A big part of mine and Carolines’ holidays now involves food.
We search for quirky restaurants, or eat at restaurants we have seen in films for eg, katz deli, Seinfeld diner and strive to try local dishes or food we associate with that place.We have usually scanned the menus and chosen our meals before we go.
Unfortunately this was not always the case. A lesson we learned on our first holiday in Kos. The ” small fish platter incident!!!!”
Caroline and I were excited to sample the local cuisine. We found a nice restaurant near the harbour. It was our first meal out in Kos as we had lived on feta cheese pasties and toasties up to that time. The waiter suggested we try the small fish platter. It sounded very appealing, even though we didn’t have any idea what it was. We expected it to be a few different types of shellfish maybe. So patiently and naively we waited and waited and waited for our food to arrive.
After what seemed like an eternity , a waiter emerged. We could see sparklers erupting from the tray in his hand. The whole restaurant seemed to stop and look. Other waiters clapped. Someones birthday cake we thought. Were we all to break into a chorus of “Happy birthday”.
Suddenly we realised the magnificence of the small fish platter. Holding the sparklers in its claws was a massive lobster. Panic set in!!!! Lobster ain’t cheap and were poor nursing students. We hadn’t asked the price and didn’t have much money between us. Would we have to wash dishes to pay off the debt? Should one of us go back to the hotel, get the rest of our money and have to live on toasties for the rest of the hols.
There’s an episode of the Simpsons where Homer accidentally cooks his pet lobster Pinchy. Homer is upset but doesn’t want to waste good lobster. He devours a mouthful of Pinchy then sobs, another mouthful then sobs. Agony and ecstacy. This was us. We flipped through savouring each mouthful. It was sooo tasty. To feeling sick and scared because we couldn’t afford it.
Dreading the bill we pooled our money and just about scraped enough drachma together. And yes we did live on toasties for the rest of the holiday. Oh and copious amounts of tequila!!!!!!
The Traveling Nurses 