#Argentine hunks

[hombresargentinos]

[pascalispretty]

dial ‘n’ for narcos - one

The Colombian Correspondent

Javier Peña x Female Reader

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Adult themes, references to death, references to violent crime, references to sex, swearing, smoking, drinking

Summary: A Narcos Film Noir AU. Javier Peña has returned to Colombia, and is determined to see justice handed down to the Godfathers of Cali. On his way, he meets a fresh-off-the-plane journalist with a tip burning her hole in her pocket that might just help him crack the Cali racket. (ao3)

¡Al Fin Cayó! The headline of El Tiempo declared, the blocky type seeping slightly into the thin paper where it had been exposed to the humidity. 

Or perhaps it had gotten damp in transit. The papers could take days to arrive at best; the Argentine headlines were almost always weeks out of date by the time they reached the office.

With a sigh, you spread out the paper on your narrow desk, trying not to smudge the ink any further. Below the headline, with all the subtlety and grace of a sledgehammer, was a photo of Escobar laid out on a slab, his mother at his head.

It was nice to know that the news game was a crass one wherever you were in the world.

The reports of Pablo Escobar’s death had crackled over the airwaves well over a week ago, though stories were conflicting.

The police shot him. An American did it. He shot himself.

Either way, Escobar was dead.

To your annoyance, the article was also scanty on the details, barely more than four paragraphs long. Even the cables that Sierra had managed to get through had been sparse, especially on what would happen now that he was dead.

You rapped your knuckles on the walnut wood of the desk before yanking the drawer open. There’s a mess of paper inside, scraps of telegrams and envelopes, unsent memos, and unused stamps.

Somewhere in there was your ticket out of here.

Buried somewhere in there is a letter from Sierra, prematurely aged by how often you’ve looked it over in the last few days.

You found it underneath a receipt for a cab and pored over it once more. Sierra Nimri had been The Telegraph’s Colombian correspondent ever since Pablo Escobar had become an international news story.

Now that he was dead, Teddy James wanted to pull her out of Colombia and rotate her into Cuba, to replace Harry Johnson there. Officially, Harry was getting bumped up to the Brussels gig; unofficially, the higher-ups were getting twitched about how much time he was spending with the commies.

Either way, Teddy James, Latin American Editor and nephew of the publisher, wanted Sierra in Cuba, and so she was going to Cuba. To his mind, her gig in Colombia was over.

You disagreed.

Sierra wrote to you from time to time, handwritten letters accompanying the typed manuscript pages of her latest article. Usually, it was just trivial; notes asking for more of an allowance for bribes or passing on gossip that didn’t have a place in the paper proper.

You’d been working for the Latin American desk of The Telegraph for almost two years now, and nothing had made you sit bolt upright in your rickety chair the way the last paragraph of Sierra’s last letter had.

At the start of the missive, she’d acknowledged Teddy’s request to ship her off to Cuba, but she was adamant that she be replaced in Colombia by another reporter.

Cocaine shipments were up, she argued. The Godfathers of Cali were the new big racket in town, and the paper needed a newshawk on the ground to keep an eye on things. 

There was also the sensational tip she had been given. 

She had been told by Andrés Pastrana that he had listened to a series of tapes that he called ‘narco-cassettes’. She had been told that what was on them was explosive. 

And then, before Pastrana could detonate whatever bombshell he had been about to drop, he’d vanished. 

His left index finger had washed up in the Cauca river, where the rest of him had doubtless been tossed. Now he was having his bones bleached by the water, his secret gone into the river along with him.

Still, it was the break you had been waiting for. You had spent years, first in school and then in various news offices, working your way up the totem pole. You were tired of covering congressional campaign breakfasts and pet pageants. 

Your time working the Latin American desk at The Telegraph had entailed little more than writing occasional updates on stories broken by the correspondents on the ground. From your tiny, cramped office by the stairs, you had read about assassinations and coups, about guerrillas in the jungles and juntas in the pampas. 

You were determined to get the Colombian gig, no matter what Teddy thought about it being a waste of money. 

With a long sigh, you ran your finger along the edge of the letter. Sierra’s writing looked like a spider had danced a jig in some ink, but you’re used to it by now. Holding the worn paper close to your heart, you pushed your chair back and stood up. 

Teddy usually strolled back in from his liquid lunch with the sports editor around two; it was ten past now, and the best time you could think of to argue your case. Hoping the alcohol has done its job on your boss, you took a deep, steadying breath, and stepped out of the office. 

Pastrana had been an important guy, a presidential candidate. Escobar was dead, and all of his men were either pinched or offed; it had to mean Pastrana had found out something serious about Cali. They were more or less the only narco game left in town, certainly the only ones with enough pull to murder a potential president.

There was a story in there somewhere, you could feel it. You needed to see for yourself if you could shake anything loose, and you were past positive that you could talk Teddy into letting you replace Sierra. 

You just had to hope you didn’t end up dumped in the river yourself for your troubles.  

* * * 

Javier Peña tugged at the collar of his shirt with one hand as he drove, trying to loosen it slightly. Before starting his new job as the DEA attaché in Colombia, he had bought fresh clothes. It had seemed like a gig that required a little more formality than his usual jeans and short-sleeved shirts offered. 

So, before he had left Laredo, he’d done a little shopping, feeling ridiculous as he trailed around the store and dodged men whose wives had clearly dragged them inside for fresh duds. 

Still, he was glad to be back in Colombia. The idea of a few weeks at home had seemed tempting at first, especially after his brush with the DEA brass. 

The wedding was what had made him come back to Colombia early. It had been a painfully awkward affair, people that Javi hadn’t seen in years rushing to shake his hand and call him a hero for helping win the War on Drugs. 

They’d been wrong on both counts.

It almost felt like a relief to pull into the parking lot of the grey hunk of concrete that housed the US Embassy in Bogotá, where people were a little more in touch with the reality of what the US was doing in Colombia.

Stoddard, his new deputy, met him at the door and quickly shattered any hope Javier had that his staff was savvier than the general public. It was like being right back at the wedding; people were practically lining up to shake his hand and ask him about Escobar.

He got rid of them as quickly as he could without being openly rude, sending the kid off to find the boxes of files kept on the Cali cartel. 

It was only when he was ensconced in his office, away from the whispers and stares of the new blood that had been rotated into his department, that he felt more at home. Once the door was closed, and the blinds were down, he was free to surround himself with paper, slip off his jacket, and settle down to work. 

The glass of scotch he’d liberally poured for himself helped too. 

From among the paper and photographs, a better image of the Cali cartel started to emerge. 

They were a bunch of slick bastards, with carefully maintained fronts. 

Gilberto and Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela were businessmen of renown in Cali, and Colombia more broadly. Gilberto had graduated from being chairman of the board for Banco de Trabajadores to setting up his own bank, First InterAmericas Bank. 

Together, they also ran a chain of drugstores, donated handsomely to their favourite football team, owned a phone company based out of Cali, and still found the time to run the largest drug cartel in history. 

They were slightly less brazen than Pablo Escobar had been; Pablo had claimed his immense wealth had originated in a firm that loaned out bicycles before he graduated up to a taxi firm. At least the brothers had more obvious sources of wealth

The brothers had two business partners; Chepe Santacruz Londoño, who handled New York operations, and Pacho Herrera, who officially helped run the drugstores, and unofficially ran security for the brothers. He also apparently owned nightclubs and bars all over, a gunsel who was drawn irrepressibly to the nightlife. 

There was an op running in Cali tonight; they’d found a brother of a cartel dealer who’d been willing to cut a deal. Two agents had fitted him up for surveillance and sent him in as a waiter to some shindig the cartel was throwing. 

It felt strange to Javier to not be there overseeing it personally. He was used to being on the ground, not up in some fancy, newly renovated office made almost entirely of glass. 

“Stoddard!” Javi called, rubbing his eyes. The words were starting to swim on the pages, and he wasn’t entirely sure if that was down to the lateness of the hour or the amount of scotch he’d consumed. 

When there was no answer, he stood and pulled the glass door of his office open, the blinds swinging violently at the motion. 

“Stoddard?” He asked, but it was an empty gesture. The hallways beyond his office were dark; his staff had all left him for the night. 

With a look back over his shoulder, Javi decided to call it a night as well. His new office was a mess of paperwork and boxes already, and now that he was up and shaking the stiffness from his legs, he couldn’t imagine sitting at the low, unforgiving couch in his office again. He itched for a cigarette, but he did his best to fight the urge. 

Instead, he decided to indulge in his only remaining vice and headed for the nearest bar. 

Not far from the embassy was La Social, its name broadcast in bright neon blue above the door. It was a frequent haunt of embassy staff; Javi could remember many hours spent in here with Murphy, talking theories over a cold beer. 

Javier slipped the noose of the tie from around his throat as he walked in, and almost instantly wanted to walk back out. Clustered around a table by the window were his new team, Stoddard holding court at the head of the table. 

Before Javi could make good his escape, Stoddard noticed him, and the cute brunette Javi had clocked earlier. Time was, Javi would have tried to get her into bed. But he was older now, and his run-in with Lorraine in Laredo had thrown him off his game. 

Besides, too many of his mistakes in Colombia had been caused by his weakness for women. Better to avoid that temptation entirely than to risk another Helena, another Elisa, another Maritza. He didn’t need some pretty twist clouding his judgment this time around.

Instead, Javi shrugged his jacket off and took a seat at the bar. Whiskey would see him through, his most reliable partner.

“Hey, boss. Do you mind if we buy you a drink?” He offers, with an earnestness that Javi hasn’t seen in a long time. Was Murphy ever like that? Had Javi been, when he’d first stepped off the plane in Bogotá? The bartender set down the glass of whiskey Javi had ordered, and he took it gratefully. 

“No, thanks.” They’re all too green; he wondered what Ivy League criminology course the DEA had recruited Stoddard from. The kid seemed a little deflated by Javi’s rejection. Perhaps he had hoped for stories of dramatic gunfights with Escobar’s men, of foiled car bombings and cocaine raids. 

If Stoddard was going to survive down here, he had to get used to disappointment. 

Javi finished his first whiskey and ordered another. That itch to smoke was back; he’d spent so many nights in here, with Murphy or Carrillo, smoking until his throat hurt and talking about La Catedral or how to force Escobar out of his hole. 

Murphy was gone, playing happy families with Connie and Olivia in Miami. 

Carrillo was dead, his widow back in Madrid with her son. 

So Javier drank alone, and tried to ignore the desire for nicotine. A glance over his shoulder told him that the cute brunette from earlier was still sneaking peeks at him, and he tried to talk himself out of it. Sleeping with his staff would be a bad look for the new DEA attaché on his first day. 

Just as he was about to slip off his barstool and talk to her, he found the seat beside him being pulled out and occupied. 

Not by a cute brunette; by an overweight, balding man who looked fresh out of the jungle, still in khaki pants and heavy boots. 

“Pretty girl. Poor taste in men though.” Stechner said, making himself comfortable in the seat beside Javier. “It’s nice to see you back, Agent Peña.” Javi very much doubted that. Ever since Stechner’s appointment as the CIA station chief down here, he’d rubbed Javi up the wrong way, and the feeling had apparently been mutual. 

“Heard you signed off on me coming back.” Javi said, trying not to let his surprise show. It had taken him by surprise to hear it, especially after the CIA man had put the skids under Messina. Not that Javi had liked Messina, but there was something that rankled about the CIA being able to dispense with his former boss. 

“Did indeed. You’re no sap, Peña; you know what the deal is down here. You know Escobar wasn’t a win, no matter how much the brass back home said it was. The same, please.” Stechner ordered his drink with the same casual tone as he spoke to Javi. 

It was the tone of a man confident that he was always seven steps ahead of whoever he was talking to, and it made Javi grit his teeth.

“The fuck is that supposed to mean?” Javi would get into incalculable trouble for starting a barfight with the CIA station chief, but it was an enjoyable thought nevertheless. His steady calm was in direct opposition to the rising annoyance that was trying to crawl its way up Javi’s throat.

He almost missed the days when Steve had been the loose cannon; it had forced him to be more measured. 

“What was accomplished, Javier? Thousands of Colombians died, and coke’s still flooding American streets by the ton.” Stechner took his drink from the bartender and took a slow sip. 

“Oh, come on. You don’t care about American streets or dead Colombians.” Point of fact, Javi doubted Stechner cared much about anything. At that, Stechner gave a mirthless little chuckle. 

“Point being, Peña, we can’t afford another bloodbath. No swallowing the spider to catch the fly this time. America has plans for Colombia; blood in the water will just gum up the works.” Stechner said this like it was the most obvious thing in the world, that somehow Javier had been responsible for the bloodbath and it had now fallen to William J. Stechner to tidy up after him. 

“So what’s the play?” 

“Surrender. The negotiations are all silk so far, and has the seal of approval from those muckety-mucks in DC.” 

“And these fucking guys just breeze?” 

“After handing over the keys to the biggest coke racket in history. Hell, the biggest racked in history full stop. Far as I’m concerned, the DEA can even take the credit.” As gestures go, it’s as hollow as a log, and it’s all Javier can do to stop himself from rolling his eyes. 

“So what do you need me for?”

“The dashing DEA agent who took down Escobar? Helps to have a hero along for the ride. The godfathers’ will serve some time, most likely.” There was that word again, hero. Coming from Stechner, it just sounds like an insult, and Javi isn’t sure if that’s worse.

“And that’s enough for you? Sending them up the river for a spell?” 

“If there were any justice in this world, Javier, you’d be in jail. That op your guys are running in Cali tonight? It’ll come up snake eyes. All you’ll get for the trouble of going after Cali are more stiffs.” With that, Stechner drained what was left of his drink and left, with a pat of Javi’s shoulder that smacked with condescension. 

Javier had every intention of making tracks, the bar no longer feeling so welcoming. He truly meant to, finishing his own drink and tucking a few bills under the empty glass. But then, as he stood, he caught the eye of the cute brunette. 

Fuck. 

* * *

It had been a struggle for you not to press your nose up against the window of the cab as you were driven through Bogotá that first night that you arrived. On its high plateau in the Andes, Bogotá was cooler than you had anticipated, a look of rain in some of the clouds up above. 

Part of you wanted to send the cab ahead with your luggage so you could roam the streets for yourself. Neon lights glittered everywhere, people spilled out of bars and night markets and onto the pavements, the whole city so vibrantly alive in front of you. 

You had only read about it in Sierra’s dispatches; seeing it for yourself was another experience entirely, and you didn’t want to waste a single second of it. 

The car paused in traffic, and you stared out of your window at the bar directly across from you. A neon blue sign flickering above the door revealed it as La Social. You wanted to climb out, to go to the bar and order yourself a drink and start exploring immediately. 

But before you could work up the courage to jump out of the car, the traffic started moving again, carrying you closer to your destination. 

The Telegraph had leased an apartment for Sierra not far from the US Embassy, a two-bedroom affair that sounded far nicer than your own tiny apartment that you barely afforded on your meagre salary. Still, the paper was footing the bills, so you were happy to take advantage while you could. 

From the bag next to you, you pulled out the new leather notebook you had bought and squinted at the notes you had made in the light of the streetlamps you passed. 

What was on the tapes worth killing Pastrana for? 

Who has them now? 

Why?

It wasn’t much. But it was a start.

Taglist: @lannister-slings-and-arrows, @zeldasayer, @coffeeandtodd, @lokiaddicted, @yespolkadotkitty, @steeeeeeeviebb, @pascalisthepunkest​, @pascalesque​ . Let me know if you would like to be tagged!

[gringoslur]

Brazilian Shiro, Cuban Lance, Argentinian Pidge, Chilean Keith and peruvian Hunk

brazilians just lost the right to have brazilian shiro yesterday. now he’s japanese, half peruvian or half argentine. WHY CANT U FREE ME FROM CHILEAN KEITH FKJGH. I want to keep Hunk full samoan tho, i don’t know why. he cute. 

[lizarwj-blog]

Hunks in argentine sucking dick video gaytube. 5ce3b1ba27296

[hombresargentinos]

[dockerifique]

TNT’s dark and filthy drama Good Behavior — aka “Lady Mary’s Come Undone” — wrapped its haute, high-tension 10-episode run with the same heart, black humor and shenanigans that made its pilot so compelling.

Michelle Dockery’s explosive breakaway from the staid walls of “Downton Abbey” — as the “Fleabag”-level compelling Letty Dobesh, a severe addict and con artist with more wigs than Sydney Bristow — proved worth the binge… And the hangover.

Recently released jailbird Letty Raines gets off as much on stealing as on crack — and all she wants his her son back. Of course when her cat-burgling first attempt at making that happen puts her on the radar of a sexy hired killer, we knew we were in for something special. There is a new brand of drama, usually short-season, usually character-driven, that is so serialized as to be built for the binge — quite the opposite of the syndication model we’ve been dealing with for so long, in which even high-quality shows like “The Good Wife” had to keep procedural elements in play. While pay-cable drama has never been under those restrictions, it’s still a newish thing for netlets like TNT, Lifetime and USA to tell stories this way.

Painfully honest, clinically unable to be anything but herself, even in costume… So when Letty meets a hit man who’s accustomed to wearing dozens of different identities — played by Argentine hunk-and-a-half Juan Diego Botto — it’s the catalyst for adventure, growth… And more than a few missteps. All of which make for riveting TV: Romantic, complex, thrilling and suspenseful, dingy and soaring by turns.

Near-perfect first seasons are rare, but “Good Behavior” pulled it off: Even Letty and company’s darkest moments — no matter how gritty, unflinching, or shameful — only made you root for them more. From Javier killing a man on a golf course while Letty sings “Blue Skies” in the hotel restaurant, to counseling a friend through his traumatic bisexual crisis, to lovingly putting her parole officer free on the road to total chaos, to the world’s most awkward family dinner, as we learn the secrets of her hitman lover’s nasty past… The show just consistently delivered. Right up until the end, where our train-wreck protagonist ends up getting the keys to her dream ― much to her surprise, and our delight!

Getting what she’s always wanted doesn’t mean Letty’s going to reform — especially when the key to her titular (and always barely applicable) “good behavior” is in trouble. It was absolutely gleeful, and a wonderful payoff, when Letty did what she does best in order to save Javier. Watching the gal who used a motel room lightbulb to smoke meth in the season premiere coming into her own as a strong, unshakable heroine fighting for her man, even then “Good Behavior” didn’t let us forget Letty’s no saint, keeping her dressed in form-fitting black while angel-faced killer Javier wore spotless white.

The show’s mandate, of course, even through all its shifting revolutions and transformations, is about two forces of nature that can’t be kept apart, even by the most awful betrayals: It’s an intense and shifting power dynamic throughout the season, and finale… And that’s before the light kink even starts. The occasional kidnapping or consensual chokehold may not exactly be hearts-and-flowers territory, but damn does it work for them!

And of course, points up the best things about Letty: The absolute and radical purity of her compulsively shades-of-gray, adrenaline-junkie approach to life. As her son hears, in one of the finale’s most touching moments, explicitly:

A pretty simple conversation that sums up exactly why TNT bet on the right actress, and the right show: Blake Crouch’s beloved Letty Dobesh, brought to the screen as Letty Raines by Dockery and showrunner Chad Hudge, is honestly one of our 2016 heroes, and we’ll be rewatching the season from the start before the month is out. From one life-changing hotel room encounter to another, from one emotionally charged elevator scene to the next, it’s so worth it — and we won’t sleep until we’re certain Season 2 has the green light.

PHOTO from: https://mobile.twitter.com/thetracemeister/status/819304836386721793

[lauramalchowblog]

Campfire Cooking: A Primal Guide

For hundreds of thousands of years, humans had an unbroken tradition of evening firesides. It’s where we told stories, recounted the happenings of the day, sang, danced, and just sat in comfortable silence staring into the flames. It’s also where we graduated from desperate scavengers scooping half-eaten marrow and gnawing bone scraps for gristly morsels into legitimate cooks.

Now that line is broken. Now we sit around the television. We sit under the perma-glow of the LED, gazing into our phones. If we even cook, we do it under perfectly controlled settings. Which is fine, but it’s missing something: the wildness of fire.

Cooking over a campfire is more art than science. It’s feel. It’s intuition. It’s love. Every flame is unique, every piece of wood or charcoal providing a different amount of heat. No two steaks or slices of bacon are identical cooked over flame or charcoal, yet each is perfect in its own way. It always works out.

First of all, you don’t need to actually go camping to do campfire cooking. It certainly helps, and I highly recommend camping as often as you can, but you can cook over fire almost anywhere, anytime.

Here’s what to do….

How To Get Set Up

Watch the Francis Mallmann Episode Of Netflix’s “Chef’s Table”

If you have Netflix, watch it. It’s from the first season. This trailer gives you a taste of what to expect.

Mallmann is an Argentine chef who cooks exclusively using wood fire. He’s a bit of a romantic, always wearing colorful cloaks and elaborate hats and quoting poetry and things like that, but somehow it works with him. He’ll have you wanting to start flirting with the “edge of uncertainty” that is campfire cooking.

Get a Fire Pit

Buy one if you like. I haven’t come across any great cooking commercial fire pits, but I’m sure they’re out there.

You can get some old steel drums and either cut the tops off, or lay them on their side and cut from top to bottom to create a “trough” style pit. Make sure to clean the inside and (this is important) only use unlined drums—you don’t want any toxic material coating the interior. Give it a good hot fire or two to burn off any unwanted residues.

You can find a metal fabricator nearby who’ll build whatever you want. Bring a sketch (or detailed description) of your desired fire pit and he or she will build exactly what you envision.

Horizontal smokers work, too, if the trough section is big enough for a fire.

A basic Weber-style charcoal grill can also work well, handling either wood fires or charcoal.

Or, for the most Primal experience, you could build one on the ground. Make a ring of stones, shape it into whatever arrangement you’d feel best cooking on, and get cooking. Have a source of water nearby (hose, huge bucket) so you can douse the thing if it gets out of hand.

Get Some Cast Iron

There’s something extremely romantic about cooking in black iron over fire. It feels Primal, elemental, and ancient. Plus, cast iron can handle the worst fire you can throw at it and turn it into something beautiful and delicious.

Get a grill, like this one: Raichlen’s Tuscan grill—a 14 inch by 14 inch square cast iron grill with screw on legs, so you can place it directly in the fire and either cook right on the grill or use it as a stand for your pan or griddle. I’ve used this thing to cook meat right in the sand as the sun drops. Nothing like it.

Get some pans: I like a 12 inch cast iron pan and a 15 inch cast iron pan—good sizes but still maneuverable (albeit heavy). If you’re feeding more people or need to cook 4-5 steaks at once, think about getting a really huge piece like this 20-incher or maybe the 17 incher from Lodge. You can often find better deals (and unique pieces) at garage sales, antique sales, or off of Craigslist.

Get a griddle: A big flat rectangular slab of iron is also pretty great, if you prefer that shape to the round pan. Your mileage may vary. Or get both!

Build a Fire

For cooking, I like the log cabin setup. You need a big fire pit to do this, and it consumes a lot of wood, but it really creates a hot flame and, if you plan on cooking over it (see the next section), great embers in a short amount of time. Start with two large pieces across from each other. Stack two more across the top on the other sides, forming a square. Continue until you’ve got a 1-2 foot structure. Then, place a small tipi inside the “cabin” and light it. Place small kindling-size pieces across the top of the “cabin” to increase the fuel.

Here’s a nice video of one.

Choose Hardwoods

Oak is probably the best to cook over. Almond and madrone are also great. Neutral taste, powerful heat.

Don’t cook over wood like redwood or bay or eucalyptus. Anything with strong resin or sap will flavor your food, and not in a good way. Although some Caribbean jerk recipes use bay for flavor, a little bit goes a long way.

Straight up charcoal is another option. It’s not as romantic or thrilling as building a fire and seeing it cook down into embers, but it does the trick.

You’re ready to go. Your fire is blazing. Embers are developing. What’s next?

What To Cook

Steak

The quintessential campfire meal is grilled steak. Or seared—read on. Some salt, some pepper, some fat, some fire, and some iron. It’s easy. It’s delicious. And it’s highly satisfying.

What kind of steaks?

They all work. I’d reserve the pricy stuff like NY strips, ribeyes, and porterhouses for a later date, for when you’re more skilled around the campfire, and stick with cheaper (but no less delicious) cuts in the beginning.

Skirt

Chuck Eye

Flat Iron

Picanha, or Petite Sirloin (a section of the sirloin with a big fat cap on it)

Cook this with salt and pepper on your cast iron pan, which should be screaming hot before you add the steaks. Flip once, press the center, and when it feels right, it’s done. Don’t use a thermometer. Go by feel. Trust your instincts. If they’re wrong, they will hone themselves and the next one will be better. You don’t want to be the person who’s fussing and fretting with fancy thermometers over the campfire, do you?

You can grill over the grates, but I really think a pan works better here. Any marinated steak, however, seems to work better over a grill.

And these all apply, of course, to other types of animal flesh: lamb leg steaks or chops, pork chops or loin, venison (preferably backstrap from an animal just killed).

Stews

I hereby declare that the category of “stews” includes chili, curry, pot roasts, and anything else you cook in a big old pot with liquid that’s hearty, rich, and thick and isn’t soup.

This is the best chili to make over a campfire.

This is a great lamb curry.

I love this German pot roast over the fire. Since the liquid will evaporate quicker than in the oven, you’ll need to keep some bone broth on hand to keep adding to the pot as it disappears. It actually ends up better and richer than the oven version due to the added gelatin.

I once came up with a stew using camp leftovers that I’ll probably never be able to recreate, but this was the gist:

Chop some bacon and render the fat in a dutch oven.

A whole chicken, salted and browned on all sides in said dutch oven.

Throw in a mess of chopped veggies—garlic, peppers, onions, leeks, carrots, lemon slices—and brown them in the fat.

Pour half a bottle of white wine in and half a hard cider or beer.

Pour in some vinegar and fish sauce.

Pour in some canned/jarred tomatoes or tomato puree. Paste would also work.

Then let it cook down. Put the wooden spoon in it and cover it, so that the steam can escape and the stew can thicken. It’s ready when the meat is falling off the bone, the broth is thick, and the bones are softening.

The beauty of this one was that we kept adding ingredients throughout the cook as we discovered them and went “hey, this might be good!” Yours might not turn out the same, but it will be great. Probably works well with any hunk of meat, as long as it has bone and connective tissue—think oxtails, shanks, legs, feet.

The problem with making dishes like this in the kitchen is that it’s terribly boring standing there for hours monitoring its progress. The beauty of making dishes like this over the campfire is that it’s not. You’ve got friends pitching in, taking turns with the spoon. You have a beverage. You’re laughing, chatting, talking. You can always just gaze at the trees. It’s a communal event. If you can, extend the cook time of all these dishes. Really let the fire and smoke soak into the stew.

Veggies

Veggies are to be cooked as the meat is resting, preferably using the same pan in the same fat. A few ideas:

Vegetable “Risotto”: Chop peppers (both hot and sweet and mild), slice onions, some green tomatoes, some leeks and shallots (basically all the alliums you can find), carrots, cherry tomatoes. Throw in a few whole garlic cloves (or a few dozen). Cook in the meat drippings and as it cooks down, add little scoops of hot bone broth. That’s the “risotto” part—continually adding hot broth to reduce down into syrup. Consider a splash or two of lemon juice at the end, if it needs acidity.

Crispy Asparagus: Chop asparagus up into four pieces, each about two inches long. In either avocado oil or the meat drippings, sauté the asparagus pieces until browned and crispy. Finish with sea salt and lemon juice.

Grilled Zucchini: Slice big vertical slices about a finger width thick. Brush with avocado oil and plenty of salt and pepper. Grill over a grate until you get char marks. Flip, repeat, eat. Zucchini is surprisingly low carb and very high in potassium.

Dessert

I tend to let loose with the sweet stuff a bit more when camping, reason being I’ve been incredibly active, my circadian rhythm is on point from lack of artificial lighting, and sweet stuff just tastes better when it’s a rarity. And even this “sweet stuff” isn’t all that sweet compared to what most people are eating daily.

Whipped cream: Keep metal bowl on ice, pour in cream, maybe add a splash of bourbon or rum, add a little sweetener (real sugar, monkfruit powder, honey, etc.—less is more), and whisk. Pass the bowl around the group for everyone to whisk, since your forearms are probably tired from hauling around cast iron.

Grilled Fruit:

Pears studded with cloves. Cut pears in half. Shove a clove or two into each half. Sear in butter on cast iron and sprinkle of salt. Serve with whipped cream.

Mandarin oranges seared with rosemary. Sprig of rosemary on top the orange, sear in butter. Serve with whipped cream.

Apples in pork fat. If you’ve been cooking pork or bacon, save the fat to cook apple slices in. Sprinkle cinnamon and maybe some cayenne. Serve with whipped cream.

Primal Chocolate Cake: This never fails to please. Cook a Japanese sweet potato by wrapping in foil and burying it in the coals and ashes, making sure to poke a hole down the middle with a chopstick first to provide an avenue for heat down the middle. When it’s ready, cut in half, stick some 85% dark chocolate pieces into the flesh, sprinkle with salt, and mash. Eat.

Dates Stuffed With Salted Macadamia Nuts: No explanation needed. One or two nuts per date half. Incorporate bacon if you like.

“Pumpkin Pie”: Take the winter squash of your choice (I like honey nut, a better, smaller, sweeter butternut) and bury it in the coals and ashes an hour before you need it. Once it’s done, halve it, deseed it, add a raw egg yolk to each half, sprinkle some ginger/cinnamon/nutmeg, add salt, and mash it up. Top with whipped cream.

The trick with campfire cooking is to make it sort of elaborate but not surgical. Rustic but not “empty can of beans into pot.” It’s a fine balance. It’s riding that edge of uncertainty. You can’t quite define it; you just know it when you taste it.

Take care, everyone, and get out of the city and go camping. Or crowd around the fire in your backyard. Or, heck, go to a park with BBQ grills and make a day of it. It’s not too late. Fall camping is my favorite. It’s the perfect time.

What about you? What do you like to cook over the fire?

Thanks for reading. Be well. And let me know how your campfire goes.

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[jesseneufeld]

Campfire Cooking: A Primal Guide

For hundreds of thousands of years, humans had an unbroken tradition of evening firesides. It’s where we told stories, recounted the happenings of the day, sang, danced, and just sat in comfortable silence staring into the flames. It’s also where we graduated from desperate scavengers scooping half-eaten marrow and gnawing bone scraps for gristly morsels into legitimate cooks.

Now that line is broken. Now we sit around the television. We sit under the perma-glow of the LED, gazing into our phones. If we even cook, we do it under perfectly controlled settings. Which is fine, but it’s missing something: the wildness of fire.

Cooking over a campfire is more art than science. It’s feel. It’s intuition. It’s love. Every flame is unique, every piece of wood or charcoal providing a different amount of heat. No two steaks or slices of bacon are identical cooked over flame or charcoal, yet each is perfect in its own way. It always works out.

First of all, you don’t need to actually go camping to do campfire cooking. It certainly helps, and I highly recommend camping as often as you can, but you can cook over fire almost anywhere, anytime.

Here’s what to do….

How To Get Set Up

Watch the Francis Mallmann Episode Of Netflix’s “Chef’s Table”

If you have Netflix, watch it. It’s from the first season. This trailer gives you a taste of what to expect.

Mallmann is an Argentine chef who cooks exclusively using wood fire. He’s a bit of a romantic, always wearing colorful cloaks and elaborate hats and quoting poetry and things like that, but somehow it works with him. He’ll have you wanting to start flirting with the “edge of uncertainty” that is campfire cooking.

Get a Fire Pit

Buy one if you like. I haven’t come across any great cooking commercial fire pits, but I’m sure they’re out there.

You can get some old steel drums and either cut the tops off, or lay them on their side and cut from top to bottom to create a “trough” style pit. Make sure to clean the inside and (this is important) only use unlined drums—you don’t want any toxic material coating the interior. Give it a good hot fire or two to burn off any unwanted residues.

You can find a metal fabricator nearby who’ll build whatever you want. Bring a sketch (or detailed description) of your desired fire pit and he or she will build exactly what you envision.

Horizontal smokers work, too, if the trough section is big enough for a fire.

A basic Weber-style charcoal grill can also work well, handling either wood fires or charcoal.

Or, for the most Primal experience, you could build one on the ground. Make a ring of stones, shape it into whatever arrangement you’d feel best cooking on, and get cooking. Have a source of water nearby (hose, huge bucket) so you can douse the thing if it gets out of hand.

Get Some Cast Iron

There’s something extremely romantic about cooking in black iron over fire. It feels Primal, elemental, and ancient. Plus, cast iron can handle the worst fire you can throw at it and turn it into something beautiful and delicious.

Get a grill, like this one: Raichlen’s Tuscan grill—a 14 inch by 14 inch square cast iron grill with screw on legs, so you can place it directly in the fire and either cook right on the grill or use it as a stand for your pan or griddle. I’ve used this thing to cook meat right in the sand as the sun drops. Nothing like it.

Get some pans: I like a 12 inch cast iron pan and a 15 inch cast iron pan—good sizes but still maneuverable (albeit heavy). If you’re feeding more people or need to cook 4-5 steaks at once, think about getting a really huge piece like this 20-incher or maybe the 17 incher from Lodge. You can often find better deals (and unique pieces) at garage sales, antique sales, or off of Craigslist.

Get a griddle: A big flat rectangular slab of iron is also pretty great, if you prefer that shape to the round pan. Your mileage may vary. Or get both!

Build a Fire

For cooking, I like the log cabin setup. You need a big fire pit to do this, and it consumes a lot of wood, but it really creates a hot flame and, if you plan on cooking over it (see the next section), great embers in a short amount of time. Start with two large pieces across from each other. Stack two more across the top on the other sides, forming a square. Continue until you’ve got a 1-2 foot structure. Then, place a small tipi inside the “cabin” and light it. Place small kindling-size pieces across the top of the “cabin” to increase the fuel.

Here’s a nice video of one.

Choose Hardwoods

Oak is probably the best to cook over. Almond and madrone are also great. Neutral taste, powerful heat.

Don’t cook over wood like redwood or bay or eucalyptus. Anything with strong resin or sap will flavor your food, and not in a good way. Although some Caribbean jerk recipes use bay for flavor, a little bit goes a long way.

Straight up charcoal is another option. It’s not as romantic or thrilling as building a fire and seeing it cook down into embers, but it does the trick.

You’re ready to go. Your fire is blazing. Embers are developing. What’s next?

What To Cook

Steak

The quintessential campfire meal is grilled steak. Or seared—read on. Some salt, some pepper, some fat, some fire, and some iron. It’s easy. It’s delicious. And it’s highly satisfying.

What kind of steaks?

They all work. I’d reserve the pricy stuff like NY strips, ribeyes, and porterhouses for a later date, for when you’re more skilled around the campfire, and stick with cheaper (but no less delicious) cuts in the beginning.

Skirt

Chuck Eye

Flat Iron

Picanha, or Petite Sirloin (a section of the sirloin with a big fat cap on it)

Cook this with salt and pepper on your cast iron pan, which should be screaming hot before you add the steaks. Flip once, press the center, and when it feels right, it’s done. Don’t use a thermometer. Go by feel. Trust your instincts. If they’re wrong, they will hone themselves and the next one will be better. You don’t want to be the person who’s fussing and fretting with fancy thermometers over the campfire, do you?

You can grill over the grates, but I really think a pan works better here. Any marinated steak, however, seems to work better over a grill.

And these all apply, of course, to other types of animal flesh: lamb leg steaks or chops, pork chops or loin, venison (preferably backstrap from an animal just killed).

Stews

I hereby declare that the category of “stews” includes chili, curry, pot roasts, and anything else you cook in a big old pot with liquid that’s hearty, rich, and thick and isn’t soup.

This is the best chili to make over a campfire.

This is a great lamb curry.

I love this German pot roast over the fire. Since the liquid will evaporate quicker than in the oven, you’ll need to keep some bone broth on hand to keep adding to the pot as it disappears. It actually ends up better and richer than the oven version due to the added gelatin.

I once came up with a stew using camp leftovers that I’ll probably never be able to recreate, but this was the gist:

Chop some bacon and render the fat in a dutch oven.

A whole chicken, salted and browned on all sides in said dutch oven.

Throw in a mess of chopped veggies—garlic, peppers, onions, leeks, carrots, lemon slices—and brown them in the fat.

Pour half a bottle of white wine in and half a hard cider or beer.

Pour in some vinegar and fish sauce.

Pour in some canned/jarred tomatoes or tomato puree. Paste would also work.

Then let it cook down. Put the wooden spoon in it and cover it, so that the steam can escape and the stew can thicken. It’s ready when the meat is falling off the bone, the broth is thick, and the bones are softening.

The beauty of this one was that we kept adding ingredients throughout the cook as we discovered them and went “hey, this might be good!” Yours might not turn out the same, but it will be great. Probably works well with any hunk of meat, as long as it has bone and connective tissue—think oxtails, shanks, legs, feet.

The problem with making dishes like this in the kitchen is that it’s terribly boring standing there for hours monitoring its progress. The beauty of making dishes like this over the campfire is that it’s not. You’ve got friends pitching in, taking turns with the spoon. You have a beverage. You’re laughing, chatting, talking. You can always just gaze at the trees. It’s a communal event. If you can, extend the cook time of all these dishes. Really let the fire and smoke soak into the stew.

Veggies

Veggies are to be cooked as the meat is resting, preferably using the same pan in the same fat. A few ideas:

Vegetable “Risotto”: Chop peppers (both hot and sweet and mild), slice onions, some green tomatoes, some leeks and shallots (basically all the alliums you can find), carrots, cherry tomatoes. Throw in a few whole garlic cloves (or a few dozen). Cook in the meat drippings and as it cooks down, add little scoops of hot bone broth. That’s the “risotto” part—continually adding hot broth to reduce down into syrup. Consider a splash or two of lemon juice at the end, if it needs acidity.

Crispy Asparagus: Chop asparagus up into four pieces, each about two inches long. In either avocado oil or the meat drippings, sauté the asparagus pieces until browned and crispy. Finish with sea salt and lemon juice.

Grilled Zucchini: Slice big vertical slices about a finger width thick. Brush with avocado oil and plenty of salt and pepper. Grill over a grate until you get char marks. Flip, repeat, eat. Zucchini is surprisingly low carb and very high in potassium.

Dessert

I tend to let loose with the sweet stuff a bit more when camping, reason being I’ve been incredibly active, my circadian rhythm is on point from lack of artificial lighting, and sweet stuff just tastes better when it’s a rarity. And even this “sweet stuff” isn’t all that sweet compared to what most people are eating daily.

Whipped cream: Keep metal bowl on ice, pour in cream, maybe add a splash of bourbon or rum, add a little sweetener (real sugar, monkfruit powder, honey, etc.—less is more), and whisk. Pass the bowl around the group for everyone to whisk, since your forearms are probably tired from hauling around cast iron.

Grilled Fruit:

Pears studded with cloves. Cut pears in half. Shove a clove or two into each half. Sear in butter on cast iron and sprinkle of salt. Serve with whipped cream.

Mandarin oranges seared with rosemary. Sprig of rosemary on top the orange, sear in butter. Serve with whipped cream.

Apples in pork fat. If you’ve been cooking pork or bacon, save the fat to cook apple slices in. Sprinkle cinnamon and maybe some cayenne. Serve with whipped cream.

Primal Chocolate Cake: This never fails to please. Cook a Japanese sweet potato by wrapping in foil and burying it in the coals and ashes, making sure to poke a hole down the middle with a chopstick first to provide an avenue for heat down the middle. When it’s ready, cut in half, stick some 85% dark chocolate pieces into the flesh, sprinkle with salt, and mash. Eat.

Dates Stuffed With Salted Macadamia Nuts: No explanation needed. One or two nuts per date half. Incorporate bacon if you like.

“Pumpkin Pie”: Take the winter squash of your choice (I like honey nut, a better, smaller, sweeter butternut) and bury it in the coals and ashes an hour before you need it. Once it’s done, halve it, deseed it, add a raw egg yolk to each half, sprinkle some ginger/cinnamon/nutmeg, add salt, and mash it up. Top with whipped cream.

The trick with campfire cooking is to make it sort of elaborate but not surgical. Rustic but not “empty can of beans into pot.” It’s a fine balance. It’s riding that edge of uncertainty. You can’t quite define it; you just know it when you taste it.

Take care, everyone, and get out of the city and go camping. Or crowd around the fire in your backyard. Or, heck, go to a park with BBQ grills and make a day of it. It’s not too late. Fall camping is my favorite. It’s the perfect time.

What about you? What do you like to cook over the fire?

Thanks for reading. Be well. And let me know how your campfire goes.

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[tripstations]

10 spectacular national reserves in South America

By Alfonso Tandazo on Oct 16, 2019 in Argentina, Sights, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Going Out, Peru, Areas, South America

With at least 300 nationwide parks and reserves dotting the continent, it’s no simple activity to decide on one of the best of those South American wonders. Their jaw-dropping landscapes and sturdy biomes are as wealthy and various because the area’s many cultures.

In any case, we took a shot at itemizing what we take into account 10 of probably the most extraordinary nationwide parks for experiencing South America’s pure marvels. Crammed with every little thing from rainforests, steppes and waterfalls, to deserts, mountain ranges and rivers, visiting any of those reserves will show to be an unforgettable expertise for individuals who love nature and out of doors journey.

1. Tierra del Fuego Nationwide Park, Argentina

With a reputation as hanging as “Land of Hearth,” vacationers can solely count on Tierra del Fuego to be an out-of-this-world vacation spot …and it’s! Located on the far-flung southernmost tip of South America, this rugged archipelago displays Patagonia at its wildest – making for a hanging area that adventurers will discover onerous to withstand.

The bottom for exploring Tierra del Fuego Nationwide Park is the city of Ushuaia: probably the most southern metropolis on Earth. At this “finish of the world” location, frosted mountains stand guard over the sweeping steppe and windswept bushes – a panorama that’s as expressive as its title.

On this extraordinary vacation spot, you’ll have your choose of actions, whether or not kayaking throughout halcyon lakes, wandering by way of teeming colonies of curious Penguins, hopping on a historic locomotive for breathtaking views, or climbing to your coronary heart’s content material on this desolate however really outstanding pure reserve.

2. Los Glaciares Nationwide Park, Argentina

Nestled within the coronary heart of Argentine Patagonia, a world away from the bustle of Buenos Aires, Los Glaciares Nationwide Park mesmerizes adventurers with the barren great thing about its wild, untouched landscapes – which make for the proper playground of journey actions.

Whether or not climbing or horseback driving by way of this timeless area, or kayaking throughout glacial lakes and sweeping rivers, you’ll shortly uncover how a lot stays unchanged for the reason that first settlers discovered their solution to this barren but fascinating expanse.

On this nook of Argentina, sure sights merely can’t be missed, together with the invincible Perito Moreno Glacier. (Take into accout, although, that Los Glaciers has one other 46 glaciers!). Greater than a hunk of ice itself, the imposing Perito Moreno glacier sprawls throughout a 100 sq. mile space and towers on the peak of a 24-story constructing. Experiencing the majesty of this pure phenomenon will undoubtedly take your breath away as you witness enormous chunks of ice crashing into the waters of Lake Argentino. It’s a mesmerizing sight to behold and a once-in-a-lifetime expertise for cherishing.

3. Yasuni Nationwide Park, Ecuador

Being the house of so many species of crops and animals, the Amazon’s Yasuni Nationwide Park is taken into account by many to put on the crown of the “most biodiverse place on earth.” At this UNESCO-declared Biosphere Reserve, located in japanese Ecuador, the sheer pure variety is astonishing. Actually, you’ll have possibilities to sight a number of the park’s 600 species of birds, 120 sorts of reptiles, 200 different types of unique mammals, and 380 sorts of fish.

With 1000’s of those animal species round you, you’re more likely to spy squawking parrots, hear the raucous roar of a pack of Howler monkeys, and spot the glowing eyes of caiman crocs by evening. Whether or not heading out on excursions by canoe or setting off on intrepid journeys by foot, journey in Yasuni Nationwide Park guarantees sightings of awe-inspiring wildlife …from lush Amazonian treetops to eerie river bottoms. Certainly, chances are you’ll even spot a creature or two whereas swinging gently in a hammock.

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[tipsoctopus]

"Could see Tahith Chong", "Hudson-Odoi to bump up his price-tag" - Fans predict Blues vs Man Utd

Chelsea welcome Manchester United to Stamford Bridge on Monday evening for an intriguing FA Cup 5th round tie. Both sides were in action in Europe this week in starkly contrasting ties, Chelsea overcoming Malmo in Sweden with a 2-1 victory in the Europa League and United outclassed by Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League.

The dynamic of the upcoming tie is compelling. On the one hand the FA Cup represents a huge opportunity to win silverware, but at the same time the distraction of a cup run could potentially have detrimental consequences on the pivotal battle for a place in the top four.

Here to discuss the fixture in more detail this week are TT assistant editor, George Blake, who will be praying for a Chelsea win when he takes his usual spot on the armchair on Monday evening, and TT newbie, Alex Rigby, a rare breed of Mancunian Manchester United supporter, who is still revelling in Jose Mourinho’s dismissal almost two months later…

With both managers fighting for their jobs for contrasting reasons, could winning the FA Cup be enough to keep them in charge beyond the summer or is the sole priority to finish inside the top four?

George: “I’m not sure it will necessarily be enough for either manager, but if Ole Gunnar Solskjaer manages to win the FA Cup, you’ve got to think that it will help his case. Given that he joined when United were in such disarray, winning any sort of silverware deserves credit – and you’d expect Ed Woodward to consider that. In the case of Chelsea, we’ve already seen in the past that winning a cup isn’t enough at Stamford Bridge, and given that we missed out on Champions League football last season, we can’t afford to do so again. That said, if Chelsea lose on Monday and then again in the Carabao Cup, I think that will probably be it for Maurizio Sarri.”

Alex: “You’ve got to say Solskjaer is the more comfortable of the two managers given his lead on Manchester United’s meteoric climb up the table, and Chelsea’s utter demise. Winning the FA Cup would be nice, of course, but having lost some of its potency over the years, it wouldn’t be the end of the world if we lost it. We’re always going to prioritise the Champions League over any other domestic success, and our new man knows that. Sarri, on the other hand, definitely needs some silverware to keep himself in the job. We all know how that club is run and how cutthroat Roman Abramovich can be if he doesn’t see a return on his investment.”

The footballing purists of this world will grimace with disgust at the sight of this discussion. Surely winning the FA Cup counts for something, right? Well, it only takes a quick look at the transfer market to realise that football is dominated by money, and where is the money? That’s right, you guessed it, in the Champions League.

Finishing inside the top four is slowly becoming a trophy in itself, albeit without the gloat and tangible hunk of metal to show for it. But, even with that in mind, there are only four games left to win to lift arguably the world’s most prestigious domestic trophy. Considering the size and quality of the respective squads at Solskjaer’s and Sarri’s disposal, there is no excuse for not going all out to win the competition.

Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial have been ruled out for the game. How will this influence Solskjaer’s approach and who is most likely to come in to replace them?

Alex: “Well we’ve already seen what happens when we lose the energy of Lingard and the skill of Martial. Both have been important for our recent form and both fit our new philosophy well. We’ll likely see Lukaku start alongside either Alexis Sanchez or Mata. There’s obvious problems with Sanchez that don’t need expanding on, and with Mata he’s just too slow. Technically gifted, but takes all the sting out of our counter attacking movements when he plays on the wing and not his preferred central position.”

George: “It’s obviously going to come into play, as both players have been very important to his system over the last few weeks. Man Utd are pretty lucky, though, in that they do have players that can come in. Obviously, the immediate choices are players like Mata and Sanchez, though it must be said that neither of those two have been flawless in recent weeks. Solskjaer talked up the role of young players in his pre-match press conference, and so there’s certainly a chance that we could see Tahith Chong start instead having made it onto the bench at times this season.”

It’s certainly interesting that George mentions Chong as a potential starter. United have a strong tradition with promoting young players and Solskjaer has already installed a brand of football that aligns with the core principles of the club, but in a game of this magnitude he’s more likely to stick with the senior players at his disposal. Besides, Sanchez and Romelu Lukaku were on fire in the 4th round which preceded their clash on Monday, so it would represent a real kick in the teeth for those players if they were snubbed in favour of an unproven youth player. The absences of Martial and Lingard certainly represent a blow for United, but the visitors are well equipped to seal their place in the 6th round without them.

Does Sarri need to finally relax his stubborn philosophy and make some tactical tweaks to put an end to Chelsea’s abysmal form of late?

George: “I think it’s less about system and more about personnel. His isn’t isn’t the formation – we know that works – but it’s his stubbornness in his approach to games that has been problematic. He’s consistently banged on about his players lacking motivation, yet he’s continued to pick the same 8 or 9 individuals every single week. When you’ve got players like Ross Barkley, Jorginho, Marcos Alonso and Willian all looking poor, why do they keep getting chances? Especially given that players like Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are on the bench.”

Alex: “Probably. However, he doesn’t strike me as the kind of man who’s willing to compromise. It’s naivety on his part that Chelsea can simply adopt a new style of play in one of the toughest leagues in the world and expect it to work. He’s got a finite amount of time now to fine-tune his philosophy before the players revolt, as they have done in the past, and oust him from his position.”

His refusal to adapt his system could ultimately prove to be his downfall. The very best managers in the division have showcased a willingness to tweak formations, rotate players, to try something new when results aren’t flowing and the fact Sarri is yet to do that is a major concern for Chelsea fans. Perhaps, as George says, it is the players and not the system that are at the crux of the issue, but I’m not convinced. Something has to budge both within his selection policy and his tactical approach.

Do you regard Solskjaer as a serious contender for the long term position or do you expect United to appoint an experienced manager in the summer? 

Alex: “Solskjaer has been quality since he’s arrived and the team are playing far, far better than before. We’ve probably just passed the point now where the players are performing because of ‘new manager syndrome’ so we’ll be able to make a far more comprehensive judgement in the near future. It’s hard to say but I’d still like to see Mauricio Pochettino at the club. He’s shown this season more than ever that he’s one of the best managers in the world, and we should go all out to secure his signature. If we don’t manage it then Solskjaer is definitely the man for the job.”

George: “I didn’t think he would be when he arrived, but he’s proven his merit pretty quickly, and nobody can say they haven’t been impressed by him. That said, speaking as a Chelsea fan, appointing interim managers on a permanent basis can be a muddy path to go down, and Roberto Di Matteo felt that first hand. I’m just not sure that Solskjaer has the tactical nous to take on the job long-term, because at present he seems to be simply running off the feel-good factor at Old Trafford.”

It would be intriguing to see the shortlist that United’s hierarchy have drawn up right now. As Alex has alluded to, you would expect Pochettino to be on it, but the Argentine has built something profound at Tottenham and it seems ridiculous to think that he’d consider walking away from his project just at the moment in which the various pieces of the jigsaw are beginning to fall into place.

Aside from Pochettino, there aren’t too many standout candidates and that could work in Solskjaer’s favour. At this moment in time he’s probably a dark horse contender, but if he can win the FA Cup and lead United to a top-four finish it would take a bold decision to send him packing.

Much to his obvious displeasure, Eden Hazard has often been deployed at centre-forward in fixtures of a similar magnitude but Gonzalo Higuain’s arrival should change that. How important could the Argentine be on Monday evening?

George: “I think he’ll be crucial. We couldn’t give him the ball against Man City, and as a result we just weren’t able to get out. Hopefully we’ll have a bit more possession against Man Utd, and that should hopefully lead to a bit more action in their third. People will claim that he’s unfit and that he’s old, but we’ve already seen his natural goal-scoring instinct, and if he can get as involved as he was against Huddersfield, we’ll be in a very good position to secure a win.” 

Alex: “Higuain is a decent enough player, and he’ll probably cause a few problems, but he’ll be no way near as potent as Kylian Mbappe. Our defenders have definitely improved under Solskjaer and Lindelof looks three times the player now. The lack of pace should suit us down to the ground.”

Chelsea may have lost 6-0 against Man City but their ventures forward towards Ederson’s goal provided glimpses of what Higuain can do. He’s the type of player who can produce something in the blinking of an eye and his presence at centre-forward should certainly be giving United cause for concern.

Pertinently, the fact his presence should allow Hazard to operate in a preferred attacking midfield role will ensure the Belgian’s quality is maximised, and that could be even more important than Higuain’s contribution when leading from the front.

Finally, what are your score predictions? 

Alex: “I can see a touch of nervousness creeping in from United after their last result and losing Martial and Lingard will hurt them going forward. Chelsea don’t have enough for the win, but they’ll throw on Giroud to grab a late one. I’m going for 1-1 in normal time and without replays in the competition from this round onward, anything can happen in extra time.”

George: “Chelsea really need this one and I’m hoping United will struggle for rhythm in the final-third. I’m going for 2-0 with Callum Hudson-Odoi to bump up his price-tag with a brace.”

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[newsini]

Frankie Muniz didn’t think he could deliver sexy on Dancing with the Stars, but he surprised judges — and himself — when he performed a sizzling and “sensual” number with pro partner Witney Carson. For Monday night’s episode of the reality dan

[hombresargentinos]

[giantsorcowboys]

Hump Day Hunk 💪🏻👱🏻‍♂️💪🏻

Matías Osadczuk Chases Eggs And Tackles With The Best Of Them! 🏉🇦🇷🏃‍♂️🍑🍑

Woof, Baby! 🌶🌶🌶