Word: menu
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...enthusiastic neophyte in Latin scholarship, found my studies rewarded as I read your article, "Edibility Gap" [Dec. 6]. Included in your photo of ostentatious restaurant menus was one of obvious Roman vintage touting the gustatory delights of a New York establishment with acute illusions of classical grandeur. Atop the menu, in flawless (if somewhat perfunctory) Latin, were the words of the poet Catullus: "You will dine well at my table." Whereas the rest of the menu appears hopelessly verbose, its author was here perhaps all too brief, for, loosely translated, Catullus actually wrote: "You will dine well at my table...
...printing companies lend an inky hand. "We do the job," says, Jack Loftin of the Dallas printing firm of Menus Distinctive. "There's nothing to be ashamed about." Unashamed, a small band of professional writers hangs around the kitchen door. One freelancer, Barry Tarshis, who dubs himself the "Menu Surgeon," says: "A menu should relate logically to the restaurant. A whimsical menu for the hip crowd, for example, or a folksy menu for the family crowd. But if someone wants something really offbeat, I might even suggest a baroque menu for a truly rundown place...
Freddy Style. Menu writers seem to spend most of their time peering over each other's shoulders. Punctuation is repetitive, leading to this law: The quality of food in a restaurant is in inverse proportion to the number of semicolons and exclamation marks on the menu...
...food, not descriptive phrases, is what is necessary." Nonetheless, beware the chef's signature. A restaurant in New York's Greenwich Village offers Spaghetti Alfredo, which turns out to have nothing to do with the restaurant of the same name in Rome. In stead, as the menu footnotes, it is "Spaghetti-Freddy style." Gallatin Powers, owner of Gallatin's restaurant in Monterey, Calif:, explains the genesis of the chicken, orange juice, and ginger concoction he calls Poulet Albert simply: "I have a son named Albert...
Paradoxically, the ultimate is the talking menu. Instead of relying on the nonsensical literary sell, a waiter recites what the chef will offer that day. All very well; if the diner is not familiar with a dish, he has merely to inquire. However, in a few fancy restaurants, the answer is chillingly familiar. "This, monsieur, is a delicate blend of exotic ingredients...