qdsong88@ wrote on 2024-02-22, 05:26:

Who knows how many Chinese are here? I guess not many, because not everyone has the conditions to register for this forum in Chi […]
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Who knows how many Chinese are here?
I guess not many, because not everyone has the conditions to register for this forum in China's network environment.I'm not sure what kind of attitude Europeans and North Americans have towards the Chinese. It seems to be more negative?
In recent years, I have been to the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and made some comparisons. Relatively speaking, China is politically stable, safe and orderly, its economic conditions are not backward, and its infrastructure is more developed and perfect. The only thing I am not satisfied with is: there are too many people here, competition is too fierce, interpersonal relationships are complicated, and environmental protection in some areas needs to be strengthened.
People here are oppressed and have no freedom of speech?It's an exaggeration to say that, I don't feel restricted in my life.Stability and freedom are a pair of contradictions, and going to either extreme is wrong.
By the way, China’s Internet cannot allow us to access some more authentic information in the world,This is indeed a pity, but do not forget that China has 1.4 billion people. Without some conservative measures, it is difficult to ensure stability and prosperity, so Everything has two sides...

Don't think western countries have much of a right to criticize China's government being strict and people not being "free". Having a government that allows everything ended up with the same results, but instead of being controlled by the government, we are being controlled by the ones who amassed money and resources, in a system which makes making money easier the more money you have. At the end of the day all we do and consume is controled by a select few.
IMHO the countries with best quality of life in the future will be the ones that can find that sweet balance between individual freedom and government intervention.

And this is why I didn't think this topic is a good idea and part of the reason I didn't answer it on-topic. There is a lot to criticize about China's government or the politics of any country, my country also has policies that would certainly ruffle some feathers, but this forum is no place for that.

I know most westerner countries are always complaining about child poverty but won’t let them work until their 16 😉
People are exploited everywhere some aware some unaware and a lot of people ignore it for personal conveniences

RandomStranger wrote on 2024-02-22, 18:39:

And this is why I didn't think this topic is a good idea and part of the reason I didn't answer it on-topic. There is a lot to criticize about China's government or the politics of any country, my country also has policies that would certainly ruffle some feathers, but this forum is no place for that.

I agree this is a delicate subject, but it's also an enriching one if done right.

I would avoid such subject, the topic is very interesting and I think we can just talk about the most peculiar thing about our countries leaving the politics\social matter alone, I'm sure everyone has something interesting or funny to say, otherwise this topic will be sadly short lived.

Please,
more about food, traditions, beautiful places and not politics, wars and XXX against YYY

This topic is on a slippery slope and we'only on page 3

Speaking of food I always have a challenge getting stuff in the uk cuz it’s not popular to British taste
It quite funny as I shared stuff I got for st Nicolas with my colleagues and they asked me how I could eat this stuff.
(Speculas, brok speculas, taai taai, pepernoten and kruid noten.

Greywolf1 wrote on 2024-02-22, 22:00:

Speaking of food I always have a challenge getting stuff in the uk cuz it’s not popular to British taste
It quite funny as I shared stuff I got for st Nicolas with my colleagues and they asked me how I could eat this stuff.
(Speculas, brok speculas, taai taai, pepernoten and kruid noten.

Well I can't speak for all of us, but ginger is one of a small number of flavours that I simply cannot stand, so things like gingerbread or lebkuchen, or ginger ale/wine I find revolting.

The other flavour is coriander (cilantro for our American cousins). DEATH to the evil weed!!!

I think the same thing affects me with both - a perfumery, flowery taste... A bit like dirty, soapy dishwater.

My wife and kids, on the other hand, all love ginger.

Greywolf1 wrote on 2024-02-22, 22:00:

Speaking of food I always have a challenge getting stuff in the uk cuz it’s not popular to British taste
It quite funny as I shared stuff I got for st Nicolas with my colleagues and they asked me how I could eat this stuff.
(Speculas, brok speculas, taai taai, pepernoten and kruid noten.

Spéculoos as they are called in France are very popular. They are often offered when you drink a coffee in a restaurant or in a café.
Even more popular near the Belgian border in northern France.

They are also used in a Tiramisu recipe instead of the traditional Italian biscuits .

Yes, it is not not appropriate to discuss politics here, because it is difficult to distinguish black and white, it is gray...
Regarding food, every region seems to have its own style.Chinese food makes me love and hate . It has a long food culture and superb cooking skills, which can turn decay into magic.Using too many seasonings is a big characteristic, resulting in strong flavors that are not very healthy, such as spicy, numbing, sweet, etc.
I was in Switzerland six years ago and I loved the food there, fresh and authentic

We can get the Lotus biscuit version in some Ontario stores, wife likes to use them instead of graham cracker crumbs in some recipes. ( UK might be more familiar with using crushed digestives)

A wise man once said: We're all living in Amerika! Amerika! Ist wunderbar!

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-02-23, 02:17:

We can get the Lotus biscuit version in some Ontario stores, wife likes to use them instead of graham cracker crumbs in some recipes. ( UK might be more familiar with using crushed digestives)

Funny you mention that while the lotus or biscoff biscuit is often advertised as spekulaas but they are nothing like the real ones
Lidl or Aldi sell a German version at Christmas which some people sometimes buy me but it tastes of roughly ground tree bark.

It’s like saying hershes , Cadbury and milka are the same.

And like Asian food and find it interesting to cook but again getting hold of ingredients is challenging as I have no Asian supermarket near me and don’t cook enough to use up all the ingredients I buy so end up throwing stuff out what a waste!

wbahnassi wrote on 2024-02-23, 04:46:

A wise man once said: We're all living in Amerika! Amerika! Ist wunderbar!

Rammstein rocks 😁 !

Greywolf1 wrote on 2024-02-23, 08:23:

Funny you mention that while the lotus or biscoff biscuit is often advertised as spekulaas but they are nothing like the real on […]
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BitWrangler wrote on 2024-02-23, 02:17:

We can get the Lotus biscuit version in some Ontario stores, wife likes to use them instead of graham cracker crumbs in some recipes. ( UK might be more familiar with using crushed digestives)

Funny you mention that while the lotus or biscoff biscuit is often advertised as spekulaas but they are nothing like the real ones
Lidl or Aldi sell a German version at Christmas which some people sometimes buy me but it tastes of roughly ground tree bark.

It’s like saying hershes , Cadbury and milka are the same.

And like Asian food and find it interesting to cook but again getting hold of ingredients is challenging as I have no Asian supermarket near me and don’t cook enough to use up all the ingredients I buy so end up throwing stuff out what a waste!

There's another unfaithful version that turns up in the "dollar store" and other low price outlets, it comes in a glossy paper or plastic bag, and has 300g to 1kg of cookies stamped with designs, and they have a thin coat of sugar icing on one side. Mostly christmas themed, but I have seen them out of season also. Those ones might not even have been made in Europe. I believe I may have seen them in poundland/poundstretcher type stores in the UK years ago as well.

Aldi has their own knock-off Biscoff range now; they do both the biscuits (I'm no huge fan of Lotus biscuits, but from the few 'originals' that I've tried, these are pretty close, imo) and a spread which looks like a very thin, smooth peanut butter.

We've had the biscuits a couple of times and they're okay. Never tried the spread yet - mainly because the kids are obsessed with hazelnut chocolate spread (and Aldi do a fair copy of Nutella, which they like on pancakes and toast), and I'm really the only one in the house who likes peanut-butter type spreads. I have the distinct feeling that the knock-off Biscoff spread may well be rather overpowering. Anyone tried it?

megatron-uk wrote on 2024-02-23, 16:08:

Aldi has their own knock-off Biscoff range now; they do both the biscuits (I'm no huge fan of Lotus biscuits, but from the few 'originals' that I've tried, these are pretty close, imo) and a spread which looks like a very thin, smooth peanut butter.

We've had the biscuits a couple of times and they're okay. Never tried the spread yet - mainly because the kids are obsessed with hazelnut chocolate spread (and Aldi do a fair copy of Nutella, which they like on pancakes and toast), and I'm really the only one in the house who likes peanut-butter type spreads. I have the distinct feeling that the knock-off Biscoff spread may well be rather overpowering. Anyone tried it?

Not the Aldi knock-off, but i tried the Lotus spread.

If i like the biscuits, i'm not a big fan of the spread. Too thick. I don't like the texture.
I even tried to dissolve it into hot milk to see if i could turn it into some kind of "hot speculoos/milk beverage" but the spread does not dissolve in milk.

First and last time i bought it.

I’ve had that once wasn’t impressed

newtmonkey wrote on 2024-02-21, 08:21:

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2024-02-20, 14:56:

Whenever I read about a country or watch something on it, it usually feels something from the view of a travel agent. Things often feel forced, half-informed, hidden behind scenes.

How the country operates on a normal basis, the culture, the behaviour, the food, laws, daily life, etc. from a resident's perspective is what I want to hear.

Why don't you start by telling everyone about your country?

Glad you asked. I will try to hold both from the perspective as a native and a foreigner.

Let's start with some past history: the opposition party who was in rule had a lot of corruption in it. Slow workforce, no major development, limited international support, less help for the middle class and poor (more on this later) is majorly what prevailed. Court was slow, is slow, but more later on why it isn't taken up.

As the ruling party changed, a lot of things got better: a more active workforce, development works that were stalled for years started emerging, and a larger reason for the party's supremacy now is aiding the middle class and poor: free food, free education, free healthcare, what more can they ask for? That's a HUGE part of the population available to vote for you. The new government made powerful and more meaningful relationships with other nations (Indians love foreign exposure at a very high level). Improving data on various sides backs the government up (it's another story if the previous rulers had bad data collection) Everything seems good upto here, right?

Well parties try to make a legacy here: the previous party had a legacy of having a large part in the nation's freedom. Over decades people saw all the discrepancies and corruption the government brought and the government changes in 2014. Current party is trying to make itself permanent in a multitude of ways: your online presence is monitored and allowed/blocked as necessary, your knowledge published online is allowed/blocked as to what the government feels (failure to do so can lead in the platform cancellation), end-2-end encryption is banned, right to information is removed for civilians but available for the government agencies... A lot of it here (use subtitles for English)

https://youtu.be/UWfNUe31nJg?si=En8W0CPhwZYcDemW

For most people from outside the nation, it may seem like a big deal, but the majority of the nation wants nothing to do it. The majority strives on a basic survival over rights like freedom of speech or expression or knowledge. The court takes over 10 years to solve a basic case, so people won't even have the desire to report anything there.

For non natives: it's a place with a major emphasis on culture and religion. You can befriend anyone with it, parties use it as a tool for themselves. The employment availability is very less compared to the population , so non natives will even have a tough time getting a respectable work (respectable work = medical officer, engineer, international MNC corporate, government servant, administrative officer, police officer, etc.). There are a lot of places with cultural importance, travel agents will often set up with a fixed number of destination and you need to have your own study before it. Another rule people follow here: the poorer you show yourself, the better (you are less likely to be approached by a scammer or a random stranger or even the government on the purpose of "visiting if you have solved all the taxes" which they often ignore in other cases.

A big difference between internet users today and those in the early days of the internet is lack of concern over privacy.

When I first got on the internet late 1990s privacy was a huge deal. There was great indignation over the US government's encryption ban and everybody was using PGP to encrypt everything on the principle that if you just swamp the internet with encrypted messages the spooks will give up trying to spy on people. Then there was the controversy over the Pentium III serial number, which would have allowed websites to track individual computers over the internet (basically what TPM does today). Nobody seems to care anymore.

ETA: Cookies too. The reason we still get popups asking for cookie permissions is that people back then raised a huge stink about websites tracking people using cookies.