Manuel

This is Manuel. Manuel is not his real name, Jeff gave him that name after a character in one of the Monty Python movies. He was our waiter at a local restaurant that we would go to almost every evening and we about drove the poor man nuts.Manuel was the waiter at our favorite restaurant, the food was good, the prices reasonable and the service...well, it was Portugal. :) (see previous post)

After the convention some of us went to the restaurant that was near our hotel. Usually it was not packed but this evening it would be different. Many of the delegates staying at our hotel decided to eat there too. Four of us went to our table at the back, Manuel came by and we told him that there would be more joining us. He took our drink order, and is typical in Portugal, asked for our food order. We are tourists, we have to peruse the menu to see what is available, the prices...and, uh..to try to figure out what it is they are offering. We wanted to be sure that we were ordering the right food. For example, fish is peixe, pork is carne de porco, beef is carne and chicken is frango or galinhao. Easy enough, no?

We asked Manuel to be given some time to see the menu, a typical American tourist trait. He went off to get our drink order, so we thought. Meanwhile, more joined our table. Manuel came by...and now instead of four there were eight. This flustered him a bit. So he asked them for their drink order and food order. Same result, ordered drinks, but food order was delayed. This seemed to fluster him more so off he went to get the drink orders. Meanwhile four more joined our table...and other delegates started to come in and sit at other tables. He went to their tables and asked for their food orders. Finally he came by with our drink order and we gave him our food order. It was no use to ask him about the menu items since he did not speak any English and our Portuguese was very limited.

Meanwhile, he returns to the other table and instead of the original six there are now ten. We heard him muttering to himself as he went off to get their drink order, without a food order.

This night was a busy night for the restaurant as more delegates started to pour in and poor Manuel was now waiting on five tables. Management finally sent someone to assist him but, he still had five tables. We learned to order two drinks at at time so that when we drank the first one the second one would be there and we would not have to wait for another drink.

Meanwhile, Manuel could heard muttering each time he came into the room and shaking his head. We think that he asked management to allow him to tend the bar in the front. He was sent back to our tables. We got our appetizers (bread, olive oil, cheese) and finally our food order, with one exception. The sister waited and waited, we finished our food and hers never arrived. So, she called Manuel to cancel the order.

Portuguese waiters must go to a special school that teaches them how to avoid cancelling a food order. Once it is ordered, no matter what happens, your fault, their fault (mainly) you will still get the food order. The sister insisted that she did not want it but Manuel kept shaking his head and no, no, it would be right out and sprinted to the kitchen leaving the sister speaking to herself. Even after that, it took a while to get her food order. This same scenario was played out at the table next to us, one food order was omitted, the sister insisted that she did not want it, Manuel insisted she did, her husband insisted that she did not. We observed the situation to see if she would be successful. Guess who won?

It was funny. We enjoyed the evening and Manuel was a good sport. That hat he is wearing in the photo, is my hat, which he took off my head as we were leaving. He reminds me of some of my relatives from Starr County. I hope to go back and eat at that restaurant again....and see Manuel. I will be prepared though...I will order my two drinks, appetizers and food order at the same time.

Ah, Manuel, we will always have Lisbon...  :)