Dear Patience, Where Have You Gone?

A people in a rush.

We had good friends to stay with us over the weekend and of course we traversed the culinary map of our area. Friday evening at our local across the border in Hungary and Saturday at a Buschenschank in Csaterberg culminating in finger food supper on our veranda last night.

Saturday was rather usual for a Buschenschank trip...only one was open in our area whereas the previous weekend all and sundry shared their wine. As you can imagine, the place was overflowing with people and tempers were on the rise. All in all, there were two waiters ( owner and son perhaps ), a bar lady and a person to carry the food out from the kitchen. Yes, they were run off their feet.

With luck on our side, we managed to find a table amid the frenzy and as we all are well versed in restaurant signals, we knew it would take some time to be served and didn't stress too much about it. Five minutes in we each had a glass of wine in front of us and were happy as can be. Food could wait and in any case, it is much nicer to sip and chat slowly before the food arrives.

I couldn't believe my ears when people around us were either whistling to, shouting at or making derogatory comments to the waiters. Everyone could see that they were running around like mad and couldn't do more than they already were. One group behind us got up and left while muttering sarcastic comments.

Would we have wanted to be served quicker? Of course, but we did actually enjoy the extra time to sip our wine and debate about the food each of us would order. Buschenschanks by their nature are casual, relaxing and homely places that have nothing in common with restaurants yet people expect to be served as if they were in a restaurant.

Why is everything associated with haste and urgency nowadays? Where have people's patience and ability to enjoy themselves gone? If eating out has a short time limit attached to it, then why bother at all?

As for the Buschenschanks in our area...I wish they would all sit down together and decide who opens when and to eliminate weekends where six are open at the same time or none at all. Surely that is economics 101...

Biggi