Food everybody raves about

We're going to Italy this summer. :grin:

One day we are taking a cooking class. So at least if the food is disappointing that day it will be my fault.
I have made a lot of Italian food in Italy with good results. And at home italians most likely are good at cooking, as is the fine dining places.
But I speak of all the 1000s and 1000s of medium restaurants, where we just hop in for a meal. Often mediocre, compared to the rave, I mean.
 
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Oh, i have a few drinks:

Gin - potpourri flavoured alcohol that overpowers everything you mix it with


Cheap gin tastes and smells like pot pourri.

Good gin and good tonic is one of the finest spirits out there.
 
I have made a lot of Italian food in Italy with good results. And at home italians most likely are good at cooking, as is the fine dining places.
But I speak of all the 1000s and 1000s of medium restaurants, where we just hop in for a meal. Often mediocre, compared to the rave, I mean.
I just returned from Italy & was not intrigued with the food at all. The only two truly delicious meals that I had were authentic Mediterranean meals with fresh sea bass & roasted vegetables. Expensive, but money well spent.
 
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As for the OP I'd probably agree with Italian.

I like doing my own pizzas, I can make a decent pasta too but I can't think of a time I've been to an Italian (including in Italy) where I've been blown away given how much of a sacred cow they treat the cuisine as.

I can't think of any other cuisine that has so many gatekeepers especially when there's plenty of better world cuisines out there.

Speaking of gate keeping: adding a bit of miso paste to a Ragu makes it infinitely better regardless of how legit or not it is, fact.
 
We're going to Italy this summer. :grin:

One day we are taking a cooking class. So at least if the food is disappointing that day it will be my fault.
This seems to be the norm on tours in Italy. We made our own pasta, they said we did a great job, promptly threw it in the trash, & served their own pasta, which was inedible.
 
We went to Sicily in 2014 and Italy in 2018. Personally had some great food there. Maybe we were lucky.

It was in the middle of a 3 week bender across Central Europe with a pal celebrating when we'd just fully qualified to teach but legit one of the best things I've ate in Italy was a pizza with fries on it during an impromptu sojourn to Venice. :grin:

I'm thinking proper seafood would be a case where they could kick ass but plates of pasta in a tomato or cream based sauce, it's difficult to actually elevate that to the levels that Italians rave about imo.
 
Agreed.
There's a reason folks order dry martinis with good gin. It's basically just gin shaken with ice, then served up with an olive appetizer.

It's amazing what a different garnish can do to a nice gin never mind the tonic.

Roku with a slither of ginger is amazing. There's a Glaswegian gin Mrs JBJ pours with some cracked black pepper and sliced red chilli that is beautiful.

It's a bit like whisky, most folk try really cheap gut rot stuff and swear off it but a single malt is night and day away from it. Good for me, I've got a decent collection of nice whiskys and only 1 or 2 pals who ever wants to partake. :grin:
 
Food in Italy was awesome except for the first place we went, probably because we were hungry and very jetlagged and just picked a place a block from the hotel without any investigation.
Thai Food is right up there with the best food in the world, so many favours and textures.

Store bought bacon isn't great but my brother smokes his own and it is awesome. Sadly he's 3000 miles away.
InandOut burger is the worse FF burger I've ever had. I'd never go back

Why do Americans have American cheese...it's not even real cheese is it? But I don't think it's raved about so :shrug:

Boba Tea is the one for me. It's everywhere around here and the wife loves it. I had it once and it just made me full
 
It's amazing what a different garnish can do to a nice gin never mind the tonic.

Roku with a slither of ginger is amazing. There's a Glaswegian gin Mrs JBJ pours with some cracked black pepper and sliced red chilli that is beautiful.

It's a bit like whisky, most folk try really cheap gut rot stuff and swear off it but a single malt is night and day away from it. Good for me, I've got a decent collection of nice whiskys and only 1 or 2 pals who ever wants to partake. :grin:
Those both sound pretty good, especially the ginger. I usually grow a variety of peppers every year, soI may give some of them a try this summer as well. :thu:
 
Great sushi is all about the simplicity and elegance of presenting excellent ingredients at peak freshness in the best possible light with minimal bells and whistles. And the quality and preparation of the rice is super important.

The cucumber rolls, avocado rolls...they are indeed simple and fantastic though I have no idea if they would be a 'traditional' sushi. The right amount of stickiness to the rice is crucial.

I have gone to some great sushi restaurants and have normally opened up my typical restrictive diet to try some things. I really don't want any raw fish but I had smoked salmon at a sushi place about 20 years ago that was incredible. It was so good that they said "sir, if you would like to have more of that, you will have to slap a baby", so I walked over to the nearest baby and gave it a good whack.

It really was quite good.
 
Mexican food here in The US. I'm not a fan.
It's usually low grade ingredients,add a bunch of cheese,and beans.
 
Mexican food here in The US. I'm not a fan.
It's usually low grade ingredients,add a bunch of cheese,and beans.

Cheese and salt covers most shortcomings up to the gen pop. Sour cream too for some of the places.
 
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Oh, i have a few drinks:

Gin - potpourri flavoured alcohol that overpowers everything you mix it with

milk - milk is not even meant dor human consumption. Don’t even get me started in adding it to team or coffee
I'm with you on this. Fun facts:
1. Humans are the only creature on the planet that drink milk after being weened off of their mother.
2. Humans are the only creatures on the planet that drink another animals milk

And no, cats don't count. You're not supposed to gives cats milk.
 
I'm with you on this. Fun facts:
1. Humans are the only creature on the planet that drink milk after being weened off of their mother.
2. Humans are the only creatures on the planet that drink another animals milk

And no, cats don't count. You're not supposed to gives cats milk.
You could say the same thing about beer, wine, or any number of drinks. Animals typically just drink water. I like water, but I like to drink other stuff too.
 
You could say the same thing about beer, wine, or any number of drinks. Animals typically just drink water. I like water, but I like to drink other stuff too.

Humans are the only animals who routinely lose their car keys. Humans are the only animals that charge other members of their species made up symbolic numbers in order to have access to the necessities of life. No other animals but humans have written a series of terrible novels about sparkly vampires.

Look at this fuzzy idiot.

CFDA7576-701E-4339-9D8F-EEBBEADB3150.jpeg


He doesn’t know shit about Gibson QC issues or which transistors make a guitar pedal sound good or which Aerosmith album is the best.
 
I had Five Guys at the original Columbia Pike location and wasn't impressed, 20 years later I had it in Johnstown PA again after they went huge and was underwhelmed once more.

I had Wendy's the next day at a good location and it was soooo much better.
 
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