Incoherent Scribblings

Dine and Dash

Even though we have slowed down considerably since moving here, from a European perspective it seems that A. and I still eat our meals far too quickly. We have lovely conversations while waiting for our meal and oftentimes afterwards we chat for a while longer, but when the food is there, all dialogue stops as we focus on the food.

Some might say that we don’t know how to enjoy a meal and blame our dining habits on American fast food culture. There is probably a grain of truth there, but I prefer to explain myself by saying that the reason I eat so rapidly is because I don’t want my food to get cold. However, this past week we were reminded of how fast we apparently still eat when we treated ourselves to our favorite restaurant in town twice.

The first time we went was on Christmas Eve. This particular place doesn’t open for dinner until 5:30 pm and even when it is busy it doesn’t fill up until well past 7:00 pm, so we don’t normally make a reservation. Instead when we go there we just eat an early dinner.

Nevertheless, since it was one of the few restaurants that we knew to be open, we made a reservation for 6:00 pm on Christmas Eve. We made the reservation not because we were worried about getting a table, but because we were afraid that if the restaurant was empty they might be tempted to close. As a result, when we got there we were mildly stunned to see that instead of dead quiet, it was almost full.

We were even more surprised when the waiter showed us to a table with a list of three reservations on it, one for 6:00, one for 8:00, and one for 10:00, and asked us if we had a problem with being finished by 8:00. Ultimately, since even when we take our time A. and I seldom linger for more than two hours at a restaurant, it wasn’t a problem for us. However, a few minutes after we arrived a couple sat down next to us and I couldn’t help overhear how they reacted with amazement that they were expected to finish their meal by 8:00.

Even though the restaurant was quite busy and we knew we were under a time constraint, A. and I leisurely enjoyed our Christmas Eve meal and still managed to finish up no later than 7:45.

A few days later, after we spent the afternoon at the movie theatre we decided to drop by our restaurant again and have dinner. Neither one of us had had anything at the movie and by the time it was over we were famished. The restaurant had returned to its normal level of business for midweek and as usual we received excellent service.

However, as I mentioned, we were starving and as a result when we devoured our meal in just under an hour, our waiter seemed very concerned that the reason we were finished so quickly was because we were unhappy with our meal. Even though we assured him the food was excellent as always and that we were just hungry, he encouraged us to stay a little longer by offering us a little dessert on the house.

Small Aside: Since at this point many of you who are familiar with “service” in Germany are probably skeptical that someone might actually be concerned with the customer here, let me mention right now that our favorite restaurant in Munich is not a German one, rather an Indian one.

Once upon a time I was considered the fastest eater in my family and maybe I still eat fast for a European: However, I am pleasantly surprised at how much slower I eat my meals since moving to Germany and how it has changed my diet. Nevertheless, something tells me that when I go back to America in a couple of weeks that I will drive everyone crazy while they wait for me to finish my meal!