Things I Do Not Understand After Trying to Eat Light at a Mexican Restaurant Tonight

Scott Hardie | January 21, 2019
1) How do people eat 2000 calories a day? It seems like nearly every restaurant meal that I look up has 1000-1500 calories in it, sometimes more. I guess people are not supposed to eat the whole plate, but people commonly do, right?

2) Who wants the tails on the shrimp in fajitas? As far as I know, the only reason to leave the tails on is for dipping, in dishes like shrimp cocktail. Nobody is dipping anything with a fajita. Am I supposed to dip the shrimp in the side of refried beans?

3) Where are the grilled peppers? Have I been trained by Chili's and other mainstream restaurants to expect fajitas always to have grilled peppers? Is that not normal? I was also surprised not to get cheese or sour cream, but I would have skipped those anyway, so no big loss.

4) Are refried beans supposed to be orange and runny? It tasted like beans but looked like queso.

5) What kind of waitress leaves a table waiting twenty minutes to take their cash and then mutters a half-assed not-sorry "sorry" when they finally get her attention and put the money in her hand? (A waitress who deserves a smaller tip. I know that answer.)

Scott Hardie | January 21, 2019
Regarding calories: It's the same for homemade meals, to be honest. When I read the boxes of packaged meals in the grocery, or look up recipes online, the calorie counts are always huge unless you take a tiny portion. I sincerely have no idea how a person is supposed to eat only 2000 calories a day in America.

Erik Bates | January 22, 2019
[hidden by request]

Samir Mehta | January 22, 2019
[hidden by request]

Erik Bates | January 22, 2019
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | January 25, 2019
I think most Americans DON'T eat 2000 calories a day, judging from the obesity epidemic in this country. :-(

The waitress was not busy. Several times I saw her across the room doing what looked like idle chatting with other staff, playing with her fingernails while laughing and talking. I could have approached her at those points, but I have had bad experiences with that sort of thing and have learned to stay at my table. I wanted to leave the cash on the table and go, but Kelly advised that it would be unwise to leave that much loose cash out. It's not a big deal, really; I was just venting about a little annoyance.