When Did Restaurants Stop Giving Us ‘Free’ Bread Before We Ordered?
Click to access original from June 2017.
Click to access original from May 2014.
I have been meaning to write about this for years …
Have YOU noticed? This, however, could just be a north, east coast phenomenon. It was interesting that I found articles about it in New York and Boston newspapers — and quite recently at that.
We eat out a fair amount — twice this last week. Each time I noticed that you no longer get any ‘munchies’, let alone bread, ahead of your appetizers. Just the drinks your order.
It was very different, of course, just 5-years ago. There were restaurants that were RENOWNED for their complimentary bread. Remember the bread and oil phase.
What happened?
Of course restaurants are saving a MINT on this — and people will be ordering more since they can’t fill up on bread.
Yes, I can appreciate that things got ‘tricky’ with all this gluten-free, nut-free requirements. But, you would have thought that they could have been resourceful. Yes, of course, the cost savings would have been hard to resist.
I do know one thing. This started to happen post 2013 — around the same time I went on my low-carb diet. That is probably the reason I don’t notice it as much.
I just can’t remember whether this ‘no bread’ dictum is also true on the West coast. I was last there 2-years ago and can’t remember the bread situation. PLEASE let me know. I would love to update this post. Maybe even create a ‘bread’/’no-bread’ map of the U.S.
OK, I am going to get ambitious. I am going to ask around … the World.
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Statues Of Boston, In And Around The “Commons” & “Public Park” — Saturday, February 24, 2018.
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Attribution WILL be enforced.
I like statues, especially big, bold, imposing ones. So, what can I say. If I have a camera on me (which is invariably the case over the last few years) I am going to take pictures of any statues I encounter.
Growing up in Ceylon, in the 1950s — 1960s, a very close family friend was a Indian sculptor, of renown, who specialized in bronze. Actually my adoptive father had brought him over from India because we didn’t have any of his caliber or skills. I used to spend a fair amount of time hanging around his studio. So, there is a special place in my heart for good bronze statues of the kind that adorn Boston.
This was our trip on Saturday, to celebrate the 2018 Chinese New Year with Dim Sum, at ‘China Pearl’, in Chinatown. After the Dim Sum Teischan wanted to explore Boston Common & Public Park. I took most of these pictures on that walk which was around 2.5 miles in total.
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The Windows Of Boston — Saturday, February 24, 2018.
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Attribution WILL be enforced.
I like windows with character. I enjoy the shapes, colors, sizes, positionings & juxtapositionings … As I pointed out in this post I like shapes and patterns in general, and windows are a special class of such patterns.
Whenever I am in a city I like to let my eyes roam over the windows. Boston, like all of the older cities on the US Northeast, has a fascinating variety of windows, both old and new. Until I started taking this set of pictures I had never realized the similarity of some of the buildings to those in Amsterdam. I had noticed this in Philadelphia too.
This was our trip on Saturday, to celebrate the 2018 Chinese New Year with Dim Sum, at ‘China Pearl’, in Chinatown. After the Dim Sum Teischan wanted to explore Boston Common & Public Park. I took most of these pictures on that walk which was around 2.5 miles in total.
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Search ‘Boston’.
Images Of Boston, Chinatown, “2018 Chinese New Year” — Saturday, February 24, 2018.
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Attribution WILL be enforced.
Dim Sum at China Pearl.
We went to Boston Chinatown, for 2018 Chinese New Year, on Saturday, February 24, as opposed to the Sunday, which is when we normally go (so as to enjoy the Dragon Parades etc.), because it was going to be bucketing down, most of the day, on the Sunday.
It was still fun. It wasn’t as busy as the 2nd Sunday of the New Year.
We still had Dim Sum at China Pearl.
It was warm. In the 50s. So, it was great to walk around. We ended up walking to Boston Common and spending an hours walking around the entire Common/Park.
Glad we went. Would have liked to have seen the Dragon Parades. We missed them last year too.
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Arbitrary Shapes, Images & Textures Of Boston (Saturday, February 24, 2018) — The Collage.
Arbitrary Shapes, Images & Textures Of Boston — Saturday, February 24, 2018.
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Attribution WILL be enforced.
I tend to see patterns, shapes and textures — especially so if I have a camera at hand (which fairly often, of late). These were some of the arbitrary (‘random’, as Teischan would call it) images that caught my eye today and warranted me activating the lens. I did take 320 pictures!
These amuse me. Maybe you might like a few. You have to see them at least at the ‘enlarged’ size I have them posted.
Enjoy.
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Dim Sum, ‘China Pearl’, Chinatown, Boston — Saturday, February 24, 2018.
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Attribution WILL be enforced.
Though I have been going to ‘China Pearl‘, in Chinatown, Boston, for over 25-years, on a regular basis, this, as far as I can recall, is the first time we have been for Dim Sum on a Saturday — as opposed to the customary Sunday. We had to do today, because this was the last weekend of the 2018 Chinese New Year — and tomorrow, Sunday, is going to have torrential rain. While we realized that we might miss the Dragon Parades — and we did — we were NOT going to get soaked.
Dim Sum on a Saturday is different — of that there can be no doubt or debate. The cart service is not as extensive as it is on a Sunday — and as such you also don’t get as many carts coming around. You can say it is definitely a more languid process. The self-service ‘buffet’ by the kitchen was, of course, open and we had a table close to it. So, we made 4 or 5 trips to that. On a Sunday, we would typically just visit that twice.
But, it was OK. Fun, as ever. Busy, BUT not crazy busy. Relaxed. Nice people. At least one recognized me. That was nice.
Glad we went. Beautiful day. Walked from China Pearl to Boston Common.
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