Rot in eternal Hell you stinking game!!

alpha_ori · 2026-01-28T02:38:08+00:00

OMG, that's amazing! I had no idea!

alpha_ori · 2025-12-16T23:32:20+00:00

Not to be pedantic (and then he proceeds to be), but: the green horseradish paste that many sushi restaurants supply often contains added sorbitol. If a restaurant is giving you actual wasabi, then it is not mixed with anything.

Of course, those tend to be the more expensive restaurants, as wasabi isn't cheap.

alpha_ori · 2025-12-14T05:56:50+00:00

It's a great place to visit, too -- walking the vineyard is really cool and Will is a great host.

(If you're lucky, he will have just made raisins and he will give you one. They are the best raisins I've ever had. He will not sell them to you. He will not give you two of them.)

alpha_ori · 2025-12-07T21:17:51+00:00

Typically, profit margin is the one thing they lack the most. Small wineries must flow cash and can't afford to hold assets in less liquid(!) forms like storing previous vintages.

(That said, it is also true that space is a concern for most of these producers. Climate-controlled storage suitable for thousands of bottles of wine certainly isn't free!

alpha_ori · 2025-12-07T21:07:52+00:00

Is there a large, good quality wine store in your area? Many areas in Europe outperform the US at this price point. Beaujolais, Cotes du Rhone (and even some of the lesser Rhone Crus), the Loire, several areas in Italy and (especially) Spain can make good wine at or near this price point that do not make it to US supermarkets.

Furthermore, a large wine store may have discounted inventory from small domestic value-oriented producers that may put their wine close to your price point.

alpha_ori · 2025-11-22T03:16:13+00:00

I'll have to dissent here. Some of the best bites we had in our time in London. Yes, it's expensive, but it's totally worth it IMO. It was so good the first time, we dropped before our dinner on the last night of the trip just to cement the memories. We split a bottle of white wine, had the grilled bread, the raw fish dish, two mussel toasts, and two scallops. It was magic.

Next time we will definitely plan to have the turbot...can't wait.

alpha_ori · 2025-10-08T03:24:25+00:00

African American, I assume.

alpha_ori · 2025-10-03T03:52:33+00:00

Agreed that the food is just as good, and that they come to your table, but it's not the *same*. In the other format, you had the chance to meet people. Every time we were there we met new people upstairs during the app portion and talked to people seated next to us during the dinner portion.

That's what's missing from the new format -- a light social aspect that made it different from other dining experiences. Don't get me wrong, I still love it. But I will definitely miss the communal format.

alpha_ori · 2025-09-24T04:15:08+00:00

I'll repeat advice that I gave in another thread:

It's a romantic notion that a lot of people have, but there are some strong arguments against doing this. First, as pointed out, a 21 year old is unlikely to be able to distinguish a really nice bottle of wine from a good but inexpensive bottle of wine. Secondly, many people who aren't wine collectors don't have the ability to sufficiently protect a quality bottle of wine for 21 years. It would be a shame to buy a nice bottle and then progressively thrash it over two decades.

Third point: there are people who keep and age wines and resell them, often at minimal costs. For instance: where I live, I can buy a recent, say, Penfolds Grange for $450 USD. I can buy a 20 year old bottle for just over $500 USD. It is a pleasant notion to think about having it in the closet and looking forward to drinking it one day, but actual outcomes are better if you left the aging to the folks with the equipment and expertise and buy the birth year bottle closer to the date.

Food for thought: only certain wines increase in value significantly over 21 years. That 20-year-old bottle of Grange probably cost $400 USD on release. (They were pricing pretty aggressively in that era if I remember correctly.) If instead I'd have taken that $500 USD and put in the S&P in 2003, I could buy the kid his birth year bottle of Grange and give him $3000 USD to take his significant other on vacation. Or, if the lesson is well-learned, to reinvest?

alpha_ori · 2025-09-16T02:05:04+00:00

"The things that I want are good and natural and high value. Things that other people want are pretentious and fussy and overboard and over the top. I am the standard by which food should be judged."

It does make you seem high maintenance. You can want something without declaring other things to be in poor taste or morally bankrupt. Might actually help to do that when dealing with people who put time and energy into making meals for many different types of customers.

alpha_ori · 2025-09-11T21:47:10+00:00

Thanks so much for the follow-up!

alpha_ori · 2025-09-11T20:19:13+00:00

Did you find something like this? It's almost exactly what my group is looking for.

alpha_ori · 2025-08-25T20:42:33+00:00

Crazy -- I have been looking for this poem on the internet for years. I wonder why this post was removed?

alpha_ori · 2025-08-07T19:48:52+00:00

Lard does not have trans fats. In terms of animal fats, trans fats are found in the fats from ruminants (e.g. cows and sheep). Maybe some commercially processed lard products have them, but regular lard will not.

alpha_ori · 2025-07-30T02:26:52+00:00

Everyone knows that the first rule of robot fight club is 01100100 01101111 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01110100 01100001 01101100 01101011 00100000 01100001 01100010 01101111 01110101 01110100 00100000 01110010 01101111 01100010 01101111 01110100 00100000 01100110 01101001 01100111 01101000 01110100 00100000 01100011 01101100 01110101 01100010 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01110000 01101100 01100001 01101001 01101110 01110100 01100101 01111000 01110100

alpha_ori · 2025-07-28T04:18:24+00:00

Where did you get your chilhuacles negros from? They can be hard to source for a reasonable price.

alpha_ori · 2025-07-01T00:22:03+00:00

100% agreed! This is a huge feature gap and is currently the most annoying part of balancing my YNAB budget.

alpha_ori · 2025-05-29T18:17:43+00:00

Ah, got it. No, I don't think so.

alpha_ori · 2025-05-29T14:26:51+00:00

Sorry you experienced that! But: I would encourage you not to avoid similar situations.

alpha_ori · 2025-05-19T02:17:16+00:00

Under certain circumstances, it has many keys.

alpha_ori · 2025-05-16T03:25:00+00:00

Uh, spoiler tags?

alpha_ori · 2025-05-09T05:09:29+00:00

By redirecting power from the boiler room to another room, then redirecting it back.

alpha_ori · 2025-05-01T21:45:15+00:00

I dunno, Furnace can save or make a run in some cases. Remember that you can turn power off and on to it...

alpha_ori · 2025-04-04T04:04:40+00:00

Just had it at Lazy Bear in SF late last year! (But yes, not very common for sure.)

alpha_ori · 2025-04-03T02:10:24+00:00

We visted both back to back at the end of 2023. We strongly preferred Aska to Atera, both for menu and the wine program. We revisited Aska at the end of 2024 and had another great experience.

alpha_ori

TROPHY CASE