How would overcooked Stravinsky sound to our ears?

That should get some interesting responses and shed light on the topic for people who have never visited Upper Houndistan.

I can’t believe I’ll never eat that sandwich again. Every time I went in they would yell at me: “Very Few Peppers!” Which was actually my (dearly departed) Dad’s order. An order they hadn’t been given in ten years, they remember it, they even associate it with the customer’s daughter who is, of course, also ten years older.

Gawd. I think I’m actually gonna cry! Of course, I had to go be in proximity to a cheesesteak later that same day, somehow, coincidentally, my husband was hungry and I thought, I need to buy him a cheesesteak, and so there I was at Andrea’s House of Pizza, and I felt so weirdly thankful getting the little narrow paper bag with the sub in it I went home and wrote Reducing Human Misery, One Cheesesteak at a Time on the Watertown metroblog I run.

To be honest, the cheesesteak is not anywhere near as good as Lentine’s. But Andrea’s gives me a good feeling. There’s a little television on top of the soda case. Sitting down to watch it, I’ve left the 100 channel click this link universe of amazingly customized but totally solitary Daily Me; I’ve traveled to a place where you can’t change the channel and you all watch together. (This world is under attack by guerilla forces bearing TV-B-Gone keychain remotes) I don’t think I could live there. But visiting there is sublime. We are mostly all strangers but we are all eating pizza, and we are all watching basketball. We have citizenship in this land for just as long as it takes to get from the point to the rind of the crust and then, poof, the whole thing disappears through the little swinging door on top of the trash bin.

Ten points for anyone who remembers what was special about the light fixtures.

What I want to know what do you do when you just can’t find that place that you know exists. For example: I once found myself in Santa Barbara one morning, driving around looking for a “good old” American breakfast. After I while I realized that Santa Barbara has no middle class therefore no diner or equal. I found myself stopping “regular” looking people asking ” where is the Jim’s, Jonnie’s, or Jack’s diner?” Everyone kept saying “oh there’s a Denny’s over there or an IHOP down there” NO!!! Not Denny’s Not IHOP, I want real food. I then spotted some kids selling lemonade, this is my chance, their parents sure will know the spot I’m looking for… “Well you turn left down there and you will see Denny’s….” ARGHHHH…..Sometimes you just can’t get all the luck…..

As for some of my secret spots… Be forewarned I find that some of the best food is found in Neighborhoods that you may have to look over your shoulder a lot, and I would not suggest going to after dark if you are fair skinned. (SF Bayarea)

Best Chinese: The little Palace, across from SJSU, get the Mongolian Beef.
Best Fried chicken: Esters across from the main Post Office in West Oakland
Best BBQ: Dugs on San Pablo, at the Emeryville/Oakland border.
Best Burger: The 2 Jakes, across from the projects at Hunters Point (great place to goto before a 9er Game)

there’s a short list, mind not fully on this early in the morning…

Nice show, ROS gang. A welcome break from the emotionally exhausting intensity of last week’s ‘menu’.

My favorite cuisine?
Not Greek (although it’s my second or third)
Not French (although it’s so, so fine)
Not Italian (although it’s the closest to ‘soulful’ that Europe can offer)
Not Thai (although it’s second or third, depending on my mood)
The favorite?
Ethiopian.
Nothing’s better.
Try it!

Incidently, my son can’t stop talking about the fried smelts tucked into fresh bread that he had on the Bosphoros a number of years ago. I can taste them myself. He describes breathing in the humid air, watching the the boat traffic.

There is (or was not that long ago) a great felafel cart on 54th street around the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.

I feel Chowhoundery is indeed the beautiful antithesis to this horrible reality.
-Matthew Eldridge
Brighton, MA

Also, will cyrovac cooking come to Boston? (or has it not come to restaurants I tend to be able to afford…)

And for kicks, I checked out ChowHounds Boston Message Board. It appears like the board software is a bit unscaleable itself! But the splash screen says that they’ll be upgrading thanks to CNET.

Funny, there’s a guy there who has the same name as one show’s producers who’s looking for “After-work grub in Allston” Brendan, give a holler, let’s grab a bight at the Sunset Bar & Grill.

A nice review on New Shanghai today. I had eaten there last year, and was trying to recall the name. Apparently on Boston.com and CitySearch, there were a lot of similar comments trashing the service. A gorup of 11 people went out for a business lunch, and three came back and wrote independent reviews. Suspicious…

( sorry for the intrusion on the main topic here which is delightful)

1. Focusing on the worst place one has eaten a given food. I believe that we’re all proprietary about our foods and the highs and lows stick out. A very funny example:

The Unbearable Thinness of Crust

That piece is a great hatchet job, an exploration of the worst places to eat pizza. It combines travel writing, atmospherics with acute social commentary.

2. A new development, almost an interesting sub-genre, is what I call “Extreme Food”, people who go out of their way to find the most “exotic” food and recount their experience. Like much of “Extreme Sports”, it is all about bravado and titillation. An example:

Rude Food. Live Octopus Tentacles.

Most parts of our societies are removed from food cultivation hence we can now elevate matters of food to entertainment. I think that is a fair commentary on modern concerns. Once food availability is no longer a concern we can find ways to deconstruct it.

The proof is the existence of competitive food eating competions (say the hot dog or turkey eating competitions on public holidays for example) which all come with proud corporate sponsors.

Blog posts with lots of comments do not make the best shows.

One thing I notice is that blog posts about well-established conflicts (abortion, red vs. blue, Israel v. Palestine, and lesser, transient ones like The Mommy Wars, Walmart Bad/Good) attract a lot of comments.

However, they attract a lot of comments by people who have already decided what they think and are unlikely to change their minds.

The airwaves are filled with these nonconversations. All the thinking has already been done before the first moment of the program. You won’t witness any actual thinking, just people declaiming thoughts they had a long time ago. It feels very stale. You also won’t catch people changing their mind.

If the chances of people changing their minds or having new thoughts during the course of the program is approaching zero, what is it that we are witnessing when we watch or listen to such a show? Is there anything actually happening? Perhaps there’s no There there.

I like programs where people haven’t already decided what they think about the topic.

I like programs where I get to listen to someone who has done much much deeper thinking on a topic than I have and can take me there with them.

I like programs on subjects that can never be “closed” or “won” — like food, music.

I like programs on things that seem small but upon inspection reveal a vast fascinating inner world (Coffee. Crosswords. There’s whole worlds in there, it’s like Horton Hears a Who times a billion web pages).

Maybe that’s too harsh. I have no direct experience of it, so you tell me.

After reading peggysue’s cheese pesto bun comment, I need a smoke (and i don’t even smoke). I like the last meal metaphor, mine: Dal, Nan, Channa Masala, Catfish, Hush-puppies, Mixed green salad, Chocolate hazelnut torte, Red wine, Espresso, and of course, a mr creosote waffer thin after dinner mint. Now I don’t need that smoke!