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Anything goes in here - discussions while waiting for more people to arrive at the Kitchens, while looking at the Raid Statistics and arguing who is the best raider so far, while nomnom-ing favorite snacks and filling the pockets with yums, and tasties, ..., and so on. Please remember to follow HOL rules while posting. Be respectful to everyone, and to the house-elves.

Welcome to the Kitchen Raids activity by Helga’s House. Kitchen raids had been one of the many adventures of Hogwarts students throughout generations. It is an activity excitedly awaited by our house-elves in the Kitchens. After a raid, students would go back to their common rooms with pocketfuls of sweets and delectable delicacies. Are you excited to have your first raid?! Or if you have done this several times already, are you ready to assert your competitive spirit in the raid arena? It is not just your pockets which will be full of sweet and yum but also your self with new friends and bold experience. Also, diamonds and signature awards (MVP Raider, Advanced Raider, and Ickle Raider) are up for grabs. Conquer the kitchens this start of the school year! Join the 4 weekly raids this whole month of September and you will have an abundant rest of the year. *nods* See you at this section of the Sett on September 4. All sweet and tasty expenses for this activity is paid by our HoH Fels – with her Precious (her “Credit Card”, whatever it means).

Starting in September, every month we will bring you activities which focus on some of the amazing animals around the world. The animals can be as simple as dogs and cats to perhaps newly found animals (seems like there were many this past summer, like the Giant Crab Spider) or maybe animals that are now extinct... like dinosaurs. The theme will change from month to month and activities will be varied, from written items (like creating a bucket list), discussions to jigsaws to puzzles. Each week will bring a new challenge -- where you can enjoy yourself and earn Diamonds! All items from each week will be due at the end of the month, so if you join up late you may still participate in all the activities for the month. Remember to click to follow this Forum so that you receive updates whenever a new Activity is posted. Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoy Wonders of the World. If for accessibility reasons you can't complete any of the activities, please just let me know and an alternative can be worked out – we might give you something to research and write up about, but we will come up with an alternative!

Reading the article, I thought that the Egyptian cuisine is different to the cuisine I grew up with. However, there are some similarities. I thought there would be more similarities but cannot find it explicitly in the article. One similar idea I found revolves on the fresh garlic mashed with other herbs and used in spicy tomato salad or stuffed in boiled or baked eggplant. In our case, it is not really fresh garlic but combination of onion, tomatoes, and herbs (with soy sauce) in making green salad and/or also stuffed or mixed with strands of boiled eggplant. We would have it as a side to grilled fish or as a partner of rice. The recipe above is memorable because it is one of the healthier options we would have for a meal. We would make sure there is something green and/or healthy on the table. It also complements the taste of the partner food mentioned above. It may not be similar to the Egyptians' meal but the subtle similarities, the similar ideas are interesting to take note of.

When I've read the given link Prof. Black posted, my eyes immediately went to Kebda Eskandarani and how much it sounds like Maksalaatikko. The latter isn't my favourite dish, but I enjoy it well enough. The main ingredient in both is liver. In the Egyptian dish, the beef liver is friend with spicy seasonings such as cumin, garlic, cardamom, and chili peppers. Then it's sliced and eaten in a sort of a sandwich. It's often eaten as a 'fast food' that you can get at street vendors. It's also eaten with warm rice, lime wedges, or pita bread on the side. Maksalaatikko, on the other hand, is more of a casserole type of dish. The liver is ground and combined with rice, butter, syrup, egg, onion, and raisin. It's also served with ligonberry jam on the side. As Kebda Eskandarani, it's sold at vendors and 'fast food' places, and in schools as well. I'm sure that if I ever have the opportunity to eat Kedba Eskandarani, I'd really like it.

This might be a discussion on real-life schooling, but now, on the last day of summer, I'm really excited to start the new term at HOL. I've really enjoyed my first year, more than I thought I would. I'm really most excited to see what classes are on offer. Being limited to ten per year, if you don't take any year-long classes, there are just so many that I wanted to take last year, but couldn't. I hope that some of them are offered again tomorrow, my pick would be quite easy then. But there are new ones coming too, most likely, which would just make the pick that much harder. I'm still excited to see them, though! I hope to be a better student than last year.