Rob wrote:
> Irrespective of the location, what have been your worst or funniest
> restaurant experiences you've had so far - as in the food and service
> both being extremely terrible, or being very good, but something else
> occurred.

I worked with a complete clown for awhile. Drained the deepfat frier of
HOT oil into plastic, which started to melt poured in water which steam
up and splattered the oil about.
Had his chef's hat sucked up in to the fan while cleaning the vent and
ruined the fan...we couldn't use the griddle all day.
Put fake maple syrup instead of oil in the deepfat frier and customers
complained of sticky frenchfries.
Etc.

Irrespective of the location, what have been your worst or funniest
restaurant experiences you've had so far - as in the food and service
both being extremely terrible, or being very good, but something else
occurred.

There was the time my husband and I tried a quaint little restaurant near
our home we'd passed by for years. We came right after they had closed
after lunch to get ready for dinner. They hadn't locked the door and we
didn't know. The gal was SO friendly and said come on in and sit. We said
that was OK we'd come back. She insisted we stay so we did. She gave us
menus and went into the kitchen. Arguing commenced in the kitchen. We
couldn't hear what it was about. She came out with a smile on her face with
our waters. She was just as friendly as can be. She went back to the
kitchen and the heated arguing between her and the man started again. Four
letter words a flying, loud yelling, it was so boisterous we though maybe
knives could start flying. We started to get up to leave as she came back
out... smiling again. We said we didn't want to cause any problems and she
insisted we stay and took our orders. She went back into the kitchen...
again heated arguing, cuss words a flying, both party's holding their own in
the arguement. By now it was comical and my husband and I started thinking
we were on Candid Camera or something. Out she came with our food. It was
great. There was some more minor arguing, and they took our money and we
left. We never went back, but we chuckle about it every now and then.

Lynne

"Rob" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Irrespective of the location, what have been your worst or funniest
> restaurant experiences you've had so far - as in the food and service
> both being extremely terrible, or being very good, but something else
> occurred.
>

In article .com>,
"Rob" > wrote:

> Irrespective of the location, what have been your worst or funniest
> restaurant experiences you've had so far - as in the food and service
> both being extremely terrible, or being very good, but something else
> occurred.

How about just plain strange?

We went to Death Valley, once, in August. *Nobody* goes to Death
Valley, especially camping, and in a car with no air conditioning, that
time of year. We were just passing through. We slept on top of our
sleeping bags. We went to the visitor's center in the morning, and then
headed out of there. I had made a huge thing of lemonade, with ice. We
drank the whole thing.

We got out of the valley, and it cooled down a little bit. It was lunch
time, so we stopped in Panamint at a little restaurant. It was
completely deserted. There appeared to be one employee, and he was
bored to tears. We didn't get menus, so we asked for them. He said
just forget about it, order whatever we wanted. We weren't too
comfortable about that, and ordered really simple stuff, like a BLT and
a hamburger. He looked disappointed. It was good, and dirt cheap.

--
Dan Abel

Petaluma, California, USA

Rob wrote:

> Irrespective of the location, what have been your worst or funniest
> restaurant experiences you've had so far - as in the food and service
> both being extremely terrible, or being very good, but something else
> occurred.

Mine was in a local Chinese restaurant. There was an argument going on in
the kitchen. It started off with some yelling and screaming and got
progressively louder until there was the sound of pots and pans being
thrown around. The matron of the restaurant went in and yelled and
screamed at the kitchen staff. Things were quiet for a few minutes, but
then it started up again. The old Mama went in and yelled and screamed
and things got quiet. Then it started up a third time. Luckily, we were
finished our meal and got out.

Rob wrote:
> Irrespective of the location, what have been your worst or funniest
> restaurant experiences you've had so far - as in the food and service
> both being extremely terrible, or being very good, but something else
> occurred.
>

This was only a good time, but I thought it was pretty cool.

A couple years ago my ex's family brought everyone down to disney world for a
week. For the most part we all went our separate ways during the week, but on
the last day we all had dinner together at the buffet restaurant at the
wilderness lodge place at animal kingdom (i forget what it was called).

My ex has a number of food issues, no meat, no sugar, no starch, most fresh
veggies are out. She was having a hard time at the buffet finding things she
could eat. She began asking what was in various dishes so she could pick
things that would not make her sick. Finally, the chef came out to talk to her
and told her to sit down, he'd put something together for her. She protested,
knowing that her issues were her own.

he said "look at my uniform! It's clean! I hate that, I'm here to cook"

She sat down and he proceeded to bring her appetizers, salad, soup, entree and
dessert all one after the other. The presentation was beyond spectacular, it
was beautiful, and the food was some of the best I'd ever eaten.

--
..:Heather:.
www.velvet-c.com

Rob wrote:
> Irrespective of the location, what have been your worst or funniest
> restaurant experiences you've had so far - as in the food and service
> both being extremely terrible, or being very good, but something else
> occurred.

I don't want people throwing rolls at me. I'd also like to have my order
taken within 10 minutes of sitting down after the drinks have been
delivered.

Jill

oh also, once David and I were in chinatown in chicago and we stopped for a
late lunch, it was probably after two. The restaurant we chose had hours
posted and they were definitely open (lots of places closed between lunch and
dinner).

We went in and at first we were unsure if they wanted us there but they
brought menus and water so we ordered. David ordered the watercress and bean
curd. The first thing they brought him was some sort of steamed iceberg
lettuce with sauce. He explained that this was not what he orderd and tried to
reorder.

The next thing she brought him was a plate of sauteed watercress with garlic.
No sauce, no bean curd. we decided to just let it go and he had some of my
food. As he was eating he found the rubber band that held the bunch of
watercress together. They hadn't even bothered to unbind it before cooking.
They spent the entire meal glaring at us from their table as they were trying
to eat.

I felt bad that we had messed up their schedule but I figure they got their
revenge in their surly attitudes and all was even in the world.

--
..:Heather:.
www.velvet-c.com

The Bubbo wrote:

..:Heather:.
www.velvet-c.com



Great blog (or whatever)

You have a way with words.


TFM®

TFM® wrote:
> The Bubbo wrote:
>
> .:Heather:.
> www.velvet-c.com
>
>
>
> Great blog (or whatever)
>
> You have a way with words.
>
>
> TFM®

thanks, I appreciate that.

--
..:Heather:.
www.velvet-c.com

On Fri, 25 Nov 2005 21:42:15 -0500, Dave Smith
> wrote:

>Rob wrote:
>
>> Irrespective of the location, what have been your worst or funniest
>> restaurant experiences you've had so far - as in the food and service
>> both being extremely terrible, or being very good, but something else
>> occurred.
>
>Mine was in a local Chinese restaurant. There was an argument going on in
>the kitchen. It started off with some yelling and screaming and got
>progressively louder until there was the sound of pots and pans being
>thrown around. The matron of the restaurant went in and yelled and
>screamed at the kitchen staff. Things were quiet for a few minutes, but
>then it started up again. The old Mama went in and yelled and screamed
>and things got quiet. Then it started up a third time. Luckily, we were
>finished our meal and got out.
>

Our experience was also in a small local Chinese restaurant.

About three years ago, my wife and I had just moved to Sacramento from
San Jose and we missed our favorite Chinese restaurants in the Bay
Area. Near our home, we noticed a small Chinese restaurant in a strip
mall. The prices were fairly cheap. We went in and ordered the normal
things, (hot and sour soup, kung pao chicken, vegetables etc.). The
food came and it was quite greasy. The vegetables were limp and mushy
and not good at all. Neither one of us finished our food. We just paid
for the meal and left, not intending to ever return.

About a week later I was reading the local newspaper. There was a
story about that local Chinese restaurant being shut down by the
health department. It seems the owners were getting their vegetables
from the large chain supermarket in the same mall. What's wrong with
that you ask? Nothing if they had purchased them, but they were
observed by the health department investigators digging them out of
the supermarket trash behind the store.

Yuk!!!!

-Rusty, Sacramento, CA

In article .com>, rt800
@joinme.com says...
> Irrespective of the location, what have been your worst or funniest
> restaurant experiences you've had so far - as in the food and service
> both being extremely terrible, or being very good, but something else
> occurred.

Our neighbours took us out for a thank-you dinner recently (they'd had a dog
attack, lots of killed and maimed sheep, he had to go away and we helped his
partner cope with the carnage) - anyway, they took us to the recently renovated
and renamed 'Copthorne' hotel & restaurant near by.
Talk about pre-****ing-tentious. Oh, it was all made up very swish, a reception
with uniformed receptionists who checked the bookings (for an empty restaurant)
.... the waiter came across like a 17 year old schoolgirl with no previous
waiting experience. </flute> "Not a problem!" </flute off> every time somebody
addressed her - by mid evening this got extremely annoying. Orders for drinks
that didn't arrive without asking several times -- in an empty restaurant, in
which one other party had arrived meanwhile.
The food was not bad, I'll give them that, my eye fillet was tender and the
sauce was marvellous, but NO side dishes included with that (you gotta be
kidding) so you had to order potatoes extra, vegetables extra, salad extra
"Not a problem!" "Not a problem!" "Not a problem!" <groan>. Magnifying glass
extra, did I mention you could well've done with a magnifying glass. Nor for
the check, though, the figures on that were very large indeed. I'm just glad I
didn't have to foot the bill, I would've 'spat the dummy' as the saying here
goes ... all packaging and little content.

-P.


--
=========================================
firstname dot lastname at gmail fullstop com

Rob wrote:
> Irrespective of the location, what have been your worst or funniest
> restaurant experiences you've had so far - as in the food and service
> both being extremely terrible, or being very good, but something else
> occurred.

I have one which occurred while *working* at a restaurant. First of all,
don't attempt to fool someone if you don't know how things work at the back
of the house.

Drink glasses (excepting bar glasses) go into the commercial dishwasher rack
open side down. So don't you dare try to tell me there's a screw in your
iced tea when gravity and the freshly washed glasses says there's no way a
screw got into your glass.

She demanded to speak to the manager, wanted her meal comp'd. He told her
the same thing I did... sorry lady, there was no screw in the glass when the
iced tea was brought to the table. Even if the dishwasher was falling apart
(which it wasn't), screws don't fall UP.

Jill

On Sat, 26 Nov 2005 05:55:01 -0600, "jmcquown"
> wrote:

>Rob wrote:
>> Irrespective of the location, what have been your worst or funniest
>> restaurant experiences you've had so far - as in the food and service
>> both being extremely terrible, or being very good, but something else
>> occurred.
>
>I have one which occurred while *working* at a restaurant. First of all,
>don't attempt to fool someone if you don't know how things work at the back
>of the house.
>
>Drink glasses (excepting bar glasses) go into the commercial dishwasher rack
>open side down. So don't you dare try to tell me there's a screw in your
>iced tea when gravity and the freshly washed glasses says there's no way a
>screw got into your glass.
>
>She demanded to speak to the manager, wanted her meal comp'd. He told her
>the same thing I did... sorry lady, there was no screw in the glass when the
>iced tea was brought to the table. Even if the dishwasher was falling apart
>(which it wasn't), screws don't fall UP.
>
>Jill
>

Once at a Farrells Ice Cream parlor, during a birtday party, my sister
was served a Coke with a baby roach doing the backstroke among the
floating ice cubes. Needless to say that killed the party right there.

They took the Coke off the bill but charged our parents for everything
else. The place closed about a year after that. I wonder why?

Rusty

On 2005-11-26, Rusty > wrote:

> Once at a Farrells Ice Cream parlor, during a birtday party, my sister
> was served a Coke with a baby roach doing the backstroke among the
> floating ice cubes. Needless to say that killed the party right there.

Once at a Farrell's Ice Cream parlor, during a birthday party, ....my
mother and brother decided at the very last moment to not lunch there
and walked back to their car to go elsewhere. A few moments later a
F86 Sabrejet crashed into it killing 22 people. True story.

nb

In article .com>, Rob
> wrote:

> Irrespective of the location, what have been your worst or funniest
> restaurant experiences you've had so far - as in the food and service
> both being extremely terrible, or being very good, but something else
> occurred.
>


This isn't rip-roariously funny, but once at an Indian buffet
restaurant, the waiter was clearing our used plates and said "you are
fast in eating" and when he left the table, half of us thought he said
"you are fascinating".

Bunch of egomaniacs are we.

In article .com>,
"Rob" > wrote:

> Irrespective of the location, what have been your worst or funniest
> restaurant experiences you've had so far - as in the food and service
> both being extremely terrible, or being very good, but something else
> occurred.

Little hole in the wall chinese place that had not been open for long,
but was popular with the college students as it was within walking
distance from the dorms.

Mom had a rotten shrimp on her platter, (it smelled spoiled and was
mushy) and when pointed out to the waitress, she seemed to not
understand.

I found a cockroach leg (palmetto roaches are rather large!) in my dish,
so stopped eating at that point. :-P They did take my plate and did not
charge me for it.

We never went back, and the place closed a couple of months later...
--
Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." -Jack Nicholson

Rob wrote:

> Irrespective of the location, what have been your worst or funniest
> restaurant experiences you've had so far - as in the food and service
> both being extremely terrible, or being very good, but something else
> occurred.

The funniest experience was when I was in Germany with two of my brothers
and their wives. There was a very nice restaurant in the hotel in a
scenic little town far from the beaten track. I can speak and read some
German, but I was lost in the menu. No one else knew any German at all,
so the waitress found another server who spoke a little English to help
us out. She was really cute and very pleasant. I pointed to things on
the menu and asked "was ist das?" when she didn't know the English words
she pantomimed. "Zis ist an animal in ze barnyard ....oink oink"
flattening the end of her nose with a finger and oinking . Folding her
arms back and flapping. "Zis ist a bird.... cluck, cluck cluck"
Pointing to what I assume was veal..... "Zis ist baby mooo". O opted for
the veal, because I was mesmerized by the way she shimmied to emulate
swimming.

My brother explained how he wanted her to divide the bills, he and his
wife, my other brother and his wife, and mine. She smiled at me and said
"You alone? I come with you tonight."

On Sat, 26 Nov 2005 07:46:40 -0600, notbob > wrote:

>On 2005-11-26, Rusty > wrote:
>
>> Once at a Farrells Ice Cream parlor, during a birtday party, my sister
>> was served a Coke with a baby roach doing the backstroke among the
>> floating ice cubes. Needless to say that killed the party right there.
>
>Once at a Farrell's Ice Cream parlor, during a birthday party, ....my
>mother and brother decided at the very last moment to not lunch there
>and walked back to their car to go elsewhere. A few moments later a
>F86 Sabrejet crashed into it killing 22 people. True story.
>
>nb

I remember that terrible incident. It happened in the 70's in
Sacramento. Glad to hear your family came out of it ok.

Rusty

On Sat, 26 Nov 2005 07:46:40 -0600, notbob > wrote:

>On 2005-11-26, Rusty > wrote:
>
>> Once at a Farrells Ice Cream parlor, during a birtday party, my sister
>> was served a Coke with a baby roach doing the backstroke among the
>> floating ice cubes. Needless to say that killed the party right there.
>
>Once at a Farrell's Ice Cream parlor, during a birthday party, ....my
>mother and brother decided at the very last moment to not lunch there
>and walked back to their car to go elsewhere. A few moments later a
>F86 Sabrejet crashed into it killing 22 people. True story.

I remember that -- horrible incident. Are you a Sacramento native,
NB? I'm in South Natomas and have been long before it was "elevated"
from Northgate to South Natomas <g>

TammyM

> Rob wrote:
>
>
>Irrespective of the location, what have been your worst or funniest
>restaurant experiences you've had so far - as in the food and service
>both being extremely terrible, or being very good, but something else
>occurred.
>

Funniest?

It happened about 35 years ago, at a very posh restaurant in the wealthy
suburbs west of Hartford, Connecticut (The Corner House in, IIRC,
Farmington for those who know the area.) We had joined old college
friends whose anniversary was the same weekend as ours for a joint,
quiet celebration. The restaurant was surprisingly empty.

At the next table were four teenage boys in dress shirts, navy blazers,
and nice ties, from a local prep school, a quiet, clean-cut bunch.

By the time we had all ordered, an older man and a woman were seated on
the other side of the boys. She was dressed a bit gaudily for the
occasion, but those were different times. She and her escort ordered
drinks, then another round, and another. She got loud, he tried to
shush her.

Then she began a conversation with the boys, telling them how nice they
looked, and how fortunate they were to be able to dine in such a nice
place, and how she wished her kids had the opportunity. Within a very
short time the boys were looking at one another, but too polite to roll
their eyes as kids today would do. It became obvious that this woman
had been picked up off the street in Hartford and offered a nice dinner
and who-knows-what-else in exchange for her services. She soon became
so drunk that she could barely speak. Her date took her to the car and
returned to pay the bill for the meal they never ate. He also offered
to pay the boys' tab but they refused.

By that time we were all astonished at the things she had said and we
complimented the boys on their equanimity, then we all realized the
strangeness of the situation and began to laugh, hard.

When we see those friends, now 1/2 continent away, we always get around
to: "Do you remember our memorable anniversary dinner?" and we laugh
all over again.

gloria p

On 2005-11-26, TammyM > wrote:

> I remember that -- horrible incident. Are you a Sacramento native,
> NB?

No. I lived there back in the 60's when Rancho Cordova was a new
suburb and later downtown and the North Area after I got out of the
service. I've lived in the SFBA since '75, but still had family in
the Rocklin/Folsom area till just a couple years ago.

> I'm in South Natomas and have been long before it was "elevated"
> from Northgate to South Natomas <g>

I had to look them both up. When I left, there wasn't much North and
West of Del Paso Heights clear to the airport. Even the then new 80
by-pass (I-880?) was out in the boonies. I had a friend who's family
lived right below the levy just off the Garden Hwy about half a mile
East of I5. I don't recall much North of that. Did W. El Camino
even continue West beyond Northgate Blvd back in '73? I don't recall
much of anything between Northgate Blvd and I5 back then except that
levy road (Grdn Hwy).

nb

Well, just last night we ordered dinner from a good local Mexican
place. Wanted to bring it in and eat at home after a long drive back
from thanksgiving weekend.
So we called in our order. 2 Taco Salads and a veggie combo #9, which
is a pair of mushroom quesadillas served witha side of guacamole
salad. 1 salad with chicken, the other with vbeans and rice.

What did we get, you ask?

2 Taco salads, 1 filled with chicken, the other filled with beans, no
rice. 1 salad had tomatoes, cucumber, sliced onions, chicken, and sour
cream. The other salad had beans, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and sour
cream. Interesting that they did not have the same salad ingredients.
Hmm.

The mushroom quesadillas had onions, peppers, and cheese in them, but
not a mushroom to be seen.

The salsa was fine, but the white ranch salsa was not. i saw the server
pour straight from the bottle of hidden valley ranch into the take-out
cup, then stir in a drop of hot sauce. nasty.

the guacamole salad? I'm guessing he simply picked up the wrong
scoop----becasue we had a small sized styrofoam box, filled with
shredded lettuce, and topped with the biggest scoop of sour cream i've
ever seen. no avocado to be found anywhere.

The problem with screwed up carry out is that once you've driven home,
you have no desire tyo go back and argue over it. especially when
you're hungry and the food thats correct is getting cold. so what did
we do? we ate the quesadilla with the beans and chicken and sour cream,
then finished off the thansgiving leftovers that had come home with us.

On Sat, 26 Nov 2005 18:53:13 -0600, notbob > wrote:

>On 2005-11-26, TammyM > wrote:
>
>> I remember that -- horrible incident. Are you a Sacramento native,
>> NB?
>
>No. I lived there back in the 60's when Rancho Cordova was a new
>suburb and later downtown and the North Area after I got out of the
>service. I've lived in the SFBA since '75, but still had family in
>the Rocklin/Folsom area till just a couple years ago.
>
>> I'm in South Natomas and have been long before it was "elevated"
>> from Northgate to South Natomas <g>
>
>I had to look them both up. When I left, there wasn't much North and
>West of Del Paso Heights clear to the airport. Even the then new 80
>by-pass (I-880?) was out in the boonies. I had a friend who's family
>lived right below the levy just off the Garden Hwy about half a mile
>East of I5. I don't recall much North of that. Did W. El Camino
>even continue West beyond Northgate Blvd back in '73? I don't recall
>much of anything between Northgate Blvd and I5 back then except that
>levy road (Grdn Hwy).

There was very little on W. El Camino west of Northgate Blvd, just
houses at that time. The big S. Natomas build-up began in about '79
or '80, I think. Before that, Truxel Road was just one loooooooong
cornfield with a windmill house centered between W. El CAmino and San
Juan Road. On foggy nights, Truxel seems to go on forever! When I
was a kid, this entire area was surrounded by cornfields, rice
paddies, and other ag land. There's little ag land left now, just big
expensive houses in North Natomas. And this, historically, a flood
plain. If we have a winter like '86 or '96 ..... <shudder> Gotta
review my flood insurance.

Could you send me your email addy NB? I'd like to give you some info.
I'm tdmcniff at ucdavis dot edu

TammyM

"kalanamak" > wrote in message
...
> Rob wrote:
> > Irrespective of the location, what have been your worst or funniest
> > restaurant experiences you've had so far - as in the food and service
> > both being extremely terrible, or being very good, but something else
> > occurred.
>
> I worked with a complete clown for awhile. Drained the deepfat frier of
> HOT oil into plastic, which started to melt poured in water which steam
> up and splattered the oil about.

Oh FFS!

> Had his chef's hat sucked up in to the fan while cleaning the vent and
> ruined the fan...we couldn't use the griddle all day.

LMAO!

> Put fake maple syrup instead of oil in the deepfat frier and customers
> complained of sticky frenchfries.

*L*M*M*F*A*O*!!!! That's a classic is that!

> Etc.

There's a bloody etc. too?!?

',;~}~

Shaun aRe

"Rob" > wrote in message
oups.com...

> Irrespective of the location, what have been your worst or funniest
> restaurant experiences you've had so far - as in the food and service
> both being extremely terrible, or being very good, but something else
> occurred.

Worst... hmm... well I remember when I was quite young (maybe about 6 or 7
y/o), going on a coach trip 'to the sea side' with my Gran. At lunch we went
to a small café/eatery place, and both ordered chicken salad platter. I'd
eaten about 3/4 of the big piece of chicken when I saw a maggot crawling
along on the remainder. I must have looked stunned because gran asked what
was wrong right away. I pointed to the plate and she saw it. Before we had
chance to call the staff, one of them just silently rushed right to the
table and whisked off both plates. Came back, said 'very sorry but it was
not from the meat - it must have come from the salad veggies, would we like
something else instead?' - we just said NO! Got up and left. We both had
eaten a good portion of our meals before this. I felt rather sick after
that, couldn't eat again until later in the evening.

A recent incident - quite recently a new Italian place opened up in the
village, so one day we thought we'd treat ourselves check it out, so Kath
and I put on some nice gear, tidied ourselves up, and walked there
arm-in-arm (heh...). Anyway, sat ready for our meals, ordered wine, waiter
came with it and we poured 2 glasses, I drank up and poured another for
myself, then the waiter while bringing our food banged the wonky table. It
tipped Kath's still whole glass full of wine all over Kath's lovely, pale
outfit, then he knocked the bottle over while fussing and a lot of it just
missed getting me as I was leaping out the way. Kath went to dry herself off
while the boss lady came to sort things out - I asked her to leave the
waiter alone, go easy on him please it was just an accident, and if the
table hadn't been shot it would not have happened, he was really very young
and obviously new to this, this being his first night on the job - he was
nervous as hell etc. and extremely apologetic to us. She agreed and walked
off smiling. Then she called the young lad over to the far corner, and gave
the poor kid SUCH a damned bloody roasting, virtually screaming at him cm's
away from his face. Couldn't believe it! She came back and offered one of
the meals for free, and would we like something else to drink? We ordered 2
beers this time, heheheh... We drank our remaining small half-glasses of
wine each while waiting for the beers. The meal was really quite good, and
after we finished it we thanked the owners and staff, played down the
incident 'shit happens' etc. (I called the kid over myself and had a quiet
word, saying not to let it get to him, that I've BT, DT etc. to try and set
him at his ease on what was a HELLISH busy night, chaotic it was by this
point), paid up and left. When we checked the receipt she had indeed given
us one meal on the house, but then charged us for a /full/ bottle of wine
and for the beers! Couldn't believe that since more than half the bottle was
wasted anyway. Good food and excellent prices, but we haven't been back
because the boss folks stunk in our opinion. I still scowl at that woman
when I see her in the street, bet she's long since forgotten though,
heheheh...


Shaun aRe

Rob wrote:
> Irrespective of the location, what have been your worst or funniest
> restaurant experiences you've had so far - as in the food and service
> both being extremely terrible, or being very good, but something else
> occurred.

The one meal that stands out was in Los Angeles in 1967. I had been
ordered to report for a physical at the Selective Service office
there. It was somewhere downtown in what seemed like a really bad
area.

Following the physical we were given a chit to take across the street
to a restaurant to get a meal. Nothing else in sight as an
alternative. No menu, we all got the same thing.

Something that looked like meatloaf with gravy, but tough enough to
bounce off the plates. The gravey was just sort of coagulated on the
plate. Something that looked like reconstituted mashed potatoes made
with water instead of milk. No taste at all. Something that looked
like canned peas but so undercooked they were inedible and a salad
consisting of 3 wilted leaves of lettuce and some mayonaise for
dressing.

Most of us decided to go hungry. They asked for the chit when we
left. I told them I'd left mine on the table. If they wanted it,
they could find it....under the mashed potatoes.