most absurd arguments out there. An artist's record sales are not representative of their skill things such as the formerly famous now infamous J.Cole "double platinum no features" accolade have clouded people's judgment and they make it out to be Cole's only suit of armor of relevance. Or Drake's "Views" which was by far hot steamy garbage and yet look it went 4x Platinum. The Sale's argument has been buried alive by the increase in internet streaming and Chance The Rapper's 3 Grammy awards with not a single copy sold. Granted such accolades or ones similar are impressive but many seriously great artists cannot be judged by the accolades or lack thereof......if we had to then that would mean Illmatic is also hot steamy garbage cause it took years for it to turn platinum and that would mean Kevin Gates' album which also went platinum with no features(not the deluxe edition) is greater than illmatic....right? -Conclusion- Music has and always will be subjective. The search for the G.O.A.T is just too hard and futile. Unless somehow the gods send us a hip-hop Jesus(not Slim Jesus),one who has all the flow and lyricism in the world and is able to function successfully every single subgenre of hip-hop...and yes that includes dabbling in both Christian and Muslim rap....as contradictory as that may be. I dunno what your thoughts on this might be,I might get challenged and called a fake fan of hip hop or something.... I'm mean real recognize real right? As the slogan goes. Peace