A Fine Idea

I love this idea. Mixing brand-name cereals and adding toppings like fruit and candy is a great idea, catering to health nuts and sugar bingers alike. And I bet you can get in and out pretty quickly, considering there's not much cooking, if any.

I'm one of those people that some other people hate to go to a restaurant with, especially if I've been to that one before, because I know what I like and it's rarely on the menu exactly the way I like it. For example, I love fajitas, and I especially love beef fajitas in an enchilada. I've found maybe three restaurants in Austin that make fajita enchiladas, but you can generally get them elsewhere if you ask nicely. Which I sometimes do. Another example is Vietnamese food: I love vermicelli with grilled pork, but I hate it when they put lettuce in it, and I really hate fish sauce. Plus I really like peanut sauce and a little bit of the beef broth they make Pho with. And I like the sprouts but on the side, and the same with the cucumbers and carrots. So instead of ordering a #42, it takes me a while longer to express what I want in a way that will ensure it showing up the way I want it.

I am regularly ridiculed for this behavior, but I think the whole world's an omelette bar, and if we can't have exactly what we want, what are we eating out for anyway? My wife tolerates this behavior much better than my other annoying habit of asking waiters and waitresses what they think is the best dish in the house, which rarely gets a declarative answer. They should have an answer to that, if only to name the most expensive dish, shouldn't they? Mostly I get a "Uh, well, I don't really . . . " which is followed by "eat meat" or "know, because I just started" or even "care, because I'm so consumed with the desire to get the hell out of here that I'm just phoning it in until the end of my shift. Now order something, you asshole."

Some people just don't know how to solicit a big tip, I guess. Thanks to Boingboing for the link.