AFS Cinema
'Is This Water Filtered?'
RECEIVED Mon., Jan. 26, 2004
Dear Editor,
Wes Marshall's insightful account ["The Dinertainment Dilemma," Food, Jan. 16] of his Kobe Steak House dining experience was both entertaining and enlightening. I readily resonate with his wry observation of how appalling can be a waiter's habitual disregard of basic hygienic considerations; to wit: the thumb inside the realm of a vessel's contents. Even if there's no charge for a glass of water, its healthy presentation is a matter of significance to many discerning diners. After all, each of us humans is about 70% water. It is our basic ingredient.
Which leads to my present quandary. At home I use a simple carbon filter to remove the taste and odor of chlorine from water I imbibe. Of course, that chemical serves a purpose – to hold in check the teeming millions of microbes which in its absence would surely multiply exponentially during the miles-long voyage from treatment plant to my house. That said, chlorine is a poison, its by-products (trihalomethanes) carcinogenic, and its taste and aroma distinctively offensive. The more I avoid it, the more heightened has become my sensitivity to its presence.
So if a simple carbon filter can dress up my water at home, why can't restaurants purporting to cater to their patrons' desires and pleasures do at least as much to present a healthy and appealing glass of water? Well, of course they can but won't until they get the message that we patrons expect it. Gentle reader, every one of us can help to hasten this revolutionary appreciation for water quality by always inquiring of waiters and especially of restaurant managers, "Is this water filtered?" Eventually they'll begin to meet out expectations.
Wes Marshall's insightful account ["The Dinertainment Dilemma," Food, Jan. 16] of his Kobe Steak House dining experience was both entertaining and enlightening. I readily resonate with his wry observation of how appalling can be a waiter's habitual disregard of basic hygienic considerations; to wit: the thumb inside the realm of a vessel's contents. Even if there's no charge for a glass of water, its healthy presentation is a matter of significance to many discerning diners. After all, each of us humans is about 70% water. It is our basic ingredient.
Which leads to my present quandary. At home I use a simple carbon filter to remove the taste and odor of chlorine from water I imbibe. Of course, that chemical serves a purpose – to hold in check the teeming millions of microbes which in its absence would surely multiply exponentially during the miles-long voyage from treatment plant to my house. That said, chlorine is a poison, its by-products (trihalomethanes) carcinogenic, and its taste and aroma distinctively offensive. The more I avoid it, the more heightened has become my sensitivity to its presence.
So if a simple carbon filter can dress up my water at home, why can't restaurants purporting to cater to their patrons' desires and pleasures do at least as much to present a healthy and appealing glass of water? Well, of course they can but won't until they get the message that we patrons expect it. Gentle reader, every one of us can help to hasten this revolutionary appreciation for water quality by always inquiring of waiters and especially of restaurant managers, "Is this water filtered?" Eventually they'll begin to meet out expectations.
Hal Strickland
