Jump to content

tokamak

Burnt Ends
  • Posts

    3652
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by tokamak

  1. 2 minutes ago, GreenspointTexas said:

    1 grand for Quintonil? When the wife and I ate there in 2019, I think we did 2 tasting menus + tip for like $400

    It must've gone way up post-pandemic. I don't think we ever even saw a menu, they just started bringing us food. Their website says the tasting menu is ~$250 per person, or ~$380 with the pairing. I tipped them well, too. I know it's not as much of a thing there but there were like 4 people taking care of us and they were crushing it.

  2. Just got back from our 5 night trip. Here's a lot of thoughts from a first-time visitor.

    • Quintonil was elite. It'll go toe-to-toe with any meal you can get in the States. Food, drinks, and service were all A+. Only the desserts were like an A- for me. It's very, very expensive (we spent around a grand for 2x tasting menu, 2x glasses of champagne, 1x wine pairing, 3x cocktails, and my wife wanted to buy their book [which the chef signed for us, which was cool]).
    • Contramar lived up to the hype. Great food; excellent, quick service. We didn't have to wait at all at about 1:00 pm on a Tuesday. Some tuna tostadas and micheladas hit the motherfucking spot after a morning at the pyramids.
    • Azul Historico was a big disappointment. My wife got overcooked shrimp in flavorless adobo sauce. My mole enchiladas were overly sweet and otherwise lacking in flavor as well. Guac looked and tasted like something that came out of a big plastic tub. Service was meh. Cool atmosphere, but you can skip this one.
    • Maque for breakfast was very good. Our tour guide joked that it's the place you take your mom for brunch for her birthday and she wasn't wrong. TBH my favorite bite of the entire trip, including Quintonil and Contramar, might have been the beautiful simplicity of a fresh chocolate concha at Maque. I'll admit that I fucking love conchas anyway though.
    • Taqueria Orinoco was fine. I mean, it's Mexico City and it's tacos, so yeah it tasted great. Didn't seem like anything particularly special though. I think there are 5,000 places in the city where you can get tacos just like this. Instagram hype from gringos, IMO.
    • Mercado Roma is a skip. Not bad, but every American city has at least one hipster food hall exactly like this nowadays. Half the counters were vacant anyway. Also hot af inside. You can do better.
    • We didn't hit a lot of nightlife because we were wiped out most evenings (more on that in a minute). We stayed at the Ritz (splurge/special occasion trip) and the bar there was pretty fucking cool. It's the Ritz so not exactly a wild young crowd, but floor-to-ceiling 360 degree panoramic views of the city from the 38th floor is hard to beat. Pricey drinks, but whatever. The restaurant at the Ritz (same floor) was surprisingly good and more reasonably priced than the bar.
    • Speaking of nightlife, I'm a tequila drinker and I found it funny that the tequila selection in CDMX, even at nice places, is demonstrably worse than what you'll typically find in the States. A lot of just run-of-the-mill shit like Herradura and Don Julio. Maestro Dobel is big. Overall, mezcal seems much more prominent than tequila, and it's not really my thing. I don't know nearly as much about it and don't have any confidence picking good ones from a menu.
    • We did Museo Soumaya because literally nothing else is open on Monday. Great building, OK collection.
    • Anthropology Museum is very well done. Another cool building. Probably only about 30% of signs have English translations, but they have an app that helps some. An extended visit might be a hard sell for someone not really interested in the subject material. My wife kept joking, "oh look, another room full of pots, sculptures, and bones".
    • I actually liked the Chapultepec Castle (history museum) more than Anthropology. Very nice collection and some great Juan O'Gorman murals although again nowhere near 100% English signage. Google Translate works well. They had a little section on the Texas Revolution, pretty interesting from a Mexican perspective.
    • We didn't hit Centro Historico as much as I had planned. Took a peek at the Zocalo, saw Ballet Folklorico at Palacio de Bellas Artes, and that was about it. The pedestrian walk from Zocalo to PdBA felt touristy as shit to me. They may as well build a Senor Frog's on that street.
    • Regarding the pyramids, we did one of the hot air balloon tours. It started ass early in the morning but was worth it, IMO. Very cool, unique, and serene experience. The company we went with was Volare and everything seemed professional, safe, and well-organized.
    • Did a street food tour with these guys (actually gals, it's 100% women-run): Eat Like a Local. Cool tour, great guide, would recommend.
    • Holy fuck the traffic is absurd. HOLY FUCK. I'll never complain about traffic ever again. I don't understand how anyone that drives there isn't a raving lunatic by now. We ended up walking a lot more than I anticipated because Uber is just so fucking slow that it doesn't buy you much time. Uber is cheap and easy but its time estimates are total bullshit for CDMX. Overestimate how long it takes to get anywhere, and then double that. I'm serious. We'd call Uber and then just stand there for 15 minutes watching the guy sit perfectly still 4 blocks away because he can't move anywhere. We tried the subway once and it was closed with no warning/explanation.
    • The pollution/altitude combo is legit, be prepared. I felt kinda crappy our first morning there because of altitude, and we were both blowing giant black snot rockets the entire time.
    • Overall, fucking awesome city. To be able to get that much culture less than a 2 hour flight from Texas is incredible. We could've spent a month there and not hit all the things on my list. Will be back for sure.
    • Hook 'Em 7
    • Like 2
  3. 3 hours ago, Irish Wrist Watch said:

    Five year projection

    Cowboys stand by Dak. His stats get worse every year. The team gets worse every year. Cowboys can't get rid of him. Trey Lance traded. Makes strides as backup. Gets starter role. Wins Super Bowl. Junior Jones arrested and imprisoned for trying to smother father in his sleep. Jerry Jones continues to run team from Iron Lung. As hail mary, rehires Jason Garrett to return Cowboys to greatness. Garrett, who has been in his garage workshop studying NFL trends for three years, brings back Dave Campo, another Trend Watcher. Cowboys convince Dak to retire and then win ten games. Senile Jones loses Cowboys in poker game to unemployed construction worker. Court upholds. Fans celebrate. New era begins.

    So folks, only five more years of this shit and we'll be ready to roll.

    Sounds way more interesting than going 9-8 and a first round playoff exit every year, which is what is actually going to happen.

    16 hours ago, Tired Horn said:

    I don't think we're Nebraska. I mean, they've just run into the geographic, financial and cultural limitations of Nebraska as a state at a time in college football's evolution when those things matter a lot. They can still have some decent 8 and 9-win seasons if they get their act together, but they're no longer a serious candidate for a national title based on things out of their control.

    Dallas, on the other hand, is the 9th largest city in the US, the franchise is the most valuable in all of sports, with a television cache that admittedly defies rational explanation after all these years, has resources and some sharp-looking uniforms, and has actually assembled a decently stocked roster. There's no reason the Cowboys shouldn't be at least in play for a Super Bowl every now and then save the egomaniacal cancer running the show.

    In short, Nebraska is now facing the real-life consequences of being Nebraska. The Dallas Cowboys management is just fucking the team up and has been for almost three decades.

    Sure, in theory the Cowboys’ structural problem (ownership by the Jones family) is less impossible to overcome than Nebraska’s (it’s in fucking Nebraska lol). But in practice, the chance that the Jones family relinquishes control of team is about the same as the chance that Lincoln, NE transforms into Los Angeles. 

  4. Are we the Nebraska of the NFL? Thoroughly passed up by the rest of the NFL with no realistic pathway back to relevance without huge structural change that is not likely to happen anytime soon? But since we won some shit 30 years ago a subset of fans will always feel like we’re entitled to be good and a return to those glory days is just right around the corner.

    I’m going to pick some other random team that doesn’t give a single fuck about us and start blaming them for all our problems. Guys, the Pittsburgh Steelers did this to us! It’s their fault! If they hadn’t started Steelers Network, we wouldn’t be fucking useless for the rest of eternity!!

  5. 28 minutes ago, DaysOff said:


    CRAPers. Conservative Republican Airline Pilots that pay 6k a year in union dues and vote for people who try to destroy what's left of their union's negotiating leverage.

    A tale as old as time. "Well, they don't mean MY union" (narrator: they do).

  6. 44 minutes ago, TheStoicPaisano said:

    They named the girl Bennett? 

    Bro they are suburban white people from Alabama. We should just be thankful it's not Bynnyttleigh.

    38 minutes ago, Make em eat Taco Bell said:

    split by race / wealth right?

    Sometimes they pack a few sympatico demographics together. Looking at this map, 18 is pretty much Blacks and 29 is Latinos. But 38 is a mix of super rich old money whites and exurban aggy whites. 9 is mostly Black but with a sprinkling of both well off and working class whites. 7 is actually quite a mashup of rich whites, yuppie whites, Blacks, and (South) Asians.

    • Hook 'Em 1
    • Like 1
  7. 1 hour ago, Not a cat said:

    I played that for my teenage son once and he says G-reg was the best rapper of all of them.  Spitting bars, as the kids say.

    He might be. They weren't exactly Wu-Tang. IIRC, G-reg and one other guy were passable and the rest were straight trash.

  8. Yeah getting ready by the 20th seems like a stretch. I assume people will be out of town for spring break this month (myself included).

    Maybe post on the baseball board to see if we can get some more participants? Or we could try AL/NL only if we don't get many more. Never done that before but that might be a better option than everyone having stacked superteams.

  9. 15 minutes ago, SimkinsMan said:

    Was there. There was hope in the air after Garrett Gilbert looked decent in the championship game months before. Then we looked like dogshit against a bad opponent. Rice went 4-8 that year, later giving up an average of 60 points against the likes of Tulsa and Tulane. So it's not like Gilbert was facing a functional defense. 

    Bless Sark for rescuing us from a dozen years of ineptitude that began in Reliant Stadium that dark day.

    The pregame and postgame difference could not have been more stark. I was euphoric walking in to the stadium, I remember it clearly. By the 2nd half the stadium was like a morgue. No excitement, no enthusiasm whatosever from fans or team.

    Damn right on Sark. We are just in such a better place right now. I mean, thanks to them for their service to Texas football and all, but check out our offensive skill position "talent" from that day: GG, Tre Newton, Cody Johnson, Fozzy Whittaker, Malcolm Williams, Marquise Goodwin, John Chiles. Yech. Hats off to Goodwin for hanging around the NFL for several years, but the rest of that group is pretty rough.

    • Like 1
    • Rage+1 2
  10. 2 hours ago, 'stache said:

    I'll die on this hill if necessary: It's the coaches (and the owner since real coaches won't work for him). You don't win 12 games and get the 2nd seed without the talent being there, including at QB and the lines. Bad coaching is what gets that team down 20-0 to start a playoff game against the lowest seed in the playoffs and failing to even fight back. That's shitty game planning, shitty playcalling, and shitty in-game coaching.

    Nobody else wanted McCarthy or Zimmer. Quinn was always the loser that blew that Super Bowl lead. Kellen Moore only got the job because he was a Jerry yes man, and he's only still around because I guess someone else thinks he might be salvageable at his age (I give it a 5% chance he is still a coach in 5 years). We couldn't even find an offensive coordinator willing to work with McCarthy or Jerry. It's the fucking shithead coaches and the fact that not only would Jerry never consider a young up and comer coach, the type that is leading the league into a new era, but that none of them are going to work for a piece of shit like Jerry. I'm calling it now, after we fail yet again next year, McCarthy will get fired, and Jerry will just promote Zimmer, because why not, he's old and washed up, just like Jerry likes 'em.

    I think it's the culture of the organization. There's no way to have so many talented teams on paper and not make it to a single NFC Championship game in 30 years unless something in the organization is rotten to the core. Jerry treats the players and coaches as his buddies and playthings, he doesn't demand excellence from them. Strive for greatness every fucking day or you'll be replaced by someone who will. You haven't accomplished shit just by being on the Dallas Cowboys.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  11. 56 minutes ago, hook me said:

    No no. Now that it's been started it must be completed. We must punish ourselves by posting/reading about how bad we were from 2010-2022. This is Surly's Law & there is no escape.

    I got you fam.

    I had just moved to Houston in the fall of 2010. I was so excited for the first game against Rice, just minutes from my new home! We had just played for the MNC! We were ranked #5 preseason! This is the year! I was fucking hammered by kickoff.

    And then....we kinda looked shitty. HornFans or Shaggy, can't remember which we were on back then, did its usual "a win is a win! some of y'all will never be happy!", but nothing could hide the fact that we looked bad against a bad Rice team.

    • Like 1
    • Rage+1 1
  12. Actually one last parting shot before I’m out. Anyone posting stuff like “Trump is only winning 70% and that is very bad for him” needs to shut the fuck up. That is a terrible take. Nikki Haley is a big name, was a governor and UN ambassador, and had a lot of money behind her. If someone like, say, Pete Buttigeig was running against Biden, he’d be siphoning off 35% too. 

    • Hook 'Em 1
    • Haha 1
  13. Do y’all want to see how fucked we are?

    https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1b7pfa2/how_are_you_feeling_about_the_inevitable_trump_v/

    One trillion upvotes this morning for variations on “these guys both suck”. Not one single top post calling out the false equivalency. 

    I think I’m done with this thread and this election cycle. Quickly losing my will to give a fuck. If a majority of voters think there’s any comparison at all between these two guys, we deserve every last shit sandwich headed our way. 

    • Hook 'Em 2
    • Like 1
    • Rage+1 1
  14. 22 hours ago, Skipper said:

    Anybody got a link to a cheat sheet for less batshit crazy republicans?  I'm an independent that will be voting D in the fall (outside of some local races in Dallas) but not following any of this closely outside of obvious vote for Haley to the extent I vote tomorrow.

    I googled "Ken Paxton primary endorsements" and just voted the opposite lol. I'm not joking.

    21 hours ago, gmr548 said:

    Depending on where you live tomorrow is potentially the de facto general election. That's probably the biggest one.

    Lawyers/Houston folks - any particular judicial recommendations to sell me on for judicial seats in the Democratic primary? There are so many in Harris County and it can be hard to find good information. 

    I was a juror in Kyle Carter's court (125th) a few years back. He was very professional and seemed to run a nice tight ship from what I could tell. Also had an Earl Campbell Texas jersey hanging in his office. Not sure why he attracted primary challengers. That's all I got on judicial races.

    • Hook 'Em 5
  15. 49 minutes ago, Slacks said:

    5'11 165 is the equivalent of 153 or so at 5'10.

    X is the size I was coming out of HS, but a lot faster.

    He needs about 15 pounds.

    He’s been 165 since he stepped on campus. At this point, I don’t think it’s happening. 

  16. I watched LA Confidential for the first time last night. Always wanted to see it, just never have. It's on Netflix now.

    I ate a large gummy before watching so I was definitely all up inside my head the whole time. Before I get attacked, I agree that it's a great movie overall and I was thoroughly entertained. That said, in my altered state of mind a couple things stuck out at me:

    1. The lead characters sometimes came across as caricatures with one-dimensional motivations, especially Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe. I did feel like they hinted at something a little deeper with Kevin Spacey (who was great, even though we now know he's a creep). Some of the dialogue was very on the nose, and the characters' big dramatic revelations were telegraphed.
    2. Along the same lines, Kim Basinger's character basically just existed to be a sex object for the lead male characters. I skimmed a little bit and was surprised that contemporary reviews didn't call them out more for this.

    I couldn't decide as I watched if the filmmakers deliberately made these choices as an homage/tribute to real old school film noir type stuff, or if these were just flaws in the script. Definitely want to rewatch it while sober and see what I think.

    • Hook 'Em 1
×
×
  • Create New...