Are you trustworthy

[summerless_year]

Who do you trust? I mean for important things, like food and drink recommendations? I trust Mr. T for all things Italian and Asian. I trust my sister and P for most other food recommendations. This means that if they recommend the best place to get funnel cake or kway teow or anything in between, it really will be good. I have had to learn the hard

Comments

[e11en]

For pizza recommendations, I trust no one but a fellow New Yorker. I am an admitted NY pizza snob and while there may be things which have dough, sauce, and cheese, and taste nice, they do not necessarily pass my pizza test. So I'd say you could trust me on the pizza score. I'm pretty good with ice cream too.

[summerless_year]

you can trust people from Connecticut, too, if they are Italian. P is Italian, which is why I can trust her. I think the Neopolitan pple that settled in NY also settled in CT, which is why they can be trusted. It goes without saying that I trust the average Chilean about nothing except maybe empanadas, right? Ice cream isn't one of my favorite things, but I will consider you trustworthy on this topic if you deem it so!

[e11en]

Yes, the New Haven pizzerias (and people who frequent them) can be trusted as well. In this corner of CT, we had more Portuguese immigrants and their influence is stronger than the Italian.

[summerless_year]

righto! I forgot that you knew that P was from near New Haven. True dat on the New Haven pizza. But I will say that, although strange, the greek-inspired pizzas I ate in Amherst and surrounding towns also tended to be pretty good. And I know it's not traditional, but feta and kalamata olives on pizza? Now that's yummy.

[remembrances]

Korean food, chocolate, Thai food, cookies, any sort of pastries, omelettes, any form of potatoes (from french fries, to mashed to baked and everything else), assorted fruits, and lemonade.

[summerless_year]

oooh, I definitely needed a chocolate helper when I was in Barriloche. They make good chocolate there, but they also make waxy crap. I discovered that the place with the Matrushka dolls is THE place. It's good to know what I can trust you with. Foodsnobbery is so much fun!

[wickedeyes]

Wow. That is most definitely gross. Hot milk is gross. If it is steamed like it should be then it is good. That's one of the things (of the many) that I couldn't get in Chile: a good latte. Of course being from Seattle... I am kind of a coffee snob but I can't help it.

I found one little shop in Las Condes that was pretty good... a Starbucks look-a-like place... but on the coast in Valparaiso or Viña it was all NesCafe or mediocre cortados.

And who in their right mind would eat an English muffin with ketchup and American cheese? Yuck!

[summerless_year]

coffee has changed a lot since you were here! There are several really nice coffee places these days, mostly in bellas artes, but a few that are further afield. I got a decaf dry cappucino in a to-stay cup the other day at Starbucks. I know I am evil... but I neeeeeeeeeeded it.

I lived in Portland for 3 years. I know all about coffee snobbery! Even suffer from a touch (well more than a touch) of it, myself!

btw, I had an espresso from starlight coffee once (starbux look alike), or maybe it was an americano. But the coffee itself was bad, bad, bad that day.

I think outside of Santiago, you are SOL for good coffee. I even brought mate with me to the south, just to avoid the possibility of nescafe.

[gnostraeh]

It's amazing what some folks think is "good."
I always take recommendations with a grain of salt, except from my grow children. They are good connoisseurs of gourmet vegan food. And further more, they know what I like. Other than them, if I am considering following a recommendation I ask questions~ Is it...? Do they put...? Etc...

[summerless_year]

I have to agree with asking questions. For example (in Chile), is there SAUCE on the pizza?

I didn't know your kids were vegan. I was for three years, but it became too onerous a task and I fell. I'm eating some yogurt right now! mmmmmoooooo. BTW, did you ever check out www.veganlunchbox.blogspot.com?

This woman made her kid vegan food every day for lunch, and rated it by how he liked it. Super elaborate stuff. Nice pictures. And now she's writing a cookbook from her experiences. Oh, the things motivated people do...

[gnostraeh]

Two of my grown kids are vegan. One is lacto-ovo veggie, the other eats fish and chicken through the influence of the boyfriend. And the step daughter that I raised from six to thirteen is veggie too. They are all very vegan aware.

I have checked out that vegan lunch box spot, even picked up a couple of recipes/ideas.

When my kids were growing up I had visions of writing a vegan/wheat-free chatty cookbook. A kazillion recipes were tested on my family. My kidlets were standing next to me on chairs at the stove "cooking" by the time they were three or four. My oldest daughter cooked veggie pizza from scratch (requesting that I leave the kitchen and let her do it) when she was nine.

We are food appreciating family.

An aside: My friend living in Japan says the folks put mayo on their pizza there.
ieuhhh/yuk.

[diabla_traviesa]

I don't know if I can be trusted, since not every place is always good. Last year, I recommended a pizza place to a classmate. She went there with her family last week and they loved it (Pizza Sí, in case you were wondering. Their veggie pizza is quite good)

[summerless_year]

you can be trusted with many things, but for the pizza thing, I'm not as certain... Here's why. New Yorkers are about pizza like Chileans are about empanadas. To me (when I first got here), it was all just dough and filling. But there are nuances, what kind of flour, what kind of fat, crisp or moist, with an egg wash or without, whether or not a little bit of oil drips down your arm, the presence or absence of the olive... These all add up to a good or less than great empanada. And when you go to Argentina, the empanadas are great. But they're not your empanadas. Probably the same for Bolivian salteñas. y'know?

btw, hope studying and exams are going ok.

[diabla_traviesa]

I wrote you 3 replies yesterday, but my internet was toying with me :(

The empanada analogy is funny, because I'm the kind of person who thinks an empanada is an empanada. All taste the same to me. But since you mentioned salteñas, we might use them instead. Most salteñas I've tasted here don't taste like they are supposed to.
The pizza place is not the best pizza I've ever had, but it's OK, because the crust is thin, the cheese is scarce and the veggies are abundant :P

And I know what you can trust me with: Chinese food!

[summerless_year]

if you like danubio azul, then it's a go! But if you tell me los chinos ricos, which I found really mediocre, then no way! But I don't eat meat, which complicates things...