I can see you sighing into your cup of coffee, wonderingwhat I’m up to now, “’I want ice cubes’! What is she talking about?”
I’ve recently returned from my trip to Austria (as you already know) – as usual trying to squeeze in everyonein a single week, driving from one end of this “huge”country to the other end. My daily schedule for this week? Meeting my friends, hurrying from one café to the next restaurant for lunch, followed by more coffee plus cake in the afternoon … what a horrible way to spend a week …
Why I’m telling you this? Just to give you a little background information and make my story more exciting. Are you excited? Are you curious? Or are you still sighing and deciding you’d rather get another cup of coffee before finishing reading this week’s posting?
Alright, alright, I’m going on with my story! Where was I? Right! On my Austria “vacation”, going out for dinner to an Italian restaurant in our one and only middle-of-town shopping center. With 70 shops, can you imagine that? Actually, it is kind of cute and well planned.
Yes, I know, my story! Be patient! I’ve still got nearly 300 words worth of space. So, I met my best friend for dinner at the Italian restaurant and since beverages are usually served without ice cubes I specifically ordered my apple juice with water AND ice cubes.
The waitress looked at me as if I were from another planed and inquired, “Ice cubes?”
I just nodded and continued with my order: Spaghetti alla carbonara, “Without that dried parsley you like to unnecessarily garnish pasta with because you think it looks good!” And tastes awful. I always have to scrape off the herbs, which annoys me no end. Am I finicky? I don’t think so. After all I’m not ordering my salad with the dressing on the side or my pasta being cooked without salt or the sauce without bacon and merely ham. I just don’t want dried parsley on my pasta.
The waitress saunters off and my friend said, grinning, “You and your special wishes!”
What can I say? I’m not a parsley kind of girl. (And since we’re on the topic I also hate dried oregano on pizza if it’s not sprinkled on carefully but dumped in the middle – and there you can see me scraping again!)
Back to my story. Beverages were served first and you should have seen my face as the waitress put my watered-down apple juice down in front of me – without ice cubes – and said, “The water is cold enough anyway!”
I was so stunned I was unable to react. The water is cold enough anyway? The water is cold enough anyway! My friend chuckled and I just sat there, with my juice and NO ice cubes which I had wanted so badly! And I always thought the point of being waited on is that you get what you’ve ordered. At least I got my pasta without parsley. (But fresh chives which didn’t go that well with the Carbonara sauce either …)
I didn’t leave any tips, by the way. And in the future, I will rate a restaurant after their ability to bring me ice cubes!
ABOUT EVERYTHING AND NOTHING 
Wow, you remind me of my friend U who has “to scrape off the herbs” often in restaurants since she has special idea about her food. I too has to do it regularly since I dislike sesame seeds but they often occur on Asian dishes. Often sesame seeds are unnecessarily sprinkled on top, for example on sushi rolls. Even if I specifically said no sesame seeds, the dish often came out bearing them.
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The culinary atrocities one has to suffer 🤣 … I once was in Munich at the lower priced restaurant of a famous German cook and ordered Schnitzel with French fries. The fries were spiced with a lemon pepper mixture which was just awful … and the Schnitzel was a disgrace for such a place as well with a soggy breading. Anyway … why does one always have to spoil good dishes with weird extras or decorations like your sesame seeds … I totally get you!!! Thanks for commenting and sharing!!! 😊
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