This remind me of "The Ice Cream Museum". A "Museum" displays just to take pictures for the gram in the installations.
Those restaurants are judged on their instagramabilities. In the end they are a new iteration of "the place to be seen" but the audience is virtual and not the place’s patrons.
I have to disagree with you on the "those people have no stand in speaking." For the simple fact that we are on substack and that could be said about a lot of us here.
I will never eat at a Mexican place that looks Instagrammable for that very reason. A lot of the time, it's just whitewashed mediocre food.
And yes, I'm not one to appeal to authority. But if you have no backing credentials or expertise to justify your criticism of something, there should at least be some baseline effort to know what you're talking about and developing the vocabulary to articulate yourself.
It's hard to be a foodie in a place like Vancouver where there is just so much variety. Our son used to refuse to eat anything other than the basics whenever his friends asked him if he wanted to join them at Cactus Club. He said it's hard paying for the same food he can get at home that his mother makes, without charging him a ridiculous price. It's like eating Sushi in Vegas, you can do it if you've never had it before, but why would you?
Yeah, it's rough eating with people who have a limited palette. Although, I will be moving to Van City in the coming year and I have heard wonderful things about the food scene.
"...the troubling intellectual laziness that pervades influencer culture, where anybody can claim to be a critic or an expert on anything without any backing credentials while the rest of us decline our standards of what is worthy of our attention and finite time on this planet..."
Nobody should be following critics who have no skill set or academic background to justify their claims. In this sense, TikTok is a massively unhelpful enabler.
Although, to be fair, the people who use it are operating under a very short time window that prevents them from giving out critiques with substance.
It doesn't even need to be a formal credential. I'm not even the biggest fan of Dave Portnoy, but his pizza reviews have a level of integrity that I respect. He's not a trained chef or pizzaiolo, but he's been to hundreds of pizza spots all around the U.S. and Canada, so I can at least trust that he has a large enough sample size and the level of commitment to give thorough pizza reviews.
I recently had a one-sided go at the screen when watching a British guy review yet another ordinary fish and chips restaurant (but that's on me, I clicked on it and I knew what I was getting myself into). He allegedly had a take-away business in the past and in years of reviews still has not learned adjectives and had to ask a waiter what the name of the restaurant ("umami") was pronounced or meant. The basics! *and more italian hand-gestures*
This remind me of "The Ice Cream Museum". A "Museum" displays just to take pictures for the gram in the installations.
Those restaurants are judged on their instagramabilities. In the end they are a new iteration of "the place to be seen" but the audience is virtual and not the place’s patrons.
I have to disagree with you on the "those people have no stand in speaking." For the simple fact that we are on substack and that could be said about a lot of us here.
I will never eat at a Mexican place that looks Instagrammable for that very reason. A lot of the time, it's just whitewashed mediocre food.
And yes, I'm not one to appeal to authority. But if you have no backing credentials or expertise to justify your criticism of something, there should at least be some baseline effort to know what you're talking about and developing the vocabulary to articulate yourself.
How to know if it’s a good Mexican place: the staff is bickering with each others and there’s a Dragon Ball poster.
It's hard to be a foodie in a place like Vancouver where there is just so much variety. Our son used to refuse to eat anything other than the basics whenever his friends asked him if he wanted to join them at Cactus Club. He said it's hard paying for the same food he can get at home that his mother makes, without charging him a ridiculous price. It's like eating Sushi in Vegas, you can do it if you've never had it before, but why would you?
Yeah, it's rough eating with people who have a limited palette. Although, I will be moving to Van City in the coming year and I have heard wonderful things about the food scene.
The food in Vancouver is amazing. There's a lot of variety here. And the seafood is to die for! We like to get it fresh off the boat.
"...the troubling intellectual laziness that pervades influencer culture, where anybody can claim to be a critic or an expert on anything without any backing credentials while the rest of us decline our standards of what is worthy of our attention and finite time on this planet..."
Nobody should be following critics who have no skill set or academic background to justify their claims. In this sense, TikTok is a massively unhelpful enabler.
Although, to be fair, the people who use it are operating under a very short time window that prevents them from giving out critiques with substance.
It doesn't even need to be a formal credential. I'm not even the biggest fan of Dave Portnoy, but his pizza reviews have a level of integrity that I respect. He's not a trained chef or pizzaiolo, but he's been to hundreds of pizza spots all around the U.S. and Canada, so I can at least trust that he has a large enough sample size and the level of commitment to give thorough pizza reviews.
I recently had a one-sided go at the screen when watching a British guy review yet another ordinary fish and chips restaurant (but that's on me, I clicked on it and I knew what I was getting myself into). He allegedly had a take-away business in the past and in years of reviews still has not learned adjectives and had to ask a waiter what the name of the restaurant ("umami") was pronounced or meant. The basics! *and more italian hand-gestures*
So, I’m not missing anything by avoiding TikTok?
Just brain worms
My brother owns a restaurant, I’m definitely sharing this with him! Loved this, Sam, and the “vibey” bathroom was a 10/10. 😂
It's all about the vibe when I'm laying a fat stinker after eating a 32 oz. steak.