You don't have what????

I had dinner last night at a suburban thai place. In apparent deference to the health or religious preferences of its patrons, the establishment had a completely pork free menu. A non-vegetarian thai restaurant with no pork. Huh?

This morning I needed to pick up a few things at Whole Foods on Ashland. In desperate need of a caffeine fix, I stopped into Caribou Coffee for a macchiatto.

Caribou clerk: "What kind of milk would you like for the foam, sir?"
Me: "Whole milk, please."
Caribou Clerk: "We don't carry whole milk. Just skim and 2 percent."

Mind boggling. Truly mind boggling.

HI,

I was at Kendall's cafeteria yesterday morning, their milk machine offered three milks: chocolate, 2% and skim. I am seeing less and less whole milk offered in restaurants. It is as if 2% is the new whole milk.

My family switched to skim over the last year. When I bring a gallon of 2% or worse yet whole milk, you think I commited a crime against humanity or at least against their longevity. However those anti-whole milk drinkers seem to be sneaking from my stash, because it goes a whole lot faster than I can consume it personally.

Regards,

I generally find I like some whole milk in my coffee, but not all of them. I find cream or 1/2 and 1/2 too creamy, and some whole milks are either too creamy or too weak. For some reason 2% milk seems to be more consistent across brands as to how creamy it is, and now it's what I prefer in my coffee when given a choice. I definitely prefer to drink skim milk if I drink a glass. Any other strength is too creamy to me.

leek wrote:I generally find I like some whole milk in my coffee, but not all of them. I find cream or 1/2 and 1/2 too creamy, and some whole milks are either too creamy or too weak. For some reason 2% milk seems to be more consistent across brands as to how creamy it is, and now it's what I prefer in my coffee when given a choice. I definitely prefer to drink skim milk if I drink a glass. Any other strength is too creamy to me.

I have no problem with people's preference for lower fat milk (their loss), but I simply can't fathom that a place which specializes in coffee drinks would not even carry whole milk.

The coffee stand at Tuscany Cafe (in the bottom of my work building) allows you two choices: skim or 1/2 and 1/2. High fat, or water.

You know which place always has the full panoply of milk offerings from whole, to 2% to 1%? Starbucks. Yep, that's right - the supposed evil empire.

I wouldnt be happy with that either.

The only kind of milk I will drink, and certainly cook with is Whole Milk. Skim & 2 % taste, and look watery to me.

I fully expect to see a sushi bar open in the not too distant future that does not serve any raw fish. Fully cooked, mayo stuffed, panko covered, unagi sauce drizzled, fashion rolls only.

Me: "I'd like a few pieces of maguro, hamachi, ama ebi, saba, oh yeah, and I'd like the shrimp heads too, and also..."
Server:"Sorry sir, we do not offer nigiri or sashimi... Can I interest you in a crazy caterpillerdragonheadphillymexico house roll? It's the same as the calitokyophillycrunchladybug roll, except instead of ketchup, it has mustard."
Me: vomit.

Kennyz wrote:I had dinner last night at a suburban thai place. In apparent deference to the health or religious preferences of its patrons, the establishment had a completely pork free menu. A non-vegetarian thai restaurant with no pork. Huh?

Unless you are talking about Tub Tim Thai, there are evidently at least two places like that

seebee wrote:I fully expect to see a sushi bar open in the not too distant future that does not serve any raw fish. Fully cooked, mayo stuffed, panko covered, unagi sauce drizzled, fashion rolls only.

Me: "I'd like a few pieces of maguro, hamachi, ama ebi, saba, oh yeah, and I'd like the shrimp heads too, and also..."
Server:"Sorry sir, we do not offer nigiri or sashimi... Can I interest you in a crazy caterpillerdragonheadphillymexico house roll? It's the same as the calitokyophillycrunchladybug roll, except instead of ketchup, it has mustard."
Me: vomit.

Do a little digging on Sushi X. Not far off from what you describe.

stevez wrote:

Kennyz wrote:I had dinner last night at a suburban thai place. In apparent deference to the health or religious preferences of its patrons, the establishment had a completely pork free menu. A non-vegetarian thai restaurant with no pork. Huh?

Unless you are talking about Tub Tim Thai, there are evidently at least two places like that

I was talking about Thai Thai.

What about Casa de Isaac? A Mexican restaurant with no pork or shell fish at all! They do serve meat with dairy, sparingly. I've tried their chorizo, not that great.

debsdiningdigs wrote:What about Casa de Isaac? A Mexican restaurant with no pork or shell fish at all! They do serve meat with dairy, sparingly. I've tried their chorizo, not that great.

They have a mostly Kosher menu because of the proprietors' religious beliefs, not because of the clients or some other arbitrary reason.

Just to be contentious , I'll say that I really like their chorizo. It's made by hand, in-house with beef and I think the flavor is better than many pork versions I've had around town.

=R=

"We don't carry whole milk. Just skim and 2 percent."

Mind boggling. Truly mind boggling.

what's really incredible about this is that a reasonable facsimile of 2% can be made by simply mixing whole and skim in equal parts, while it's impossible to craft whole out of the ones they carry. not very smart.

I realize I'm still in the minority on this one, but I get really frustrated when I can't get soy milk for my coffee. There are very few restaurants or even coffee shops that have soy milk, which is why I pretty much only buy coffee at Starbucks (yup, I'm one of those) or make it myself at home. What are those of us non-dairy people to do?

JackieK wrote:I realize I'm still in the minority on this one, but I get really frustrated when I can't get soy milk for my coffee. There are very few restaurants or even coffee shops that have soy milk, which is why I pretty much only buy coffee at Starbucks (yup, I'm one of those) or make it myself at home. What are those of us non-dairy people to do?

I'm the same way. I've started drinking my coffee black.

ronnie_suburban wrote:

debsdiningdigs wrote:What about Casa de Isaac? A Mexican restaurant with no pork or shell fish at all! They do serve meat with dairy, sparingly. I've tried their chorizo, not that great.

They have a mostly Kosher menu because of the proprietors' religious beliefs, not because of the clients or some other arbitrary reason.

Just to be contentious , I'll say that I really like their chorizo. It's made by hand, in-house with beef and I think the flavor is better than many pork versions I've had around town.

=R=

I have no problem with restaurants that limit their offerings based on the owners' religious beliefs. If I find out that Thai Thai's owners are Muslim, or the first Thai Jews I've ever met, I will retract my scorn.

ronnie_suburban wrote:

debsdiningdigs wrote:What about Casa de Isaac? A Mexican restaurant with no pork or shell fish at all! They do serve meat with dairy, sparingly. I've tried their chorizo, not that great.

They have a mostly Kosher menu because of the proprietors' religious beliefs, not because of the clients or some other arbitrary reason.

Even so, it's rather odd that they serve meat and milk together.

eatchicago wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:

debsdiningdigs wrote:What about Casa de Isaac? A Mexican restaurant with no pork or shell fish at all! They do serve meat with dairy, sparingly. I've tried their chorizo, not that great.

They have a mostly Kosher menu because of the proprietors' religious beliefs, not because of the clients or some other arbitrary reason.

Even so, it's rather odd that they serve meat and milk together.

Yes, it's far from conventional and I don't know the exact origin of their tradition.

=R=

Jackiek, you're not the only one. I just prefer the taste of Soy in my coffee these days. Even Starbucks doesn't have soy creamer. I am a Cafe Intelligentsia fan, as they have soy too. But, diners never have it. I have been known to take my TJ's container of soy creamer with me to breakfast. Wouldn't it be great if they had little soy creamers in the the little plastic containers

Kennyz wrote:I have no problem with restaurants that limit their offerings based on the owners' religious beliefs. If I find out that Thai Thai's owners are Muslim, or the first Thai Jews I've ever met, I will retract my scorn.

Reasonable people can differ on this, I suppose, but I don't see what the big deal is about a restaurant catering to its main customer base. Even in the (likely) event that Thai Thai's owners aren't Jewish, if Thai Thai knows it will please the customers who are buttering its bread by excluding pork from its menu, that seems a good business practice.

riddlemay wrote:

Kennyz wrote:I have no problem with restaurants that limit their offerings based on the owners' religious beliefs. If I find out that Thai Thai's owners are Muslim, or the first Thai Jews I've ever met, I will retract my scorn.

Reasonable people can differ on this, I suppose, but I don't see what the big deal is about a restaurant catering to its main customer base. Even in the (likely) event that Thai Thai's owners aren't Jewish, if Thai Thai knows it will please the customers who are buttering its bread by excluding pork from its menu, that seems a good business practice.

If it helps them turn a profit, fine with me. Somehow I doubt it though - most of the Jews I know that are willing to eat at a non-kosher thai restaurant, would be just as willing if the restaurant had pork on the menu. They just wouldn't order the pork.

Either way, I'm not bothered by it because I think it's a bad business practice. I'm bothered by it because when I go to a thai restaurant I want to eat some friggin pork! To me, it was like going to a steak house that doesn't have hash browns, or a hot dog stand that doesn't offer ketchup!

Kennyz wrote: I have no problem with people's preference for lower fat milk (their loss), but I simply can't fathom that a place which specializes in coffee drinks would not even carry whole milk.

Back in the day when I worked there, Starbucks didn't carry 2% because we would make it by combining equal parts of skim and whole milk. I've since taken this technique home and used it in a number of ways (for instance, half and half is pretty easy to make using the same principle) There isn't sufficient room in the refrigerators in a coffee shop to carry too many kinds of milk, but they should be able to mix something up with the appropriate proportion of fat.

While it's easier to make these substitutions starting with whole milk, you could just as easily make a reasonable substitute for whole milk by mixing skim with a good slosh of half-and-half (I'm no good at math, but half-and-half has about 15% fat while whole has about 4%) You could probably ask them to do that for you.

Mhays wrote:There isn't sufficient room in the refrigerators in a coffee shop to carry too many kinds of milk...

If this is true, then maybe my scorn is a commentary about the sad state of our American society, rather than a criticism of Caribou Coffee. I'm as patriotic as the next guy, but sometimes I do wonder whether I really want to live in a place where the citizens - if forced to choose between real milk and dirty water - choose the dirty water.

Thankfully, I do like baseball and democracy.

I think that part of the problem is that most people don't have any experience with good quality coffee. The typical coffee at most coffee shops is brewed incorrectly because the shop doesn't use enough grounds, uses stale grounds, brews at the wrong temperature, etc. So the coffee doesn't taste very good and has to be masked by the addition of milk. Coffee should not be bitter at all.

Nicinchic - I like the idea of BYOSM (bring your own soy milk). It's like when my mom brings her mini tupperware container of salad dressing to a restaurant. I'm going to have to start doing that.