Serious Eats: SAMiller's Profile

This Week in America's Test Kitchen: Best Slicing Knives

>>I have never seen a brand get more free press.

All of the products reviewed by the CI people get the same "free press"

I too have this knife, and it is excellent!

Hunters Were the First Locavores

Hunters need to push a new public image based on deeper traditions: we are stewards of the land, hunting on ground that we know and love, collecting indigenous, environmentally sustainable food for ourselves and our families.

I'm from Wisconsin and nearly everyone I grew up with hunted. This is what hunters have been saying for years. They don't need a public image, they need media organs like the Times to stop pushing the stereotype that they are all red-neck gun nuts.

SAMiller at 11:21PM on 12/15/07

From Serious Eats

Slice Gets a Redesign

How can a site about pizza have nothing about Chicago?

SAMiller at 11:08PM on 11/15/07

From Serious Eats

What's Next—Requiring Hair Nets to Pour a Beer?

We warned you when they came for the smokers that food would be next! The nanny state is coming for you.

SAMiller at 4:56PM on 11/06/07

From Serious Eats

The Future of the Jewish Deli

As all the old, modest buildings are replaced with shining towers and the people who have been here for generations and who defined this place are priced out of their neighborhoods, pretty soon there will be nothing left of the NY we know.

Those "modest" buildings replace other buildings and the people who have been here for generations replaced other people who had been there for generations.

People who lament for economic hardship and crime to preserve some silly ideal, that very likely never existed, are just as bad, if not worse, than the "white elites" who "prey" on the culture. You'd rather people suffer so you can enjoy some kitsch culture.

SAMiller at 9:36PM on 10/23/07

From Serious Eats

How to Make Fancy-pants Restaurants Cheaper: One Critic's Radical Ideas

if I am meeting meeting my wife for a special-occasion dinner, I don't want to wait an hour and a half for a table.

I completely agree, but I can't tell you how many times I've had reservations and still had to wait 20 minutes for my table to be ready.

SAMiller at 12:59PM on 10/03/07

From Serious Eats

Pasta Strike in Italy

While rising food prices are a grave concern, especially to the poor, going on "strike" is silly and shows a lack of economic understanding.

It is not as if Barilla et al. are just raising their prices to screw people. They are raising their prices because their costs are going up. They can not simply cut their costs because people are on strike.

We are all going to regret all this biofuel nonsense, when it turns out that "global warming" was as much of a threat as "global cooling" of the '60s or the "population bomb" on the 70s.

SAMiller at 4:54PM on 09/13/07

From Serious Eats

America's Best Hot Dog Town: Cast Your Vote

B

Is there really any debate about this?

SAMiller at 2:01PM on 09/11/07

From Drinks

Cocktails and Spirits with Paul Clarke: Fightin' Words on Vodka

I think it is pretty amusing that someone who writes for an advertising trade publication would be up in arms over this.

There are many, many products where is little discernible difference in quality.

People who are buying Grey Goose are not buying vodka, they are buying status and image. And that is exactly what that ad is selling.

This is nothing new or remarkable.

SAMiller at 4:17PM on 09/06/07

From Slice

A 24-Hour Search for the Best Pizza in America

"Best Pizza in America" and no mention of Chicago?

Does anyone expect this to be taken seriously?

SAMiller at 1:52PM on 08/11/07

From Slice

Papa John's Invades Neighborhood Pizzeria's Turf

I love the ignorant postal worker: "Papa John's is just generic. Why are they coming here? Greed? I don't know."

Why do you think Johnny's or Scotti's are open? Why do you go to work? People are so economically illiterate it amazes me.

And Adam Kuban is absolutely correct.

Papa John's is fairly pricey. As long as Johnny's and Scotti's offer a superior prodcut they have nothing to worry about.

SAMiller at 5:14PM on 08/06/07

From Serious Eats

Man Bites Dog: Serious Critic Reviews a Chain Restaurant

I'm sorry, but The Cheesecake Factory is not a "decent restaurant." I've eaten at several locations through out the country (normally when Christmas shopping at the mall) and I've never had anything there that was not a complete and utter disappointment.

SAMiller at 12:00AM on 07/27/07

From Talk

Milkshake: make mine______

I'll kill for a good vanilla malt!

SAMiller at 3:07AM on 07/24/07

From Serious Eats

Coca-Cola Redesigns Packaging

Also, I am glad Coke is back to the red, the ribbon, and the script. Coca-Cola is an American icon.

SAMiller at 11:22PM on 07/09/07

From Serious Eats

Coca-Cola Redesigns Packaging

If Coke is "just" sweetened water, then what are beer, wine or coffee? If you don't care for soda (or pop depending on where you are) that is fine, but lets not act childish.

SAMiller at 11:21PM on 07/09/07

From Serious Eats

The Best Hot Dogs

Perhaps I was a bit too snarky. I guess what I should have said, it that it isn't surprising that people have a default of 'what things should taste like'.

It reminds me of when Cook's Illustrated did a blind taste test of mayonnaise:

Tasters consistently praised Hellmann's and Kraft because they tasted like "what mayonnaise should taste like." Paul Rozin, a noted food psychologist from the University of Pennsylvania, wasn't surprised by our findings. "A blind taste test isn't blind to your past," he said. "The participants" first exposure to a food will usually become their standard to judge all others against. In the case of mayonnaise, many people grew up eating Hellmann's and Kraft. People like familiar tastes."
Mayonnaise Taste Test—Archived-Taste Tests-Cook's Illustrated 3/2003

So it doesn't shock me that, even in a blind taste test, people who grew up eating Nathan's, think that is what a hot dog should taste like.

Your survey is still very detailed and a very enjoyable read.

SAMiller at 3:57PM on 07/04/07

From Serious Eats

The Best Hot Dogs

Wow, people from New York/New Jersey think Nathan's are the best hot dogs... shocking... Next you'll tell me they think New York style pizza is better than Chicago style pizza!

SAMiller at 10:41PM on 07/03/07

From Talk