Cream of Hot Dog Soup & Trio Deep Salad

Hello Lovers,

I'm sorry to have been away from the keys all week, but I've been keeping myself busy. For update purposes, I guess I should say I lost 1 pound last week. That's good, but after two weeks of 4 pound losses, it's a bit of a downer. I don't expect high hopes this week either because I haven't been the best of eaters, and I haven't been popping those pills on schedule.

I had a cream puff today. It was worth it.

I really wanted to mention some funny things about where I work. It's a catering company, and we own a restaurant and bar in the building as well. Every day, I get comped breakfast and lunch and snacks, so I can't complain; however, this restaurant is like none I've ever experienced. It's quirky, and it's driving me insane.

I'll start with the blackboard we use for posting daily specials. All of our staff is Mexican, and that explains this error: At the top of the board in chalk it says "Today Special." They pick these phrases up by ear and write down what they hear, so instead of Today's Special, we get the above. Other aural errors include but are not limited to: Cream of Sparagus Soup, Turkey with Cramberry Sauce and today's special, Trio Deep Salad.

When I went down at 11 today, I saw that and thought, "WTF is Trio Deep Salad? Is it a deep sea salad with 3 fish products on it? That's not uncommon. What's missing in this phrase?" So I go over to the salad station, and there sits a salad with mounds of tabbouleh, hummus and baba gannouj, served with crackers and dressed veggies. Then it occurred to me - Trio DIP Salad. How silly am I?

So as I am wont to do, I went to correct the blackboard, and Javier our "pastry chef" got all snotty with me. That's my job; I'm damage control. What do our customers think when they see these things? I know what they think - I hear them dissing our product in the elevators.

And for good reason. Yesterday boasted a special for Cream of Italian Sausage Soup. I was hungry after my salad, and I needed the calories, so I got a small cup. Floating on top of a creamy broth was my "Italian Sausage": A cocktail weenie, cut on the bias. The soup was full of cocktail weenies. They didn't taste like sausage, they didn't taste like Polish, they tasted like hot dogs. There it was - Cream of Hot Dog Soup.

This just goes along with other infamous soup specials of the past.

Fish Ball Soup
Pork Ball Soup
Seafood and Vegetable (whole stir-fry veggies with whole calamari, tentacles and all)
Meat Chili
Cream of Radish

This is my monkeyville, Pitko. This is my monkeyville.

So there's that,

Laura