therese

Not only does my kitchen make me happy (as documented in excruciating detail when I blogged on eG a while back) but I can say for sure that earlier non-great kitchens have made me very unhappy. The worst wasn't the kitchen that I replaced with the remodel: although small and ill-equipped it had it's charms. The worst was the kitchen in the apartment that we lived in during the remodel: new appliances, lots of storage, etc. but still just a thoroughly depressing work space. We ate way too much take out during those months.

There's no way I could have sent back either the frozen/wilted salad or the pizza in this instance without embarassing my host, and believe me, he'd have been profoundly embarassed: not only was he trying to get me to take a job, but was eager to show me that this town offered great food. We were eating in this particular restaurant because it was Sunday night and most places were closed. Handling it off line with the staff wouldn't have worked as the staff was stunningly inept. Fortunately my subsequent meals on this trip were very good, so this experience was an anomaly.

Thanks for the tips, anzu. I'll post on what I found when I return.

So, just returned from a trip where I found myself in exactly this situation. Dinner early-ish, outside (so still plenty of light, not conducive to surreptious not-really-eating behavior), and inept wait staff. Salad comprised of decent mixed greens that had partially frozen. Yep, cold and crunchy wilted nasty. The bits around the edges were edible, and I consumed them. Fortunately it was fairly large, so just eating the edges while also talking took up a decent amount of time. I'd chosen a margherita pizza for my main course, seduced by the description of fresh mozzarella and basil and tomatoes on a thin crust. The crust was thin, I'll admit, but otherwise boring and a bit soggy, the cheese was, well, I don't really know what the cheese was, the tomatoes were diced (little tiny perfect dice, presumably a processed product of some sort), and some shreds of fresh basil, if by fresh you mean wilted and a bit dessicated. I ate exactly half, enough to keep my hosts from worrying whether I'd like it or not.

On the clearly very remote chance that anybody out there's been to Dachgartenrestaurant Berlin , the restaurant in the Reichstag, how was it? Not too much detail on the web site, but it apparently offers great views as well as the opportunity to bypass the queue to view the dome if one has booked ahead of time. Other suggestions welcome.

So it's okay if the guy is skimming just a couple of bucks per transaction from his boss, but not if it's a whole $15? And in the end it's the other customers who will eventually end making up the skim, as the boss will increase prices to make up for the loss.

So they're just bread dumplings, but made with matzoh, right? So no surprise that anybody from an area that traditionally makes bread dumplings might make matzoh balls with matzoh rather than meal, right? They look great, by the way.

You tip the deli meat slicer? Is it really a question of better service and better product? Or is it a question of feeling in control, the sense that the world works a certain way because you (and here I don't mean Daniel, but pretty much anybody) make it work that way?

I attend a lot of meetings, meetings whose purpose is not the exchange of money but the exchange of information. Many of the participants are from other countries, and most of the participants are not in the private sector, so there's generally some pressure to keep expenses under control while maximizing interaction among participants. To that end, meetings typically offer food as part of the registration fee, and said food can vary tremendously in quality. The single most amazing meal I've ever eaten in this context was in Freiburg, Germany. My husband (or soon to be husband---I don't think we were technically married yet) was actually the meeting participant and I was just along for the ride. The opening gala dinner was held in a large hall decorated with Bavarian this and that, with big tables in the middle and buffet tables around the perimeter, all of them pretty much sagging under the weight of hors d'oeuvres: caviar, ham, foie gras, salmon, whatever. There must have been 200 different canapes. My husband, eyes bugging out, tried everything he saw, remarking on the quality. I cautioned him to not eat too much, as there were surely several courses to follow. He scoffed: "Are you kidding? No, this is dinner. There's a huge amount of food here. How could they think of serving more food?" "Sure, honey," I answered, "whatever you say." Six courses later he admitted that he could have taken it easy on that first course. This particular meeting, although purportedly scientific, was heavily underwritten by a drug company.

Or did you mean French Laundry?

From another thread, but an excellent example of just exactly the sort of evening that prompted me describe some of these evenings as Dinner in Hell.

When I'm working on a drink recipe at work, I'm still expected to ring in what I've used and have a manager comp it off. There has to be a record of it for inventory comparison, and to be certain that free booze isn't crossing the bar. If it isn't rung in and then comped it looks like it was "stolen". ← Would the customer necessarily see that charge, though?

This is how it generally works when I'm getting comped drinks, and I just tip on the pre-comp amount, assuming I'm not too hammered to remember to do it, in which case I usually remember the next day and make it up next visit because of course I'm generally comped places where I'm a regular. This happens less frequently. Bottomless glass of beer if I'm dining alone at the bar if I'm traveling, so not too egregious. I've had bartenders offer me a drink when working on a drink recipe (they say, at least), and again that seems okay. I don't necessarily finish the drink (it's only happened once or twice) since the point was to taste it.

I agree with this description. And yet I note that even it accepts that the MD/hostess makes decisions based on profiling (underdressed, children). ← I do think that the MD "profiles" and I'm okay with him/her doing it. A few years ago I was attending a meeting in New Orleans. One of my colleagues asked me if I'd like to join him for lunch, and I accepted. I'd seen a restaurant (don't recall the name) in the neighborhood that looked nice, upmarket, and we went there. No reservation, pretty busy, so when were shown upstairs to a sort of mezzanine I wasn't bothered, assuming that we were getting not the absolutely best seats but then I wasn't there for the seats, I was there for the food and the company. We were seated at what turned out to be a very nice table, right in front of a large floor to ceiling window that overlooked the sidewalk and from which we were at last partly visible. As I was noticing what a nice table it actually was I became aware of a bit of an uproar at a table nearby: two women seated in the row of tables behind us (already seated when we arrived), still with a view but not "viewable" from the street, were having a heated discussion with the maitre d'. Both were wearing short and flip flops and one was explaining in a peeved voice that she'd booked weeks in advance and had specifically requested the table at which we'd been seated. He explained that he'd be happy to move them to another table, but that our table was occupied and he could hardly ask us to move. I don't know for sure the extent to which our dress (professional, skirt and heels for me, jacket and tie for him) and/or demeanor (quiet) influenced that maitre d', but I have a feeling that is was not insignificant.

I'm guessing that clubs in Vegas are perfectly happy with the practice. They know that the guy splashing out C-notes to get his crowd in the door (no palming required) is also going to be delighted to buy that crowd huge amounts of exorbitantly priced liquor.

No, but wouldn't it be fun to see the reaction? Particularly if there were a big crowd waiting?

Or what nicely dressed and no pre-tip gets. Oh, hold it, I already know the answer to that one. That the MD gets to decide where different diners are seated does not mean that these are his seats to sell. His job is (or I think it is) to make sure that the maximum number of people are comfortable and that the dining room runs smoothly. To that end he may put the underdressed in an area where passers-by don't see them and thereby gain a poor impression of the establishment, just as he may put families with children in an area where they are less likely to disturb other diners. Taking bribes means that he has an incentive to do something that will not necessarily contribute to the comfort of the maximum number of guests. It may increase the comfort of the guest who has offered the bribe (though not necessarily---just how much fawning can a person take?) but may well decrease the comfort of the guest who has not (who has, for instance, booked a table at Chez Swanky a month in advance only to be told that there's a delay while Mr. Bigbootay and his rent-a-date swoosh by).

Impressive enough to get you to take the job? I'm beginning to think that the fact that I've spent so little time in Las Vegas is not entirely a coincidence.

If you're seated next to the rest room (and it's obviously a crappy table) it's going to be pretty obvious that you're going "economy" whether prices are posted or not, isn't it?

How does making the transaction "secret" make being seated next to the rest rooms any more acceptable? Maybe she'll just assume that they've been given a bad table because she looks too dowdy. I do have this one very cool method of avoiding being seated next to the rest rooms: when shown to this or any other table that I might not like for some reason (and taste in tables is very individual---I'm a little claustrophobic so I might not like a table that somebody else would find perfect) I ask for another. So as to make it clear exactly what I'm interested in table-wise I'll often indicate one or two that I find acceptable. This method works really well.

That difference is a big difference. Posting prices puts all of the customers (all of the customers who can afford to eat out and have their cars parked in pay lots, that is) on even ground. There's no question of anybody feeling extra special---everybody in the place knows exactly what one paid to have his car parked next to the front door or to sit in the booth on the ever-so-slightly raised platform. Nobody will assume that one was accorded these privileges because one happened to be a bit cooler than anybody else. Of course, there are plenty of instances in which one actually is accorded these privileges because he happens to be especially cool or special in some way. Ling's example of "girls drink free" is a good example.

If it's not immoral, or at least, well, sleazy, then why is it hidden? Why would one bother to palm the bill, or make an effort to be nonchalant about the transaction? Do the service people who accept bribes declare them on their taxes? Is the perk that he is selling actually his to sell in the first place?

I think I may not have communicated my point very well here. I don't mean that Japanese cuisine is bland, I mean that Japanese base ingredients are bland. Every bit as bland as mashed potatoes and pot roast and steamed cabbage. I'd say that Japanese taste is also very condiment-driven, as condiments serve to accentuate and compliment the flavors of the base ingredients. As for the roast duck, if you'd also never eaten duck, and had not only ever thought of duck as food but rather as pet or cartoon character associated with Easter, then you also might not be immediately receptive to the idea of it as food. Many people in the U.S. won't eat rabbit because they have strong associations with rabbits as pets. Horse and guinea pig are similarly problematic, and insects of any sort are considered bizarre. We eat what we're taught to eat, which brings us back to Culinista's original query about the diet of Japanese infants and young children. From what I can see it appears to be about as variable as the diets of infants and young children in other affluent areas of the world.

Therese, you may not know that you do, but you do. ← And yet I never wait for a table and service is always exceptional. Perhaps, like ingridsf, I am insulated from these dreary demands by my extreme beauty.

Ditto. I don't actually feel all that strongly about it, but certainly haven't considered ever doing it myself, and would not be inclined to frequent an establishment where it were necessary, or even appropriate. Were my date to do it I would be, um, unimpressed.