Put An End To Tipping?

Tipping is an odd business. The Wife tends to tip everyone 15 percent, no matter what. A couple of people I know tend to tip everyone a dollar, no matter what. I've known people to have semi-serious discussions about whether or not the waitstaff at Sonic Drive-In should be tipped, and if so, how much. I have always been against forced tipping, which is standard practice at very expensive restaurants where they are charging far too much for food anyway. But then, this is usually only done with large groups.

Last time I paid any attention, it seems that waitstaff were paid something like $2 an hour and the rest of their wage was supposed to be made up of tips. The tips are supposed to be taxed, but I have always thought that relying on the honest of people to report how much they are tipped way a questionable business as well.

I like tipping, as it is one of the few chances I have in life to be a big shot and show some generosity of spirit at the same time. But I know that not everyone tips well, and I have never been a huge tipper myself. My brother always likes to do a bit of math and say-Well, there a hundred people in here and if they each tip two dollars than the waitress will get two hundred dollars-that's enough, don't you think?

There is something to that kind of logic. Surely no restaurant would voluntarily pay their waitstaff the two or three hundred dollars they make on a good night? Or is that even a good night, but merely an ok night? Or is it the kind of night they only dream of? There are so many flavors of restaurants out there that it is impossible to make a definitive answer.

I have always been in favor of the idea of a living wage-plus tips. That way there will still be some incentive to give good service, but the waitstaff doesn't miss a car payment if they have a bad week.

A standard argument against any plans to change the system, as no one likes any kind of change whatsoever, is that if they don't like the system as it is-they can go get a job doing something else. Or at the very least, try to get a job at a better restaurant where the tips would be substantially better on hundred dollar meals than on twenty dollar meals.

Or so I might assume, as I say, I don't really know. Should tipping be done away with? And how do you enforce no tipping rules anyway? Just wondering.

Flourless Cake from Under The Table

Once upon a time I applied to the Cooking School at El Centro College in downtown Dallas. My heart raced as the instructors talked about the handful of rich and famous chefs that lived in Dallas-and pulled down around a hundred grand a year. Wealth beyond the dreams of a avarice for me.

There were a number of tests involve the senses of taste and smell and we were all told afterward what we should expect. I was told not to quiet my day job-literally.

I aced the water test, with bits of subtle flavor suspended in water-I drink a lot of water and could easily pick out the flavors. I failed the Dairy Products test-I had very little experience with the sour cream, whipped cream, milk, 2% Milk, and some other kind of dairy product, perhaps yogurt. I did not get accepted to this culinary institute, and I realize now that I am not really cut out to be yelled at all day anyway.

So it with a bit of wistfulness that I read Under The Table by Katherine Darling. It is the story of a woman going to cooking school and mastering the fine arts of making things like mayonnaise and flowerless chocolate cake-both of which I have made with some success by the way. Included in Under The Table are stories of the French Culinary Institute in New York and is liberally sprinkled with recipes for the items she discuses in each chapter.

I have always liked flourless chocolate cake-so dense and rich and different from regular chocolate cake.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Makes 1 8-inch cake

4 ounces best-quality bittersweet chocolate

8 tablespoons unsalted butter

½ cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon rum

1 teaspoon vanilla paste

3 large eggs

¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Pinch of ground cinnamon

Pinch salt

Confectioner's sugar, for garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter an 8-inch round cake pan, line the bottom with wax paper and butter that, too.

2. Chop the chocolate into small pieces and melt it with the butter in the top of a double boiler, stirring until smooth.

3. Remove from heat and gently whisk in the granulated sugar. Whisk in the rum and vanilla paste.

4. Separate the eggs and add the yolks to the chocolate mixture, whisking to combine.

5. Whip the whites to soft peaks, and gently whisk into chocolate mixture. Sift the cocoa powder, cinnamon and salt over the chocolate and whisk until just combined.

6. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for about 25 minutes, just until the cake has formed a firm crust. Let cool briefly in the pan, then invert onto a serving plate. Remove the wax paper and dust with sifted confectioner's sugar.

— Katherine Darling, "Under the Table: Saucy Tales from Culinary School"

Mama's Pizza

Mamas Pizza first opened in 1969 on Rosedale Street, across from Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, Texas.

Mama's Pizza is the taste of my childhood. I have come to really love thin crusted Neapolitan style pizzas, but I also love the really thick and gooey ones that Mama's makes. Ok, all pizzas are pretty good, well, except the god awful ones that California Pizza cranks out-but that might just be me.

I grew up in Poly, one of the many fine slums in Fort Worth. When I was growing up there it was just hitting it's stride as somewhere you didn't want to live. But there was still Texas Wesleyan College, which wanted desperately to relocate, but the State told them they had to stay put. And right across the street from the college was Mama's Pizza. This was just a few blocks for the old house, and we ate there whenever we got the chance. We always got the Mama's Combo pizza, which was huge and filled with all the good stuff a pizza should have. Lots of cheese, black olives, green olives, sausage, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, jalapeños, and there was something about the combination of these ingredients that was pure magic.

It's been a long time since I was in the Old Neighborhood, but I was roaming around West Fort Worth today and thought I would look for the Mama's Pizza just off Camp Bowie. I found it easy enough and me and The Wife had the Lunch Buffet. I am used to hitting Cici's once in a while and eating about twenty slices of pizza. I did good to put away five slices of the Mama's Pizza Buffet. I did have a couple of slices of the Combo and a nice salad as well. It cost $14 dollars for the 2 buffets, which I don't think was bad at all.

If Jerry Jones is serving Mama's at the new Cowboys Stadium, maybe that's why he wants to charge $90 for a pizza. Mama's Pizza is still one of the best pizzas around, and certainly the best pizza in the Fort Worth/Dallas Metroplex.

Kentucky Fried Chicken-Grilled

During the height of the Atkins craze, KFC ran a few ads that said if you took off the skin, then their chicken would be a good Atkins choice. The idea of Kentucky Fried Chicken as a diet food, even the silly Atkins Diet, was nothing but a joke.

While McDonalds and Burger King can just add a few healthy choices to their menus, KFC is pretty much stuck with fried chicken. But the marketing reps at Kentucky Fried Chicken are still trying to spin the greasy, wonderful product that made Colonel Sanders famous into a healthful fast food. Just as the Colonel was not really a Colonel, fried chicken is not really a heath food.

So how about Grilled Chicken? Today KFC was giving away a piece of Grilled Chicken, which was not too bad, but will not be pushing The Original Recipe off the menu any time soon. Kentucky Grilled Chicken is a bit on the bland side, as we have all come to expect from anything that has even a hint of healthfulness about it. I liked it, but I don't know if it is any better for you than the normal fare at KFC. The texture of the meat is very much like the regular KFC chicken and there is a hint of flavor here and there.

KFC needs to toss in the towel and embrace the fact that eating their food will kill you. Inn-N-Out Burgers doesn't apologize for making killer hamburgers and neither does Carl, Jrs. No one goes to a greasy dinner expecting it to improve their cholesterol levels or help them loose ten pounds.

KFC-be proud of being Kentucky Fried Chicken. Make some of those biscuits Colonel Sanders said were so good you'd throw out the chicken and just eat the biscuits! Add some deep fried okra to the menu! Add some cornbread! Add every Southern butter filled thing you can image! Put in dessert carousals with five inch high cream pies. Stop trying to be Whole Food Market and be what you are! And for the love of God, forget that chicken dance crap.

Just a suggestion. . .

Frito Chili Pie

Frito Chili Pie is a sort of fooide dish, I'm not sure a real foodie would sanction anything that has two main ingredients that come in packages from the store. But I like it. I used to eat Fritio Chili Pies at a local flea market, it was a high point of the week.

Frito Chili Pie is not a complicated recipe. Heat up a can of chili, I like Hormel without beans. Open up a bag of Fritos and fill a bowl halfway up with them. Chop up half an onion and half a jalapeno. Sprinkle the onions and jalapenos over the Fritios. Open up a bag of pre-shredded cheese, I like the yellow kind, and the sprinkle the cheese on top of the onions, jalapenos and Fritios. Pour in the hot chili to cover all and mix until the Fritios are coated with chili. Viola Frito Chili Pie.

Eating chili without Fritios is kind of dull. But add a few spicy ingredients, and it's more of a meal. It tastes pretty good, too.