Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Creative Menu Language

I just love the language some of these places use on their menus. After a very long day and way too tired to do the big night out routine I opted for the restaurant in the hotel. This is a full blown Hilton in downtown Indy so the expectation is there for above average chow especially considering the prices.
Tonight's experience was very typical. The first warning is that you walk into a restaurant that seats 70 or so people and you are number three at 730 in the evening. You ignore the alarm bells going off and take a seat.
Nothing on the 'big' menu seems good especially as most of it is over $20 a pop and you fall back to the 'grill menu'. This is basically the room service menu but whatever.
The first item on the menu strikes you as interesting..Indiana pulled pork BBQ with our homemade mango habenero BBQ sauce. Sounds good! The reality is some pulled pork of unknown origin with some Kraft BBQ sauce on a plastic onion roll with some fries and questionable cole slaw. All this for only $9. I was trying to be penurious but once again I have been punished. I know better but I still try.
I think it all goes back some 20 years or so when I was staying in the Holiday Inn in Williamston, NC. (It's the hometown of Catfish Hunter BTW) and the restaurant attached was run by a couple of older ladies that didn't know from fancy but could put a scald on fried chicken that was memorable. Pot roast, mac and cheese, homemade biscuits and all the good old southern standards. You would have to have at least two full meals to spend ten bucks. Nothing gourmet but they didn't claim it to be. You want a bowl of pinto beans and some cornbread...no problem and it is just as good as if you cooked it at home. I keep thinking that I will find another but so far I have been thwarted.

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