See, but IHOP calls those “six trangle-shaped slices of French toast,” screwing it all up for us, as it’s three triangle shaped pieces of French toast made from three slices of bread, of course.
Mmmm - French Toast…I think I’ll go get some, just as soon as I put on this pair of pants.
I mean “six triangle shaped pieces of French toast made from three slices of bread,” of course.
The menu should indicate the number of slices of bread used.
They can call it 6 pieces of French Toast made from three slices of premium bread.
I need to know how much bread I’m actually getting. 4 pieces of French Toast sounds filling. But, I know it takes more that 2 slices of bread to satisfy my appetite. The egg batter doesn’t make it more filling.
Some places use extra thick bread. It’s sold here as Texas Toast. 2 slices of that bread will satisfy me.
I think Little Nemo explained it well - it’s about the expectations that exist given the available information. If I see a plate of triangular halves, then it is reasonable to call those pieces. If the IHOP menu says “triangle-shaped slices,” again I have enough information to determine that piece means a half.
But if all I hear is “piece of french toast” with no visual clues, the most logical assumption is piece = slice, the standard unit of bread. Talking about situations where there is additional information provided isn’t pertinent.
The other piece of context I’d want is the price and location on the menu. If I pay $2.00 to order 2 pieces of French Toast off the “sides” or “a la carte” section of the menu, I’d be fine with a single slice cut in half. If I pay $7.00 for a 2-piece French Toast with bacon plate, I expect two slices of bread.
See, I don’t. Of course, for that price, I expect, if the pieces are cut diagonals of bread, to be relatively thick compared with, say, French toast made from Wonder Bread. And what would this be? One and a half pieces of French toast? Naw, that’s three pieces of French toast.
Years ago, a comedian whose name I’ve forgotten talked about ordering steak from a restaurant menu, and getting a hamburger patty. When he complained “That’s not steak, that’s a burger,” the manager insisted, “Well, that’s OUR steak.”
So, he paid them with three gum wrappers and two bottle caps. He said “That’s MY money.”
I’d take the same approach. If I ordered two pieces of French toast and they gave me one piece cut in half, I’d give them half the money.
Hopefully, this wasn’t confusion over “Salisbury steak.” Besides, I’ve never seen a generic “steak” on a menu. The cut is always listed.
But that there is the crux, for those of us for whom “slice” and “piece” are not exactly interchangeable. It’s not one piece cut in half. It’s one slice of bread, cut into two pieces. If I take a slice of bread, cut it in half, and then you ask me for a piece, I would assume you are asking me for one half of the slice, not the whole slice.
One slice of French Toast. It is also two pieces of a slice of French Toast. ‘Piece’ is too ambiguous to be specific, anything can be broken up into multiple pieces, if we refer to a standard unit as a piece then we can’t determine the difference between a standard unit and a portion of a standard unit using just the word ‘piece’.
That’s why I get pancakes.
I believe I am leaning toward the man was served one slice of french toast but two pieces. I think, if a menu said slice, I would expect an uncut slice as from a loaf of bread.
Thank goodness I never order french toast at a restaurant. Breakfast is far too early for philosophical crises!
Of course it’s one.
To say other wise would be silly.
I eat at diners a lot, and usually get breakfast food. And quite often I get french toast. So I have some experience here. The man in the OP got one slice of french toast. I won’t quibble with the grammatical “piece versus slice” debate. “Piece” could be any quantity at all, from a single french toast atom to galactic-sized, sure. That doesn’t really affect the fundamental issue here.
Little Nemo got it right. This is about standard business practices. When I read the menu, I specifically look for how much I will get. I go to diners because they’re cheap, and I am also cheap. Maybe I don’t want the whole french toast platter, which is three slices. Maybe I want bacon and eggs with a side of french toast instead, which is just one slice. When it quantifies the amount of french toast you get in the blurb under the item on the menu, that number invariably refers to how many square, Wonder-bread-type slices of french toast you will receive.
Occasionally, someplace like IHOP will come out with a “brioche” french toast, which is just round slices instead of square, but the number there always refers to whole slices, defined off the top of my head as having an unbroken perimeter of crust. They can and often do cut the resulting slices in any shape they want, usually triangular halves. But the number specified in the menu blurb is always the number of whole slices.
The restaurant the OP went to is engaged in shady business practices and I wouldn’t go back. If they cut corners on cheap food like french toast, who knows what else they’re trying to get away with back in the kitchen? Horse milk, rat meat, lawn clipping salad, child labor. It could be anything.
Isn’t it fun listening to other people’s conversations? 
I wouldn’t be upset to think of it as two, but only because every single diner I’ve been to has made it diagonal halves, so I’m conditioned to think of it that way. Although when I have it at home it’s in full slices…
On the other hand I did go to IHOP recently and they served “two pieces of toast” and it was one slice in half, and that struck me as weird.
No, not at all.
Brioche is a different (sweeter) recipe for the dough, not a different shape. Brioche, like standard bread, can be any shape at all.
And while there is a sense in which the order under discussion is “two pieces”, that sense of “piece” is not a legitimate descriptor for the size of an order on a menu, because a “piece” can be any size. Hence, the only meaningful way to interpret a menu listing of “two pieces” is that it meant to say “two slices”.
Brioche needn’t be sweet. The defining characteristic is a high egg and butter content. It’s a rich, fairly dense bread.
Among other differences. I know real brioche bread is different from regular sandwich bread. But I’m not convinced that chain restaurant gimmick-named “brioche” is significantly different from their standard french toast bread, especially once it’s soaked in egg wash and fried. (And especially considering that the main difference between brioche and standard bread is using eggs in the dough.)
For people who work there, the shape is probably the main way they distinguish the products. Though, looking at the menu now, I see the “standard business practices” are being flouted again.
:rolleyes: