[Sca-cooks] What the tourist cannot know

Lilinah lilinah at earthlink.net
Wed Oct 15 15:30:51 PDT 2008


Suey wrote:
>Lilinah wrote the below which I consider cool. You guys are so far ahead
>of us in foreign countries. My US college roommate and I went to a local
>restaurant two years ago between Houston and Galveston and we had the
>best meal on earth. I don't remember the name of the village or the
>place. She took her boyfriend back there and could not find it.
>Sometimes even in the US we are not as organized as we want to be.
>Writing down the name of the place, the town et al  is  bit different
>from the local tv show, its about where you were, what you enjoyed, not
>what your local tv wants to advertize.

US commercial TV stations generally only advertises huge corporate 
fast food chains and huge corporate chain restaurants of dubious 
quality... Mmm-mmm-mmm, artificial butter flavor in nearly everything 
- gag.

PBS TV stations don't have advertising. PBS has been on the air since 
the early to mid 1970s. They usually have shows of a quality higher 
than and not to be found (or only rarely) on commercial TV.

So the restaurants discussed on the three "Check Please" shows are 
strictly local, and it's local folks who eat there and get to discuss 
their experiences. And trust me, some people have hated their 
experience at someone else's favorite, but it's not like a reality 
show, even in dispute, people stay civil. The shows allow people in 
the San Francisco Bay area, Chicagoland, and South Florida to get a 
good idea of the experience. And i recommend the website/blog to 
people living in or visiting the SF Bay area.

There are no cameras while the 3 locals are eating there, so the 
restaurants have no idea who is coming and can't give them any 
special treatment.

The restaurants are not paying for advertising - heck, a few have 
gone out of business since the show they were in aired.

And the TV shows don't pay for the diners' meals. I remember one show 
in which a guy recently out of university and clearly short of funds 
recommended his inexpensive neighborhood cafe. Most of the 
restaurants run around $30 for a nice dinner - so i'm sure he figured 
he could afford that for the other two. But he had to drop over $100 
per person (without wine or drinks) to eat at a very high end, very 
well respected restaurant recommended by a lawyer. He clearly was not 
happy with that. And the lawyer sneerly excoriated his "pathetic" 
little local place, which sounded quite pleasant, but was clearly 
"beneath" her.

So these shows have NOTHING to do with advertising.
-- 
Someone sometimes called Urtatim


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