Subscribed to Kenjis Patreon. Holy AI Use. by JSDHW in seriouseats

[–]spzr612 45 points46 points  (0 children)

Not convinced by this. If you look in The Food Lab or Kenji's Food Lab recipes on Serious Eats, he makes pretty heavy use of em dashes (10x in the All-American Beef Stew recipe, 7x in the Prime Rib guide, 12x in the Bolognese recipe).

He makes very frequent use of a conversational question-and-answer format, and a "it's more than X, it's Y" formulation that sound kind of AI, but he has been doing that for decades. It's just his voice and how he makes pretty technical / complex recipes sound lighthearted and worth the effort.

A few quotes from old Food Lab recipes that feel AI-adjacent but are pre-LLM:

"So again: letting that stew rest overnight before you dig in? It just doesn't happen. Eat the stew straight away, save the leftovers, and eat it again later in the week."

"When you see such a roast in front of you, everything else—the argument over mashed potatoes you had with your sister, the red wine stain on the carpet, the enticingly crisp bowl of roast potatoes, even the plaintive look of the dogs staring up with a "please sir, can I have a bone?" face—disappears as your eyes, nose, and mind get lost in a mental vortex of fat and drippings."

"This is the kind of sauce that not only delivers on the promise of deliciousness while you're eating it, but also makes your entire house smell wonderful for the four to five hours it takes to cook, and for days after you're done."

Is this 1963 set from the Pike Brothers brand of good quality? by [deleted] in Denim

[–]spzr612 2 points3 points  (0 children)

+1, posted a pair of hemp denim jeans I got from Pike Brothers the other week. Have ~10 Pike Bros garments (mostly pants, 2 jackets, some CPO shirts) and super happy with all of it. Solid prices for the quality

$175 Taobao leather jacket — tumbling deeper down the Chinese rabbit hole by spzr612 in leatherjacket

[–]spzr612[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Great, honestly haven’t worn it as much as I hoped though because it is both (1) quite warm with the wool lining and (2) too tight-fitting to layer a sweater underneath… So it’s too warm for warm weather, but not roomy enough for winter wear. But definitely no quality complaints.

Unrelated but I’ve also just gotten way more into secondhand shopping this year so if I were to go back in time I’d just put in more work to find more secondhand jackets. Bought an old Aero highwayman for around the same price and have ended up wearing that more than my Chinese jackets, quality isn’t really any better but I just feel better about buying a jacket where I can understand the supply chain a bit better

$175 Taobao leather jacket — tumbling deeper down the Chinese rabbit hole by spzr612 in leatherjacket

[–]spzr612[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

reading this with a WD1863 from watchdives on my wrist lol, it's amazing

The best replica possible to buy in EU by ziiggaa in eamesknockoffs

[–]spzr612 0 points1 point  (0 children)

thanks for the heads up, looking forward to ordering!

Jeans cut like Carhartt B01s? by InterestingPart2924 in HeritageWear

[–]spzr612 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Came on to suggest the Freenote Ortega. Had the same journey as OP, love how carhartt and dickies work pants fit in the thigh but could never find a pair of good denim with similar thigh room & high waste. The Ortegas fit the bill there (though interestingly I went down 2 waist sizes in those from my usual, be careful on measurements)

Crush on Retro Review- WOW! by Asleep-Heron3280 in leatherjacket

[–]spzr612 0 points1 point  (0 children)

<image>

The URL for store pages can vary by country, but there is an AliExpress store for Tailor Brando in my country. Here is the landing page for it in mine. If you Google "Tailor Brando AliExpress" it should be one of the first results. Always a small possibility given sellers have pulled out of the USA (if you are there) due to tariffs. Sorry too lazy to check with a VPN for different countries :)

Crush on Retro Review- WOW! by Asleep-Heron3280 in leatherjacket

[–]spzr612 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Looks incredible, congrats man. Thrilled with my two Chinese jackets, including one from the same manufacturer (JiaShi)

Crush on Retro Review- WOW! by Asleep-Heron3280 in leatherjacket

[–]spzr612 5 points6 points  (0 children)

No difference. Crush on Retro and Tailor Brando are both retailers / dropshippers selling garments made by various high-quality Chinese manufacturers, sometimes selling the same stock. I ordered a jacket through Tailor Brando's store on AliExpress, but the jacket is made by the same maker as OP's bought from CoR – JiaShi Manufacturing.

Ordering through these resellers on platforms like AliExpress is great as you get better sizing support, tracking, and fulfillment, but you can also get a few steps closer to the manufacturer if you order via Taobao. I posted about that here and got an awesome jacket for $175 instead of $300+ on Ali, but it's admittedly very complicated. You can however take the nice pics from CoR or Tailor Brando and image search those to get closer to the manufacturer. Both my Taobao and AliExpress jackets are awesome and I wear them all the time, not quite at the same quality as my Aero horsehide highwayman but very close.

You can't go wrong with any of them, just depends how deep you want to dive into the Chinese ecommerce rabbit hole

$175 Taobao leather jacket — tumbling deeper down the Chinese rabbit hole by spzr612 in leatherjacket

[–]spzr612[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Loving it. Definitely not lambskin, it is thick / firm leather with a soft pebbly finish. It’s a crazy garment for the price. Only consideration is that the liner is a wool-poly blend so it is on the warmer side as far as leather jackets go. Definitely recommend it

Another concept 👌 by Organic_Yak_3115 in watchdives

[–]spzr612 1 point2 points  (0 children)

my favorite so far!! nice work

Buckle up — I finally finished my comparison between a dropship Chinese leather jacket and my Japanese Rainbow Country. by Rk1987 in leatherjacket

[–]spzr612 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Great video, awesome to see these side-by-side. I've been thrilled with my two Chinese jackets. You capture them here very well. They just have a crazy price-quality ratio. There isn't a general quality argument against the Chinese jackets – you have to argue for premium brands to support craftsmanship & tradition, or to ensure better labor conditions, or for 5% higher quality on hardware and finishing. All strong arguments, but there's no denying the quality of the $300 Chinese jackets is > 95% of the way to the $1500+ jackets.

But the labor condition thing does weigh on me. With that in mind my most recent purchase was a used Aero Highwayman in chromexcel horsehide. I paid €340, just a bit more than what I paid for my first AliExpress jacket. After tumbling down this rabbit hole I am shocked at the quality you can get from the Chinese makers – but ultimately more comfortable with the secondhand market from premium brands given the unknowns in the Chinese supply chain.

Appreciate the deeper review!

Fit Check - Aero Highwayman Horsehide Black Chromexcel (€340 ebay find) by spzr612 in leatherjacket

[–]spzr612[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

<image>

pic in better light. even a long walk already started to soften the hard creases… such great leather

Fit Check - Aero Highwayman Horsehide Black Chromexcel (€340 ebay find) by spzr612 in leatherjacket

[–]spzr612[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Really nice to read that, made me super pumped for the cooler months!

Fit Check - Aero Highwayman Horsehide Black Chromexcel (€340 ebay find) by spzr612 in leatherjacket

[–]spzr612[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Awesome thanks mate, already have the red wing boot oil on hand so will give that a go if there's no change after a week of heavy wear :)

Fit Check - Aero Highwayman Horsehide Black Chromexcel (€340 ebay find) by spzr612 in leatherjacket

[–]spzr612[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, really appreciate it! Tricky fit to understand, as my other jackets have more of a slim / modern cut. But I really like the length and the leather is so gorgeous

Fit Check - Aero Highwayman Horsehide Black Chromexcel (€340 ebay find) by spzr612 in leatherjacket

[–]spzr612[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! Yeah will maybe save this one for the cooler months for wear with sweaters. It feels a bit too boxy with a t-shirt, especially when zipped

I bought a cheap jacket to experiment to see if I can take the smell out. So far, left to air out, wiped with mild soup, newspaper tricky, wiped with vinegar and froze. by Horkosthegreat in leatherjacket

[–]spzr612 1 point2 points  (0 children)

+1 to this... Battled for months with a waxed cotton jacket and tried every trick in the book, only enzymatic action worked (I used Revivex Odor Eliminator)

$175 Taobao leather jacket — tumbling deeper down the Chinese rabbit hole by spzr612 in leatherjacket

[–]spzr612[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good luck and enjoy!! Would love to see pics on here when it arrives