Is There More?

I eat out somewhat less than the average person, who I understand dines at restaurants something like three times a week. Some weeks I approach or exceed that, but mainly do not. When I do eat out, I like to make sure that I will not be disappointed, so I stick to things I know and places I trust. When I travel, it's hard to do that considering my aversion to national chains. Well, the first place we wound up eating at while over in Sarasota was this Spanish place.

I could have named just a few things that are remotely Spanish. I know about tapas and Paella. The menu had empanadas and ropas viejas, at least the latter of which I knew to be Cuban but which apparently did come from Spain. Having had it, I thought I would do something else. The paella apparently took a while to cook, so I looked to a chicken and pasta dish that seemed sure to satisfy. I nibbled on bread and drank iced tea while waiting and chatting with long-unseen relatives and new friends.

Others' food began to come, and I liked the looks of everything but waited for my own patiently. Oh, it did come. What had I to sate myself with after not eating for most of the past two days? Two small cutlets of chicken and perhaps a half-dozen small bits of pasta in a sauce. I'm told the pasta was handmade, and my response was to pine for ample quantities of machine-made pasta from a box. In short, my 'entree' was not ample, and I will say only that in this very expensive restaurant, its price was commensurate with ones which delivered what must have been five times its weight in edibles.

I was not happy. After eating the food in a minute or so, I started scraping together what remained of the bread, but was left less full than I might have been after a frozen yogurt. It was a dearly-bought lesson. Should I find myself in Sarasota again, they will not have my business. As I've said, restaurants that leave me angry or feeling stupid are generally successful in their apparent mission of driving me personally away. Mission accomplished, Spanish restaurant. I would sooner eat at Captain D's.