Sunday, November 26, 2006

Must be an anthropology thesis in here somewhere

Watched America's Next Top Model tonight - after one week of no TV in this household. I hate to admit it but I didn't really miss TV as much as I hoped I would. Loving TV regardless of how crap it is, is an essential part of my subjective identity. A vague sense of loss here... Can you sympathize?

The effects of no TV on my sons are obvious. O has taken up knitting. He's not very good at it, and he's managed to add about 10 stitches to the bright green scarf that he's working on. This "scarf" seems to be gearing towards a poncho type shape now. Friday night he sat outside under a street light and knitted quietly for an hour. Even J seems a tat more civilized than before; tonight he helped me do all the dishes (amazing for a five year old really, and there's heaps of it too).

Friday night B and I went out to la Brasserie for dinner and although I've seen people sharing food in "western" restaurants before, it is a bit unusual in this type of joint. That night, we were sandwiched between two couples. The couple on my left was a bit older than us. The woman was flirting like mad and did all the ordering. The man spoke Mandarin, seemed pretty reserved, while she spoke to him using a mix of Mandarin, Cantonese and English. She ordered a Caesar salad. I turned to look at her as I overheard this, because this item is not even on the menu. She then specifically asked for the cheese and bacon bits to be removed from the salad. Then she ordered braised ox-tail and ox-tongue. For desert they had fruit. They shared everything. Now the portions are not dingy but not huge either. How they could have managed with just that, and more amazingly, how the restaurant put up with two people ordering just for one, I can't quite figure.

The couple to my right, they are about my age or a bit younger. The man ordered everything and they both spoke softly in Cantopop. They ordered two starters, which they shared, and two identical main courses (also ox-tail and ox-tongue - which, incidently, was also what I ordered). I wondered to mysel if they might have shared the main course as well had they not ordered the same thing.

Now I'm not sure what I'm trying to say here. I'm just saying personally I am not comfortable with sharing food in a restaurant like that. It just seems ... strange... to me. For starters, that food is not designed to be shared. There is only one little piece of that foie gras and one piece of rib eye steak, delicately balanced on top of one another, tastefully decorated with just one sprig of parsley and one cherry tomato on the side. Secondly, I wouldn't WANT to share with anyone so I can't understand why anyone else would. Makes perfect sense, no?

But who am I to judge what is to or not to be done in a restaurant? The only thing is, most two seater tables at these restaurants are not designed to accommodate seven plates at the same time. So I think I have a case here.

And now please allow me to abruptly change the topic.

This morning, went to see B at the finish of the King of the Hill race near Bridespool. Hill runners are an interesting bunch. They really come in all shapes and sizes. Some are really skinny, and some are really beefed up. Some pale as a ghost, others have glorious tans. Some are old and crooked, others young and spritely. None of these seem to correlate to how fast they can run. Differences aside, somehow they all manage to look completely wiped and smell bloody awful at the finish. Hehhe.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes it is tough being a young, sprightly, gloriously tanned, beefed up conquerer of hills.

How long do you think it'll take to go the smell out of your car?

Anonymous said...

That should be 'get' the smell out....

Pierre said...

Sweaty runners' smell has already been overtaken by J's periodic but regular (and very potent) gas emissions.