Publog Research: The Parliamentary Restaurant
posted by 4th Dwarf
Based on fieldwork by the IO, Coyote, 4D, Audrey and the Amazon on 19 December 2006:
The Pluses (or things we should try to copy in our spot)
- Put all guests through metal detector and x-ray their belongings to give them confidence in their safety and a heightened sense of exclusivity;
- Gold crest on all china;
- Great view of Ottawa River, Parliament Buildings, etc.;
- Strong possibility of seeing famous people;
- Big selection of desserts;
- Friendly service; and
- When seating people in remote corner with no view of celebrities, tell them "this is the Prime Minister's corner but it's yours today".
The Minuses (or things we should avoid)
- Staff should know whether diet ginger ale is available or not; and
- People with empty coffee cups should be offered refills.
Posts
7 comments:
You need a place that is quite unremarkable and not usually crowded, that will become known as "the ESI Room." Like the Algonquin Hotel.
Then (eventually) the serving staff will be showing customers to "your" table.
Sonja, I love the way your mind works. Whaddaya think -- Chateau Laurier, Lord Elgin, or Lafayette?
And Short Guy, you were gravely lacking in eloquence on the desserts. Lotsa desserts. Stunning desserts. Desserts up the wazoo! Which, come to think of it, may explain how the illustrious PM whose corner we allegedly hijacked got that gigantic gut on 'im....
May I suggest mincemeat tarts around the holiday season? I have slightly nauseating memories of mincemeat from childhood (hey - Aggie! - this is one of those bad memories). I thought no one liked it, and that almost no one made mincemeat tarts anymore. But just last night, upon offering some baking after dinner, I saw a mincemeat tart snarfed down as quickly as that luckless corn of cob on the cam. What the heck IS mincemeat anyway?
Modern mincemeat:
l cup shredded suet
l cup white raisins
l cup raisins
3 medium sized green apples, peeled, cored and chopped
l/2 cup marmalade
3/4 cup chopped almonds
l cup brown sugar
l/2 cup mixed candied peel
l cup currants
l wineglass brandy
juice of l/2 a lemon
l/4 tsp grated nutmeg
l/2 tsp ground ginger
For terrific nightmares, here's a 1910 version:
8 pounds beef stew meat
2 pounds suet
12 pounds chopped apples
2 pounds raisins
1 tablespoon allspice
1 tablespoon cloves
1 pound chopped citron
3 pounds brown sugar
1 lemon
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons salt
boiled cider
I KNEW I saw suet in those tarts.
(a) Sonja might be onto something. Perhaps we should start investigating the hotels.
(b) The Parliamentary desserts were not bad. But not stunning. Out of the six I took, only two impressed me.
(c) On the topic of sweets, Should we be putting an all you can eat dessert bar on our list of things to steal? I mean emulate? (i) Perhaps we should promote good health, not obesity; (ii) What about the profits?
(d) I am not at all happy about a post I created turning into a venue for mincement recipes. Coyote, you might say I had it coming for putting the links to the Christmas songs on your posting recently, but yours was about that very topic!
...but, then, I might say you had it coming, anyway, Short Guy, hmmmm?
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