The Power of Love, Practicing Bushi-ho~

it depends entirely on what you most like cooking! here are my own staples i can think of off the top of my head:

decently stocked spice cabinet

sauces and flavorful goops -- mine are oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, chili garlic paste, miso paste, sesame oil, dark soy, standard soy, seasoned soy, rice vinegar, balsamic vinegar, white & red wine vinegars, cholula (objectively the best mass-market hot sauce for putting on eggs), lao gan ma, garlic chili crisp, chili oil, mirin, harissa paste, gochujang, shaoxing wine, and a little nice finishing olive oil (probably forgot a few)

cheap but drinkable wine to cook with, i use the kirkland boxed pinot grigio lol. box is gonna do you better than bottled here in terms of how long it lasts and how much it costs per ounce

basic baking supplies (maybe just flour, yeast, and a quick leavener if you're not a sweets person, this is how i make naan and it's cheap easy and baller)

short grain rice (nigiri, onigiri, bibimbap, rice bowls, risotto), long grain rice (rice and beans, coconut rice), pearl couscous (always good w braised chicken), dried pasta (usually have the stuff on hand for carbonara, spaghetti, etc)

a cheap protein you can keep in the freezer and prepare a couple ways (i buy fatty bone-in skin-on chicken thighs for this, one million ways you can prep em). i also like keeping bacon in the freezer, high fat content makes it freeze perfectly and it's easy to pull out for carbonara

bouillon or Better Than Bouillon, cheaper and more compact than pre-made broth and lasts longer

dried beans (black for lomo saltado or on their own, kidney for minestrone, white for the white beans w caramelized fennel lemon and cream that i like to make)

eggs, milk, handful of rotating veggies (but always always bell peppers carrots and green onions)

jar of kimchi, i make one periodically but your local asian supermarket probably has a solid one. in a pinch, mother in law is the best tasting brand i've found at american chain groceries. i use it for making jjampong, kimchi fried rice, and onigiri, it's also excellent in a ramen or eaten straight from the jar with a fork lol

couple favorite cheeses

onions, potatoes, garlic, lemons, and limes

good canned tomatoes (i use to make sauce when i make pizza or spaghetti, also good for tomato soup braises chilis etc etc)

anchovy and tomato pastes, both come in tubes pretty cheap and will last forever in your fridge

given that dungeon meshi started being published in 2014, it's not really a "work belonging to its times"—it's as contemporary as any other media we discuss on this site, which means it should be fair to assume it engages with contemporary topics (and at the very least, you shouldn't say that the representation is accidental with so much confidence)

but anyways, the chapter "perfect communication" in ryoko kui's "terrarium in a drawer" is some of the most straightforward autistic representation I've seen, and from now on I'm going to assume that laios's character writing is absolutely intentional in that regard:

Repost from 2023

I made a back side with a cute lil blurb, too! You can go download the PNG full res versions over on my Ko-Fi (at no charge! Tips welcome!)

me : yeah whatever. i don't feel shit.

5 minutes later : dude i swear i just saw a kittypet near the border