My wife and I have always wanted to try some Iron Chef level cuisine and so went to one of Mario Batali’s New York restaurants on our Honey Moon. We could only afford two appetizers and some drinks and I forgot what we ordered but all I could taste for hours later was the stupid amounts of Truffle Oil that had the taste of ash. The entire experience felt like a tourist trap, in a tourist city, and I felt dumb for wasting my time and money trying to like it.
In contrast the South African Braai we had the next evening was out of this world and I still drool a bit thinking about the flavors a decade later.
Quoted for truth. My wife is from T.O. and for years I refused to try poutine there as I knew it would be a disappointment. When we visited Quebec, I finally agreed to try it, and it was quite good! I did eventually have some in Toronto and it only reinforced that my initial prejudice was correct.
None of these things do you eat in the same bite. Of course adding different flavors together in one mouthful will change the taste of something that on its own might be unpleasant.
Fancy 1%-er class five-star hotel. I went to one a couple of years ago for business, grand ballrooms, sweeping marble staircases, live chamber music, absurd volumes of luxury food and service. And of course dozens (probably hundreds) of sub-poverty level staff swarming underneath it all to make it happen. I just felt exploitative and guilty for trying to enjoy it, I like a certain level of gratuitous entertainment at times, but it way surpassed my threshold.
Expensive steak at an expensive steakhouse. I think I ordered rib eye. My own eyes bulged when it arrived and the plate went “thud” on the table in front of me - it was massive. I was getting the meat sweats just looking at it. I am sure a steak connoisseur may have appreciated it, but it was just meat. A lot of meat, covering nearly the entire plate. Sides were just that- in a separate dish on the side because there was little room on the plate. So much effing meat! And fat! So I sliced off some the fat and concentrated on the meat, which there as a lot of, if I haven’t mentioned that yet. My buddy was conversing with the waiter about the finer points of appreciation of his own steak - they may have been talking in a foreign language. Gawd that was a lot of meat. I was able to eat about 2/3 of it and then called uncle. It was cooked fine, the taste was just okay, and for the price I could have gotten three more modest rib eyes from Costco and have my son prepare them proper and they would taste much, much better. And there would be less of it, such that eating it would not be such an adventure. I wont be doing the whole steakhouse thing again, spank you very much!
I was kind of hoping that someone who has done actual skydiving would chime in. It seems to me that the indoor skydiving would need to have a significant updraft to lift you into the air, but that actual skydiving wouldn’t be the same since you were actually falling instead of being lifted.
Correct - Avg terminal velocity of a human in the “lying flat” freefall posture is about 120 mph. The indoor skydiving wind speeds range from 130 - 180 mph depending on how much weight they need to lift.
A very particular one. When I was in Tokyo I went past lots of vending machine selling bottles of Pokari Sweat. Who could resist that, but I never had the chance to stop and buy one. Years later a guy who I worked with went to Japan, and brought me back a bottle. It was basically Gatorade. Which would be fine, but I had liters of something like tasted just like that before a colonoscopy, and I was right off it.
Yeah, I remember when the Olympics were in Nagano Japan, and some human interest reporter did a bit in a Japanese supermarket. He opened a container of miso paste and ate at a bite. Of course, it was too strong and disgusting. Duh.
I have done both a tandem free fall sky dive and an IFly indoor session. For a one-and-done type of experience, I would say they are very different. I suspect if you are an experienced sky diver (free fall) or indoor skydiver, there may be more similarities.
Tandem free fall: it’s “windy” and loud, but not so much that you can’t breath. I remember screaming and even laughing, both of which required inhaling. The “instructor/guide” (the guy with the parachute) does most of the adjusting to keep you from spinning and what not. You just follow the instructions they give you and he does most of it.
Indoor skydiving: deafeningly loud - louder than free fall from the plane. That big fan is way loud, and so they teach you a number of signals to guide you. I didn’t have any problem breathing, and you’re kind of focused on maintaining your position to…keep from falling. The biggest difference is that you can see the “floor” (screen) and more importantly, what’s underneath it (either the fan itself or some chute where the air is channeled upward). The other thing, which the guy inside helps with, is to keep you from spinning or winging into a wall. It’s not that big of a room, and you watch other people (typically first timers) do everything from bouncing off the floor, or winging into a wall (you do have a substantial helmet for this reason).
And, of course, the other big difference is that with the tandem, the chute opens and that is an experience all its own. I didn’t really feel that much acceleration when we jumped from the plane, but the deceleration when the chute deploys is a full body slam on the breaks ! The actual landing on the ground was pretty easy - stayed on my feet.
With the indoor skydiving, when your time is up, the guy just leads you to the door.
Indoor skydiving was the first thing I thought of when I saw the thread title.
I was so excited to try it, so we went to iFly a few years ago. It was miserable, I never got the hang of it, and every muscle in my body hurt the next day. So yeah, no. Won’t be trying that again.
I remember around 10 years ago there was a brief fad for “chimney” ice cream cones. My wife wanted to buy one and they looked pretty good, but the one we got (probably similar to the “Dream Cone” below) was so sweet that I felt sick to my stomach trying to eat it.
I felt the same way about raw oysters. They’re not gross but they’re not that good either. They simply exist.
When I started seeing Chick-fil-A standalone restaurants in the late 1990s, their sandwiches were heads and shoulders above most other fast food restaurants. Other restaurants have stepped up their chicken sandwich game, and while Chick-fil-A still makes a good sandwich, at the end of the day it’s still just a fast food chicken sandwich.
Were you disappointed with the sandwich or did it just not live up to the hype? When I had an In and Out burger for the first time I wasn’t disappointed, but I didn’t get the hype. It was a better than average fast food burger…but it was just a fast food burger.
I had the same experience with Five Guys burgers as you did with In & Out. They must be called that because it would take five guys to eat all those fries.
I tried In & Out when I visited my sister in California some years back. Decent food, but not something I’d wait hours in line for and possibly have my car run out of gas like people experienced when Popeye’s opened here.
I remember when someone bought civet coffee on “Pawn Stars”, and of course the Old Man (RIP) wasn’t bothered at all by it.
My niece has gone to Indonesia twice. I still haven’t found out if she got to try fresh durian. Anyway, some of the international markets in my area have them in the freezer case. They look like giant closed pine cones in mesh bags, and even in the deep freeze, they smell to me like old sweaty gym socks.
We went a couple times at an airport. Our rating “meh”. I mean not terrible, but not even in the same class as Popeyes.
I liked caviar, but it is an acquired taste, like Marmite- remember, marmite is spread as thin as the butter on the toast. Caviar is also good on very thin lightly butter toast. Or Blinis.
Right. But I thought it wasnt quite divine, but “kinda tasty”.
I love steak, but those steaks arent worth the money.
Good survival food….
Best fast Food burger, but no, it is just fast food, and not worth waiting more than 10 minutes for.
I have had really nice Turkish Delight (from actual Turkey I think) and I was surprised how much better it was than store bought, but I understand how when we, of contemporary times, have been spoiled with hundreds of other great sweet treats from multiple cultures that it can taste underwhelming. But in war-time Britain, Edmund had very few options for tantalising his tastebuds, and to him Turkish Delight was the epitome. He’d probably only had ice cream and currant buns most of the time.
Of course, it was too strong and disgusting. Duh.