Bibim Bap

What Is It?
Well, it's not a Manga sound effect, nor an Associates lyric, nor the sound of a couple of left hooks and a right uppercut.
     It's a Korean meat and vegetable dish.  Darling Daughter and I had one in Manchester a few years ago; it comes as layered vegetables and meat with a soft-boiled poached egg on top, and you mix the whole lot together prior to eating.

The Bibim Bap

     You can see where this is going, can't you?  Conrad gets interested in making his own BBB and checks out the recipes for it.  First problem is a Korean sauce called "Gochujang" - not a condiment you find on supermarket shelves in Royton.  You also need Mirin - Rice Wine Vinegar.  I know we had some in the past, and it might still be lurking at the back of the kitchen cupboards, but confidence is low.  Then there's another four ingredients just for the sauce, and a list of fifteen more ingredients for the toppings, as well as four eggs, and half a pound of cooked rice.
     Those we have.  Shiitake mushrooms, not so much.
     Then you have to make the thing, which involves having the rice cooking in the pan and a whole list of sequential additions and times and amounts of sauce to add.
     This thing is neither quick nor easy to make!  "Simple"?*

"Carmine"
If you are a lady, or even a girl of advanced years, you probably know all about this stuff.  It's used extensively in cosmetics, as well as food colouring in food and drinks, where they need a red or pink tint.

Mine!  All carmine!

     Stand by to be repulsed.  For millenia the hue was obtained by crushing and boiling the cochineal beetle to get that sinful scarlet blush.  However, as we are nothing if not safety-conscious nowadays, regulators noted that people had severe allergic reactions to bug-derived dyes.  Nowadays the dye is extracted from plants, which is a whole lot less disgusting to stick on your lips.

No!  Art Department, get it right!
- although the "Mine!  All carmine!" line works here ...

Cochineal.  Distantly related to Cochinigel.

What's In A Name?
It isn't just me, is it?

     As a product brand, quite possibly the last thing you would associate with sardines is that salad vegetable the Cucumber.  
     Oh - Mister Hand points out that there is a "Sea Cucumber", viz:

You wouldn't, would you?

     Although Conrad doubts anyone sane would be prepared to dice this with some tomatoes and consume with mayonnaise.

"Brrr!  It's Cold Outside!"
 - grumbled Conrad, before swigging away at a bottle of iced water.

     Things are going to be bad for him tomorrow, going back to the sweltering sub-tropical heat of the office after nine days off.

Ah - Coincidence.  What Kept You?
Once again the matter of strange synchronisations comes up.  Conrad has just finished reading "Thirst"**, an intruiging look at water management in the ancient world, focussing in one chapter on the works of Angkor Wat with it's huge barays and monumental stone works.
     What crops up as a news item on Facebook?

You guessed it - the John Player Specials

     Angkor, and a couple of young ladies*** who ought to know better.

Right, there will now be an hiatus.  I'm going to put on some laundry, check if there's any tea left and see about the Frikadeller.

Okay!  The Frikadeller slurry is now sitting and soaking, the tea is all drunk and the clothes are in the washer, getting quite the pummelling.  Which leads us onto -

"Naumachia"
No!  Not a Korean noodle dish.  It comes from the Greek "Naumachia" which means "sea battle" and, like a lot of Greek concepts, it was poached by the Romans.  The term refers to an artificial lake created to allow such sea battles to be staged, and the actual battle itself.

The dodgem principle did not apply

     Julius Caesar started the event by having a basin excavated next to the river Tiber.  There tended to be not a lot of room for manouevre in these artificial lakes, but that wasn't the issue as what the audience wanted to see was lots and lots of gratuitous bloodshed^.  The crews were composed of men condemned to death so they had little to lose^.

I Say It's So Foggay^^
It is indeed.  Normally we up here on the hill atop a range of hills do get more severe weather than the Flatlanders off in Manchester, where they probably had no more than a wisp or two of mist.

11:20

16:20

     One of those dull winter days where you have to leave the lights on all day long.



* Simple my hairy white rump.
** See previous item above
*** "Ladies" only in the broadest sense of the word.
^ Them civilised Romans - what rascals, eh?
^^ Yes I know it's not spelled that way.  But it rhymes.