I finally managed to get the pictrs update finished last night, so that's all sorted. Next up is the cache cleaner that will hopefully reduce the storage required (and size of backups) by a lot. If anyone likes technical details feel free to ask!

Over the weekend I also took one kid to see Kung Fu Panda 4 and took another ice skating for the first time.

Anyone get up to anything interesting?

[–] Ozymati 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Was KFP4 any good?

[–] Dave 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The kid enjoyed it. I thought it was OK. Nothing groundbreaking, entertaining enough, but not a whole lot in there for adults. Storyline was pretty generic really.

Plus I finished my popcorn before the movie started, so that may have tainted my experience.

[–] Ozymati 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I remember watching the first couple with my friend's kids and being mildly amused. Sounds like the franchise has devolved.

[–] Dave 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Mildly amused may be an appropriate description, but really how many movies are still good by number 4?

[–] Ozymati 2 points 7 months ago

Sometimes movies in long running series get awesome because the studio stops paying attention. E.g Anaconda 3.

[–] AWOL_muppet 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Nah, just surfing the tension headaches all weekend :(

[–] Dave 1 points 7 months ago

Arghh that sucks

[–] eagleeyedtiger 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The littlest was sick again, so not much fun was had here sadly!

[–] Dave 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Oh no! Hope they are on the mend!

BTW I currently have the instant pot cooking up this: https://thewoksoflife.com/taiwanese-beef-noodle-soup-instant-pot/

With a bunch of missing ingredients (including some I swore I had, somewhere...) so I'll see how it turns out.

[–] eagleeyedtiger 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

She does seem happier today, so fingers crossed.

Ah now I'm hungry and haven't even thought of what to make for dinner yet, hope it turns out well for you!

[–] Dave 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

It was good! I made it sans chilli, all three kids tried it (a surprise! but two tried it after the eldest tried it and liked it), and two of them liked it. One liked it enough for seconds.

I had two bowls, one I loaded with sweet chilli sauce and the other I loaded with ground chilli, and both were good in their own way, though I suspect the sweet chilli sauce version was not authentic 😆

Thanks for the suggestion, I like adding new things to the menu and it's not often that the kids try it the first time they see it!

One thing it mentions is spicy bean paste. Do you normally put something like that in? I'm not sure where I might find it.

[–] eagleeyedtiger 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Awesome! Any decent size asian grocery should have the paste, may also be in the international section in the supermarket. Honestly I never remember to buy it in time.. I doubt mine is very authentic either, I usually have the base spices on hand but not always everything. It still ends up delicious though 🤷‍♂️

Doubanjiang would probably make it a lot more authentic, but I usually have to omit anything with chilli so the kids will eat it.

I’m going to try and remember to pick up a jar of it next time, I haven’t been to an asian supermarket in a while though.

[–] TagMeInSkipIGotThis 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I always have a jar of doubanjiang now - it gives such a deep savory spicy kick when cooking. I think some new world / pak'n'saves carry the Lee Kum Kee jar which i've used before and is ok but not quite as good as some of the other jars i've tried (I usually just pick one at random from my local grocer). At a pinch you could probably sub gochujang, its not the same but does a similar job. One thing I really like about this youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@ChineseCookingDemystified) is they try to show as authentic a recipe as possible but almost always include substitutions for things they guess aren't readily available in the west.

The other thing i've started having on stock are these packs of sichuan ma la hot-pot base. They're like a lump of chilli and spices and oil mixed together, i've used them as instant flavour for an otherwise fairly plain stir fry as well as a flavour hit to stews and braises. They have that spicy & numbing thing going on obviously so not everyone's cup of tea.

[–] eagleeyedtiger 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I do have a thing of gochujang in the fridge, I could probably try that next time - but yeah I don't think it's really the same.

That's a great idea with the hot pot base, unfortunately we don't get to make as much spicy dishes due to kids, but I might try it one day when I can be bothered making separate meals for them.