Posted by Angela Hey, a resident of the Portola Valley: Brookside Park neighborhood, on Apr 17, 2007 at 11:21 pm

Service is way better than in Germany where I've eaten at restaurants that thought it was rude to use a tray to carry pots and consequently took ages to clear tables.

My concern about restaurants is the liberal use of fat. I'd like people to poach fish (a Woodside restaurant refused to do this for me saying the fish would fall apart - I do it all the time at home), boil vegetables and not drizzle oil on dishes. Well I'm British so bland food is OK for me - I want to taste the food - not a dressing or seasoning!

In particular, for a ham and pepper omelette - put the ham and pepper raw into the omelette - don't fry them first. For broccoli don't saute it in fat - a quick boil is all it needs. For spaghetti - don't toss it in olive oil - just put a tomato sauce on the boiled pasta.