I agree that Italian is the best overall but I'd bet that a Greek could give the best Italian chef a good contest if necessary. I once asked a Greek poker playing buddy what's up w/ that anyway and he answered 'they start teaching us sandwiches in the third grade.' lol?

Thai does kick ass. Better than the too elaborate French. What type of cheese do you have for dessert after a rat and snail main course? How many days did you have to spend reducing all the ingredients to make the frog and onion soup? No wonder their wine is so good, it has to cover for the bad food.

You'd want to be selective in the carpet bombing. There are entire sections that already look like an episode of When Humans Disappear. Could save millions in cgi for the next episode if they do another one.

What I think you'd like best about it is the entire lack of cuisine in the areas around the world-class museums.

Mocking is fun. We need more of it.

I have mixed feelings about Glenn Campbell dying.

This killed me 5 years ago:

This is like playing the joker, it's not even fair. Thai cuisine is man's greatest culinary achievement, and it's not even a contest. They're on another level. They make Greek cuisine look like something the savages clubbed and then burnt over the fire.

Any cuisine can be pretty great in the hands of a talented chef though. For example, I've gone through my life hating Indian as a clown food, something fit for a country full of people who think it's normal and desirable to pull their pants down and **** **** in the street. But then I had some Indian at the Ritz Carlton in Kuala Lumpur. It was amazing - almost as good as Thai. Never had that experience before or since, anywhere.

Similarly for French - it's awful until in the hands of a great chef. Not much you can do to take Italian and Greek to that ethereal place though, to culinary Valhalla - the ingredients don't allow it.

And then its welcome home to mom's cooking and its never never never anywhere near that paradise. NEVER. If you only knew...

Greek food mocking haha!!!

You do not even know guys 1% of it! Unbelievable what awaits you in my lifetime stream of experiences of that cuisine. Howard of course knows what i am talking about but even that is still not even 30% of the real deal one can witness in over 300 different recipes of excellent things.

I have had Thai and will continue to try more now that you are all so happy but i was never shocked before by something amazingly unforgettable. But to be fair one has to try the real thing in its country and i cant have an opinion until i do unless someone from there can suggest a place in bay area that they endorse for a faithful representation.

Thai is about a perfect balance between all the flavors. Deviate slightly from that balance, and it all falls apart. When they get it right - which they rarely do in the West and often do in SE Asia - it's like a culinary orgasm. Your senses are completely overwhelmed and you spend the duration of the meal in an intensely blissful, thankful state.

Unfortunately thai food in the west is rubbish these days. I can't even recommend anywhere in London anymore but we used to have some amazing places. There's a decent place in New York I hear. Probably in Oz as well.

There used to be some great Thai supermarkets but I can't even buy freshly made curry paste anymore.

The next book I'm not writing explains the whole of economics by considering the fundamental problem of restaurants.

Greeks are the champions of takeaway


Note the threat of violence, just like our illustrious masque earlier in this thread. A true stereotype.

That's a shame, and pretty amazing. I thought London would have at least one. Never found a good Thai in oz. There's one in Nice, BanThai, in the old town. You have to be adamant about making it "thai style" though, and extra hot. But it's still nothing like what you get in Malaysia.

If you love Thai, it's worth learning how. I've never gotten Tom Yum down - that's the hardest dish to master - but I make my own Som Tam often these days which is pretty easy...1 raw green papaya, grated into long strips, 6x raw garlic cloves, juice of four limes, about 50g of palm sugar, 6-10 birdseye chillis, some blanched snake beans. You have to taste and adjust to get the flavor balance right, but it's a lot easier than Tom Yum. And you can get the ingredients in any Asian store.

Forget cherry tomatoes, about 20. But they have to be perfectly fresh and ripe and full of flavor, usually not what you find in the supermarket.

That Greek poker buddy I mentioned invited a group of us to his son's Christening which I snap accepted bec it was a chance to see the inside of a Greek Orthodox church, something that was unlikely to ever happen again. Then we went for a meal in a Greek place in, iirc, Astoria, NYC, which is a Greek neighborhood. I rank it as one of my top five meals of my life. I am capable of eating a lot if it's good and I could barely make it back to my car. nomnomnomnomnom!

And, he also hired a Greek band! What a treat!

Might as well mention that I asked him what was an appropriate gift and he said 'cash is always good.' I can be really dense sometimes.

Favorite Greek dish, Howard, masque?

Don't forget to give them a fair and ethical tip!

Anything w/ lamb.



As long as we're talking about this one of my major disappointments after moving to Metro-Phoenix was the lack of a decent Italian restaurant, nm Greek. I tried place after place all no good. So I asked for recommendations at the poker table a few times, visited the place, no good. Then I started asking the people making recommendations where they were from, they'd answer something like 'Wisconsin' and I'd say 'Oh, ok' and not go. Somebody had the nerve to recommend the Macaroni Grill. There's a NYC Italian saying: 'I should give you a slap' which I used on him. Ofc, I have a joke that I use: Every chef that gets a D in Italian cooking school gets sent to Phoenix where nobody knows any better.

As for Greek, a really good one opened in a space that'd already had three restaurants. Apparently the rent was too high for them also but it was there for a while at least. Their version of lasagna was unreal, just wow!

Its impossible to describe as one thing. Its never just that. They all add something missing. A real meal with family will be many dishes and deserts, drinks fruits, etc.

It is true that i miss even something as simple as souvlaki in skewers (just the meat in skewers) with just a piece of grilled bread that you used to get in driving break at a rest area. (let alone the whole deal with pita and all ingredients is ok forget it lets stay there forever)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souvlaki

I can imagine a simple meal with just some fried fish and boiled mashed yellow or green lentils with olive, oil and lemon, a simple salad and bread and some feta cheese and its all excellent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lentil


Its not about something that takes hours to cook. It can be something simple like that (still will take an hour and all the time working on different things though so its tiring lol if very busy).

A more elaborate great memory could be the following (i call it that because i rarely go to greek restaurants in US, plenty though even nearby here, because i can cook them myself and they are never really very accurate to mom's recipes);

Say the standard moussaka when done with many ingredients https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moussaka

or
baked stuffed tomatoes or peppers or eggplants or zucchini or all of them together

http://www.tastefull.gr/recipe/ntomates-gemistes
in English
https://www.thespruce.com/stuffed-to...h-rice-1706162

even some appetizer like;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanakopita

or even

https://www.thespruce.com/keftethes-...tballs-1705990


So much more to list over time if interested.

Even a stupid easy desert like

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaktoboureko

You can even have something entirely disgusting to imagine and yet when cooked properly and with excellent clean procedure its very nice eventually like;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokoretsi


Here are some more including some of above but i have in mind so much more from experience at home. I know people always use mom as example etc and it has always an emotional memory component that messes up objective experience but here is a special case indeed that i can be highly objective about which has destroyed it for any possible future wife past or future girlfriend etc. It just is terribly impossible to find such dedication and love in the food making as i have experienced and lost almost for good all these years - because i cant come close to find the time or dedication to cook the most demanding time consuming recipes although i have done it 1-2 times each.

https://www.thespruce.com/classic-gr...orites-1705422

Lets just say this to make my point. If i could invite trolly to spend a week eating these dishes with me at my old home in Greece he would change his endless trolling attitude towards me. It would be that moving.

Some west coast cities in America have very decent Thai restaurants and places to purchase needed ingredients. Seattle and San Francisco and probably in some isolated oasis in the LA Basin wasteland are good candidates. Also, Vancouver B.C. has many excellent restaurants: Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, and perhaps even a few great sushi houses.

I can get all the ingredients without any trouble. I cook loads of Thai food including a very decent Tom Yum that's far better than anything I can get these days (within 10 miles of Central London). It's not a match for proper high restaurant quality though.

David Thompson is my go to guide. Here's a Tom Yum recipe (i'm well at the 20 chilli's end of the scale). http://www.thegourmetforager.com/201...tom-yum-goong/

I do decent Red & Green curries as well. Have to use the mass produced paste because that's all I can get these days (it's what all the rubbishy restaurants use as well). Too hard for me to make fresh paste - that's a job for an expert.

@Masque, if you found it forgettable then you've never had anything like proper thai food. Love it or hate it, you will damn well notice it.

Now masque has made me hungry for Greek, dammit. I just looked up what's available nearby and all there is what I'd call Greek fast-food.

https://www.yelp.com/search?cflt=gre...ottsdale%2C+AZ

lol at Pita Jungle being first. It's a great chain and when they go public you should buy it but it's not Greek. Eat at their various locations regularly, though.

My Dad's going to vancouver in a few weeks. I'll try to get him to try the Thai restaurants. If he likes them I'll know they aren't authentic - he hates Thai food.

You should come to Dearborn and experience some authentic Lebanese food. Great stuff.

Just read this in an Australian magazine and can't stop laughing:

Report finds thermonuclear war may ease pressure on housing affordability.

A detailed report into the relationship between all-out nuclear war and the housing affordability crisis has been published by the Office of the Treasurer this morning, which outlined that the average price of a house may decrease if war breaks out.

Scott Morrison spoke to journalists today at the Betoota Press Club where he assured the area’s young people that he’s doing everything in his power to help them into their first house.

“Nuclear war would be good for housing affordability,” said Morrison.

“Chances are if all-out war engulfs the planet, a lot of Millennials and foreign investors will die. The housing market isn’ dissimilar to any other market. It’s supply and demand,”

“When the war is over and three-quarters of Australians Millennials have either been vapourised or are slowly dying from radiation poisoning, it’ll be much easier to buy your first home.”

Mr Morrison’s sentiments were echoed by the Prime Minister, who told reporters in Canberra that should the situation between North Korea and the United States escalate to a boots-on-the-ground type scenario, Australia has a responsibility to follow the US into the conflict.

While he played down the probability of total war, Malcolm Turnbull said a contingency plan has been put in place.

“Publically-educated Millennials without tertiary qualifications or family connections will be among the first to have the opportunity to serve their country,” said Turnbull.

“That should ease some pressure on the housing market and help the upper-middle-class into home ownership. However, the likelihood of that happening is very low, so I wouldn’t fret too much,”

“But you never know.”

More to come.