Can You Trust Michelin

[robyn]

Now this really doesn't have anything to do with food in a strict sense. But it does have to do with the red Michelin guide - the "food bible". So I thought people here might be interested. Because if you can't get some things right - maybe you can't get other things right.

I bought a red Michelin guide to Germany before we went there (green guide too). Used it mostly for restaurants. But - one day - I used a local small city map in the red guide since the city wasn't in my green guide.

Now I don't have to tell anyone about the history of Germany. But this map had a Jewish star on it - which - according to Michelin - represents a synagogue (a cross represents a church). I was very intrigued - because I'm Jewish (my husband - who isn't Jewish - wasn't so intrigued - it was pretty hot that day). I had to see one of the few synagogues left in a small city in Germany. So we marched through the small city - actually it was about 3/4 mile each way - to see the synagogue. And when we got there - to my surprise - there was no synagogue. What it was was a mosque in a Turkish neighborhood. There was a small Turkish food store next door - and we had a good laugh about representing a mosque in a guidebook with a Jewish star.

Anyway - if Michelin can't tell the difference between a mosque and a synagogue - can we trust it in terms of anything else? Food for thought. Robyn

[Nathan]

not really...either a simple typographical error or (quite likely) there was once a synagogue there.

[robyn]

Actually - when we looked at the Michelin Guide's symbols - there wasn't one for a mosque - just one for churches - and one for synagogues (guess they think that anything that isn't a church is a synagogue ). I think it's somewhat behind the times in terms of looking at contemporary western Europe. Robyn