luminousRatatouille
December 15th 2008 02:53
Of course you’ve seen “Rattatouille”. But what if instead of a critic walking into a french bistro and the kitchen getting into a panic with a rat on the loose, the critic orders, eats and fills up a feedback form prescribing an organic remedy to the biggest problem of the restaurant in order to make it perfect at very little expense to the owner?
When we walked in, the scent of pest-ridden wood-rot greeted us and that was enough to drive us back out to the hot afternoon sun.
Upon spotting a TURO-TURO (Filipinism; literally means "point-point" a finger at the food you are ordering) aperitif counter, however, I was captured.
The waiter approached me to identify the choices and said I could have any six for one plate of appetizers. Pickled zuchinni, eggplant and red peppers, anchovies, garlic mushrooms, black olives were promptly served. Vegetable soup and focaccio bread with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and parmesan cheese for me, seafood pasta in olive oil for lola and quattro formaggio for my son was ordered with 3 tall glasses four seasons iced tea. (But of course we asked the waiter to divide the soup into 2 bowls and we shared the pasta and pizza and had lots left over because the old women were on a diet and the kid was a complicated eater.)
My son complained of the cold but after ordering we were just an order waiting to be filled and the waiter/waitresses were not keeping a discreet eye out for any problems we were encountering. I was only going to ask them to redirect the room aircon shutters. So instead, I asked my son to move to my side of the table to avoid PNEUMONITIS. It was SUMMER HOT again outside despite the CHRISTMAS SIBERIAN WINDS.
The meal was perfect. After the soup and bread I stepped out to smoke filtered indonesian tobacco blended with CLOVES. (Which of course I couldn’t afford but the cost being prohibitive I am constrained to cut consumption drastically.)
Outside I saw the room aircon unit dripping on a wooden chair outside and the attention of the waiter was called to dry off the poor chair. A van pulled in and a large foreigner entered the ristorante. Shortly after the Italian owner arrived (I remember him from 10 years back when we ate lunch there because a friend was leaving for italy en route to Dubai to visit her sister and then work as a masseuse for diplomats. Of course, she didn’t stay long at such a job.).
I snuck a peak at lola and interrupted their business meeting when they all looked my way. Embarrassed and apologetic, I finished my cigarrette and came back in from the door further away from the meeting.
I came back in to see the owner, his wife and children and a hefty man seated in a table beside ours in what appeared to be an Italian investor discussing the latest expansion venture in lively Italian. Or maybe he was a cousin from Sicily or Calabria who flew over after extended YM rolling with investible funds?
The Filipina MOM and Italian POP project was opening a new branch in Marikina -- our greenest city, host to the largest metropolitan butterfly farm. The meeting was short and the investor, I was surprised to observe, was smoking the local reduced tar and nicotine brand which comes in soft packs which stale easily and which I now find awful on my way to hopefully quitting entirely.. Bur since he was the investor, they couldn’t ask him to step out for his foul second hand smoke emission (look whose talking... except my mother and son were in the table beside theirs. But I still held my peace since the food was that good.)
After the meeting they all left together maybe for a site visit.
The waiters started joking around with the waitress and the cashier just sat there notwithstanding us. So I gently reminded the waiter that just because the cat’s away they couldn’t rule the dining area and pester the clientele.
The waiter didn’t even blink as the comment was so nicely made. Then he rendered a NICE & TYPICAL FILIPINO apology to convey that their stomachs were twisted enough when the Italian was around and handed me a survey form that a student was doing; hitting two birds with one stone by getting customer feedback. I remembered that I forgot my reading glasses and asked for a piece of paper and a ballpen instead.
I explained, as I wrote, that a bottle of concentrated CITROMINT oil -- should be used to wipe varnished wood (more oil less water for wood), inside cabinets, inside cracks and crannies, to mop the floor and clean the kitchen (one bottle cap mixed with half a bucket of water) with the residue poured down all the drains afterwards. This would shoo away, stun & kill the pests leaving a fresh scent and a gleam on the floors and wood.
The waiter suggested that maybe air fresheners on the air-conditioning units was a good idea but of course, this would just mask the smell and the connossieur’s nose (if i with my sinusitis could, then anybody can) would still detect it. But I suggested STRAWBERRY TEABAGS, GOLD LEAF brand which I was surprised to discover was pungent enough to serve as car air fresheners when hung over the vents.
A large bottle of CITROMINT and a BOX of STRAWBERRY TEA would cost about USD 10.00 whereas pest control would be a hefty amount for this MOM & POP affair.
I forgot to leave a calling card and they didn’t ask for my name & if it brings in more customers they owe me for the feedback but who cares -- if more Fil-Italian ristorantes make their HOME HERE in the PHILIPPINES bringing in GOOD foreign investment FROM and FOR the food business.
When we walked in, the scent of pest-ridden wood-rot greeted us and that was enough to drive us back out to the hot afternoon sun.
Upon spotting a TURO-TURO (Filipinism; literally means "point-point" a finger at the food you are ordering) aperitif counter, however, I was captured.
The waiter approached me to identify the choices and said I could have any six for one plate of appetizers. Pickled zuchinni, eggplant and red peppers, anchovies, garlic mushrooms, black olives were promptly served. Vegetable soup and focaccio bread with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and parmesan cheese for me, seafood pasta in olive oil for lola and quattro formaggio for my son was ordered with 3 tall glasses four seasons iced tea. (But of course we asked the waiter to divide the soup into 2 bowls and we shared the pasta and pizza and had lots left over because the old women were on a diet and the kid was a complicated eater.)
My son complained of the cold but after ordering we were just an order waiting to be filled and the waiter/waitresses were not keeping a discreet eye out for any problems we were encountering. I was only going to ask them to redirect the room aircon shutters. So instead, I asked my son to move to my side of the table to avoid PNEUMONITIS. It was SUMMER HOT again outside despite the CHRISTMAS SIBERIAN WINDS.
The meal was perfect. After the soup and bread I stepped out to smoke filtered indonesian tobacco blended with CLOVES. (Which of course I couldn’t afford but the cost being prohibitive I am constrained to cut consumption drastically.)
Outside I saw the room aircon unit dripping on a wooden chair outside and the attention of the waiter was called to dry off the poor chair. A van pulled in and a large foreigner entered the ristorante. Shortly after the Italian owner arrived (I remember him from 10 years back when we ate lunch there because a friend was leaving for italy en route to Dubai to visit her sister and then work as a masseuse for diplomats. Of course, she didn’t stay long at such a job.).
I snuck a peak at lola and interrupted their business meeting when they all looked my way. Embarrassed and apologetic, I finished my cigarrette and came back in from the door further away from the meeting.
I came back in to see the owner, his wife and children and a hefty man seated in a table beside ours in what appeared to be an Italian investor discussing the latest expansion venture in lively Italian. Or maybe he was a cousin from Sicily or Calabria who flew over after extended YM rolling with investible funds?
The Filipina MOM and Italian POP project was opening a new branch in Marikina -- our greenest city, host to the largest metropolitan butterfly farm. The meeting was short and the investor, I was surprised to observe, was smoking the local reduced tar and nicotine brand which comes in soft packs which stale easily and which I now find awful on my way to hopefully quitting entirely.. Bur since he was the investor, they couldn’t ask him to step out for his foul second hand smoke emission (look whose talking... except my mother and son were in the table beside theirs. But I still held my peace since the food was that good.)
After the meeting they all left together maybe for a site visit.
The waiters started joking around with the waitress and the cashier just sat there notwithstanding us. So I gently reminded the waiter that just because the cat’s away they couldn’t rule the dining area and pester the clientele.
The waiter didn’t even blink as the comment was so nicely made. Then he rendered a NICE & TYPICAL FILIPINO apology to convey that their stomachs were twisted enough when the Italian was around and handed me a survey form that a student was doing; hitting two birds with one stone by getting customer feedback. I remembered that I forgot my reading glasses and asked for a piece of paper and a ballpen instead.
I explained, as I wrote, that a bottle of concentrated CITROMINT oil -- should be used to wipe varnished wood (more oil less water for wood), inside cabinets, inside cracks and crannies, to mop the floor and clean the kitchen (one bottle cap mixed with half a bucket of water) with the residue poured down all the drains afterwards. This would shoo away, stun & kill the pests leaving a fresh scent and a gleam on the floors and wood.
The waiter suggested that maybe air fresheners on the air-conditioning units was a good idea but of course, this would just mask the smell and the connossieur’s nose (if i with my sinusitis could, then anybody can) would still detect it. But I suggested STRAWBERRY TEABAGS, GOLD LEAF brand which I was surprised to discover was pungent enough to serve as car air fresheners when hung over the vents.
A large bottle of CITROMINT and a BOX of STRAWBERRY TEA would cost about USD 10.00 whereas pest control would be a hefty amount for this MOM & POP affair.
I forgot to leave a calling card and they didn’t ask for my name & if it brings in more customers they owe me for the feedback but who cares -- if more Fil-Italian ristorantes make their HOME HERE in the PHILIPPINES bringing in GOOD foreign investment FROM and FOR the food business.
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