That’s exactly the situation I specified. It was made as a 12" sandwich, then cut in half and sold as two 6" sandwiches.
We can even suppose that the 6" wasn’t specified at all. You’re at a deli–not upscale but maybe a step or two above Subway. They offer sandwiches for $7. You order two and get a 12" cut in half. Is that a problem?
It depends entirely on the size of the bread. In fact that exact situation has happened to me: I ordered “a sandwich” and it came on two half-slices of bread. But the bread was from a large sourdough and the halves were still larger than a typical 100 mm square slice. So I wasn’t disappointed.
Not for a piece - for a serving size. At say 28 grams per slice of bread, double the weight after soaking in egg, the FDA serving size for French Toast is 2 slices of bread, or 4 pieces.
Ahh, I misread the third column. Although it specifies “pieces”, that doesn’t necessarily imply that a piece is that large. It’s just that they’re required to report in units of pieces. So it doesn’t really answer anything unless we have a baseline expectation for translating pieces to serving size.
Or another one to toast your noggin:
You decide to make French toast from a baguette. You can cut the slices perpendicular to the long axis. Or, you can cut the pieces on a sharp diagonal, then cut them in half again. The final area is the same in both cases. Is there a problem?
You know, I initially voted one piece, but, after deep reflection and soul-searching, I have been swayed to the other side. It’s one slice, but two pieces. While I am not a French toast afficianado, and while I do make French toast from time to time, I always do one piece = one slice. That said, it is common to slice the bread diagonally and fry it up in two pieces. If I have a stack of these French toasts pieces in the middle of the table and ask someone to pass me a piece of French toast, I would expect them to pass me one triangular half, not two halves to make up a slice. So, please remove one vote from the “Yes” column and put it in the “No” column.
I think Colibri has made the strongest argument. Suppose you and your friend went to a restaurant to eat. Your friend orders a cheeseburger. You’re feeling hungry so you order two cheeseburgers. Your orders arrive and the two of them are identical except that your cheeseburger has been cut in half.
Would anybody argue that this was legit?
You don’t turn cheeseburger into two cheeseburgers by cutting it in half. And you don’t turn one piece of French toast into two pieces of French toast by cutting in half either.
What exactly is your point regarding the OP? We’re not talking about that situation. You of course can make up other unusual scenarios but that doesn’t really bear on the OP.
The underlying issue in the OP is whether the husband is right in thinking he was shortchanged in what he received based on what the menu said. I’m presuming that the OP is talking about a situation in which the slice is a typical piece of bread in the US, 4" to 5" on a side.
I know nitpicking is a favorite pastime around here, so you can develop scenarios where half a slice of some very large loaf might not be considered shortchanged, but I don’t think that’s the basic question.
I think anyone would feel shortchanged if they received two slices from a baguette, either perpendicular of diagonal, when they were expecting two slices of regular bread.
If a claim doesn’t handle the general case, then it can’t be said to be true. As I read it, the claim is something like “cutting a food item in half can’t leave you with two food items”. I say that’s false, as demonstrated by the sandwich example and the fact that there are many possible variations on what a “piece” of French toast might be.
So yes, a half-slice of French toast certainly qualifies as a “piece”. As could a quarter-slice or whatever. Whether we should be annoyed depends entirely on the size of the resulting piece and not on how it got to be that shape.
Perhaps the claim was not meant to be general, and only applies to French toast specifically. But you’re the one that brought up sandwiches.
Sure. But I was comparing the situations against each other. Does the fact that one is cut and the other not change the accounting, even though the area is the same?
The shortchanging comes from the volume, not the cut.
I said “make”, then “cut”. For all I care, they can make a 72" sandwich and slice it into 12 pieces (well, as long as it doesn’t sit around for too long).
When I order a sandwich in a restaurant, there’s rarely the slightest indication of what the bread will look like. I generally expect a volume roughly equivalent to a common square slice, but exactly what form that arrives in is up to the restaurant. Height also factors into it–I’ll accept a smaller piece of bread if the sandwich is well-stacked.
But you’re not asking for a “piece” of something. You’re asking for a cheeseburger. This makes a difference. Granted, you can’t ask for “a French toast” but you can ask for a “slice” of French toast, versus a “piece” of French toast. Sometimes, when I make regular toast, I use slices of rye bread that can’t fit completely into the toaster. So I cut them in half. Each half is a “piece” of toast to me. Like I said above, if they’re on a plate and someone asks me to pass them a piece of toast, I would pass one half-slice, not two half-slices, and that’s what I would expect in return.
But you do turn one slice of pizza into two slices of pizza by cutting them in half. (Or one “piece” of pizza into two “pieces.” Here in Chicago, we cut a pizza into squares, so each individual square is a “piece” and the pizza might be cut into bigger or fewer pizzas for any given pizza size. Some pizzerias will do 16 pieces for a 16"; some maybe do 25 or 36. It varies.)
I don’t eat my French toast cut and even a restaurant I request it uncut …dennys finds it annoying … ihop dosent have a problem with it …crazy ottos never cut it in the first place … and long departed jimmys used maple flavored bread for its French toast sandwich …
Huh, funny - just had this convo with my wife yesterday, when we told our youngest she couldn’t leave the table until she’d had one piece of toast in addition to her bacon. I meant one triangular piece, my wife thought I meant a whole slice. I said no, if I meant “slice” I’d have said “slice”, and I have a full awareness of exactly how far the Littlest Dibble can be made to eat non-meat foodstuffs :).
Easy. The number of items dipped into the batter and placed on the skillet is the number of pieces of French toast. It doesn’t matter how many slices of bread it started out as, and in fact, breakfast for the whole family came from one piece (i.e., loaf) of bread, and is therefore one piece of French toast.
Now, if the question is “How many slices?”, there might be a different discussion, since “slice” and “piece” have different definitions. As Mr. Dibble aptly points out.
But this is not an issue of semantics; it’s an issue of accepted practices. When you engage in a business transaction, both parties expect that the transaction will occur within certain known parameters. If you’re departing from those parameters you’re suppose to explicitly acknowledge it.
So when I order two pieces of French toast for five dollars, I expect to receive two slices of bread, dipped in egg batter and then fried, with an appropriate accompaniment of butter and syrup, served on a plate along with eating utensils. And the owner expects me to pay in United States currency; not in Australian dollars or Monopoly money and a collection of pebbles that I’ve nicknamed dollars.
If either of us is not acting within these expectations, we’re supposed to inform the other. The owner is supposed to tell me that his version of French toast is boiled, served with ketchup, and there’s a special one dollar fee for the use of a fork. Or that he cuts the slices in half and calls them two pieces.