Back-log-blog....A loathe letter to Restaurant Week

Restaurant week, oh restaurant week, how I loathe thee.  Let me count the ways.

Allow me to explain - for those of you not in the hospitality industry, or perhaps not in the hospitality industry in a city that participates in restaurant week, restaurant week is a special time of year, that happens twice a year, that means a whole bunch of people descend upon restaurants of all kinds, and strike terror in the hearts of pastry chefs ( and chefs in general) everywhere.  At my particular establishment, we endured 2 weeks of this lovely extravaganza because numbers have been flagging since about mid-December.  So we prepared a small selection of appetizers, entrees and desserts ad nauseam for the entire time, for the bargain price of $20.11 at lunch and $30.11 at dinner.  

The important part to remember however is who eats at restaurants during restaurant week.  They run the gamut from the best (the simply inexperienced diner), to the tight budgeted ( the poor student who doesn't usually eat out otherwise), to the worst ( people who are just truly cheapskates and then expect amazing feats of service and cuisine).  Pretty much all restaurant week diners fall into one or more of these categories.  They oftentimes mispronounce things, like the names of wine, ( a past favorite is pinot noir pronounced "peanut noor".  It was then consumed through a straw.) or the varieties of fish ( salmon pronounced saal-mun, and of course ordered extra well done).

I've had all sorts of strategies in the past for restaurant week.  Viewing it as a challenge helps, timing yourself to see how long it takes you to pipe 100 meringues can be interesting, a couple of times, some sort of hard liquor comsumption is generally helpful... but then generally it comes down to one thing for me - the certainty that unless I get a new job in the next 6 months, I will be doing this again, in 6 months time.  At least it's predictable I guess.

The Valentines

Valentine's day used to bother me a lot more than it currently does.  But it still rankles a bit from time to time.  I am quite good at being single, have been known to show up to all kinds of things alone, and in general ascribe to the methodology that it's far better to be single than with a less than ideal mate.

But...

If there's one day to make you feel as though you've gotten the romantic short end of the stick, it's valentine's day.  It's not necessarily easier if you have a date either - because unless the couple in question are really on the same wavelength, valentine's day can ( and often does) lead to hurt feelings, mis-communication, and plenty of other things that are apt to kill off all those happy feel good endorphins you should be feeling. 

 

So this year, my tactic is to blithely ignore the niggling thought that I will be sleeping alone on Monday night, remember that I'm not really that romantic of a girl, and attempt to ignore all the chocolate covered strawberries I have to make.  I mean, it's really the valentine's day cheese factor that bothers me anyway.  All of those " Every Kiss begins with Kay"  commercials and hopelessly happy people giving each other jewlery and stuff just doesn't seem that realistic.  I mean, can't we get a romance paradigm shift here people?

To illustrate my point - the commercial with the guy who doesn't know what to write on flowers and chooses:

"Dear Kim,  your rack is unreal."  Fantastic.  I wouldn't mind getting that card attached to flowers actually. I mean, you'd certainly get the feeling that the guy was honest.  Not to mention, any girl who tells you she doesn't want to hear that she's got a great rack is lying, or a crazy femi-nazi...  I also think people should try different ways of showing their undying love.  Anyone can take you out to a fantastically coreagraphed 5 course tasting menu at the hot spot in town, but personally, I feel that nothing says I love you better than pulled pork sandwiches.  I mean, if you can blissfully stuff your face with someone without worrying about how you will appear, or whether they will still think you're hot afterwards ( or perhaps a long time afterwards... depending on how much you eat) then that's love.  I mean, the only way you can pile on more love after that is, obviously, ice cream. 

Anyhow, those are my somewhat scattered thoughts on Valentine's day.  For me, love = calories.  Preferably calories high in saturated fat.  Happy love day.