Useless Conversation

[Musashi]

When I lived in Illinois, Rosati's was pretty much the only pizza.  There's a lot of Italian Americans there, and they don't settle for mediocre pizza.  The name Rosati's actually supplants pizza in the colloquial dialect.  So, you don't order a pizza.  You order Rosati's.  If you fuck up and say, "Do you want a pizza?"  The reply will be, "Rosati's, right?"  Otherwise, you might be talking about Domino's, or Pizza Hut.  And then you've just identified yourself as a Chicagoland noob.  I kind of wish they would expand westward, so that I may enjoy them once again.  They have a roast beef sandwich with mozzarella and giardiniere that I find myself wanting every once in a while.  Like now.  FUCK.

[Lantyssa]

Not surprisingly, that shit is still fucking awful.  It really is terrible, terrible pizza, and they should be fucking ashamed of themselves.

It really is.  They went from my prefered chain joint (Papa John's and they were tied, if they cooked and prepared it correctly) to dead last.  Not that I eat pizza much these days, but I like to indulge a few times a year.  It's like the New Coke of pizza.

All hail the Nydus Worm.

I'm not hailing your Nydus Worm.

[Segoris]

Really, I wasn't even talking about the Chicago deep dish or stuffed pizzas when I was praising Chi pizza compared to bad chain pizza. I do agree that it is over the top, but the 1-3x a year I have it, it's so worth it. The thin crust here is also better then anywhere else I've been on average, though I normally go with a double dough pizza. Though I'm wondering if that is the soft-pretzel like crust you were hating on. When done right it is great, but when done poorly I can understand anyone hating it.

All hail the Nydus Worm.

 

I just read about that on StarCraft.wikia. Sounds crazy

[Segoris]

When I lived in Illinois, Rosati's was pretty much the only pizza.  There's a lot of Italian Americans there, and they don't settle for mediocre pizza.  The name Rosati's actually supplants pizza in the colloquial dialect.  So, you don't order a pizza.  You order Rosati's.  If you fuck up and say, "Do you want a pizza?"  The reply will be, "Rosati's, right?"  Otherwise, you might be talking about Domino's, or Pizza Hut.  And then you've just identified yourself as a Chicagoland noob.  I kind of wish they would expand westward, so that I may enjoy them once again.  They have a roast beef sandwich with mozzarella and giardiniere that I find myself wanting every once in a while.  Like now.  FUCK.

The chief! That is a mighty sandwich and I do believe that sounds like what I'll have for dinner tonight. And yes, in most of IL the only pizza you get is Rosati's (with very, very few exceptions). The only pizza I found to be good on the west coast was when I was in Seattle and had Round Table with their Chicken smoke house pizza and some garlic twist bread things.

As for expanding west, I always wanted Rosati's and Jimmy John's to go west. They'd make bank, imo, out there.

[Signe]

I like to say that I don't buy Domino Pizza because the horrible man who founded it made sure that a little bit of the money from every pizza went to some anti-abortion charity, which it did because he personally  invested so heavily in those things, but it really helps that the pizza is just terrible.  I'd like to think I'd still shun them if their pizza was wonderful.  Thankfully, their sauce tastes incredibly nasty so I don't have any decision to make at all.  Sometimes it's good that things are bad!

[Abagadro]

There are a bunch of Rosati's in Arizona and one in Vegas.  Jimmy Johns is all over the place here in Utah.

[Merusk]

Not surprisingly, that shit is still fucking awful.  It really is terrible, terrible pizza, and they should be fucking ashamed of themselves.  Ironically, I'm starting to think that it's the cheese that's the whole problem, and they sure as shit didn't change anything there.

I mean, okay, Dominos Pizza was never the pinnacle of what good pizza should be...but 10, 15 years ago that shit was at least edible.

Crust is what makes an excellent pizza, though the sauce and cheese can help. (And it's really, really hard to fuck up the cheese so long as you're using real dairy products.)    Dominos crust is frozen, thawed, refrozen and then thawed and baked.  If you're familiar with what frozen dough tastes like, you can taste the freezer burn in every bite.  Then to top it off they've done something with the yeast so that it just doesn't rise properly.  Probably freezing it too soon before it's risen after they mix it up.  Fuckers know how to ruin good dough, I'll give them that.

PJ's doesn't use frozen dough any more so it tastes worlds better.  However, I'll agree on the sauce problem, not to mention they use way too much of it.  They are the one chain I think that DOES fuck up cheese, which amazes me because like I said.. fucking hard to do.  Its gritty/ greasy to the point I question if they're using real dairy for more than a percentage so they can throw on the "Real" label. The quality of their toppings has really decreased over the last few years as well, but I think that may be a problem with my local food distributor more than PJ itself.  I've noticed the quality of all the restaurants around here going to shit and they all use Sysco foods.

Like someone else said, patronize your local stores.  You'll find they might be more expensive but it's so much better if you find a place that makes their own dough that you'll never buy from a chain again.  If you insist on buying chain, I'd go with Papa Murphys.  Just don't whine you have to bake it yourself.  Pizza straight out of the oven is the best. 

[Viin]

Buy a bread maker. Throw in some water and flour, press 'prepare dough'. While waiting, heat up your grill and prep some onions, olives, and pepperoni. When it beeps, take it out and roll it into a flat circle. Put it on your grill at medium heat (grease your grill with olive oil if you need to). Wait 1-2 minutes for it to start bubbling, then flip over and set heat to low. Spread on pizza sauce. Spread your veggies and pepperoni on. Spread your cheese on. Close the lid, crank it to medium, and wait 6-7mins for the cheese to melt.

Enjoy.

[Minvaren]

All hail the Nydus Worm.

I deny you the Nydus!

Re:pizza.  I do not understand how Houston can get some kind of mention for "number of restaurants per capita" and noone in town can make a good Chicago-style pizza.  I can throw a rock and get acceptable to good New York style from one of several places, but the concept of making something that sits in your stomach and warms you like a giant sun lamp for hours seems to be beyond those who put on long sleeves when it gets below 70.  The closest I've found is Barry's deep dish - the crust vaguely reminds me of Uno's 20 years ago, but what goes on top is just pfeh.

And I need to find a place that still sells the foccacia bread mixes to make my own again.

[Strazos]

Photoshop and various other apps have templates for such things built right in. I would start there.

However, again, I don't have an eye for this stuff, hence the second opinion piece. 

[Samwise]

So I'm at a conference and some supposed game industry visionary is talking about how casual games are revolutionizing the industry and voice recognition will be the next WoW.   Fuck.

(edit) Okay, now he's talking about Farmville.  I swear I've heard this exact talk, but better, and about five years ago.

[Murgos]

Buy a bread maker. Throw in some water and flour, press 'prepare dough'. While waiting, heat up your grill and prep some onions, olives, and pepperoni. When it beeps, take it out and roll it into a flat circle. Put it on your grill at medium heat (grease your grill with olive oil if you need to). Wait 1-2 minutes for it to start bubbling, then flip over and set heat to low. Spread on pizza sauce. Spread your veggies and pepperoni on. Spread your cheese on. Close the lid, crank it to medium, and wait 6-7mins for the cheese to melt.

Enjoy.

It being summer I'll just chip in that you can make a pretty good flatbread pizza on a bbq grill...

[schild]

So I'm at a conference and some supposed game industry visionary is talking about how casual games are revolutionizing the industry and voice recognition will be the next WoW.   Fuck.

(edit) Okay, now he's talking about Farmville.  I swear I've heard this exact talk, but better, and about five years ago.

Five years ago there wasn't a casual game with as many daily players as WoW?

[Samwise]

I think the talk I'm thinking of is one Raph gave at AGC some years ago (it feels like five years, but maybe it was less), where he showed the sub numbers for Runescape vs WoW and everyone gasped.  That was a great talk.  This guy's talk was pretty much "hey, it turns out people like the Wii and Facebook and smartphones for some reason, and those games are cheaper to make than AAA shooters".  Which is true, but it is not a startling revelation at this point.

[Sky]

Buy a bread maker.

Really? It only takes a couple minutes to mix and knead by hand, or at least use a mixer. Boo, unitasker. Also, you should probably use an oil with a higher smoke point to grease a grill. I'm being very picky today. We should move this over to VL's thread so she can school us all (hopefully not about mother's milk mozzarella, though). You can make a decent grilled pizza, but it's still not a good traditional pie, where the stone wicks moisture from underneath while keeping the bottom from scorching and the top gets blasted by the intense heat of a wood fire. If you let a brick oven cool off, it takes days to bring back up to the proper environment for pizza, part of why they don't use them any more.

For a traditional pie, use slices of good mozz, fresh sliced tomatoes and some fresh basil leaves. That's really the starting point for a good pizza, everyone else is a visitor to the party.

I think the talk I'm thinking of is one Raph gave at AGC some years ago (it feels like five years, but maybe it was less), where he showed the sub numbers for Runescape vs WoW and everyone gasped.

If you ever want to know what the dominant game is, go watch what people are playing at the library. I have no idea how Runescape stayed so far under everyone's radar when public libraries were crammed with people playing it. Very viral, kids would bring in friends and get them up and running. Farmville lowers the bar even more. We still have several runescape players, but farmville is where it's at for most people (that aren't playing poker) right now. The library may not reflect the WoW-type 3D subscription games, but it is the perfect place to see what is free, browser-based and low spec requirements.

[MisterNoisy]

Farmville lowers the bar even more. We still have several runescape players, but farmville is where it's at for most people (that aren't playing poker) right now. The library may not reflect the WoW-type 3D subscription games, but it is the perfect place to see what is free, browser-based and low spec requirements.

Heh.  A few weeks ago I got a slow leak plugged in one of my car's tires.  While I waited, the clerk and three of the four mechanics on staff at the tire shop were all taking turns playing Farmville on the POS terminal.  Jebus.

[Samwise]

I finally delivered my talk and people are doing a fairly convincing job of telling me it didn't suck.  Thank God that's over with.

Now I drink.

[JWIV]

This time tomorrow, I'll hopefully have my ass parked at some outdoor cafe drinking coffee in Seattle.   First god damn vacation I've taken this year.

[Segoris]

Grats. Though I must ask, why bother with coffee when there are micro breweries to explore and public transportation galore? 

[Ingmar]

Got my lunch here today:

http://bbqkalbi.com/

Korean Taco Truck 

I'd give it a qualified recommendation, for other South Bay folks. Very good (and cheap), but it was very slow, I recommend getting there around when they park the truck if you want to get your food in a reasonable taco truck time frame, because they get backed up when too many people are ordering (and there were a lot of people ordering.)

[Johny Cee]

Got my lunch here today:

http://bbqkalbi.com/

Korean Taco Truck 

I'd give it a qualified recommendation, for other South Bay folks. Very good (and cheap), but it was very slow, I recommend getting there around when they park the truck if you want to get your food in a reasonable taco truck time frame, because they get backed up when too many people are ordering (and there were a lot of people ordering.)

Was that the place featured on the Food Network?  Cause that looked delicious.

[Ingmar]

I don't think so, that place was in LA if I am remembering right. This is a copycat of some kind I beileve. But still good!

[Soln]

I think the talk I'm thinking of is one Raph gave at AGC some years ago (it feels like five years, but maybe it was less), where he showed the sub numbers for Runescape vs WoW and everyone gasped.  That was a great talk.  This guy's talk was pretty much "hey, it turns out people like the Wii and Facebook and smartphones for some reason, and those games are cheaper to make than AAA shooters".  Which is true, but it is not a startling revelation at this point.

yup it was the 2006 AGC

[Segoris]

Got my lunch here today:

http://bbqkalbi.com/

That looks good as hell.

[Yegolev]

This time tomorrow, I'll hopefully have my ass parked at some outdoor cafe drinking coffee in Seattle.   First god damn vacation I've taken this year.

Congratulations.

Preparing for the end-of-season soccer party at my house.  No rest for me.  You'd think I had less stuff to haul to the dump before Saturday.

[Sky]

What's with all the freezing temps and morning frosts? Frost has beat the shit out of my apple tree and the freeze is keeping me from my twenty plus days of staining trim, meaning I haven't used my living room in three weeks and it looks like at least three more, probably four.

I love the cold and whatnot, but even a viking son has limits.

[Mrbloodworth]

I may be going to Disney world in September.

[Ironwood]

 

[Mrbloodworth]

Quite sure Disney world isn't covered by an NDA. This would be my first time ever going, and I am planing a week long trip.

[Nebu]

What's with all the freezing temps and morning frosts? Frost has beat the shit out of my apple tree and the freeze is keeping me from my twenty plus days of staining trim, meaning I haven't used my living room in three weeks and it looks like at least three more, probably four.

I love the cold and whatnot, but even a viking son has limits.

It's 32 and snowing in Laramie right now which makes me glad that I moved away two years ago.  I know how you feel. 

[WayAbvPar]

This time tomorrow, I'll hopefully have my ass parked at some outdoor cafe drinking coffee in Seattle.   First god damn vacation I've taken this year.

Good timing. Weather is on an upswing- improving today and should be in the 70s through Saturday or so. This place is beautiful when the sun is out.

[Viin]

Snowing today in Denver. It's been rainy and now snowy for the last week or so. Weirdness. Seattle needs to take it's weather back.

[Lantyssa]

It's been 90 and mostly sunny all week.

[Cheddar]

Fuck the beltway.  Fuck it.  Next business trip I am just going to fly to MD and get a rental car.

ARRRRRGH.   

[Strazos]

Part of the reason I never drive around here...though a few weeks ago, I drove the whole damn thing, just for the sake of going for a drive and stretching the car's legs a bit.