Best restaurants nearby

Hey!
I wanted to ask you guys for some advice on the best places to lease in the downtown area. As the title says, I'm super pumped to relocate to Tampa from Austin, TX, since I landed a sweet software engineering role there. So I'm willing to spend around 5k a month on an apartment, but ideally somewhere around the 3k~4k price range. I don't want to spend more money than I have to (and max out my savings). It's going to be my girlfriend and I and our two cats lol. My start date is June 19th (I told them I want to start ASAP) and signed my offer letter today.
I am getting in touch with a real estate agent tomorrow but I figured I would ask you all first. I'm in my late 20's, I want to be around the action (restaurants/bars) and overall bougie area. I did some light research and kept seeing Channelside as a nice place to live.
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Any thoughts?

Personally I enjoy the game feel like I have beat it but there is no satisfying conclusion to it. I enjoy the morale & research aspects. Hope to see it more fleshed out and rebalanced(buff all the lackluster items). I want to beable to switch back and forth between evil & good. I want more vibrant/darker colors. Limitless customers flooding in. Deeper restaurant and attraction management to make it actually feel like it matters. Maybe a shuttle cart or zip line, hot air balloons, train something beside just subways. A circus or paid animal rides which exploits the animals for profit. A revamped release hub with incentives for restoring a reachable goal of repopulating a species. A mad robot scientist plot line that develops deeper with cyborg workers and animals. A coop mode or multiplayer would make this great for families couples friends. More events maybe a fence falls down and animals escape running loose chasing visitors away. A fantasy dlc with dragons and unicorns castle decorations. Halloween themed buildings mascots. More soundtracks and seasons. Make it thunderstorm and rain to make use of shelters. Train up animal keepers to work with individual dangerous carnivores or big hippos or wrangle snakes🐍 . An reworked farming that feels fulfilling grow grapes>wine strawberries and a restaurant and chefs that get fancier with more food products. A use for money late game like run a hotel inside the zoo overnight to ensure guest numbers start at 400. A rocketship that brings in aliens with their own dietary needs. Upgrade pens to different star levels with more unlocks. Better vet with maybe a flu outbreak, increase the longevity of animals. Bigger furnace/ just chuck the bodys in another pen. Buy some of the other zoo’s and fix them up/ do a weekly challenge. Separate cloning facility. More personalized character follow them around for errands(sims-esque dialogue or tomfoolery). Factory’s run by monkeys, turtle races, porcupine petting zoo, ostrich jousting. Maybe more penalties for reusing and spamming the same decorations(like two point campus only 2 posters). Diagonal animal pens to run alongside our slanted pathways. More challenges to make a old west area with a set number of different decorations and statues. Maybe a mobile port is feasible downscaled. Different difficulties and flexibility in attendance. A weekly shoutout/vote for best looking zoo.

I recently moved to Texas and they have them in larger cities but I live in College Station Texas where Texas A&M is located closest is Houston. We have 100k students so you would figure they thought this a good place it seems we could support 2 of them. What can I do I looked over the website and found no way to ask, maybe Twitter?

Hello all!
I have a trip coming up and am hoping for a little local insight to the following locations. Here's an overview of our general interests and situations: We love natural sites like waterfalls and other landscapes. Also manmade beauties: ruins, castles, cathedrals. Not looking for anything where the sole focus is drinking, but local festivals, music, or other cultural events would be cool. Nothing that requires too much hiking as we're not in the best of shape. I'll list out what I've seen for each location and if you can weigh in and say if it is worth it or if there is something better, it would be much appreciated!
First off, Dublin: Only one day and practically all I've got on the list is museums, which I'm not even a fan of. What is best of the following and what could be cut? EPIC Irish Emigration, National Museum, National Gallery, Trinity College Library for the Book of Kells, Dublin Castle, and St Patrick’s Cathedral. What's something besides restaurants and museums we could add if we take out some of these?
Kilkenny: We will visit the castle and the medieval mile, then after that I was hoping to do Dunmore Caves but it appears to be closed. Is Kells Priory any good? Anything else around Kilkenny that would be good to add to our list?
Waterford: Is Reginald's Tower something you just view from the outside or is it a lot to explore? It looked like there were some museums, any of them particularly stand out? Otherwise I saw there was a beach town not far or Gaulstown Dolmen. Any recommendations?
Cork: After doing Blarney Castle I thought we'd come back to Cork. The English Market looked cool- anything else worth exploring in Cork?
Tralee: Last we'll be in Tralee after a Ring of Kerry tour- all I found was Blennerville Windmill and the Rathass Church ruins. What is there to see in Tralee?
Thanks so much for the help!

I (19F) started dating my boyfriend (19M) in November. We're both in college and were friends before we started dating and our relationship is going great! In March, my sister (20F) was flying back home from a Spring Break trip she went on. Since the airport she was flying into is in the same city as my college, and my parents were picking her up from the airport, we had all decided to go to dinner after they picked her up from the airport and for my boyfriend to join us. Earlier that day, my sister had called me and asked me to make a reservation at a certain restaurant that she really wanted to try and I did as she asked. Then, that night, after my parents picked up my sister they picked up my boyfriend and me and we all headed to the restaurant. Upon getting there, the person at the front said that she didn't see our reservation on the list and that if we wanted to eat there it would be an hour wait. At this point it was already 10pm and my parents still had to drive 2 hours to get back home. We all agreed that it would be best to have a quick dinner at another nearby restaurant and call it a day. My sister, however, insisted on waiting an hour to eat at this restaurant. She yelled at me and my parents (in front of my boyfriend who she had never met before) for not wanting to wait an hour and sat down far away from us in protest. My dad and I tried to reason with her while she was adamant. My dad and her started fighting and walking to the car and I tried to mediate with them to the best of my ability. My angel of a mother stayed behind with my boyfriend and kept him company so that it wouldn't be as awkward for him. In the end, my parents apologized to my boyfriend and I, dropped us off at my dorm, and had pizza delivered to my dorm so we could eat. My dad told me that he and my sister fought on the way home. I texted her that night, saying "We are going to talk about this later." She responded with "No we're not" and then I said "Fine but I'm not talking to you until we do." I know everyone was tired from the endless traveling but this was an important night for me and I feel embarrassed. My boyfriend understands and hasn't treated me differently since the situation, he and my parents have a great relationship. I, however, held my ground and haven't spoken to my sister in two and a half months. I think it's important to include that on the entire car ride to the restaurant, my sister didn't let my boyfriend talk and instead talked about her vacation and all the money she spent. Also, in the past when I've had friends over at my house, my sister would constantly storm into my room and say something passive aggressive to me or insulting to me in front of them and yell at my parents in front of my friends. She often tells my parents to shut up, whether or not people are over. Basically, this is normal behavior for her. Anyway, my semester ended the beginning of May and since then I've been living with my parents again. My sister came home a week after my and her first day back, without me saying a word to her, she complained about me four times to my dad. I've been making minimal eye contact with her, haven't been talking to her, and have been leaving rooms that she enters because all she does is insult me. Recently, she's been trying to talk to me but every time I don't respond, she calls me immature, selfish, and a bad person. A few days ago, it was my birthday and I just wanted to celebrate at home with my parents. My dad begged me that night to let my sister join in on the celebration but I said that I would go to my room if she came down. On every one of my previous birthdays that I can remember, she has been as rude to me as she usually is. I ended up just celebrating with my parents but the next morning my dad kept begging me to forgive my sister and said that I should be the bigger person. I said I was being the bigger person because if I talk to my sister, we're just going to end up fighting. At least when I don't talk to her I guarantee that there won't be fighting because i won't respond. Also, we're talking about the girl that has verbally berated me and physically hurt me my entire childhood, even in high school. Reddit, I need to know, am I the asshole?

Are you always on the hunt for that perfect, tangy slice of heaven? Do you find yourself dreaming about the crusty exterior and fluffy interior of your favorite artisan bakery's sourdough creations? Then welcome to our community, where we share an undeniable passion for this delicious, addictive bread.
Here, we will share recipes, tips, and techniques for making the best sourdough bread at home. We'll also discuss our favorite bakeries and restaurants known for their mouthwatering sourdough offerings (and maybe even plan a few group outings). But most importantly, we'll celebrate our shared obsession with this wonderful, fermented dough. So come join us and let's rise together in our love for sourdough bread!

Hello,
First time home buyer here. Debating whether to buy a condo at Eliza development project in Royal Bay.
It looks very attractive and got good price. Neighborhood appears to be developing fast with schools and grocery stores nearby.
I also heard that build quality might not be the best. Wanted to hear people's opinions..
Thank you.

I love Harry potter books, but god damn if they're not a bunch of idiots.
This is my first post and english isn't my first lenguage, but i'll do my best
Now let's get back to it, for those who are unaware of the world of Harry Potter, is bassically a secret society of sorts, they can and have probably done almost every possible thing ever created with magic, for a book is great, perfect setting for a constant state of fantasy, if everyone knew what magic is or how does it work it would be a Sci-fi not fantasy genre.
the thing is, in the real world, and even in the books world, it's utterly moronic, to think that muggles (normal people) can't help shit, we are basically toe to toe with magic, and we did that WITHOUT magic, and we even win at certain stuff, do you want to know what time it is?, where are you?, speak with someone without the help of a poor slave of an animal? and you don't have chimney nearby? (That ALSO has to be connected to the flu network or it doesn't do shit) you have a phone! wohoo
ah, but the Harry Potter books are oriented in 90' and Harry entered Howarts in 1991
well... prepare to be amazed, by the Nokia 1011 the first ever mass produced GSM Phone, that operated on the GSM 900 frecuency, one of the most used frecuencies in the world, and this marvel of human engineering debuted iiiiiin 1992!
So every single event after the Philosopher stone could be comunicated via phone without many problems
"but mages aren't intrested in that kinda stuff" Exactly, they aren't, that's the problem, every advance, every great breakthrough could've been incredibly beneficial to Harry potter or the rest of the magic world, especially since Voldemort and the rest of his allies saw muggles as trash and wouldn't expect non magic ways of comunication.
this stupidity was especially apparent when in the prisioner from azkaban (3rd book) a certain character escaped from magic jail, and was in desperate need to talk to a certain someone (now that I think more about it, that character life would've been way easier, and probably longer, with a damn phone) the thing is that when they inform the magic world that he escaped, they said that they informed to the muggle prime minister of england (the only muggle on the whole series that is informed about the existance of a magic world) that the character is armed with a revolver, and I quote "an iron wand that muggles use to kill eachother" they litteraly dismiss human weapons as jokes!
99% of mages don't know what a revolver or a gun is, and yeah, in england it kinda makes sense, since gun control and all, but most defensive spells need you to say them and usually are casted on reaction, meaning that you need good reflexes, and usually there is a big light that shows that your opponent is gonna attack, also the moving speed of a spell isn't even near the speed of a bullet, how are you gonna block a bullet? when was the last time that you saw or heard someone being able to dodge a bullet AFTER said bullet was shot?
I understand the fact that the magic on muggle hands would be too dangerous, but not even they know why they can do magic, is obviously on the blood, so is genetics, a certain chromosome? where does the energy come from? what kind of spells require a wand? why can mages still make some spells when they don't have a wand? can that energy or genetic mutation be artificially constructed? can it be converted? how are spells made? what makes a spell a spell? why does the movement and the words affect a spell?
all of those questions make me think... the harry potter universe is amazing, and so dumb at the same time.

I love YNAB and I love that YNAB has allowed me to responsibly manage credit without debt.
We get considerable value from redeeming CC points - sometimes 1cent per point as a statement credit, other times 1cent per point for a restaurant or Home Depot gift card, and sometimes 2cents per point (or more) in airline/hotel redemptions. But, we also pay $95-250 per year per card in annual fees.
How do y'all account for the incoming value of points and the outgoing cost of annual fees? Right now we use a category (CC points/fees) and any annual fee is charged to that category as are any statement credits. I've never bothered with tracking the cash value of the gift cards and travel benefits, but I'd like to start doing that just to illustrate for myself the ROI we get on the $95 annual fee.
Do you track this in YNAB? Is it best to track it as a category? As an account? As a tracking account?
For example, if I redeem 10k points for a $100 Home Depot gift card, I might record that as $100 inflow to the points/fees category, and then reassigning that $100 to our home improvement category? Should I create an account for gift cards, kind of like a cash account?
I recognize this is fluff, and many of you have no interest in doing this. But, if you did want to, how would you do it?
Thanks in advance!
-Rich

I’ve lived in my car (or out of a tent or a friends couch ) on and off for almost 20 years. Assuming you’re wanting life to get better rapidly you’re not tryna be a hippy, and you’re wanting to stay in America. I will tell you exactly how to get by, and if you do it you’ll be better off, at least financially, and amazons a great way to do it if you don’t have much support, so we’re gonna stick with Amazon route for now.
During winter you work 3rd shift so you don’t freeze, during summer you work day shift. They’ve both got drawbacks.
Power! Buy a solar panel kit from harbor freight or northern tool or amazon, whatever the best deal is at the time. 100-200watts and 35-70wh is all you need (my 110watt panel, 35ah battery, and charge controller with 300watt inverter setup was roughly 200$ total and basically all you need for phone, some light vr gaming, charge your toothbrush and fan whatever) also get a battery jumper box from Walmart, just for something to charge on cloudy days and incase you’ve had to run car for something.
Temp, hot hands and cheap rated sleeping bag in the winter got me thru -25* , and I’m using a small usb fan with heat blocking window curtains and those rain guards on windows to leave them cracked in summer (it’s still unbearable in the afternoon if not in shade, I have an amc movie pass, a library pass, a planet fitness membership, and I wander around book stores or grocery stores or the mall a lot, and in winter you run the car a few minutes every couple hours.) you’ll get window fog, try to keep a window cracked to help with this, moisture is bad and also not very stealthy. Also a front sun shade.
Stealth. Everyone hates the poors now, as I said I have curtains for side windows, which I’ve taped around the edges to keep light from leaking out, stay off phone as far as talking goes, use earbuds, hopefully car doesn’t look too shitty, but never leave trash or laundry built up or around you on the ground. Have a piss bottle you change regularly. I use planet fitness to park, hospitals, camp grounds, truck stops, Walmarts but they’re iffy, paid garages, quiet streets, friends lots, whatever. When working amazon make sure to choose a fc, big parking lots so you’re less noticeable. Stay out of the way, but not too far out of the way. The idea is to blend in. Change parking spots nightly if you can, and also don’t just recycle the same order weekly. Diversify at least the part of the same lot you use. Also remember if you sleep at work, don’t be sitting there for hours before or after that with door open Just hanging out.
Food. I keep some small dry goods with me, you can get cheap camp stoves if you’re staying in the woods a lot, but way easier to use all the apps to get discounts at restaurants. The best $ wise is using amazons fridges and microwaves and free coffee tea etc. just make sure to label and rotate your food appropriately. Always keep water on you, and take a multivitamin.
Health. Sleep flat, with your shoes n socks off, your teeth brushed, after a shower and massage from Planet fitness or a $15 one from truck stop (go in with a book bag on, mention you’re annoyed they cost $ when a truckers in line and they might pay) . Take your multivitamin and drink water. Do your absolute best to sleep fully. Keep your dirty clothes washed regularly and in a bag till then, spray your boots, cars a small space to be smelly. Dog couch spray from dollar store helps. Wash your bedding. Make a bed platform in back to lay down if ya can. Vacuum and wash car when ya can. Wipe down living areas with cleaning wipes. Again small space. Wipe your a pits bs toes etc with baby wipes if you’re sweaty before/after shower. Use amazons insurance to get any necessary vaccines , glasses, mental health services, whatever you need to function. Chronic problems are draining. Try to eat salad kits not just Big Macs. Try to read a book and relax, or have a fun tinder hookup at their place. Stress kills.
$. Amazon has sign on bonuses, I regularly use. 90days from quitting can reapply, first half at 30 second half at 90 or 180 days, this can get you anywhere from 1-5k. They’ve got met. And vet a lot of places. Cross train. Learning, safety, hr, it, loss prevention. But also problem solve, pg, whatever. The more colors on your vest the less real work you do and the more varied work you can do and the more opportunity for advancement. Of course all this is dependent on you being full time blue badge, we’re again committing to an amazon way here. Do Not contribute to 401k, do choose your other benefits wisely. (Also do have your anytime Pay setup incase of emergency, but we’re tryna save, control your spending) only use pto or vacation or upt when sick or emergency. Use all the rewards programs. No load of laundry or gas tank filled without rewards. Maintenance. Keep your tires full and your oil and other fluids good. Use straight talk or mint Mobil with a Walmart phone, sub 50$ a month for phone is our goal, or the gov connectivity programs (free or reduced cost phone or wifi ) Hotels are only for holidays or when you’re sick. You’re wanting money, get it. use career choice…
Plan. So with career choice, pick a job that pays that you can probably do. Cdl, dental hygienist, it, it literally doesn’t matter. Every real job they offer is going to pay enough somewhere for you to afford rent after. Yes amazons going to fuck your schooling schedule accommodations around peak, especially since you’ve made yourself valuable. Deal with it. Career choice kicks in at 90days now. Then the programs take from like two months to 2 years. Pick a program that makes sense long term for your time, $, effort, schedule, ability etc. be realistic with yourself for your capabilities and goals when choosing. (Also 2 years experience makes you eligible to apply to L4 spots at amazon) It’s not one long week, it’s 1.5 years. It’s gonna suck. But you can do it, probably. It’s just really, really, really annoying.
Reality. So don’t waste your time with any other bs programs or excuses. Don’t give up halfway thru for a partner. Pray your presumably garbage car lasts that whole time and your health does also. Love yourself. Clock in five minutes early and late every day if you’re not on 12s, clock out for lunch after your 6th hour if you can choose your own time, do vet whenever if you’re able. You’re going to work 60-80hr weeks for the next 1-2 years (including school time) everything’s gonna seem like way too much, for too little reward, and it’s gonna seem unfair and crazy you make Amazon a million dollars and can barely afford car insurance… and I’m not debating that. But if you stick with it, barring a terrible accident or whatever and acknowledging you’ve got a car to get around (or can make a shelter and bus route or tent and Uber or scooter) work , at the end of the 1-2 years, you’ll be in a job that’s presumably better than a warehouse floor, and 3-6 months after that you’ll have enough $ saved with enough coming in to be a functional lower middle class American. Congrats you broke the poverty cycle.

I have long enjoyed magical realism slice of life as a somewhat specific favorite genre of anime and manga, especially if it involves food. Theres something about the atmosphere in a story that uses a world of magic as a backdrop, like you got dropped in the middle of a normal world, and then just tells a story of normal folk.
I found legends & lattes, which based on how I found this term and just pursuing the subreddit has got to be many folks entry point, as a sort of 'sick day read' when I wanted a lighthearted book instead of my relatively heavy one I was in the middle of. And I loved it, it was perfect for what I needed. And I'm looking through the history of this sub for recommendations and discussions and I love it so much.
So I figured I'd offer a trade - if you haven't read these manga, or haven't read manga at all, here's a handful of my favorite 'cozy fantasy' ish series you may enjoy. Just copy pasting the best descriptions I can find.
Flying Witch - Makoto Kowata, a novice witch, packs up her belongings (including her black cat familiar) and moves in with her distant cousins in rural Aomori Prefecture, in the far north reaches of Japan, to complete her training and become a full-fledged witch.
Drifting Dragons - Mika is a draker on the airship Quin Zaza. He earns his livelihood hunting the whales of the sky—dragons! The beautiful beasts are flying treasure troves, providing food and materials, and the Quin Zaza is among the last draking vessels. Mika's not just a talented hunter; he's also a gourmand with a refined palette and a taste for the exotic. Between his duties aboard the ship, his ambitions as an eater, and his new job training the rookie dragon hunter Takita, Mika's days are never boring. But even with the lively crew of the Quin Zaza as his family, the nomadic life of a draker can be lonely and dangerous…
Nobunaga no Chef - more historical than magical but still - Ken is a modern-day chef who wakes up one morning in war-torn 16th century Japan. Faced with an impossible situation, he does what he does best - he cooks. Soon, word of his wonderful food reaches the capital, and the ears of warlord Oda Nobunaga, who immediately orders Ken to cook for him. What will happen to Ken as he finds himself stumbling around in an era he doesn't belong
Isekai Izakaya "Nobu" - basically a Japanese restaurant dropped into a fantasy world - Imagine there is a bar with many weird kind of food and drink that might bring you to another world! The bar, so-called "Nobu" is located in a alley of the old city Aiteria. AT the very first step, diners feels like falling into another completely country, with cold, super cool beer, so-called "toriaezu Nama"!
Ancient Magus Bride - definitely both the most odd ball and action filled, but overall still a very peaceful if melancholic vibe throughout - Having been ostracized by both her relatives and partially by society, orphaned Japanese high school student Chise Hatori decides to sell herself at an auction in order for somebody else to take her in and have a new place to call home. At the auction in London, she is sold for five million pounds to Elias Ainsworth, a seven-foot-tall humanoid with an animal skull for a head. The magus, who seems closer to a demon than human, either brings her the light she desperately seeks or drowns her in ever deeper shadows in her new country, Great Britain. The series deals with a romantic slice-of-life storyline in a surreal and supernatural light.
Hope this isn't totally out of place! Just wanted to share some of what has fitted me towards this genre before I started reading them at all.

My fiance and I have lived together the past 2.5 years. Early on, I communicated to him that whenever he leaves the house, I want him to inform me where he goes, who he will be with, and around what time he gets back. And if he will be changing plans while he's out, to let me know. He agreed that it's reasonable and he can do it.
I used to get frustrated at least 2-3 times a week about his failure to inform me when he changes plans. Sometimes he tells me he will buy at Store A a few blocks away, then goes to a friend's house 3km away afterwards. Or he will go instead to Store B that's farther away, then hang out at a nearby friend's place. Other times, he tells me he will hang out at Friend C's place, then when I call, I will find out that they went together to Friend D.
Some of these friends are actively using substances. And the past year, he sneaked out at least twice to smoke weed or meth.
Nevertheless, I give him the benefit of the doubt and believe him when he says he's staying clean. To me, it's not about me not trusting him, but subverting expectations. He tells me he will go out to do one thing, but does another. And it made me crazy frustrated. Especially when he tells me that it JUST SLIPPED HIS MIND to inform me of the change in plans.
I didn't want to break it off, so I sucked it up. As a compromise, I told him that I will call him regularly to check up on him, so he could inform me then if there has been a change in plans. There have been times when he exploded at me for calling and making him explain what he's up to, but after a good talk, he's reminded that it's the best compromise we could come up with.
However, last night, he left his phone. He went out to buy cigs, which should only take 10mins tops. I told him to buy at nearby Store E, instead of going to the farther store near his Friend F's house and possibly hanging out there. My purpose was to minimize the time he would stay out late at night. Half an hour later, I call him, but I find his phone ringing inside the house. I was extra sensitive during this time, as he had been cold to me the past few hours; he acknowledged this, but we didn't have the time to talk it out due to my work meeting. Since I could not contact him, I decided to leave my work meeting online and went to the store only to find out he's not there. I was fuming.
On the way to Friend F's house, I pass by our house and see that he has arrived. I confront him, and he admits that his Friend F passed by so they went around together. I didn't bother to ask where they went, he will probably just say that they hung out at his friend's house. I told him I'm leaving the next day because this behavior is a deal breaker for me.
I slept alone in our room. After lunch, as I was almost done packing things, I find out that he was not at home. I hung around for more than 2 hours, then decided to leave.
He texts me later, telling me that he was staying at his Friend F's house with another friend. I should not have replied, but I was not strong enough to resist. I eventually stopped replying and cut off contact.
Today is the 2nd day, and regret is creeping in. I doubt myself, maybe it was not a deal breaker for me since I still love him? I'm trying to recall if I had been frustrated by this kind of behavior in my past relationships, but I never cohabited with my exes so I can't tell if it matters.
I'm trying to convince myself that we just have compatibility issues, but truth be told, I'm really lost. Maybe I should have just lived with it, since there are likely some couples out there who don't mind if their partners go somewhere different from what they initially claimed. He doesn't have a history of meeting up with a girl and hiding it from me, so maybe I'm too strict? I don't really know, any advice or stories to share?

I sit down at a 6 deck, $25 min table, pays 3:2, can split 3 times, has late surrender; it’s two old people that don’t know what they are doing, a jock looking guy, and his GF, that’s just watching. The jock says it’s his first time playing. The old woman compliments him on how he’s doing, and that he only made a few mistakes so far. He says he watched a YouTube video . Everything this jock guy does, in no way registers on my radar that he can count, or knows what he’s doing, the whole time. He plays the side bets every so often, but not really. I can’t remember one hand where he made a mistake, though. At one point, the count sky rockets, so much so, that the whole table, and dealer are talking about how we’ve dealt 3/4 rounds and at most one face card, with people having 4-6 card draws. I’m not sure when he did it, but the jock is all of a sudden playing 2 spots. The count has been high for a round or 2, and all of a sudden he’s playing $500 on each spot, and wins. Then he puts it all down again, while the count is still going up. It’s so high, I stopped counting. We’re at +25 with less than half a shoe. The whole time I’m increasing my bet, but I keep getting dealt surrenders. I think the jock is a nut bag, but I say nothing. He throws down $750 on each spot, all greens. I still think he’s nuts. I had nothing on my radar that he’s anything but a fucking dumb rube. The dealer gets an Ace against two of his good hands, probably 20, and 19, or maybe he even had BJ. I then see him take insurance, which reminds me, I’m suppose to be counting and this is definitely insurance time, so I also take insurance. Dealer has blackjack. He colors up for $4k+ and asks where good restaurants nearby, and leaves, as I pick my jaw up off the floor and realize, this guy is amazing. I’ve never seen someone look so casually an idiot, and destroy the casino like this before.

I have two labXgoldens, M2 and F3. They're lovely and love training and working; both were part of a service dog program but released for medical reasons. They're great off leash the majority of the time. FYI, all off leash practice is in contained or small safe areas.
M is the epitome of ADHD, he's improved but still doesn't always "hear" me. Since maturing, he's not tried to chase anything, but definitely locks in focus wise and I'm not convinced he still wouldn't go investigate without looking around first. But, only 2 so I'm sure he'll keep improving and get more reliable.
F is so sweet but SO sassy and opinionated. She often thinks she knows best. She has also improved massively off leash. However, she LOVES people so I still have little faith in her to not run off at people when she's excited. When she's relaxed, she's fantastic off leash. If she's hyped up at all, we don't do off leash because she wants to run at anyone or any dog without consideration.
The back of my apartment has a grass run along a small little parking strip for the restaurant in the building. Cars are often only parked there at dinner and lunch during their open and clear the rest of the time. Very little traffic and no one goes faster than 10mph. It's perfect for me to send them off leash out in the mornings and before bed as I can see the entire strip and the grass is only 30 ft away.
What I would love is to teach my pups to look for cars before crossing a road. All the advice I see is to teach them to avoid roads all together but I don't think that's the best solution; if they want to cross, a dog is gonna cross. F in particular has huge blinders on when she's focused on something. They come sprinting back in for breakfast, so if there were to be a car, she wouldn't know until she's already on the ground. M at least seems to be a bit more aware, like I said he hasn't actually chased anything since maturing, but I'm not convinced he would know to stop for a car.
It seems like I have a good set up to teach them, but I'm really not sure exactly how. My idea is to have someone help by driving up and down the strip. I would work with them by sitting them on one side and basically only allow them to cross when the car is not near. And if the car is getting close, teach them to immediately halt. They don't run at cars so that doesn't worry me, just their general awareness needs improving.
Anyways, long post but thought I needed to give sufficient info. I have no idea if this plan would be the most effective way, if at all, so any advice is welcomed. I don't want to put them in a situation where they need to know this, but given that I've seen their lack of awareness, I want to be proactive in this issue. I've seen too many car accident victims 😭 and F tried to be one as a puppy herself; she was an extremely opinionated teenager and managed to slip out of the backyard once so she could play keep away with me, all she wanted was me to chase her, she always kept me just out of reach. The biggest heart attack I've had, didn't get far at all luckily because, surprise surprise, she got distracted by another person, her favorite.
Thank you in advance.

Because I learned so much from reading other itinerary/trip reports here, I wanted to share our experience.
Beforehand: AT&T – signed up for international day pass which meant $10/day for first person on the plan and $5/day for the others, for the first 10 days of each month or maybe billing cycle. Worked well and allowed us to split up when needed. Bought Tokyo Metro Pass (about $11/day, well worth it for us for 3 days) and JR pass on line from Klook prior to trip in time for them to mail the JR pass voucher to my home. We also bought a limousine airport bus ticket ahead of time from Klook but see below. Picked up Tokyo Metro Pass by showing QR code to the machine at metro station (instant and easy) and went to Shinjuku JR station to pick up JR passes (show passports, ok to pick up passes days before you want them activated) in person and make seat reservations for the long shinkansen trips and for the Tobu Nikko trip (paid the extra fee to Tobu staff when we arrived in Nikko). It was helpful to have determined exactly which train we wanted seat reservations for (train number, time, and date) beforehand. Ask for Mt. Fuji side if going Tokyo to Osaka/Kyoto. JapanTravel app is great for checking train times. Do give yourself enough time to transfer – the app will give you 10 minutes, say, to transfer from metro to JR trains and given the size of the stations and having to swipe in and out of the stations, and being confused about where to go, you probably need more time. If you have an iPhone, add virtual Suica card to your wallet. Was incredibly easy to use and saved us from having to top up at kiosks or buy tickets. Used it to grab drinks from machines, at 7-11, etc. But, it was a little tricky to set up for some of us – you may have to try Amex or Mastercard if Visa doesn’t work. Once, it didn’t work the first day but worked the second day when we tried again, so definitely do this at least a few days prior to the trip. Get some cash and plan to stop at ATMs (we used 7-11) often because cash is king there. We did not make any reservations so that we could be flexible with our plans. All the food was excellent and we rarely waited long (we would just look for another place if a line was long). Of course, do the visit Japan web website at least 3 days prior to the trip and get your QR codes for customs and immigration. Screenshot these as well. If you can keep yourself to a carry on size bag, it will make finding lockers and taking the shinkansen much easier. Break in those shoes. We walked 11-12 miles every day.
Tokyo for <= 3 days. We stayed in Shinjuku and tried to cluster our activities when we could: Northeast: Kappabashi street to check out the beautiful knives and kitchenware, and buy some lovely chopsticks Asakusa Shrine: beautiful but we did not go in because we were there for the Sanja Matsuri festival; crowded but a lot of fun watching the golden shrines bounced up and down the street, and we still got to sample foods from the food stalls. Thought about returning for evening, but never made it there. Akihabara: this was on my if-we-have-extra-time list; so glad we made it because it was a real highlight. Playing retro arcade games (Super Potato Retro shop), watching the real pros compete in the huge multistory gaming center buildings; walked over the Owl Café but should have made reservations a week before if we had wanted to go. Went to a bonsai market garden center in Ueno which was kind of interesting. Ochanomizu Gakkitengai for guitars and other musical instruments. Didn’t do SkyTree, did go to Ameyoko market which I thought was just ok. East: Fukagawa Fudo-do Temple: Goma Ritual, drumming, prayers, fire; service lasts about 30 minutes. Take a look around the temple’s other rooms also. Multiple times daily. Hat Coffee: we did not go but I’d have loved to see the 3D lattes Southeast: Tsukiji outer market (we had a Klook voucher for limousine bus tickets to take us right to the hotel to drop off our bags, but we got through immigration quickly and waited around until 6 am when the ticket counter was supposed to open, but it didn’t open and the info desk told us it wouldn’t open for another hour, plus first bus wasn’t until 7:30 am– so rather than waiting around the airport for hours, we ended up going straight to the market on the monorail and the metro using our Suica card, getting there at 6:20 am). It might sound early, but we had such a wonderful visit to the market at 6:20 am, dropping our bags in a locker at the metro (some take coins but we found ones that took our Suica (virtual Suica was in our Apple wallet); there are also lockers at Plat Tsukiji). Enjoyed the market and excellent coffee at Yonemoto, then lined up at 8:30 for wonderful meal at Tsukiji Koromo Sushi. Fantastic experience being able to look closely at everything at the market and make our purchases. By the time we left breakfast, though, it was wall to wall people, long lines, too crowded to really check out the stalls, and a much different experience. We were glad we had gone early. We even came back (at 7 am) two days later to enjoy more food stalls and sample the fatty tuna at Maguroya Kurogin (worth it despite the line). West: Shibuya 109: go downstairs to food area and find the whipped cream vending machine next to the escalator. Bring cash! Shibuya Sky: we did not have tickets and they were sold out, but during the day we went to the floor below and walked through the art gallery to have a beautiful view of the scramble crossing. At night, we went one floor below that to a lounge to take in the free view. Everywhere: Don Quijote; bought all the candy. Very fun running around trying to determine what was in each package. Thankful for Google Translate. Walked through beautiful Yoyogi Park to the Meiji-jingu Shrine. Saw some of a wedding ceremony. Beautiful. Then walked through Harajuku which was crowded and lively. Didn’t really see eccentric clothes and fashion, but lots of restaurants and snacks and fun resale shops. Did not get to Shibuya Nonbei Yokocho. Did stop in at Omoide Yokocho in Shinjuku and enjoy an early drink; would recommend getting there early since was already packed. Also lots of smoking in the izakayas, which made it less enjoyable for us. Enjoyed a walk through Golden Gai also. There are many areas of Shinjuku other than these for nightlife and restaurants. If there is a long line, go elsewhere. So much excellent food. If you like electronics, check out the 11 buildings of Yodabashi camera. Also ate at Uobei Shibuya for fast fun conveyer belt sushi. Line moved quickly. Great value too.
Then we took the Tobu Nikko line to Nikko (direct from Shinjuku so saved time and transfers with our bags). Cost a little more since JR pass didn’t cover fully. You could just take JR but there were more connections. Checked into Ryokan Nikko Hoshinoyado. Enjoyed Kanmangafuchi Abyss and the Toshugu shrines (buy tickets at the train station to avoid the lines at the shrine). Highly recommend this ryokan. Great public onsen (not busy, mostly empty, indoor and outdoor options) and phenomenal dinner. Surprised by wonderful breakfast also. After one night, metro and shinkansen to Kyoto (nice view of Mt. Fuji; enjoyed an ekiben on the train that we got at Tokyo station).
In Kyoto, walked Gion/Shimbashi street and had dinner at Pontocho first night. Many maiko sightings from across from the Ichiriki Tea House as dusk fell. Second day got 7 am start to be at Arashiyama bamboo grove early (peaceful) and then over to Golden Pavilion by 9 when it opened. Still very crowded, but fun and beautiful. We took cabs to the bamboo grove (30 minutes instead of 60) and then over to the Golden Pavilion because buses required connections and much longer travel time when we were trying to beat the crowds. After those two cabs, we just took buses around. Went to monkey park which was great and the had obanzai lunch at Gyatei (upstairs on the left, excellent) followed by walk to Gio-Ji temple (moss garden) and then through the Okochi Sanso Villa; then walked around the Arashiyama shopping streets. If you do the bamboo grove very early, be aware that all of the temples on that beautiful historic street nearby are closed that early. Nishiki market then dinner in Pontocho. Third day, started at Kiyomizu-Dera (check out Tainai-meguri, a symbolic womb of a female bodhisattva – we were pressed for time and the next schedule wasn’t for 30 minutes so we couldn’t stay), walked down Ninen-zaka and sannen-Zaka streets and then bus over to lunch at Izusen for shojin-ryori (you could get reservations, but we just got there early and were lucky to get in) and a walk around Daitokuji temple complex. There is a wonderful new zen bonsai garden in the Hoshun-in sub temple. Staff at other sub temples told us that that garden wasn’t open but when we got there it was. Check Instagram for opening times. After another visit to Nishiki market, we walked the Fushimi Inari Shrine into the evening and then back to Pontocho for dinner.
Train to Osaka. Went straight to Okonomiyaki Chitose which was excellent and a bit away from the main food areas; tried to get there for 11 am but went the wrong direction on the shinkansen rushing to the unreserved cars ((at the front of the shinkansens, by the way, usually cars 1-3 or similar). Also be aware of what platform to be at, but also that you are getting on the correct train. We almost took a 10:01 train when we should have waited for the 10:03 train at the same platform. Similarly, you might find that the JapanTransit app asks you to get off on platform 16 and then get on a train at that same moment at platform 16. Do it — it is asking you to go from an express to a local train). Because we didn’t arrive until 11:45, we were in an hour long line to get in. It was excellent though. Spent the rest of the day at Don Quijote and all of the many endless food and shopping streets near Namba and ended at Dotonbori. Conveyer belt sushi close to the river but upstairs so harder to find – surprisingly not crowded when the other places on the river were all mobbed.
Next day train to Nara, a few hours there exploring the Daibutsuden Hall and Todaiji temple and feeding the bowing deer, fantastic lunch at izakaya なら酒蔵なべ At 34-1 Imamikadocho, Nara, and then to Kyoto for the shinkansen to Tokyo for the airport.

What are these little green slightly translucent balls in a Chinese/Uyghur dish called dapanji or "big plate chicken".

1. The picture is them cooked
2. each green "ball" is about the size of a peppercorn
3. They taste citrusy, almost like lemon but not spicy or numbing at all
4. if you zoom in the husk/shell is kind of spotted

Here's the picture
https://imgur.com/HmabPrg
Extra details
I bought this dish from a Uyghur restaurant while visiting New York. This dish blew my mind and felt like discovering a new genre of food. I have to try to reverse engineer it as best I can! It was listed as chicken Laghman but given the other ingredients they used a dapanji/ big plate chicken recipe for the base.
I have looked at a few big plate chicken recipes and couldn't find an obvious match for this ingredient.
In some recipes the base broth cooks for 1hr+ and I wonder if some of the spices change appearance or flavor after that time. Brainstorming here, would either fennel seed, or Sichuan peppercorns taste and appear this way after 1hr+?
Any thoughts on what this could are welcome!!!
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Example recipe
The recipe that I have seen to include most of the ingredients I could discern is copied and pasted below. Credit to u/mthmchris for the recipe and detailed guide.
https://www.reddit.com/Cooking/comments/7bcvarecipe\_xinjiangstyle\_dapanji\_braised\_chicken\_aka/
"So we wanted to show you how to make Uighur-style of Dapanji, a.k.a. the aptly translated ‘big plate of chicken’.
The Uighurs are a Turkish ethnic group from the Xinjiang province in the far North West of China, and have a fascinatingly awesome cuisine. They've got a solid mix of Central Asian and Northwest Chinese flavors - lamb features heavily, the grill and the tandoor's used, and they have their own version of pilaf (called 'polo' or 'shouzhuafan'). But at the same time, they'll use certain Chinese ingredients and also make use of the wok. This dish is one of the most beloved in the region, and a great place to start with Xinjiang food.
Video is here. We decided to also include in a recipe for those wide kudaimian pulled noodles that’re often served with this… but if you’re not feeling ambitious you could always opt for any sort of thick dried Asian noodles instead.
Ingredients:
One whole chicken cut into pieces -or- chicken wings, ~1.5kg. So really, the ideal sort of chicken for this dish would be an Asian variety of chicken cut into pieces across the bone... and if that's convenient for you, I'd implore you to go that route. If that sort of thing would be difficult for you to get, my sub would be chicken wings. You could cleave them in half, or honestly you could probably leave them in whole as well. I've seen some Western recipe writers call for boneless breast or thigh here, but I really think that's a dramatic reinterpretation of the dish, and you'd also run the risk of dry chicken. Wings aren't too intimidating, and the essence's the same.
Potato, 800g. Cut into large chunks. You don’t want your potatoes to be too small else they’ll end up dissolving into the braise.
Xinjiang xianjiao (线椒), ~3 minced and reconstituted -or- Hungarian Sweet Paprika, 2 tbsp -or- Sichuan Pixian Doubanjiang, 2 tbsp. So Xinjiang xianjiao is what gives the Dapanji its characteristic red color… this mild chili is super red, and dyes basically anything it touches. Now, this chili’s sort of difficult to source even in China, so substitutions might obviously be necessary. To me, this chili is very similar to a paprika chili… so if you can get your hands on some dried paprika chilis (in China, hongjiao), I think that would be the most ideal sub. Similarly, if you got some quality Hungarian sweet paprika that should also be fine. In China outside of Xinjiang the most common sub is some Sichuan Pixian doubanjiang – you can go that route too, but in my opinion I think paprika would be closer to the original. We also got a real interesting lead on what these chilis might be called in English... see the note below.
White sugar, ¼ cup This will be mixed in with a half cup of oil to make a ‘tangse’, or caramel, for the initial step of frying the chicken.
Ginger (姜), ~2 inches Cut into slices, to be fried together with the chicken.
Sichuan peppercorns (花椒), ~1 tbsp. Added when frying the chicken.
Star anise (八角), ~4. Added when frying the chicken.
Cinnamon/Cassia (桂皮), 1 stick. Added when frying the chicken. Note that this, just like what you’d get a supermarket in the West, is actually Cassia bark and not the so-called “true cinnamon” from Ceylon.
Black Cardamom (草果), 2 pod. Added when frying the chicken. Slightly crushed to open.
Dried Chaotianjiao Heaven Facing Chilis (干朝天椒), ~15. A dapanji isn’t set-your-mouth-on-fire spicy, but it should have some kick. Adding in about fifteen whole dried chilis in with your braising liquid does the job nicely (no need to deseed them). If you’re outside China, dried Thai birds eye chilis should work just as well, or you could play around with Mexican chilis (anything unsmoked from the Capsicum Annum cultivar, e.g. Arbols, would likely be fine).
Dried bay leaf (香叶), 1. To be added when braising.
Leek (大葱), ½. Cut up a half a leek into strips, these’ll be added about halfway through the braise.
Garlic, 1 head. Peel a head of garlic, these’ll be added when there’s about 15 minutes left of the braise. Note that I add the garlic a bit earlier than many recipes might (most common is to see it added five minutes until it’s finished), mostly because I fucking love munching on garlic that’s been softened in a braise.
Mild chilis, 1 small red chili (红辣椒) and one small green chili (青辣椒). Cut into wedges. Neither of these chilis are very spicy, so you could also opt for one small green or red bell pepper.
Salt, 1 tbsp. To season. If you’re using doubanjiang in the place of xianjiao chilis, cut this out.
Chicken boullion powder (鸡粉), 1 tbsp. To season.
Process, Dapanji.
If using Xinjiang xianjiao chili, finely mince and reconstitute the chili. You’re aiming to get this into a super-fine mince – if you got a food processor (we don’t), I imagine that’d be a help. Once it’s fine enough for you, add in some water – we added roughly two tablespoons. Leave that aside for about thirty minutes - the chili will end up absorbing the water and forming a sort of paste.
Prep your ingredients. I’d use that time to peel and slice your ginger, peel the potato and cut into large chunks, crush the black cardamom pods, cut the leek and mild chilis into strips/biased wedges, peel the garlic… measuring everything out so that it’s good to go once you’re ready to fry.
Blanch the chicken pieces. Blanch the chicken in boiling water for three minutes or so. Because the braise isn’t going to feature much liquid, we’re not going to be able to skim the scum, blood, and impurities from the braise. The quick blanch’ll clean our chicken right up so it’s good to braise.
Make the tangse (caramel). This is a relatively common step in many Chinese braises. To make the tangse, add in a half cup of oil and a quarter cup of sugar to a wok over medium heat. The sugar will begin to melt into the oil, and after a couple minutes it’ll deepen in color to something resembling a caramel. For this stage, it’s important that you stir constantly, and know that tangse can go from zero to midnight real quick. All in all, it’s better to have an overly blonde tangse than a burnt one.
Fry the chicken pieces in with the tangse, then add in the ginger and the salt/chicken boullion. Fry the chicken with the tangse for 30 seconds or so, then add in the ginger and fry for another 30 seconds. Sprinkle with salt and chicken boullion to season – I know it seems a bit strange to season so early in a braise, but things end up getting a bit unwieldy near the end when the potatoes are nearly dissolved.
Add in the xianjiao chili, then the Sichuan peppercorns, black cardamom, star anise, and cinnamon. Add in the xianjiao chili (or some Hungarian sweet paprika, or some Pixian doubanjiang) and coat the chicken with it. Then, add in those spices and let them fry for about 45 seconds or so until it’s all just starting to smell awesome.
Add in 400 mL of water, and nestle in your potatoes, chaotianjiao heaven facing chilis, and bay leaf. Cover and let simmer on low. 400 mL of water might feel like a bit of a small amount (it won’t cover all of your ingredients), but the idea is that the ingredients are going to steam in addition to braise. Because of that, after you cover it you really don’t want to peek. This’ll end up cooking about an hour in total – we still got three ingredients to add (the leek, the garlic, and the mild fresh chilis), so we’ll mix it when we open it up to add those ingredients.
After 30 minutes, add in the leek. At this point, the braising liquid should still look ‘water-y’ and the potatoes should be mostly intact. Toss the leek into the braising liquid, give everything a mix, and cover.
15 minutes later (45 into the braise), add in the garlic. Now the braise should start to look like it’s coming together. The very edges of the potato should be starting to dissolve – if you eat a potato it’ll be roughly cooked through but not very soft. Now, I should note that I add in the garlic a bit early – when I was researching this dish, the Han Xinjiang guy at my market was insistent that the garlic be added at the very end, five minutes before finishing. I like my garlic soft and cooked through so I can munch on it though, so I add in in here.
15 minutes later (60 minutes into the braise), add in the mild fresh chilis. These will only need five minutes or so to cook.
Serve. Serve this with the kudaimian noodles below. Generally, it's best to serve them after you've already munched on the dapanji a bit so that you can get them all in that braising liquid.
Ingredients, Kudaimian Pulled Noodles:
Bread Flour -or- Dumpling Flour (高筋面粉), 250g. Basically looking for a high gluten content, we used bread flour.
Water, 125g.
Salt, ½ tsp.
Oil. To roll the noodles in before resting.
Process, Kudaimian Pulled Noodles:
Ok, now before we get into this, a quick word of warning: hand pulled noodle making is more of a skill than a recipe. If you’re new to noodle pulling, it might take a few tries to get your noodles right – by far the most common issue is noodles that’re a bit too thick, which I’ll talk about how to save in the notes below.
Disclaimer number two… we’re not the most experienced noodle pullers. Steph’s from Guangzhou (where there’s not exactly much of a tradition of this northern-style hand pulled noodle making), so it isn’t exactly something she grew up with. To give you an idea, about a third of our noodles we had to ‘save’ using the technique in the notes.
In any event, this variety of hand pulled noodles is vastly easier than lamian, so it’s a good place to start. Also, 'Biang biang' noodles are basically the same method, but are divided into smaller pieces and cut in half lengthwise with a chopstick.
Mix together the flour and salt, then slowly incorporate the water into the dough. Rest for 10 minutes. We’ve found doing this by hand is actually a bit easier than using the stand mixer. Add the water bit by bit, kneading and incorporating it into the dough. Once the dough is doesn’t stick to the bowl anymore and has been kneaded into a ball shape, it’s done. Cover with a warm, damp towel and set it aside to let the dough relax.
Cut the dough into eight even pieces, roll them into a sort of fat ‘log’ shape, coat generously with oil, and set aside for 60 minutes. Each one of these pieces is going to make one big noodle – this is like the noodle from KenM’s nightmares. Make sure the logs are coated real well with oil, cover them with plastic wrap, and set it aside for one hour. This second rest is gunna be really critical, if it doesn’t rest for an hour, you’re not really gunna be able to pull them.
Pull the noodles. As always, when I’m trying to explain what to do with dough via the written word, I sound like a convoluted doofus, so take a look at 4:49 in the video for a visual. First thing you’ll do is flatten your log by pressing it down with your palm – the flatter it gets here, the easier it’ll be to pull. Then, grab a hold of the two edges of the log and stretch it out four times. Now this is going to start to begin to look like a noodle. Then, continue to pull and smack the noodle against the table – this smacking motion’ll help the noodle thin out in the center as well. Once the noodle’s roughly as wide as your arm span, you’re finished. Just tear off and toss the little knobs of dough where your hands were pulling from.
Boil the noodle. Boil the noodles until they float. These northwestern style noodles are a bit thicker, so it might take a minute or so.
Note on how to rescue kudaimian that’re too thick:
One of the difficulties with learning hand pulled noodles is that if you screw up, you can’t just roll it back into a ball and start over – it won’t really form because of the oil.
If your noodle’s a bit too thick, use your fingers to lightly spread it horizontally, then pass it through your middle and index fingers with both hands while lightly pressing and pulling to straighten it back out – this motion is at 5:33 in the video. Again, this isn’t really impressive or correct or anything, but it’ll thin out the noodle and everyone’ll be none the wiser (unless you’re, uh… filming yourself).
Note on other Dapanji ingredients:
So a couple things that we didn’t add that you might see in a few dapanji recipes… (1) tomato paste (2) some other spices and (3) beer.
So right, Uighurs actually do use tomato paste in some dishes – the brand of tomato paste I buy here in Shenzhen is actually from Xinjiang. You could use half Xinjiang chili and half tomato paste to get that sort of red color if you like – it might be a bit more visually appealing, as our dapanji had a number of red flakes scattered about. We opted for pure chili as we were basing the recipe off of the dapanji of our favorite Xinjiang restaurant in Shenzhen, which didn’t use tomato paste.
Also, if you poke around, you’ll see that each restaurant’ll sort of has their own spice mix. We went with a basic one that was sort of a copycat of a Uighur-run Xinjiang restaurant we love in Shenzhen (plus Bay Leaf). The most commonly added ingredient that we didn’t use would probably be fennel seed… but sometimes you’ll see some places toss some more exotic stuff in too.
Lastly, many of the recipes around Xiachufang (the Chinese AllRecipes) feature a light beer as the braising liquid. Uighurs are Muslim though, so we just opted for water. Beer wouldn’t hurt though, so if you feel like it you could toss that in as well.
Note on Xianjiao Chili:
Again, please don't hesitate to sub this. I figured it'd be almost impossible for people to find abroad, except...
I was chatting with someone on YouTube and I'm now like 70% sure that this is Kashmiri Chili. They look really, really similar, have the same purpose (red color), similar heat level (~1k scoville), and if you look at a map that pathway seems like it makes a ton of sense. You should be able to find them on Amazon - at the very least, even if they aren't the same, I think it'd be a nice sub."

I’ve been searching for a couple months now and I’m located in a HCOL area. My first offer on a condo had 8 other offers so we lost that by a long shot.
A couple weeks ago my realtor told me he wanted to get me in to see a condo in a really desirable neighborhood that rarely has condos available and the single family homes nearby are usually I’m the multimillions. I actually didn’t even consider this neighborhood because I thought it was out of my budget. His colleague is the sellers agent, so was able to get me in early before it hit the market.
I went to the showing and they were just gearing up for the open house. The place was still messy and unorganized and they clearly had a baby, but it was beautiful and I fell in love with it. I put an offer $10k over the listed price, thinking there was no way they would take the first offer without listing it on the market yet. The next day I find out my offer is accepted. I was shocked, but my realtor said this often happens especially when sellers have a kid, are busy and just want to get the process over with because open houses and showing properties takes a lot of work and prep.
I was able to get a 5.99% interest rate loan with no points down. The inspection went well and the bank actually waived my appraisal so I don’t even need to schedule one.
I think that if the sellers had listed the property on the market, there would’ve been multiple competing offers and I probably would’ve lost out.
Just wishing everyone the best of luck and sending good vibes cause I know it’s so tough out there.

I (25M) and my GF (29F) have been dating for about 10 months, we met on tinder over a year ago and instantly hit it off. She was a straight up smoke show in my eyes and I couldn’t believe someone as beautiful as her would ever talk to me in a billion years. We quickly realized we had similar interests in sports teams and music and wanted to take things further. We started going out on dates to restaurants, going to sporting events, and pretty soon things started to get serious. Before we met, I had a daughter in a previous relationship. My ex and I got engaged back in December of 2019 and found out we were going to have a daughter in October of 2020. I’ll go into it in another post but my ex is kind of crazy and I’m currently working to afford a lawyer. Backstory aside, before I asked her out my GF was able to meet my daughter and she was ecstatic to be around her! I finally worked up the courage to ask her out in July 2022 and the next few months that followed were full of love and happiness. We went on more dates and I got to know some of her friends pretty well. Even came along with her on her birthday trip to Austin, TX in October! Come around to the beginning of the year, things kind of started to plateau. I noticed she wasn’t having the same energy that she had in the past. But I brushed it off as her work schedule being hectic. She is a nurse and works nights, given that it was also winter we both concluded it was seasonal depression. About a month later she tells me she never has felt this depressed before. I was still coming around once or twice a weekend, having every other weekend being with my daughter. And I was still trying to come up with ideas and places we could go to, but the depression was cutting into her energy no matter what I tried. Fast forward to a week ago. She called me and asked if we could talk. She told me that she wants to take a break for a while, citing her depression worsening and personal issues with her family that I’m aware of but I don’t want to share here. So we talked about it for a couple of hours and decided that we will give the break a try. She pointed out that I do have stuff I need to work on as well if we want to come out of this break and be a stronger and happier couple and bring both of our best sides out in our relationship. What advice could you users of Reddit can offer me so that I can come out of this break with so that I can be a stronger partner for her?

This year, I've decided to do a monthly post reviewing the MV games I've completed that month. Some of these may be replays of older games, but largely I'm going to focus on stuff with a fairly recent release.
Any review will obviously be subjective, so for some personal context, I tend to prefer games that are close to the Metroid side of things than the Castlevania side of things. I'm also a fan of MVs that shake up the formula, either by adding in a new element (i.e. Yoku's Island Express mixing in pinball) or by focusing on a specific element of the MV formula and taking it to 11 (i.e. Aeterna Noctis being super deep on the challenging platforming, the La-Mulana games taking the puzzle-solving/adventure elements to the stratosphere, etc). But I'm also fond of games that just get the fundamentals right and provide a smooth and enjoyable experience. I'll also try to add objective measures/quantifications on games where I can.
May itself was a slower month as far as releases go, which is good because I spent most of the month catching up on April's releases.
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The Last Case of Benedict Fox - This was a really interesting one. It's effectively a point-and-click-style Adventure game/Metroidvania hybrid. It features stylized CGI art that reminded me of classic adventure games like Grim Fandango, and a cool eldritch horror setting and decent mystery story. The adventure/puzzle elements were pretty cool as well, nothing quite as arcane as the La-Mulana games throw at you, but some interesting puzzles to solve.
Unfortunately, the Metroidvania aspects of the game were largely lacking. Platforming was pretty awkward - your double and triple jump abilities are dependent on "grappling" something above you with your eldritch companion, but it's not clear the rules by which this is targeted, so there's stretches where inexplicably you just can't use the ability since nothing overhead quite qualifies. Combat, likewise, had some major hiccups. It's very easy to get hit and comboed to death, enemies can often attack you from offscreen like right when you open a door, and many enemies feel spongey. There's only two real boss fights - the first and the last, all of the other "boss" sequences are escape or stealth sequences. There was, however, an interesting twist on the "corpse run" type mechanic. Enemies, when defeated for the first time, drop "ink", which is a currency you can use in the game to unlock and enhance abilities. If you die, you drop all of the ink you've accumulated since your last save point, but it doesn't return to the enemies that dropped it initially - they respawn, but without the ink they're in a weakened state that's easier to beat - so you can get back to where you died and recover it. But if you die on the way there, the ink returns to the enemies and you have to find and kill them all again. It felt like there's some stakes to dying, but never anything as feelbad as when you lose out on several hundred geo in Hollow Knight, for instance.
But the ink system ties in to another Metroidvania failing - most of the traversal abilities are unlocked via ink rather than via completing a specific goal in the game, so a lot of the ability-exploration loop is just sort of sold short. There's also several places where there are story gates rather than ability gates, which makes *some* amount of sense for a story-heavy game to make sure you encounter the story in the appropriate order, but weirdly, these aren't universal enough to actually enforce that. I missed a fairly major story point until much later in the game than I was supposed to have encountered it, which, eventually, stopped me from progressing further, but not until after doing a bunch of stuff that had assumed I'd encountered the point I missed, leading to some confusion. There also seemed to be some inconsistency around completion percentages, some areas weren't showing the amount of ink left to be found there, for instance.
Overall, it took me 15.6 hours to complete, making it slightly longer than an "average" game. But my overall verdict is that it's a game that had a great theory but was lacking in execution.
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Afterimage - Here's one that's been generating a lot of buzz on this sub. It's definitely pretty deep into the Castlevania side of things - you have level-ups, stats, different equipable weapons and armor, enemies can drop items randomly, there's food crafting for permanent stat bonuses, and there are consumable potions that can be used during combat. Overall, it felt a lot like Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, only without the Soul Shards system and with a talent tree that increases base stats slightly and unlocks weapon skill.
The game is also huge. Larger than Bloodstained (which may have taken me a little longer to complete because it's much grindier), likely comparable to games like Hollow Knight and Aeterna Noctis in size. And it took me a behemoth 36.7 hours to complete. And the art on it is quite good. There's a small segment early in the game where you're running down a hill and the sun is in the background and your character shows up in silhouette and it just struck me as the kind of artistic moment that's not super common in the genre. Unfortunately, the other aesthetic and lore choices for the game aren't as great as the art. The music is bland, the voice acting and dialogue is cringey, and the story is straight-up incoherent. It throws a bunch of weird terminology at you right out the gate and never explains it, basically expecting that you have existing familiarity with it, but best that I can tell it doesn't map to any kind of existing folklore or media. And it's not even one of these like, slow burn deep lore reveal moments either, there's never any meaningful payoff for this incoherence. And as nice as the art is, the areas are largely generic and those that are more interesting lack coherent theming and end up mashing up several unrelated themes into a single zone. There's also a fair bit of visual clutter which can lead to taking damage from small flying enemies that blend into the foreground or background.
Combat is plagued by the Castlevania problem: in a game with leveling and stats, the difference between an enemy at or below your level and one above your level is extremely stark. 90% of the bosses were total pushovers, able to be bulldozed down while face-tanking them because your stats are just better than theirs, maybe with a potion or two if you're close. And then there's a couple of high-level bosses that feel overtuned in the other direction and are frustrating, with poorly/misleadingly-telegraphed attacks that lead to a lot of damage feeling unfair. Likewise, if you find yourself in an area where the regular monsters are considerably above your level, you're going to have a miserable time of it, as they soak attacks like a sponge and kill you in 2 hits. And if you slog through them, you frequently run into an ability gate before getting anywhere meaningful in the zone. Which begs the question, why isn't that ability gate at the START of the zone, stopping you from going in somewhere where the enemies are way above your level and you can't progress, rather than relying on a soft level-barrier? This is particularly annoying at one point in the mid-game, where there's two nearby entrances to an single area from the same previous area, but one leads you to the above outleveled situation and the other is at-level and is needed to progress. If you take the first path, you'll quickly conclude you shouldn't be in this area at all, which then leaves you blocked if you never check the other path.
Tying in to the story issues, there's also some truly bizarre choices made around the endgame. Like, there are a number of "endings" available, but most of them don't really resolve anything or feel like an ending or even elaborate on what the consequences of your actions really are, which doesn't matter because you reload as if nothing has happened immediately after. And after completing a couple of the endings, you unlock a "New Game+" mode, except it's nothing at all like any NG+ I've ever seen, it's a series of ten linear levels played with a different character to "fill in the gaps" (leaving me barely any more coherent than when I started) and unlocking a final zone and ending in the main game when completed.
Overall, it's not an awful game, and fans of Igavanias and Bloodstained will likely find a lot to enjoy about it. The weapon system is cool and the weapons feel distinct (though, final gripe, a lot of the Magic Subweapons don't have any explanation for what they're supposed to do. Seemingly they're supposed to increase some stats or something but there's nowhere that indicates which stats, for how much, and for how long). Platforming is snappy and responsive. There's a lot of world to explore. But ultimately, it's not the kind of thing that's rocketing to the top of my personal tier lists.
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Convergence: A League of Legends Story - After catching up on both of those games, I had time for a shorter one, and Convergence had just hit, so I decided to check it out after hearing it's a Metroidvania. And it is! Maybe not the world's best, but it was a good palette cleanser.
The game feels a fair bit like Guacamelee, actually. It has areas you explore in a mostly-linear fashion, and most of the collectibles in these areas can be picked up your first time through, with thorough exploration and some platforming challenges. Combat often feels like a beat-em-up. You can unlock combat abilities in town to expand your range of moves. There's a fairly deep range of mobility upgrades you unlock, and the movement is incredibly responsive and largely feels great.
The big draw is the time manipulation abilities, which the game does with a unique flair. At any time, you can hold the left trigger to rewind time by up to five seconds, which rolls back any damage you take during that window too. Which is good, because your health starts at 3 (2 on hard mode) and there are no health upgrades available. However, there are a number of upgrades available to the number of rewinds you can hold, which effectively works as a buffer for your healthbar, as you can rewind judiciously to avoid damage as long as you have enough charges left. This mechanic also lets them make bosses that feel challenging but can frequently be beaten without dying - you just might have to rewind out of their attacks a dozen or more times in one fight, learning their attack patterns on the go and applying your knowledge immediately after rolling back a hit.
On the downside of things is the linearity. You can backtrack to miss things you missed the first time through an area, but once you unlock the gadget to highlight chests on your map, it's pretty easy to get everything on the first try, meaning you might only have to go back in to the first couple of areas. There's more backtracking in the central hub area as you revisit it between chapters with new abilities, but it's not as much as a "true" Metroidvania where you frequently have to revisit a zone with a new context. There's also a small mismatch between the rate of currency gain to the price of gadgets and combat abilities; I finished the game with half the combat ability tree still locked and one gadget incomplete, and there's really no incentive whatsoever to go grind ~1500 cogs 3-5 at a time to unlock everything at that point.
At ten hours, it's fairly average length for a Metroidvania, which may make the $30 pricetag seem a little steep for some. It's basically 2-3x what I normally expect to pay for a midsize Metroidvania that's not on sale. The linearity also means there's not a lot in terms of replayability. But for fans of League of Legends or any of its offshoots, there's some cool moments where you get to throw down with popular champions, and the story is pretty solid to boot.
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So that's a wrap on May. Unless anything really catches my eye, I'm probably going to spend most of June replaying Aeterna Noctis on its harder difficulty and tackling the DLC, so my June wrapup may be a bit shorter.