west2100

The joys of simplicity, a home-made chocolate milkshake.

It is just my personal opinion that the cost of service should be included in the cost of the meal itself. I came to the restaurant to purchase one thing, an eating experience. Gratuity ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratuity ) is defined as an amount paid outside of the advertised bill or fee. The very idea of including this in the bill is contradictory to its basic concept.

Personally, I feel these measures are fundamentally wrong with regards to the concept of the tip itself. Pooling controversy aside, which I feel is an excellent idea, the idea of an automatic and required tip is quite the opposite of it's purpose. I am not an employee nor an owner/operator in the food service industry, I am a consumer. To my mind the tip is an expression of the patrons perceived value of the service itself. I pay a tip according to how I believe the service of the establishment has treated me. Poor service will gain far less from me than will a prompt, polite waitstaff. The idea of a fixed amount of tip completely negates this practice, and I feel like my opinion of the dining experience has been denied expression by disallowing the practice. Knowing that an establishment partakes in this system gives it a seeming aura of arrogance in my mind, of not caring what the patron thinks, so long as the desired result of the experience, payment, is obtained. Greed appears to be the motivating factor in this practice, and I do not choose to endorse restaurants who endorse greed, idealistic as that may seem, I would like to be able to express my opinion, even if it is in monetary form.

I remember one time I went to IHOP, and made the mistake of ordering the chocolate chip pancakes. One would assume, as is custom with this household favorite, just normal buttermilk pancakes with a sprinkling of chocolate chips while on the griddle, adding that little bit of magical chocolate to the otherwise delicious pancake, resulting in a little cake of manna from heaven. Alas, it was not to be, America strikes again. What I recieved on my table was something resembling a triple layer cake assembled by a fourth grader. Three giant pancakes made with a pseudo-chocolate batter, each roughly the size of a hubcap, and covered in a hail of chocolate chips. This was then flooded with a river of chocolate syrup, and doused in enough whipped cream to resemble some sort of historical blizzard, or perhaps just Alaska. Then came the second wave of chocolate syrup, with a sprinkling of powdered sugar, for good measure. So I glance over at the syrup buffet to my right, and remember the old adage, "Somewhere, a kid in Africa is starving, and you're just going to throw all that food away." Lucky him, I think, and then I take a bite.

On the note of IHOP, I found something that may have the nutrition information you're looking for. http://www.calorieking.com/foods/category...._id=-1&partner=

Broiled polenta with a chanterelle mushroom/tomato sauce cooked in white wine & balsamic vinegar, topped with grated asiago cheese. Vanilla Ice cream with melted peanut butter and chocolate syrup for dessert.(you know, for that gourmet part of the meal )

Organic hand-picked(farm 20 miles away!) blueberries with yogurt. Mmm breakfast.

At least in my area(southeast Georgia), Harris Teeter seems to have the best produce, but overall Publix has the greatest variety. Ethnic foods seem much easier to find there, and there's another interesting factor. Harris Teeter actually has a policy against ordering specific foods for consumers, whereas Publix will order things upon request, if their supplies can procure it. Very useful for some of those less carried items.

I once had spaghetti at a friend's house, just simple noodles with marinara sauce, hard to screw up, right? One would think it would be common knowledge to drain the noodles of all of the pasta water, not just *most* of it. The reasoning was, "it keeps the noodles warm". Honestly at this point, I'm just going to stop, that's quite enough. Water and marinara are not good bedfellows.

I did once, rather tasty, as far as mass-produced desserts go. Then again, cover anything in enough fudge and whipped cream and I'm sure it can be quite delectable. (not gourmet, mind you, but tasty)

The way we always had them in my house (southeast Georgia) was grits boiled in beef broth, with chopped up ham bits, with salt and pepper. Mix in cheese, and cover a plate with it, and add a couple of fried eggs on top of that, eaten with a fork. So, so tasty.

I agree, those were wonderful. The Krystal Chik can only dream of becoming the wonderful Chicken Little.