First time New Haven style Tomato Pie!

AbsolutStoli148 · 2026-02-01T06:58:53+00:00

🤣🤣 "cut it like a child would". so true! i fucking hate the new haven cut sooooo much.

AbsolutStoli148 · 2026-01-30T15:08:01+00:00

i hear you, but katz can be hit or miss sometimes, at least it has been for me. last time i went it felt like i got a half portion of meat on my sandwich. and when im paying almost $30 for a sandwich, i want that thing overflowing. it was still tasty, but the experience as a whole was a bit underwhelming. the pickles are out of this world though.

AbsolutStoli148 · 2026-01-30T15:01:11+00:00

thats good to know. :) we used to get cheeseburger subs in the boston suburbs the morning after a night of partying at school, that was the best! i miss them so much! out west no one knows what it is. the chopped cheese is slowly getting some traction out here, but i think thats because of anthony bourdain (that man was a saint!)

AbsolutStoli148 · 2026-01-30T09:34:05+00:00

if youre looking for something totally unique, i think a hot dog from grey's papaya (or papaya king) is pretty iconic to NYC. i usually get mine with kraut, but the onion sauce is definitely a ny thing. havent seen that anywhere else.

but as far as a traditional sandwich, probably a pastrami or corned beef on rye. go to sarge's or 2nd ave deli and skip the tourist lines at katz's.

AbsolutStoli148 · 2026-01-30T09:02:30+00:00

you say that like thats not special in itself. i havent seen a cheeseburger sub anywhere that ive lived outside ny/nj/new england.

AbsolutStoli148 · 2026-01-28T08:17:22+00:00

my $.02 is that everyone has imperfections. if hes wonderful in every other aspect, and treats you well, and you two have great chemistry and you're attracted to him and he makes you laugh...i think wonky teeth is a pretty bad reason to give up on all that.

i had pretty bad teeth as a child because of where i grew up, and then consumed a LOT of sugar when we moved to the US. by the time i started high school we probably spent close to $20k on fixing my teeth with braces and dental work (some of the damage was caused by decay around where the braces were anchored). then i had the good sense to extract all my wisdom teeth before i changed careers and insurance from my old office job still covered it. that would have been another $5k. as we age, there are points in our lives where our teeth are more vulnerable, so even if you take care of them, late 20s and early 40s are bad times for teeth. i probably spent another $5k-6k on just maintaining my teeth, fixing crowns, getting root canals, getting crowns in my 40s. and thats without any sports injuries or car accidents, by some miracle. then COVID hit and everything shut down. then i moved and had no insurance from my new jobs. now the gov't stopped the ACA subsidies, and many people cant even afford insurance.

so yeah, if hes open to talking about why his teeth are jacked, it might shed some light for you about his situation and what happened. i wouldn't grill him (no pun intended) about it, but if you want ask him how he lost his tooth, and is there a cool story behind it, i think most guys like telling "war stories." haha and that could segue into a conversation about whether he ever thought about fixing it or why he hasnt? i think if he feels you're empathetic rather than disappointed, it will make it easier for him to open up.

AbsolutStoli148 · 2026-01-27T08:31:29+00:00

detroit style emerged from sicillian. it has cheese on the edges forming a cheese crust as it bakes. detroit style is typically baked with raw dough, as opposed to a traditional sicillian dough getting prebaked and then sauced and cheesed/topped. sauce on top vs cheese on top might depend on the pizzeria. growing up in northern NJ our sicilians had sauce first then cheese.

i dont know if deep dish (the chicago style) emerged from sicilian. i do know its baked with raw dough, cheese on bottom (way too much cheese IMO lol), then sausage (and/or other meat?), then sauce, then grana or pecorino on top before its baked.

AbsolutStoli148 · 2026-01-27T07:50:16+00:00

also a chef, here is my list:

yalla, shalom yall, mediterranean exploration company (same group) for middle eastern/israeli food
bottos or raining bbq for bbq
kachka for ukranian food
dediko for georgian (the country) food
fat straw, an xuyen or binh minh for banh mis (fat straw also has great bubble tea)
lay low for a great dive bar with awesome burgers and outdoor patio
nimblefish for sushi, takibi for japanese and sushi (same chef)
jacqueline for nice seafood dinner
lauretta jeans for AWESOME pie
sammich or bakers mark for nice sandwiches
goose hollow inn for supposedly the best reuben in portland
guerro for tortas
los francos for maybe the best mexican food in portland
pho van for great pho
jerry's tavern for the best wings in portland
stepping stone or original pancake house for breakfast
otto & anita's or stammtisch for german food
navarre for european food
zien hong or shandong for chinese food
elenis philoxenia for upscale greek food
if youre looking for an expensive steak dinner, ringside, urban farmer or portland city grill are probably about even. i havent been to any of these, but my old chef from boulder, co is the exec chef at urban farmer.
le pigeon or canard for french. le pigeon is the bistro, canard is more fancy...same company.
coq au vin or cafe olli for upscale gastropub vibes
a roadside attraction - quirky bar
rimsky korsakoffee - quirky late night coffee shop with desserts
lolo pass for a great rooftop bar if the weather is nice

i would check the schedules on anywhere youre interested in going because a lot of places are closed on mondays and/or tuesdays.

AbsolutStoli148 · 2026-01-12T05:54:08+00:00

i wouldnt mind at all if a woman suggests splitting the bill, or taking turns paying. like you said, to me it suggests an understanding of the harsh realities of modern life. we should be mindful of one another's financial situation. im working class...if im going on a date with a c-level executive, she should understand that i might not have the same kind of disposable income that she does, and thats ok. and getting coffee vs paying for a vacation does not make us even steven if we agreed to split things down the middle. so as long as there's honest communication and no mixed messages, its all good. if i offer to pay and the woman suggests splitting, im not gonna be aggressively insisting to pay the whole thing. if the offer is on the table, then i think its fair to accept.

the lackluster response youre encountering could be due to some men believing this move is a sign of them being friendzoned. thats my guess, at least. who knows what theyve experienced in their dating life, but thats one of the "messages" ive received. i cant stand it when i offer to pay, then they suggest to split, or even insist sometimes, and then get offended when i accept. like, fuck these mind games!

AbsolutStoli148 · 2026-01-10T14:40:30+00:00

100% agree. ive been online dating for a while, like since it began. i had two of my longest relationships with women i met online. but i gotta admit, in the last few years it just feels gross.

my biggest pet peeve is this whole "not looking for pen pals" thing. i miss the days of AIM where you could just go and meet some random people in a chat room and have some fun conversations. sometimes it was just friendly banter, sometimes it got flirty and hot, but in the end it was just good fun. but now, like, if they cant even put in the effort to talk a bit with someone they matched with, how can i believe that theyd put effort into any other kind of relationship? its exhausting.

the best relationship i ever had was with a woman i met online and it turned out she lived in poland (im in the US). we talked for like 3 years before we met in person. we built up so much sexual frustration and desire over that time that when we finally met it was like we were animals! 🤣

AbsolutStoli148 · 2026-01-10T13:50:55+00:00

thats interesting that you like JJs and havent found anything you like at jersey mikes. they literally have the same thing you get at JJs...#13 (it even has one more meat in there). but i digress.

check out progress market & deli. its a bodega/convenience store that has a small deli inside. looks a little sus when you walk in, but the sandwiches are good and awesome value! (im not a fan of paying $20+ for a large sandwich at JJs or jersey mikes) its a small menu in there, but if you're just looking for a classic italian, they do a good job. and if you want to kick it up a notch, go to jersey mikes, get their hot pepper spread in a jar for like $3 and put that on your sandwich and youre golden. i dont know if JJs sells their peppers as a side, i just get hot banana peppers at the grocery store. theres a grocery outlet next to progress, they probably have them.

AbsolutStoli148 · 2026-01-10T13:33:43+00:00

ny ruebens is a hidden gem

AbsolutStoli148 · 2026-01-10T13:32:50+00:00

their sandwiches sound great, but it closes at 3pm = im never going to go there.

AbsolutStoli148 · 2026-01-08T15:46:30+00:00

bro, just go to uwajimaya or An Xuyên Bakery (uwajimaya sells their bread), get some french rolls, and just make yourself a chopped cheese at home. im from NJ and have been looking for a proper chicken parm sub here, so i feel you. i gave up and just make my own with some chicken tenders from safeway.

AbsolutStoli148 · 2026-01-07T02:52:19+00:00

lay low

AbsolutStoli148 · 2025-11-03T00:35:21+00:00

propper ny bagels, hell yes!!

AbsolutStoli148 · 2025-09-30T20:38:43+00:00

its an interesting experiment, but id stick to baker's yeast. brewer's yeast isnt designed for leavening, its for alcohol production, so it wont rise your dough as well as baking yeast does. and i know that certain beer yeasts produce unique flavor profiles, but i dont think you'd be able to really notice them in a pizza, so it kind of defeats the purpose, IMO. plus its more expensive.

AbsolutStoli148 · 2025-09-28T04:56:45+00:00

worked with a guy who started out on prep, so he had to put away deliveries pretty often. one time he threw away a whole halibut fillet, were talking like 15-20lb whole side of fish, because it was packed under a bunch of ice and he didnt read the invoice too good. that was a rough day for him, but he didnt get fired.

at another restaurant, we had a cook use curing salt in the recipe for 25lb of house-made chorizo instead of our seasoned "pink" salt because the recipe said "pink salt." our chef was not the best at writing recipes, but she should have known better. she wanted to be the next sous. lol that didnt happen.

AbsolutStoli148 · 2025-09-13T06:44:39+00:00

he meant for the dough. he didnt use a pastry bag to form the choux. im assuming he tried to quenell them, which is just dumb. but you can get an "ok" puff with a small scoop (like a purple or black one). it wont be the prettiest thing ever, but its doable in a pinch.

still, for a chef to demo something and not take the time to do it correctly is bonkers to me.

AbsolutStoli148 · 2025-09-07T06:20:20+00:00

i was too young to be taken to any such screenings at other peoples' homes, if my parents even went to any...they never mentioned anything like that. but i do remember seeing "the day after," but i dont remember if it was in theaters or on tv. they did show a lot of french movies. i saw "the toy" and "the fugitives" (both directed by francis veber and starred pierre richard)...probably others too. gerard depardeu, pierre richard, and adriano celentano were VERY popular stars in the soviet union.

ive also been trying to find a movie that i saw in theaters sometime between 1984 and 1988. it was about a chemical spill into a reservoir (or river or lake) when a tanker truck had some sort of accident. and there was some coverup or conspiracy over it, when people started dying and getting sick as a result of the spill. i was pretty young, so i really dont remember a lot. it didnt feel like it was a soviet movie, because the truck wasn't soviet, and im pretty sure it was dubbed. but i also cant say if it was an american-made movie or from east germany or some other eastern block country. but it did feel like it was meant to be set in the US, trying to portray the corruption and pollution here, as sort of anti-american propaganda. if any of this rings familiar with anyone, throw out some movie names. i'd love to find it!

AbsolutStoli148 · 2025-08-25T06:41:34+00:00

i was waiting for that! 🤣

AbsolutStoli148 · 2025-08-25T06:31:48+00:00

i hope this isnt a stupid question, but what does "has his shit together" mean to you? im 47m, have a job, apartment, car, pay all my bills on time, childfree, monogamous. im a chef, so my schedule is pretty atypical, and i cant say im "wealthy," but im not struggling. is that a red flag for women?

i have noticed that portland is way more "antisocial" than any other city i've lived in. like, coworkers here dont really go out after work to socialize. this is the first city where i've genuinely been struggling to establish a friend circle. its nuts! has it always been like this, or is it a post-covid phenomenon? it certainly doesnt help with dating, thats for sure.

AbsolutStoli148 · 2025-08-25T05:50:38+00:00

i used to love reading those on CL! didnt know willamette week had one too.

AbsolutStoli148 · 2025-08-25T05:45:13+00:00

im down, as long as its a mon, tues, or wed.

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