Random Thought Theater

[LeadenMyr]

On 12/7/2018 at 1:07 PM, Sombreuil said:

Went to a very posh restaurant for lunch today - this was on the menu, unfortunately on the a la carte rather than the prix fixe which we were having, and on the cheeseboard a goats cheese with yuzu peel in the rind which we did have- delicious.

Seared King scallop with Southport smoked pork, Granny Smith apple, Yuzu gel, Romanesco cous cous & Butcher’s Wife black pudding

Goats cheese with Yuzu peel. That's just perfect 

[MajaHled]

So yesterday I took the CAE English exam, and in the listening, the first task was "Listen to figure skating commentators talking about the recent World Championships", and I was just giggling quietly throughout that task  and even though it was made up, it sounded almost authentic, they used all those phrases like "complete package" and stuff 

[Fay]

1 hour ago, MajaHled said:

So yesterday I took the CAE English exam, and in the listening, the first task was "Listen to figure skating commentators talking about the recent World Championships", and I was just giggling quietly throughout that task  and even though it was made up, it sounded almost authentic, they used all those phrases like "complete package" and stuff 

Were there any real names or was it all made up? Lol

[MajaHled]

8 minutes ago, Fay said:

Were there any real names or was it all made up? Lol

They made up a Russian lady name, no real ones

[Whee1000]

Since we have such an international gathering here, I was wondering what people are doing/have planned for the holidays? (New Year's, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, etc). Also, maybe some people may not mark any particular holidays, but may have certain traditions (national or personal) they like to do at this time of the year. 

 

I live in  "We embrace all food" California, so around Christmas a lot of people I know have  ham, roast, and tamales. Chinese food is popular for those who do not observe Christmas.

For new year's at our house we make some traditional Japanese "osechi" dishes, plus BBQ chicken and fried shrimp.  Also, we are supposed to clean our living spaces very well for the New Year  but I manage to vacuum and change the sheets . LOL  And I like to start a new pocket planner for the new year (personal tradition). 

 

So...what do you do?

 

[Figure_Frenzy]

35 minutes ago, Whee1000 said:

Since we have such an international gathering here, I was wondering what people are doing/have planned for the holidays? (New Year's, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, etc). Also, maybe some people may not mark any particular holidays, but may have certain traditions (national or personal) they like to do at this time of the year. 

 

I live in  "We embrace all food" California, so around Christmas a lot of people I know have  ham, roast, and tamales. Chinese food is popular for those who do not observe Christmas.

For new year's at our house we make some traditional Japanese "osechi" dishes, plus BBQ chicken and fried shrimp.  Also, we are supposed to clean our living spaces very well for the New Year  but I manage to vacuum and change the sheets . LOL  And I like to start a new pocket planner for the new year (personal tradition). 

 

So...what do you do?

 

 

I think I'd just manage to visit the Christmas market (again), and have some food there :9 — otherwise I have nothing planned in particular...

[ralucutzagy]

In Romania, Christmas is a holiday that is usually spent with the loved ones, family, close friends near a lovely Christmas tree, at a Christmas table, full with traditional, delicious foods (most of it made of pork) and a traditional romanian cake named cozonac, yummy, and lot of red wine! And this is what i'm gonna do! Lol  And then if I'm not careful  with the food I'm gonna feel sick for 3 days hahaha ! We make our Christmas cleaning usually before Christmas (I'm in full cleaning mode right now, or I should be haha). 

New Year's night is usually for the parties, fireworks, drinking champagne and eating turkey steak (yep, in Romania, turkey steak is for New Year eve), dancing and having fun!  I'm not sure what I'm gonna do yet! 

Haaah, winter holidays pass so fast! 

[Murieleirum]

3 hours ago, Whee1000 said:

Since we have such an international gathering here, I was wondering what people are doing/have planned for the holidays? (New Year's, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, etc). Also, maybe some people may not mark any particular holidays, but may have certain traditions (national or personal) they like to do at this time of the year. 

 

I live in  "We embrace all food" California, so around Christmas a lot of people I know have  ham, roast, and tamales. Chinese food is popular for those who do not observe Christmas.

For new year's at our house we make some traditional Japanese "osechi" dishes, plus BBQ chicken and fried shrimp.  Also, we are supposed to clean our living spaces very well for the New Year  but I manage to vacuum and change the sheets . LOL  And I like to start a new pocket planner for the new year (personal tradition). 

 

So...what do you do?

 

 

I try to stay away from family as much as I can HAHAHAHA! Since it's traditional to visit all relatives in the winter holidays here in Italy. But my family isn't religious so they do it half-heartedly, and they know my stance on traditions or religions(I hate them). 

 

I'm gonna try to be with my friends a lot, enjoy myself, enjoy studying for my exams and do the same usual stuff basically! Oh, and avoid eating too much sweets. 

[rockstaryuzu]

12 hours ago, Whee1000 said:

Since we have such an international gathering here, I was wondering what people are doing/have planned for the holidays? (New Year's, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, etc). Also, maybe some people may not mark any particular holidays, but may have certain traditions (national or personal) they like to do at this time of the year. 

 

I live in  "We embrace all food" California, so around Christmas a lot of people I know have  ham, roast, and tamales. Chinese food is popular for those who do not observe Christmas.

For new year's at our house we make some traditional Japanese "osechi" dishes, plus BBQ chicken and fried shrimp.  Also, we are supposed to clean our living spaces very well for the New Year  but I manage to vacuum and change the sheets . LOL  And I like to start a new pocket planner for the new year (personal tradition). 

 

So...what do you do?

 

My family does a pretty traditional Christian Christmas...Midnight Mass, nativity scene, Christmas tree, gifts, family gatherings, feasts of fat things, the whole nine yards...but there are two things we do that are uniquely us - 1. On either Christmas Day or Boxing Day or both, depending on the weather, we go cross-country skiing. and 2. after the Christmas feast, we all lie around the living room, stuffed to the gills, trying to stay awake while the dessert is warming up, and we play a game we made up called 'Pick a Number'. One person picks a number between a range of numbers, and the rest of us try to guess what number it is, by asking 'Is it N?" over and over again, until someone gets it. Strangely enough, this always results in heaps of laughter, mostly because we're tipsy from the feasting and will find just about anything funny at that point...

 

[Whee1000]

@Figure_Frenzy what is a Christmas market? Food market? Gifts? Obviously I have never experienced one. Sounds festive!

@ralucutzagy I would never in a hundred years associate turkey steak, Romania and New Years Eve. 

@MurieleirumGood luck avoiding eating lots of sweets! I think it’s impossible this time of year.

@rockstaryuzuYour family gathering sounds like a lot of fun. What sort of dessert do you warm up? All I can think of is a pie?

 

thanks for replying!

*so many interesting things...

 

 

[rockstaryuzu]

58 minutes ago, Whee1000 said:

@Figure_Frenzy what is a Christmas market? Food market? Gifts? Obviously I have never experienced one. Sounds festive!

@ralucutzagy I would never in a hundred years associate turkey steak, Romania and New Years Eve. 

@MurieleirumGood luck avoiding eating lots of sweets! I think it’s impossible this time of year.

@rockstaryuzuYour family gathering sounds like a lot of fun. What sort of dessert do you warm up? All I can think of is a pie?

 

thanks for replying!

*so many interesting things...

 

 

My sister usually makes a plum pudding with proper hard sauce (brandy sauce), my mother insists on having an apple pie which I'm often tasked with making, and somehow there's always an enormous trifle too. Both the pie and the pudding need warming up.

 

Needless to say, everyone attending goes home with leftovers for days... I usually eat trifle for breakfast until New Year's. It's not the healthiest holiday, really. But it's glorious fun.

[LeadenMyr]

13 hours ago, Whee1000 said:

Since we have such an international gathering here, I was wondering what people are doing/have planned for the holidays? (New Year's, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, etc). Also, maybe some people may not mark any particular holidays, but may have certain traditions (national or personal) they like to do at this time of the year. 

 

I live in  "We embrace all food" California, so around Christmas a lot of people I know have  ham, roast, and tamales. Chinese food is popular for those who do not observe Christmas.

For new year's at our house we make some traditional Japanese "osechi" dishes, plus BBQ chicken and fried shrimp.  Also, we are supposed to clean our living spaces very well for the New Year  but I manage to vacuum and change the sheets . LOL  And I like to start a new pocket planner for the new year (personal tradition). 

 

So...what do you do?

 

Funnnnn topic

In Mexico we have a series of fun things starting tomorrow (Dec 12), tomorrow is the Day of the Holy Virgin and it marks the start of the holidays, there are some traditional parties with piñata smashing and something like carol singing and lots and lots of food and drink, with a special fruit punch and lots of fruit! 

Then comes Christmas with some traditional dishes as well (that I personally don't like), romeritos and bacalao, and some stuffed turkey too, usually. For my family it means a big dinner and gathering, with gift exchanging and opening at night.

Then comes New Year's, that I know of we don't have anything like traditional cleaning those days? But I might be very badly informed, lol. It's a day for another dinner with the family, usually, and there's the eating grapes and making new year's resolutions at 12:00 AM.

Then on January 6th it's the...Three Wise Men's Day? Like the guys that bring Jesus the gifts? So there's another round of gifts! And we eat a sort of bread ring that tastes awesome and there's small figurines shaped like baby Jesus inside, and if you get one in your slice of bread you have to buy everyone tamales on February the 2nd.

Thus ends the Guadalupe - Reyes (Virgin-Wise Men) marathon!

[Whee1000]

11 hours ago, LeadenMyr said:

Funnnnn topic

In Mexico we have a series of fun things starting tomorrow (Dec 12), tomorrow is the Day of the Holy Virgin and it marks the start of the holidays, there are some traditional parties with piñata smashing and something like carol singing and lots and lots of food and drink, with a special fruit punch and lots of fruit! 

Then comes Christmas with some traditional dishes as well (that I personally don't like), romeritos and bacalao, and some stuffed turkey too, usually. For my family it means a big dinner and gathering, with gift exchanging and opening at night.

Then comes New Year's, that I know of we don't have anything like traditional cleaning those days? But I might be very badly informed, lol. It's a day for another dinner with the family, usually, and there's the eating grapes and making new year's resolutions at 12:00 AM.

Then on January 6th it's the...Three Wise Men's Day? Like the guys that bring Jesus the gifts? So there's another round of gifts! And we eat a sort of bread ring that tastes awesome and there's small figurines shaped like baby Jesus inside, and if you get one in your slice of bread you have to buy everyone tamales on February the 2nd.

Thus ends the Guadalupe - Reyes (Virgin-Wise Men) marathon!

It sounds like a month and a half of eating!  

 

 

 

 

 

[sweetwater]

On 12/11/2018 at 3:28 AM, Whee1000 said:

Since we have such an international gathering here, I was wondering what people are doing/have planned for the holidays? (New Year's, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, etc). Also, maybe some people may not mark any particular holidays, but may have certain traditions (national or personal) they like to do at this time of the year. 

 

I live in  "We embrace all food" California, so around Christmas a lot of people I know have  ham, roast, and tamales. Chinese food is popular for those who do not observe Christmas.

For new year's at our house we make some traditional Japanese "osechi" dishes, plus BBQ chicken and fried shrimp.  Also, we are supposed to clean our living spaces very well for the New Year  but I manage to vacuum and change the sheets . LOL  And I like to start a new pocket planner for the new year (personal tradition). 

 

So...what do you do?

 

In Japan, we often throw a party called bonen-kai around Christmas. bonen-kai means, like, forget-about-this-year-fest, but it's just a party with friends or colleagues. Some people also have Christmas parties in various styles. Figure skating fans watch nationals biting their nails. Then some of us write new year greeting cards, clean our houses, and prepare osechi for new year holidays. Some people visit a nearby temple or shrine during new year's eve to Jan. 7th to pray for good health, safety, etc.

 

I usually visit my family and spend new years holidays together having simplified osechi. My personal tradition is to visit a temple and a shrine, the former to pray for good health of my family and the latter to pray for good business because the person enshrined there and I share the same profession.

[LeadenMyr]

2 hours ago, Whee1000 said:

It sounds like a month and a half of eating!  

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty much! There's also lots of alcohol drinking involved, so it's become a bit of a joke, this marathon. Like if you say you're doing the Guadalupe reyes people expect you to be drunk all holidays, nonstop 

 

1 hour ago, sweetwater said:

In Japan, we often throw a party called bonen-kai around Christmas. bonen-kai means, like, forget-about-this-year-fest, but it's just a party with friends or colleagues. Some people also have Christmas parties in various styles. Figure skating fans watch nationals biting their nails. Then some of us write new year greeting cards, clean our houses, and prepare osechi for new year holidays. Some people visit a nearby temple or shrine during new year's eve to Jan. 7th to pray for good health, safety, etc.

 

I usually visit my family and spend new years holidays together having simplified osechi. My personal tradition is to visit a temple a shrine, the former to pray for good health of my family and the latter to pray for good business because the person enshrined there and I share the same profession.

That does sound like a nice tradition! What's your profession? 

 

I have seen osechi in some movies and anime and such, but I've always wondered where did the idea come from, or its meaning, would you be son kind to please explain it? And also, what are the most traditional dishes and your favorite? Thank you!