Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

p.s.- oops I lied...when I was little I wouldn't eat the legs in calamari and other squid/octopus dishes because I thought the suckers would stick to my tongue...

So I didn't see the last post, and I haven't read all the comments, but it's a topic that depends on the situation, imo. If it was a large group of people, I would ask again, because that does eat up a lot of one waitress's time. I dined at a nice little place with a friend a few months back, and it was my second time there (pretty sure the waiters recognized me). I had tipped well the first time, as it was a great experience, and the second time, my friend and I completely miscalculated the tip. My waiter came back around and asked us if everything was ok. It was a bit awkward, but I'm glad he did ask, because he deserved more than the $3 we had somehow managed to leave.

@Don Luis: This is obviously a very late response, but I don't check into SE as often as I did so I missed it when it first went up.

I think your reaction arises from a misunderstanding of what SE is, or means to be.

My impression is that SE began as a NYC-based blog, and that the response from all over the US expanded its focus. I don't think it's unreasonable for a blog to have a regional focus, particularly given that SE is not presenting itself as a global food-related site.

Although I am a New Yorker (meaning 'born there, and spent the largest portion of my life to date there'), I now live outside the US (in Denmark, to be precise), and many of the references to various cooking shows and foods go over my head, but if I'm really curious, I can usually find clarification on YouTube, or elsewhere on the net.

Perhaps what you see as an excess of silliness has more to do with the veiled (or not) hostility that more serious/technical posts sometimes meet; I no longer see many of the more serious posters, which I think is a shame. On the other hand, I think the 'silliness' can be fun and interesting, I just wish there was more of a balance (for those of you who are thinking of reiterating that there are other sites, I know this, but I happen to like SE, and think of it as a big kitchen; shouldn't there be room for all sorts of cooks and eaters?).

Anyway, I think SE is worth taking for what it is; I can understand deciding that you'd rather not post (although you don't seem to have done that), and only look in occasionally, but do recognize what it is, and why.

I used to work at a brewpub where I was,at various times, busser, host, doorman, bouncer, brewery assistant, barback, sound man for live music and bartender. Only as sound and brewery did I not get tipped. House policy is everyone gets tipped out, there are even sheets where write how much you tip out. The servers tip out tenders, linecooks, prep cooks, hosts, bussers, dishwashers and barbacks. Bartenders tipped out cooks,bussers, hosts, bouncers, barbacks, dishwashers and doorguys. As it was hard to keep track of which bussers and hosts worked the bar area as opposed to the dining room, I would usually just buy their shift meal ( usually a couple of bucks) and tip the kitchen 15% of my food sales, split evenly amongst them. I made sure the dishwasher got more than the cooks out of my tips, and I'd buy their first shift beer. It was interesting to look at the kitchen tip out sheet and see which servers were tipping the most and least. The biggest bitch in the house tipped the kitchen more than anyone else, so her tickets seemed to get filled faster than the friendly girls who didn't tip as well.

My fondest memories are my mother cooking and baking Christmas dinner with all the trimmings and cakes and pies. garrettsambo@aol.com

My fondest childhood food memory is anything with my grandma. Seems she was cooking all the time, and the kitchen really was the heart of the home. Wether it was eggs and bacon for breakfast or a large family celebration, grandma always did it all, and with love. I do remember that she had to make meat and potatoes for grandpas lunch everyday!

homemade vanilla ice cream and brownies on the 4th of july around the fire pit while watching fireworks from the backyard.

Everything my Grandma cooked was delicious but her breakfasts were my favorite. As a kid I couldn't wait for morning to come! She'd bake biscuits from scratch mixing with the scents of bacon, home fries and scrambled eggs with vegetables.

My fondest memory was during the summer. The entire family would get together on a hot summer evening and we would use a hand crank ice cream machine to make some of the best tasting icecream ever

My grandmother's seafood gumbo - she made it over a fire in a big pot in the backyard. She lived two blocks from the beach in Mississippi, and when she was ready to add the shrimp and crabs, my dad and uncle would go down to the boats and buy it fresh, and add it to the gumbo.

The first time I had Greek food at a restaurant in St. Augustine, FL.

While my mom would bake from a recipe, I would mix ingredients to my liking alongside. She would write down the measurements I used in the off chance I made something edible. Most of my baked goods tasted like baking soda.