Thursday, June 10, 2010
Point of Contention
Monday, September 14, 2009 at 12:07am
On several occasions I have been invited to dine out with a couple of friends. The gracious hostess always happy to shoulder all the expenses will let us order whatever we want to eat.
I’ve been asked many times for suggestions of where to eat. There are no restaurants that offer fine dining in my area, but we have the more popular mid-range Chinese, fastfood and Filipino restos and pizza parlors. Still, unlike the Manila metropolis, choices are very limited.
On two instances, from two different pizza parlors, I have requested for tomato ketchup. And on each time, I’ve been frowned upon and verbally reprimanded by my host. A restaurateur herself, she’d tell me that had she been the one making the pizza (what she ordered for us) and hear me ask for that offending condiment, she’d feel insulted and this might compel her to throw me out of the resto.
At this point, I just laughed, and told her not to be silly. She was joking of course, but there is a ring of seriousness in her voice. So I said, what’s the big deal? The pizza parlor (which is a foreign company) is made for the masses who can afford to dine in. If I asked for ketchup, the management has no right to complain, because I am paying for it (though in this instance she was). I did not damage any of their utensils, I did not make any dramatic fits, nor did I bother the other customers, I just asked for the damn ketchup. I did not say that the pizza was not good; I just want to put more ketchup on it.
So my friend told me, “it was supposed to taste that way”. Fine then, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have the condiment. Human tongue is not supposed to be generic. Although chili peppers may be universally regarded as hot, some people (or culture) would prefer their food to have a bit more of it (like our Mexican brothers) than others. So yes, In US the pizza is supposed to taste that way, but I’m in the Philippines, and my Filipino tongue is telling me that the pizza is not sweet enough. If in Italy, the spaghetti is not supposed to be smothered in sauce and cheese, my Filipino tongue is saying that it’s not sweet enough, and it’s too sour for my palate. Nevermind those snobbish “cultured” folks who thought nothing but to judge those who didn’t know “how to eat” because in the end, whatever you put in your mouth will just be flushed in the toilet the next day, which is also true with the pampered buns of the rich folks.
Pass the ketchup over here please.
On several occasions I have been invited to dine out with a couple of friends. The gracious hostess always happy to shoulder all the expenses will let us order whatever we want to eat.
I’ve been asked many times for suggestions of where to eat. There are no restaurants that offer fine dining in my area, but we have the more popular mid-range Chinese, fastfood and Filipino restos and pizza parlors. Still, unlike the Manila metropolis, choices are very limited.
On two instances, from two different pizza parlors, I have requested for tomato ketchup. And on each time, I’ve been frowned upon and verbally reprimanded by my host. A restaurateur herself, she’d tell me that had she been the one making the pizza (what she ordered for us) and hear me ask for that offending condiment, she’d feel insulted and this might compel her to throw me out of the resto.
At this point, I just laughed, and told her not to be silly. She was joking of course, but there is a ring of seriousness in her voice. So I said, what’s the big deal? The pizza parlor (which is a foreign company) is made for the masses who can afford to dine in. If I asked for ketchup, the management has no right to complain, because I am paying for it (though in this instance she was). I did not damage any of their utensils, I did not make any dramatic fits, nor did I bother the other customers, I just asked for the damn ketchup. I did not say that the pizza was not good; I just want to put more ketchup on it.
So my friend told me, “it was supposed to taste that way”. Fine then, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have the condiment. Human tongue is not supposed to be generic. Although chili peppers may be universally regarded as hot, some people (or culture) would prefer their food to have a bit more of it (like our Mexican brothers) than others. So yes, In US the pizza is supposed to taste that way, but I’m in the Philippines, and my Filipino tongue is telling me that the pizza is not sweet enough. If in Italy, the spaghetti is not supposed to be smothered in sauce and cheese, my Filipino tongue is saying that it’s not sweet enough, and it’s too sour for my palate. Nevermind those snobbish “cultured” folks who thought nothing but to judge those who didn’t know “how to eat” because in the end, whatever you put in your mouth will just be flushed in the toilet the next day, which is also true with the pampered buns of the rich folks.
Pass the ketchup over here please.
# posted by regie @ 1:13 AM 
