Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2013 October 7

= October 7 =

Miss Mamata Banerjee
What is the exact date of birth of Miss Mamata Banerjee, the CM,WB? I raise this question as the page contains two dates- one is 11 July,1960 and the other is 5 October,1960.I`ve read in newspapers as 5th January,1955 being her DoB.So,it needs to be ascertained her DoB in Web or in documents in public interest. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 116.202.212.119 (talk) 13:15, 7 October 2013 (UTC)


 * Are you asking for the purpose of the Wikipeda article, or for personal interest? If you are asking for the Wikipedia article, then it must be based solely on information published in reliable sources. The date of October 5th 1960 is referenced in the article to what appears to be a reliable source (though it is true that the source is reporting what she said herself). But there are presumably other published sources which give a later date. Unless there is another published reliable source which has discussed the differing claims and come to a conclusion, the article should not attempt to come to a conclusion (that would be original research). It should summarise the different claims, referencing each one of them. It should certainly say that she herself claims the date reported in OneIndia, and it is she who says that the date in official records is wrong; but the article should not attempt to draw any conclusion. It would also be wrong to include information from an unpublished source such as a birth certificate. --ColinFine (talk) 20:04, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

Cooking websites
Don't know if this is a ref desk question but... So, this is me on Saturday, trying to cook spaghetti for my boyfriend. -- I am a pretty good cook, though I say it myself. -- I was wondering if there is any website that says what's the original recipe for the sauce. I use butter, olive oil, basil, a pinch of sugar, among others.  Miss Bono  [hello, hello!]  17:47, 7 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Spaghetti is a type of noodle, it is not automatically associated with any particular kind of sauce. Looie496 (talk) 18:14, 7 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Yep, but some people cook it and add a tomato sauce, like this.  Miss Bono  [hello, hello!]  18:21, 7 October 2013 (UTC)
 * That's spaghetti pomodoro (spaghetti with tomato sauce). There are a million variations, and they probably date back to the introduction of tomatoes into Italian cuisine, hundreds of years ago. Looie496 (talk) 18:27, 7 October 2013 (UTC)
 * x2 What Looie might have been getting at is that there are hundreds (thousands?) of different recipes for various sauces that go with spaghetti. Only some of them are red sauces. And these things generally develop over a wide area all at the same time each with its own local variation depending on what vegetables, spices, etc are available. So asking for the original recipe cannot be done since there isn't just one.  Dismas |(talk) 18:32, 7 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Oh, I get it. Can I ask for the recipe for the Bolognese sauce?   Miss Bono  [hello, hello!]  19:09, 7 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Bolognese sauce is a ragù, which means a meat-based sauce, the tomatoes used are usually just concentrated tomatopurée as it is the meat and vegetables which are the main ingredients of that dish. The typical tomato based sauce (like Marinara sauce) is a sugo (we don't have any article on that unfortunately) and does not contain any meat and often contain fresh tomatoes as well as passata or canned tomatoes. --Saddhiyama (talk) 09:19, 8 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Pardon my impertinence, but how would such sites be of any use to you, since you don't have access to the web apart from Wikipedia? --  Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  18:31, 7 October 2013 (UTC)
 * I was thinking about you would find the site, and give a brief summary here.  Miss Bono  [hello, hello!]  18:36, 7 October 2013 (UTC)


 * Sautee a large chopped onion in the bottom of a pot with just enough olive oil to coat the bottom, mixing vigorously until the onion becomes clear. Add a few cloves of chopped garlic, and cook while stirring until the onion and garlic are caramelized, just until the edges are starting to blacken.  Add a few cans of tomato sauce and a can of tomato paste and several pinches of basil and oregano to taste.  Stir well and cover until simmering at a low heat.  Add cooked browned and drained ground beef or cooked meatballs to the sauce, and allow to simmer, covered, but with the lid slightly ajar to allow steam to escape for several hours, the longer the better.  Stir occasionally, making sure the bottom of he pot is not burning.  Add a quarter cup of water as necessary to keep the sauce from thickening too much--you can use red wine instead of water for this.  If the sauce is well cooked the acidity will reduce.  You can add a pinch of sugar or baking soda if you find it is still too sour, but avoid this by cooking as long as possible.  (Baking soda will add saltiness.)  Do not add salt or black pepper--let the guests add these to their own plates by taste.  (A pinch of salt in the pasta as you boil it is fine though.)  Cook whatever pasta you are making al dente, but not too hard.  Mix a pat of butter or a dash of olive oil with the pasta after it has cooked and drained to prevent it from sticking together.  Do not combine the pasta and meat sauce--let the guests do this to taste.  Serve with salt, black pepper, garlic powder, and grated parmesan cheese on the table.  Increase the amount of onion and garlic at the beginning of the recipe if you like these items.  Add chopped bell peppers or artichokes as you add the onions if you like these as well.  Substitute pork or ox neck or other meets for the beef as desired.  Chicken and fish are better cooked separately with the sauce added at the table, or fried in batter and served Parmesan style. A cucumber salad is a simple side dish.  Slice peeled cucumbers.  If they are big, cut them in half lengthwise before slicing.  Mix these in a bowl with chopped red onion, an equal amount of vinegar (white or balsamic) and water to cover them half way, and a pinch of sugar (as necessary), salt and black pepper.  μηδείς (talk) 19:15, 7 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Cool. I'll try it tonight.   Miss Bono  [hello, hello!]  19:17, 7 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Ack! You'll be cooking til midnight.  If you make your own sauce it really needs to cook for at least four hours.  The nice thing is you usually make enough for two nights, so there's no work the second night, and it always tastes better the next day. μηδείς (talk) 19:31, 7 October 2013 (UTC)
 * I get home at 5pm, then I do my Pilates and I take a bath, I guess I can skip the Pilates today... and start cooking... by 5:30. I'd finish the sauce by 9:30, time for telenovela --which I don't see. I'd rather be watching some NCIS episodes or bothering my boyfriend by singing a song by U2. --  Miss Bono  [hello, hello!]  19:41, 7 October 2013 (UTC)


 * A couple comments:


 * 1) In the US, tomato based sauce is what everyone means when they say "spaghetti sauce", unless otherwise specified, with a possible exception for fancy restaurants, which feel the need to be fancy, and your spaghetti or even pizza then comes with something far less healthy than a tomato sauce, like alfredo sauce.


 * 2) Spaghetti sauce in a jar seem like a reasonable short-cut to me. It comes in glass jars, so won't taste like plasticizers or metal.  It is often too salty, but I remedy this by adding my own veggies, like broccoli, to dilute the salt.  You can also add some unsalted tomato sauce to fix this excessive saltiness.  So, you can make a healthy, tasty meal in far less time if you start from spaghetti sauce in a jar. StuRat (talk) 00:13, 8 October 2013 (UTC)


 * It's pretty nice of that Greek Guy to go to such detailed description to help you out. I'm impressed.  To the OP:  your receipe sounds horrible.  Butter?  What about tomatoes?  Do you have any idea what you are doing?  If you have some basic cooking skills, here's my short version:  chop up onion, a piece of garlic and parseley (separately)  then pan fry or sautee the garlic and onion in a pan with some olive oil until its tender, then slowly add in your tomatoes (either fresh or canned but if they are fresh please carefully monitor the taste and counter the acidy bitter taste with sugar as needed), and also 1 tbsp of "tomato paste," which is a canned product that is quite necessary here.  Smash that all around and boil it, monitor it, throw in a pinch of salt, some basil or oregano if you like that sort of thing, keep monitoring it, maybe splash of red wine, you know, whatever floats your boat.  It's pretty easy.  I don't know about these people saying it takes four hours and what not. Herzlicheboy (talk) 01:32, 8 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Butter/garlic/oil is not an unusual recipe. See for instance. Spaghetti noodles doesn't have to mean tomato sauce, as pointed out above. Rmhermen (talk) 02:57, 8 October 2013 (UTC)

Eh, I dont know about the butter, unless it was part of a creamy type sauce? I do agree that just oil and garlic is a common sauce; one that I've made many times myselfHerzlicheboy (talk) 04:57, 8 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Oh, some Italian cook friend of my family told me to use butter, but no a ton just a little. I do know what I am doing, I've made that recipe a thousand times and everybody at home seems to enjoy it, unless they are keeping their mouth shut and when I turn around they are throwing everything. (O_o)   Miss Bono  [hello, hello!]  12:10, 8 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Sounds good to me - like Rmhermen pointed out it is a pretty common recipe. Plain buttered noodles are a common kids' dish because they are easy to make and the simple, pleasant flavor goes over well with even the picky kids. Using a bit of butter gives a subtle touch of that flavor, while still featuring the basil and other flavors that are the key to the sauce. It also will make it just a touch thicker/creamier (but not much) as the sauce cools, making it stick to the noodles with a slightly different texture than an oil-only sauce. For a tomato-based sauce, Medeis gives a good recipe. Mushrooms, carrots and celery are also common additions. It is definitely the sort of sauce that works best cooked down on low heat all day long. My wife usually makes a few huge batches at the peak of tomato season, then we can and freeze it in convenient sizes for easy meals throughout the year. It works really well from canned tomato products (like Medeis suggested) when you don't have that many fresh tomatoes around, and it saves a lot of prep work. You could do a small, quick batch, but you lose a lot of the subtle touches that slowly cooking it gives to the flavor. Sometimes we also transfer some of the batch to another pot before adding the meat - that gives you some for using in other ways down the road. K ati e R  (talk) 14:21, 8 October 2013 (UTC)


 * Oh thanks Katie. I also use tomatoes for the sauce, I think I haven't said that earlier in this thread, I apologize.  Miss Bono  [hello, hello!]  14:22, 8 October 2013 (UTC)


 * As you can see above, there are tons of ways to make sauces for noodle-based dishes, and it can be a lot of fun to experiment with. I know you don't have good internet access, but do you have a library that you could borrow some cookbooks from? I think they're a better resource for this sort of thing than most recipe websties anyways. A good cookbook doesn't just list recipes - it gives background on the dishes... the history, how the ingredients work together, why things are done the way they are to produce the desired texture, what to look for when picking the ingredients at the market (for example, asking if they have uglier or bruised tomatoes for a cheaper price if you're just going to mash them up anyways). It can help build an understanding of some of the trickier concepts that help you start experimenting and trying out your own ideas rather than just following instructions (or branch out more from the things you normally do without a recipe). I have some cookbooks that are a joy to read and have taught me a lot, even if I haven't actually made any of the recipes in them. K ati e R  (talk) 14:48, 8 October 2013 (UTC)
 * I have a wonderful and valuable cookbook by this amazing cook.   Miss Bono  [hello, hello!]  14:50, 8 October 2013 (UTC)

Is that Eve?
I won't keep my promise of asking non-Bono questions because I've been racking my brains with this one for a while. The DVD for U2 Go Home: Live from Slane Castle includes a documentary of the making of the album The Unforgettable Fire and a bonus track, "Mysterious Ways" (left out of the setlist on the DVD).

There is a part of the show when they are playing Mysterious Ways and a little girl comes to the stage. Bono says something about Eve at the end of the song. What does he say? and is that Eve?  Miss Bono  [hello, hello!]  20:00, 7 October 2013 (UTC)


 * When Bono brings her on stage via the backstage he calls her "Eve" (pronounced ) then at the end of the performance he says, "Give it up for little Eve" (this time pronounced . It's presumable that it is Eve Hewson but I don't know. Ultra Viole t Ligh t  20:49, 7 October 2013 (UTC)


 * Thanks Ult! Is there any online reference that confirms it?   Miss Bono  [hello, hello!]  12:03, 8 October 2013 (UTC)