[QUOTE=featherlou]
Your grandfather has my sincere sympathies, alphaboi. I am a slow eater by nature, and I’m even slower now that half my mouth is out of commission because of a couple of bad teeth. I’m eating as fast as I can, goddammit - quit hovering, quit trying to take my plate, quit rushing me. And for my husband’s family - serving dessert to everyone else while I’m still eating dinner is rude. I don’t know how many times I’ve stopped eating just like your grandfather because I felt like I was inconveniencing other people with my normal eating speed. I’ll even lose interest in eating a meal at home because it just takes too damned long.
Slow eaters of the world, unite!
[/QUOTE]
I was a slow eater as a kid. Always the last at the table. But somewhere along the way I overcompensated for that problem and now am always the first one finished. ::sigh::
It’s rude to rush diners. But hey, once I’ve asked you for the check, bring it pronto, (or hey, maybe even bring it when you see we’re both done) and let me glance over it and hand it back to you with the debit card. I don’t want you disappearing on me and leaving me sitting here twiddling my thumbs!
Jack-in-the-Box’s parent company had to settle lawsuits ranging from $19,000 to $15,000,000 due to the food poisoning customers got from eating undercooked food. It makes perfect corporate sense to try and limit their liability exposure. If you order something and they won’t cook it that way, you’re free to take your business elsewhere. No one is forcing you to eat a hamburger cooled medium if you want it rare.
Why is it that Islands (which seems to me about like Red Robin but I don’t go to RR so could be wrong) serves medium burgers with no qualms and has no disclaimers in their menu and hasn’t been sued out of business?
[QUOTE=kayT]
Why is it that Islands (which seems to me about like Red Robin but I don’t go to RR so could be wrong) serves medium burgers with no qualms and has no disclaimers in their menu and hasn’t been sued out of business?
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=featherlou]
ETA: The cooking of burgers could be covered under food handling safety guidelines, as well - restaurants might not have a choice about how they’re cooking them. If the Department of Agriculture/Health Canada have decided that E. coli poisoning should be prevented by all restaurants cooking burgers to a certain degree of wellness, that’s how restaurants are expected to cook them or get a health code violation.
[/QUOTE]
I know this well, when I worked waiting tables here in Alberta, I would have an American tourist freak out at least once a week in the summer because they could not legally have their burger cooked to their preference.
It’s rude to rush diners. But hey, once I’ve asked you for the check, bring it pronto, (or hey, maybe even bring it when you see we’re both done) and let me glance over it and hand it back to you with the debit card. I don’t want you disappearing on me and leaving me sitting here twiddling my thumbs!
[/QUOTE]
Knowing when to give the bill and when to wait for the debit card or come back is not always easy to interpret. I’ve dropped off a bill at a table before, even after being asked to bring it, only to stand around for a few moments while the patrons ignore my existence before leaving to attend to my other customers. Waitstaff seems to be expected at times to be mind-readers. Look at this thread - some want the check with the meal, some after, some expect to be asked about dessert and I’ve had people get irritated with me for asking them about dessert. I guarantee another person will stick their head in and say that they think it is the height of rudeness for the waiter/waitress to wait around for the card/money. There is no way to please every customer 100% of the time.
[QUOTE=Kalhoun]
Which reminds me…ever since this new panic about rare meat kicked in, medium-rare is a lot more well-done than it used to be. Anyone else notice that?
[/QUOTE]
YES!!! I have officially switched to ordering “rare” in hopes of getting my preferred medium rare.
[QUOTE=kayT]
Why is it that Islands (which seems to me about like Red Robin but I don’t go to RR so could be wrong) serves medium burgers with no qualms and has no disclaimers in their menu and hasn’t been sued out of business?
[/QUOTE]
If you are comfortable with your meat supplier, your meat handling processes, your meat storage policies, and your general staff competence, this would seem to be not a problem.
As I said before, there isn’t really a problem with undercooked meat. There is a problem with undercooking the contaminents on/in the meat. No contaminents, eat it raw…
ETA: The cooking of burgers could be covered under food handling safety guidelines, as well - restaurants might not have a choice about how they’re cooking them. If the Department of Agriculture/Health Canada have decided that E. coli poisoning should be prevented by all restaurants cooking burgers to a certain degree of wellness, that’s how restaurants are expected to cook them or get a health code violation.
[/QUOTE]
I was in Pennsylvania for business recently and tried to order a medium burger. I was told exactly this - state law said ground beef had to be cooked well - they were not allowed to cook it as I requested.
I took it with a grain of salt until I saw your post…it would seem that enforcement would have to be very subjective.
[QUOTE=friedo]
ETA: OK, I’m slightly less lazy than I thought. From my very first google on the subject: Rare steak ‘is safe to eat’
[/QUOTE]
Then you should feel free to complain when a place refuses to serve a rare steak, which never happens in the first place.
[QUOTE=joemama24_98]
I was in Pennsylvania for business recently and tried to order a medium burger. I was told exactly this - state law said ground beef had to be cooked well - they were not allowed to cook it as I requested.
I took it with a grain of salt until I saw your post…it would seem that enforcement would have to be very subjective.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve have any problem getting rare burgers at non-chain restaurants. In fact Denny’s, Crapplebee’s, and Red Robin are the only three restaurants I remember being told they only do well-done (at Crapplebee’s I was only told this after they brought my burger out).
[QUOTE=x-ray vision]
I’m asking how one gets a burger hot enough to kill bacteria but not hot enough to cook it past rare. What kind of technique can there be to do this and do you have a cite that this can actually be accomplished safely, especially since you’re claiming it can be done without a thermometer?
[/QUOTE]
You can’t. His friend doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Rare, medium rare, etc. all refer to the temperature of the inside of the meat. There is no “intensive training” one can go through to make one rare burger hotter in the middle than any other rare burger.
[QUOTE=joemama24_98]
I was in Pennsylvania for business recently and tried to order a medium burger. I was told exactly this - state law said ground beef had to be cooked well - they were not allowed to cook it as I requested.
I took it with a grain of salt until I saw your post…it would seem that enforcement would have to be very subjective.
[/QUOTE]
The enforcement may be subjective, but as the last posts show, the guidelines and standards aren’t (not trying to split hairs - I’m not sure which meaning you were going for in your post). The restaurant cooks a burger, the inspector sticks a thermometer in it, they pass or fail based on the temperature reading.
[QUOTE=Cyberhwk]
That way I don’t have to sit there and wait to get the bill only
to stick my debt card in to wait AGAIN for you to come pick it up, to wait AGAIN to bring back the receipt so I can sign it.
[/QUOTE]
That’s the surest way, in my world, to reduce the amount of your tip. This has happened to me so many times, usually in more high end restaurants. Takes forever to get the bill, takes another forever for them to pick up the bill with your card it in and another two forevers to ring it up and bring it back to you.
The other night we stopped by a popular watering hole for a drink after a gig. Yes, the place was busy, it’s always busy. Took a full 30 minutes from the time we finished our drink to actually pay the bill. Normally I’d be happy to sit around and chat but we were trying to get somewhere and didn’t need the 30 minute delay.
And, yes, I like my burger medium rare.
(sorry for the hijack…back to your regular program already in progress)