Fine Dining, a photo by peterkelly on Flickr.
I was brought up to
believe in cooking for myself and I do dislike microwaves,
dishwashers, and short-cuts. Anything that can heat your food to blazing hot
and not the plastic container that it's in – well that just has to be wrong. Dishwashers
use chemical soaps and besides, you have to wash your dishes before you put
them in there anyway. I use cast iron frying pans and won't go near those toxic
coated magical no-stick varieties…
Eating out can be a
test of faith, confidence, and trust.
Hygiene, chemicals, short-cuts, freshness, nutrition, safety – all
factors that people likely don’t consider as they sit down to examine the delicacies
on their plates.
There is the emotional
side though – eating out is social, it marks occasions, it creates memories.
It’s totally convenient.
Restaurantouring in
Guelph can be quite an adventure I would say.
While I've had some great experiences, I've had some terrible ones too.
I've had waitresses rudely
argue with me about putting my coffee in a take-out cup instead of a mug when I
was in a hurry. I once literally found a
hair-ball in my coffee. I was once served
a creamer that had a used napkin stuck in it. My friend went into a restaurant for
lunch the other day and was shushed by the waitress who was talking on the
phone! Once, several years ago a waitress actually spent her evening pathetically
trying to hit on my boyfriend (I paid that tab just to see the look on her face
when she got no tip). I've even been
trapped at my dinner table, forced to watch inappropriate public fraternizing
among establishment staff and management. Wait, am I in a culinary
establishment or did I accidentally visit a petting zoo?
And then there are
those places that are really “cliquey” – you feel awkward if you’re not dressed
for Woodstock 69 or if you washed your hair that day.
Yet, there are times when
eating out is such a pleasure too. When you run the risks and you actually have
a really winning time. I have some very fond memories with family, loved ones, friends
- memories that span more than a decade now here in Guelph.
If others are like me
and they don’t go out all the time, when they do go out, they want to be
treated with a professional attitude, with care and diligence, respect, and
politeness. In fact, everyone should be treated this way all the time.
You don’t need to
offer me love or a side-show, but you could offer me a really clean, smooth,
visit with a good meal and attentive wait staff.
~ Aidan M.D. Ware
No comments:
Post a Comment