One of my favourite columnists in our national daily, “The Australian”, is demographer Bernard Salt.   Many of his articles are based on observations and analysis of Australian census data, and you can tell which section of the recent census he’s been analysing.  Other articles are on his interesting observations of collective human behavior and social trends in modern Australia; and a recent article on styles of restaurant menus revealing social aspirations of its patrons was particularly pointed. (sorry, the whole article’s only available to subscribers)  Although published last month, somehow I missed it and only read it this morning,  and that happened to follow my first experience with a restaurant menu on a digital tablet thingy.  My trendier readers prolly smile that I am so far behind the times that this use of technology was new to me.

Bernard’s article made me think of a family member who message texts enthusiastically and frequently, but the only word she ever abbreviates is ‘you’ – and yes, it’s always to ‘u’ !!!  I can hear her voice in my mind whenever I read something from her, so even in a text ‘u’ always sounds like and awkward stop in the flow of what she’s saying – face to face she just talks normally, and that’s an interesting effect.

Writing one of my occasional fan emails to Bernard, I said:   “I want to mention another menu phenomenon a group of us came across only just last night, here in Montevideo, Uruguay.  After being seated at a restaurant, we were each handed a small iPad – a tablet I guess, I’m a bit behind in the technology department, a late adopter you might say.  Anyway the whole menu was on it!  Bernard, you’d have loved it – pretension taken to a slightly more sophisticated level.  You could select whatever language you wanted – and as Australians and Brasilians were present, and all speak at least some Spanish, we agreet to have the waiter give the nightly specials in that.

My menu experiences to date had been confined to the infinite variations on the written of printed format, (w/wo plastic sleeves and binders, including blackboards and the verbally delivered take it/leave it limited choice in some places.  As a late adopter, I had to be shown how to select a menu section of an item from a group, click twice and then scroll from side to side, but I got the hand of it easily enough.   Each menu item was photographed in colour with descriptions in Spanish and the chosen alternative language.  I noticed the photos really matched up very well with what we each received on our plates.  Great use of technology.   One thing I did find a little unsettling was that you couldn’t run your eye down the whole menu and get a feel for the total offering that night; there was no little ‘tonight’s specials’ slip tucked somewhere to let us know that the chef found particular foods either great quality or great value at the markets..

Now we had been there before, but over a year or more ago.  We’d liked the interesting cuisine with European and Asian influences, lots of herbs and spices, and creative presentation plus good value.  It’s still like that.  The owner/chef’s a creative man indeed – a Uruguayan returned home, bringing  influences from his world travels with him.  It’s a nice alternative to the most common menu here of parilla, the marvelous bbq-d meat found everywhere in this part of the world.  The national palette is very bland, so although the food is tender and  wholesome, it’s never spicy, hot or creatively assembled on the plate.  I think it’s the culinary and historical equivalent to dining out when I was a young thing – we were usually offered soup of the day, roast of the day, followed by jelly and icecream of tinned fruit salad and cream. (it was Tasmania in the mid ’60’s, after all)

In addition to the actual offerings, the e-menus conformed that this particular restaurant is indeed in an upscale neighbourhood, patronized by people with aspirations or who already have their point up on the  board.  It’s not our local neighbourhood, but I wouldn’t ben surprised to find at least one of our local eateries going that way, and must ask the trendies in my circle who are up with the latest and still eat out a great deal. As the cost of dining out here rises as it does everywhere else, we’re more often choosing to eat in than dine out.

  A really delicious little cup of soup was a starter we all had – pumpkin with onion prolly, definitely banana, ground fresh ginger, and, um, not sure what else  – I have no recipe to pass on, just a nice idea, but I’m sure you can google something like it and experiment with the flavours.  We’re having version #1 for dinner this evening 🙂