I've noticed a small trend. A trend that, if it takes, will make me happy. I always defer to the client for the choice of restaurants, and the last five choices they made seem to be going against convention.
Three chose steak houses. One chose a sushi joint (gag) and one picked a burger joint. OK it was an "upscale" burger joint (if there can be such a thing), but it was a burger joint nonetheless.
Can it be? After too many years of being served grass, weed-clippings and pet dander, can it possibly be that people are returning to food? Sushi isn't food, by the way. I used to pay $3 a bucket of that stuff to take it fishing where I caught fish and took them home and cooked them, and now they want me to pay $5 a PIECE to stick it on a hook and shove it in my OWN mouth.
But I got lost there a second. As I wondered, can we possibly be back on the track where dinner in a restaurant is once again something intended to bring pleasure? Can fine dining (burger joints can be fine, too, ya know) actually be a situation where we break from the norms of our daily eating habits and actually enjoy ourselves?
I went on vacation with a friend, and she had to allow an hour per day for her "training". Which really meant about 2 and 1/2 hours as she had to dress for the gym, and then spend an hour afterward primping for the other parts of our vacation. And she wasn't really "training" for anything. She just couldn't imagine 7 whole days of just relaxing and enjoying herself.
It's the same principle, you know? How often do we really engage in "fine dining"? Would one steak per month really hurt you? Would a burger every third week put you in a coma? Come on now!
I don't think there's anything wrong with sitting down in a restaurant and letting one's hair down (or loosening the belt, so to speak)once in a while. And I'm so happy at the prospect that Good Eats might actually come back into vogue.
Think I'll call a client and go for some ribs. See ya.
