24th September 2006

A lazy Sunday afternoon in Haagen Dazs treating the kids, though myself and Lady of Leisure fully participated in the ice cream feast also. A couple of Blue Mountain lattes were ordered to round off the event but these were undrinkable because of an overwhelming taste of UHT milk.

It seems I am a sucker for punishment by continually giving eateries the benefit of the doubt only to be sorely disappointed with the outcome practically every time. Last week a simple request for a chicken wrap, no tomato, no mustard came back as tuna with mustard and tomato.

Jamaican’s also have a habit of smothering the beautiful aromas of their world beating coffee by smothering coffee with powdered cinnamon. It has taken me six months, but I have finally convinced my local coffee shop that it is neither required nor wanted on my coffee and by and large I receive what I want 90% of the time. The problem comes when I try somewhere new. Yesterday I ordered a vanilla latte in the sister store of my local coffee shop and despite explicit instruction for no cinnamon, which were noted and written down by my waiter. Of course my coffee arrived liberally coated so I dramatically and loudly scooped off the offending foam and tapped it on to the saucer. At some point one of the Lady of Leisure’s many acquaintances arrived, so another round was duly ordered, same instructions, same waiter, same result. This waiter had taken away my previous cup and had looked with distain at the foam swimming around the saucer that I had painstakingly removed. This is standard service in Jamaica where tourism is the biggest industry and service charge is applied de rigeur.