Watching the fleet sail by. The US set to say f* you to China and sail within the 12 mile limit of these new islands

[The Mad Monk]

Silly Greek, you don't bake rice, you bake spanikopita!

[Bereta_Eder]

[Kidlicious]

You don't bake rice cakes?

[Elok]

Silly Greek, you don't bake rice, you bake spanikopita!

Tiropita's way better.

[The Mad Monk]

Bah. All the bake-n-eat spanikopita packed in my chest freezer says otherwise.

[Dinner]

Tiropita's way better.

I had to look that up but it looks like burk which is a type of pastry sold all over the Balkins. A meat and cheese burk is great on a cold morning.

[Dinner]

Would Taiwan still be independant if the US didn't care about it?

Doubtful. It would have gotten invaded in the 1950's. It exists because every time the Chinese threaten it the US moves forces into the area which could stomp their invasion force. The problem is the Chinese do this every few years so they really do know exactly how the US would respond and they have been aggressively coming up with counter measures to make up for areas China is weak in.

For example, they know their airforce is useless garbage so they have concentrated funds on missiles (anti-ship missiles, anti-air missiles, and uying/copying Russian radar systems). They have bought some modern aircraft recently (the bulk of their planes are 1950's and 1960's vintage) but can only really operate them short to medium range due to a lack of in air refueling. Thus why China suddenly is interested in artifical islands with military air fields on them; it extends their operational range and threatens shipping lanes without having to totally rethink their entire airforce.

They have been much more aggressive in expanding their navy knowing their navy is what they will need to cross to Taiwan. Their ships are not that great but they have got a number of Russian systems on them which are decent and the Chinese have been building a lot of them thinking quantity over the US'S quality. Honestly, the US needs to rethink a whole lot of things wrt it's military if it wants to counter all the improvements China is putting into place.

[Bereta_Eder]

I had to look that up but it looks like burk which is a type of pastry sold all over the Balkins. A meat and cheese burk is great on a cold morning.

There is NO meat AND cheese tiropita philistine.

It's actually cheese and then it's tyropita (and then the variations kourou, sfoliata, horiatiki etc etc)

or there's meat and then it's kreatopita (but it's quite heavy)

[Bereta_Eder]

Spanakopita is spinach pie (it's quite healthy too and the more elevated speciment also has little bits of a specific cheese in it)

[giblets]

If Taiwan has to rely on the US navy being able to defeat the Chinese navy in a battle right next to China then Taiwan is probably doomed.

[Bereta_Eder]

chinese are

[Dinner]

There is NO meat AND cheese tiropita philistine.

It's actually cheese and then it's tyropita (and then the variations kourou, sfoliata, horiatiki etc etc)

or there's meat and then it's kreatopita (but it's quite heavy)

I specifically said burek, genius. Also, as usual the basics are the same between Turkish and Greek pastries and you know it.

[Dinner]

If Taiwan has to rely on the US navy being able to defeat the Chinese navy in a battle right next to China then Taiwan is probably doomed.

They have been good for 66 years.

[Bereta_Eder]

I specifically said burek, genius. Also, as usual the basics are the same between Turkish and Greek pastries and you know it.

There are similarities as you said from all over the balkans both in sweets as well as cuisine.
They all came from either byzantium (tiropita for example was named tyritas plakountas) or from the arabs (especially the sweets)

There are very few true autochtonous turkish gastronomical recipies seeing as they were just nomads.

Turkish sweets as they evolved are great and we have even greater because they are a tiny bit lighter.
(the GREATEST are in UAE)

[giblets]

They have been good for 66 years.

China was an impoverished ****hole for most of those years.