3 ms·

I like Dustin, and I love what he's doing with Svbtle, but he has this – as I see it – irrational need to own and experience "the best". Maybe there is such a t

by 1as 14y ago

I like Dustin, and I love what he's doing with Svbtle, but he has this – as I see it – irrational need to own and experience "the best". Maybe there is such a thing as the best cutlery, and maybe the cutlery he bought is it...but it seems like such an empty, odd, materialistic goal. 'First world problems' writ large. I first noticed it from this tweet (http://twitter.com/dcurtis/statuses/246843440179056640 http://twitter.com/dcurtis/statuses/246843440179056640) where he asks about "the best ramen in Tokyo". Anybody with any cultural, historical, or indeed culinary understanding of ramen can see that this is totally missing the point. My question is, why continuously talk about and seek "the best" as opposed to, say, "really good"? There's a kind of arrogance entrained in such a mode of thought.

plaguuuuuu 14y ago
Urgh. Asking about the best flatware doesn't really move me -- why else would anyone buy expensive flatware -- but the best ramen? It's a manifestation of this generation's way of living. Not through appreciation of food, art, music, but through acquisition of it. This is why people are so obsessed with instagramming their michelin-hatted dinners. Why people say that they've "done" Asia or Europe. Why people own limited edition vinyl records and have NO RECORD PLAYER. Disgusting.
spartango 14y ago
While I can see your point, you might consider that by asking many people for their respective favorites, he seeks to get a list of a many options. This is simply driven by the assumption that if there are many nearly equal "really good" spots, then people will provide a nice distribution of them as personal favorites.
- fudged71 14y ago
  The thesis of this blog post, by the same author, is clearly about the literal best. He could easily have asked "What is a good place for ramen?" or "What should I look for to find a good ramen place?" or even "What is your favorite place for ramen?" And note that he's not asking for the restaurants, he's specifically asking about the product: the best ramen in tokyo. I think it fits this blog post very well. If I go to Italy for the first time, I won't go for "the best pasta in Italy", I'd go and try authentic italian pasta. There is a huge difference.
xutopia 14y ago
As someone who knows nothing about Ramen and Tokyo. Could you explain what he missed? I may have missed it too.
- bmelton 14y ago
  Ramen is wide and varied, and there are probably many who could legitimately lay claim to being 'the best' on a given day, within a given niche. The point though, is that there isn't a 'best' anything. Just as one can't eat pizza every day and keep enjoying it, the place you fancy right now as the best might not be the place you want to go tomorrow. My younger self had a steak at Tom Colicchio's CraftSteak many years ago, and declared it the best steak ever. In later years, I learned enough to declare it "the best steak I'd ever eaten", and then to re-refine its category as the best steak I'd had at the time. There are now four steak places that I love at least as well, and would consider to be at the top of the heap, but they each operate so differently and make different cuts / seasonings / sides, etc., that it's hard to compare directly, and I've given up trying. When I get to eat at any of them, I consider it a "good day". On top of that, he isn't likely to have eaten at every single Ramen place in Tokyo, so the claim is specious at best.

by 1as 14y ago

plaguuuuuu 14y ago

Urgh. Asking about the best flatware doesn't really move me -- why else would anyone buy expensive flatware -- but the best ramen? It's a manifestation of this generation's way of living. Not through appreciation of food, art, music, but through acquisition of it. This is why people are so obsessed with instagramming their michelin-hatted dinners. Why people say that they've "done" Asia or Europe. Why people own limited edition vinyl records and have NO RECORD PLAYER. Disgusting.

spartango 14y ago

While I can see your point, you might consider that by asking many people for their respective favorites, he seeks to get a list of a many options. This is simply driven by the assumption that if there are many nearly equal "really good" spots, then people will provide a nice distribution of them as personal favorites.

fudged71 14y ago
The thesis of this blog post, by the same author, is clearly about the literal best. He could easily have asked "What is a good place for ramen?" or "What should I look for to find a good ramen place?" or even "What is your favorite place for ramen?" And note that he's not asking for the restaurants, he's specifically asking about the product: the best ramen in tokyo. I think it fits this blog post very well. If I go to Italy for the first time, I won't go for "the best pasta in Italy", I'd go and try authentic italian pasta. There is a huge difference.

xutopia 14y ago

As someone who knows nothing about Ramen and Tokyo. Could you explain what he missed? I may have missed it too.

bmelton 14y ago
Ramen is wide and varied, and there are probably many who could legitimately lay claim to being 'the best' on a given day, within a given niche. The point though, is that there isn't a 'best' anything. Just as one can't eat pizza every day and keep enjoying it, the place you fancy right now as the best might not be the place you want to go tomorrow. My younger self had a steak at Tom Colicchio's CraftSteak many years ago, and declared it the best steak ever. In later years, I learned enough to declare it "the best steak I'd ever eaten", and then to re-refine its category as the best steak I'd had at the time. There are now four steak places that I love at least as well, and would consider to be at the top of the heap, but they each operate so differently and make different cuts / seasonings / sides, etc., that it's hard to compare directly, and I've given up trying. When I get to eat at any of them, I consider it a "good day". On top of that, he isn't likely to have eaten at every single Ramen place in Tokyo, so the claim is specious at best.