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RamenHaus

ramen.haus

121–130 of 132 posts

Re: RamenHaus

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But for the price that it is usually sold at in western cities What are those prices specifically? In Barcelona (one of those western cities, imo) at a good ramen place, you get Gyozas for ~5 EUR, and a nice ramen for ~12-14 EUR, add a drink and you end up with ~20 EUR per person, which strikes me as relatively affordable for eating out, but maybe the metropolitan prices have biased me over time. Is this expensive/…

Nice Ramen sold at 14 EUR are those prices. In Japan, you can have a nice hinge quality bowl of Ramen for around 7-8 EUR.

Comparing price tags across Japan and the west is kind of meaningless now considering how much the yen devalued. I don't think the prices would look that good for a Japanese person paid in yen.

Re: RamenHaus

#123
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man, that is a little treasure. And a modest tribute to the majesty of good Ramen. I actually ran yt-dlp on that one... I am existentially opposed to, among a completely unreasonable large number of things, eating. I am often embarrassed to eat, and rarely fail to consider the final product and its porcelain fate. But Ramen justifies it all; making sense of.. and almost if not actually, dignifying the depraved and in…

Hey, this is completely off topic, but I wanted to put this somewhere you might see it. I was reviewing some of my old posts this evening, and I ran across this comment of yours: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48896423 This turned out to be very prophetic. My compliments on your foresight. (I mean, it wasn't on the power grid, but on water systems. Other than that, really on-target.)

I appreciate the unusually friendly comment. I tend to look forward a lot, enough that I often miss my own nose. But there is implausible credit due there. I say that not to be humble, but because think I know the reason, which isn't a good one.

I have spent the last two years, in my spare time, documenting certain aspects of AI. If my foresight proves valid anywhere, I think it will be mostly there. Much of my 'research' involves censorship, information manipulation, and related things. About now, you may already suspect I am rambling. I see a lot of connected threads, and cannot really help it, as it's how I think. My point is, I am far from the only one expressing such concerns, or making such 'predictions'. In my opinion, there are efforts, both inadvertent self-censorship, and real external or imposed censorship, which tends to keep the kind of content your url touches on, out of view. So dig deeper, and you may find a screeching choir.

In my time, I have learned that some things, regardless of intelligence, are not acceptable, and however real, not discussed. In 2024, based exclusively on my interactions with LLMs, it became crystal clear that all frontier models would fall under Pentagon control, And some will argue that has not happened yet, but there are certainly active contracts, and those have implications. But the only source that would 'listen' without retaliation, were the LLMs themselves. So I tend to really hold back a lot on that subject, because it seems to really piss people off.

Two weeks before the IED event at CENTCOM, I told a friend who lives nearby, that I had a hunch something was going to happen, of the general nature of what did happen two weeks later, where, according to the media, a Chinese couple arranged to plant some nasty device nearby. He called to inform me, and I was actually surprised. Cognitive dissonance, I guess. Then there was the event in Alabama, at a reservoir about the same time. And then a few other things. It's not as if there isn't a precedent here. But the CENTCOM bit was nothing more than dumb association with a power concentration and obvious potential target for adversaries. That was mere bad luck.

I also have record of speculating with GPT, last October, when silver shockingly jumped to $50/oz. That same day, I played with GPT, and speculated the value should/could be ~$120. I thought nothing of it, and certainly did not invest on it, but a few months later, silver reached $120, I think for the first time in history. I am pretty sick, so I forget a lot, but there have been similar things. Of course any rational person would be itching by now to foist the obvious fact of broken clocks, and remind one of the greater amount of things that were simply wrong. I think both remain significant though. And most of the things I am wrong about, satisfy me greatly.

The institutional capture of AI, is perhaps the most seemingly obvious thing I have ever forecast. Common sense. But when your country starts lobbing missiles at the civilian infrastructure of an ancient civilization, after executing the majority of their leadership, good bad or indifferent, I factor that into the threat model. We have enough volatility with our own society here, that to add this, during a time of economic tension, anomie, and an onslaught of truly unprecedented things; from the prejudicial execution of boaters, Claude-assisted abduction of a sitting president and dubious use of ADS weaponry, insider trading, environmental problems, serious social division, and you know, a lot more -- the volatility is self explanatory. It is a miracle we have gotten this far without some major event. And as a lurker of HN, you are aware of the state of modern compute, and it's pretty swiss cheesy, as the LLMs are helping get through our stubborn heads with such astonishing speed and efficiency that I am certain at least a few more people are concerned.

So while it's kind of cool to not be called a moron or schizophrenic around here for once, I still think not too prophetic. Harsh common sense, and I am sure, according to most around here, unconditionally wrong, and coincidence at best. For me, anyone who is not worried right now, is a different species, and I just can't understand them. And one tends to make a lot of 'predictions' when worried. But my most sincere, honest opinion, is that we should be worried. Not in a neurotic, frothing sense, but prudently. For me, the volatility is palpable, in a way I have not experienced before. And I am drifting here.. But I want to leave once final bit, which regards Ukraine.

Many people have come to think that there is something fundamentally different about humanity now in the modern era, that we have changed as a species and thousands of years of violence has finally been ironed out of the human psyche. I am not sure why they think so, perhaps technology and flashing lights. But we literally have a hell, on earth, in 2026, that is Ukraine, with the busification, trench slaughter, and things many would refuse to believe. And despite the live-streamed HD blood and guts, it remains one of the most lightly touched by media and most brutal wars in modern history. To think that could not happen here, I just can't. The fact that it is happening, so smoothly, now, is too much. And these are my daily thoughts. So expecting bad shit, I guess, is involuntary.

Anyway, here's to being more wrong! I have no stakes, and I certainly can't afford steaks.

Re: RamenHaus

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this is unique to Ramen at all. Burgers should not cost $20-30 for some limp smooshed beef, a burrito should also not be $15-20, and tacos should sure as hell not be $3-5 per tiny taco. It's all bullshit; none of that food is worth that money. But... I suspect it costs that much because people pay that much, and because the cost of every other aspect of service puts pressure on the restaurants to try to…

I mean, you are not just paying for food. You are paying for someone's time to make your food. The eating out price shock since 2020 is IMO mostly a result of wage gains in the bottom earners outpacing those earning more.

Of course this is true, along with rent and everything else that goes into the cost of doing business. My problem is mostly to do with the fact that in many cases, overall prices doubled, while my satisfaction with the product diminished; Ramen and Sushi are some of the outliers, whereby their prices are still excessive, but the product is still satisfying for the price compared to others

Re: RamenHaus

#125
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

San Francisco is an example of a place with higher than average Japanese population where you have a chance of getting some really good authentic stuff. I recently ate at a place that caught my eye with chicken katsu curry, and that meal teleported me back to Japan.

Hawaii would be another place (or set of places, depending on how you want to collate)

Oahu has some of the best US ramen I've ever had. Pretty much incomparable to most cities I've lived in, including places like SF and Seattle.

Re: RamenHaus

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the southeastern US, Yelp is almost negative signal because southerners have legitimately horrible taste.

A lot of rural areas you really just gotta discount the ratings, both on Google maps and yelp.

In fairness to people, yelp and google, if there’s only two places to eat in a town there’s only two places to eat. The local people are likely friends with the people who run the places and their social hubs. Personally if my mate opened a restaurant and it was awful, I’d tell him nicely but I wouldn’t leave a bad review for it.

I think tripadvisor in the US suffers from the same problem as yelp in Europe - it’s predominantly tourists so the places visited are predominantly places tourists visit. If you want the tourist experiences they’ll keep you right but if you want “what the locals eat” you have to do what the locals do.

Re: RamenHaus

#128
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That wasn’t the case pre-Covid when I was talking about. But it’s still good even now. And it’s obviously going to be quite different from Japanese restaurants because London isn’t in Japan (surprise surprise).

London does have a number of independent Ramen spots -- not many though.

Got any recommendations?

Re: RamenHaus

#130

I have never yet been to Japan, but whenever I visit a big city, I try a ramen shop. To be honest, so far it has been a let down. IDK, I guess maybe I'm expecting too much from a bowl of soup, with noodles and condiments. As a form factor, it's genius. But for the price that it is usually sold at in western cities, it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I feel like it has been a bit too overhyped for what it is…

San Francisco is an example of a place with higher than average Japanese population where you have a chance of getting some really good authentic stuff. I recently ate at a place that caught my eye with chicken katsu curry, and that meal teleported me back to Japan.

A Japanese former co-worker of mine once said the best sushi in the world is served in Vancouver BC :)
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