Instant coffee recommendations 2725

Chuck - I enjoyed your post on the comparative efficiencies of restaurants across Europe. A question: what is"Rein Mein??" Rein is the river (is there an "h" after the R?? - I forget) like Koeln am Rhein, where I came from? I am amazed at the inefficiency of the German restaurant you quoted - and, should you ever go again - you have my permission to strangle the guy - after all, he is German!!:-) :-) My late husband and I were in Greece once, and, just as you experienced, I was totally uncomfortable with the waiter "lurking" behind us - never leaving his command post, to watchfully oversee our dinner - he would not budge!! I was uncomfortable with that - but realized it is a custom there, I guess, to catch any possible request from the patron!! Different strokes for different folks; friends of ours adored the "behind-your-back-waiter", wishing we could duplicate such service here. If we ever did - I would never go out to dinner again. ==Also - what an enormous difference between the Italian foods and the Greek! =====I loved Greece - more than Italy; Italy, as beautiful as it is, and there is no doubt about that, but it is a picture-postcard type of pretty, whereas Greece seems to have the appeal of rugged and ancient architctures and nature. Well -I digressed. ----Olly

Rhein Mein is the main airport at Frankfurt. I knew it as Rhine Main but tried to do the germanic spelling. I must have missed the mark. Sorry.

I had a Japanese waitress "hover" once, but it was because she didn't "trust" me to eat what I'd asked for. At a restaurant in Japan, where 2 other people and me were the only Americans or english looking and speaking people, I asked for sukyaki (pronounced there as ski-ah-key I think). The waitress could speak a little english. Anyway, a person at the next table had it and I asked for the same thing. When the waitress brought it out, she did not bring a small cup with a raw egg as she had with the person at the other table. So, I asked for my raw egg. The waitress said "No - Americans no like raw egg". I said I do, so bring my egg. She looked at me like I was nuts, but did go get my egg. I had an ill sibling when I was a kid who had to eat a very "rich" diet that included a milkshake each evening made with milk, ice cream and raw egg. I always got the little bit that was left over after the glbutt had been filled. So I had no fear of raw egg. Plus, I liked steak and "runny" sunnyside eggs for breakfast on occasion. Anyway, the waitress stood right at the table and watched me break the egg, stir it up and dip the strips of beef in the egg. She didn't leave until I'd eaten close to half the meal. I think I was the first American she ever saw eat that like the Japanese. It was excellent, by the way.

Chuck