Is Canada a country without a purpose?

Discussion in 'Political Discussions' started by tadj, Aug 7, 2022.

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  1. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    i.e. "Would you like some more? Perhaps a serving of (Austrian) "cheese goodies" with that?"
    Overheard in "Johanns Wiener Café."
     
    Last edited: Aug 22, 2022
  2. Lerner

    Lerner Well-Known Member

    I remember doing work in Calgary in early 90s. I was sent there to deploy a system and stay for additional couple of weeks to baby seat it and transfer knowledge to the customer.
    At the time, I didn't feel any difference between the countries, it felt to me like many of the US cities I visited and worked at.
    I do remember on the weekend in the park meeting a large group of people, they were all immigrants from Ukraine.
    There was a festival and they celebrated it by eating fish from Bow river.
    I had great time, good food, music and got to practice my Ukrainian language skills.
     
  3. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    Oh, I know, but Texas is very different from Maine yet there they both are. Differences can always be found but sharing a common language, legal history, and popular culture make the similarities much stronger than the differences overall.
     
  4. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I have to agree there. So, Nosborne - 1, Johann 0. But I know how to make Käsespätzle. Then again, you probably make great quesadillas, so... :)
     
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  5. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    That really depends on whom you ask. I make a New Mexico style chile sauce (meaning no stupid tomatoes) but I cheat. I use dried, powdered New Mexico red chile. This isn't really considered "kosher". Even my daughter in Albuquerque makes her sauce from dried red chile pods. I think that's too much trouble considering I make a batch of the stuff every week or so. If you choose to make sauce from the pods, you must remove the seeds (unless you are crazy) and run the stuff through a blender. The heat can burn your fingers, too.

    I also don't start with cubed pork or beef. You don't have to but the meat base does give a richer flavor. I used to make sauce that way when I lived in Santa Fe but we don't eat much red meat anymore. I use flour tortillas instead of making my own corn ones but that's pretty common throughout New Mexico. If you DO use corn, you need to fry them in lard first and that, again, means red meat. Then again, proper quesadillas can be a bit greasy which mine never are.

    Finally I don't smuggle in the correct queso Menonita. This cheese is virtually standard in Norteno cooking but since it's made from raw milk you can't bring it into the U.S. That's a lack that even I feel, too. The correct queso makes all the difference.

    Red chile sauce, btw, is technically a kind of mole. We don't think of it that way, but it is. I tend to keep it very simple, though, just a bit of garlic and cumin. New Mexico grown chile really doesn't need flavor enhancements.

    When's lunch? Or, around here, "lonche"!
     
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  6. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Loved that! The whole post!

    I wonder - could Mennonites in the US make that missing queso Menonita? I know you can't bring it in, but does the US prohibit manufacture or sale, if it's made in US?

    Mole
    is a whole science. At first, when I thought mole - I used to think of chocolate. Now I know how many kinds of mole there are. Natives of the Southwest and Mexico had / have many, many secrets. I don't believe we know the half of them - food or otherwise. (And chocolate and chile peppers can make some dynamite-tasting combinations!)

    There should be degree programs - e.g. D.A.C. - Doctor of Aztec Cuisine (or Cosmogony.) :)
     
    Last edited: Aug 22, 2022
    nosborne48 likes this.
  7. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    Cosmogony? Is that hairdressing for just one customer?

    There are cheeses made from pasteurized milk that are sold here as "asadero" or even "Menonita". I haven’t tried them. I should.

    There are significant variations even here in New Mexico itself. The easiest way to tell if you are led blindfolded into a restaurant in Albuquerque or Las Cruces is whether you get a flour tortilla (here) or a sopapilla (Albuquerque) with your meal. If you get some kind of quinoa flatbread you are probably in Santa Fe!
     
  8. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Tomatoes aren't stupid. They're a fruit disguised as a vegetable so kids won't eat them. Sounds pretty evolved to me.
     
  9. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    And the Lord have mercy on your taste buds!:p EDIT: I am referring to the quinoa flatbread.
     
  10. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    I am eating slices of roma tomato as I type. I am not a tomato-phobe! But tomato in "chili" sauce is a Texan thing and therefore banned in the Land of Enchantment.
     
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  11. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    In my son's house, Roma tomatoes are things that show up in bushel baskets filled to the brim, in early fall - to be made into huge quantities of sauce, by Lisa, my daughter-in-law, and her mother. Nonna came here from Italy as a young girl. Lisa's Dad was Irish-Canadian. He certainly loved Italian food, and, I'm told, his wife taught him to cook it - which he did enthusiastically and quite well.

    Marrying an Italian girl - smartest thing (of quite a few) my son ever did, I think. Catholic schools have their merits. :)
     
  12. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    No - it's more like Cosmology that hurts (agony.) :eek:

    Seriously, cosmogony (as I'm pretty sure you know) is the branch of science that deals with the origin of the universe, especially the solar system. Or it can mean a specific theory dealing with those origins. And New World Natives of many Nations had lots to say about that - and astronomy. :) And mathematics - particularly Mayans. Some fine minds there.

    I won't go on about some of their religious customs. As you know, religion itself does not interest me. It does not have a place in my life.
     
    Last edited: Aug 22, 2022
  13. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    I didn't know but thanks.

    I have probably posted this in the past but I do think that these coins are interesting:

    Loonie-Picture of said waterfowl

    Dollar coin-various but Susan B. Anthony is representative

    10 Peso-"the circle of the Sun Stone representing Tonatiuh with the fire mask"- Bank of Mexico. Note that the god pictured in the Sun Stone has for a tongue the knife used by Aztec priests to cut the hearts out of their sacrificial victims. This image is flanked by the god's claws, each holding a human heart.

    Tells me all I need to know!
     
  14. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Yep. Precisely the kind of religious custom I was referring to, when I said I wouldn't go on about them. And this sort of thing has nothing to do with my adopting Atheism a year or so back. And I DO go on and on about Atheism sometimes - but not about how and why I got there. That's a personal thing. Forever.

    And as I also said, I have nothing against people to whom religion IS important. It's THEIR faith and I have no business interfering. But I often find myself at loggerheads with clerics of all stripes. Especially those I perceive as smug. Smugness sometimes annoys me more than wickedness. Maybe I'll work on that - or maybe I won't bother. I have other stuff to do. Plenty. Glad to have it and still be able to do it. Marbles are intact - despite what you might hear :)
     
  15. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    Oh, yeah, but you HAVE to admit, there's nothing mushy or touchy-feely about Tonatiuh!

    I love Mexico!:D
     
  16. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Or the festival of Tlacaxipehualizti, either:

    "During Tlacaxipehualiztli (“Flaying of Men”), the second ritual month of the Aztec year, the priests killed human victims by removing their hearts. They flayed the bodies and put on the skins, which were dyed yellow and called teocuitlaquemitl (“golden clothes”)."

    Or Xipe Totec : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xipe_Totec

    Mayans had a lot of blood-letting customs, including genital piercing and strings with thorns to be dragged through the pierced holes. Page here:
    https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/civil/maya/mmc03eng.html

    Yes. I get your point. If I'd been a Conquistador, I'd probably just have stayed on the beach with some margaritas and watched the bikini traffic.
    I'm not much interested on blood-letting.
     
  17. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    I love chili fights, except the bean/no bean one. Oh, and I really don't like it when Cincinnati gets involved. Cinnamon everywhere!
     
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  18. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    In one of my (couple of) books on chili, the author (I think Frank Tolbert) called Cincinnati the "second most chili-crazed place in the world, after San Antonio." He mentioned "five-way chili" as the top of the "Ways" pyramid. Looks like the Cincinnati "ways" are:
    1. Two-way: spaghetti topped with chili (also called "chili spaghetti")
    2. Three-way: spaghetti, chili, and cheese.
    3. Four-way onion: spaghetti, chili, onions, and cheese.
    4. Four-way bean: spaghetti, chili, beans, and cheese.
    5. Five-way: spaghetti, chili, beans, onions, and cheese.
    Chacun à son goût, De gustibus non est disputandum, To each his own and all that. :) Been to Ohio. Never had any - should have asked. :) But cinnamon? Never heard of that one... :eek:

    And I know @nosborne48 says it should be "chile." Nosborne, please bear with this hopeless gringo. :)
    "You say "Chile" I say "chili" - let's call the whole thing off." Apologies to Ira Gershwin
     
    Last edited: Aug 23, 2022
  19. AsianStew

    AsianStew Moderator Staff Member

    Ha! All this food talk is making me hungry... you all know what that means... *looks into the kitchen*, time to cook!
     
  20. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    When I lived in Virginia, we had a restaurant that offered their chili exactly like that—5 ways. They also had 4 types, which is how I learned about Cincinnati, which can contain cinnamon, chocolate power, and who-knows-what-else.
     
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