Dangerous Food Trends #1

We went for dinner. A fun dinner that involved me ordering a fish I'd never heard of before in parchment, having never had such a thing, and then having to ask the waiter if I was supposed to eat the puffy stuff around the dinner. "That's the parchment paper", he said, stifling a smile. "Haha! Mom was going to eat parchment paper!" "I wasn't going to eat it without asking if I should first, kids", I lectured. "Let this be a lesson to you all. When in doubt - ask." "Haha! Mom was go -" "That's enough or I'm going to ask the waiter if I should eat my napkin!"

When a pal and fellow blogger wrote this fateful dinner description a few weeks ago, Sheena chuckled. Ha ha, what a crazy nut. Asking if she was supposed to eat the parchment.

Well, last night proved to Sheena that this parchment nonsense must stop. Especially when restaurants using this travesty of a cooking technique ALSO SERVES THINGS IN PHYLLO PASTRY.

Attempted a second meal at The Sparrow. Readers of my previous posts will recall that in addition to the flank steak, our previous visit included the phyllo-wrapped chicken. Last night was the wild mushroom pasta, and the parchment wrapped trout.

Meal started with a very nice nibbly platter of Quebec and Ontario cheeses with water crackers and pecans. Had a glass of the Henry of Phlegm dry Riesling.

When the main courses arrived, looked quite lovely. I didn't notice that the dining companion had been struggling with a dull knife. The gracious server brought over a little side plate and discreetly whispered, 'here is an extra plate for the parchment wrapping...". A look of half-relief and half-terror washed over his face, recognizing that no, he wasn't nuts, it wasn't meant for human consumption.

Normally Sheena would have laughed her ass off at someone else's misfortune, but it struck me that I probably would have done exactly the same thing, given that last time we were here we ordered the goddamn phyllo wrap. They looked exactly the same. And a couple of apertifs into the appetizer, who really remembers exactly what they ordered for the main course...

So I hereby implore the numerous chefs and foodies who read Sheenavision. Get over the parchment paper thing. It adds no food value, zero flavour, and side by side with phyllo pastry is indistinguishable from its edible cousin. Spare us the opportunity to embarrass ourselves. Don't ask your guest to do the work for you. Else let us all dispense with formality and just give us the can opener and we'll have beans, thank you very much.

Please, think of those who are too stubborn to read the small print.