The Rural Voice, 1980-10, Page 38SUPEP PECEPTPOfl
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GISELE IRELAND
Statistically it is said that one out of every three meals is eaten
away from home. This hasn't quite reached the rural population
where eating out is considered a treat.
Where you eat out is largely determined by the age of the
family you have. When the children are under five, they have not
developed the virtue of patience and after a few occasions of
chewed tablecoths, cutlery on the floor, and empty cracker
packages all over, you decide to stick to the fast food places.
Cleaning up after is always a problem too and a lot of people
solve this problem by carrying wet towels that are disposable in
the glove compartment, or by staying home to eat. A one year old
in a car chair, coupled with a soft ice cream cone in hot
temperatures makes a bigger mess than a turpentined cat in a
hen house. Mothers still consider this meal a treat, mainly
because they don't have to cook it, even if they do have to clean
up after and Rolaids aren't that expensive after a three course
fried everything.
The children get older and you frequent a different type of
restaurant. Now they can read the menu and have graduated
from hot dogs to more varied demands. Unless you set an
amount that they can spend before you go, you are in trouble.
You're perusing the hot sandwich section while your ten year
old orders the two pork chop dinner. You can either haul her off
to the bathroom fast and clue her in or just sweetly ask for a
second plate so that her brother can share with her. The choir
really tunes up when he has his mind on a half chicken dinner
and theother boy thinks a medium rare steak would be nice.
What really irks me is when we're out eating, the kids will
always order the soup, even if it is cream of turnip, and they
never touch the stuff at home unless their life is threatened.
They are also fascinated by the do.it yourself salad bars, and it is
likely the only time I will ever see my kids eat bean sprouts and
chick peas without bribing them.
When adults go out, it is usually to celebrate an occasion. This
leaves mastitis riddled cow meat and fried buzzard off your list.
We want a place with class and lots of atmosphere. Atmosphere
is watching a neighbouring diner slurp his way through snails in
garlic butter. Better yet it is the couple next to you that are
evidently not married because they are holding hands and it is
honey this and sweetie that . He usually buys her one perfect red
rose and she bats her eyelashes at him. I feel like walking over
and telling her she's going to pay for that somehow. _
The atmosphere is important too, because the men need
candlelight and real flowers on the table to discuss how much
trouble they had getting a bearing for their swather and how the
baler conked out in the middle of a field of hay. You're just happy
to be there and soak it all in. You never lose the habit of stacking
everything neatly for the waitress to pick up and rearrange your
cutlery to perfect alignment.
The food itself, usually steak where men are concerned, is
always different than what you expect. I'll never forget the look
on my husband's face at one place where his steak was served
with a chunk of dill pickle on a plank and nothing else. I like to try
different things, especially sea food. Those big fat naked shrimp
really taste good, better yet if a fellow diner asks in a horrified
voice "how can you eat those things?" Meals like this are always
eaten leisurely, which is good because the service is usually very
stow. You can put in time cutting up those cute loaves of bread
they bring and picking the things you don't like out of your salad.
The only part of eating out that isn't so great is paying the bill.
You don't mind $20 per person if you're full and satisfied, but
that alas, is not always the case. The $20 is really begrudged if
you have to go to the nearest pizza joint to fill up so you won't
faint on the way home from hunger.
Eating out is a Canadian way of life, but you have to know
where you are going and what you expect to get before you
willingly plunk down the profit on one week's labours.
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THE RURAL VOICE/OCTOBER 1980 PG. 37