#western travel

[uranym]

Coors Mountain, Arizona

[mybeautifulpoland]

Our Lady of Tourists Catholic Wayside Shrine, Gorce Mountains, Poland by Jerzy Górecki

[oceaniatropics]

Pink Lake, Western Australia 

[thomaswaynewolf]

[slavic-roots-western-mind]

Types of dumplings in China

Prior to my arrival to China, I only knew about wonton and jiaozi, which I assumed to similar to pelmeni.

As it turned out, there is no end to the variations of dumplings, so here are some of the most common dumplings in China that I've come across so far!

饺子 - jiǎozi These are thin veggie or meat filled dumplings, and they can be steamed, boiled or fried but I've only tried the steamed variety so far which is pretty tasty. They somewhat resemble pelmeni, but the tast is noticeably different.

馄饨 - húntún (wonton) These dumplings are similar to jiǎozi but thinner and they're usually eaten in soup.

生煎包 - shēngjiānbāo These are slightly crispy, fried dumplings usually with a pork-filling。

锅贴 - guōtiē These dumplings are the crispy-ish type, deep-fried and steamed with various fillings like veggies and meat.

水饺 - shuǐjiǎo They're quite similar to the 锅贴, but these dumplings are boiled (note the 水) without the frying.

小笼包 - xiǎolóngbāo These are steamed buns, usually filled pork but they can also have other fillings like veggies and seafood.

Honourary mentions： These aren't dumplings, but they're adjacent enough imo.

肉包子 - ròubāozi These are biggish steamed buns with a meat filling. I have these for breakfast and they're really good.

菜包子 - càibāozi Same as the ròubāozi, but with veggies and also pretty tasty.

If I missed any, let me know which ones as I'm always looking to try new things!

[fuckyeahnewmexico]

The desert can make you feel so alone

[gwydpolls]

Time Travel Question 35: Ancient History XVI and Earlier

These Questions are the result of suggestions from the previous iteration.

This category may include suggestions made too late to fall into the correct earlier time grouping. Basically, I'd already moved on to human history, but I'd periodically get a pre-homin suggestion, hence the occasional random item waaay out of it's time period, rather than reopen the category.

In some cases a culture lasted a really long time and I grouped them by whether it was likely the later or earlier grouping made the most sense with the information I had. (Invention ofs tend to fall in an earlier grouping if it's still open. Ones that imply height of or just before something tend to get grouped later, but not always. Sometimes I'll split two different things from the same culture into different polls because they involve separate research goals or the like).

Please add new suggestions below if you have them for future consideration. All cultures and time periods welcome.

[findyournietzche]

superior, arizona

[satsuha]

mealtime

[travelbinge]

By Stephane Marechal

Mont-Dore, Puy-de-Dôme, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France

[intersectionalpraxis]

If you want to see how harmful this “digital nomadic culture” is, you just need to look at what they’ve done to Bali, Indonesia. They have completely displaced local residents and pushed them out of their communities because locals can no longer afford to keep up with the COL. Original post: "They bore me so much🫥" with the caption from an Instagram story of. woman dining: "GIRL MATH: You've figured out the ultimate life hack as a millenial is to make you money in the US and live abroad where the cost of living is more affordable."

There's so many layers to unpack here. 'Tourism' in the Caribbean, for instance, is something I think about as well whenever I see people acting like this -these industries, which are highly exploitative towards the people and their communities and environments is one element -but the 'travelling to paradise' market itself is based in neo/colonialist frameworks and current mentalities and that itself is something that needs to be addressed much more. Especially with what is happening in Jamaica where so many Jamaicans are being pushed out of their own land when a tourist 'resort' wants to build or 'expand' because these 'ideal' locations are near the sea, where Jamaican people have been/are fishing for their own livelihoods and survival. I posted a video about this, but for those who haven't looked into these issues -I implore you to look into this.

I also think of Hawai'i, which has had many devastating impacts to their islands this past year -irreparable damages to both Native Hawaiians and the environment (and ongoing issues, such as the water being contaminated/and scarce there and yet tourists are prioritized for access to clean water sources) -and STILL people remained and traveled there during the Maui fires, and just overall despite countless pleas for them not to go they still do.

Among many the 'desirable destinations' marketed specifically to Europeans/Westerners as 'a getaway to' where they can detach from their busy lives, or to live permanently because it's 'too expensive' where they live -I sincerely wish they would come back down to earth and realize their imperialistic mentalities -especially when going to countries whose economies they perceived as 'poorer,' without looking critically at the country's infrastructure and history is just willful ignorance at best.

[useless-catalanfacts]

A slim church in Montesclado, High Pyrenees, Catalonia. Photo by SBA73 on Flickr.

Both the church square and the church’s own façade, in Sant Esteve de Montesclado, are very slim. Even so, they managed to make it fit in the steep streets of this village in Pallars.

[dopescissorscashwagon]

Milky Way in the skies of Western Australia ✨

📸 by @Matt_Pinner

[oceaniatropics]

Duke of Orleans Bay, Western Australia 

[redrcs]

Supermoon preview at Kalannie, Western Australia

On my travels

[slavic-roots-western-mind]

Desserts in China

There's quite a large variety of treats and desserts in China (more than you can imagine), so here are some of the most common ones!

Almond jelly/tofu - 杏仁豆腐 - xìngréndòufu Despite the name, almond jelly doesn't actually have almonds in it. Almond jelly is made from gelatin and almond milk, although some recepies use dairy milk instead.

Glutinous rice balls - 汤圆 - tāngyuán These rice balls are made from glutinous rice balls with a sweet filling, such as red bean paste (a pretty popular filling in desserts, I've been fooled more than once when purchasing what I assumed to be a chocolate filled pastry).

Red bean buns - 豆沙包 - dòushābāo One of my favorite desserts so far. These are steamed buns with a sweet red bean paste filling that I'd definitely recommend.

Egg custard bun - 流沙包 - liúshābāo A sweet and savory bun, with a lava-like egg yolk filling. A pretty interesting dessert, as it's both sweet and savory.

Pumpkin cake - 南瓜饼 - nánguābǐng I haven't tried this yet, but it definitely looks good. A fried and crunchy cake with a sweet filling such as red bean paste.

Eight treasure rice pudding - 八宝饭 -bābǎofàn This is a pretty popular dessert, especially during the Lunar New Year. It gets this name becase of the toppings, which are eight or more different types of dried fruits and nuts arranged on top of the sweet rice, with (once again) red bean paste.

Hawthorn stick/ Candied Haws/ Sugar coated haws/ Bingtanghulu - 冰糖葫芦 - bīngtánghúlu This treat has quite a few translations and you may have probably already seen it. This is basically candied fruit covered with a sweet, crunchy and sugary syrup. Traditionally, Hawthorn is used but other fruits such as grapes, strawberries and oranges are also popular options.

Sachima - 沙琪玛 - shāqímǎ I haven't tried this snack yet, but it looks quite fascinating. Sachima is made from fried batter stuck together with a sugary syrup, with an interesting texture.

Sesame balls - 芝麻球 - zhīmaqiú Similar to the rice glutinous balls, this treat is also made from glutinous rice flour with varying fillings including lotus seeds, mung bean and red beans, and sesame seeds.

Water chestnut cake A sweet pan-fried cake made from chinese water chestnut, with a unique semi-transparent appearance.

Wintermelon puff/ Wife cake/ Sweetheartcake - 老婆餅 - lǎopóbǐng This cake has many names, mainly because it has several different origin stories, each more fascinating than the next. This dessert is a flaky pastry with wintermelon, almond (not red bean this time!) paste and sesame filling.

Fortune cake - 发糕 - fāgāo Not a fortune cookie! This is a spongy steamed cupcake cake commonly made for the New Lunar Year celebrations and occasionally other events. They're usually a white-ish or brown-ish color, but they're often dyed bright colors to add extra festivity.

Mooncake - 月饼 - yuèbǐng This is a pretty well-known dessert, commonly prepared for the Mid-Autumn Festival. Mooncakes are smallish steamd/fried (depends on the region) cakes with a sweet filling that can also sometimes have an egg yolk inside.

Osmanthus cake - 桂花糕 - guìhuāgāo This is a unique traditional pastry made from glutinous rice flour, honey and osmanthus. This cake has a really interesting texture, as it's quite dense but also airy in a way? I'd definitely recommend trying it, as it's not super sweet and goes really well with tea.