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Restaurant Romp
dinner with an out of town friend takes some unexpected turns and becomes a strangely amusing adventure
Date: 2/26/2006 6:15:22 PM ( 19 y ) ... viewed 2797 times On the path to vibrational health, one sometimes runs across opportunities to dine at publicly overrated and majorly expensive (read: overpriced) health food restaurants. Of course I'm not saying these sorts of places are bad and should be avoided. NO value judgments here.
Really it is the experience with my new-agey friend from out-of-town with whom I dined last night that made it an adventure.
I know that good Curezoners don't watch much or any TV so please excuse me for referring to TV, however, this restaurant experience was very much like an episode of my favorite TV show, "Curb Your Enthusiasm".
If you're familiar with it, you will understand what I mean.
This sort of restaurant invariably serves up a plate with artistically arranged vegetables, lightly cooked or raw, a little dab of something else, such as fish, if one orders it, in tiny tiny proportion, and a creative small plate with some healthy type of oil on it and a yam sauce instead of butter. For these plates of artistically arranged yet not particularly plentiful vegetables and a microscopic portion of fish or some such animal protein food if one eats that sort of thing, the cost is 20 dollars or more at supper time. And, trust me, if you want a salad it's extra. And not just a little bit extra either. 5 dollars extra for a small salad. And small is quite small in these types of restaurants.
So, with my financial ranting aside, we'll get to the rest. I do not want to offend or alienate my friend that I dined with. Not in any way. That's why if she's reading this, she should just go ahead and stop right now. :)
I hadn't been out to eat with this particular friend for over a year, as she lives thousands of miles away and only comes here to attend seminars and creative events.
She feels that she has to "muscle test" to decide what to order at restaurants. This appears to be a rather long, involved process where she dramatically holds her arm up with her hand relaxed and hanging downward, and holds her other hand over the top of her wrist. Then she visually goes down the list on the menu, apparently considering whatever menu items she's interested in and muscle testing for appropriateness as she holds the thought of each one in her mind.
For her, this takes a very long time. Last night it took 35 minutes, with the waiter, who appeared at first amused, becoming increasingly more impatient with her as time went on. I was growing impatient too.
I have found that tools such as muscle testing and pendulums are just that: tools. We can look within ourselves and consider/determine what will or won't be beneficial for us without those tools. At least I can. But I think others should be free to do what they need to do to thrive, and for her this muscle testing appears to be crucial at restaurants and grocery stores, and just about everywhere else.
To be honest, the public muscle testing creates quite a spectacle, drawing lots of attention from neighboring tables, and was rather uncomfortable to be in the presence of.
It didn't seem to work very well either. When my friend's risotto that she ordered came to the table, she took one bite and looked very annoyed, then moved it all to one side of her dish. She summoned the waiter over and told him there was too much pepper in the risotto. He had already grown somewhat annoyed with her during the muscle testing episode, and he did not respond much when she commented about the pepper. He only said that not much pepper is used in the risotto.
I'm not a restaurant complainer. I order carefully and accept what I receive gracefully 99% of the time. Restaurant complainers embarrass me. I can usually ignore behaviors of my fellow diners unless they are glaringly attention grabbing.
This stuff was beyond glaringly attention grabbing. It was horribly hellish.
It just went on and on and got worse and worse. I couldn't even enjoy my minimalist steamer full of vegetables with an equally miniscule portion of seafood in any semblance of peace.
Certainly I could have asked for a to go container and left. I thought about it. It got pretty bad.
She had a big argument with the waiter, and he was plenty rude too. He accused her of eating part of the risotto and then complaining. She had only one small bite, so that just wasn't true. He was quite ungracious, but she was also behaving in a very entitled and overly demanding manner, yet within reason for someone who simply wanted to return a dish to the kitchen of a restaurant and try something else.
After their little shouting match, he kind of grabbed her plate from her. She grabbed it back, stating that she wanted to finish her salmon.
Good heavens! I kept wondering when and how it would all end.
Just as the dust was settling from that entanglement, the chef came out and walked up to our table, asking her (not me, the quiet one) how her meal was. She proceeded to unleash a verbal tirade similar to the prior one with the waiter. The chef was defensive and rather rude, and never did ask me how my meal was. I was trying to blend in with the wall at this point. Maybe I succeeded!!
After this it all became a blur. I guess I went into trauma mode or something.
When the check came, I asked the waiter if he could separate out what I had ordered, so that I could pay by credit card, as she was paying with cash.
He asked if he could split the tax in half, and she had yet another tirade, because her bill was actually considerably less than mine therefore her tax would have been less also.
Ironic, because I was going to offer to simply pay the entire tax myself.
Then, of course, she muscle tested, 2 or 3 times actually, and told me that her body was saying not to leave a tip so she didn't therefore I ended up paying over $30 for a few plates of minimalist food and some homemade root beer.
Two things I learned: to think carefully before ever eating at a restaurant with that friend again, and not ever to go to that restaurant at dinner time again. (Lunch is quite pleasant and affordable there).
Maybe there was more I could have learned, but if so I haven't figured it out yet.
Funny, I felt relaxed when I got home, and then went right to bed. Felt good and healthy this morning when I woke up. Ate the left overs from that dinner this morning and really enjoyed them.
I guess I've learned not to let things get to me so much that they upset my equilibrium like they always used to. That's pretty cool.
If you've read this far, you're a trooper. Thanks for listening.
~vibr8
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