Consider the Cannoli: Subjective Preferences and Conversations about Geek Media

[Mannahnin]

What I have enjoyed about bagels is listening to New Yorkers go on about how they have the only one true bagel and then suggesting that maybe they should try the ones from Montreal (where I grew up) and then seeing confusion in their eyes as they admit that bagels can be good in other places as well. I have not found any place that consistently gets pizza right across the whole city like NYC, though.

I am not fond of cannoli as well, but I don’t expect all others to not like them. And I have tried them in different places, just like I try different games. If I don’t like the game, then I try to avoid playing it but I don’t try and tell people that like them that they are wrong, I just say I do not like it.

This is the way.

Also, Montreal bagels are frickin' amazing.

 

[Cadence]

What I have enjoyed about bagels is listening to New Yorkers go on about how they have the only one true bagel and then suggesting that maybe they should try the ones from Montreal (where I grew up) and then seeing confusion in their eyes as they admit that bagels can be good in other places as well. I have not found any place that consistently gets pizza right across the whole city like NYC, though.

I would FTFY, but I can't tell if you misspelled "wrong" as "right" or misstyped "greasy floppy cardboard" as "pizza".

I did get approval of the bagels at my usual place in the Southeastern US as being not bad by someone from NYC. I took that as a win. I now regreat not tracking some down last time I was in Montreal.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I mean ... have you read my posts before?

It's not that my heart is naturally filled with hate. Rather, I cultivate it in my heart, like a rose. Carefully tending to the flames and fires of antipathy, such that even the blackest cockles of that vestigial organ are naught more than a vessel to allow the darkest impulses of my being full flight, unmediated by the guardrails of empathy, sympathy, or any pathies that might be confused with compassion. It's not that I necessarily abhor the companionship of my fellow person, it's more that when I encounter someone, I always think to myself, "Self, maybe I should buy them a toaster for their bathtub."

Or, you know, society made me do it. I blame other people.

Impressive prose. You need to write a horror short story about your disgust for cannoli

 

[Bedrockgames]

What I have enjoyed about bagels is listening to New Yorkers go on about how they have the only one true bagel and then suggesting that maybe they should try the ones from Montreal (where I grew up) and then seeing confusion in their eyes as they admit that bagels can be good in other places as well. I have not found any place that consistently gets pizza right across the whole city like NYC, though.

I have to say, I worked at bagel shop in Massachusetts and the thing that infuriated the owner the most (and I would say me as well) was New Yorkers (we got a lot of them as there is an invisible thread connecting people in Boston to people in New York), pontificating about bagels and how its the water, and telling us after they just took a bite of our bagels that 'these just aren't like the ones in New York'. New Yorkers perhaps you do have the best bagels, I don't know. But you do not have the best manners

I am not fond of cannoli as well, but I don’t expect all others to not like them. And I have tried them in different places, just like I try different games. If I don’t like the game, then I try to avoid playing it but I don’t try and tell people that like them that they are wrong, I just say I do not like it.

If you don't like them, you don't like them. I get why people don't. They are bland but can also be oddly overwhelming. I just have a fondness for them because every weekend my mom would get cannoli and other pastries from an Italian bakery nearby (they had a nice platter of mini-pastries, and you would get mini-cannoli, miniature carrot cake, mini-ricotta pie, mini-rainbow cookies, S cookies, etc), and I just remember eating those with coffee.

 

[MGibster]

I have to say, I worked at bagel shop in Massachusetts and the thing that infuriated the owner the most (and I would say me as well) was New Yorkers (we got a lot of them as there is an invisible thread connecting people in Boston to people in New York), pontificating about bagels and how its the water, and telling us after they just took a bite of our bagels that 'these just aren't like the ones in New York'. New Yorkers perhaps you do have the best bagels, I don't know. But you do not have the best manners

There are some cities where many of the residents have an insufferable amount of municipal pride they'll gladly share with everyone around them. The cities that immediately come to mind are San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Austin, and Texas (sometimes all of Texas). Don't get me wrong, a lot of these places are great, but you know what New York? Your pizza and your bagels are good but they're not going to change anyone's religion.

 

[Bedrockgames]

There are some cities where many of the residents have an insufferable amount of municipal pride they'll gladly share with everyone around them. The cities that immediately come to mind are San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Austin, and Texas (sometimes all of Texas). Don't get me wrong, a lot of these places are great, but you know what New York? Your pizza and your bagels are good but they're not going to change anyone's religion.

And admittedly, Boston is probably such a city too (though we like to think of ourselves as the underdog).

The water explanation just particularly irritates me. They may well be acclimated to flavor of the local water, but there isn't something magical about New York's water supply in my opinion that makes it this unique place in the world where nothing compares to their quality because water flavors. I do think bakeries, pizza places, they are good in New York. I have been there and the pizza is outstanding. But I think that has a lot more to do with the number of pizza places competing with each other in an area that is proud of pizza quality and densely populated. No esoteric explanations required at all

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

There are some cities where many of the residents have an insufferable amount of municipal pride they'll gladly share with everyone around them. The cities that immediately come to mind are San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Austin, and Texas (sometimes all of Texas). Don't get me wrong, a lot of these places are great, but you know what New York? Your pizza and your bagels are good but they're not going to change anyone's religion.

So I'm going to push back on this a little.

There is a reason that Sinatra concludes his song, "If I can make it there, I'm gonna make it anywhere, it's up to you, New York, New York."

@Bedrockgames touched upon this issue, above. It's not that you can't find good things in other places. Far from it. But ... the level of competition between the producers, the level of sophistication of the consumers, and the density all combine to make major cities, especially those like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans ... and even newer places like Miami, Las Vegas and Portland* .... qualitatively different.

You truly can get great food anywhere. But if I want the best food, the most options, and a peak at what trends we'll be seeing in the rest of the country in another five to ten years** ... that's when you look to the places where you have the highest concentration of exciting innovation happening.

But yeah, the water thing? Ugh.



*Where is Chicago, @Cadence asks .... well, they're too busy appropriating ketchup from hot dogs to use in their deep dish pizzas.

**That's ten to twenty Canadian years at the current time exchange rate.

 

[Myrdin Potter]

So I'm going to push back on this a little.

There is a reason that Sinatra concludes his song, "If I can make it there, I'm gonna make it anywhere, it's up to you, New York, New York."

@Bedrockgames touched upon this issue, above. It's not that you can't find good things in other places. Far from it. But ... the level of competition between the producers, the level of sophistication of the consumers, and the density all combine to make major cities, especially those like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans ... and even newer places like Miami, Las Vegas and Portland* .... qualitatively different.

You truly can get great food anywhere. But if I want the best food, the most options, and a peak at what trends we'll be seeing in the rest of the country in another five to ten years** ... that's when you look to the places where you have the highest concentration of exciting innovation happening.

But yeah, the water thing? Ugh.



*Where is Chicago, @Cadence asks .... well, they're too busy appropriating ketchup from hot dogs to use in their deep dish pizzas.

**That's ten to twenty Canadian years at the current time exchange rate.

It is not just the pizza places themselves (no pizza place in NYC survives if it is not good), the ruthless competition for quality has driven the supply of dough and sauce and cheese down to a very small number of suppliers that serve the industry there. So you have consistent and very high quality base ingredients to start with.

San Francisco does not belong on that list. Especially today and double especially for food.

 

[Umbran]

..., but you know what New York? Your pizza and your bagels are good but they're not going to change anyone's religion.

New York well and truly doesn't care about your religion. It is very much a "render unto Pizza what is Pizza's..." thing.

 

[MGibster]

There is a reason that Sinatra concludes his song, "If I can make it there, I'm gonna make it anywhere, it's up to you, New York, New York."

I get it. A Little Rock 10 is a New York 6. You've got so many people there that the competition for anything is fierce and the best of anything is going to be the best-of-the-best. New York is arguably the greatest city in the world and residents should be proud of what they have. But they don't need to be insuffrably proud and tell the rest of us how much better they are than us. Though I find people from San Francisco and Austin to be worse than New Yorkers in that regard.

You truly can get great food anywhere. But if I want the best food, the most options, and a peak at what trends we'll be seeing in the rest of the country in another five to ten years**

It's not that easy here in Arkansas. Don't get me wrong, you can find decent food, but great food? You're going to be doing some hard looking.

New York well and truly doesn't care about your religion. It is very much a "render unto Pizza what is Pizza's..." thing.

New York is on my list of places to visit, and I have this underlying dread that I will try their pizza and become a convert. For the rest of my life, whenever I have a slice I shall feel the need to loudly proclaim it isn't as good as the slice I had in New York.