Not Anthony Bourdain!

Erich is right. I've had some rough patches these past few years. (Never to the point of suicide, thankfully.) Many here reached out to me to make sure everything was ok. I will always appreciate that. A few days ago  Mike posted something in the Rants thread that seemed a bit out of character. We made sure it wasn't a post asking for help. 

If you are feeling down, we are here for you, even if its to listen.

stuart in mn said:

In reply to Stefan :

We'll have to agree to disagree, then...I suffer from depression too and have considered the alternatives, but that phrase just makes me mad because it's usually trotted out by people who have no concept of the problem.

I'm actually curious what your experience is that you can sh!t on this phrase? I could be completely wrong, and often am, but to so flippantly say "I suffer from depression too" makes me think you don't and haven't.

What meds are you on? How often do you see your therapist? Etc. 

I suspect you'll respond with the equivalent of "you don't know me, you don't know my struggles instead of being honest about anything."

In reply to z31maniac :

How about we use this thread to lift each other up rather than tear each other down?

In reply to z31maniac :

Hey man, ease up. He doesn't like the phrase, it doesn't resonate with him the way it may for others. No need to flame him or make it personal. 

I'm sorry I offended you. I suppose I could post a copy of my medical records for proof, but I've already put out more information than I'm comfortable with so I'll  stay away from this thread from now on.

So a running half threat that I had with him is that I wanted to start up a restaurant that specialized in various types of handpies from around the world, and call it handpies. There'd be empanadas, pierogies, Jamaican meat pies and even pot stickers. It'd be like noodles and company, but for handpies. He hated the idea, I mean absolutely loathed it. He thought that strictly from a business standpoint that Noddles and company was brilliant as there's really no meal in there that cost more than $2 to produce and that's if someone gets something that involves fresh vegetables and frozen shrimp and that it quickly went down in terms of production cost from there. But that it was a sterilization and bastardization, not just the craft of great noodle based recipes, but of the cultures from where the inspired recipes came from. I'd argue that handpies are really under appreciated and that if someone went to hand pie company and enjoyed an empanada that maybe they'd branch out and seek a South American restaurant or food truck close to them that crafted them in the traditional methods. He'd counter by asking how many people wearing polo shirts and khakis I see when getting Pho versus artist hipster types and would bring up the miserable existence of a student working part time at Noodles and company who would really enjoy a nice bowl of pho during their shift but they're stuck with a peanut sauce devoid of depth, beef from a cut without fat, marbling, flavor or context and noodles that are at least 1/3rd too thick, then he'd tell me the key to the handpie place would be to sucker the blind in by making a decent rice Krispy treats available as an impulse item. It was always a toss up of who would first bring up the irony of rice being the best thing available at a place specializing in noodles.

I still want to open a hand pie place with the idea of franchising it in the future, and I know that he would berkeleying hate it. 

In reply to captdownshift :

Don't overlook the Michigan Upper Penninsula's Pasty

https://theyoopergirl.com/2015/02/traditional-yooper-pasties/

Thanks for the 'share'.

John Welsh said:

In reply to captdownshift :

Don't overlook the Michigan Upper Penninsula's Pasty

https://theyoopergirl.com/2015/02/traditional-yooper-pasties/

 

Thanks for the 'share'.

Pierogi > pasty

Patrick said:

John Welsh said:

In reply to captdownshift :

Don't overlook the Michigan Upper Penninsula's Pasty

https://theyoopergirl.com/2015/02/traditional-yooper-pasties/

 

Thanks for the 'share'.

Pierogi > pasty

No. A pierogi and a pasty are totally different things. That’s like saying e250 > a Miata. They don’t compete with each other. 

John Welsh said:

In reply to captdownshift :

Don't overlook the Michigan Upper Penninsula's Pasty

https://theyoopergirl.com/2015/02/traditional-yooper-pasties/

 

Thanks for the 'share'.

These things are amazing. 

And we can't get into pasties without looking at the Cornish version. I don't know enough to assert that they're the original, but they've got history and they're awesome (and the yooper girl link above even mentions Cornish origins).

I had a British coworker years ago whose friend made a part-time thing of pasties, and the office could put in orders. The pangs I get when I think about losing access to those pasties...

This was, I think, one of the things I really appreciated about Anthony Bourdain; it was so awesome to see someone else get so worked up about about food and all that comes with it, and take me along for the ride. And about travel, and the intersection of the two things.