Poetry Club Plug

(I'm just going to pretend there's not a decade long hiatus between posts, because while there is a lot to say on the subject of fandom, media platforms and associated cultures, I've said it so often and with such feeling that it feels as though I've nothing left to offer: the quiet that scans like apathy, because you yelled and cried it out ages ago. Suffice it to say, I hope to use this more now.)

A thing I've been doing lately is modding dankodes, a com where danmei fandom people (and adjacent) read classical Chinese poetry in Chinese and/or English and discuss it. Right now we're almost through the Shi Jing, and looking ahead to maybe doing some Tang stuff next (there's going to be a 'plug your choice, then vote' affair).

On there, we've also got some casual drop-in reading groups for SVSSS (which Mari and I have finished, but which anyone is welcome to add to the discussion of) and Nirvana in Fire, which I'm only partly through (having watched the show when it aired). If other people (besides Mari, who I think is reading it in and around other things) wanted in on NiF, to add some soft deadlines in there or to organise similar read-alongs via the platform, that'd be very welcome. 

Cooking the Books

A friend asked for cook book recommendations, so I did a tweet threat of few cookbooks I have that I like and why I like them:

1. I consider Nigella a classic, kitchen-friendly and v readable. She's is a pretty standard name in the UK, but less so in other countries? Of her oeuvre, Kitchen is our most-used.
2. I really like Allegra McEvedy. Her Bought Borrowed Stolen is global and accessible. Leon I is a GORGEOUS book: deeply pictorial, with a lot of background information. Browsey, readerly, and very approachable.
3. Nigel Slater has good prose, but his recipes tend to work better if you INVEST in ingredients in a way not everyone can or wants to.
4. David Thompson's Thai Food and Thai Street food are NOT user-friendly, though substitutions can be made on a lot of ingredients. Gorgeously written, wonderfully researched and photographed: I just can't talk about the subject without citing what a great fucking food historian he is.
5. Joy of Cooking is anti-pictorial, but is THE american bible of the subject.
6. Silver Spoon is a similar Italian text, the completeness of which is only rivalled by how strangely easy to use it is.
7. For baking, I really recommend Linda Collister's work.
8. Dianna Kennedy will require you to buy some peppers, but she is RELENTLESSLY good at Mexican food and food history. Just untouchable in English.
9. salt sugar smoke is excellent if you want to start any kind of preserving work.
10. Dishoom is kinda fussy but produces excellent Indian.
11. Madhur Jaffrey is the big name in Anglo Indian food writing.
12. For Viennese I tend to use a few things in combination: Gretel Beer most often, though it's OLD school, and then Planchuta or 100 Classic Dishes.

My Asian selection beyond that is patchy. There's STUFF I use on Japan, Vietnam and China, but no book I'm super drawn to, which I would flatly recommend seeking out?

And that's about it! Feel free to drop your favs?