I don’t know if it’s getting older being the problem. Or a result of having some age and much experience in life is the issue. But I have noticed I’m much harder to please these days, or perhaps my expectations are just too high?
Case in point, we had an early appointment to make a week or so back, we slept in a bit and skipped breakfast at home. So after my mother in law (whos appointment we were seeing that she got to,) was taken home, I decided to take the wife to one of our breakfast preferences, Taco Bell. (We don’t treat ourselves to town food often, except maybe pizza a couple times a month.) They have a crunchwrap thing which is pretty decent for fast food breakfast, we pay a bit extra for steak, comes with a drink, plus a couple of little cinnabon things that hit my sweet tooth just right. So we went there. It was 9:30 AM. The doors were locked, sign on the door says open at 10:00.
Why in the HELL have a breakfast menu if you are going to open at 10:00 AM?!
A few years back my dad was here to visit, he and his wonderful wife, no not my mom, asked me where was a good place in town to eat. (They always book a motel when they come, I get it.) After a moments hesitation, I told them it really doesn’t matter, all the food in any restauraunt in town, comes off of the same truck. But I pointed to one I knew was decent fare at the time.
So that’s where we went next.
Well, we seated ourselves. I always do a cursory look in a public space, reading the room, and I sit where I can see the door. We figure out what we want off the menu, just sausage and eggs over medium for me, and an omelet for the wife. Both meals come with pre fab biscuits and packet gravy, yum!
I, having much experience in restaurants all over the country, asked the waitress if the cook knows what an over medium egg is? She seemed to think so. So we wait.
I’m looking around, oh gee there’s a 10 commandments plaque on the wall. Oh! And a pledge of allegiance plaque on the wall. And our table, no EVERY table in the joint, is plastered with adverts from every biz in town. Plus a bonus babble quote too! Sweet freaking jeebus… Get me the fuck out of here.
Our orders come and first thing I notice is the eggs were BARELY over easy. Nowhere near over medium. This happens to me no matter what city or state I’m in. Every damn time. No matter, I can eat them this way, begrudingly, but I can manage. Hmm, the sausage is overcooked to the point of lightly burnt too. This day just keeps getting better.
I did mention pre fab biscuits and packet, or perhaps canned gravy too didn’t I? Absolutely, positively, a crappy breakfast from hell, in a babble addled shithole. Cost me 20 bucks and two cents, plus a tip I left, despite being disgusted with the place. It wasn’t this bad several years back, I don’t know what happened…
Yeah. Difficult to please.
Evidence Based Reality 
I don’t know. If the eggs were offered “cooked to order” then you should expect they know how to cook them to order. I happen to like corned beef hash. I always ask whether it comes out of a can because it is better fresh than the canned, aka dog food variety. Picky? Maybe.
I was well into my twenties before I sent a dish back at a restaurant and I can count on one hand the number of times I have done so, being taught not to make a fuss as a youngin’.
My favorite gripe is IHOP, the “International House of Pancakes.” If your name mentions your premiere dish, you should be able to make those things and make them well, but I stopped going to IHOP because their pancakes were never (and I really mean never) cooked all of the way through. (Uncooked pancake batter is . . . shudder.) So, a while back Claudia and I were out doing a job and since we hadn’t been to the place before, we drove straight there, early, checked it out, and then went out to find breakfast. The only place around was an IHOP, so we settled. I still could not order pancakes, so I ordered an omelet and potatoes but Claudia’s breakfast came with a side of pancakes, and . . . drum roll please, they were not cooked all of the way through. This was 20 years after my last visit to an IHOP and 2000 miles from my former home. Now, that’s consistency!
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Eggs have always been a cook to order thing, at least I’ve always thought so. Just like steak. I just figure the cooks only look to see it it’s scrambled or not, then cook them to barely edible and ship them out. It’s been pretty universal in my experience.
Yeah, I couldn’t imagine getting half done pancakes, I might have to make a scene 😉
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I consider the really good short order cooks to be elite chefs. I love watching the good ones work. But the way things are going, I don’t think they are paying enough for talent. They look at a very good but expensive cook and think “My nephew could do that job and would be cheaper, too.” We get what they pay for.
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That’s probably closer to reality than I can appreciate.
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You are old and they make bad breakfast
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Mak, you say so much with so little. Just remember old is just down the road my friend 😉
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I have this friend of mine, he is in his early 60s, who keeps reminding me that I, too, will grow old. So, thank you for the reminder 🙂
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You are very welcome sir!
Just FYI, cranky, follows right along with old. 😉
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I have enough cranky to last me a lifetime of old age.
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Good, you’re all set then when old catches up.
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Find a good hotel and do their continental breakfasts. Can’t go wrong.
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I’ve had my share of continental breakfasts. It’s food. It doesn’t cost anything extra. But it’s not exactly what I’d call home cooking 😉
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In the future, try checking Trip Advisor before you go. 😉
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The hell of it is, it’s right here where we live. I suppose checking Trip Advisor may be a good idea anyway.
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This sort of incompetence, lack-of-professionalism, and excellent work-ethics with outstanding Management (to boot) is also severely absent in rural Texas Shell. In fact, here where Mom and I are currently residing (Kerrville, TX) is literally rampant with those above three terrible facts. I kid you not in the least! And I know most all of Texas like the back of my hand and have been too and visited—for more than a week or two—most ALL of rural Texas. This shitty piss-poor level of businesses and their hired workers are far too common in rural towns and remote Texas villages.
Is like that really at all in the major cities, not if you know WELL the best places. But the former shitty attitudes and resulting shitty-ness is indeed widespread here in Texas for sure, no doubts.
YEEE-HAAAWWWW!!! (spits his tobbacy-chew juices on the flower garden and empties his two redneck six-shooters into the sky—then considers reaching for his AR-15 semi-automatic military rifle [with high-capacity mags] strapped to his back!!!) 🤠☠️🤠
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I don’t doubt it for a moment Prof. Tennessee, is pretty similar to Texas with all the gun totin, tobaccer spitting, wife slapping, orange idiot loving, Yee Haws.
It’s rather disgusting.
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Breakfast when I was on the road either for work or just traveling was always something of a crap shoot. I’ve never gotten anything that was actually inedible but it was close sometimes. The only time I actually had home made biscuits and gravy was a little place in Kentucky. Every place else where I tried it was obviously straight out of a can. I like my eggs over easy but not raw, which apparently is a skill most short order cooks have trouble mastering.
I also avoid the national restaurant chains as much as possible. What’s the point in traveling if you’re going to eat the same muck you could get back home?
Best dinner I ever had was in Jamestown NY. A little Italian place within walking distance of the hotel we were in. Me, my wife and my son were on a 3 week motorcycle trip through New England to Portland Maine and we’d stopped there for the night. Food was amazing and when the owner found out we were all the way from Wisconsin he came out with a couple of bottles of wine and we sat there talking with him and getting thoroughly schnockered until about one in the morning.
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Just FYI, I make the best damn homemade, from scratch, bisquits and sausage gravy you ever et.
When you have had really good homemade, from scratch, bisquits and sausage gravy, it’s difficult to put up with pre fab bisquits and gravy from a can.
…and eggs barely over easy. Ain’t seen a place yet that was capable of cooking eggs over medium.
Generally we are the same way, if we are traveling and eating out is a necessity, we try to avoid the same crap we can get at home.
Man, I wish I could do a 3 week bike trip! Last bike I had I couldn’t go anywhere without some idiot riding my back fender. When it occured to me to maybe carry a pistol for shooting radiators, I realized it was time to sell out. The idiots won.
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My wife and I invested a large chunk of money in a new BMW K1200LT touring bike and trailer back in 2010. We rode that thing all over the country from the Rocky Mountains up to New England and down into Kentucky over the next 3 years or so. Especially out west. Spent a lot of time in western South Dakota, eastern Wyoming and Montana. Sometimes by myself, sometimes with my wife. Traded the BMW off on a new Honda Goldwing and then my wife’s knees started to get so bad it was painful for her to get o and off the bike, alas.
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