It may seem like a strange assertion, given the gastronomical excesses displayed on the Food Network, and in magazines like Gourmet, but the evidence of my own personal experience suggests that when it comes to food gentiles are easier to please than we are.
I refer specifically to holiday parties. I've worked for gentiles, and I've worked for Jews; so have my friends, and our December celebration experiences are identical: The Jewish firms we know put out better spreads and many attempt to create special dining experiences. The party menu at gentile firms, on the other hand, is usually safe and boring. From the gentile firm, you can expect an ordinary dinner - something at the level of what you find at the local mosad's annual rubber chicken testimonial. Some gentile firms even attempt to get away with a buffet that barely meets the standards of an out-of-town shmorg.
Why is this? Can it be because gentiles have so many other sensory experiences to enjoy? At our parties all we have is food; they have dancing and booze. Can it be because we Jews attend so many more weddings and dinners and shabbos meals, with the waistlines to prove it? The ordinary gentile, for instance, looks at Thanksgiving dinner as the biggest and best feast of the year; to us the Thanksgiving menu doesn't seem much different from what appears twice every shabbos 52 times per year.
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