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horsegreys · 2 years

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Age of empires 4 rankings

#AGE OF EMPIRES 4 RANKINGS SERIES#

It was a time when the internet was still sort of in it's infancy, more simplified, and visiting AoEH was a place of pure magic (for me it certainly was, still is!). I still remember those early days, at least since late 1998, when I first visited this place. It's absolutely amazing that AoEH is still up and running, even though we are nowhere near as active as in the heydays of Age of Empires and The Rise of Rome expansion anymore. That's right, we've been around for that freaking long. Yesterday, on the 15th of May, AoEH turned 25 years old. I'd love to see more submissions, keep on designing and submitting! | Comments 25 years of AoEH Posted by PhatFish on May 16th, 2022 07:51 a.m. I haven't played it through, but from what I saw this campaign is definitively worth your time. Even bitmaps are included, though we cannot see these in-game because DE does not support them (check them out though). The maps are well designed and give a fair challenge. You get plenty of villagers though.Įmpires of the near East is a whopping 11 scenario spanning campaign for Definitive Edition, and it's quite impressive! Based on historical events spanning roughly 2000 years, you take Sumeria, Ancient Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, the Hittite Empire to the glory of their days. It's not really an accurate map in any sort of sense, but that doesn't mean it can't be fun or a challenge - maybe just lacking a bit in building space since you are located on (interconnected by shallows) small islands. It's been a few months since we've had any new submissions, so let's honor these latest additions. Whew, for a moment I thought uploading to the Granary (our downloads section) didn't work anymore. One of the quarterfinal matches between Saymyname (otherwise known from the AoE2 scene) and KGB_Crazy | Comments New Granary submissions Posted by PhatFish on June 26th, 2022 05:40 a.m. The games are currently being uploaded to Youtube and can already be found on Twitch, where the finals and bronze match will also be streamed live this coming weekend. The quarter- and semifinals have already been played, but I won't spoil them here in case you want to watch them for yourselves. If you're like me and haven't quite kept up with the changes to the multiplayer meta in the past ten years, this is a good opportunity to get a glimpse of how the best of the best are playing the game. And right now, the biggest event going on is the second iteration of Classic Cup which is hosted by WinstonsWaffles. Many details for that event are still waiting to be revealed, but it appears it will be played using the original Age of Empires: Rise of Rome, as that is still the preferred version of the game among the vietnamese pros.īut what if you wanted to see AoE: DE? The DE community isn't quite as big but a lot more geographically diverse. The biggest news for AoE1 mutliplayer this autumn is probably that it will be featured as a part of the Redbull Wololo Legacy event this autumn with a 50 000 $ prize pool. We could make fortresses! In Age of Empires, we can make bits of wall.Latest News WinstonsWaffles is hosting Classic Cup 2 Posted by Fisk on August 28th, 2022 08:55 a.m. That’s when it started to lean into the city-planning elements a little bit more, and when we were finally able to build gates and thus actual, practical fortifications.

#AGE OF EMPIRES 4 RANKINGS SERIES#

The series started here, but its successor is the one everybody remembers. And while this is undoubtedly, as promised, the definitive version of Age of Empires, it’s not really the Age of Empires that makes people swoon when they remember it. These aren’t problems that are only apparent now, 20 years later, but time has certainly made them stand out. Since warfare doesn’t get much more complicated than growing a big horde and clicking on targets, fights are more like herding confused cats than commanding armies. They do seem a little less pronounced, but every unit is still completely useless without micromanagement. The terrible pathfinding-units have a predilection for taking weird routes and getting stuck-and dull AI have made the jump to 2018 as well, and they still grate. If you jump into the Rise of Rome campaign or play as Yamato Japanese dynasty in a skirmish, you’ll still be going through the same motions and fielding identical armies. By the time you finish the Egyptian tutorial, you’ll have seen it all. A mountain of maps and objectives can’t disguise the fact that you’re playing with the same small deck, the same units and buildings, in every campaign. I still predict you’ll tire out before you finish every campaign.

#Age of empires 4 rankings

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hollenka99 · 3 years

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Unus Annus - November

354. Accepting the Truth, 6:11, 2.8M (Nov 1st) - While sitting by the pool, Mark and Ethan announce that a livestream will happen on the 13th so that the audience can join them in reminiscing over the past year and watching the channel be deleted live.

355. The Unus Annus Last Supper, 26:58, 2.6M (Nov 2nd) - Amy creates a 7 course meal for Mark and Ethan based on various past videos. This includes eggnog with bug biscuits, them having 3 minutes to eat a raw onion and edible items of a mature nature.

356. Being Brutally Honest with Each Other, 26:14, 2.2M (Nov 3rd) - Mark and Ethan reflect on how well they have worked together during the course of the channel’s run. Some things that were revealed consisted of them having to re-evaluate their communication after the wall punch, Mark committing to bits even if they start going a little far and how Ethan could build his acting skills. There is a heartfelt moment where Ethan expresses how grateful he is to have Mark as a friend and someone to learn off of, which ends in tears.

357. Recreating Every Single Unus Annus Video, 45:11, 3.2M (Nov 4th) - Amy reads out the title of videos in chronological order while Mark and Ethan do something quick to re-enact that video. Alexa misinterprets a command, some episode segments are just them wondering who came up with the titles and Amy gets confused by a few titles that state she shouldn’t know about them.

358. All Our Video Ideas That Never Happened, 25:13, 1.8M (Nov 5th) - They discuss the videos that never were, including potential collabs, things the pandemic prevented from happening and ideas that were best left not attempted.

359. Who’s Cutting Onions In Here???, 22:24, 2M (Nov 6th) - The two of them spend the entire video cutting onions and talking about the channel. They discuss their expectations when they started the channel, how they were affected by the deaths of family members and how they would like to die.

360. The 1st Annual Unus Annus Roast, 16:41, 1.7M (Nov 7th) - On Twitter, they invited the viewers to send in their roasts. They just laugh at most of them but a few they roast the poster back. One of the cameras produced corrupted footage so they had to lipsync at times.

361. God’s Fitness Test, 22:58, 1.9M (Nov 8th) - Along with their personal trainers, they form two teams which consist of Mark and Alex vs Ethan and Andre. They do push ups where you have to have all four limbs airborne during part of it, a burpee hybrid, a race where Mark and Ethan carry their trainers on their backs, weightlifting with squats and a sprinting challenge.

362. Saying Goodbye to All Our Guests, 39:44, 2.2M (Nov 9th) - Mark and Ethan call up some of the people they’ve worked with in videos over the past year to thank them. Upon learning The Basement LA (where they did the escape room in December) was in financial trouble due to the pandemic, they offer to donate the ad revenue from the escape room video to help them out.

363. Everything’s Legal If You’re Dead, 24:50, 2.2M (Nov 10th) - Mark and Ethan attempt to make breakfast with sex toys again. However, this time they steal the products they got from the shop and Mark’s lawyer Ryan tries to discourage them from their plans of insurance fraud.

364. 7 Minutes in Heaven | 7 Minutes in Hell, 12:41, 1.9M (Nov 11th) - In new inflatable saunas, they are sent to Heaven and Hell with items previously featured in past videos. Ethan goes to Heaven where he receives the scent of essential oils, kiwis, a cupping session using a mouth instead of the cups and wax on his face. Mark, meanwhile, is subjected to Hell where the aromatherapy is of the onion variety, his mouth is filled with hot dogs and the straw his dogs may have used as a toilet is laid at his feet.

365. The Unus Annus Annual Sleepover, 17:17, 2.3M (Nov 12th) - Ethan goes to Mark’s home to spend the night. They shoot cans while the other hides behind the targets, make popcorn as well as friendship bracelets and play truth or dare. Ethan decorates his bracelet for Mark with 'My Pal Annus' while Mark puts 'EEF' inbetween Takis that had been in his mouth. Towards the end, the two of them share a glass of champagne before settling down for the night. At various points, the signature ticking sound is heard.

366. Goodbye., 12:00:00, 1M (Nov 13th - Nov 14th) - This is the farewell livestream. The two of them sit with a television that displays the timer inbetween them. Throughout the 12 hours, they show the editors’ highlight reels, watch and comment on a few videos, look through fanart and memes as well as welcome guests. When there’s around 3 hours to go, Ethan gets 00:00:00 tattooed on his left arm by DanielleSkyeee. They promise that if the stream receives 1 million likes, they will reveal the inside of their coffin and possibly get inside. With less than an hour to go, this does indeed happen, with the fake eulogies making them emotional and the coffin is dubbed the ‘Cry Box’. As the hours become not only minutes but seconds, Mark, Ethan and Amy gather around the laptop so they can press the delete button together. The clock finally reaches 00:00:00, leaving the audience with a black screen as well as a channel that no longer exists.

1. Unus Annus, 1:52, 10M (Nov 15th) - Introductory video explaining the premise of the channel.

2. Cooking with Sex Toys, 12:42, 4.6M (Nov 15th) - The guys buy a bunch of sex toys and use them to make some bacon, eggs and pancakes. Towards the end, someone spots Mark being fed while wearing a gag.

3. Purging Our Sins with a Neti Pot, 11:18, 4.8M (Nov 16th) - They clear their noses with Neti Pots, essentially flooding it and triggering a drowning sensation. Towards the end, the spiral screen appears where Mark and Ethan thank the audience for their initial reaction to the channel, which lead to the intro video becoming #1 on trending. They announce that if the channel reaches 1 million subscribers within a week, a viewer who helped spread the word will be hand delivered the button. Otherwise, Mark will have his nipples pierced.

4. Hot Dog'd To Death, 11:18, 3.3M (Nov 17th) - They attempt to eat 60 hot dogs in 10 minutes. Ethan struggles to work out how long 360 seconds is. The are certain Chica could beat Joey Chestnut's record of 71 any day.

5. Making Our Own Sensory Deprivation Tank, 13:44, 2.7M (Nov 18th) - They filled a pool with salts, blindfold themselves and put headphones on. To mess around, they pretend to try drown each other.

6. The Good Kind of Cupping, 11:59, 2.7M (Nov 19th) - They attempt cup stacking. Mark is better at it than Ethan. The two of them end up trying to walk on all fours while wearing the cups like some sort of cryptid. This is also where they announce the winner of the 1M play button (Kingkasuma 2.0). The next challenge is also announced, get it to 2M subs within a week so a viewer has the chance to meet Mark and Ethan while appearing in a video or Ethan will destroy the Barrel with a bat.

7. The Bad Kind of Cupping, 13:36, 8.8M (Nov 20th) - Mark and Ethan place suction cups on each other. At one point, Ethan is unable to detach a cup and gets very stressed about it.

8. The Worst Kind of Cupping, 10:17, 3.1M (Nov 21st) - They react to Two Girls, One Cup before trying to see if they can find out where the girls are now. This is Mark’s first time watching it and he does not have a good time.

9. Ethan Will Be Kicked in the Balls, 7:30, 4.2M (Nov 22nd) - They plan to use those inflatable balls that you can run around in. Ethan struggles to inflate his so he goes to a shop to ask they can help him with a pump. The staff are nice and chuck it to him via a window. He reaches his car, only to realise he can't fit it in without deflating it a little. Ethan does indeed get kicked in the balls at the end.

10. Doing Each Other's Makeup in the Dark, 12:08, 2.2M (Nov 23rd) - Mark and Ethan blindly apply makeup to one another. There is a risk of blackface when Mark gets into the bronzer but Amy is able to warn him to be careful. Ethan uses blush for its intended purpose and as lipstick. When they look at themselves in a mirror, he compares himself to the little girl wearing makeup while in a carseat. You can tell Amy is the one editing due to her written comments.

11. Baby Hands Operation, 8:29, 2.7M (Nov 24th) - Mark and Ethan assemble and then play Operation while wearing baby hands. When Calamity Pete's buzzing annoys them, they begin waterboarding him and are only able to remove the foreign object after hitting him hard enough to accidentally project the piece. This is where the 'Oh My Fucking God' meme originates.

12. Mark and Ethan Summon a Ghost, 18:02, 4M (Nov 25th) - This is framed as a kind of found footage documentary. While at Ethan’s home, they form a pentagram out of candles before playing Bloody Mary and Charlie Charlie. It ends with them getting attacked by a ghost.

13. 2 Truths and 1 Lie -- Waxing Edition, 16:49, 4.5M (Nov 26th) - They play 2 truths and a lie where getting it wrong means a body part gets waxed. The body part is determined by a spinning randomiser wheel. Korea is mentioned during both times the spinner lands on pubic hair.

14. Poopsie Sparkly Critters (a slime surprise...), 12:24, 4.3M (Nov 27th) - Mark and Ethan buy Poopsie Sparkly Critters, a toy that will eject slime from either their butt (poop) or mouth (spit). They play around with the toys, adding glitter to the slime as instructed. This is the first time ‘Martha Maywho’ (Martha May Whovier from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas) is mentioned.

15. Play-Doh Thanksgiving, 10:35, 2.2M (Nov 28th) - They create a thanksgiving meal with only Play-Doh. A tray full of ‘food’ that are the appropriate colours is created, including a tiny live turkey made by Ethan. A mega turkey is also made using a conglomerate of the remaining Play-Doh. Mark and Ethan then sample their creation.

16. Helium Therapy, 14:55, 3.3M (Nov 29th) - The two of them inhale helium then discuss various topics, including how they’d kill each other, childhood misadventures and their romantic pursuits involving an abundance of Abigails (plus a Sarah).

17. Drawing Memes from Memory, 10:53, 2.6M (Nov 30th) - With drawing pads and scented coloured markers, Mark and Ethan attempt to draw old memes with Amy telling them their prompts.The ‘This is fine’ dog, dat boi, Rebecca Black, dancing baby, the Numa Numa guy, dikbutt, condescending Willy Wonka and trollface all make an appearence. They spend nearly as much time sniffing the markers as they do drawing.

#unus annus #markiplier #crankgameplays #unus annus in summary

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ibroughtthisonmyselfpixels · 5 years

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The Foreseeable Future

Discord folks will already know this, but I wanna bring the rest of you up to speed too.

So remember in June 2018 when I sat down and drafted like 300+ posts in one sitting so that I would have a long backlog of SoS and various other saves to release across July and August? Well, over the last week or so I’ve done That Again, except this time for April, May, and (if push comes to shove) June 2019.

Since I won’t be able to play at Dad’s for those guaranteed two months - one because he’s away and one because I technically am - I spent March completing not only SoS but as much of AR as I could, and I’ve got enough of both that I’ll be able to spread it all out across ten queues. They’ve all already been picture-drafted, like I said (it totals to about 550 posts at current tally... urk), I just need to write, edit, and then queue them. I don’t know yet if I’ll write them all in advance before queueing any of it, or if I’ll do the same as before where I complete one and release it when I get 75% into the other, or if I’ll just send out each part as it gets done. But either way, it should provide me a good solid backlog for the rest of spring.

Here’s what the rotation of saves and their time slots currently looks like:

UTAU 3-rest (this one first because it’s long past overdue and I want to start off with something different) - 2:30pm GMT (9:30am EST) to midnight / 7pm ✅ 7th April 2019

AR, in-game-days 31 through 35 (though not necessarily RL/RP days) - 12pm (7am) to 10pm (5pm) the next day ✅ 14th to 15th April

SoS 19-rest - 2pm (9am) to 11:30pm (6:30pm) ✅ 16th April

AR 35 through 41 - 11:30am (6:30am) to ?????? ✅ 23rd to 25th April

SoS 20 - 5pm (12pm) to 4:30pm (11:30pm) ✅ 29th to 30th April

AR 41 through 44 - 4pm (11am) to 6pm (1pm) the next day ✅ 4th to 5th May

SoS 21 - 7pm (2pm) to 5pm (12pm) ✅ 6th to 7th May

AR 45 through 51 - 12:30pm (7:30pm) to 6pm (1pm) the next day ✅ 13th to 14th May

SoS 22 - 7:30am (2:30am) on a Thursday to 2pm (9am) on a Saturday [23rd to 25th May]

AR 51 through 57 - 6:30pm (1:30pm) the same Saturday to half past Monday midnight (7:30pm on a Sunday). It’s especially vital that this and SoS 22 be released back to back and on those dates, for reasons that will become clear. [25th to 26th May]

SoS Coda - unknown at this time. This is the one thing I haven’t filmed or drafted yet (though I will), and I won’t be certain until much later how long it’ll go for, since some of its content depends on the reception SoS 22 gets.

Also, there is a minor issue in the two bolded queues - namely, since there are too many images/posts in both queues for them to run under forty eight hours without being compromised at bad spots by hitting image limit, a break will have to be manually inserted into both at more fitting spots so they can be spread across more days instead. For the second AR queue, the break will be from 5am (midnight) to 2pm (9am), so a pause of about nine hours; for SoS it’ll be from 5:30am (half past midnight) to 11:30am (6:30am), for a comparatively smaller six hours.

I understand this isn’t going to be a lot of variety, but I promise there is a reason for them all to be packed in deep like that. Nonetheless, if you guys think that I do need to fill in some gaps or show you something different inbetween all this, I also have two drafted Mimikyu episodes (yeah, I know...) and, if the really desperate need arises, enough Lush images that I can make a queue of that.

Please let me know if this is an okay system for y’all? If it’s confusing let me know; either way, as always I will keep you abreast of any changes. Thanks for reading.

#housekeeping #best laid plans

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rosedalemike · 6 years

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The Mood: Blog #7 “What even is mainstream...even??”

started like 3 weeks ago... Is taste in music really subjective? Or is it perspective? Obviously there's a common formula to pop (which is short for popular) that makes a song more digestible to the general public- more commercial (Intro, verse, chorus, re-intro tease maybe, verse2, chorus2, bridge, Chorus3 with a little re-intro maybe). A simple hook and dancy beat never hurt, either. Then of course there's the performance and production. I'd argue that a lot of a song's approval/success has to do with the mix of the song (but for most, that's more subconscious).

I'd say at least 90% of us are really looking at lyrics as the main check-box; are they relatable/do they flow? Then, with all those key elements in mind (and some others, depending on the goal) the authenticity of it all. From the structure to the lyrics to the performance(s) to the production to the mix/master; do they all compliment each other in a friendly and/or interesting way?

So with all that in mind, there are some things that are subjective: Relatable - that depends on the demographic/individual. But some lyrics are literally relatable to everyone.

Performance ?? - Sure, everyone knows a good singer/drummer/guitarist when they hear one. But taste is the real subjective factor. Does the player's ability get out of hand and distract from the authenticity of the song? Technicality and raw emotion have heavy hands but sometimes less is more. "Music is not a sport," but to some shredders, it is! (Part of what makes Blink 182 so powerful is Travis Barker's ability to blow your mind with a fill rolling into that big finale... I can already hear the haters "Overrated! Overrated!") On the other hand, sometimes Bono being passionately flat is what gives U2 their cool factor.

Authentic - Like relatable lyrics, that mostly involves the individual's history. What has the artist/listener's ears been brought up with? What sounds/methods have been retired and what is trending? (Maybe a dancy trap beat wasn't prescribed in the original Alicia Keys' version but definitely authentic in the Jay-Z remix.)

Lyric Party:

"Concrete Jungle where dreams are made of" - Alicia Keys

Cool - what even is cool? If you follow the pop formula/structure are you no longer cool? If you have a low-fi mix/master, are you automatically cool? That's all subjective but trends definitely play a big roll. And these days; what even is mainstream?

I'd say Nickelback is mainstream. However, a lot of people hate Nickelback simply because it's cool to hate Nickelback. Nickelback is not my cup of tea, but they definitely cover all those bases in my opening paragraph pretty well. They've mastered being commercial and there's a few Nickleback choruses that I can probably sing word-for-word. It's just odd to me when bands that sound like Nickelback hate Nickelback. That's like when bands that sounded like Blink 182 hated Blink 182. I will go on to argue that these commercial bands didn't necessarily sell out, they just got better (to the general public). So don't hate! Especially if you're hating for your own pride. Like what you like. Leave pretension to the hipsters.

I guess the main thing that inspired me to write this was from playing my very first sold out show in Columbus, OH at A&R bar. Obviously, I had very little to do with the 200+ people crammed into this awesome venue. I opened the show for 30 minutes and maybe 35 of the 150 people in the room (at 7:30) were there to see me. The other bands sold out of all their tickets and brought the big awesome crowd. The band that played after me pulled out a Nickelback cover; "Animals". Lyric Video Party!!!

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I genuinely thought they were joking at first! Then they played through the whole thing and everyone was singing along. I was slightly confused. Here I was as part of the first sold out show of my life, in the most thriving music scene in North America, and everyone was getting down to some Nickelback...

It got me thinking. Maybe it isn't so much that Nickelback isn't cool, maybe ROCK MUSIC in general is no longer cool - everywhere but Columbus, OH!!! Nickelback is the biggest rock band of our time and it is cool to hate them. What is cool then? Nicki Minaj?? Lane Del Re?? Steve Aoki?? Game of Thrones?? I'm sorry Nickelback haters but if I had to choose a night of Game of Thrones or a Nickelback concert you might just catch me sticking a foot above a stadium crowd singing along to "How you Remind Me".

LYRIC PARTY: "Look at this Photograph!!" - Nickelback

I've been to a Nickelback show and it was awesome! Bryan's actual cousin, Daniel Adair, is their current drummer and we went back in 2011 or something. It was an awesome show! I'd go again!

Then it got me thinking back to perception. Is Nickelback just not my cup of tea because of the subjective ingredients (lyrics, performance, vocal/tone style, commercial structure)? Probably. I do like how polished their production is. Maybe people check out my music and think the same thing so they don't bother to come see it live. Then when they accidentally see my live show they're giving me the ol' "I'm not generally into that genre of music but I loved your set! Keep it up!"

LYRIC PARTY:"THIS IS HOW! YOU REMIND ME OF WHAT I REALLY AM!" - Relatable Nickelback lyrics :o

Anyway, there's another blog that mentions Nickelback a bunch... Guess I'm just really a closet Nickelback fan! Chad Kroeger, sign my band!

I haven't had much time to write this week with the tour being so busy. The inbox and calendar are owning my life almost more than my excessive gear.

That that sold out show at A&R was awesome. I wish I could play for that many people every night. I did lights for Black Coffee's set, too. I learned their new album/setlist on my long drives. It's pretty solid. Check it out here:

BLACK COFFEE's NEW ALBUM

I congratulated them and told them I enjoyed my many many listen-throughs and Ehab said something along the lines of "Thanks! I know, it's not really with the contemporary/mainstream"...So that too kind of inspired this blog. So you can thank Ehab, Nickelback (they're totally not Nickelback-y, more like if Led Zeplin had a kid with The Darkness...)

How good is this by the way: VIDEO PARTY:

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....if you’re into that go buy Black Coffee’s new record.

Then I drove home Sunday and had a week of booking and video editing while watching my Maple Leafs get my hopes up once again. Next season will be better! So will my next blog!!!

Here’s a long podcast to make up for my two weeks of nothing:

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There are some solid shows coming up this week. Check up on my insta/twitter to see how you can win tickets too! TONIGHT - St.Louis, MO @ Fubar - 8:00 set time, ALL AGES, $10 cover https://www.facebook.com/events/361308634360127 Thursday, May 10th - Memphis, TN @ Hi Tone - 9:30ish set time, 18+, $5 cover https://www.facebook.com/events/1969577906705144/ Friday, May 11th - Nashville, TN @ Phat Bites (Amazing food) - 8:00 doors/ 9ish set time - All Ages , $5 cover https://www.facebook.com/events/2020957568144443/

Saturday, May 12th - Springfield, MO @ Outlands' Front of House - ALL AGES , $7 cover https://www.facebook.com/events/212996439451410/ Tuesday, May 15th - Norman, OK @ Red Brick Bar - 8:30 doors/10ish set time - 21 +, FREE SHOW https://www.facebook.com/events/568521663507443 Wednesday, May 16th - Amarillo, TX @ Leftwoods - 8:00 doors/set time, 21+, FREE SHOW Thursday, May 17th - Santa Fe, NM @ ACOUSTIC SET @ Cowgirl (amazing food) - 7:30 doors, 8:00 set time, ALL AGES, FREE SHOW (unbelievable food...seriously) Friday, May 18th - Albuquerque, NM @ Jam Spot - Doors at 6:30, 8:45 set time, ALL AGES, $10 tickets, $12 doors Tickets: https://www.ticketstorm.com/e/21145/t/https://www.facebook.com/events/385121958563821/ Saturday, May 19th - Colorado Springs, CO @ Triple Nickel - Doors at 8pm, 9:00 set time, 18+, $7 coverhttps://www.facebook.com/events/985147721649093 Wednesday, May 23rd - Denver, CO @ Lost Lake - Doors at 7:00, 9:30 set time, 18+ **But** all ages welcome with adult company, Tickets $8, Doors $10Tickets: https://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/1677879?utm_medium=ampOfficialEvent&utm_source=fbTfly

https://www.facebook.com/events/222640314958871 Thursday, May 24th - Boulder, CO @ ACOUSTIC at Illegal Pete's Pearl, 9:00 start, ALL AGES (awesome food) FREE SHOW

Friday, May 25th - Fort Collins, CO @ Aggie Theatre - Doors at 8pm, 9:45 set time, 18+, $10 Tickets**, $15 at the door (FREE TICKET GIVEAWAY ON INSTAGRAM @rosedalemike)

Ticket link: http://ticketf.ly/2FZp97J

https://www.facebook.com/events/149017892592176/ Thanks!

#black coffee #live music #Rosedale #Columbus #ohiomusic #colorado #coloradosprings #nickelback #Tripel Nickel #MO #Blink 182 #springfieldmo #Nashville #Memphis

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easyfoodnetwork · 4 years

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Rajma Masala Might Be the Perfect Cupboard Comfort Dish for Our Times

Getty Images/iStockphoto

The north Indian kidney bean curry is a dish that forgives you if you do not have all the spices, and rewards you for patience and generosity

In the first few weeks of sheltering in place, I found a packet of old rajma in my pantry — that is to say, I stumbled upon a small treasure. Strictly speaking, it was an American brand, so the label on the bag read “kidney beans,” but their magic was the same.

I soaked them overnight and they bloomed into large, toothy beans already splitting at the seams. Boiling them turned their surrounding water brown and thick; I cooked them with onions, tomatoes, and whatever spices I had, and simmered it for hours, using the liquid from bean boiling to thicken the mix. In the end I had made the perfect dish of rajma masala — a rich North Indian kidney bean curry — even if it took me two extra hours of simmering, since I didn’t account for the added cook time for old beans.

Like so many of the world’s recipes that rely on hardy pantry staples, rajma masala is an ideal pandemic dish. You can turn to it when grocery runs are limited and time at home abundant. Its base recipe demands largely shelf-stable ingredients, and like the various bean chili riffs of the Americas, is a soothing comfort food for those who grew up with it. (To New York Times restaurant critic Tejal Rao, rajma masala is “her family’s store-cupboard comfort food” and the “indisputable king” of bean dishes.) Also like chili, there’s an acidic tomato base to cut through the bean’s inherent creaminess, and though it’s heavily spiced, it is a dish that forgives you if you do not have all the spices, and rewards you for patience and generosity.

“The beauty is that it is not instant gratification,” says Oxford, Mississippi-based chef Vishwesh Bhatt, who makes batches of Louisiana red beans to share with his neighbors. “Beans and rice are universal comfort foods, communal, big pot dishes— they lend themselves to sharing.”

After I posted photos of my own rajma masala efforts to Instagram, friends, both South Asian and otherwise, slid into my DMs to ask for the recipe and tips. Similarly, when food writer Priya Krishna posted a photo of her rajma chawal — rajma masala with rice — 10 people responded immediately, and more the next day, telling her that they too had been making rajma at home. Krishna, who grew up eating rajma, had cooked it with her mother while sheltering in place with her family in Dallas, but notes, “I hesitate to call what millions of people do everyday a trend.” Fair point.

It is true that what seems remarkable in the diaspora is not really so remarkable in the subcontinent. Would anyone in India really care that anecdotally, about 20 people also made rajma masala the same day that Krishna and I did? While I had finished the bulk of this essay before Alison Roman’s comments about two Asian women’s business endeavors kicked up a storm in food media, I am finishing it in the aftermath. It is true that writing about food is a fraught endeavor that skirts appropriation and neocolonialism — that often, food personalities exploit other cultures and their own. Exotification is, after all, an orientalist, capitalist ploy. And in learning more about the rajma bean, I have uncovered another complication in my notion of what is traditional desi, or Indian, cuisine, and — as an Indian immigrant to Turtle Island, another reason to honor the ancestors of this land.

Rajma masala may taste and feel like an ancient Indian dish, but its past is marked by cultural and colonial exchange, its recipe scarcely older than my grandfather. While rajma masala is a modern icon of North Indian food, the bean itself is not indigenous to the subcontinent, and neither is the dish’s base, tomato. “Ingredients that seem to many to be inextricably part of an Indian diet are not always autochthonously Indian,” writes historian Anita Mannur in her 2010 book Culinary Fictions: Food in South Asian Diasporic Culture.

The kidney bean originates in the Americas, with sources pointing to Mexico and Peru. The bean journeyed from the New World to the Old, and then onward through the spice trade routes to Asia, in what is known as the Columbian exchange, where beans and other plants and animals and peoples and information and diseases were passed between continents in the 15th and 16th centuries. “We think we’re globalizing now, but look to the 1500s,” says Mannur, who co-edited Eating Asian America: A Food Studies Reader. “The irony is that in looking for India, Columbus bizarrely transformed the Indian diet.”

The bean’s beneficial properties as a nutrient-dense dried protein source, Mannur tells me, made it a good food for long nautical journeys. Portugal’s ships, filled largely with degredados — convict exiles who often died of dysentery and typhoid along the spice route, and were promised one chest worth of expensive spices to take home if they made the journey — arrived on the western coast of India. Goa, which became Portugal’s capital in India in 1530, was a hub for much internal trade — and was how the tomato and chile pepper took root in Indian cuisine.

It is possible that the bean made it up through the cattle caravan routes to the Mughal Empire in the north — but the recipe for rajma masala doesn’t really crop up until as recently as around 130 years ago, says culinary archaeologist Kurush Dalal. Dalal thinks it’s unlikely the kidney bean was traded by the Portuguese, even if they ate it themselves, because it is not mentioned in medieval Indian texts.

“There is evidence that the French brought the rajma bean from Mexico to Pondicherry,” he tells me, calling the French the “best conduit.” The French, who colonized Pondicherry on the Eastern coast of India, had mounted the Second French Intervention in Mexico in the 1860s, spearheaded by Emperor Napoleon III. (Cinco De Mayo celebrates the day the French were defeated by the Mexicans in 1862.) There is no paper trail of how it ends up in the hills of the North — though logically, it makes sense for the hearty bean to become more popular in cooler climates, where one would burn more calories. In the wetter, hotter south, such a bean would throw off the Ayurvedic energies of vata and pitta, Dalal speculates.

Rajma masala, which made a place for itself in North Indian cuisine, is not as popular in the South. Mannur remembers being told at a restaurant in Mangalore — another erstwhile Portuguese capture — that the North Indian thali was unique because it featured rajma masala.

“Methods of preparing rajma masala are not too different from how Latin Americans made chili,” says Mannur. Like Goan vindaloo, which retained both its Portuguese name and the foreign ingredient of vinegar, rajma masala folded in local ingredients like its spices and the Asian-origin onion, but kept its base of tomatoes and chile peppers, imports from long ago.

Of course, the bean’s entree into the international plate was accompanied by pandemics brought on by Columbus and his ilk, who pillaged the global south, devastating populations and colonizing them along the way.

And this is where a cruel mirror image emerges: A few hundred years ago, millions of Indigenous people died after European contact brought with it an onslaught of new diseases, then departed with native foods, including beans. Now here we are again in the midst of another pandemic, hastened and marked by irresponsible tourism, largely impacting vulnerable populations, especially Native Americans for whom “disease has never been just disease.”

Food exchange has historically been a story of carnage, and the hegemony established continues to benefit from these massacres that unwittingly introduced foods like beans to the world.

Beans that we’re now all staring at in our pantries, wondering how to best cook. Rajma masala came together on the other side of the world — to cook the beans in their “land of origin” feels like a nod to its history. Here, then, are some tips on how best to cook these lovely, storied beans.

How to Make Rajma Masala

Step 1: Procure

Red kidney beans are available at most grocery stories, whether canned or dry. Buy some onions and tomatoes (or tomato paste) while you’re at it. Cilantro leaves will brighten your finished dish. Check your pantry for the usual suspects: chiles, garlic, ginger, cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaves. If you’re missing any ingredients, or just want to punch up the flavor, the easiest cheat is to buy garam masala — well, the actual easiest would be to buy some rajma masala powder.

Step 2: Soak

“Not all beans are created equally,” says molecular biologist and food writer Nik Sharma. Rajma is a fatty bean, while the chickpea is both fatty and carby — these properties affect how you cook a bean. And while it’s a beautiful thing that the kidney bean can sit on a shelf for a year and still be delicious, the older the bean, the longer it takes to cook. “The skin contains magnesium and calcium,” which create water barriers. It holds in itself pectin, the same tough ingredient that makes jam gel together, and the calcium makes it insoluble.

If you’re using dry beans, you’ll have to soak them. Mannur cautions that faster processes may reduce some of the nutrients. She soaks beans overnight — “My mother was right, but I’ll never tell her.”

Step 3: Boil

Not all food legends are true. For example, we’re told that we must shave off the foam buildup from boiling beans because that foam contains whatever makes you gassy. Sharma, whose book The Flavor Equation will come out this October, says that this is a common misconception. The foam does not make you gassy; improperly cooked kidney beans do, though, if the complex carbohydrate does not break down. The precipitate is removed during the canning process, he says, so you don’t get it confused with bacteria — “it’s not poisonous itself, it’s just quality assurance.”

And Sharma has a secret that he’s willing to share as a tip, and it’s baking soda. “I did an experiment,” he says. Adding baking soda to boiling water and beans cut down the cook time from 4 hours to a mere 30 minutes.

Step 4: Make the Base

“You cook the masala with tomato and onion until the fat separates,” says Sharma, and know that canned tomato is chemically different from fresh tomato, that its acids and sugars have changed in the canning process — so start with fresh tomato, and judiciously add canned slowly, tasting every time. The rest (the spices, that is) is tweakable. I like to use garlic, ginger, cumin, red chile powder, a bit of garam masala, cardamom, and cinnamon.

Step 5: Combine

Hopefully your beans are cooked, somewhere between al dente and exploded. Throw them into the onion-tomato base and add the leftover bean water. I did this gradually. It renders a much thicker base than if you were to use water. Simmer for 20 minutes, checking for consistency. It should be thick and stew-like, not dry or watery.

Step 6: Eat and share

Serve it to yourself with rice. Squeeze a bit of lemon to cut the richness, and sprinkle on some chopped cilantro for sparkle. Or better yet, take a page out of Vishwesh Bhatt’s book, and make a ton. Separate the servings into jam jars. Leave them on your neighbor’s doorsteps as a contactless embrace and a reminder of the bean, its story, and how far it traveled.

Aditi Natasha Kini writes cultural criticism, essays, and other text objects from her apartment in Ridgewood, Queens.

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2B4rzET https://ift.tt/3fGeAZa

Getty Images/iStockphoto

The north Indian kidney bean curry is a dish that forgives you if you do not have all the spices, and rewards you for patience and generosity

Food exchange has historically been a story of carnage, and the hegemony established continues to benefit from these massacres that unwittingly introduced foods like beans to the world.

How to Make Rajma Masala

Step 1: Procure

Step 2: Soak

Step 3: Boil

Step 4: Make the Base

Step 5: Combine

Step 6: Eat and share

Aditi Natasha Kini writes cultural criticism, essays, and other text objects from her apartment in Ridgewood, Queens.

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2B4rzET via Blogger https://ift.tt/30dFDVc

#Blogger #cooking #Eater #food #recipes

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easyfoodnetwork · 4 years

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Getty Images/iStockphoto The north Indian kidney bean curry is a dish that forgives you if you do not have all the spices, and rewards you for patience and generosity In the first few weeks of sheltering in place, I found a packet of old rajma in my pantry — that is to say, I stumbled upon a small treasure. Strictly speaking, it was an American brand, so the label on the bag read “kidney beans,” but their magic was the same. I soaked them overnight and they bloomed into large, toothy beans already splitting at the seams. Boiling them turned their surrounding water brown and thick; I cooked them with onions, tomatoes, and whatever spices I had, and simmered it for hours, using the liquid from bean boiling to thicken the mix. In the end I had made the perfect dish of rajma masala — a rich North Indian kidney bean curry — even if it took me two extra hours of simmering, since I didn’t account for the added cook time for old beans. Like so many of the world’s recipes that rely on hardy pantry staples, rajma masala is an ideal pandemic dish. You can turn to it when grocery runs are limited and time at home abundant. Its base recipe demands largely shelf-stable ingredients, and like the various bean chili riffs of the Americas, is a soothing comfort food for those who grew up with it. (To New York Times restaurant critic Tejal Rao, rajma masala is “her family’s store-cupboard comfort food” and the “indisputable king” of bean dishes.) Also like chili, there’s an acidic tomato base to cut through the bean’s inherent creaminess, and though it’s heavily spiced, it is a dish that forgives you if you do not have all the spices, and rewards you for patience and generosity. “The beauty is that it is not instant gratification,” says Oxford, Mississippi-based chef Vishwesh Bhatt, who makes batches of Louisiana red beans to share with his neighbors. “Beans and rice are universal comfort foods, communal, big pot dishes— they lend themselves to sharing.” After I posted photos of my own rajma masala efforts to Instagram, friends, both South Asian and otherwise, slid into my DMs to ask for the recipe and tips. Similarly, when food writer Priya Krishna posted a photo of her rajma chawal — rajma masala with rice — 10 people responded immediately, and more the next day, telling her that they too had been making rajma at home. Krishna, who grew up eating rajma, had cooked it with her mother while sheltering in place with her family in Dallas, but notes, “I hesitate to call what millions of people do everyday a trend.” Fair point. It is true that what seems remarkable in the diaspora is not really so remarkable in the subcontinent. Would anyone in India really care that anecdotally, about 20 people also made rajma masala the same day that Krishna and I did? While I had finished the bulk of this essay before Alison Roman’s comments about two Asian women’s business endeavors kicked up a storm in food media, I am finishing it in the aftermath. It is true that writing about food is a fraught endeavor that skirts appropriation and neocolonialism — that often, food personalities exploit other cultures and their own. Exotification is, after all, an orientalist, capitalist ploy. And in learning more about the rajma bean, I have uncovered another complication in my notion of what is traditional desi, or Indian, cuisine, and — as an Indian immigrant to Turtle Island, another reason to honor the ancestors of this land. Rajma masala may taste and feel like an ancient Indian dish, but its past is marked by cultural and colonial exchange, its recipe scarcely older than my grandfather. While rajma masala is a modern icon of North Indian food, the bean itself is not indigenous to the subcontinent, and neither is the dish’s base, tomato. “Ingredients that seem to many to be inextricably part of an Indian diet are not always autochthonously Indian,” writes historian Anita Mannur in her 2010 book Culinary Fictions: Food in South Asian Diasporic Culture. The kidney bean originates in the Americas, with sources pointing to Mexico and Peru. The bean journeyed from the New World to the Old, and then onward through the spice trade routes to Asia, in what is known as the Columbian exchange, where beans and other plants and animals and peoples and information and diseases were passed between continents in the 15th and 16th centuries. “We think we’re globalizing now, but look to the 1500s,” says Mannur, who co-edited Eating Asian America: A Food Studies Reader. “The irony is that in looking for India, Columbus bizarrely transformed the Indian diet.” The bean’s beneficial properties as a nutrient-dense dried protein source, Mannur tells me, made it a good food for long nautical journeys. Portugal’s ships, filled largely with degredados — convict exiles who often died of dysentery and typhoid along the spice route, and were promised one chest worth of expensive spices to take home if they made the journey — arrived on the western coast of India. Goa, which became Portugal’s capital in India in 1530, was a hub for much internal trade — and was how the tomato and chile pepper took root in Indian cuisine. It is possible that the bean made it up through the cattle caravan routes to the Mughal Empire in the north — but the recipe for rajma masala doesn’t really crop up until as recently as around 130 years ago, says culinary archaeologist Kurush Dalal. Dalal thinks it’s unlikely the kidney bean was traded by the Portuguese, even if they ate it themselves, because it is not mentioned in medieval Indian texts. “There is evidence that the French brought the rajma bean from Mexico to Pondicherry,” he tells me, calling the French the “best conduit.” The French, who colonized Pondicherry on the Eastern coast of India, had mounted the Second French Intervention in Mexico in the 1860s, spearheaded by Emperor Napoleon III. (Cinco De Mayo celebrates the day the French were defeated by the Mexicans in 1862.) There is no paper trail of how it ends up in the hills of the North — though logically, it makes sense for the hearty bean to become more popular in cooler climates, where one would burn more calories. In the wetter, hotter south, such a bean would throw off the Ayurvedic energies of vata and pitta, Dalal speculates. Rajma masala, which made a place for itself in North Indian cuisine, is not as popular in the South. Mannur remembers being told at a restaurant in Mangalore — another erstwhile Portuguese capture — that the North Indian thali was unique because it featured rajma masala. “Methods of preparing rajma masala are not too different from how Latin Americans made chili,” says Mannur. Like Goan vindaloo, which retained both its Portuguese name and the foreign ingredient of vinegar, rajma masala folded in local ingredients like its spices and the Asian-origin onion, but kept its base of tomatoes and chile peppers, imports from long ago. Of course, the bean’s entree into the international plate was accompanied by pandemics brought on by Columbus and his ilk, who pillaged the global south, devastating populations and colonizing them along the way. And this is where a cruel mirror image emerges: A few hundred years ago, millions of Indigenous people died after European contact brought with it an onslaught of new diseases, then departed with native foods, including beans. Now here we are again in the midst of another pandemic, hastened and marked by irresponsible tourism, largely impacting vulnerable populations, especially Native Americans for whom “disease has never been just disease.” Food exchange has historically been a story of carnage, and the hegemony established continues to benefit from these massacres that unwittingly introduced foods like beans to the world. Beans that we’re now all staring at in our pantries, wondering how to best cook. Rajma masala came together on the other side of the world — to cook the beans in their “land of origin” feels like a nod to its history. Here, then, are some tips on how best to cook these lovely, storied beans. How to Make Rajma Masala Step 1: Procure Red kidney beans are available at most grocery stories, whether canned or dry. Buy some onions and tomatoes (or tomato paste) while you’re at it. Cilantro leaves will brighten your finished dish. Check your pantry for the usual suspects: chiles, garlic, ginger, cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaves. If you’re missing any ingredients, or just want to punch up the flavor, the easiest cheat is to buy garam masala — well, the actual easiest would be to buy some rajma masala powder. Step 2: Soak “Not all beans are created equally,” says molecular biologist and food writer Nik Sharma. Rajma is a fatty bean, while the chickpea is both fatty and carby — these properties affect how you cook a bean. And while it’s a beautiful thing that the kidney bean can sit on a shelf for a year and still be delicious, the older the bean, the longer it takes to cook. “The skin contains magnesium and calcium,” which create water barriers. It holds in itself pectin, the same tough ingredient that makes jam gel together, and the calcium makes it insoluble. If you’re using dry beans, you’ll have to soak them. Mannur cautions that faster processes may reduce some of the nutrients. She soaks beans overnight — “My mother was right, but I’ll never tell her.” Step 3: Boil Not all food legends are true. For example, we’re told that we must shave off the foam buildup from boiling beans because that foam contains whatever makes you gassy. Sharma, whose book The Flavor Equation will come out this October, says that this is a common misconception. The foam does not make you gassy; improperly cooked kidney beans do, though, if the complex carbohydrate does not break down. The precipitate is removed during the canning process, he says, so you don’t get it confused with bacteria — “it’s not poisonous itself, it’s just quality assurance.” And Sharma has a secret that he’s willing to share as a tip, and it’s baking soda. “I did an experiment,” he says. Adding baking soda to boiling water and beans cut down the cook time from 4 hours to a mere 30 minutes. Step 4: Make the Base “You cook the masala with tomato and onion until the fat separates,” says Sharma, and know that canned tomato is chemically different from fresh tomato, that its acids and sugars have changed in the canning process — so start with fresh tomato, and judiciously add canned slowly, tasting every time. The rest (the spices, that is) is tweakable. I like to use garlic, ginger, cumin, red chile powder, a bit of garam masala, cardamom, and cinnamon. Step 5: Combine Hopefully your beans are cooked, somewhere between al dente and exploded. Throw them into the onion-tomato base and add the leftover bean water. I did this gradually. It renders a much thicker base than if you were to use water. Simmer for 20 minutes, checking for consistency. It should be thick and stew-like, not dry or watery. Step 6: Eat and share Serve it to yourself with rice. Squeeze a bit of lemon to cut the richness, and sprinkle on some chopped cilantro for sparkle. Or better yet, take a page out of Vishwesh Bhatt’s book, and make a ton. Separate the servings into jam jars. Leave them on your neighbor’s doorsteps as a contactless embrace and a reminder of the bean, its story, and how far it traveled. Aditi Natasha Kini writes cultural criticism, essays, and other text objects from her apartment in Ridgewood, Queens. from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2B4rzET

http://easyfoodnetwork.blogspot.com/2020/07/rajma-masala-might-be-perfect-cupboard.html

#EasyFoodNetwork #ComfortFoodRecipes #EasyRecipes #GoodFood #BestComfortFoodRecipes #TastyFoodv

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