#i decided that tumblr gets to see this pic before twitter this time. winning <3

[suntails]

dinnertime

[tinkdw]

I don’t really want to out my Twitter/tumblr name so I’m using a side account and I understand if you don’t want to post this ask directly, but I love your positivity about the ending. My mutuals are doom & gloom after today’s promo pic. I’m trying to keep my hopes up and I’m so tired of everyone beating me down about it. I’d love to hear your take on what will happen to each member of Team Free Will 2.0 in 15x20; I’ve got some thoughts, but I’d love to get out of my own head for a bit.

Hi! Nw :)

Well, as I’ve said before I think Sam’s story is like 99% tied up, all he needs to do now is finalise the ending of the codependency with Dean, which is happening rn with the discussion of Dean protecting him so much etc. so that they can get past this and be equals at the end. He then gets the girl (Eileen) and hopefully should get some sort of semi goes back to school uses his intellect ending that’s open moving forwards like “and here’s what Sam can do next!” because the last 15 years have basically been holding him back from what he wanted to do since he was a kid. Perhaps it’ll be linking the two with him still involved in hunting but more “bookishly” or perhaps separate, on that I’m unsure just because of outside factors so we shall see!

For Dean, he also is working on ending this codependency and with that a lot of responsibility and guilt is being alleviated, which will all tie in with the anger which is the way the writers have decided to focus on Dean. I’m not entirely happy with that as I think it’s a bit lazy but fine, we shall get to the same ending so :) Dean should end with people around him, his family and in a sort of retired way where he feels more at peace and can let go of his anger caused by the pain of his past and the choices he feels he had to make that weren’t fair, as well as those he now knows he had no real choice over. He ultimately needs to feel that the weight of the world isn’t on his shoulders anymore and be able to relax, I see us seeing him genuinely relaxing with a movie, a pie, whatever as a metaphor of this. I cannot see any way in which Dean doesn’t get a happy ending. Especially after the before last episode. You don’t set up a poor kid taking responsibility for the weight of the world then getting a shit ending aged 40 odd. Nah. Also Dean is THE protagonist. It ain’t happening.

I also cannot see Dean happy in the end without Cas by his side.

I mean.

Nah.

Aside from this, Cas himself had already sacrificed himself and died in season 12 for the cause he chose (protecting Jack, Dean and Sam from Lucifer). He was also depressed and emerged from this literally fighting out of the void (metaphorically of depression) and fighting his way back to the light. That was one of the biggest and best metaphors I’ve seen in years on tv! So no I see no way it makes any sense that he sacrifices himself again forever? I mean unless it’s more lazy writing but I still come back to the Dean wouldn’t survive without him thing too so, no, it makes more sense that we continue to have faith in the writers that they’ll follow though and Cas will redeem himself for his past errors that we now know HE made not Chuck, by helping to restore Heaven, likely with Jack and Amara, and then rightly get his reward for being the loose canon that Chuck overlooked and who blatantly saves everyone in the end again by his own choice. Just as Sam had to redeem himself for the Lucifer / demon blood arc and he has and he has now forgiven himself, that’s also what we need for Cas. That’s why this is a thing for the Empty, he has to forgive himself for his bad choices, killing all those Angels etc, and Heaven needs restoring. There’s an easy win here to put them together. There’s also the issue of his humanity, whether they do this or not I’m not sure again due to time and laziness or whether they will do it properly :)

Also this whole PR thing about Cas being gone for good is actually making me chortle a bit now as they’re clearly rubbing their hands together laughing as fandom is convinced he’s dead and it’s all awful while they all keep totally quiet and hide what Misha’s been up to and moved scenes around. Cruel, but effective lbr!

I’m sure I’ve missed loads, there’s just so many meta points that have already been resolved that I’ve gotten lazy keeping tabs myself and I’m just enjoying the end tbh! I kinda fell out of love with some of the show since mid s13 as I felt they got lazy and were basically just dragging out the final seasons with one plot which, is true given the Michael plot was exactly the Lucifer plot mark 2 and it was all pretty awful and pointless 😂 but the last 2 episodes have been fab and really gotten back to the character stuff we love and I can’t wait for the next 3. I just hope this view is accurate in the end! It’s what makes sense to me ☺️

[travllingbunny]

Clarke Griffin’s memories and images in her mindspace

 In this post I will list all the drawings from Clarke's mindspace seen in season 6 of The 100 (in episodes 6x06, 6x07 and 6x10) that we have been able to spot - most of which (over 90 of them! Yes, this is gonna be a long post) we've been able to identify, with image comparisons to scenes from the show. 

First, credit where credit is due: this idea first came from @ofnailbatsandaxefives who identified many of the drawings and made a bunch of side to side comparisons last year after 6x07 aired in this post. 

I later tried to identify the rest of the drawings, with the help of a few people here and on Twitter (rewatching the show also helped), but this resulted in an endless number of reblogs. Episode 6x10 Matryoshka also had more drawings that weren't in 6x07 Nevermind, some images were misindentified, and I decided to redo all the images with better resolution screencaps. 

Big thanks to everyone who helped in identifying some of the trickier images (many of them are on Twitter and I don’t know if they have Tumblr profiles), especially (Twitter handles) SheiGarche (who identified several of these and corrected some of my mistakes), Lovestory813, BellarkeMood, taunadora, becki_travels, fabiana_vec, indreamswake, KindZouzou and my Tumblr mutual @jeanie205​ (I’m sorry if I forgot anyone).

See also my earlier post about Sets, props and costumes in 6x07 Nevermind.

As a BONUS in addition to the images on Clarke’s memory wall, I’ll also go over audio flashbacks heard at the end of 6x06, in 6x07 and 6x10 -  as a mix of voices representing Clarke’s jumbled memories. Many of them can be heard and identified in the episodes, but special thanks to (Twitter user) klarksbell for removing the background sounds from the scenes so some of the background voices could be heard clearer. 

(In a follow-up post. I’ll go over Clarke's drawings from her Shallow Valley home in season 5, which we also saw in the mindspace version of her Shallow Valley home in her happy place; and those we saw in season 5, many of which overlap as the set was re-used for 6x07. I’ve also noticed that the art department used many of these drawings for the drawings representing Clarke’s memories on her mindspace wall.)

Before I start listing the moments from Clarke’s memory wall - her mindspace version of the actual cell in Skybox she used to be locked in on the Ark - let’s compare the two different versions of this wall. The first one was seen in the very last scene of 6x06 Memento Mori - where we first learned Clarke was still alive (yeah, yeah, of course no one really bought it that she was dead ;) but it was still such a Hell yeah moment) and in 6x07 Nevermind.

But when we saw Clarke in her mindspace again in 6x10 Matryoshka, the walls were different: there were at least 3 new images that weren’t seen in 6x07, and many other images were moved around and placed in different ways. Which does make sense, as Clarke’s mindspace was reacting to her states of mind, so we should probably assume it was always changing, with different memories being more or less prominent at any given time. 

And finally here are the identified images with side-by-side comparisons. Some were obvious and taken straight from the scenes (I've been told there's a software for that), others are a bit less straightforward (and several of them were also seen as Clarke's drawings in season 5).

I'm going to do them chronologically, not by episode but by when those things happened in Clarke's life. 

Starting with the image of Clarke and Wells as children on the Ark (confirmed by Jason Rothenberg on Twitter). The closest thing in the show is the video of them Jaha watched in 1x12.

The next one was tricky as it's not a scene from the show either. It was first misidentified as Clarke watching what ALIE showed her in 3x16, nuclear plants melting on Earth, but that scene is shown in another drawing. It shows a young girl watching the Earth from the Ark.  We've decided that this is young Clarke on the Ark. I used the Octavia flashback scene from 1x06 for comparison to show this is a window on the Ark and a view from there (not because it's the same scene - which it can't be,as this wouldn’t be Clarke’s memory). But the girl looks younger and is touching the window as if yearning for Earth.

Flashbacks in 1x03, a year before the Pilot: Abby and Jake during the happy times; Jake when Clarke overheard him tell Abby that Ark was dying and he'd go public with it; Wells when Clarke told him about it.

1x01 - there are more images from the Pilot than from any other episode.

The first scene of the show - the image on the floor in the mindspace version of Clarke's cell in Skybox is the same image she drew on the floor of her actual cell.

This portrait of Abby seems to represent the next scene where Abby told Clarke she was being sent to Earth. When the camera zoomed on it in 6x06, we heard the dialogue from that scene over it ("Clarke, I love you so much!" -  "Mom?")

When the camera zoomed on this pic of Wells on the dropship in 6x07, we heard Wells' voice saying "Welcome back" as he did in that scene. 

I've been told that the inscription from the Ark we see below is a Chinese proverb that means, more or less, "A friend in need is a friend indeed".

"We're back bitches!" twice - the second is from Clarke's POV. The first one was one of the drawings Josephine touched and we (and Josephine) heard an audio flashback of it and this, uh, memorable line. 

Mount Weather - the first time Clarke saw it, after landing. 

 I spot the same image among Clarke's drawings we saw in her Shallow Valley home in season 5, though it was really tiny in the background.

More scenes from the Pilot:

1x03

It's a pity that the plan to have Eli Goree guest star in 6x07 didn't work out, but at least we had many Wells images and even in the voice memories - I clearly heard Clarke telling him "How can you forgive me?"/"I blamed you because my father's dead and it's my mother's fault."

1x04 Finn with one of the pencils from the shelter he found, trying to impress Clarke. 

1x05 Brief time of Clarke being happy and infatuated, right before Raven arrived and her heart got broken for the first time.

There was a bit of disagreement about this Bellamy image (or images). It shows up as a part of the drawing of him torturing Lincoln in the scene from 1x07 on one of the walls, but it also appears on its own on the ceiling:

@SheiGarche believes that, since this appears as a part of the Lincoln torture scene, the Bellamy image must be from that episode. However, while the rest of the scene 100% matches the 1x07 scene, Bellamy's image doesn't match - in posture or expression - anything from that episode.   On the other hand, especially when you look at the Bellamy image on its own, as it is on the ceiling, it looks most like a drawing based on the scene from 1x02 - "I heard you have a gun''...

I think that the ceiling drawing represents season 1 Bellamy in general, and was drawn based on the 1x02 scene. OTOH, the art department made the 1x07 image from the 1x07 scene but couldn't get a good Bellamy angle so they edited in that same Bellamy image in. You decide.

https://youtu.be/Cj37TWjBwvE?t=59

A Raven portrait, which is probably not about any particular scene (some images just represent certain characters), but it most closely matches this love-triangle moment from 1x08. 

The same portrait was seen as one of Clarke's drawings in season 5.

1x09 - negotiations with Anya and the Grounders on the bridge. Also the first time Clarke has ever seen horses in real life.

1x13 

Probably some of the Grounder warriors who got burned in the Ring of Fire, but this scene clearly indicated that Clarke was thinking about closing the door on Finn and Bellamy and that they may have been burned.

2x01

This image gave us so much trouble, until it turned out it was just a random woman from Mount Weather who yelled "CONTAINMENT BREACH!" when Clarke entered the mess hall dragging Maya and saw all the people sitting there.

Another one of character portraits that are probably not important for any particular scene or moment. But going by Miller's hair and facial hair, it can only be season 2 Miller at the time he and Clarke were both in MW (this is from 2x02).

Ending of 2x02:

2x03 - Escape from Mount Weather

2x04 Anya after Clarke beat the crap out of her and managed to win their fight. "You fought well".

Now a few more character portraits. This image of Raven with a brace doesn't 100% fit a scene from the show, but it looks a lot like this promo pic of her - except for her red jacket, which she wore in 2x05 when Clarke first saw her with a leg brace.

Since Jaha has a beard and hair, it can only be from season 2 or 3, which limits it to 2x07 or 3x16, the only times he and Clarke were in the same place. I used 2x07 image of non-chipped Jaha, when he came to Camp him and argued for Arkers leaving, pitting him against Clarke,as this would’ve meant abandoning her friends to their fate in MW.

Portrait of Indra - also probably not about any particular scene, but it looks like their first meeting in 2x07. It was also among Clarke's drawings in season 5.

2x08  This image is one of the few that were not seen on the memory wall in 6x07, but appeared in 6x10.  Maybe it's because the ALIE projection said in 6x07 her most painful memories were not on the wall - and the scene of Clarke killing Finn was only seen represented in her dark place by the pole and knife. Maybe she was able to process some of those memories better by 6x10?

2x09 Raven holding Finn’s dead body

This profile of Lexa is probably not from any particular scene, but a general image of the warrior leader/ally Lexa from S2. I used the scene of her making a speech in 2x15, but there were scenes in 2x09 (like when she told Clarke that Love is weakness) that looked similar.

2x10 Well, an attack by giant mutant gorilla would be pretty memorable to anyone.

2x11 I previously thought this image of people in radiation suits (also seen among Clarke's drawings in S5) was from 4x12/13, but looking more closely, now I think these are Mount Weather Ground unit guards - specifically, are Emerson and the other Mountain Man who tried to assassinate Clarke in 2x11. The outfits, helmets, guns are the closest match.

2x12 Clarke's guilt over letting the MW missile drop on the people in Tondc was referenced not just in 6x07 when her projection of Octavia called her out on writing her off there, but also in 6x10: 

Josephine: I wasn't always like this. 

Clarke: I know the feeling. I mean, look around you.

*Josephine looks at this big image on the wall*

2x15 - breaching the Mount Weather door

I'm about 95% sure that this picture of Lexa is her betrayal in 2x15.

2x16:

 "Together" - "Together"

3x01 The most important character in the show! LOL

...seriously though, this little bunny (? who looks more like a squirrel in the drawing?) that Clarke used as a bait to catch a panther, stands for the 3 months Clarke spent in wilderness.

The only image of Niylah on the wall. It's the scene when she lied to protect Clarke when Roan and a bounty hunter came looking for her.

Another character portrait not related to a specific scene, and another one that was seen as one of Clarke's drawings hanging in her Shallow Valley home in S5. Going by the hair and beard, it's seasons 3-4 Kane, so I used the scene of his and Abby's meeting with Clarke in 3x03.

3x04

3x07 - there are 3 images of Lexa from this episode

Lexa smiling during the talk in which she asked Clarke to stay - this is the most prominent of the images of Lexa (one of the images that appear multiple times on the wall + had a flashback). Seems these softer moments are larger in Clarke's mind than warrior/leader Lexa.

The second most prominent image of Lexa (one of the pictures the camera zoomed in on in 6x06, when we also heard the dialogue among the audio memories - "Can we talk about something else?" - "We don't have to talk at all").

and Lexa right after she was shot by Titus.

3x11 What turned out to be the most important of all Clarke's memories, as it contained info on the neural mesh and how Raven was freed from ALIE and that Clarke has to remove from the wall and hide from Josephine.

3x13  Luna, refusing the Flame

3x15 When Clarke didn't break and give ALIE the password and it almost cost her her mother's life. This drawing was previously misidentified as Murphy being hanged in S1 - some thought there were two hanging scenes, but there's just one and it's clearly indoors.

3x16 - there are several scenes from the City of Light. Including the image of the COL itself. You can see even see the tiny figures of Lexa and the people she's fighting.

What ALIE showed Clarke: the Earth, full of nuclear plants melting, telling her about the upcoming Praimfaya.

Clarke pulling the kill switch and destroying COL

One of the first things Clarke saw after returning from the City of Light was Murphy is one of his most heroic moments - pumping Ontari's heart so Clarke could take the Flame.

4x01 

 This one seems a bit random: it's a moment when Indra came and hugged Kane while Octavia, Clarke, Bellamy and Abby were already there in the Grounder shrine - but I think it's important as the scene when they all discussed what to do in the situation and Clarke told them all about Praimfaya.

Roan, after agreeing to an alliance because of Praimfaya, giving a public speech in Polis to say that 'an attack against the 13th clan is an attack on all of us'.

The drawing of Arkadia is another one that was hanging in Clarke's Shallow Valley home in season 5 - and was also seen in the mindspace version of that home in 6x07. I used a scene from 4x03.

4x04 There are 3 scenes from this episode, and all of them have to do with Jasper. The first two are two of Jasper's pranks: "floating" Jaha, and the prank Jasper pulled on Clarke. But the mood of the latter got ruined because he had already found the List before Clarke came in. (Josephine touched this drawing briefly in 6x07 and we heard the audio flashback: (Monty: "Clarke, wait..." - Clarke: "Really?" )

And what happened right after, in the same scene, when Jasper started telling everyone present about the List. (Jasper's angry comments can also be heard clearly among the mix of voices at the beginning of 6x07 - more about that later)

The portrait of Emori is probably from 4x07, when they had their first major interaction. It was also one of Clarke's drawings that could be glimpsed in the background in S5.

Skip the next one if you don't want to see an image of a person dying a gruesome and painful death in a radiation chamber.

4x08 The unfortunate Grounder thief from the Rock Line clan whose name we never learned, at the moment of his death.

4x10  Octavia in the Conclave - more of a symbolic representation (with the sigils around her). This was a very prominent drawing in Clarke's sketchbook that we saw a couple of times in season 5. 

4x11 Another one of the 3 images that weren't seen in 6x07 but were in the second version of the memory wall, in 6x10 - Clarke pointing a gun at Bellamy to stop him from opening the bunker door, before she broke down and cried. The drawing even shows Clarke’s hand with a gun.

4x12 the rocket in Becca's lab

4x13  Clarke being left behind in Praimfaya and watching her friends leave while she was aligning the satellite dish so they could get to the Ring and survive. 

This was also another prominent drawing from Clarke's sketchbook we saw in season 5.

There's another scene from 4x13, but that one happens 6 years later, so I'll come back to it later...

5x01 Post-Praimfaya

Polis was Clarke's destination after she left Becca's lab - trying and failing to open the door of the bunker after the temple had collapsed on it. Then realizing she'll be alone for at least 5 years.

Then she went to Arkadia, where she only found "ghosts" - the chest with Maya's music player, Jasper's goggles and his letter to Monty (as we saw in the flashback in Clarke's "dark place", where the chest played an important role).

The bird that kind of tried to eat Clarke (?), showed Clarke where Eden was, and then got thanked, shot and eaten by Clarke.

Shallow Valley

This image is both a memory of 6 year old Madi (not the moment they met, but when Clarke was drawing her while she was fishing), of Clarke drawing her and of the drawing she made and gave Madi to make friends with her.

Madi and Clarke, but some 6 years later.  This image was prominent of at the beginning of 6x07 when we saw a flashback of it when Clarke touched it ("I'm sorry they left without you" - "If I was with them, I never would've met you").

4x13 - 2199 days after Praimfaya: Gagarin transport ship, the moment when Clarke saw it clearly and realized it wasn't the ship she was hoping for ("Never mind, I see you"), but one to be afraid of.

5x03 - Makes snse that images of Diyoza, Shaw and McCreary are all from the episode where they captured and tortured Clarke.

5x04 

Bellamy reuniting with Clarke. 

Coming out of the bunker. 

 5x06  - Madi watching Octavia practice. 

5x09 - There were quite a few changes between the memory wall in 6x07 and 6x10, and the most obvious one was seen right after Clarke woke up in her mindspace - the big image of Bellamy when Octavia arrested him and right before Clarke left him at her mercy in Polis.

5x12 - This is one of the rare drawings that doesn’t fully represent a memory correctly as Clarke saw it. But it makes sense to me that Clarke remembers it this way - seeing Madi in pain when she zapped the shock collar to stop her from leaving and going to war. But in fact, the screenshot shows Madi shocked that Clarke put a shock collar on her. Clarke closed her eyes and had her back turned to Madi, because she couldn’t watch it when she actually zapped the shock collar,  and only heard her scream.

This was another drawing Josephine touched and had a flashback of (we  heard Madi screaming and Clarke saying “I won’t let you die in this war”), commenting "Child abuse dressed up as protection!"

5x13 - Clarke pulling the lever to close the door of the Gagarin ship, after waiting until the last moment for Bellamy to come in, closing the door after Bellamy, Monty, Emori and Murphy were inside and the missiles were already hitting the Earth.

One last image. It's clearly Madi, and with the horizontal placement of the drawing, I thought it was Clarke putting Madi in cryo. But it turns out the same image - only vertical - was one of her drawings she had in Shallow Valley in season 5... so, I don't know.

There are other images that we couldn't link to anything specific or weren't sure. Mostly locations, objects and nature images.   1) A forest? 2) Waterfall/rocky shore? 3) Rubble?) 

If anyone identifies any of them or notice other images or anything else, I’ll be editing and reblogging this post.

BONUS - audio memories

ending scene of 6x06

Lines I can hear:

over the image of Abby: Abby and Clarke in 1x01: "Clarke, I love you so much!" - "Mom?" 

 "I'm scared"? - this line can be heard clearly but I don’t know who it is. It sounds like a child, but I don’t thin Madi or Charlotte ever said it.

Finn in 1x01 when they see the deer: "No animals, eh?"

Madi in 5x11: "I love you, Clarke" (the entire line was “...but we’re on the wrong side of this war”

Clarke to Wells in 1x03, after learning the truth: "How can you forgive me?"

Madi to Clarke in 5x01, during the scene by the fire: "I'm sorry they left without you."

Bellamy trying to convince Clarke not to leave in 2x16 “You don’t have to do this alone”.

Clarke to Madi in 5x12, as she puts a shock collar on her: "I will not let you die in this war!" 

over the image of Lexa in bed with Clarke - Lexa and Clarke in 3x07: "Can we talk about something else?” - We don't have to talk at all." 

over the image of Bellamy: Bellamy to Lincoln in 1x07: "You're gonna give us the antidote or you're gonna wish you had". Other lines whispered in the background:

Bellamy in 2x16: "(If you want forgiveness) I'll give that to you" 

Bellamy during his reunion with Clarke in 5x04: "Clarke, you saved us all."

 "This is how we get to peace" (sounds like Bellamy but Clarke was the one who actually said it in 5x08)

Bellamy in 1x07: "Who we are and who we have to be to survive are two different things."

opening scene of 6x07

Clarke to Wells in 1x03: “I blamed you because my father’s dead and it’s my mother’s fault” (heard while Clarke is looking at the wall with the image of her parents, among others)

 (over the image of Wells) Bellamy: “Who else knows about this?” (in 1x04, when Clarke realized one of the Delinquents had killed Wells)

(also over the image of Wells) Wells: “Welcome back!” (1x01)

 (over the image of Roan & Lexa fighting in 3x04: “It’s always something with you!” – Roan to Clarke in 4x01 

we also hear Lexa’s and Roan’s grunts during their fight

(over the two images of Madi) Madi (5x11): “I love you, Clarke” 

Madi screaming when Clarke zaps the shock collar in 5x12

Two angry lines by Jasper are overlapping as the camera slides from Lexa to Bellamy:  

as we see Lexa in focus: “Truth hurts” - Jasper in 3x11, after ALIE!Raven blamed her for the deaths of Jake, Wells, Finn & Lexa

 as we see Bellamy in focus: “I found your list. I guess we know who really matters to you” (Jasper in 4x04)

Madi in 5x12: “I’m not a child anymore, Clarke. I’m the Commander, and my people are dying”

(ETA) Jasper yelling “We are Apogee!” and Clarke, Octavia, Monty and Finn yelling happily with him, just before he gets speared in the Pilot

Clarke in 3x11: “I let her get to me.”

the flashback to Madi and Clarke by the fire in 5x01 “I’m sorry they left without you” - “If I was with them, I never would have met you” 

more of Jasper’s ranting in 3x11: “I was going to save everyone!” (talking about his plans in 2x16 to kill Cage)

flashback to the Pilot, as we see the drawing on the floor: “Prisoner 319, face the wall!”  Some of the lower volume lines in the background, which can only be identified after the background noise was removed:

Bellamy to Clarke in 3x11, after ALIE!Raven had made her lost it: “I’ll let her beat me up for a while.” 

ALIE-controlled Raven yelling “Let me go!” in 3x11, when she’s trying to find out the location and help ALIE, and everyone grabs her and subdues her

Octavia in 2x16: “I know where my loyalties lie!” 

Bellamy in 5x09, when he brought Madi to see Clarke in her cell: “Clarke, this isn’t goodbye”.

I also hear someone yelling "Octavia!", and mentions of Jasper’s and Jaha’s names.

Josephine and Clarke  in 6x07 

Josephine touching images and we hear flashbacks of scenes from 1x01 (”We’re back, bitches!), 5x12 (Madi screaming when Clarke puts a shock collar and Clarke saying “I won’t let you die in this war”) and 4x04 (”Clarke, wait...” - “Really?” when Clarke got covered in foam as Jasper pranked her). There are many other whispered lines I don't recognize.

In 6x10, however, everything was mixed up -  Clarke's and Josephine's memories were all mashed up, because the boundaries between their minds were disappearing - so it’s pretty much impossible to make out anything. But Clarke’s memories are probably the same mix as in 6x07, because I can still hear Wells saying "Welcome back". 

If anyone notices something I did not, please tell - I will edit this post with any new info!

[recentanimenews]

Cooking With Anime: Soma's Duck Yakisoba

NENE vs SOBA vs SOMA! A battle to end all Shokugeki! Going in, we all knew what the outcome had to be- of COURSE Nene would win, she's a master at this stuff! Right? WRONG. Soma did the impossible- beating out a Soba champ at her own game with a revolutionary and mind blowing dish- the Duck YakiSOBA!

  HAH! What a concept. Well, I'm here to tell you that Soma is not the only person to have had this idea. In fact, I, your beautiful, charming, intelligent, and humble food blogger have mused the possibilities of this dish long before I saw them in an anime. I mean, it's in the title. Yakisoba. You'd think that just meant fried soba noodles, right? Well, no. 

          Traditional yakisoba, or yakisoba as it's eaten in Japan, is made with a wheat based noodle, similar to Chinese style noodles. This is because wheat noodles hold up nicely to frying- they soak up flavor, are typically pretty thick, and add a nice chew to contrast the pan-fry. Yakisoba as it's normally made is totally delicious in its own right- no doubt about that. HOWEVER, once upon a time (ie. the first time I make yakisoba from scratch), I tried to use actual soba noodles. 

  Well, I sort of tried. I got as far as buying the noodles before realizing they didn't look quite like what I was used to seeing. One very harried internet search later, and my hunch was confirmed. Soba noodles were not actually in yakisoba. I went back and bought the typical noodle, but that didn't stop me from wondering- what difference would using a soba noodle actually make?!?

  That is why I'm very happy to have the opportunity to make this recipe here. I finally have a reason to follow through on my musings! And Soma does not disappoint, with a recipe that is easy and delicious. Well, easy provided you don't make your own noodles. I, personally, was not up for the challenge as I find hand making noodles almost never turns out well unless you really know what you're doing. Luckily, dried noodles that I boiled back to life were a perfect substitute- honestly I was so surprised at how well they worked here. 

  Of course, where I'm from in California, if you want duck breast, you'd better get ready to buy a whole duck. So I did. Butchering the poor bird was not as difficult as expected, but it did produce less meat than expected, so make sure you get a large duck if you decide to recreate this, for more meat. Becuase my breast was so small, the skin kind of fell off during the slicing process, but ideally you'd have a nicely sized cut of duck with a layer of skin and fat that should be perfectly pan fried to produce a crispy exterior. If I were to remake the dish, I'd definitely angle to get a bigger duck and make sure the slices were thicker, for an overall better bite of food. 

  Most importantly, you cannot miss the seasonings that should be sprinkled over the top. My favorite was the seasame ginger seasoning, but the pepper ginger was pretty terrific as well. These seasonings amp up the overall dish and take it to a whole new level of fun- what's better than changing the flavor of every bite of food? Nothing, I tell you. Absolutely nothing. 

      Is this yakisoba a win? It most certainly is! Watch the video below to see the full process.

      Ingredients for the Duck Yakisoba

(Feeds two) 

-Sesame seeds

-Szechuan peppercorns

-Ground ginger

-Dried parsley

-1 cup dashi

-1/2 cup soy sauce

-1/4 cup mirin

-3 tbsp brown sugar

-3 bundles soba (should be a dark brown color) 

-2 Duck breasts (about 4 oz meat), cut into slices and duck fat/ skin

-3 Green onions, sliced on the diagonal in 1 inch pieces

-1 Green onion, white seperated from greens and thinly sliced

    To Make the Duck Yakisoba

1. First make the sesame peppercorn seasoning. Toast a handful of sesame seeds and a good shake of peppercorns over medium high heat, about 2 minutes or until fragrant. Remove from heat, and grind with a teaspoon of dried parsley until you have a fine seasoning.

  2. Make the ginger sesame seasoning. Toast a handful of sesame seeds over medium high heat, about 2 minutes or until fragrant. Remove from heat, and grind with 2 teaspoons of dried ginger and a teaspoon of dried parsley until you have a fine seasoning.

  3. Mix dashi, soy sauce, mirin, and brown sugar. Stir to combine, and set aside.

  4. Bring a pot of water to the boil. Season with salt, and boil soba 2-3 minutes or until al dente. Remove and drain from heat.

  5. In a wok or large frying pan, fry duck skin until you have a good 1-2 tbsp of duck fat in bottom of pan. Remove duck skin, and toss in cooked noodles. Break up in the pan, and fry 3-4 minutes until noodles become toasty.

  6. Clear a space in the middle, and throw in duck. Allow to cook, 4-5 minutes or until a nice crust forms on the duck. Add green onions on top, and let wilt slightly, another 2 minutes. Toss to combine, and add in sauce to taste (about 1/4 cup, is what I used). Toss to combine, and let cook 1-2 minutes or until sauce slightly evaporates.

  7. Serve hot, with a garnish of green onion.

    I hope you enjoyed this post! Check in next week for another recipe. To check out more anime food recipes, visit my blog. If you have any questions or comments, leave them below! I recently got a Twitter, so you can follow me at @yumpenguinsnack if you would like, and DEFINITELY feel free to send me food requests! My Tumblr is yumpenguinsnacks.tumblr.com. Find me on Youtube for more video tutorials! Enjoy the food, and if you decide to recreate this dish, show me pics! :D

  In case you missed it, check out our last dish: Hot Tub Tamago from Kakuriyo-Bed and Breakfast for Spirits-. What other famous anime dishes would you like to see Emily make on COOKING WITH ANIME?

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[shoecartel]

The 12 best memes of 2015: Runaway llamas, The Dress, Adele …

The internet in 2015 has given us a lot of giggles a vigil to a raccoon, Drake playing tennis and the duck army but which memes construct our cut of the best?

12. What are thooooose!

A police officer. A cheeky dude( Brandon Moore) hollering what are thooose ? at the officers functional, ugly footwear. Millions of loops and views and copycats afterwards, a meme is born. The first urban dictionary entry for the phrase and practice appeared in 2011, but it was 2015 when the sport of pointing at some awful shoes( preferably Crocs) and shouting what are those ?!! entered the mainstream. The best example is the wonderful take on the Jurassic Park theme tune( see below, 50 million Vine loops so far ), which I like because its less mean-spirited than real life instances. In fact, “the mens” who started the whole thing back in the summer seems kind of rude and is now in jail. Um.

11. Duck Army

It stormed collective internet consciousness in early September. Norwegian Kevin Synnes decided to embarrass his girlfriend in a store by pushing down on a bunch of toy ducks which, when pressed, emitted a loud aaarghh ! noise. The video was then appropriated by Vine star Charlie Murphy and subsequently looped millions of days, spawning multiple variants. There has even been a mash-up with the what are those? meme. My person favourite versions are those which pay tribute to Adele and Taylor Swift.

However, a Guardian investigation revealed that that the toy was not a duck, but a pelican. Listen to our interview with Kevin here.

Read more: How the duck army stormed the internet

10. Hello, its me

It took merely a 30 -second snippet of Adeles new single, Hello, debuted during the advert violate of the UK television show, The X Factor, to have the vocalist trending worldwide on Twitter. And while the haunting piano and hushed, smoky tones beloved of millions of fans induced much excitement among those desperate to hear the full song, the clip also inspired plenty of memes.

Hello, its me is a pretty meme-able phrase, and the internet did not disillusion. When the sepia-tinged video dropped, featuring the vocalist in an amazing coat, using a flip-phone and hanging out in an abandoned home, the memes merely multiplied. Especially re: the flip-phone. One girl even texted her ex the entire lyrics to Hello, without him catching on at all.

Read more: Hello, its me. On a flip-phone. Samsung unveils clamshell model

chuck (@ charlubby) October 23, 2015

you know it’s the emotional part of the song when adele doesn’t stop touching her face pic.twitter.com/ dkQvHRmL7 6

9GAG (@ 9GAG) November 8, 2015

#Hello, it’s me. https :// t.co /8 2PU9WzQHG pic.twitter.com/ 1y7xUrARvQ

9. Miley, whats good?

A lot of people characterised this as Nicki Minaj hurling tint at Miley Cyrus, which is a fundamental misunderstanding of the concept of tint. Minaj didnt throw shade she immediately called Cyrus out, in front of a TV audience of millions. If anything, that is the direct opposite of hurling tint.

The incident happened at the MTV Music Video Awards in response to an interview Cyrus gave in which she called Minaj not very polite. While accepting an award Minaj called Cyrus this bitch who had a lot to say about me in the press the other day, before aiming with the perfectly passive aggressive, Miley, whats good? Cue memes. Plenties and lots of memes.

John Liacopulos (@ john_liac_9 7) November 3, 2015

When Miley Cyrus takes you to her favorite eatery that you’ve never been to before and you ask what to order pic.twitter.com/ qoGDlgHmuQ

KK (@ _ColeHeartedX) October 9, 2015

I hate whoever room this is #iup #MileyWhatsGood pic.twitter.com/ Peh3f 3Yq4b

8. Confounded Nick Young

Nick Young is a basketball player who shoots for the LA Lakers. His internet fame, however, is courtesy of a confused reaction face meme. At one point during a day-in-life-of documentary, Thru The Lens, positioned on YouTube, Young pulls a huh? face when his mother calls him a buffoon. His quizzical expression towards the camera has spawned likely the best reaction macro of 2015 and can be used for disbelief, astonish or a thousand other reactions.

Photograph: Instagram /@ Daquan

7. Why you always lyin?

The 21 -year-old college student Nicholas Fraser became an internet sensation when he decided to perform, in his yard, perched on a lavatory, as one does, a quick cover-up of Nexts Too Close, but with the lyrics changed to why the fuck you lyin?/ why you always lyin ?) Given that people lie all of the time , and we know about it, guys , and we all want people to know that we know, Frasers vine caught on and inspired multiple cover versions of his cover version. Now, when your mate texts to tell she is five minutes away but you know she likely hasnt left the house yet, theres a perfect means of responding. Thanks Nicholas.

Read more: When “theyre saying” Nicholas Frasers vine isnt the best use of 2015: why you always lyin ?

6. Fifty Shades of Grey

After the Fifty Shades of Grey series of volumes sold so poorly , it was a punt for Universal Pictures to have taken on a film adaptation. But oh, brave souls it was brought to the screen in summer 2015 with Sam Taylor-Johnson at the helm and Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson starring. Given that the book had already resulted in a lot of culture cache, it was inevitable that the film would inspire memes and gags. The internet delivered. In particular, the my savors are very singular line( altered to my passions are unconventional for the internet) demonstrated a rich seam.

The Beast (@ KrystalSim) February 9, 2015

pic.twitter.com/ m5Tpb21XRf

Photograph: BuzzFeed

5. Hotline Bling

One of the best ways of 2015, the video for Drakes Hotline Bling didnt drop-off until October three months after the ballads release. But it was worth the wait. A minimalist clip, Drake proves off his unusual dance moves against different coloured backdrops inspired by artist James Turell. The rappers moves and pained impression inspired multiple parodies shared on YouTube, Vine and Twitter.

Included below are some of the best: a dancing and adorable shiba inu( aka Doge ), the Man From Another Place from Twin Peaks and perhaps best of all, some tennis backhand action.

Chai Goth (@ Abid_ism) October 20, 2015

The hotline is filled with secrets pic.twitter.com/ 5zS0WZhGCG

4. The Dress

The most viral of viral phenomenons. A young lady took a picture of a dress in a clothes store and uploaded it to Tumblr. Why is this interesting? As the internet was genuinely divided as to whether the dress was blue and black, or white and gold.

The original Tumblr post pose the question racked up an enormous 73m page positions, and a BuzzFeed piece on the dress has more than 38m page positions to date. #TheDress trended for days on social media. Scientists were carried in to explain how people could be seeing different colourings. Rods and cones were mentioned. British current affairs programme Newsnight even offered its own election. The Guardian waded in, with the definitive take.

michael (@ 1975 NIGHTMARE) February 27, 2015

when you don’t know the color of the dress pic.twitter.com/ sQI7YLnjk 1

BBC Newsnight (@ BBCNewsnight) February 27, 2015

A live on screen vote on tonight’s Newsnight – what colour is #thedress? Get out your phone and going to see http :// t.co/ dRffVZfw0P at 10:30 pm

3. Poot Lovato

I dont guess Ive ever chuckled so hard as when I detected the Poot Lovato meme. A Tumblr post featuring an awkward fan photo of vocalist Demi Lovato posited the hypothesi that the snap was not of Demi herself, but her secret twin sister, Poot Lovato, who had been trapped in a cellar her entire life. The fable took hold and soon the internet was ablaze with hilarious and creative Poot memes. Fan-fiction was written, fan art draw, Instagram and Twitter accounts were established and even Demi herself addressed the gag( she wasnt amused ). Then, instead, brilliantly, a sleuth excavate out a paparazzi photo of Demi-as-Poot right at the moment the fan pic was taken. Its still funny.

Read more: Poot Lovato: has the internet detected Demis secret sister ?

A selection of the best Poot Lovato memes. Photograph: Guardian composite

2. Llamas on the run

On THE SAME DAY AS THE DRESS, the internet explosion with one of the great police chases of our time two llamas on the run. The llamas, one black and one white, ran loose in Sun City, Arizona. The whole internet followed, glued to the ABC1 5 live river of the runaway animals and tracking updates on Twitter. The llamas, true heroes of freedom and an inspiration to all, had escaped from their day job in an animal therapy centre. The black llama was caught first, its emancipation ended with a cruel lassoing. The white llama ran on, but eventually, it too was caught. Still, these two were the internets favourite llamas since Serge, the French llama who travelled by subway.

HannahJane Parkinson (@ ladyhaja) February 26, 2015

NOOOO. BLACK LLAMA CAUGHT. STAY STRONG WHITE LLAMA.

Matthew Baldwin (@ matthewbaldwin) February 26, 2015

LLAMA 1: We’re escaping this afternoon. LLAMA 2: Alpaca bag.

1. Dead Raccoon

My personal win for meme of 2015 is the dead raccoon, an unfortunate soul, detected deceased on a Toronto street. After a human tweeted the relevant city authorities to tell them about the raccoon, the poor critter was left for hours in the same place. Over the next 12 hours, a vigil was set up for the raccoon, documented online. A note was left, a framed photo , notes were written. Someone gave the raccoon an unlit joint as a mark of respect. It get dark. Candles were illuminated. The raccoon was named Conrad. Eventually, the authorities turned up and unceremoniously dumped Conrad in a rubbish truck. Such a lack of respect.

Raccoon update: he’s still there. Someone has written him a card .

A photo posted by Emily Taylor (@ emilyjs5) on Jul 9, 2015 at 9:14 am PDT

Shauna Pollock (@ misspollock) July 9, 2015

Don’t quite know what to say about this sidewalk discovery except that it really brought ppl together. #deadraccoonto pic.twitter.com/ BJ7efipLvq

Norm Kelly (@ norm) July 10, 2015

The sidewalk memorial is growing, @311Toronto. H/ T @jasonwagar. #DeadRaccoonTO pic.twitter.com/ 3vTUf9xB7b

Kris Pangilinan (@ KrisReports) July 10, 2015

10: 46 pm #DeadRacoonTO is still here. pic.twitter.com/ D9JbEuxJol

Read more: www.theguardian.com

from WordPress http://ift.tt/2rVF5nT via IFTTT

[mightbedamian]

#TMIishTuesday #44 - Weird Sayings in English, German, and Dutch

Hey there, first off: I tagged some of my posts. You can find an overview of the tags I used on this page. So, if you are interested in certain topics like my life in the Netherlands, my coming out story, or posts about YouTube, you can now just click those tags and see only those posts. The page also includes a description of what #TMIishTuesday is. How handy, right? Oh and I also did some tagging for pics. There are like 10 pics of 3 people that I know and all of them are YouTubers, so… still check it out, if you want to? :D Let's start with the actual thing now, shall we? Hey there mighty people of the internet! And welcome to issue #44 of #TMIishTuesday - my weekly Tumblr post about what goes through my weird mind and what you guys want to know more about. It can be something very personal, it can be something political, it can be completely pointless - but in 99.9 % of the cases, it involves opinions. And mine as well. // Last week I went quite cliché - again and reflected on my personal year 2016. Veeeeeeery long post but totally worth reading, if you want to know more about me! // In other news, I held the first poll of 2017 and the first poll in like… 4 weeks or so (?) for you to decide today's topic on Twitter. And you guys were interested in what I have to say about those "Weird Sayings". And... you guys, I just love languages! Languages are everything: Strange, very straightforward, not logical, ridiculous, inventive, confusing, never the same, I could go on forever. This is probably gonna be a long post again. #ifyoucouldnttellalready I'll take some bits and bobs from my experiences of speaking three languages - within a minute at times - and bring up some examples from that. If you don't know German or Dutch, don't you worry. I got you! I'll translate to English. As best as possible. #notyetaprofessionalinterpreter Let's start with the initial reason why I came up with the idea to write about this topic: The word "fangirling". If you are not a fangirl yourself, you probably don't have a clue what I'm talking about. Let's take a look into the urban dictionary for help (that's a very handy website for checking what slang means btw, it has saved my life numerous times! Else I wouldn't have been able to understand a lot of videos). Urban dictionary defines "fangirl" as: "A rabid breed of human female who is obesessed with either a fictional character or an actor. Similar to the breed of fanboy. Fangirls congregate at anime conventions and livejournal. Have been known to glomp, grope, and tackle when encountering said obsessions." ...and "fangirling" as: "v. 1. the reaction a fangirl has to any mention or sighting of the object of her "affection". These reactions include shortness of breath, fainting, highpitched noises, shaking, fierce head shaking as if in the midst of a seizure, wet panties, endless blog posts, etc. 2. a gathering of two or more fangirls in which they proceed to waste endless amounts of time ogling, discussing/arguing, stalking, etc. the object of their "affection" " I first learned about "fangirls" on YouTube watching some international YouTuber. Might have been Tyler Oakley, who himself has probably more fangirls any YouTuber will ever have. Looking to the word "fangirl", it makes me notice two things: 1. It's an absolutely brilliant neologism! Perfectly descriptive of its meaning. A "girl" who is a big "fan" of someone: "fangirl". "Fangirling" then is just the act of being such "fangirl". 2. Why is the term "fangirl" so common, while I haven't even heard of a "fanboy"? Why do I have to be "fangirling" when I like to go crazy about a celebrity? Shouldn't I be "fanboying" instead? And thinking inclusively: What about non-binary people who I identify as neither "boy" nor "girl" but somewhere along the spectrum instead? It's that slightly discriminative thing that exists in lots of languages when they just use one word that has an attribute of one gender attached to it to mean both genders. As far as I have noticed, it's not that prevalent in the English language as it is in German and Dutch. Well done, you creators of English! When you talk about a hair dresser that is neutral. It can be either gender. In German ("Friseur" for male; "Friseurin" for female) and Dutch ("kapper" and "kapster" respectively) you don’t have a unisex form: "I went to the hair dresser's to get a haircut yesterday. She did an awesome job!" would be "Ich bin gestern beim Friseur gewesen. Sie hat es richtig gut gemacht!" in German and "Ik ben gisteren naar de kapper geweest. Ze heeft het heel goed geknipt!" (That’s probably not translated too well, but you get my point, right? :D) Notice how both languages use the male form instead of the (correct) female form. Just because you refer to the hair dresser's place instead of the hair dresser herself. Obviously the English language discriminates as well. Think about police men or post men. Have you ever heard someone say "police women"? No, you probably haven't. Granted, I've never lived in a country where English was the native language. But I think it's ridiculous that we have that separation in so many terms, especially with professions. If you want to use the politically correct form, it sounds incredibly unsophisticated. When I read German flyers that are published by governmental organisations, I'm close to puking. "Die Schüler_innen" - yes, there are not only male students in that class (and this form of writing also includes non-binary people - as opposed to “SchülerInnen”). But why make such a mess of it. I think we should introduce a neutral form to use in such occasions. We have neutral pronouns, even to describe people (think of they/them or ze/zir). Why don't we use them for these occasions as well? But alright, I can tell you are getting bored of my political correctness talks again. Let's get on with this post. How about false friends? You may have some in real life (though I hope you don't), but I'm talking about words that sound similar in different languages, but have a completely different meaning. First one that sprang to my mind: The German "Handy". I mean… I have to give you that: A mobile phone is indeed handy. But I've seen lots of people using the word in English to refer to a mobile phone, when native speakers would probably have no idea what they are talking about. Or take "actual" which is actually a great example! actual ≠ aktuell. The English word "actual" is translated to German as eigentlich, tatsächlich; the German "aktuell" means current or up-to-date in English. And there are obviously some with Dutch as well. Take the German word "allemal" and the Dutch word "allemaal". "Allemaal" is often added to a plural pronoun: "wij" (we), "jullie" (you), or "zij" (they), to underline that everyone is involved. And without a doubt it is one of the most frequently used words in Dutch. The German "allemal" is slightly old-fashioned and not used much anymore. It means “certainly” or “for sure”. Another example: The German "fahren" (to ride or to drive) is obviously used very often, while "varen" in Dutch isn't. It sounds very similar, but only refers to "travelling by boat" instead of including pretty much any means of travel, like the German “fahren”. Dutch and English are more fitting. In a way... For “actual” it’s the same story as with German (called "actueel" in Dutch). For the rest: "map" exists in both English and Dutch. But the Dutch word means “folder”, while the English word translates to Dutch as "landkaart". And finally: "room". If you ask a receptionist of a hotel for a "free room" (or a "vrije room") in Dutch, you'll probably get very puzzled and confused looks. Why would you look for free whipped cream? I mean... I'm sure you could get some at a hotel, but… The word you were looking for is "kamer". (And while we’re on it: The Dutch “room” is pronounced with a long “o” sound) When I write a post about languages, I certainly have to address the "Schmetterling" issue. The moment you leave Germany and start talking in a different language, everyone will make remarks about how harsh and really NOT smooth German sounds. And on the one hand you're right! German certainly won’t win the "Best sounding language" award. But on the other hand: Which language should win that award? Dutch also sounds very rough at times. Just think about the "harde G" (hard G) in Friesland and how it sounds to strangers. Let me tell you first hand: It sounds freaking scary! I mean… you'll get used to it, but at first it's very frightening! And English… I mean you basically get to choose between the incredibly posh British English and the American version that - sorry to you Americans out there - quite honestly sounds very wishy-washy to me. And at times the pronunciation is a little too drawn-out for me. Talking about drawn-out things: In an attempt to not draw out this post any more, I'll leave you with this. Tell me something cool in your language! What about "I really enjoyed this post"? :P Okay, kidding. But if you did enjoy it, please let me know anyway. You know the means to get to me: place a comment, tweet me, dm me, or do what else you can think of. And while you’re in it, share it around! Before I go, I'd like to introduce something new to these posts: The “TMIish Queer Shoutout” or so? (That's a working title - tell me, if you can think of something better, please :D). Long story short: In these posts I'd like to tell you about a cool queer thing that I discovered over the last week. This week: Jongens. A Dutch coming-of-age film about Sieger, a fifteen year-old who's forms 1/4th of an athletics team. The four will run at the Dutch championships shortly and over the course of the now intensified trainings, Sieger gets close to his best friend Stef. It's a great plot which shows the struggles of a gay relationship when one partner doesn't fully live up to it. Okay, enough of the spoilers! I suggest you find yourself a site that shows English subtitles with it and watch it! :D And if you know Dutch and don’t need subtitles, you can just head over to npo.nl. As far as I know, it's available world-wide. It surely is in Germany. So have fun! As always: Next #TMIishTuesday next Tuesday. If you have any questions in the meantime, just ask away. Whatever you’re curious about - I don’t bite. :) Until then: Stay mighty! Links for the stuff used/refered to in this post: - Urban Dictionary: Fangirling: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fangirling - Urban Dictionary: Fangirl: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fangirl - “Jongens” on npo.nl: http://www.npo.nl/jongens/03-08-2014/VPWON_1229280

Oh, and here’s some self-promo: - Last #TMIishTuesday: http://mightbedamian.tumblr.com/post/155355662606/tmiishtuesday-43-16-things-i-learned-in-2016 - More #TMIishTuesdays: mightbedamian.tumblr.com/tagged/tmi - Poll to decide next week's topic and more very cool stuff: www.twitter.com/mightbedamian - Even more very cool stuff: mightbedamian.tumblr.com

[recentanimenews]

How Does Soma's Weird Wing Gyoza Work So Well?? This "Food Wars" Chef is a Genius!

First big thing we need to address: Erina's father somehow thinks it's a good idea to shut down one of the dormitories that houses students at his own academy. His justification is that the house is set apart from the school and therefore hard to control, which is all well and good, but let's be real...WHERE WILL THE STUDENTS LIVE INSTEAD? Seriously, you don't just shut down a dorm because you don't like that you can't control the kids there. Logistically, you then have to find housing for these students and seriously, how easy is that? The school can't just build a new dorm for these kids, so where will they go? It just doesn't make sense to close down a dorm to get kids to conform.

However, this is anime, and rational things don't always win at the end of the day. Which brings us to Soma's shokugeki with Eizan. Soma makes Wing Gyoza, or Wingtip Gyoza, or Cheese-Feathered Hanetsuki Gyoza. There are a few different names out there... The main ingredient is Jidori Satsuma chicken, which has been described to me as the kobe beef of chicken in Japan. So, basically, very delicious, carefully breaded chickens full of flavor. Apparently it is available in SOME restaurants in the States, and is provided by a select supplier directly from Japan. However, as you can imagine, that makes it difficult for the average home-cook to obtain. Luckily, it IS quite easy to obtain a pack of chicken wings from your local grocery store, so I decided to settle for that. Hopefully my plebeian tastebuds won't know the difference between the two. 

The most challenging thing about this dish, in my opinion, is deboning the chicken wing. It takes time and a little bit of patience, but it's totally possible to do if you don't mind wrestling with a dead chicken, somewhat literally. Beyond that, putting the filling of the gyoza together is a snap (again, as long as you don't mind the extensive amount of chopping involved), stuffing the chicken wings is easy, and then it just comes down to cooking them up and dousing them in sauce (yum). 

For the home cook, this dish is remarkably easy to recreate. I mean, easier than other Food Wars! recipes, that is. As long as you don't mind chopping and stuffing and frying, you're good to go. Of course, if you want to make the recipe as authentically as possible, you have to factor in making the stock, which involves boiling the carcass of a chicken for a couple of hours. It's not hard to do, just tedious and a bit messy. I decided to forgo this step and use homemade stock, mostly because it's easier and less time consuming for a result that is pretty similar. If you want to be authentic, by all means, go for it. Here is a recipe you can follow to make your own stock. Don't yell at me for not following the anime exactly! I've made stock from scratch before. It's good, but let's be real: I'm a hardworking woman who does not have time after work to boil some bones for a slightly superior result. There is a reason store-bought chicken stock was invented. And because I want as many people to try this as possible, it would be silly of me to insist you make your own stock when I know you can easily cut corners. 

  With that said, I really hope you can try this! It is a really unique dish that is SO GOOD, and really impressive! This would be a great party food. To start making your own, watch the video below for more instructions! 

        Ingredients for the Wing Gyoza:

12 Chicken Wings, deboned

~1/ 4 cup grated Parmesan

Pork Filling

3/4 pound ground pork

1/4 pound fatty pork, minced

3/4 cup Garlic chives, finely chopped

2 cups Napa Cabbage, finely chopped, about 4 leaves

about 6 oz Shiitake Mushrooms, finely chopped

1 tbsp Ginger, minced

1 tbsp Garlic, minced

1 tbsps Soy Sauce

salt and pepper

2 tbsps Oyster Sauce

Ankake Sauce

2 tbsp Arrowroot/ Potato Starch

2 cups unseasoned Chicken stock (homemade or store bought)

1/3 cup Soy Sauce

3 tbsp Sake

1 tbsp Rice Wine Vinegar

Sugar (to taste)

2 tbsp Ketchup

    To Make the Wing Gyoza:

1. If you're making your stock from scratch, begin boiling your chicken bones at least 3 hours prior to use in the dish.

  2. De-bone chicken wings. Pat dry with a paper towel and set aside. 

  3. Combine pork filling ingredients and mix well, until fat is evenly incorporated throughout the mixture and it is sticky. Carefully stuff chicken wings with pork filling mixture.

  4. Heat pan to medium high heat. Heat cooking oil. Sear chicken wings, skin side down, flip, and lower heat. Cover with a lid and allow to cook through, about 10 minutes.

  5. While cooking, combine the chicken stock with the sauce ingredients in a pot over medium heat. Stir together and set aside to let thicken.

  6. Ladle about 1/4 cup of water over the wings. Sprinkle cheese generously over cooked wings. Cover with lid again and wait until you hear it "sizzle." Then, take the lid off and dress wings with the sauce. Allow the sauce and cheese to caramelize together before serving. 

  7. Eat hot and enjoy!

  I hope you enjoyed this post! Check in next week for another recipe. To check out more anime food recipes, visit my blog. If you have any questions or comments, leave them below! I recently got a Twitter, so you can follow me at @yumpenguinsnack if you would like, and DEFINITELY feel free to send me food requests! My Tumblr is yumpenguinsnacks.tumblr.com. Find me on Youtube for more video tutorials! Enjoy the food, and if you decide to recreate this dish, show me pics! :D

  In case you missed it, check out our last dish: Welcome Cupcake from "Black Clover". What other famous anime dishes would you like to see Emily make on COOKING WITH ANIME?

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[recentanimenews]

Mapo Tofu from Food Wars! is Chinese Food Perfection

IT'S HERE, my party people friends. Food Wars! Season 3 has arrived and I am beyond excited for its return! The first episode started off strong, setting up the rest of the season quite nicely. I loved the pacing- it moved along quickly, and introduced new characters and ideas with little fuss. Of course, being the first episode, they didn't unload an ahhhh-maaaaaazing new dish on us to start, but I felt they did quite a nice job introducing at least one recipe to tide us over until they unleash the really good stuff. Mapo Tofu. 

  Oh yes, my friends, we are leaping into this recipe with CHINESE food!!!! Everyone rejoice- I literally don't know a single person who doesn't like Chinese food. Funnily enough, despite how much I love it, I've never made Chinese food for myself. "Why?" You might ask? Well, honestly, I've always been intimidated by the cooking methods and the ingredients. I didn't grow up making Chinese food, so I'm not too familiar with the ingredients or how to use them. Luckily, mapo tofu is the perfect entry-level Chinese food recipe. It's a bit of a challenge, but honestly, nothing that's hard to do by yourself. 

  In fact, the majority of the work takes place before you begin cooking. Probably the most time-consuming thing is the shopping- a lot of ingredients go into the cooking, but with great effect. Once you've purchased everything, start by prepping your ingredients- chop your green onions, dice up your soft tofu, and portion out your sauces and spices. Once you have all that ready, the dish comes together SO easily in one pan! 

  Something I debated with here was whether or not to poach the tofu before cooking in the sauce. This is a cooking technique common to Chinese cooking- pre-cooking the protein of choice in seasoned boiling water. It has the effect of softening the protein and making it super juicy. In the case of tofu, it has the benefit of helping the soft tofu stick together so that it doesn't flake off and melt apart in the pan. However, since the team in Food Wars! was making this on a time limit and, presumably, in a way that would be served very quickly for the customer. As a result, I decided to skip using a super soft tofu and just go with a regular soft tofu to avoid the blanching process and instead get right into cooking. This saves time, a cooking pot, and I didn't notice a difference in the taste, so I call this a win. 

  Watch the video below to get started on making you own mapo tofu!

      Ingredients for the Mapo Tofu:

Recipe adapted from here. 

1/2 pound ground pork

1/2 tsp salt

4 tbsp cooking oil

1 1/2 tbsp spicy bean sauce (Doubanjiang)

1 tbsp fermented black bean sauce (Dou-chi)

1 tbsp red pepper flakes

1 tbsp Szechuan peppercorns, freshly ground

3 green onions, finely chopped and separated into whites and greens

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp minced ginger

1 1/2 cups water

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 400 gram package of soft tofu

2 1/2 tbsp water

1 tbsp cornstarch

    To Make the Mapo Tofu:

  1. Prepare ingredients. Cut tofu into squares. Chop green onion and separate into whites and greens. Portion out sauces and spices. Grind Szechuan peppercorns into powder using a food processor or mortar and pestle. Mince ginger and garlic.

2. Heat oil in a pan on high. Add in ground pork and salt. Brown and then remove from pan. 

3. Lower heat and add the spicy bean sauce. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until fragrant. Then, add in the black bean paste, ginger, garlic, red pepper flakes to personal taste, and whites of the green onions. Cook until fragrant, another 1-2 minutes. 

4. Add water and bring to a simmer, turning heat up to medium-high. Once at a simmer, add the soy sauce and ground pork. Place tofu on top in an even layer. Cover and cook about 7-10 minutes, stirring halfway through.

5. Combine 2 1/2 tbsp of water with the cornstarch. Stir together. Remove the lid from the pan, and add in half the cornstarch slurry. Stir through, and then add the rest of the slurry. Let cook down until the sauce sticks to the tofu nicely, about 5 minutes. Taste test, and salt as necessary. 

6. Remove from the heat, and serve up. Garnish with a generous amount of freshly ground Szechuan pepper (to taste), and the greens of the onion. Serve with fresh white rice. 

    I hope you enjoyed this post! Check in next week for another recipe. To check out more anime food recipes, visit my blog. If you have any questions or comments, leave them below! I recently got a Twitter, so you can follow me at @yumpenguinsnack if you would like, and DEFINITELY feel free to send me food requests! My Tumblr is yumpenguinsnacks.tumblr.com. Find me on Youtube for more video tutorials! Enjoy the food, and if you decide to recreate this dish, show me pics! :D

  In case you missed it, check out our last dish: Curry Buns from "Restaurant to Another World". What other famous anime dishes would you like to see Emily make on COOKING WITH ANIME?

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com