Romance of the Red Dust, episodes 6-8

It is regrettably clear that, after the promising beginning, Hong Fu (formerly Red Assassin, currently Orange Winsome Maiden) will spend the remaining 30 episodes expressing the desire to support her man and be traditionally feminine and letting the men do the fighting and strategizing, and being bested in battle by every man she meets, as will every other female character, and never kick ass again.

Um. I still kind of love it. The show, not the message. I can overlook a lot for the sake of the hilarious developments which I will describe below, of which one of the few non-spoilery ones was a totally random thirty-second pan over a brass duck with a candle on its head.

The rest must go behind a spoiler cut, but there are some supremely awesome plot twists. But I feel that it isn’t really spoilery to mention that Master Yin, the evil gray-haired alchemist who lives and lurks in the underground palace with the remaining technicolor assassins, hurls people into a giant jacuzzi and stirs them to turn them into “war slaves.” (I am not sure what a war slave is, but suspect that it's a zombie warrior like Lloyd Alexander's Cauldron-Born.) Or that the official subtitle version of “inn” is “motel.” Assassins check in, but they don’t check out!

( People call me Curly-Beard Man. )

Romance of the Red Dust, episodes 6-8

It is regrettably clear that, after the promising beginning, Hong Fu (formerly Red Assassin, currently Orange Winsome Maiden) will spend the remaining 30 episodes expressing the desire to support her man and be traditionally feminine and letting the men do the fighting and strategizing, and being bested in battle by every man she meets, as will every other female character, and never kick ass again.

Um. I still kind of love it. The show, not the message. I can overlook a lot for the sake of the hilarious developments which I will describe below, of which one of the few non-spoilery ones was a totally random thirty-second pan over a brass duck with a candle on its head.

The rest must go behind a spoiler cut, but there are some supremely awesome plot twists. But I feel that it isn’t really spoilery to mention that Master Yin, the evil gray-haired alchemist who lives and lurks in the underground palace with the remaining technicolor assassins, hurls people into a giant jacuzzi and stirs them to turn them into “war slaves.” (I am not sure what a war slave is, but suspect that it's a zombie warrior like Lloyd Alexander's Cauldron-Born.) Or that the official subtitle version of “inn” is “motel.” Assassins check in, but they don’t check out!

( People call me Curly-Beard Man. )

Regional Specialties

I've been reading this book called Road Food, about which I have serious doubts as an actual source of recommendations as I have eaten at most of the restaurants it recommends in California and was only really impressed with one (the astonishing taco shack La Super-Rica in Santa Barbara), but it functions excellently as a source of food porn.

I was especially entranced by its sections on such exotic locales and specilties as Maine (lobster rolls; Indian pudding; Grape-nuts pudding), Vermont (salt pork; red flannel hash; New England boiled dinner; maple cream pie), Pennsylvania (shoofly pie; scrapple; grasshopper pie), Kentucky (sugar pie; chess pie; burgoo), and Iowa (loosemeats.)

I am not even sure what many of those are, but they sound delicious. Has anyone ever eaten any of those items? If so, can you describe them to me?

If not... what are your regional specialties? The more regional, the better! Please describe in mouthwatering detail.

I would reciprocate, but I'm not sure what LA's regional specialties actually are. We seem to specialize in other countries' regional specialties.

Regional Specialties

I've been reading this book called Road Food, about which I have serious doubts as an actual source of recommendations as I have eaten at most of the restaurants it recommends in California and was only really impressed with one (the astonishing taco shack La Super-Rica in Santa Barbara), but it functions excellently as a source of food porn.

I was especially entranced by its sections on such exotic locales and specilties as Maine (lobster rolls; Indian pudding; Grape-nuts pudding), Vermont (salt pork; red flannel hash; New England boiled dinner; maple cream pie), Pennsylvania (shoofly pie; scrapple; grasshopper pie), Kentucky (sugar pie; chess pie; burgoo), and Iowa (loosemeats.)

I am not even sure what many of those are, but they sound delicious. Has anyone ever eaten any of those items? If so, can you describe them to me?

If not... what are your regional specialties? The more regional, the better! Please describe in mouthwatering detail.

I would reciprocate, but I'm not sure what LA's regional specialties actually are. We seem to specialize in other countries' regional specialties.