What nationality are you? Are there clues you give in avatar/username or signature?

The outdoors are vastly overrated.

 

Yup, that's the one. Also don't tell him that the last time I ate there my pizza was under done. The base was doughy and definitely undercooked. He's also very expensive for what's basically a cheese pasty that no one's bothered to fold in half.
Seriously though, we've eaten there a few times and apart from the last time it has always been of a high standard although he's very stingy on the cheese IMO.
There's no atmosphere either. No music and never very busy. Everyone seems to eat in silence like it's some church to the God of bread and cheese. Far too serious.
We've actually changed to a lovely little family run trattoria in town for our family birthday celebrations now(my mum lives in Beccles and my sister is just down the road).
They have a much wider menu including lots of pasta dishes etc. It's always packed with happy laughing customers with good music and a far more informal vibe. No one tutted when I ordered pineapple off the menu and it's half the price of the oak-fired restaurant.
If you want the connoisseurs pizza go to the first one if you want a good meal in great surroundings with a happy lively atmosphere go to the second. My only complaint would be the rather poor tiramisu. I make a far better one myself and I learned how to make it out of a book.
Oh, and the trattoria is owned and run by actual Italians not a wannabe.

 

I think it's a perfectly reasonable thing to want to dissociate from unsavory types from one's past, but at a certain point it becomes ridiculous. Socrates owned slaves, therefore destroy all of his works and never teach him again.

So in other words, you have to live with Rhode's legacy, good and bad.

 

That second pic looks like some kind of evil nightmare pizza! I'm fine with the pineapple - but that vile looking thick, doughy 'crust', the insipid ham, and total lack of greens ... it looks like something you'd feed to four year olds at a kids birthday party. The pizza at the top, however, looks bang on. That's exactly how we make ours!

 

Yeah it was an unfair comparison. Stick a few black olives, pineapple and maybe some mature cheddar for flavour on the first one and now we're talking.

 

I can't stand olives .. or mushrooms! We stick to fresh tomato, spinach or rocket, basil leaves, plus a little mozarella and a dash of Parmigiano. We go very light on cheese, with a very thin crisp crust.

 

To be honest I just can't bring myself to be snobbish about pizza.
Sorry CF but at the end of the day it's just peasant street food.
Oh well Centerfield is never going to speak to me again but it had to be said. Ain't no pizza recipes in Escoffier's Repertoire.

 

Well, sure. But everything that one eats should be done with high standards and great ingredients.
I hope you don't think that my eating repertoire is just the peasant street food.
I'm actually a very sophisticated foodie and I've visited many of the best restaurants in the world, in Paris, Vienna, Rome, New York, etc.

 

Whenever I start a post in this site, I assume an international audience, so I try to specify which country, and provide short explanations for those who may not be intimately familiar with the political situation.

That said, the choice of words by some of the British members in this forum just seems vulgar, and it is frustrating at times to try to figure out exactly what you are talking about. Let's just say it's definitely not Oxford English...

 

Texan. Secession would be OK with me, not that I'm demanding it yet.

 

I'm just pulling your leg old bean.
I'm sure your standards are far higher than mine and I'm a chef FFS.

 

Plonker.

 

As it happens Rhodes' statues are starting to be removed including calls for one at Oxford university to be taken down IIRC.
I kind of agree with you though as it could be said that doing so is whitewashing the more shameful parts of a country's history. Better to leave them in place with a plaque explaining why the person was so revered at the time and why they are held in less regard today.

 

Being of Scot ancestry I have to note that nobody ever conquered us and therefore I can't claim reparations from anyone. The Romans built their wall to keep us OUT.

 

Ahem, I refer you to the bloody fields of Culloden.
The English have been conquering the Scots since at least the 11th century. I can't imagine why so many want Independence.

''Aye, but Bannockburn ya English Bastard'' I hear you cry.
''Where the fields were awash with the blood of Englishmen''
OK I'll give you that one but as everyone knows it's not who wins the heats that matter but who won the final.

 

Ah but there's the trick of it laddie. You only THINK you conquered us, actually WE were conquering YOU

 

Well you did get back the stone of destiny that Edward I stole from Scone Abbey back in 1297.
It took 700 years and you didn't take it back. We felt a bit guilty and gave it back but it's safely back in Edinburgh now until we need it to use when we crown the next monarch.
Shame there are no longer any Scottish kings to crown on it any more but that's the price you pay for losing over and over again to the English.
Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated.

 

The problem is, virtually no one yesterday can meet the standards of today, or tomorrow. The New York City mayor just kicked a Thomas Jefferson statue out of city hall. A country that hates it's history probably doesn't have very long on the existence meter.

 

I knew the OP was a Brit because of his accent.

 

I agree, that's why I think education is a better idea. A plaque on the side of every statue explaining all about the person and what they did etc. There's a reason not everybody gets a statue after you die. You have to have made some sort of achievement in your lifetime.
Of course the left and right would argue back and forth as to what was written on the plaque but at least then in the future you can just change the words instead of removing the statue as people fall out of favour.

 

I got told off for writing in British earlier.

 

They perfected their game by enslaving and killing Irish people....I am one half Irish, one quarter northern Italian and one quarter Croatian.....All three fought against the limeys and the Stalinist Commies in WW II. Enemy of my enemy....

 

Plus the Welsh first on the way to Ireland and a few Internationals against the French.
You've got to stay match fit.

 

You don't get to rule India with half a dozen men and a bicycle for three centuries without putting the practice in first.