Text 18861, 71 rader
Skriven 2011-12-10 11:05:00 av NANCY BACKUS (1:261/1381)
     Kommentar till en text av JIM WELLER
Ärende: Re: calibrating the heat
================================
-=> Quoting Jim Weller to Nancy Backus on 12-06-11  23:07 <=-

 JW> handed the menu back to the (Ethiopian) waiter unopened, told him it
 JW> was my first time, that I liked lamb and also spicy food and that he
 JW> should take it from there. He just beamed and brought me a lovely
 JW> array of small dishes which he explained in passionate detail as
 JW> they arrived. And introduced me to Tusker beer.

Thus giving you an unforgettable experience as well as an imcomparable
introduction to a new cuisine...  :)

 JW> More recently there is a enthusiastic young Vietnamese waiter at the
 JW> French place in High Level that I frequent on trips out (the one
 JW> I've mentioned here in my trip logs). His background was in fast
 JW> food and he spent his first week tasting the whole menu all the
 JW> while pestering the chef with questions. "What's that taste?"
 JW> "What's arugula?" "Why are your pasta dishes called French? OK, then
 JW> where's Nice?" (Chef was happy to oblige, recognizing a diamond in
 JW> the rough right away). His next quest is to sample the entire wine
 JW> cellar all the while googling up the label names, grape varieties
 JW> and regions.

He does indeed seem to be a gem.  One wonders if he'll be content to
stay a waiter for ever... I'm guessing he may start his own place
eventually...  :)

 NB>> I enjoy buffets rather than menus for trying out stuff, since
 NB>> one can see it before tasting, and get as small a portion as one
 NB>> finds useful...

 JW> I love the concept of buffets in theory but their execution is poor;
 JW> the food is almost universally mediocre, at least around here and
 JW> throughout northern Alberta.

I've been fortunate to find a number of reasonably decent ones here, in
a variety of ethnicities...  Most Indian buffets locally (with some
notably bad exceptions) are pretty good, if not as spicy as one might
want... the Chinese/Asian ones run the gamut...  The really good ones
don't seem to stick around, though... including a Pakastani one, and our
favorite of all times Mandarin Buffet (to which we still compare the
usually lacking asian buffets).  Mandarin, even close to closing time,
was consistently as good as most sit-down Chinese places, and when food
was freshly brought out, as good or better than the best...  :)  The
place I took echo folk to in Canton NY, near our camp, is about the best
that I regularly visit nowadays... at least for the items I pick out.. :)

 JW> And relating to the comments above I hate waiters that don't know
 JW> the menu where they work. Actually I hate management for not
 JW> training their people. "What do YOU recommend?"... (Glazed
 JW> look)..."Well a lot of people order #3.

When my son worked for a short while at Cheesecake Factory here, they
made all their prospective wait staff memorize the menu, and all the
ingredients of every dish, and tested them on the knowledge.  One had to
pass with flying colors to be allowed out on the floor and dealing with
customers...  Of course, the food was (to my perspective) over-priced,
though they gave huge portions...  But at least they trained the waiters
well...  :)

 JW> ... Customer: 'Is custard on the menu?' Waiter: 'No, sir I've wiped it
 JW> off 

lol    yup...

ttyl        neb

... Everytime I have all the answers, somebody changes the questions

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