Table talk
Can Do? Seems more like a can of worms
Following our item last week about the mangled English found on the menus of the restaurants of South-east Asia, here are two more gems, this time from the Can Do restaurant in Dalat, Vietnam, as revealed by Malaysian Airlines' in-flight magazine. The culinary delights on offer include "Half-Done Beef Sprayed with Lemon Juice" and "Eel in Chicken's Mental Fat Rolls". Sounds delightful.
No such thing as a sure bet
Peter Crome, managing director of Chewton Glen hotel in New Milton, Hampshire, reckons that his greatest working challenge is trying to please all his customers all the time. When a woman recently checked out of his hotel, she was upset that her stay had not been all she thought it would be. What was the problem? Was it her room, the Michelin-starred food in the restaurant, or perhaps she had been unhappy with opening her curtains and looking out across 70 acres of parkland? According to Crome, this had all been fine. What had upset her was that she had been unable to get the Racing Channel on her television and had therefore missed the finals of a dog breeders' cup challenge. According to the irritated guest, hotel televisions "always" offer the Racing Channel.
Howells hits a bum note
Not content with offending guesthouse owners up and down the country with his slurs on their interior decor as "the visual equivalent of Muzak," tourism minister Kim Howells has now put the boot into Britain's musical heritage. In a recent Parliamentary exchange, Howells said: "The idea of listening to three Somerset folk singers sounds like hell." His remark followed a question about restrictions on the numbers of musicians permitted to play together in licensed premises.
Plate on a plate - indulge your sense of gilt
A restaurant in Düsseldorf has put gold-covered sausages on its menu, as a special variety of the popular regional "Currywurst". In addition to traditional tomato sauce and curry powder, the sausage comes with a piece of 18-carat gold leaf on its skin. Diners at the Curry restaurant pay about £2.40 for the unusual dish. Manager Jürgen Mauermann claims that eating gold is very healthy and that the new offering, advertised as "Curry-gold", had been well received. Mauermann added: "It's a nice idea for a treat. You can order it for somebody instead of flowers, if you're in love."
So all he needed was a shirt and shoes…
Police in Indiana, USA, are looking for a man who streaked through a packed restaurant wearing just a green hat and a false beard. The suspect, who's about 18, ran through the restaurant shouting at people to get out of his way. Police say they could charge him with indecent exposure, which carries a penalty of up to a year in jail. He escaped from the Dutchman Essenhaus restaurant, which has a "no shirt, no shoes, no service" policy, in a waiting pickup truck. John Sauder, general manager for Essenhaus, says: "He didn't order anything. He wouldn't have been served if he did."
