Outside reviewers anyone trust?

re: Zreviews - I can’t bring myself to take a reviewer seriously who holds a headphone up to a mic for you to listen to.

 

Agreed! I find it more enjoyable to spend most of one’s time telling people what you love and like than talking about what you hate.

Hate is cheap to spew, you don’t have to think much. We’ve all done it, we all know.

 

The hobby is full of nepotism and sycophantry especially among official reviewers but even in more casual contexts, so I think it’s natural to be drawn to assessments that bend toward negative or might seem relatively contrarian. It’s the industry and the hobby’s fault, really, but yeah, I also agree that you can easily overcorrect and just begin to blindly follow voices that seem to “tell it like it is” without having much reason to trust them other than being motivated to do so because of their being a negative voice vs. what seems to otherwise be a positive consensus/press. SBAF is valuable in that way because it can build a sense of community and trust in impressions, positive or negative.

 

Tarun, British Audiophile. Sure, every reviewer has their own opinions but hes very knowledgeable on the inner workings of components, amongst other things.

 

Kinda sorta on a surface level.

 

Extremes are the best reference points for triangulation, I agree.
The fact that people rather offer reference points instead of trying to give a judgement which is deemed to be valid for all is one of the things that drew me to this place.

 

That does seem to be the mark of a traditional Paki restaurant. That's exactly how they make it at one near me. As you say, different preferences.

 

Yep. And even here at the southern end of the sub-continent, one often has to get through the layer of floating oil before reaching the meat.

(and this is the first I ever heard of for-a-white-girl curry. I'm a white male, and I don't, personally, like much chilli. But the best I ever heard on the topic came from a brown female: "I don't see the point of food that hurts.")

 

Sorry to go a bit off topic here, as someone who grew up in the UK, shortening Pakistani as above isn't far off using the N word in the US, so I just had a bit of a double take moment.
I believe a lot of the Indian restaurants in the UK were set up by folks who came from Bangladesh (originally East Pakistan after partition)
I think the really oily curry you describe is pretty much standard in the UK, seems to be what people want. When I go back there now to visit I find it really unappetising. Very different to what we get in Australia, and what I've had in Little India in Singapore. @Thad E Ginathom 's experience living in India would appear to contradict my experience though
In a country that big the food is massively varied, given the differences in climate.
Waffling over.