Well, that was an odd restaurant experience. My mom noticed a drink special that included kombucha. She asked what it was. I tried to explain it as best as I could, since I've tried it a couple times. Then she asked the waitress, who could just explain, "Well, it's a hipster thing...? I've never had it." My mom decided to order the drink and try it, but it turned out that they were out of it.
Then I tried asking if something on the menu was vegan (it was labeled vegetarian.) The waitress was like, "Well, it has sauerkraut, and I'm not really sure if that's vegan... You know, I don't actually know what sauerkraut is." I can understand not knowing kombucha, but she doesn't know what sauerkraut is? (I ended up ordering the veggie burger, which I knew was vegan, since the waitress kept giving me confusing answers to whether or not anything else was vegan. The veggie burger was pretty good.)
Sheesh, Hil. What an incompetent waitress!
Also, poor training by the restaurant.
Wow! Maybe she should practice 'let me ask the kitchen' for a response, or consider another profession.
I've had kombucha. All I know is, it looks like iced tea and tastes terrible.
I can understand not knowing kombucha, but she doesn't know what sauerkraut is?
It's like face-blindness, but for fermentation.
Eaten lots of kraut, don't really know how they prep it. But that's when you smile pretty and ask the kitchen like Laura said.
I actually came across someone blogging about making their own sauerkraut. It seems it's basically shredded cabbage and salt. You can add other stuff - caraway seeds seem to be popular and some, seemingly, add sugar - but you mix them up, the salt pulls out the cabbage liquid, and you set it aside to ferment a bit.
I thought this seemed like it belonged in Bitches.
I noticed a synagogue on some property right in town, a block from the beach, which isn't something I usually see in Maine. (We usually go to a different town.) I asked my mom about it -- that property has to be incredibly expensive, and it's surrounded by stores and restaurants on every side, and judging by the architecture, it's been there for a long while -- and she said that this used to be the town that all the Jews vacationed in, back when a lot of the other towns didn't allow Jews. (Old Orchard Beach, for those who know the area.)
