Rosenrot

(Sorry, read this wrong and it changed the whole meaning of the sentence! 😄)

What exactly did he do different? I didn't catch that. Oh wow. Poor Ben made what he thought was an actual good dish and then got knocked out by the judges faster than he could say "dirty prawn heads". He should've gone home imho, at least Kyle made some good dishes along the way unlike him. I'm bummed they don't seem to do the trips abroad anymore. ☹️ Really liked the season 9 Japan week.

Also the word "tasting room" has now morphed into an entirely different - dirty, mind you - entity in my head. Literally me every time I cook for somebody else. (My BF likes spicy food, though. Luckily for him.) I wasn't familiar with her since I haven't seen the 1st season, but I've come to notice that I really like Poh. 😏 And she seems to be a little better at mentoring than the useless Billie. Ribs in a pressure cooker already, to me, sounds like a thing that wouldn't work, but better to have learned it now and not in an elimination challenge.

Has anyone by any chance read Bret Easton Ellis' new non-fiction, White? I'd love some opinions. I'm kind of debating whether I like the man enough to read 270 pages of (what I imagine to be) pure provocation…

I really have nothing else to say except - #teamYvie

IKR?! Couldn't have said it better myself! 😄

Yeah, I believe we would've fared better if Darude had done, y'know, his thing, more visibly than now. Sandstorm is a great song. Had it been something like that, with stronger vocals than what Sebastian could offer… catchy tune... who knows what might've happened. Blackbird was SO robbed, I'm glad someone else thinks that way too! ❤️ For once Finland sent something good and just got pooped on. I was so irked.

Heh, I know what you mean. Finland's track record isn't exactly impressive either. It's totally a victory for us if we get to sing twice! This year was just sad. But we had a poor entry, so it's not like it was undeserved.

Personally not sure if I've survived the Heroes win to this day. Well… as you said, it's a 'depressing break-up song'… I just had a super depressing break-up…. go figure. 😉 !!!! Okay, that pisses me off big time. Poland should've been in the finals.

😄 I was about to come here and say that "did that guest chef seem not very excited to be there?" Almost every time she was watching what each contestant was doing, she looked appalled. I thought maybe she just has a resting bitch face or something, but working for Ramsay for 10 years (a fact that I managed to miss) probably explains it. Why did they plate up in front of the judges? I don't remember them doing that often. Is it like an extra bit of pressure? Yay, Derek and his gunshow are still in game!

Something about Specsavers, but I couldn't make out the beginning of the sentence. "I should've gone to Specsavers", maybe? To me, bone marrow purée sounds all kinds of disgusting, but maybe it's just me since the judges seemed to love it. So many "I want to get tasted"s in this episode! It will never NOT sound dirty to me. E: Forgot to say - I'm scared for Derek. 😞

I thought Madonna sounded OK, but then, I'm completely tone deaf and my friend said she sounded off-tune (and so did numerous Finnish newspapers today, with screaming headlines "WHAT HAPPENED, MADONNA?!?" etc.) I thought Norway was hideous, but apparently the rest of the Europe thought otherwise… LOL @ Sweden's televote results. I didn't mind the duration of the show. It's a once-in-a-year event; I probably would't mind if it lasted six hours, because I enjoy it so. Their withdrewal didn't have anything to do with Israel, though. Ukraine didn't want to send them because the band had been touring in Russia or something of the like.

They were such trolls. I wonder if there will be repercussions, though...

Very satisfying results. The final battle between Sweden, Netherlands and North-Macedonia was a fucking THRILLER. Thank god Netherlands won. Russia had no business finishing 3rd, but oh well, at least they didn't win. Italy finished higher than I expected, but I'm glad they did. Iceland did good. ❤️

I was wondering about that. If they knew it takes time to get the women off of the poles and get Spain's set in, in fact so much time that it requires a break… why place those two countries last and second to last? Just before the last entry is a weird place for a break. I can only think of one reason: they really want Australia to win. Luckily I, at the moment, do not have a problem with that. (But on a general level, I think it is wholeheartedly stupid that the running order is decided, and even more so that it is a Swede deciding it.) YES!!

Judging from the previews, it seems that at least Italy has yet again fucked up their staging (see also: 2017). I still love Soldi, but I'll be damned if it'll work on the stage on any level. Apparently I'm again going to have to bury my dreams of Italy's victory. [sigh] Oh well. It means more room for Iceland in the beginning of the scoreboard!

Australia was awesome. It isn't even a guilty pleasure anymore, just a pleasure.

Same… probably a wise thing for me. I don't want to have the meltdown I had last year when Mr. Battered-Fish-and-Pea-Purée went to the finale instead of Khanh. I was so angry I didn't even watch the finale until much later. (I'm sure Ben is a perfectly nice bloke but I MEAN COME ON HIS ATTEMPT AT A PEA DISH WAS TO SPRINKLE INDIVIDUAL PEAS ON THE PLATE! AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON THE FINALE'S 'BATTERED WHITING WITH PEAS'! WHAT THE EFFING EFF!) (I am still not over it, clearly!) Mandy's dish didn't look appealing at all. (Well, the chicken maybe, but chicken almost always looks appealing.) Cabbage and beurre blanc? Huh?

Glad to have been wrong. 😄 GO ICELAND!

I'm a librarian, so I have a real soft spot for libraries, and that - pardon my French, but this sentence needs it - was a fucking awesome-looking library! Really, really nice setting for a team challenge (although I would've liked it more if they had fed the library employees). I question Steph's leadership skills, but at least she owned up to her mistakes. Also, I think it's somewhat amazing that I live for sugar but have never had Baked Alaska. It's not a common dessert here. I may have to bake one sooner rather than later.

Well, shit, Billie wasn't much of help in terms of 'mentoring', was she? She mostly just stood there and smiled awkwardly. Even I could do that. Simon's Japanese set custard looked awesomeballs, though. Loki's fate from last season is probably still haunting their minds.

I don't think he was listening at all. Granted, Nicole was talking quickly, but she did clearly say that pistachios were the featured ingredient and what they were doing with those. Then cut to 30 seconds later, he's like "I have no idea what the featured ingredient is or what our dish is" and then deadpans to the judges that it's star anise. Abbey wasn't being fair. Like, AT ALL. Dude! You can't just shift the resposibility of making up the dish to the next person! You're the friggin' team leader!

WOW. I feel like an idiot for actually believing Silky when she praised her lipsyncing abilities! But, there's a bright side to this - IF Silky makes it to top 3 (which, I think, is the way this is going, unfortunately), there's NO way she's going to win the season, especially if she's there with Brooke Lynn and Yvie, which I think - and hope - is probable. I think either A'keria or Vanjie's going home next week. Though… since this season has completely made me not care what happens, I almost wish for some kind of a trainwreck finale where Silky's climbing the walls and Vanjie's wearing one of her 700 leotards on the stage.

Oh Kyle. Kyle, Kyle, Kyle. ALWAYS TASTE WHAT YOU COOK! Glad he recovered and got to stay, I like him. I can't believe Larissa avoided the second round with a banana sundae (that she originally didn't even mean to cook)! If I ever cooked anything at all, I probably would. 😄 Apparently it's close to eggplant (but depending a lot on how you prepare it).

Just wrapped up Tolkien's Silmarillion FINALLY, took me like two months. I loved it, but man it's a slow read. Decided I need something lighter for a change, so yesterday I started out King's second volume of the Bill Hodges trilogy, Finders Keepers.