More Americans than not ate at a restaurant this week; in some cases, multiple times.
People begin their day with a stop for coffee and a bite to eat. At lunch, we head out with coworkers to get away from work (and often, depending on the group, talk about work while eating…for the record, we hate those kinds of lunches). Dinners out with family and friends — it’s easier than cooking, after all…or at least it feels that way at the end of a long day when you don’t want yet another list of tasks to contend with.
It’s just not Americans — all around the world, from cities to even rural areas, people make a living cooking for others. Because we’re fans of restaurants (and have even worked in them), we decided to chat about eating away from home on this week’s show.
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We begin with the very first restaurant we remember and then move on to how frequently we went out to eat with family when young — and today.
We talk about working in restaurants, and then share our favorite local restaurants — as well as our favorite restaurants anywhere.
Celebrity chefs are big draws, and their restaurants further bolster their coffers. Find out what we think about them. And while on the subject of chefs, there was a time when culinary school was almost deemed just one mere step above prison, but now it’s seen as an admirable pursuit. We talk about why we think views have changed over the years.
We share whether or not we prefer fancy restaurants to dives — and why. Also find out the most expensive meal we’ve paid for (and even the most expensive meal on someone else’s dime).
We close out this week’s show chatting about why there are so many restaurants — and if there’s a limit to how many places we can build in honor of food.
We’d love to hear your thoughts about this week’s show in the comments.
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I remember being in awe of a sitter I had as a kid. She was also a waiter, and sometimes would come straight from the restaurant to my house. A couple of times she dumped out her apron on the kitchen table – a pile of dollar bills fluttering down and all kinds of change clinking. I thought she was rich. When she told me how tipping works, I thought she had the best job in the world – people would give you money even when you already got paid! And just look at all the money! LOL
Yeah, tips were quite a weird thing. I worked one place where tips were split with kitchen staff, and it WAS weird just having all this change and small bills. It was like pirate treasure or something. And then, later, when I began street performing and the take was all mine. Just this bag of money…it made it at least feel like you were making a lot of money. I make much more now when compared to the vast majority of my working life, but looking at a number online in a bank account still doesn’t feel as real as cash tips.
OK just gotta say finding a roach or fly in my water (or anything I ordered) and I’m a dry-heaving ex-patron running out the door. The grossest things I found in my restaurant food were a cigarette stub underneath my food at a Chinese restaurant in British Columbia, a fly at the bottom of my soup bowl in Mexico, and a hair on my pizza at a pizza place in Massachusetts. And in Mexico, I left the restaurant and waited outside while my family finished eating their lunches.
When I was growing up, my mom often accused me of “using a microscope” on each morsel of my food before eating it. I don’t deny it. I picked out a lot of miscellaneous specks and flecks that most likely were just odd bits of spice or food crumbs…
The roach thing would have had me leaving — I’ll admit that much. But the rare hair or something and I’m like, “It’s bound to happen.”
But I understand those not as willing as I am to continue with a meal in some instances.