The water crisis
Priya Bala | Editorial Advisor, PoshVine
No, it’s not a shortage of water, but an abundance of it, or, rather, the choices surrounding it, that’s causing the crisis. I know more people who are annoyed and put off by the water service in restaurants than by bad food or bungled orders.
There was a time when restaurants always poured you a glass of drinking water even before you were handed the menu. Simpler times with fewer options. Now, you sit down and a starchy person comes up to you and asks `Bottled or regular?’ For me it’s always regular, assuming that it’s purified. Some diners will order bottled, especially if they are in a group, conscious that others may think them cheap for asking for free water. Yet others are finicky and want to be ultra-safe so it’s always bottled water for them.
I drink regular water because purified tap water suits me just fine. Also, I’m conscious that bottled water is not the most environment-friendly, considering all those plastic bottled and carbon miles it consumes. Advocates of bottled water call it convenient T-shirt slogan morality, but that’s another argument.
Abroad, the bottled versus tap water debate has been raging for several years now. The very green Alice Waters banned bottled water at Chez Panisse sometime ago. In Europe and England diners constantly battle with restaurants that simply won’t serve them tap water, insisting they buy a bottle.
We are better off in this regard, with most restaurants giving diners a choice. So, what irks me is when some sneaky waiter opens and pours from a bottle of mineral water before I’ve been allowed to decide.
And I do love Monkey Bar for pouring water from nice, old bottles and not hitting me with a barrage of questions even as I sit down — “Will that be regular water or mineral, chilled or room temperature…” Oh, the tedium of it!
Notes