Let’s say I decide to go to a nice restaurant for a meal. The dish comes out, and I ask for a salt shaker before I even taste it (I never have, btw). That is normally considered an insult to the chef or you are pegged as a neanderthal diner.

Why, then, is it normal for a waiter to offer you grinds of pepper all over your plate before you have even had your first bite?

  • liv@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    the tradition and experience

    Even though this happened over 20 years ago, I will never forget the experience I once had of a waiter grinding all the pepper into my lap instead. It was an upmarket restaurant, but I think perhaps he was on something.

    • groucho@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      I can’t stop laughing. Did you tell him, or did he just sit there grinding more and more pepper into your lap?

      My wife and I went to an Italian restaurant in Vegas a few years ago. The waiter asked if we wanted Parmesan, pulled the tiniest cube of cheese out and held it up like a magician, and then never broke eye contact while he grated it. It was unnerving.

      • liv@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        I didn’t tell him, just sat there in shock getting my lap peppered.

        If it happened to me now I would say something, but I was young and not that assertive, so was probably like a rabbit in the headlights!