The 13th loaf was the baker’s margin of grace to cover for any shortage in weight when selling a dozen loafs – the practice is now extinct but for the dictionary. Meanwhile, onion slices have moved into the menu card, as part of vegetable salad, except at roadside dhabas.
Recently, I was shocked to order a filet of fish from MacDonalds at DLF Promenade Mall in Vasant Kunj, for what seemed like a tasteless, odourless dish, and was asked to pay extra for the mustard sauce! Imagine, a dish which had all the organoleptic qualities of a chewing gum, held in the mouth for over an hour, was passed off as Fish Filet! To add insult to injury, when I asked for mustard sauce to make it edible, the server at the counter asked me to buy it separately!
The all too eloquent undertone was, lost in the transition to become a global name in the fast-food business, is the grace of offering free adjuncts that make the product worthwhile. What was not lost in the transition to this internet age was the systemic rigidities that prevented the sales counter server to serve the customer!(Sir, you have to buy the mustard sachets!) Clearly that was not part of the transaction! The French fries weighing approximately(large size) 75 grams cost a whopping Rs.73! It is daylight robbery at McDonalds, expecially when their outlets are running cheek by jowl to Haldirams that give you value for money and sufficient serving sizes.
Really lamentable that the defining plimsoll line is increasingly being decided by what the commercial establishments such as MacDonals can legally get away with, without having to serve for what they charge so exorbitantly.