Phished

 Okay, then give me the cheese sandwich 

without the cheese 

--Five Easy Pieces (1970)

Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina

in the morning   

--Carolina in the Morning, Al Jolson

___________________

RAW has yet to ramp up to "provocative", so another slice of a day in the life.  Since we're culinary, geological, sociological and architectural travelers, today: food.

Traveling anywhere that Whole Foods is an unknown quantity rarely bodes well.  We conceived of the idea of a "Resto Red Cross Kit" for getting over the hump: Turbinado sugar; butter, HFCS-free preserves, Half-and-Half tubs, honey packets.  It is not that we are food snobs, it is just that the weight of poor food options is overwhelming many places.  A saving grace is finding an Ingles market along the way; often, it is Bi-Lo and Dollar Stores.

Today, the lunch special was soup and grilled cheese sandwich.  We both ordered the same, but Ranger wanted toast with his soup, only.  He was charged more for his indiscretion. I recommended he pull a Nicholson and order the special, but hold the cheese; he demurred.  He is inexplicably retiring at times.

Evening provided its own special sort of awe.  Resort areas often try and clip the rubes -- no surprise there.  But we had scored an honest freebie: Free desserts at The Painted Fish Cafe in the Sugarfoot Shops in Sugar Mountain, N.C.  Delighted to use the free dessert coupons -- "one per entree" -- we indulged in something we rarely do: Two desserts.  Why not ... free, no?  Sadly, not when the rubber hit the road.

Owner Tom Jancovics decided that the coupons (available widely throughout the area) had been "misprinted"; he did not actually mean one per entree (as stated), but merely one per TABLE.  Helpfully, Lisa offered to split the bill to more closely approximate the clearly stated promise on the coupons.  Unfortunately no, Mr. Jancovics could not find it in his restaurateur heart to honor his coupon. 

(Embarrassingly, he had a stack of the coupon booklets outside of his resto and had razored page 49 (his coupon) out of each!  Tsk, tsk, Mr. J -- that's not cricket!)

Sorry Mr. Jancovics, you get two big thumbs down for propriety.  You are on RangerAgainstWar's less-than-impressed list.  The quality of your food is for naught; if the entire experience is not good, it is not good.  In addition, what good resto serves a cheesecake made with Krispy Kreme doughnuts?  What kind of poverty of imagination is that?

The Painted Fish stinks.

Tomorrow is another day in the North Carolinian highlands.