Bonus

True. Seems to be their approach is to get folks hooked and then try to sell them stuff. Not all the features are available for free, of course.

Yes. I hadn’t looked at any of this stuff in a long time. Mullvad is something I’m definitely going to check out as I’m seeing it recommended in a lot of comments. Thank you.

All good points. Thank you.

haha, I guess I don’t have wonder about crossing that bridge. Thanks.

I’m checking out the free version of Proton VPN now after paying for PIN for a while. Haven’t used it to torrent or anything yet. Just trying to run most the time now for increased security in this new era. Are unpaid versions less secure? I’m not so much worried about the price. Just checking out something different.

Nice baguette with a good crust, don’t want it to crush while cutting. You can do this picnic style without even toasting really.

Cut off just the hard end of the garlic clove that makes contact with the ground, just a few mm thick. Lay the blade flat on remaining clove and give it a smack. This will release the clove from the skin. Rub on toast directly. If it’s split open a bit, rather than completely whole, it will release the essential (read in Jacques Pepin accent) oils more effectively as will rubbing the inside of the clove rather than the outside of the clove. Dubyakay’s description of the toast acting like a grater is perfect.

If you melt that garlic in the butter it will extract the flavor really well. Eating raw garlic directly can be a bit much. One cheat is to press like you say and add to the butter and just zap it in a microwave for 30 seconds or whatever works for the quantity you need. This makes a great dipping sauce which is also perfect with steamed crab. Another simple sauce for that is just wine, vinegar, and chopped shallots, onions, or the like. Fresh ground black pepper is great on either of those pairings.

Yes, exactly. I love that description.

Not a fan of garlic powder but love fresh clove of garlic on toasted bread. Toast that over an open flame, drizzle on a little olive oil, rub on garlic, then the same with fresh tomato, a pinch of salt and pepper. Learned that one in Barcelona - Pa Amb Tomàquet. Add thin slices of dried cheese, uber umami flavor. Manchego in Spain but this could very well be done in other similar regions with Parmesan or the like.

Yes, and, in the case of a place like Vietnam, corporate goods are openly counterfeited so they become something available at small shops. This is true with clothes, books, music, etc. In the larger business models, sellers don’t have agency over their selling prices. They’re reduced to mere middlemen.

A lot of this is old world vs. new world culture in general. Even South of the border, where cultures have been more preserved, there are more shops and carts and little family businesses where this stuff is an option which exists almost nowhere in America now.

Not until I visited Vietnam. We hit it off with our hotel manager, hung out a bunch. He told us it’s part of the culture, you’re supposed to do it. You’re going to get offered the price that’s three times what’s considered reasonable. The third offer should get it where it’s supposed to be and that’s where a reasonable person stops haggling. He said some very unpleasant people always take it too far and people don’t want to do business of any kind with people like that. He also said there’s a different price for foreigners than there is for locals. When we’d go out with him, he’d insist on paying, ostensibly because he’d get that local price. Of course, it’s more complicated because we eventually learned they get kickbacks for bringing customers in.

Thanks.

Badonkadonk

Can’t say I ever cared about karma. Lemmy reminds me of stripped down original reddit. Almost original. I remember when Reddit didn’t even have thumbnails. Back then, there was a thing called memepool. You didn’t know what you were going to get when you clicked on links on either site. There was a lot of fun unpredictable content and Reddit still meant you read it and we’re vouching for it. It was like this whole world of quality stuff from really smart people. Thumbnails and subreddits ushered in a series of trashings and lead to intense divisiveness reddit never recovered from. . .