So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Lean'n'mean]

On the very rare occassions I go to a restaurant, I'm not too bothered about the food or service, I'm just glad I don't have to cook it & wash up after.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

That's, what the nursing personnel arguments here, too. They say, that the people with dementia are almost always diabetics. But, medicine has not proven it, finally.

Like with many cancers, the causes of dementia are surely multifactorial, which is prehaps why the medical professions have such difficulty in proving (or disproving) anything with any degree of certitude.

 

[Zombie_61]

I will gladly pay $48 for a top notch steak, cooked to perfection. What I won't do is pay more than 39 cents for that garbage they serve at Outback. I'd rather eat dirt.

I can count on three fingers the number of times I've eaten at Outback. The first time was when they first opened restaurants here in southern California, just to check the place out; the other times were at someone else's insistence. All three times, at different locations, my experience was the same--I got a piece of meat that was about 25% gristle, overcooked, and about as easy to chew as an old tennis shoe, and the sides (whatever they were) were lukewarm at best. They could have knocked 50% off of whatever they charged us and those meals still would have been overpriced.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I can count on three fingers the number of times I've eaten at Outback. The first time was when they first opened restaurants here in southern California, just to check the place out; the other times were at someone else's insistence. All three times, at different locations, my experience was the same--I got a piece of meat that was about 25% gristle, overcooked, and about as easy to chew as an old tennis shoe, and the sides (whatever they were) were lukewarm at best. They could have knocked 50% off of whatever they charged us and those meals still would have been overpriced.

Yes, gastronomy is mainly scam, traditional, I think.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yes, gastronomy is mainly scam, traditional, I think.

That's kind of the way I look at it. Food is sustenance, not some sybaritic indulgence. If I really want a good steak, I can go up here to the grocery store and for $7.50 I can buy a very nice cut of meat and then I can come home and cook it myself exactly the way I like it in ten minutes and be fully satisfied. And ultimately that $7.50 steak is going to end up in the same place as the $48 one.

 

[Trenchfriend]

My parents came from east german gastronomy, especially my father.
In former GDR, the fixed gastronomy-prices were on an unrealistic low level, with a different price-class-system, by mostly average ok-quality, so the etablissements were fully busy, especially on main-times. A bottle of beer costed 60 pennys and buyed on the grocery store 68 pennys and that was just one example. A normal meal on the mostly lower-price class-diners could be 3,60 Mark or so. So, going to a restaurant were highly attractive and probably that was a wanted thing by socialism.

But then came the market-economy and the opposite happens and in restaurants it was more and more quiet.

 

[Fading Fast]

^^^ re Lizzie's post. That works for you and makes sense to me. But as my butcher friend - a kid I went to high school with who became a butcher in the local supermarket - told me, they don't get anywhere near the quality of steaks in the supermarket that a real high-end steakhouse gets. Also, maybe you have an outstanding oven, range, what have you, but the super-hot, cook the meat on both sides at the same time ovens in steakhouses really can cook the meat, IMHO, better by searing in the the juices and giving the meat a great char without burning or drying it out.

I don't eat a lot of steak and don't go to a lot of steakhouses, but my personal experience has been that at those really good steakhouses you get a meaningfully better cut of meat, prepared far superior to anything I've seen done in someone's house. Now, if you or anyone is happy with the supermarket meat prepared at home and don't think the steakhouse is better or is worth the money, I have no argument against that and respect your personal opinion. And it is also personal opinion if the better cut of meat, prepared better (if you are offthat opinion) in a steakhouse is worth the meaningfully extra money.

One more thought, food can be looked at as only sustenance - and for many today, it still is and sadly many struggle to get enough of it. However, it can be for many an enjoyable experience, elevated beyond just sustenance by superior ingredients, preparation and presentation. I throw all of this in the personal taste / opinion bucket, but it does exist.

Other than lobster, shrimp and scallops, I don't really care about any seafood, so an expensive seafood restaurant is all but lost on me. And I enjoy lobster from a road-side stand better than in an expensive restaurant with all the fussing. But I also have never had a better steak than at a really good steakhouse as described above and while rarely will I want to spend the money for it (just my personal preference), it is for me, a better experience than steaks I've had anywhere else. I have friends who think all expensive restaurants are "stupid," and other friends who greatly enjoy dinning out at fine restaurants. I, as with most things, see both viewpoints and, as long as no one is forcing their viewpoint on me or is arguing that their opinion is somehow fact (my Dad was a master of that), I'm good with whatever works for you.

 

[Trenchfriend]

And if you like some really good coffee and not the average-stuff from diners or so, then try to get Tansania-coffee.

 

[dh66]

..... And ultimately that $7.50 steak is going to end up in the same place as the $48 one.

With steaks as with life.

Sent from my XT1030 using Tapatalk

 

[Trenchfriend]

So get yourself worthy food, good coffee and life's good.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Denial has been around quite a while too. .....as with most potential health risks, they don't exist until they touch us personally.
In the absence of concrete proof either way, is it not wiser to err on the side of caution ? without being fanatical about it of course, though I would have thought it was common sense to reduce the ingestion of toxic metal nanoparticles, as much as possible.

I'm not advocating eating aluminum as a health benefit, I'm saying that's a far cry from "if you wrap your sandwich in aluminum foil, you'll get Alzheimer's". We take risks every day we get out of bed, and believe it or not, even on the days we don't. There's a huge difference between "common sense" and "paralyzing paranoia". I'm not against the former, it's just that too many people are too quick to dismiss science because they read something on the internet or heard it from a celebrity hairdresser.

And you cannot "concretely prove" a negative. You can look for a connection, but the absence of one does not prove or disprove anything, it only supports a conclusion. Likewise people often fall victim to a causality fallacy.

 

[HudsonHawk]

That's kind of the way I look at it. Food is sustenance, not some sybaritic indulgence. If I really want a good steak, I can go up here to the grocery store and for $7.50 I can buy a very nice cut of meat and then I can come home and cook it myself exactly the way I like it in ten minutes and be fully satisfied. And ultimately that $7.50 steak is going to end up in the same place as the $48 one.

If you can get a high quality cut of steak for $7.50, you live a charmed life indeed. Even here in cattle country, that steak is $20, minimum.

 

[GHT]

And ultimately that $7.50 steak is going to end up in the same place as the $48 one.

That is so true, but in Europe, as we watch American movies and TV shows, we get the impression, such an event never occurs.
In a classic western, you see four thousand head of cattle stampeding down the main street. We see close ups of the deranged beasts, all bulging eyes and terrified stares. We see a couple of bystanders get dragged, screaming, underfoot. And when the dust finally settles, what don't we see? A turd, not a single one. No matter that fear acts like a laxative, those cows have a strong constitution.

And tell me, how many times has Scotty beamed up Captain Kirk or one of his crew? It must run into thousands. Despite the odds, no one ever got caught taking a dump.

You guys are made of sterner stuff.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Nah, we're just the most constipated society on the face of the earth. It explains our bellicosity.

 

[LizzieMaine]

If you can get a high quality cut of steak for $7.50, you live a charmed life indeed. Even here in cattle country, that steak is $20, minimum.

$7.50 gets me a nice slice of ribeye that cooks up fine, tastes good, and satisfies. Anything else is angels dancing on the head of a pin.

 

[Trenchfriend]

$7.50 gets me a nice slice of ribeye that cooks up fine, tastes good, and satisfies. Anything else is angels dancing on the head of a pin.

Never heared of "ribeye". https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hochrippe Ok, now I got it. Used for Goulasch, Sauberbraten and so on. Now, I'm smarter.

 

[swanson_eyes]

I'm not advocating eating aluminum as a health benefit, I'm saying that's a far cry from "if you wrap your sandwich in aluminum foil, you'll get Alzheimer's". We take risks every day we get out of bed, and believe it or not, even on the days we don't. There's a huge difference between "common sense" and "paralyzing paranoia". I'm not against the former, it's just that too many people are too quick to dismiss science because they read something on the internet or heard it from a celebrity hairdresser.

And quite a few of those things people believe to be causation are actually correlation.

 

[Fading Fast]

I know we've been talking about aluminum, but wasn't there a period in the '70s when microwaves were supposedly killing us? Also, hand held hair dryers, if memory serves, had some event (maybe asbestos was the issue) back in the '60s or '70s - right? The asbestos thing, if that was it, sounds real. Was there anything real to the microwave scare?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Radio frequency radiation in the microwave spectrum is not particularly healthy at close range -- it can cause burns, among other things -- which is why the magnetron tube in your microwave oven is heavily shielded, and since 1971 microwave ovens sold in the United States have had to meet specific radiation and shielding standards. The early microwave ovens of the 1960s were rather indifferently shielded, and concerns were raised about their safety. There were also concerns about the radiation interfering with pacemakers -- you'll recall the MICROWAVE OVEN IN USE sign on the door of your neighborhood Kwik Stop in the '80s -- but all pacemakers currently manufactured are shielded against external interference.

This is the same reason early color TV sets have warnings about "X-Ray Hazard" on the high-voltage compartment -- the flyback transformer in such a set operates in the microwave spectrum, and produces potentially-dangerous levels of radiation if it and the components associated with it are not covered with a grounded metal shield.

You might also recall incidents in the '70s and '80s of police officers reporting high levels of testicular cancer resulting from their holding radar guns between their thighs while sitting in their cruisers at speed traps. There was a government study of this in the early 1990s with inconclusive results.

As far as the long-term effect of low-level microwave exposure, they still don't really know one way or another. The air is full of microwave signals -- from cellphones to Wi Fi to radar to "smart electric meters" -- and especially over the past twenty years we're all being exposed to them every day, whether we use these devices ourselves or not. Twenty years isn't a very long time, so we'll see. Meanwhile, you guys who hold your cellphone between your thighs while you're driving might want to lay off.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I know we've been talking about aluminum, but wasn't there a period in the '70s when microwaves were supposedly killing us? Also, hand held hair dryers, if memory serves, had some event (maybe asbestos was the issue) back in the '60s or '70s - right? The asbestos thing, if that was it, sounds real. Was there anything real to the microwave scare?

Well, excessive exposure to high frequency electromagnetic radiation is bad for you, but normal use of household microwave ovens is perfectly safe, with the greatest risk being reaching in and grabbing a hot container.