Day 32: I'd like a dry, burnt piece of chicken with my cheeseless pizza please!

Day 32 ended inauspiciously, food-wise, as I was reminded again that the outside world is not set up for the likes of me.

I had one of those days full of driving and killing time...drove up to SF for a meeting at 3, which ended promptly at 4. I had dinner with two old friends planned ofr 6PM in San Mateo. Certainly not worth going all the way home before. So instead I found a Starbucks a block away from the restaurant (Love Starbucks and my TMobile wifi account) did an hour's worth of work, and then headed to dinner.

Now I had picked the restaurant, Astaria, for 1) location, since it was a good mid-meeting point and 2) menu, because it looked like a Mediterranean menu to me, and there's usually a good chance I'll find something to eat. it didn't seem excessively Mediterranean when I got there...where was the hummus for goodness sake?! And the service was, um, how shall I put it? Slow and clueless. Literally. Like I'm not sure the waiter really ever got what we were trying to say.  He knew some stock phrases like "can I get you anything else" but his reactions to specific questions or comments seemed to indicate a real language barrier. And that led to a service barrier.

So, I ordered a cheeseless pizza with some vegetable toppings. (They offered a build-your-own pizza, so really this shouldn't have been much hassle...just leave the cheese step out.) He repeated "no cheese" back to me dutifully, at least twice.

"No cheese."

"No cheese?"

"No cheese!"

"No cheese."

"Ts'alright."

"Ts'alright"

Yet, it came to the table full of cheesy-goodness.  So I had to send it back. My friends waited for a while, but I told them to go ahead and eat. Finally the pizza came back as it should be, and I started eating it in my inimitable (and some would say disgusting) way. Wherein, I mostly like the toppings, and don't care so much for crust, so I leave piles of crust on my plate.

Somewhere along the way I picked up a piece of the pizza and felt a chunk of something on the bottom of the slice. What could that be? Why, that could be a charred, burnt chunk of chicken stuck to the bottom of the pizza. Delightful!

When I showed the waiter, he got that something wrong had happened and said "Sorry" with an apologetic smile, but that was about it. I don't know about you, but after waiting an extra 15 minutes for a re-done vegan pizza and then finding a piece of chicken stuck to it, I would have expected something a little more...perhaps the offer of a free dessert (not that any of the desserts were vegan) or perhaps comp'ing the pizza? T'was not to be.

Suffice to say I don't think I'll be making a return visit to Astaria.

But then, according to a commenter on this Cooking with Amy post, I should do restaurants a favor and stay home and not give them my money.

So, anyway, this is how the day went down:

Breakfast:
Puffins Cereal
Organic Rice Milk
Black Coffee

Lunch:
Leftover Baked Winter Vegetables
Banana
Soy Latte

Snack:
Pomegranate Juice

Dinner:
Diet Coke
Warm Olives
Garlic Fries (complete with big whole garlic cloves...I smell good this morning, I can tell you!)
Cheeseless Pizza with Mushrooms, Olives and Tomatoes