Right Choice Of Tablecloth: Secret To a Successful Find Dining?

Forget mood lighting or fancy wine for your next dinner party, a recent study suggests that the right tablecloth can make your food taste much better, but is there any proof to this?

By: Ringo Bones

For as long as anyone can remember, a greater priority has been assigned to mood lighting and the right kind of fancy wine when it comes to the success or – hopefully not – failure of a fine dining event. But a recent study conducted by culinary experts had shown results that the right choice of tablecloth has the most bearing in making the food taste better and eliciting guest satisfaction at the end of the meal. The desired diner satisfaction even works with value-for-money (as in cheap) linen tablecloth.

In this recent study, culinary researchers fed more than 200 participants tomato soup under varying conditions. Dim lighting made the tomato soup taste saltier but had no impact on other taste ratings, appearance, odor, consistency, or perceived quality. The inclusion of a tablecloth was, however, a game changer. Participants ate more, thought the soup was better quality and sat at the table for longer. Maybe you can try this in your next major dining event – maybe this Valentine’s Day? – to check out of the right tablecloth is a fine dining game changer.

Should Taking too Much Instagram Photos Improper Restaurant Etiquette?

Though recent advances in social media has yet to evolve to match current etiquette, should excessive of food instagramming while dining in a fine restaurant considered a bad practice?

By: Ringo Bones

Heston Blumenthal – three Michelin star chef and proprietor of Fat Duck restaurant – recently bemoans the practice of diners taking excessive Instagram photos of his food as it gets cold enough to become unappealing instead of his patrons prioritizing in the consumption of his culinary masterpieces. And yet the famed chef has been tempted to lecture to their customers that excessive Instagraming can be a breach of etiquette because your food is going cold, but fortunately, has not yet done so.

Like the famed chef, I too find it somewhat a breach of existing etiquette when diners prioritize Instagraming their food until it grows cold instead of appreciating it by eating it right away. Even though social media has recently become a big part of our lives, it seems that sensibility of matching existing etiquette with social media has been thrown away like the proverbial baby with the bathwater out of the window. Food photos are quite different from fine dining if you ask me.

Nudist Restaurants: Bad Business Model?

Given the success or failure of restaurants lies in getting enough butts on the seats, are nudists restaurants represent a bad business model if it can’t get enough – naked or not?

By: Ringo Bones

After being open for just 15 months, Paris’ first ever nudist restaurant plans to close next month after it can no longer “get enough butts in the seats” for economic viability. The restaurant is called O’naturel and is located in the city’s 12^th arrondissent opened to much fanfare back in November 2017, but just over a year later, a dearth of customers is forcing the pioneering restaurant to close its doors. Mike and Stephane Saada, 43-year-old twins, launched the concept – despite not being nudist themselves and in the videos shown of the restaurant in operation, the waiters appear to be fully clothed.

Unlike nudist beaches operating in Europe, which only attract naturists during the warm summer months, O’naturel was designed to offer “the pleasure of dining naked all year in the capital in the respect of naturist values” according to the website, which is still live. The owners said of the closure: “we will only remember the good times, meeting beautiful people and customers who were delighted to share exceptional moments.”

Diners were shown into changing rooms on arrival, where they could store clothes and mobile phones and cameras – strictly banned in the restaurant – in lockers. Guests were also given a pair of slippers, though women could leave their heels on if they so desire. The experience was open to everyone, whether “initiates” or those “who want to try”. Yves Leclerc, president of the French Nudist Federation, said when O’naturel first opened: “it is like we’re on holiday, but it’s even better.” However, some eventually complained that the presence of clothed waiters was not in the spirit of a nudist restaurant. It had a better run than London’s The Bunyadi, which was admittedly only a pop-up venture. Given that France has stricter nudist rules than the more libertine Dutch – i.e. lack of “all age nudist camps” on French soil, the lack of loud bratty kids would also be O’naturel’s unique selling point in providing a “sedate” and relatively quiet nude dining experience.

Remembering Anthony Bourdain

After the runaway success of his hit food documentary show at CNN, what would every “foodie” view as the lasting legacy of Anthony Bourdain? 

By: Ringo Bones 

It came quite as a shock to me after hearing that Anthony Bourdain died of an apparent suicide back in Friday, June 8, 2018. It seems that most of his fans the world over are oblivious to the inner demons his battling and eventually succumb into. Fortunately, Bourdain managed to bequeathe to his legions of fans his books and a food documentary urging everyone to be more adventurous when it comes to dining. 

Born in New York, New York back in June 25, 1956, Bourdain is no stranger to cultural diversity growing up in one of the most culturally diverse part of the United States. He gained fame after publishing his first book titled Kitchen Confidential that documented his twenty-plus year experience as a high-end restaurant chef. When CNN decided to pick up his Parts Unknown, a documentary focusing on various cuisines around the world and the salient theme of which is based on his quote: “Context and memory play powerful roles in all the truly great meals in one’s life.” Anthony Bourdain even became more famous when the then US President Barack Obama invited to dine with him in a Vietnamese noodle restaurant in downtown Hanoi called Bun Cha Huong Lien back in May 2016 during President Obama’s state visit to Vietnam. 

To his fans the world over, Anthony Bourdain will be remembered for making cultures that are exotic to the average Westerner more familiar. It might not be just me, but Bourdain probably made the most palate cautious foodie to explore those exotic fermented fish dishes found in Scandinavia and East Asia. And given his focus on the exploration of international culture, cuisine and the human condition, Bourdain probably redefined what it means to be a so-called celebrity chef.

Foodhini: The Right Way To Make America Great Again?

While Donald Trump’s support base are very busy bedeviling non-white Anglo Saxon immigrants, is the Foodhini business model the right way to make America – the country of immigrants – great again?

By Ringo Bones 

Located in Washington, DC – the business model behind Foodhini seems like a poke in the eye of US President Donald J. Trump’s far-right policies and of his support base – and a very tasty poke in the eye it is. Foodhini delivers homemade meals from immigrant and refugee chefs to your doorstep. The Foodhini delivery service brings more than just “authentic ethnic meals” to the table, this culinary startup hires immigrant and refugee chefs to prepare dishes from their home countries. 

In the end, everyone benefits: Customers can enjoy authentic meals, while the chefs are provided with a living wage and a chance to share a taste of home with their new country – namely the United States of America. Foodhini’s core mission is to create sustainable jobs for immigrant and refugee communities, while at the same time provide epic tastes from around the world for everyone to enjoy. 

Foodhini partners with budding home-taught chefs from America’s diverse immigrant communities and celebrate their stories, heritage, and cultures through their delicious foods. You, the customer, can support these talented undiscovered chefs by preordering their specially prepared dishes delivered to your doorstep.

Strip Club Buffets: Safest Place To Eat Out In America?

Despite being viewed with an unsavory nature from conservatives, are America’s strip club buffets the safest place to eat out from a health inspectors’ perspective? 

By: Ringo Bones 

Since 2010, strip club buffets across America have received favorable – as in 100-percent rating - health inspection ratings from state-level restaurant health inspectors. Even back when David Letterman was still hosting the Late Show often joked about it that he’d rather eat at a strip joint buffet to avoid a norovirus infection. But why are strip club buffets remained America’s safest place to eat from a health perspective for a little over 6 years? 

Given that such places are viewed with an unsavory nature from America’s conservatives and prudes, this had spurred on strip club owners to put it upon them to keep their buffets as sanitary as humanly possible. Thus, these places have become the cleanest places to eat out in America and strip joint buffets are even spared from the norovirus epidemic of 2014 which appear to specifically target cruise ship buffets. And according to a recent interview of various health inspection boards across America, other places that can compete with strip club buffets in terms of sanitary ratings are Italian restaurants.

What Are The Most “Popular” Restaurant Pet Peeves?

Even if you only dine out on occasion have you ever wondered some the “most popular” restaurant pet peeves that could even be disconcerting to the most intrepid restaurant connoisseur? 

By: Ringo Bones 

I admit I only seldom get peeved during the time I frequently dine out back in my more affluent days during the Clinton-era dot-com boom before it went bust, but fortunately, it seems that what bursts my bubble has most in common to the six “most popular” restaurant pet peeves that are still prevalent this day and age. Unfortunately, I think a few of them could even make the most intrepid working restaurant critic go ballistic faster that a 1950s era Saber jet go supersonic. 

Pests on food is the probably the most unnerving of the restaurant pet peeves. Unless of course you are checking out an insect serving restaurant whose entomological cuisine are approved by the local agricultural or health department, this is indeed a really risky business – especially for health reasons - for those who dine out. 

Nasty bathrooms that is way dirtier in comparison to a “closed for maintenance” public latrine in a Nairobi slum. If the bathroom is this dirty, imagine how dirty the kitchen could be – so goes the old adage that proves true time and time again. 

Restaurant with crappy table layout – I mean with the emphasis on “crappy” especially if you are assigned a dining table within a smelling distance of the bathroom, never mind the trash bin. From a “Western perspective”, crappy table arrangements are endemic in the Chinese restaurant world adhering to the arcane and rigmaroley geomancy of Feng Sui. Sadly, only liberal Jewish restaurant critics proudly voice out such kerfuffle – Feng Sui-Schmeng Sui indeed. 

Disorganized reservation queues where the 27^th person behind you suddenly gets front in line just because he or she is cozy with the owner. In my own experience, restaurant establishment like these usually takes 18 months to go bankrupt before their regular patrons can take no more of the owner’s 22 year old Kim-Jong-Un-like son demands royal service or else – I say 18 months is too long to wait for a “ people’s revolution”. 

Noisy and disruptive customers can be disconcerting to the most intrepid outdoor diner. Ever notice those kids throwing tantrums whose belligerence rivals that of leading Islamist terror groups like Boko Haram or ISIS? Thus the rise of child-free restaurants in France five years ago that is still growing and growing. 

Late and forgotten orders and forgotten orders you are billed but never got. This probably takes the cake as the top restaurant pet peeves, forget tipping, if this is how a particular restaurant stays in service, maybe the proprietor doing money laundering services for the local mob is the more economically viable option.