The food wasn’t bad, but I enjoyed it more than Mrs. P. She is a tough critic 
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“ and make you pack your own leftovers”
I can see where this would be problem for you and Mrs. P.
Next, they will ask us to do the dishes 
I guess we are a little spoiled, but if you are paying good money to eat out (and leaving a generous tip), then the least they can do is pack your leftovers.
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I’ve not understood what the shtick is at nice places where they want you to do that yourself.
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I don’t know about the restaurant paryzer (Dervish Turkish) went to, but some avoid packing leftovers for their customers because if the restaurant packs it, they will take it back to the kitchen, which opens up the possibility that the restaurant will be accused of messing with the customer’s leftovers, i.e., leaving some not packed, or packing two different items in the same box, etc.
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And yet this is not the case in 99% of situations.
(An instance of what you’re describing happened to me at a Gordon Ramsey place soon after it opened in nyc. Birthday meal, some older guests got too full to finish the last course and the restaurant offered to pack the food for them. They got home, and found that the restaurant had used old kitchen storage containers, with the tape with markings still on them. Should have been an episode for his show.)
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Looks great, tho!
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Please keep chartreuse far, far away from my gin. Vile stuff, that.
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I prefer to pack my own, actually.
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A pastrami reuben at the Serrano Vista Café in the Palms Casino here in Sin City. I couldn’t decide between this and an appetizer of hummus and tabbouleh, but ultimately went with this because the hummus and tabbouleh came with naan instead of pita. WTH?
This came with nothing more that “serviceable” French fries and the type of pickles I hate, bread and butter pickles. Ugh! Though I shouldn’t have because I don’t need the calories, I finished the fries but only ate half the sandwich and took home the rest. The sandwich was OK considering it wasn’t from a deli. But the fake marbled rye was pretty bad. The pastrami was fine, but nothing to write home about. I neither finished nor took home the pickles.
I walked 5 km/3.1mi home from here because my sister was truly getting on my nerves and I needed to both get away from her AND needed the exercise.
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Bread & butter pickles shouldn’t even exist.
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If there was some way to agree with you 1000%, I would‼️
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So do I. I don’t trust anyone else to pack my food; I want it a certain way.
What do you do about takeout?
That’s an entirely different thing. The food is specifically prepped to travel, and probably by a restaurant set up to do that. I don’t want someone just dumping my plate of partially-eaten food into a container. I want to choose what goes where, and maybe I want that parsley garnish, maybe I don’t, let me choose. Last time I went to Foxface, I brought tupperware with me. That is who I am.
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Momos here tonight. Vegetable paneer and chicken from our usual source, and chicken and mushroom from a new place.
The new ones were better stuffed but worse in both texture and flavor than our usual ones, so we won’t get them again. The other two were delicious as always.
The usual guys included a free bao sample in the bag, and I don’t usually like closed bao, but this was pretty tasty.
I made two sauces tonight, a spicy one, and a sweet soy sesame.
.
Yesterday was a fasting day, which just means a different kind of feasting for those of us who aren’t actually fasting. There is a limited allowance of grains, vegetables, spices, and so on, but it doesn’t seem to hamper the deliciousness of what can be produced.
We had millet polenta / congee flavored with ginger and whole spices, potatoes with red chilli, tapioca fritters / vada, amd steamed and fried elephant’s foot yam. Yogurt in lieu of the kadhi / yogurt gravy that is a frequent accompaniment, because the polenta needs some tang. Lots of crushed peanuts on top for texture and even more flavor (okay, “lots” for me, normal amounts for everyone else 
).
When we were kids, there were also special puris (millet flour) to go with the potatoes and kadhi and various other yummy snacky things from the allowed ingredients.
.
Earlier, Kerala stew (“ishtu”) and appams.
(I always eat this to excess, good thing it’s pretty healthy 
)
.
Also, my mom is watching too many YouTube food videos for my happiness . After the sandwich dhoklas, today’s experiment was a noodle-y snack called khandvi that’s a PITA to make at home, so it’s usually purchased. But she watched a hack that cooked it like crepes rather than the usual way where the batter is cooked, then spread thinly before rolling up. Well, the hack was a hack. I mean, it worked, but took the same or more time than the usual method more fuss, and a LOT more time than my preferred method of calling the store down the street for delivery 
.
But her evening tea visitor enjoyed it very much, and was also very impressed with it being homemade, so I guess it was a success overall.
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I could understand if they were shorthanded, or very busy, but this particular restaurant had about 20 workers just standing around.
There are a couple of regular restaurants that we frequent (Drew’s Bayshore Bistro, and Chengdu 1 Palace), that we actually bring our own tubberware to (to pack our own food), because in the past, their aluminum foil containers would leak on the way home.
For other restaurants that pack our leftovers, we have them pack each course, and bring it back to us to hold on to. Some restaurants used to keep your leftovers in the back, and give it to you when you leave, but I have found some items to be missing when we get home. We also re-pack some items when we get home, since lately some ‘environmentally conscious’ restaurants have been using those cardboard containers that don’t hold up very well in the fridge. I like the sturdy plastic containers with firm covers (that we usually keep and re-use).
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We had a pretty fabulous show last night. The venue was packed to the rafters, and they had to turn several folks away at the door 
Celebrated International Women’s Day by presenting my new kiss-off to the beauty & diet industry. I did not get to eat anything there for dinner, however*.
My friend had ordered the steak tartare and offered me some to try before I went on stage, but I didn’t like it enough to order my own for later, and not much else appealed. Then I was too busy chatting with friends during the break, and the kitchen was closed by the time we got off stage. Once again, steamed har gow to the rescue (called it!!! 
) Srsly tho - they are the perfect late-night snack to have around.
Not sure WFD tonight. We’re flying solo, i.e. no social obligations, and the assclowns I mean bright young minds are still outta town, so going out is tempting…. but so is staying in.
My PIC mentioned pasta as a possilibity. Pasta is ALWAYS welcome 
*the irony!
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As I used to tell my students when they were stressed: breathe in through the nose, out through the mouth.
And don’t go back to that restaurant again. Sounds like it’s not worth the money!
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