Any suggestions on restaurants?

It is a wonderful place to live (not rush around live a rat in a lab experiment and call it living). Sure, it’s not “bright and shiney” like Atlanta, but it is somewhere you can call home and feel at home.

There is so much here to do and enjoy. And because it’s so easy to get around, you have a lot more time to do all those things.

Personally, I love winters here. “There’s no such thing as bad weather–just bad clothes.”

I rewatched the HK episode last night and couldn’t agree more! The photography and editing were spectacular and PERFECTLY showcased both the amazing food and the city. How I want to go back.

I’m so impressed how Tony & the production team manage to keep a consistent quality of writing, “story”, filming and editing wherever they go, and also change the style of the “film” to fit each new place they share.

There’s no other show remotely like it on television–despite the abundance of food and travel shows. I hope they win an Emmy for Beirut, but really the entire series deserves one.

Compliments to all involved–you do a fantastic job. Thank you.

The Sausage Shoppe Clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lybeg6_R-O8

Sokolowski’s clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_2ANHLi8RA

Lola’s Clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9-qkxh7Rgc

Hot Sauce Williams
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWM33qUXq0k

West Side Market
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9axN9w1n2Z8

I thought it was a great episode, probably the best one yet.

Having been raised in Hong Kong, I was totally blown away by the HK episode. Tony really did his home work – no tourist would think to eat their way through Taipo Market or Yuen Long, even though, as we all saw, the food in Taipo is . . . well . . . miraculous. I can’t believe Tony even ferreted out my favorite goose/plum sauce dish, on top of the fabulous pork, etc. And the race track at Happy Valley? My family are lifelong members of the Royal HK Jockey Club, and I could see the track below me, at the end of my street. The old footage of all the Hakka sampans lashed together, for a people who live their entire lives on boats? Loved it. Dim sum as a contact sport? Well, now my husband and in-laws see why I get pretty physical when we have dim sum here in NY. And the motif of HK as a pinball machine on tilt? FINALLY, someone got that right.

The only thing he might have addressed was the floating restaurants in Aberdeen, where your dinner is still swimming around in tanks under the restaurant/boat, but I thought the typhoon crab segment might have made up for it.

After being back in the States for nearly 30 years, someone finally was able to make me “homesick”. Thanks, Tony. Really good job.

To reinforce the feeling of HK’s fast, frenetic pace, I noticed that ZeroPointZero was doing a lot of jump cuts and slow-mos into freeze frames with the added 3D effects (like the subject is pulled forward out of the background of the frame), very like Guy Ritchie’s brilliant Snatched. Of course, they storyboarded the Clevelaned episode like a cartoon strip, because of the Pekar aspect. So I guess the production team is not only refining their cinematography and “art direction” for each episode, but tryin g to make them more appropriate to each locale. Tony, a lifelong film fanatic, is getting even more “cinema verite” with his own work (!) Remember the Sicily episode? Very Fellini-esque and B&W towards the end? I thought the “action sequence” was hysterical, but I liked the cinematography throught the entire episode.

OK, my 2 cents. Or maybe it was a full dime.

But! If he avoided Austin and did San Antonio, that could be OK. Hell, he could do a San Antonio show on just Bandera Rd & Culebra Rd. And maybe Zarzamora!!
Ajua!

God, I’m so ashamed of myself right now.

I want to see the surfers this winter, although I will bring GLBC Edmund Fitzgerald Porter as it is more fitting with the frigid waves of the great lakes. Where along Lakeshore Blvd can I find the sewer surf? Is it near the Cleve/Euclid border?

Watched it with my buddy who is now living in C-bus. Middle of the episode WSM segment and he turns to me and says “Columbus is a nice city and all…BUT DAMMIT I’M A CLEVELANDER AND I REALLY LOVE THAT PLACE!”

Cheer up Cleveland you are truly unique.

“The Internets” seem to think that Clevelanders are just reluctant to “face up” to the gritty reality of what was shown. But I can’t help, after watching it a 2nd time, wondering why most of the exciting or good parts of the city seemed to be edited out (Lola being the exception) and instead the focus was on the kitsch. I wasn’t looking for a CVB advertisement for Cleveland, but I think if it was supposed to be even close to an authentic representation of where Clevelanders go for good food, it missed the mark. I wish people wouldn’t plan to visit Cleveland because they think it’s sort of fascinating, like watching a train wreck, but instead have a genuine interest and level of pleasant surprise in the variety of great food we have available.

Just my 2 cents. I know the horse is dead and I’ll try to let him rest in peace.

My question: Tony makes these video essays look so effortless (not to mention fun!) but we all know they must be an awful lot of work. Kind of like “Words and Music” when two different people are writing a song.

So, I’m curious which comes first–the editing or Tony’s writing? It’s hard to imagine the process being separate. Or does he sit and participate in going through all the footage (I’m guessing 80% of which is left on the cutting room floor)?

The food in Hong Kong looked absolutely fantastic and the AB-as-martial artist-was great touch. But…which comes first, the chicken or the egg, the editing or writing? And…thanks!

(Great episode, thanks, Mr. Ruhlman.)

The cassoulet recipe is in the Les Halles cookbook. I think you can also get it on-line (taken from the book). Tony distributed cheat sheets with the recipe on it at a talk/cooking demo he gave last October, so I’ve been using that one.

BTW, even though I’m not a big cassoulet fan, his was gorgeous. Beautifully redolent of thyme, unctuous and (believe it or not) – light. And, yes, the bowlful I got had a chunk of duck confit and saucisson de Toulouse in it. A “light” bowl of cassoulet? Man, that takes skill . . .

I thought we had a solid rep as a foodie town, so I don’t know why he’s never done a show here. Instead we get Rachael Ray. Fucking travesty, if you ask me.