Restaurants

Traveling for business is like stepping into a parallel universe where I don't have to do my own housekeeping; I get free copies of USA Today; and I eat in restaurants daily. I have to say that USA Today has gotten better since I first started reading it, intermittently (i.e. on business trips) years ago, but I digress: I'm here to talk to you about restaurants.

This trip has actually been very good for restaurants. Last night, I had the best trout ever. It was cooked to perfection--not under, not over--and served with just the right amount of garlic butter, and with a side of vegetables and really good home fries. It was a universe away from the mediocre trout I had in West Virginia (at Panorama or whatever it's called) a couple of weeks ago--which was both the most expensive trout ever and the "cheapest," in the sense that they only served half the fish. But let's stick with really good trout for a minute, because Rasika deserves a shout-out in that category.

How did I become a trout connoisseur? As a pescatarian, my choices at restaurants can be pretty limited, and trout is a good, sustainable choice for seafood. I don't like to order food that I can make well myself, and most fish fits into that category. Unbelievably, the restaurant where we had lunch today--which is the restaurant at the hotel (we were in a hurry)--offered a boca burger for $10. I guess they get credit for being honest and not even pretending it was a homemade concoction, but how do you get away with serving a pre-frozen veggie burger, much less charging that much for it?

We went to Chilis for dinner (we had more interesting choices in Colorado Springs, and I suppose we'd have plenty of choices had we had the energy to venture into downtown Denver, but we were, are all exhausted), where I had a very good black bean burger and a "shot" of dessert. All week, I've been thinking, I would order dessert if it came in reasonable portions. I want a little bit of something, not a massive dose that's going to make me sick. I'm averse to throwing away food, especially, but not exclusively, when I'm paying a fair amount for it, so I don't like to order what I can't finish. Rather than get a gynormous piece of cake for $6-$8, I'd love to get a few bites for $2-$3. So far, only Chilis has come through in that category.

On the same note, until last night, I'd been ordering appetizers all week, and they were plenty. What does that tell you about typical portion sizes?