Many of those famous places in the hills or even, gasp, Lockhart, really weren't that good once we had Franklin BBQ. I've noticed a lot of these old-school places have had to up their game in recent years and are now competitive again.
That said, waiting in line at Franklin is sort of an event of itself. Most people bring coolers of beer and turn it into a tailgate-like atmosphere. You're right though, I haven't waited in the line for years because I can get something similar much easier.
I'm with you 100% on the Bose headphones comment though. Those things are a ripoff.
But they're still 10% better. They're the best consumer grade noise canceling headphones available. None of the offerings from Sennheiser or the like have both a comparable comfort and the same or better noise canceling. So, for me, there just isn't anything else that solves the problem of having to do high-concentration work in an open office for hours at a time.
For the above comments about Bose in general, it's untrue for this specific use case. Before the Sony model was released there wasn't a better option out there.
All of that said, I've personally had sushi that is comparable in quality out in the Japanese coastal countryside at an essentially random michi-no-eki. It's also significantly cheaper and they have pieces of sushi that you won't find in the larger cities that are unique to the region or town.
Because the lunch and dinner services are different. Because we later vacationed in Japan with a couple that we are friends with and they wanted to go and were more comfortable going with us (both of these places are an intense experience, to put it mildly, though one is a more comfortable atmosphere than the other). Because of that intense experience and the atmosphere that it provides.
Because it's more difficult still to comfortably navigate those smaller towns and regions, outside of Tokyo or Osaka or Kyoto, etc..., without any sort of handle on the language. That alone implies a few things. You or someone you're traveling with knows the language well enough to navigate those smaller towns and regions and that it's very likely not your first or even second trip to the country.
We didn't come to understand that sushi in a place like Shimoda could be better than what you'd find at a Michelin rated sushi restaurant until we were able to find ourselves in Shimoda having that sushi and we weren't comfortable even going to a place like Shimoda until our third trip to Japan.
edit/ Because my wife and I are just as vulnerable as everyone else that is being talked about here for falling prey to "top 10 lists" and the like.
I don't know if it's driven by Disney resorts and cruises, but it seems as if people like standing in line for some reason.
So many clubs make people line up for no reason other than to have a line.
Yep. Even The Salt Lick at AUS is decent.
For those coming in from out of state, take a look at Texas Monthly's BBQ section to get some ideas: https://www.texasmonthly.com/bbq-home/
Q: Which BBQ place should I go to in Austin?
A: Most are good. I've even enjoyed the brisket served at the UT dining halls. (This is blasphemy to some.) You probably would do well to pick any well established BBQ place without a line.
I'm not sure how much better Franklin's would be, but I'm not sure I would care all that much either.
We would have been better served going anywhere else, and will be sure to do so the next time I'm down there!
Franklins is good - but I sure as hell wouldn't wait hours in line for their brisket...
They're not even active noise cancelling. They work just as well with no battery. They're not "dead silent" but I can be making no noise and you have to yell to get my attention.
As an added bonus they're reflective, not that that in any way makes up for the massive reduction in situational awareness you are causing by purposefully handicapping your hearing ability while in/around traffic.
Edit: Did you edit your comment or was it someone else who mentioned wanting to listen to audiobooks while walking down the street?
A crash course on Japanese culture: kodawari. It's a singular, artisanal obsession with making a single thing perfect. In Japan, there are restaurants dedicated to making only one thing, only yakitori or tempura or soba or a myriad other things or, of course, ramen.
With such dedication, you elevate such trivial things, even such an extremely unremarkable thing like ramen, into a high art, and you expose it as what is is, a world full of subtleties. Yes, there are people just doing business, but by and large the field is advanced by people who care, and there is no top on this. SF has one, maybe two ramen-ya that even remotely come close.
You exhaustively experiment, hacker-like, with the parameters of every possible thing you care about, the ratios of the bones and aromatics and fushi and fat that go into broth, the proportions of seasonings that go into the tare sauce that has had entire books written about them, the alkalinity and hydration and timing of the noodles, the little details and seasoning on top of the toppings. It is precisely through the person-centuries of experimentation that we find interesting combinations that we realized we could do interesting things in this thing that was basically just a bowl of pork soup with some soy sauce and some springy noodles. All this, and it's still just ten bucks a bowl.
As far as I know, no other culture even comes remotely close to this kind of kodawari on such a large scale.
It feels ridiculously dismissive to just ignore the achievements of an entire culture like that.
(And for the record, it's not like I think there isn't any overrated ramen. I waited collectively something like two hours for the Michelin-starred Tsuta, and on net it impressed me less than some much more humble ramen-ya. All I'm saying is that the search space is both wide and deep, and it feels weird to just dismiss it like that.)
I assume you have seen Tampopo. In case you have not and for others, it is a VHS-era film comedy about two truck drivers who help a struggling roadside chef learn how to really make noodles.
> Even great noodles aren't much better than average noodles. I really can't understand it.
I have no reason to be mad at this, I have literally no reason to be emotionally connected to this, but... it still disappoints me a little bit on the inside to read this.
When it comes to anything, there will always be people who care at 100%, and people who care at 0%, and when it comes to art or cuisine or web design best practices there's going to be disagreements on it.
And that's fine. It's not dismissive in a morally bad way. It's just food (full disclosure: I was a chef for over 10 years, I have a LOT of opinions on anything related to it). Some guy on the internet saying that the greatest ramen in the world isn't a substantial improvement over the most average ramen in the world doesn't ruin anything. It's just like, your opinion man.
I just kind of wish more people (including me) would try more things, you know? :P
(I guess I'm channeling my inner David Chang right now.)
Listen, I get it. I spend 8 hours every few months boiling off a massive pot of bones and feet to make my own ramen broth to store in my freezer. I get that it's easy to dismiss it soup and noodles as just "some soup and noodles".
Food is usually about what you know and are familiar with. It's about comfort for most people, but other people are about finding novel or interesting experiences.
It can be great food, but you're going to poop it out the same as anything else. So what are you paying for, when you get above a minimum bar of nutrition, sanitation, and taste? An experience. Fashion. Hospitality. With high end ingredients and techniques, scarcity.
And I can see the appeal of chasing after "the best" on both ends. Something that is not just a great experience once, but great on every plate, every service. It's not unlike other aesthetic and cultural pursuits in that at the higher end it becomes about the coloration that you prefer, and most objective measures fall apart.
But then most people aren't even able to describe what they want aesthetically, so a ranking substitutes. And when it's a ranking of something familiar and popular like burgers or noodle soups, it's simultaneously more interesting(more people have comparable experiences) and easier to dismiss(there are many great options).
Earlier this year I visited Tokyo and decided to find "the best burger" (according to some guide) and the place I ultimately visited was, indeed, quite good by any standard, and it wasn't busy or unusually expensive, even. Was it the best? I have absolutely no idea. But I get to tell a story about visiting "the best" regardless.
There's plenty of non-asians eating at the most "authentic" places, but when I go into some of them I notice that the populations are still more skewed towards the people of that make up that culture. Why? Because most people tend to gravitate towards food they're familiar with. No matter how much I tell someone that a beef tendon and noodle soup is going to be good, they're going to be hesitant because it's foreign and they're unfamiliar with the ingredients. That's fine. It's ultimately just food, and people don't have to eat anything they don't want to.
To me, David Chang and his constant hemming and hawing about how nobody respects Korean food (specifically Korean food, although he sometimes tries to throw a blanket over the whole of Asian food although he knows he's being disingenuous and his whole tone changes when he does that) is just so annoying. I'm sorry that Koreans haven't done as well marketing their cuisines as Indians, Chinese and Japanese restaurants have. But it's changing. In the mid-90's sushi was still considered exotic and interesting. Now you can buy it at a gas station. He just seems very impatient and indignant that "the masses" take a long time to change what they consider to be part of normal American Cuisine, and he should know better.
TL;dr- getting upset someone doesn't want to eat your food is stupid. Just don't invite them to dinner anymore.
> I really can't understand it.
Why does anything have to be wrong with them? Why can't it just be that they have different tastes?
I have no issue with you having your own opinion (it's stupid; I won't do it, I can't understand). That's all well and good.
Saying "what is wrong with these people" about something you don't understand, but that is harmless thing and doesn't involve you significantly... that's just plain close-minded.
The comment above yours at least tried to provide some reasoning (people following recommendations, fooling themselves with cognitive dissonance), but it didn't try to draw a distinct "me vs them, something is wrong with them" as your comment did.
You should reflect a little if this is your gut reaction to people doing something you don't understand but that is harmless; it shouldn't be "something is wrong with them", it should be "I wonder what they see in it? I just don't get it for some reason; I guess we live different lives"
Franklin's BBQ in Austin has hours long lines. It's very good brisket.
The hill country of Texas is FILLED with equally good brisket joints that don't have lines.
People who wait in line for 4 hours won't admit this. Cognitive dissonance kicks in, and Franklin's is unique and better than everyone else in their minds. Try telling a person that their Bose headphones are overpriced and overrated, and you will see this in action.
Lists are indeed stupid, but only because people aren't rational decision makers.