Posted on 07/25/2006 6:43:06 AM PDT by tang0r
The freedoms we experience in America are so plentiful that they even include preserving the choice of whether or not we should tip the people who wait on us. When we go out to eat, we expect good service in order to have a good meal; and if we receive that good service, we provide a tip to show our appreciation. If we don’t get that service, and we have to wait more that 10 minutes for a refill, we can choose not to tip, thereby showing our disapproval with that particular waiter.
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White Castle.
'Nuff said.
(Go Israel, Go! Slap 'Em Down Hezbullies.)
I'm given to understand the same system is used in New Zealand.
Agreed. Wonderful bread, and the best Italian food I've ever tasted (in the Latin Quarter).
That's what I love about Korean restaurants. They haven't "Americanized" like most Chinese (buffets) and Mexican restaurants. Ant the cool thing is, they don't have to. Yes, they have seaweed and way-too-fishy stuff just like the Japanese and authentic Chinese. But Koreans know how to eat meat. Real meat.
Give me bulgogi, or Chap Chae, or Gal-Bi, or BiBimBap any day.
And the service at my local Korean restaurant ALWAYS deserves a decent tip!
French bakeries......nothing compares.
Oh puh-lease... The French were eating porridge until Catherine de Medici gave the French Courts a cook book. French cuisine is Northeren Italian.
This guy has it all wrong. The 19.6% charge seen on every restaurant bill is the TVA (in English, VAT, or value added tax). It's basically a sales tax that goes to the government, just like sales taxes in the US. If the writer has in fact lived in France for a "prolonged amount of time," as he says, he sure isn't very observant, else he would've known this. You pay TVA on every purchase here, although the percentages differ for necessities, regular purchases and luxuries.
As a separate issue, service is always included in the menu prices.
A year or so ago, the Los Angeles Times had an article about what
the average French-person thought about a current election in France.
Accompanying the article was a picture of a French family watching television.
Mom, Dad (and I'll not mention the baby as it has no choice) were...FAT!
Looked like the average American that has lost the war with cheese, Doritos
and Twinkies.
Some things never change - here's Henry Adams talking about his countrymen in Europe 125 years ago:
"Bored, patient, helpless; pathetically dependent on his wife and daughters; indulgent to excess; mostly a modest, decent, excellent, valuable citizen; the American was to be met at every railway station in Europe, carefully explaining to every listener that the happiest day of his life would be the day he should land on the pier at New York." (The Education of Henry Adams)
In most German and Austrian bars, they keep tabs on how many beers you have had by marking with a pen the small protective circular mat that goes under your beer.
Yes. And I've read it was actually the Greeks who taught all of Europe how to cook.
I'd put the Portuguese up there with the Germans. Granted, My experience has been limited to Lisbon, Setubal and Terceira mostly but I've found that the Portuguese tend to wait tables very well when they know that we are American$.
I'm a KimChi and rice fan myself; low fat and spicy. By the way, you left Kagogi off of your meat listing.
The more I see of the world, the more I think Japanese should run it.
"My Daughter was in the region of France close to Spain and they actually had a dish that included Rat meat on the menu."
Tastes like rabbit, pretty much, or any other rodent meat. I've eaten cane rat grilled on a skewer in Thailand. Very tasty.
I was stationed in Germany for 8 years and I can agree with you on the service charge at German resturants. And, like you, I would always round up on payment. I always thought the service in German resturants was excellent, the beer wonderful, and I never had a bad meal in a German resturant. I had many that were similar to others, schnitzel and pomme fritz, but never a bad meal.
I had one bad experience with language in a French resturant. My wife and I were staying in a hotel in Normandy and were in the bar getting a drink. In front of use was an Englishman who ordered his drink in English. When I tried to order my drink in English with the same bartender he pretended he didn't speak English. So I ordered in German following by a choice comment to my wife in English on the quality of the service, after I got my drinks, of course. Peeved the barman off no end.
I'm a KimChi and rice fan myself; low fat and spicy. By the way, you left Kagogi off of your meat listing.
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