On 6/13/06, Thaths <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
For Madhu (Menon):
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,1200775,00.html
The Menu Magician
Gregg Rapp knows just how to influence what you order
By CAROLINA A. MIRANDA
The adjectives lavished on a dish can be as important as the names of
the ingredients. What would you rather eatplain grilled chicken or
flame-broiled chicken with a garlic rub? Scrambled eggs or farm-fresh
eggs scrambled in butter? "Think 'flavors and tastes,'" Rapp says,
repeating a favorite mantra. "Words like crunchy and spicy give the
customer a better idea of what something will be like." Longer,
effusive descriptions should be reserved for signature items.
Especially the profitable ones.
I don't think this will work at Shiok...most of the regulars, Madman says, just ask his advice about what to eat, and often wait for him to rustle up a special dish that might not be on the menu at all!
I personally do NOT like too poetic effusions about food; my perception is that the price is directly proportional to the number of adjectives(along with the size and weight of the menu card), a feeling that seems to be borne out by the article. And I am particularly irked if I am sitting in Chennai and I am informed that parathas are "Indian unleavened bread". Parathas cost perhaps ten rupees, Indian unleavened bread would cost at least four times that. If my rasam is " a gentle combination of fragrant Indian herbs, spices and condiments in a tamarind sauce, tempered with clarified butter" then I probably can't afford it.
I sometimes think they should have a separate menu for foreign tourists. I have yet to read, on any menu in Germany, a description of wurst as "German sausage"....or an explanation of meals in the UK like "Toad in the Hole".
