The gastronomic kind, that is.
The restaurant that Grecian dismissed as a "burger joint" recently overhauled its menu (the actual menu overhaul happened at corporate offices in New York) and now sports 5 kinds of burgers and 5 kinds of hot dogs. It eludes me what the actual difference is between the hot dogs, although when they were giving out samples of the two-foot-long dog our tasters said that it didn't taste like a hot dog at all, was horrible, and could only be eaten with Tabasco sauce.
Is there some conspiracy to stuff us all on sausages? My favorite Spanish tapas place has a fine menu, but included on that menu are:
butifarra con mongetes -- pork sausage with white beans
chorizo casero con puré de patatas -- housemade sausage (fairly tasteless IMO) with mashed potatoes
patatas fritas con chistorra -- small, spicy sausages wrapped in housemade crisps
tortilla menorquina -- Spanish-style flat, round omelet with cheese and a round of sobrasada sausage
To return to the "burger joint": A regular customer noted that you can no longer order a side of spinach. Indeed, the chicken dish that came with spinach and the ravioli that came with spinach are also gone. A manager attributed this to the E. coli scare. (Tainted spinach was showing up in bags at supermarkets around the U.S.) It occurred to me that ground beef is a more likely source of E. coli. So they should scratch the 5 kinds of burgers, the meatloaf and the cottage pie.
Burger a la Spinach is soooo 1970's....
'Meatloaf and cottage pie'??.....I assume you visited a Cafe?
Restaurant, my Arse!
Erm, the spinach was not on or with the burger.
So the only reply I'm getting is from Spring_Onion? At this point I'm half inclined to agree that this is no longer a restaurant. The menu looks like someone's attempt at American Regional Cuisine turned on its head. Menu is still not available on-line.
To add to the ground beef list, there is some sort of meat patty served on rice with ... I don't remember. It sounds awful.
There is also a meatball appetizer and a meatball sandwich.
I give up! If I wanted cottage pie I'd go to the Irish place across the street. At least they make a good one.
No spinach because of e.coli? What a wretched country! It is nearly impossible to get runny eggs, and my god, the health warning on the menu when I ordered oysters was enough to send anyone to the hospital.
"The Rhode Island Department of Health advises that eating raw shellfish increases the risk of food-borne illness," or some such crap. I didn't come to a raw bar to be told the obvious! I'm still eating the raw oysters and clams, thank you very much.
The Spanish restaurant mentioned above now has a warning on its menu about "raw or undercooked foods." Anything marked with an asterisk on the menu references this warning, which includes anything with mayonnaise.
I can still get runny poached eggs at the local tavern. Indeed, the waitress sends them back if they aren't runny enough.
I'm still eating sushi, as well, at least in this country anyway.
I also can get runny eggs depending on which place I go to. Kerouac2 if you're over this way, you're welcome to join Mr K and I for breakfast, if we're in town.
There are burger joints where they "say" they will cook to medium well, and then don't. I don't go back. If they are so worried that I'll get E Coli from their burger, then I shouldn't be eating it.
It makes me grumpy, all this saving me from myself stuff. Have to hunt like crazy to find any decent Camembert these days. Hmph!
What do they do for Steak Tartare? Irradiate the stuff? (Not that I'd eat it, at any rate.)
Some posters on a NY Times food forum were asking that the U.S. Federal government step in to make coffee house, such as Starbuck's list the caffeine content of their drinks. What next?
We don't have to deal with the excessive zealotry of consumer protection here in Mexico. If there's any consumer protection, it's nigh invisible.
Here you can drive a motor scooter with 5 people on board, no helmets, while noshing carne apache tostadas and no one gives a damn.
It must be admitted that in France now, every single TV commercial or printed ad for snack food (and I think any prepared food item) comes with an obligatory health slogan, chosen from such lines as:
Eat at least 5 different fruits or vegetables a day.
Avoid eating between meals.
Get sufficient exercise.
Avoid too much salt and too much sugar.
Etc. They all have to post the health website www.mangerbouger.fr</a> as well.
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