Spaceship Apple

$40-$50 per person is a *very* expensive meal here. Sure, I've spent more but not very often. $40-$50 for two is a lot, including a nice tip.

Hmm, that is expensive. In Germany you can have a complete diner in the centre of a big city or tourist place for less than half that amount per person. If I need to stay somewhere close to the German border I always take a hotel in Germany. The hotels are cheap and its very hard to find a hotel in Germany with a bad breakfast.

Over here its not done bringing the leftovers but then again you don't have to be a big eater to finish a meal. At least I've never seen anyone bringing leftovers in Europe. Some restaurants serve small portions of side dishes but you can get unlimited refills and/or they have senior portions for a reduced price.

--
Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply 
indicates you are not using the right tools... 
nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.) 
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This is probably true of most big cities, but around here at least -- you can go to a fancy restaraunt downtown and spend $50-100 for two, easily. If you take a drive out of the way and find a nice place in the suburbs, you can eat at a restaraunt with equal quality for less than half the price.

Or you can go to McD's anywhere and eat for $10. :-p

Tim

--
Deep Friar: a very philosophical monk. 
Website: http://seventransistorlabs.com

be

Portions can be enormous here. We often eat half or less of an entree, and take the rest home. It's normal here, and if you leave much on your plate, the server will usually ask if you want it to go.

--

John Larkin                  Highland Technology Inc 
www.highlandtechnology.com   jlarkin at highlandtechnology dot com    

Precision electronic instrumentation 
Picosecond-resolution Digital Delay and Pulse generators 
Custom timing and laser controllers 
Photonics and fiberoptic TTL data links 
VME  analog, thermocouple, LVDT, synchro, tachometer 
Multichannel arbitrary waveform generators

[snip] [snip]

Yep. Those breakfasts are to die for! Though my wife caused some consternation at breakfast one time, by taking some blackberries she bought at a farmer's market in Baden-Baden down to the breakfast room and adding to her cereal. Lots of salacious stares :-) Me? I'm a meat eater and pigged out on the various sausages and the boiled eggs ;-) ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations                               |     et      | 
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    | 
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             | 
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  | 
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     | 
              
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

Oh, I have but other than NYC and perhaps a few other places, that's a

*lot* of money to spend on a meal. I think the most I spent was at a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. The bill was about $150 for two people. $40 for each steak, $8 for each salad, potato $5, veggie $5, soda $5. No alcohol. We did that once. Even though it was good, even my wife didn't want to go back.

Crap, if you're going to spend $10 you can have lunch at a *nice* restaurant. Many have $5 or $6 deals.

There's a place a few blocks from here, The Monk's Kettle, that usually has one $70 or $80 beer on the menu. If you're not sure what you want to drink, a bartender will step out from behind the bar and discuss it with you in private.

The burger is excellent.

--

John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

jlarkin at highlandtechnology dot com 
http://www.highlandtechnology.com 

Precision electronic instrumentation 
Picosecond-resolution Digital Delay and Pulse generators 
Custom laser drivers and controllers 
Photonics and fiberoptic TTL data links 
VME thermocouple, LVDT, synchro   acquisition and simulation

Or fill the tunnels of Fermilab with script kiddies.

--

John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

jlarkin at highlandtechnology dot com 
http://www.highlandtechnology.com 

Precision electronic instrumentation 
Picosecond-resolution Digital Delay and Pulse generators 
Custom laser drivers and controllers 
Photonics and fiberoptic TTL data links 
VME thermocouple, LVDT, synchro   acquisition and simulation

Fools and their money are easily separated.

There's a Mexican place here that has *really* good brisket enchiladas. $8.50 a plate, with salad on top. I don't know about their beers (though they have the usual suspects) because I don't drink it anymore.

Ted's (as in Ted Turner) has pretty good burgers. $10-$14 for 1/2lb burgers. Bison is a couple of bucks more. There are a lot of other places I prefer, though. Vendors take us out to lunch once or twice a week so it gives us a good chance to sample the various places.

Beer is the new wine!

If we're bottom feeding, the truck right across the street does a really tasty carnitas taco for $2.50.

The most expensive burger around here is around $12, at Zuni or Absinthe. I usually have a banana and an oatmeal cookie at my desk. Engineering is too sedentary to go with big lunches.

--

John Larkin                  Highland Technology Inc 
www.highlandtechnology.com   jlarkin at highlandtechnology dot com    

Precision electronic instrumentation 
Picosecond-resolution Digital Delay and Pulse generators 
Custom timing and laser controllers 
Photonics and fiberoptic TTL data links 
VME  analog, thermocouple, LVDT, synchro, tachometer 
Multichannel arbitrary waveform generators

OK, it's a higher class of fools.

We don't often go to Ted's. There are better places around.

I don't think you can convert money like it was a bank transfer in this context. 25-30 ? are very likely "equivalent" to $25-30 or £25-30. Much like a phone that costs $399 in the US and ?399 in Europe. Anyway, we're talking about entire meals, wine, cake, coffee and liquor included. It ain't McDonald's. You probably can spend less arranging with the waiter for smaller or less servings (otherwise at the above price you can easily have the whole table surface filled with stuff, no kidding.

I'm not endorsing any area or place in particular, just move towards the hills east of Rome and enjoy some good food. Our monuments will still be here 1000 years from now, I'm not so sure about those little places: sadly the economy is destroying them.

Perhaps but that simply shows how expensive it is to live in Yurop. Taxes, you know. No thanks!

Good food isn't restricted to one locale. It's readily available in many places and cheap here in the US. BTW, I was simply commenting on your comment that you were getting a "good" deal. It most certainly isn't.

I really don't give a crap whether a monument will be there in 1000 years. That simply means it wasn't engineered. ;-)

C. Northcote Parkinson ("Work Expands ...) had more than one Law.

Parkinson's Third Law: "An organization is past its prime when appearances become important". (or something like that).

Mark Zenier snipped-for-privacy@eskimo.com Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)