Wednesdays are my Deadlands campaign, a roleplaying game I love set in a Horror/Lovecraftian version of the wild west. So tonight’s post will be brief, and related to this particular geekery of mine.

All I really need to say to you are these two things: $15. Branding Iron.

Also can be used on meat, apparently

Seriously. It combines typography and meat, and there’s almost nothing better in the world than something that does that.

I would be really hard pressed (ha) not to brand meat with messages like ‘ONCE, I MOOED’. And my vegetarian days are about 20 years behind me (nothing, repeat, NOTHING is more obnoxious than a 16-year-old radical vegetarian. The irony is I still believe my reasons for vegetarianism were well founded. I just also really like bacon).

But still. If you need this (and you surely do), it’s $15 plus shipping at Solutions.com

But you know, I’m totally ok with that.

Earlier, I was randomly looking for free manga to read online; I recently discovered one, a romance manga from Strawberry Comics called Red String. I ate it up, and explored a little to see what else was out there that I might like.

Curry is very serious business.

Tonight I started reading an odd little manga, available free online, called Addicted to Curry. Originally published in Japan as The Splendid Table, its the story of a teenage girl whose absentee father owns a curry shop. The curry shop is failing because her father is so addicted to learning to cook more curries that he’s never there to run it. At one point in his jaunts to learn more curry making recipes, he runs into a young man who is also on a quest to create the perfect curries, whom he mocks, saying, “Maybe I’ll give you a job! Maybe!”

EVIL!

The comic often turns into something like Iron Chef on mescalin, and also has the usual manga tropes, but it’s actually really fun in this case. The EVIL OVERLORD’s main goal is to DESTROY THE CURRY HOUSE. And it does sexualize women a lot, making it NSFW; the protagonist is a peeping tom just to work in some typical manga girly shots. Also there is no one in the world of this comic who isn’t OBSESSIVE about curry. But then, geekery is geekery!

Most issues, in addition to having the story of the daughter and the protégé saving the Curry House, have a complete curry recipe - here’s the recipe for Keema Matar, a ground beef curry, from the first issue. You’ll be going along with a campy story about competing chefs (a chef sent to work for the Curry House is actually an ESPIONAGE AGENT sent from the EVIL OVERLORD), and then suddenly there will be a lesson on how the restaurant market has changed (with, of all things, what is essentially a focus group), or why you leave the skin on chicken in a curry (the espionage involves it, and the protégé has to explain to the daughter how that would displease customers. Perfectly reasonable, if sort of weird). There’s also a very handy chart explaining curry helper ingredients that I think I’ll find very helpful. Here’s a very simple Yam curry that I very much want to try (there is an in-story reason for carving the word Baka (’idiot’) in the yams).

His curries bring all the girls to the yard.

If you don’t want to read the comic, the recipes from the first book (chapters 1-10) are here. But really, the comic is so chock full of tiny little curry tips worked into the story that it’s worth it to read a chapter or two when you have some time.

(Remember that manga pages go from the top right corner, towards the left, even in English translations)

Stephanie-bob says check it out.

with maple syrup instead of corn syrup.

and it will, for the record, rock your socks off.

I can’t afford to do it a lot; maple syrup is a lot pricier than corn syrup (in Canada, golden syrup was also usable, but here the cost of imported golden syrup is higher than maple syrup). But due to a number of people deciding that What Stephanie Needs is a thing of maple syrup from Canada, I have rather a lot of it here, and it’s all Grade A, which is too thin for my pancakes.

So I have sponge toffee made from it, and still LOADS of sugar, but the syrup is low GI at least (about 50GI for maple syrup).

1 cup sugar
1 cup syrup (maple, dark corn, golden)
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon sifted baking soda

Spray or butter a 9-inch square thing. I used to use a cake pan, but I recently started using a 9×9x5 Glad reusable storage thing. For taking to parties, it’s great, because some of the fun in this is breaking the stuff. So you make it in the Glad container, then just seal it when cool and take to the party so people can break it their own damn selves!

Combine everything but the baking soda in a large, deep saucepan. Cook until a candy thermometer hits 300, stirring gently every 2-3 minutes (just to avoid burning, not to really mix). Remove from heat, and add baking soda. It will FOAM like mad. FOAM FOAM FOAM. Be prepared for it. Whoosh. Do not underestimate the FOAMINESS. Stir until well mixed, and pour into the prepped pan/container.

Let it cool completely, then seal it up tightly or if you were doing this for yourself, break it up and start eating. It’ll keep about a week. Or so I’m told. I’ve never had it around that long.