APPETIZERS

I think I might have done something on this on another occasion, but I figure it is worth repeating. Now appetizers are those things that have appetite as part of their word, but aren't really intended to stop making you hungry. They are to me kind of snack to keep you from starving while you are waiting for the real food.

This is something that only happens in restaurants too. At home we never worry about having any appetizers since when we want to eat we just always get to the good stuff right away.

And this isn't even a big problem in all restaurants. If you go to a fast food restaurant, you don't mess with any appetizers, you just order your good stuff and eat the moment it comes.

Nope this only seems to apply to those fancy places where you have to wear stuff like shoes and socks and even underwe — um, well you got to dress up for the thing. Anyway, it is sort of pain in some ways. Because instead of having some big sign up where you can see the pictures of the food they give you a menu. It is mainly writing and gives you a description of whatever you can buy to eat.

Which is okay I guess, but to me if they just had pictures on the wall like the fast food places it would be better. At least from my way of thinking.

However, whenever Otis gets in the mood to go to sit down kind of restaurant, which is what he calls these places, then I'm stuck tagging along. Personally, I got no idea why they are called sit down since you do that in fast food places too. Well I do I know that.

So there we are, sitting and this dude called a waiter, only I'm not sure how much actually waiting he does, takes your order and scribbles it down an a piece of paper. Guess he doesn't have good memory or something.

And if they had one of those microphone hook ups like the fast food places he could just broadcast he order over that microphone or whatever. But that never happens.

In any case, on that menu somewhere they will have something about appetizers. That is okay I guess. Some of them aren't bad.

The one I haven't tried yet is the one you get with real big parties. They call it a gratuity. It only gets automatically included if you have a party of more than eight. Then they must slice it in portions, because you only get fifteen per cent of this gratuity. Makes me thing it must be extra rich if they have to make sure you only get a per cent's worth.

In the meantime, when we do get around to visiting those places, I let my buddy Otis do the appetizer ordering. I figure it never hurts to be too careful. Because they got this one called Spinach and Artichoke dip. And personally I don't want to take any chances of them trying to dip me in something full of Spinach and then choke me till I shout Artie. So far the have just brought us some bowl full of stuff to eat, but I don't what to risk them changing their minds on that idea.