on (non-)vegetarian condiments

nowadays i try to be mostly vegetarian — or maybe flexitarian is more accurate, because i may eat meat when i'm visiting someone. at home i've been more or less pescetarian, but i'm phasing fish out as well. i'll use up the oyster sauce i still have, because throwing it away would be a waste too, but i find that real oyster sauce is very replaceable; vegetarian oyster sauce does just fine. however, the one thing i don't think i'll ever give up is fish sauce (nước mắm). if i need to make a dish vegetarian or vegan for a dinner guest, it can be replaced with Chinese light soy sauce and the dish will turn out all right, but it's really not the same.

Eurovision journaling

i went through some old diaries to read seven years of Eurovision thoughts and takes, it was quite fun to see! some of my favourites from like 2015 or 2016 are things that, when i see them now, make me go, why? but there were also a number of songs that i had no memory of, but were very good! one such, actually, is Estonia's entry from 2015, which i rediscovered a while ago from an old "favourite entries" list, and found that it's actually a fantastic song. this is why i love keeping a diary.

bougie, burgerlijk, barbarian

i bought a few fancy cheeses yesterday: Viking Blue, Queso Iberico, and Clemont Rouge. i'm not sure about the vibes, though. on one hand a small Selection of fancy cheeses for Special Enjoyment is kinda bougie, but buying them from Albert Heijn (on discount, at that) is sort of burgerlijk tbh. but, after eating them on bread for breakfast, i think barbarian is the correct vibe.