blissblogger

Well-known member
I did buy an electric kettle recently - thinking you wouldn't have the screeching steam whistle annoyance and you could save energy because there's a clear panel on one side so you can put in the exact amount of water you need. So you can find them here, it's just I've only very rarely been in a house where they had one. It's almost always been a metal kettle on a hob flame.

I don't remember it taking longer, using the electric kettle, but I had to give up because the water came out tasting rubbery. (The clear bit with the level markings on it seemed to made some kind of hardened rubber). It gave off the aroma of water from a hot water bottle when you empty the night after using it - boiled with a rubbery scent. Not a nice addition to your cuppa. So it's back to the metal kettle and the annoying whistle like a small locomotive in your kitchen.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
one distinctive ambient feature of the middle east (or at least the bits of it i've been to) is that there's cats wandering about everywhere. on my way to work in morocco down some backstreets there are always a few cats hanging about looking through bins and every now and then there are like twenty of them taking over a corner. i had no idea cats spend time together in groups, i knew wild dogs do that, but not cats. maybe there are so many cats because of the general islamic-world distaste for dogs
Same in Greece and Turkey, IME.
 

Leo

Well-known member
I did buy an electric kettle recently - thinking you wouldn't have the screeching steam whistle annoyance and you could save energy because there's a clear panel on one side so you can put in the exact amount of water you need. So you can find them here, it's just I've only very rarely been in a house where they had one. It's almost always been a metal kettle on a hob flame.

I don't remember it taking longer, using the electric kettle, but I had to give up because the water came out tasting rubbery. (The clear bit with the level markings on it seemed to made some kind of hardened rubber). It gave off the aroma of water from a hot water bottle when you empty the night after using it - boiled with a rubbery scent. Not a nice addition to your cuppa. So it's back to the metal kettle and the annoying whistle like a small locomotive in your kitchen.

that's my wife's objection. plus, they remind her of home, and there's a reason she choose to live thousands of miles away on another continent.

maybe one reason they're rare in US homes is because we're in general still largely coffee drinkers.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
one distinctive ambient feature of the middle east (or at least the bits of it i've been to) is that there's cats wandering about everywhere. on my way to work in morocco down some backstreets there are always a few cats hanging about looking through bins and every now and then there are like twenty of them taking over a corner. i had no idea cats spend time together in groups, i knew wild dogs do that, but not cats. maybe there are so many cats because of the general islamic-world distaste for dogs
Same in Portugal lots of feral - as opposed to wild - cats hanging around and they do congregate in gangs, perhaps not 20 strong but 5 or 6 or more. Reminded of what I've seen in Morocco in fact.
 

Leo

Well-known member
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WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
And cheese. And extra salty cheese. People think bread is America’s greatest perversion but cheese, ooph, salty, yellowy goo. A cliche too innit, America is paradox laden, eg tons of banging varieties supported by decent farmers markets, dicks too, surreal places rich in bearding foodie hell but you can find blue ribboned soft cheeses to mozzarella, jams which soar

Miss driving out of certain US cities when it was a few hours before sunrise, like now with blossom season through to summer’s humidity, collecting produce for a an old relative’s business. He had a shit rusted Buick hooked to a trailer, did about 10miles per gallon, each stop filling the cargo bed with carrots, broad beans, piles of produce, more varieties of onions than’s worth reciting

Not at all the corn fields of modern myth, although the Garden State is apt for tomatoes (and corn) and not to get all Kerouac but all these traders had faces I wish I’d photographed - weathered, lined, crumpled like Mark E Smith, with fruit and veg simply tremendous, go all the way down to VA pushing into hill country. Brisk people initially, you did all the lifting, before eventually settling into “here again redcoat!” and sizing up the state of the country, world, “special relationship” with a bottle of cider or bourbon thrown in is a tip. Generous. Rarely eaten as healthy, everything was field instantly to table, worth poking around for
 

Leo

Well-known member
I have an Italian deli on my block that makes fresh mozzarella (mutz) every day, melts in your mouth.
 
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