Food for thought

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Here’s the thing.  We like to eat out from time to time.  Nothing wrong with that.  It gets us out of the house and it’s nice to have someone else do the cooking.  All I ask is that he food is good and value for however much money we pay for it. 

Anyway, I was enjoying myself with the newly revived Thursday Thirteen meme a few days ago and I read Lissa’s one, in which she lists a number of restaurants where she and her family like to eat (well, thirteen of then to be exact. Duh!).   Many of those names were instantly recognizable, and we have eaten at their local outlets many times.  Those chain restaurants may not be fine dining, but they are pretty dependable for mid-range food cooked reasonably well.  But we don’t go any more.

The reason is that a few months ago we were at one of them (I won’t say which one) for our anniversary dinner.  Just the two of us.  My wife ordered a steak and asked that it be cooked medium.  “I’m sorry,” said the waiter, “We are all out of medium steaks.”   That, I must admit, took me by surprise.  Call me naïve, call me foolish, but I had always thought that when you ordered a steak in a restaurant they took the raw meat and bunged it on a grill or in a pan and cooked it for you.  Obviously not.  This waiter’s indiscretion told me that they pre-cook the steaks, or maybe even buy them in ready cooked, and just microwave them when they are ordered.  I don’t need to go sit in a restaurant to eat microwave meals.  I can microwave a pre-cooked steak at home.  And I especially don’t want to pay $15.00 for a plate of reheated meat.  

This experience has led us to take a new approach to eating out.  We now specifically try to find locally owned, independent restaurants, which use local ingredients.  For local, let’s say from within a 100 mile radius if possible.  Not everything is available that close to here, but even so, is there any reason to fly strawberries all the way in from Kenya?  Or to serve Pacific seafood when we are this close to both the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico?  And it may sound obnoxious but I do make a point of asking if the food is cooked form fresh or if they use a microwave.  I’m paying, so I think I’m entitled to know!
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Comments

[J]

That is horrific. Will you please email me and tell me what the hell the restaurant was, so I don't accidentally find myself at their local establishment? I've worked in restaurants, and they ALL cooked their steaks fresh. Maybe not dishes that take a couple of hours, like a stew, but a steak? Yeah, fresh every time. I can't imagine. Gives me the heebies.

And yay for local and fresh. I'll admit, we haaven't given up strawberries in winter. We love them too much. I know we should.

[Tina Marie]

That's disgusting! I wouldn't go again either.

[Lissa]

What is weird is that I cannot stand the taste of microwaved meat. You think that I would have noticed. Oh well, seafood and Mexican were on the menu this weekend and it was divine!

[Janet]

I've never heard of a restaurant doing this! Gross!

[Shanna]

I agree. I travel for my work and end up having to eat out a lot, and over the years I've become out right angry at the lack of quality at American restaurants. The flip side to that is there are some amazing locally owned restaurants. I don't know where you live but Sylva, NC has some fantastic places for such a tiny town.