One of the things that drives me nuts in southern California is the
propensity of many "California cuisine" menus to take a perfectly
decent dish and either add something weird to it or otherwise pervert
it. They also have a tendency to over-complicate what should be a
simple dish.

We have a joint up the street from the office that is one of the very
few restaurants anywhere near the office that has table service. I'm
not a real fussy eater, but I've long held to the proposition that I
won't eat anything that I don't think is worth the calories <g> This
place does not have much on the menu that qualifies. Even the simplest
offering does not appeal, such as the turkey sandwich, which sounds
pretty straight forward, until you get to the description: with
alfalfa sprouts and cranberry mayo served on a toasted onion foccacia
roll. Seems to me this would pretty much overwhelm the turkey.

I had a salad as part of a set menu for a catered dinner that was
described as follows:

"Barbecued Chicken and Mixed Baby Greens Tossed With Apples, Bleu
Cheese, Red Onion, Cilantro, Corn, Spicy Peanuts, Ranch Dressing and
Crisp Tortilla Strips." Again, if you can actually taste the chicken,
you picked everything else off.

I am fairly adventuresome food-wise, but it just seems to me that some
of the local chefs/menu writers are trying too hard to stand out and
not in a good way <shrug>

Terry "Squeaks" Pulliam Burd

--
"If the soup had been as hot as the claret, if the claret had been as
old as the bird, and if the bird's breasts had been as full as the
waitress's, it would have been a very good dinner."

-- Duncan Hines

To reply, replace "spaminator" with "cox"