Take-sumi is, by far, my favourite black. But $50 is excessive. If it is really take-sumi 竹 炭 you mean then it's easily had for about half that.

:D Hahaha! Looks amazing!

Here's the sakura sencha. This one is much less complex - a lower quality tea for sure - but delightful, simple, and full of flavour. The cherry blossoms add a floral sweetness, but also a bit of spice - almost the tiniest hint of mild cinnamon. (sorry, I'm rubbish at gustatory analogies)

Showed up over the weekend, so I dove into the Tamaryoku-cha today. With a fairly low temp/short steep (70°C for 70 seconds) it makes for some lovely and surprisingly complex flavours - faint fruitiness (dried berries?) and grass, slightly more pronounced mineral, and a wonderful nutty...

I use psb bookshelf speakers with my 980 in my study all day long. They sound great together, but I wanted to get the Pioneers, however I was in India at the time and had to buy what I could find locally. The psb are great, sonically and aesthetically, but also substantially more money...

I have not, but it looks damn fine. It will have to go onto the to-do list. Cheers. Last night I roasted the sesame seeds until they just started to pop - as per instruction. It makes the sesame sauce very dark, too dark. Next time I will skip the roasting and go straight to grinding in mortar...

Not yet. Actually, it was more than another week before I finally got around to ordering anything. I ended up going for a yume-wakaba sencha, some tamaryoku-cha, and some Uji matcha to replenish my dwindling supply (and I was a skinflint with the shipping options). I'll let you know what I think...

Spinach Gomaae (sesame sauce) and some tilapia.

I've never even heard of such a concoction :eek: - sounds fascinating not to mention seriously satiating. Tonight I went with mini kimchi burgers and tamanegi kakiage (たまねぎ かきあげ) - sort of tempura onion rings - with grated daikon and ginger for in the dipping sauce.

I just finished watching the second episode of Cooked. It's much better than the first and has some great history of and insights into the food industry. Everyone should watch this.

Awesome vintage iron. :tongue_smile: I don't really have any strong desire to upgrade from the 980, yet. So please stop posting this kind of smut.

The F1 Commission agreed to the introduction of a Driver of the Day award, to be implemented by the Commercial Rights Holder in conjunction with Formula 1 broadcasters, with the intention of driving greater fan engagement. "Viewers will be encouraged to vote online for their "Driver of the Day"...

That sounds like a really good way to enhance the flavours. I'll definitely try that next go around. Went with a different fishy tonight.

Steamed tilapia with ginger soy - supposedly a Cantonese dish. The seasoning was a bit pedestrian for my taste.

(Aero is at the root of most of what is ailing F1 these days. ) Okay boys and girls, get stuck into this: Formula 1 teams have agreed to the introduction of a radical elimination style qualifying format as part of a move to improve the show. After hours of discussion in Geneva between team...