"No garnish?"

from Elliott
OK, Cason is a bit weird. When he orders a burger – beef or chicken – he just wants the meat and a bun, nothing else. No ketchup, lettuce, tomato, pickles, relish, mustard; NOTHING! Most places that may not be a problem but in South Africa it can create great consternation! Garnish is the word that they use for all the other things that come on the burger – and they love their sauce here!

Ordering usually goes like this:

Cason:  I will have a beef burger plain – just meat and bread. No garnish.

Server: No garnish?

Cason: No garnish…just meat and bun.

Server: No garnish…

Then they go to the kitchen to turn in the order. Sometimes though, they come back to the table in a minute or two…

Server: No garnish?

Cason: No garnish…

It was clear the cook or manager had ‘grilled’ the server on this strange order and sent them back to check. I am not sure whether they are offended or just perplexed and do not want to get the order wrong.

Either way, it seems about 50% of the time the order comes back incorrect. I am not sure whether they just cannot imagine that the customer knows what they want or they assume they are doing it just to offend the local cultural sensitivities. Sometimes it seems that they just cannot complete the order as requested.

Regardless, they are always pleasant about it and oftentimes, accepting when Katherine strips off the offending items when the order is incorrect.  There are a couple of places where he has become known to the server and after almost three years of his strangeness they now receive his order and complete his sentence by saying, “and no garnish.” 

How nice it is to be known in your small town!