Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. So all the sides are à la carte? And you cover the steak in butter? What am I missing?
That Ms. Fertel should have taken the plunge and called it Ruth’s Steak House.
This won’t be popular…
Monty Python’s Flying Circus
The TV series, I mean. There’s a specific reason (in addition to my objective-as-possible view that it really isn’t that good). It was first broadcast in 1969 and, probably because of the reactions of the older siblings of friends, it created a buzz. I was around 10 years old, families had one TV (max) in Britain in those days, and I was told it was rubbish and we weren’t going to watch it, and that was that. Inevitably I felt cruelly deprived - it was just so unfair!
Maybe a decade later the BBC re-ran both series. Great! I finally get to see it and…I waited ten years for that? I guess whatever freshness it once had was long since dissipated; but I can think of only two sketches from the entire run (or as much of it as I have seen) that I would willingly watch again.
For me, Rockpile - Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Billy Bremner… I remember being bored silly for three quarters of an hour, then perking up when they played one decent song - and walked off stage. Over.
For food, I’ll offer … McDonalds. Forty odd years ago this American fast food thing seemed rather exotic to me. Certainly it was something we never saw in the rural far north west where I grew up. And it was… faintly offensive. The next McD burger* I had was a decade later in NYC - now, I had always presumed that my first experience was miserable because it was a feeble British effort to do the proper American thing. Ahh, no, it turns out - so McD has managed to sorely disappoint me twice. But they won’t again.
j
* - In between times I had been prevailed upon to try a Fillet o’ Fish. That only happened once.
The incredible, universal popularity of McDonald’s utterly baffles me. It’s mediocre at best.
Yeah, but it’s reliably mediocre.
Usually there are smaller ones on the menu. Dallas is basically the epicenter of high-end steakhouses (something to do with Texas, beef, a lot of money, and culinary ignorance, I suspect), and all the places around here (Bob’s, Nick & Sam’s, Chamberlain’s, Dakota’s, Al Biernat’s, et al.) have 8-12 oz steaks on the menu. They’ve also got colossal and absurd 28 oz porterhouses and stuff like that.
But yeah, the 80/20 rule definitely applies here. If you go get decent meat, season it well, and cook it skillfully, you’ll be at least 80% of the way to a high end steak. There are still things that they do that most home cooks can’t (super-hot broilers, for example), or that we’re usually unwilling to do (USDA Prime meat, certified Wagyu, dry aged, etc…).
But realistically, the food’s only about 2/3 of the experience. The other third is the atmosphere, the service, and the rest.
Well, it’s like anything else. When it’s fresh and new, it’s exciting and groundbreaking. But when you see the same thing twenty years later, it’s old and played out. I felt much the same way about Monty Python when I first saw them in high school (late 1980s). But then later on, I realized that in their time, they were aggressively absurd, zany, and a bit dangerous, and that by the time I saw them, what they did was mainstream.
It’s like Elvis. When I was a kid, he was some kind of popular, but old act that everyone liked. Certainly not anything to get worked up about, or anything particularly cool. But people lost their shit about him a couple of decades earlier- he was the devil’s music, he was too sexual, he played n-word music, and all that. Same thing with bands like KISS, performers like Ozzy, and all the others. Comedy is (or should be, IMO) the same way- shocking and polarizing at first, until their point’s been internalized.
My personal entry is more suited to The Game Room than to Cafe Society: the Star Wars: X-Wing miniatures combat game.
It came out in 2012, and it featured really well-made miniatures of various fighter ships from the Star Wars movies and TV shows. For me, as a longtime Star Wars fan, who was a fan of the Rogue Squadron novel series, and the 1990s X-Wing computer game, this was absolutely right up my alley. I bought a bunch of the miniatures, and looked forward to getting to actually play the game.
But, I didn’t know anyone locally who was interested in playing it. I didn’t get the chance to actually try the game until around 2017, when I signed up to play it at a gaming convention. Actual play was so underwhelming. It’s a very complex, fiddly game, which uses dice with strange little symbols on them to resolve combat. There were four of us playing in the game, plus a “gamemaster” who was serving as referee and helping to explain the rules. The game turned out to be grindingly, boringly slow to play, and utterly lacking in any of the excitement of starship combat from the movies; as one of four players, a half-hour or more elapsed between each of my turns. The “scenario” we were playing wasn’t a complicated one, but even after four hours of play, we hadn’t even come close to completing it.
Yep, but IIRC you get bread. The beef is well aged and carefully selected and cooked. You will get Medium Rare or whatever you ask for. I suggest steak lovers try it ONCE, because altho nice, it is way overpriced.
No longer so cutting edge, some Brit humor doesnt translate “The larch”, and not everything has aged well. The Dead parrot sketch is still hilarious, and everyone needs to see “Spam” at least once.
Other that kids, and some adults, McDs offers a few thing which are GREAT when traveling. There will be no nasty surprises with the food. The restrooms will be clean. Etc. The food is blandish, but palatable for almost everyone. Myself, I only eat there when on the road.
Exactly.
I’ve probably eaten at Ruth’s Chris five or six times. The steaks were among the best that I’ve ever had, the sides were also very good, and the service was excellent. But, yeah, it’s extremely expensive.
Turkey Leg Jones.
During my first career as a Sheriff Deputy I worked nights during Milwaukee Summerfest. My partner and I would go through the grounds after the place was closed and make sure there were no prowlers, injuries of employees, etc..
There was a business named Turkey Leg Jones. They had a see through broiler that would cook the turkey legs at nights. You could see the rotisserie, the juices basting the meat. And the aroma. Gawd it smelled good.
All 10 days we kept saying when the grounds opened we were going to have freshly made turkey legs for breakfast. And every day we got calls in the morning that took up our time and we were too tired then to walk all the way across the grounds to get turkey legs
But then on the last Sunday we had nothing going in the morning and we’re able to buy turkey legs. The legs that were cooking in their own juices all night long.
And they were terrible! 
They weren’t juicy at all. They were dry and the meat was tough & chewy. They still smelled good but that was the only good thing. 
I haven’t decided to splurge on Dubai Chocolate, but . . .
Despite having a pretty strong suspicion that Saffron is well known for being mild as well as expensive, I bought some this week and made risotto-style orzo. (I believe the recipe came from a recent Cook’s Illustrated).
It was uninspired. In fairness, I think user error played a role– I almost entirely failed to salt the orzo. (I think I didn’t realize I had unsalted chicken broth). Also, I don’t know whether I’ve ever eaten risotto, but I know I’ve never made it, so I maybe didn’t have the clearest idea what the end goal was texture wise. But, I’m usually cooking for myself and my parents, and my Mom is not a big fan of rice.
Actually, if I wasn’t cooking for my mom, I’d consider giving the recipe another try. Especially since the leftovers were pretty tasty (I added lemon juice, seasoned salt, and parmesan cheese).
I’ve not had Dom, but I’ve had some very nice genuine French champagne and some dirt cheap, Trader Joe’s type sparkling wines and a bunch in the middle and I don’t think I noticed enough of a change in quality from the medium good stuff to the expensive good stuff to justify my paying a higher price
Speaking of which, the vinyl version of A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out by Panic! at the Disco. For didn’t receive a repressing for a long time after initial release, so vinyl versions were going for hundreds of dollars on auction sites. It’s not that I wouldn’t have been willing to pay more than $100 (but maybe not $300!) for one if I didn’t have to go through the hassle of an auction, but I didn’t want to go through the hassle of an auction.
I finally snagged one in a record store after it was repressed in the $40-50 range.
I had heard and loved the entire album, which is why I buy most of my vinyl, so I can play cherished albums the entire way through and have them sound slightly different, in addition to collecting the large size cover art. The problem is, side 1 ends with a long musical buildup, and on CD or digital, the next track immediately plays and releases the musical tension that had been building up for a minute or so. On vinyl, you have to flip the disc to get the next song, so the perfect track sequencing is ruined.
I’ve only spun it once or twice. I’m glad I didn’t pay $250 for it!
One thing I have noticed when most people reminisce fondly of Monty Python and 80s Saturday Night Live they usually only mention certain sketches and NOT entire episodes.
Try to binge watch old seasons of both show really highlights how much unfunny filler the shows had.
Not the worst band I’ve ever seen, but probably the loudest. Ended up listening to them from the lobby of the theater.
The worst band I’ve ever seen was Black Oak Arkansas. And they were opening for Beck, Bogert and Appice, who also sucked.
That’s pure genius. You’ve nailed it for all forms of showbiz and entertainment. It’s the frontier that’s exciting. Akron Ohio was once on the frontier. Not anymore.
I was a kid when Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In came out. Wike sez it ran from 1968-1973. I was the right age to just be aging into their fairly risque humor, and I had very much not uptight parents. We all thought it was insanely funny.
I saw a recording ~20 years later. The lame-itude had me switching off with a cringe in just a couple minutes. They totally were groundbreaking. 20 years later? Nope; comedy had long since passed that point.
I’ve heard this description, and I don’t quite get it. I find saffron to be overwhelmingly floral. Maybe me (and my family) are just more sensitive with it, but even a couple strands will ruin rice for my kids – they won’t eat it if there’s any saffron in it. I find it a lovely flavor, but one that needs to be judiciously applied. It’s just so damned flowery.
Saffron is certainly strong. What is is not is spicy-hot in the capsicum sense. It’s one of the traditional Indian spices that is the antithesis of hot. I suspect that’s what @Eureka was thinking or had heard.
Lotta confusion in English between “spicy” as a euphemism for “capsicum hot” and “spicy” as in “full of strong herbal, etc., flavors”
I’m the opposite. We drink a lot of champagne. It’s the one product where I find a direct correlation between price and quality. I can rarely find one under $30 that is even drinkable, and most over $75 are very good. I had Cristal for the first time last year, and it was exquisite. I’m not going to drink it often at over $400 per bottle, but my god it was good. Dom Perignon is, IMO, pretty good, but not exactly the ultimate. I wouldn’t put in the “sorely disappointed” category, but “overpriced” for how much I like it.
Whiskey was extremely disappointing when I tried it decades ago. To me, it tastes like the stench of dark dank taverns you have to walk though to get to the restaurant section as a kid, the tavern with old men getting hammered at 5pm who’ve probably been there since late morning.