After recuperating at our
respective homes from our 7-mile walk, Zelia and I meet for dinner at a
restaurant neither of us has been to, Le Relais de Venise L'Entrecote.
When I go out to eat with my
mom, hours before we arrive at the restaurant, she always asks, “So, what are
you going to get?”
After all, there is so much to
consider when one dines out.
- Are you going to get an appetizer?
- The salads are big; do you want to split one?
- I want the tuna tartare appetizer, but if I’m getting fish for a main course, maybe I should get something else.
- I’ll probably get the duck, but that’s always what I order when we come here…but it’s so good. And it’s not like I come here that often.
- I think I’ll get two appetizers instead of a main course.
- What are you getting (as if that should influence my choice)?
- I can’t decide between the sea bass and the veal. I’ll ask the waiter which is better, knowing full well his reply will go something like this: “Well, it depends on whether you prefer fish or veal.”
- I wonder if they’ll let me substitute the sweet potatoes for the regular ones?
- “Excuse me, what’s that?” asked of a random diner who’s eating something that looks good.
- Maybe I’ll skip the appetizer and just get a dessert. Oh, but that’s a million more calories.
But this restaurant
eliminates all these concerns. Here,
there is no menu, and the only choice to be made is, “How do you want your steak
cooked? Blood-red, rare, or medium?" I can’t remember but it wouldn’t surprise me
if well-done were not an option.
Aside from wine and
desserts, the only meal served is an excellent:
Green salad topped with walnuts and a mustard
vinaigrette dressing Lean beef, raised in Nebraska or Iowa, and covered in
a scrumptious secret house sauce Hand-cut frites
When I ask for ketchup (and
qualify that it’s for the fries and not, g-d forbid, the steak), our sweet
waitress looks at me in shock. “We do
not serve ketchup here.” No apologies, in fact, more disdain.
We splurge and split the
outstanding profiteroles for dessert.
I see you took the steak rare. Were the fries as good as they look (I enjoy ketchup on them as well)? Now to this seven mile walk. For a charity? To raise money for some worthy cause? Or so you can eat the fries with ketchup and the profiteroles?
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