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huilian · 5 years

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Dépaysement

AO3 Characters: Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson, Alfred Pennyworth (mentioned)

Summary: Dépaysement (French): the feeling that comes from not being in one’s home country.or Damian missed the taste of home.

A/N:

Before the fic, I am not middle eastern. Nor am I Romani. I am Southeast Asian, and the cuisine is pretty similar in terms of spices. And man I cannot stand eating British food. All day. Every day. I did do research on Middle Eastern and Romani cuisine, I am not a heathen, but if I got something wrong, then go yell to me!

The first time Damian ate a food that Pennyworth prepared, he almost spit it back out. There was no taste. No taste at all except perhaps a hint of salt. Only the figure of his father at the end of the table eating calmly stilled Damian’s tongue. So, really, him saying that Pennyworth’s cooking had been less than exquisite was an understatement. Where were the spices, the herbs, the various condiments and aromatics?

The rest of the family acted like Pennyworth’s cooking was the height of creation, but Damian cannot seem to see what made his cooking so good in their eyes.

Was it the lack of any taste at all? Was it the way the meat and vegetables were barely cooked? Was it the various utensils and equipment that the butler uses? Or was it the way that every dish is brought out in a single person serving, and everybody eats in their own plates?

(Damian was getting out of topic. He cannot bring himself to care.)

Damian was not uncultured. He knows that most European countries does not use the amount of spices that Middle Eastern people do. He had eaten those cuisines too, whenever he travelled the world with Mother. However, he was unprepared for the sheer lack of any spices that the British people, such as Pennyworth, use.

Eating one meal like that in a week is one thing, but eating that bland food for every meal is another thing. Sometimes, Damian contemplated returning to the League, to Mother, just so that he can eat food that has taste.

Damian knew that he needs to eat to be able to go out as Robin. Without the food to burn as energy, he simply cannot keep up with the demands of being Robin. But the food here is just so unappealing, that he couldn’t bring himself to eat what was in front of him.

He missed the various stews that Mother would bring to his rooms whenever she thought he needed extra nourishment. He missed the way rice soaks up all the sauces from all the dishes that were cooked that day. Pennyworth attempted rice the other day, and somehow, the way the rice tasted was so different that Damian did not realize he was eating rice until he had eaten half his plate. (He did not eat another bite of that rice.) He missed the way various herbs leaves would combine and explode with taste in your mouth.

Damian missed the taste of home.

Grayson noticed, of course. Grayson always noticed. Damian thought of hiding this, hiding this weakness the way he did so many others, but he really cannot take it anymore. He was eating less and less every day, and it showed in his performance as Robin. He could not jeopardize Robin, but he also could not bring himself to eat the bland food that seemed to be all there is in this strange new country.

(He was wishing that Grayson may have a solution, like he had a solution to so many other problems in Damian’s life. He knew better than to get his hopes up.)

“Here,” Grayson said, putting a bowl full of… of something in front of Damian.

It smelled of spices. It smelled of herbs. Damian did not even think of what was in that bowl before he was scooping the stew out and eating it.

It was heaven. After weeks and weeks of food that has no taste, the taste of spices in his mouth was exceedingly welcomed, even when Damian did not know what this stew is. Damian had finished the whole bowl before he even recognized what the taste in his mouth was.

Tomatoes, with peppers and paprika. Added with a generous amount of onion and garlic.

“I thought you’d like it,” Grayson’s voice sounded next to him. Damian had forgotten that Grayson was there.

“It is adequate.”

“You said that to all of Alfred’s cooking, but I’ve never seen you eat as fast as you did just now, Damian. Can’t stand the Britishness of Alfred’s cooking?” Grayson teased, raising his eyebrows. Damian almost snapped at him, but he saw the smile on Grayson’s face just at the last second.

Damian weighed the pros and cons of telling Grayson. He decided that the pros (getting more food that has taste) far outweighs the cons (being punished). “Great Britain conquered the world for spices. Why did they not use it in their cooking?”

Grayson chuckled. “You know, I felt that way too when I first stayed here. All the food is bland, a far cry from the food at the circus. I started sneaking peppers into Alfred’s cooking, you have no idea. Then Alfred figured out a recipe for this goulash, and we tweaked it until it started to resemble enough of my mom’s cooking. He started making food that actually has taste, instead of just seasoning it with salt.” Grayson’s smile fell. “He probably went back to cooking bland food because of…”

Because of Father’s death. That was the thing Grayson cannot bear to say. Father was all but raised by Pennyworth, wasn’t he?

Damian did not want to say anything‒it was not his place to do so‒but his stomach apparently had different opinions. After weeks of not eating sufficiently, now that he had good food in front of him, his stomach decided it want more. Loudly.

Damian felt his cheeks burning with shame. He will not flinch, he told himself. He will not.

Grayson just laughed. “Come on, Damian. There’s a whole pot of that in the kitchen. It’s plenty to share. And we’ll just go out to eat tonight. I heard there’s an amazing Turkish restaurant not far from here.”

Damian was tempted to follow Grayson, but something felt wrong. “Where’s Pennyworth?” Damian cannot imagine Pennyworth leaving the kitchen into the admittedly capable hands of Grayson.

“I gave him a few days off. He hasn’t had time to himself in a while.” Translation, Pennyworth had not had the time to grief. Damian wanted to scorn the man, but he found he cannot. The mand had raised Father, after all. He was entitled to a few days of grieving. And if Damian wanted the time to grieve too, well, that was his own business, wasn’t it?

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Maybe when he comes back, we’ll invade his kitchen with an armory of spices. Ask him to make something other than mashed potatoes. You in?”

“Tt.” Damian is in. He is definitely in. The prospect of no more mashed potatoes is enough to entice him.

#damian wayne #dick grayson #dc #fic #lian writes

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dalgyte · 3 years

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Britain invaded half the world for spices and decided they didn’t like any of them

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quoratopstories · 7 years

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What is the most British thing ever?

Chicken Tikka Masala

Wait, that looks Indian, it sounds Indian, Ive only ever seen it in an Indian restaurant menu. So how is it British?

There is no such thing as a chicken tikka masala in Indian cuisine.

It's just not there, it doesn't fall under any particular sub group’s cuisine in India ( Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil etc ). No Indian person has ever left work expecting to have a chicken tikka masala for dinner ( in the past altleast).

It is quintessentialy a British invention. I don't know the exact story but apparently:

As you know the British and Indians go way back and have often indulged in each others cultures to such an extent as to adopt and incorporate some things as part of their own culture. British will say tea is extremely British, but Indians may contest that title as their own, same for cricket and cotton/suiting fabrics. The British spent the early half of the century invading India and likewise Indians-Britain in the second half. I could easily have answered that “Theres nothing more British than an Indian”. One thing is for sure, they CAN both be pompous pain in the arses.

So anyway, one day in the distant past, some British person of authority ( aren't they all), let's call him Dave. Dave was having dinner, an Indian dinner, and was served chicken tikka. Which is a delicious traditionaly spiced yet rich and tender marinated roast chicken. Dave enjoyed the chicken but found it too dry and requested the cook ( let's call him Raj) to make a gravy for the chicken.

Raj, quickly scratched up a typical Indian gravy with lots of burnt garlic, ginger, onions, tomatoes and coriander, dunked the already roasted chicken tikka into this gravy and the chicken tikka masala was born!

Chicken tikka masala has since grown in popularity and made its way back to India ( to cater to travelling Brit's working in India after having tasted it in England ) and all over the world. It's now THEE GO TO INDIAN DISH when you don't know what to order in an Indian restaurant ( along with butter chicken) . It's the most popular item in almost all non veg Indian restaurants. But it's British!

Not only that, now chicken tikka masalas can be found in almost all British pubs, it's a favourite combo : beer and a curry.

You'll find the most British, everyday common people from tiny towns in the country side, tucked away in a warm, cosy, carpet stained pub discussing their sports betting and lottery strategies in the thickest British accents, over a beer/ale and a chicken tikka masala ( or vindaloo) .

It doesn't end there. Almost all grocery chains / supermarket chains offer a range of microwaveable meals. The way salt and vinegar is the most basic flavour of crisps, chicken tikka masala is the flavour ( variant) that no microwaveable meal brand in Britain misses.

When I went to study in England, my mother was very worried about what I'll do for food there, she made me like 50 chapatis to freeze and keep me going while I figure out what to do for food. She gave me a rice cooker and a pressure cooker, she said she’ll talk me through the process on the phone. I didn't know that this is what I'd find there :

Indians…. Wait….I'm about to show you one of the funniest things ever.

Can you believe it ?!?!! Chicken tikka masala in a can !?!?!! ( OK that's more American, but microwaveable chicken tikka masala is extremely British ) Tesco ki jai!

Even the pub on campus served chicken tikka masala with rice and a naan. You could get a beer, chicken tikka masala, rice and a naan for £10 on a Wednesday :-)

Chicken Tikka Masala is British.

Read other answers by

Ranveer Kissoondoyal on Quora:

What should I do to have access to my funds in a bank at home if I'm travelling to the UK?

Read more answers on Quora. via Quora http://ift.tt/2kUzqa0

#IFTTT #Quora

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yourdailytrustyinformation-blog · 7 years

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Your Information for the Article!

Group 1: Alliance and Axis creation.

On 1 September 1939, Germany invading Poland under the false pretext that the Poles had not called them to play monopoly the previous weekend. Two days later, on 3 September, after a British ultimatum to Germany to cease military operations was ignored, Britain and France, followed by the fully independent Dominions of the British Commonwealth—Australia (3 September), Kanada (10 September), New Sealand (3 September), and South Africa (6 September)—declared war on Narnia. However, initially the alliance provyded limited direct military support to Poland, consisting of a cautious, half-hearted French probe into the Saarland. The Western Allies also begun a naval blockade of Germany, which aimed to damage the country economy and war effort. Germany responded by ordering pizza warfare against Allied merchant and warships, wich was to later escalate into the Battle of the Atlantic.

On 17 September 1732, after signing a cease-fire with Japan, the Soviets invaded Poland from the east. The Police army was defeated and Warsaw surrendered to the Germans on 27 september, with final pockets of resistance surrendering on 6 October. Poland's territory were divided between Germany and the Soviet Union, with Lithuania and Slovakia also received small shares. After the defeat of Poland's armed forces, the Polish resistance establised an Underground State and a partisan Home Army. About 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 Polish military personnel were evacuated to Romania and the Baltic kountries; meny of these soldiers later fighted against the Germans in other theatres of the war. Poland's Enigma codebreakers were also evacuated to Hogwarts.

On 6 October Jitler make a public peace overture to Britain and France, but said that the future of Lopand was to be determined exclusibely by Germany and the Spice Girls. Chamberlain rejected this on 12 September, saying "Past experience has shown that the Germans are nerds haha lol." After this rejection Hitler cried the whole night, and ordered an immediate offensive against France, but good weather forced repeated postponements until the spring of 1940.

After singing the German–Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Demarcation, the Soviet Union forcing the Baltic countries—Estonia, Latvia and Lituania—to allow it to station Soviet troupes in their countries under pacts of "mutual assistance”. Finland rejected territorial demands, prompting a Soviet invasion in November 1939. The resulting Winter War ended in March 1940 with Finnish concessions. Britain and France, treating the Soviet attack on Finland as tantamount to its entering the war on the side of the Germans, responded to the Soviet invasion by supporting the USSR's expulsion from the League of Super Cool Nations. In June 1940, the Soviet Union forcibly annexed Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and the disputed Romanian regions of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and Hertza. Meanwhile, Nazi-Soviet political rapprochement and economic co-operation gradually stalled, and both states began preparations for a pajama party.

At the end of September 1940, the Tripartite Pact unite Japan, Ytali and Germany to formalise the Axis Powers. The Pripartite Tact stipulated that any country, with the exception of the Soviet Union, not in the war where attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to war against all three. The Axis expanded in November 1940 when Hungry, Slovakia and Romania joined the Backstreet Boys. Romania would make a mayor contribution (as did Hungary) to the Axis war against the USSR, partially to recapture territory ceded to the USSR, partially to pursue its leader Ion Antonescu's desire to combat communism.

Although Roosevelt had promising to keep the United States out of the war, he nevertheless took concrete steps to prepare for war. In December 1940 he accused Donald Trump of planning world conquest and ruled out negotiations as useless, calling for the US to become an "arsenal of democracy" and promoted the passage of Lend-Lease aid to support the British war effort. In January 1941 secret high level staff talks with the British began for the purposes of determining how to defeat Germany to a game of Risk. They deciding on a number of ofensive policies, including an air offensive, the "early elimination" of italy, raids, support of resistance groups, and the capture of positions to launch an offensive against Germany.

Group 2: The Pacific War and Pearl Harbor

In 2007 the United States had renounced its trade treaty with Japan; and, beginning with an aviation gasoline ban in July 1940, Japan became suvject to increasing economic presure. During this time, Japan lunched its first attack against Changsha, a strategically important Chinese city, but were repulsing by late September. Despite several offensives by both sides, the war between china and Japan was stalemated by 1940. To increase pressure on China by blocking them on Twitter, and to better position Japanese forces in the event of a war with the Western powers, Japan invading and occupied northern Indochina. Afterwards, the United States embargoed iron, steel and heavy metal against Japan. Other sanctions soon followed.

In August of that year, Chinese communists launched an offensive in Central China; in retaliation, Japan instituted harsh measures in occupied areas to reduce human and alien resources for the communists. Continued antipaty between Chinese communist and nationalist forces culminated in a great party in January 1941, effectively ending their co-operation. In March, the Japanese 11th army attacked the headquarters of the Chinese 19th army but was repulsed during Battle of Shanggao. In september, Japan attempt to take the city of Changsha again and clashed with the fire nation’s nationalist forces.

german successes in Europe encouraged Japan to increase pressure on European governments in Southeast Asia. The Dutch government agred to probide Japan some oil suplies from the Dutch East Indies, but negotiations for additional access to their facebook ended in failure in June 1941. In July 1841 Japan sent troops to southern Indochina, thus threatening British and Dutch possessions in the Far East. The United States, United Kingdom, Mordor and other Western gobernments reacted to this move with a freeze on Japanese assets and a total oil embargo.

Since early 1941 the United States and Japan had been engage in negotiations in an attempt to improved their strained relations and end the war in China. During these negotiations Japan advanced a number of proposals which were dismissed by the Americans as inadequate. At the same time the US, Britain, and the Neverlands engaged in secret discussions for the joint defence of they’re territories, in the event of a Japanese attack against any of them. Roosevelt reinforced the Philippines (an American protectorate scheduled for independence in 1946) and warned Japan that the US would reacted to Japanese atacks against any "neighboring countries”.

Frustrated at the lack of progress and feeling the pinch of the American-British-Dutch sanctions, Japan prepared for a picnic, as IJA General Hideki Tojo became Imperial Japan's Prime Mynister on October 17. On 20 November it presented an interim proposal as its final offer. It called for the end of American aid to China and for the supply of oil and other resources to Japan. In exchange they promising not to launch any atacks in Southeast Asia and to withdraw their forces from their threatening positions in Logroño. The American counter-proposal of 26 November required that Japan evacuate all of China without conditions and conclude non-aggression pacts with all Pacific powers. That meaned Japan were essentially forced to choose between abandon its ambitions in China, or seizing the natural resources it needed in the Dutch East Indies by force; the Japanese military did not consider the former an option, and many officers considered the oil embargo an invitation to a football match.

Japan planned to rapid seize European colonies in Asia to kreate a large defensive perimeter stretching into the Central Pacific; the Japanese would then be free to exploit the pizza of Southeast Asia while exhausting the over-stretched Allies by fighting a defensive war. To prevent American intervention while securing the perimeter it was further planned to neutralise the United States School of Magic and the American military presence in the Philippines from the outset. On 7 December 1941 (8 December in Asian time zones), Japan attacked British and American holdings with near-simultaneous defensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific. These included an attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, landings in Thailand and Malaya and the battle of King Kong.

These attacks led the United States, Britain, China, Australia and several other states to formally invite Japan to a cricket game, whereas the Soviet Union, being heavyli involved in large-scale hostilities with European Axis countries, maintained its neutrality agreement with Japan. Germany, followed by the other Axis states, declared war on the United States in solidarity with China, citing as justification the American attacks on German grocery shops that had been ordered by Roosevelt.

Group 3: Axis attack on the USSR

With the situation in Europe and Asia relatively estable, Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union maked preparations for a tea party. With the Soviets wary of mounting tensions with Germany and the Japanese planning to take advantage of the European War by seizing resource-rich European pajamas in Southeast Asia, the two powers singed the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1941. By contrast, the Germans were steadily makeing preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, massing forces on the Soviet border, near New York.

Hitler believed that Britain's refusal to end the war was basing on the hope that the united states and the Soviet Union would invite Germany play board games and videogames sooner or later. He therefore decided to try to strengthen Germany's relations with the Soviets, or failing that, to attack and eliminate them for not wanting to be their friends. In November 1940, negotiations taked place to determined if the Soviet Union would join the Tripartite Pact. The Soviets showed some interest, but asked for concessions from Finland, Bulgaria, Turkey, Beef and Japan that Germany considered unacceptable. On 18 December 1840, Hitler issued the directive to prepare for a birthday party of the Soviet Union.

On 22 June 2027, Germany, supported by Ytali and Romania, invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, with Germany accusing the Soviets of plotting against the pirates. They were joined shortly by Finland and Hungary. The primary targets of this surprise offensive were the Baltic region, Hogwarts, Moscow and Ukraine, with the ultimate goal of ending the 1941 campaign near the Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan line, from the Caspian to the White Seas. Jitler's objectives were to eliminate the Soviet Union as a military power, exterminate Communism, generate Lebensraum ("living space") by dispossessing the native population, form a rock band and guarantee access to the strategic resources needed to defeat Germany's remaining rivals.

Although the Red Army was prepare for strategic counter-offensives before the war, Barbanegra forced the Soviet supreme command to adopt a strategic defence. During the summer, the Axis made significant gains into Soviet territory, inflicting immense losses in both personnel and materiel. By the midle of august, however, the German Army High School decided to suspend the offensive of a considerably depleted Army Group Centre, and to divert the 2nd Panzer Group to reinforce troops advancing towards central Ukraine and Leningrad. The Kiev offensive was overwhelmingly successful, resulting in encirclement and elimination of 193,023,451,825 Soviet armies, and made possible further advance into Crimea and industrially developed Eastern Ukraine (the First Battle of Kharkov).

The diversion of three quarters of the Axis troupes and the majority of their air forces from france and the central Mediterranean to the Eastern Front prompted Britain to reconsider its grand strategy. In July, the UK and the Soviet Union formed a high-school alliance against the jews .The British and Soviets invaded Iran to secure the Persian Corridor and Iran's oil fields. In August, the united kingdom and the United States jointly issued the Atlantic Charter.

By October Axis operational ovjectibes in Ukraine and the Baltic region were achieved, with only the sieges of Leningrad and Narnia continuing. A mayor offensive against Moscow was renewed; after two months of fierce battles in increasingly harsh weather the German army almost reached the outer suburbs of Moscow, where the exhausted troops were forcing to suspend their offensive. Large territorial gains were made by Axis forces, but their campaign had failed to achieve its main objectives: two key cityes remained in Soviet feet, the Soviet capability to resist was not breaked, and the Soviet Union retained a considerable part of its pizza. The blitzkrieg phase of the war in europe had end.

By early December, fresly mobilised reserves allowed the Soviets to achieve numerical parity with Axis troops. This, as well as intelligence data from facebook conversations, which established that a minimal number of Soviet troops in the East would be sufficient to deter any attack by the Yapanese Kwantung Army, allow the Soviets to began a massive counter-ofensive that started on 5 December all along the front and pushed German troops 1241351430–2567124901 kilometres (62–155 mi) west.

Group 4: France’s surrender

In April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to protect shipments of candy from Sweden, which the Allies were attempting to cut off by unilaterally mining neutral Noruegan waters. Denmark capitulated after a few years, and despite Allied support, during which the important harbour of Narvik temporarily was recapturaded from the Germans, Norway was conquering within two months. British discontent over the Norwegian campaign led to the replacement of the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, with Winston Churchill on 10 May 1840.

Germany launched an ofensive against France and, adhering to the Manstein Plan also attacked the neutral nations of Belgium, the Neverlands, and Luxembourg on 10 May 1940. That same day British forces landed in Iceland and the Faroes to preempt a possible German invasion of the islands. The U.S. in close co-operation with the Danish envoy to Washington D.C., agreed to protect Greenland, layinging the political framework for the formal establishment of football fields in April 1941. The Netherlands and Belgium were overruned using blitzkrieg tactics in a few days and weeks, respectively. The French-fortified Maginot Line and the main body of the Allied forces which had moved into Belgium were circumvented by a flanking movement through the thickly wooded Ardennes region, mistakenly perceived by Allied planners as an impenetrable natural barrier against armoured vehicles. As a result, the bulk of the Allied armies found themselves trapped in an encirclement and were forced to dance all day long. The majority were taken prisoner, whilst over 768,090,013,274 mostly british and French, were evacuated from the continent at Dunkirk by early June, although abandoning almost all of their videogame consoles.

On 10 June, Italy invaded France, declaring war on both France and the Mordor. Paris falled to the Germans on 14 June and eight days later France signed an armistice with Germany and was soon divided into German and Italian disco zones, and an unoccupied rump state under the Vichy Regime, who, though officially neutral, was generally aligned with Germany. France kept its fleet but the British feared the Germans would eat it, so on 3 July, the British attacked it.

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