Please Don't Let This be a New Trend
The other day Phil, the boys, and I walked to a local sandwich place for dinner. The restaurant is a lot like the chain Panera Bread, only locally owned and just a few blocks from our house.
So we'll forget that it was inappropriately costly to feed the four of us. or that we sat on the couches and waited and waited and waited for our food and were later told later by the woman who took our order that the kitchen had "just lost" our ticket, and she needed us to tell her what we'd ordered so that she could go put in a new ticket. Those didn't add to a mellow vibe, but we could deal.
The real issue was when my sandwich came. I got this great chicken/brie/spinach/vinaigrette concoction on a crusty baguette. The issue was that the crusty baguette was loaded with everything, and then the vinaigrette was artfully drizzled over the whole sandwich, sort of like dessert is finished with a chocolate sauce drizzle. It would have looked lovely photographed, but what it meant to actually chomp off a chunk of chewy, crusty baguette sandwich that's covered in brown sauce means you go through about 10 napkins trying to eat an otherwise delicious sandwich that you've already waited 30 minutes for. I was just thanking my lucky stars I hadn't ordered it on a first date.
Is this some kind of trend I'm unaware of -- slathering condiments on the outside of a sandwich? Doesn't that go against the whole idea of a sandwich? And when will restaurateurs learn that experimentation is great, but form always has to follow function?
So we'll forget that it was inappropriately costly to feed the four of us. or that we sat on the couches and waited and waited and waited for our food and were later told later by the woman who took our order that the kitchen had "just lost" our ticket, and she needed us to tell her what we'd ordered so that she could go put in a new ticket. Those didn't add to a mellow vibe, but we could deal.
The real issue was when my sandwich came. I got this great chicken/brie/spinach/vinaigrette concoction on a crusty baguette. The issue was that the crusty baguette was loaded with everything, and then the vinaigrette was artfully drizzled over the whole sandwich, sort of like dessert is finished with a chocolate sauce drizzle. It would have looked lovely photographed, but what it meant to actually chomp off a chunk of chewy, crusty baguette sandwich that's covered in brown sauce means you go through about 10 napkins trying to eat an otherwise delicious sandwich that you've already waited 30 minutes for. I was just thanking my lucky stars I hadn't ordered it on a first date.
Is this some kind of trend I'm unaware of -- slathering condiments on the outside of a sandwich? Doesn't that go against the whole idea of a sandwich? And when will restaurateurs learn that experimentation is great, but form always has to follow function?
posted by Cindy at 3:00 AM
3 Comments:
Sounds like a fun time :)
There is something primally satisfying about eating sloppily and making a mess.. Maybe not in a restaurant.
And when will restaurateurs learn that experimentation is great, but form always has to follow function?
When McDonald's quits getting away with reviving the McRib every few years.
I have not eaten one since 1985 or so, (during an unfortunate stint at the McDonald's on US33 outside of Goshen, IN, so I've never bought one with anything but a few hours of my freedom and some sweat) but I've read they remain horrible and inedible, not just because they're offensive and disgusting, but because they disintegrate on contact with human hands, leaving you pinching two stamp-sized bits of bread to keep from getting "bbq" "sauce" on your two remaining clean fingers.
And McDonald's is supposed to be the Microsoft of the food world ... Studies! Science! Expert Food Technologists! Two-way mirrors!
But I guess Microsoft is supposed to be the Microsoft of the tech world, and look what that's gotten us.
Oh. The McRib. I'd forgotten about this. When I had my first real job and bought my first new car ever (a grey Geo Prizm with very light interior), my brother and I were driving, the car was two days old, and he got hungry so we went through a McD drive-thru. And I said, "Please, for the love of God, don't get anything messy." And he said no problem, and proceeded to order a McRib, which is the closest I've gotten to one. It didn't smell so... fresh.
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