Hacker News Reader

Comment by cs702 | Hacker News Reader

Interesting, these really old menus would not look too out of place at a restaurant today.

And the other way around too - it sounds like you could have had a very similar dining experience as today. It always amazes me how very little difference there is between past people's lifestyles and ours. I know this on a factual level, but being presented with a tiny peek into the past like this is always very humbling to me.

I don't think it's safe to deduce that there were few differences from the (perfectly valid) observation that there were many similarities. The problem is that the similarities all exist along shared dimensions (they typically wore two shoes at a time or none, just as we do) but the differences are found along dimensions that are not shared (Does their wireless plan include free roaming? Does your goiter make your cravat chafe?)

So looking back we see the similarities but are often blind to the differences.

The first menu I opened had tongue sandwiches and hot beef tea.

So some things have definitely changed!

A tongue sandwich is still pretty popular in some cultures. My parents and some of their friends served it sometimes when I was growing up.

Any respectable city will have a burrito joint somewhere with lengua on the menu.

Cow tongues are amazing with mashed potatoes amd horseradish sauce! Very well known dish in Central Europe

They're a mainstay at my local Japanese and Korean BBQ restaurants.

I'm not sure I've even been to a Mexican restaurant that didn't have lengua, and I'm in the Midwest.

Mexican sure, but this was an American restaurant that otherwise had the staples we'd expect today.

And then they had a tongue sandwich!

Unfortunately in Europe printed menus almost entirely disappeared after COVID. Before, leather-clad, elegant, printed menus were commonplace, but nowadays every place just has a QR code.

Quite the sweeping statement that contradicts my recent time across a few European countries.

If the primary purpose is a bar that also serves food, yes.

If it's proper dining. No

I'm in Europe and never seen a "just has a QR code" menu

In Spain what he says is sadly true, maybe like 70% of the restaurants no longer have printed menus.

But of course, saying "in Europe..." is always risky. Europe is very diverse.

I think this is _ultra_-regional. There certainly are places in Europe where it's more or less the case, but definitely can't be said of Europe as a whole.

You apparently go to a different type of restaurant than I do. The typical Roman pizza joint or Florentine trattoria or Berlin beer hall rarely had leather-clad menus. And I haven’t seen that many QR codes.

But QR codes are not awesome, I agree. They are more hygienic, less wasteful of paper, and easier to update. But I don’t want to use my phone when I am out with others.

What nonsense. QR codes exist but seem quite rare around here, it's definitely almost all proper menus.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com