Easter Sunday, so off to Anzio and lunch by the beach. They’ve been promising awful weather for today and tomorrow since last Thursday, but it wasn’t actually howling a gale so we decided to take the risk, and were glad we did. Anzio is a lovely port, despite the destruction in 1944, and the walk along the water’s edge holds no surprises. Mel enjoyed a full-tilt run on the sand, where giant bulldozers were building up the beach, an exercise in futility if ever there was one. Places to eat were filling up fast, so we went with Bruce’s recommendation and got a table outside at Mare Nostrum. The food was excellent, good fishy fare. But the reason for this post is something I have never seen in a restaurant here before.
The couple at the next door want a whole fish between them. I didn’t hear the price, but as is customary for these things, they were quoted so many euros per 100 grams. So far, so ordinary. Then came the surprise. The waitress produces a little electronic kitchen balance, puts it on the table, plonks a plate on it, zeroes the scale, pops on the fish, and reads the weight right there in front of the customers, so they could absolutely see how much fish they were getting.
Transparency in the restaurant trade.
Of course, neither I nor they know whether the fish they ate was the fish they saw weighed. I expect it was.