ferrousland.com - news archives
Friday, June 08, 2007 - (see all news for this day)
.. on the side - 05:35 PM
(filed under 'general')
being in sydney & melbourne & having the opportunity to hang out with friends in restaurants & cafes brought to mind again that amongst those who know me well & who've had the chance to dine with me, i'm often known as a bit of a sally albright when i order anything.
sally albright is the female lead in the movie "when harry met sally" & is played by meg ryan. in the movie, she's characterised a few times by her inablility to order anything staight off a menu, just as it is. she always has some sort of preference about how it's arranged or served. particularly, she almost always requests some part of the meal to be served "on the side". if you know the movie well, you might have recognised that quote immediately from the title of this entry.
one time that comes to mind from over ten years ago is when i was at a cafe with two girls with whom i used to share a house. we all looked at the menu & chose what we wanted. i can't quite recall now if what i wanted to order was actually listed on the menu or not, but i knew they'd have have the ingredients, so i asked for some avocado on toast. i specified that i wanted it sliced, not mashed & that i'd like salt & pepper on top, but just a bit & that i preferred cracked black pepper on it, not normal white pepper & if they didn't have cracked pepper then no pepper at all, please. i was very polite about it, of course (i'm hard pressed to not show politeness, it's usually pretty important to me), but my friends were looking at me incredulously after i'd finished.
that was when that reputation started, i think. i'd mostly forgotten about it until i went on holiday & had the chance to eat out in restaurants & cafes which, as you can imagine, i don't usually get the chance to do here in brissy with just smiley & i. to tell the truth, i don't order like that all the time. i guess it's just on those particular occasions when i have wanted it just the way i want it, that it stands out a bit. i'm sure there have been many times when i've chosen something just as it is from the menu .. well, maybe with a little change here & there regarding leaving off one thing or another .. but there have been times!
i really hadn't thought it about it for a long time until i was in sydney with hellie & i ordered a chocolate thickshake. initially i asked for it as is, but then i wondered if they put some sort of gross goop in there for thickening it or if it was just loads of ice cream. also, i wondered if it was real cocoa or chocolate syrup that they used to flavour it. i often find that they put far too much syrup in & it's just too sweet. if they use cocoa, then it tastes much better & isn't sickly sweet. so after the waiter came back to confirm that yes, they use ice cream & yes, they use chocolate syrup, i ordered it half strength. after the waiter left with our order, hellie looked at me & said, "you know, for a moment there - just for one moment - i thought you were going to just order something off the menu exactly as it was." then she finished by laughing & saying something about how she'd missed me & it was good to have me in sydney. 
i'm sure some waiters & waitresses have left me me & thought, "oh. my. god. she's one of those customers!" that's one reason why i try hard to make sure i'm polite & nice about it. being a difficult customer is one thing, but there's no better way to get your food spat in than to be a difficult & rude customer.
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He he!!!! yes, you have been like this for as long as I've known you. I must admit, there have been times when I've winced, involuntarily.....but that's because I normally like to fly under the radar!!! I'm always wondering what they are thinking when it happens. I think they might start out a bit impatient, but then most of them just go with the moment and enjoy the pause in their day LOL!!!! xxxx