Write about a favorite restaurant, they’re saying. Convince us we’d love to eat there.
Hmmm, are you like us? On a fixed budget, or at least a very limited budget?
Maybe you eat out three or four times a year, if that. And usually, that’s only when visiting out-of-state friends want to take you out with them as a change of scenery for you.
Favorite restaurant? Almost anywhere sounds fabulous, dahling! Never mind the Ritz.
Whether it’s fast food, fresh food, cheap food or homestyle food, sometimes you just get a hankering to want to eat out. You long to eat something good that someone else fixed for you! You can smell the charcoal-grilled bacon burgers and the crispy fries. You even taste that lower-fat strawberry milkshake before you pull into the eatery’s parking lot filling up with impatient customers! (You know, the transplants from a certain region back East who never learned how to drive without honking the horn. Driver’s Ed 101 in their states.) And you know what else? Never mind the calories, or the cholesterol or the fat, for just once.
Could be your mouth is watering for that salad bar that’s threatening to collapse again under the weight of all that variety. You’d hate to be the server who has to stand there and catch it before it tumbles to the ground. Woo! Hoo! What a disaster that would be! But you couldn’t fix a choice of salads like that at home in a month of Sundays. It’s not possible to buy small enough amounts of so many ingredients, let alone eat them all before the concoctions spoil. However, a jar of capers from your nearest ethnic food store will keep a long time in the ‘fridge. Frozen potato salad for later? Not sure of that, maybe the ingredients, but not if you’ve already added the mayonnaise.
Maybe you want to chomp down on a submarine sandwich made with artisan Italian cheese bread where veggies and cold cuts slide out of the sides from a little too much olive oil. Or you absolutely need to inhale a meatball hoagie, smothered in onions and bell pepper slices and mozzarella cheese. On the other hand, it could be an egg custard pie, dusted with nutmeg and cinnamon, that’s singing to you. Not to your partner, but definitely to you!
If the weather’s balmy enough, not too hot or too cold, or too windy, you’ll be eating at an outside patio table. While you’re waiting for your own food, try not to stare at what other customers are eating! Sure enough, there’ll be birds hopping or stalking around, full of knowledge that the pickings here are chancy but great. If you’re quiet, you’ll hear tree frogs who manage to hide in plain sight around the refreshing fountain. And if you’re afraid of lizards chasing insects, just wear clothing that covers your legs and feet. But keep that camera handy and come on in!