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Entries Tagged as 'Main thread'

Chestnut and walnut bread

February 2nd, 2012 · 4 Comments · Baking, Food misc, Main thread, Rome

Chestnuts were an important traditional foodstuff in parts of Italy. Peasants could supplement their diets with chestnuts, and flour was a natural extension of this. Roasted chestnuts remain a common sight in Roma over the winter, though I’m skeptical about whether this is because Romans demand it, or because it’s another cute novelty to sell [...]

Old geezers with the horn

January 30th, 2012 · No Comments · Main thread, Rome

One of our Sunday routines in Roma is going to the Mattatoio – the old abattoir in Testaccio – to the producers’ market. Wandering home yesterday, laden with veg, cheese, eggs, walnuts, chestnut flour and cose, we headed off Viale di Trastevere, up a snicket we’ve discovered, under looming apartment blocks, towards to our hilltop [...]

No one likes 3D

January 23rd, 2012 · 3 Comments · Gaming, tech & stuff, Main thread

At least no punter likes 3D. Seriously, does anyone like 3D? Does anyone know anyone who’s a 3D enthusiast? Who craves the experience of the latest 3D movie releases or is an early adopter of 3D TV? A friend went to see the latest Underworld movie, 2012′s Awakening, and a Facebook thread afterwards boiled down [...]

Wholewheat farro bread

January 20th, 2012 · No Comments · Baking, Main thread

Invented this one as I had some farro grain, which I’d bought when I was trying to make the Tuscan zuppa di fagioli e farro, aka bean and farro soup. Farro itself is a type of wheat grain, though the word can also be used to refer to barley and other grains, depending on where [...]

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Pass the dolci

January 19th, 2012 · 3 Comments · Food misc, Main thread, Rome

Italians love their dolci: sweets, desserts, ice cream and pastries, or pasticceria. I always assumed the French had the last word on patisserie, but living in Rome, I’m not so sure any more. In Monteverde Vecchio, our neighbourhood, indeed within about 100 metres of our flat, there are at least three pasticcerie (as I understand [...]

Translating cheesy Italian pop songs

January 18th, 2012 · 2 Comments · Main thread, Rome

Today, for some semblance of Italian self-education or compiti (homework), I’m going to try and translate the lyrics of this song they keep playing on the radio. Thank you Ram Power 102.7FM for getting this one stuck in my head. I can almost feel my music taste getting shifting, uncomfortably. The inner me dismisses this [...]

Musical migrations

January 17th, 2012 · No Comments · Main thread, Rome

So after I slagged off Virgin Radio here, our kitchen radio struggled to stay tuned in to the station. It’s like the station had the hump with me, and didn’t want to play any more. The tuning kept migrating into static, or other stations. So I gave up, and wandered around the dial until I [...]

Thoughts on Skyrim pt5: Falmer & farmers

January 12th, 2012 · No Comments · Digressions on fiction and whatnot, Gaming, tech & stuff, Main thread

Delving deep into the ruins of the Dwemer – The Elder Scrolls’ long-dead “dwarves” – reminds me of some of the time I spent exploring Moria in MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO, 2007; Moria pack 2008). I was inspired to play LOTRO by my love of the LOTR feature films, created by [...]

Thoughts on Skyrim pt 4: Giving voice

January 10th, 2012 · No Comments · Digressions on fiction and whatnot, Gaming, tech & stuff, Main thread

Skyrim is at the forefront of the evolution of the (single player) role-playing game (RPG), that much is evident. Though in many ways it’s both stifled by its adherence to RPG conventions and by its own ambition. Arguably, today’s technology cannot cope with the demands of a game this complex, notably in “temporal” terms, with [...]

Thoughts on Skyrim, pt 3: Plan it, or organic?

January 9th, 2012 · No Comments · Digressions on fiction and whatnot, Gaming, tech & stuff, Main thread

Here be spoilers. And dragons. Deciding who to side with in the Skyrim civil war isn’t the only difficult decision you have to make in the game. At one point, you’re also put in a position where you have to choose whether to kill a major character. It’s a character who has helped [...]

Daniel Etherington