I worked at a restaurant in Baltimore where all the "veal" was actually pork, except the osso buco. No one ever noticed. And the owner's wife was Jewish -- she didn't know he was doing that, and her friends and family would hold gatherings at the restaurant with no idea what they were really eating. It was awful. I agree with the article -- if the meat is white like pork, it's pork.

Now I'm depressed. EL

This tale is not truthful, despite being oft repeated. Plus, why do Jewish people who don't keep kosher care if they're eating pork or not? My family certainly doesn't.

I worked in a bar where the Jack was actually Evan and the Absolut was actually Popov or whatever else was on sale that day. You married one bottle into the other and never said a word about it, or else! From what I heard later, bars have been shut down for less.

I can assure you my story is true. Many Jewish people do not care if they're eating pork ... but some do, very much. There certainly are worse things that happen in restaurants, but the pork-for-veal substitution is a great way to save money for some restaurants.

I have heard the pork for veal story about a particular place in town from two different people who worked in a certain restaurant in the kitchen.

I know which place KB is referring to but I'm talking about a different one.

You get fake stuff all the time. I had a chef friend who created a weekly special. It was something with a blood orange sauce. I said Wow they're expensive, I'm surprised that the owner sprang for them. His reply: They didn't. I used canned OJ and grenadine.

well, one pork story circulating concerned my family, and trust me, we eat pork. And, that one is not true.

But the point of the story is not "why would non-Kosher keeping Jews care if they eat pork." I would say that's up to the individual to decide. The point is what an outrage it is that a restaurant would say they were serving one type of meat when it was actually something else! Anybody who didn't want to eat pork for any reason would have been deceived in this situation.

The story does sound apocryphal but, then again, we are talking about people trying to make more money. People will do a lot of crappy things to make money.

Way way back when I worked at Haussner's Bakery, some of the items we sold were frozen and then thawed. People assumed everything was baked fresh, but some things like the coconut cake were kept in the freezer and kept out a couple of hours before placing in the case. It was very embarassing when someone would bring the cake back after slicing it and finding the inside frozen. I was a teenager and just did what I was told, but I still thought no one should be buying a frozen cake for those prices....but that seemed to be the way to go for the slower selling items.

I worked for Hot Shoppes (Marriott) years ago. If chicken, beef or fish smelled "strong" we washed it with vinegar, then rinsed it, patted it dry, and cooked it. As long as it didn't smell when the heat hit it, it was served.

To cut costs some honcho in the corporate office decided all maraschino cherries should be cut in 1/4's. Of course we had to pay someone to cut up a gallon jar of cherries. It didn't make sense to me then but I did it.

I agree with you lisah, but someone was telling something that I felt was incorrect . So, actually, the point is, that I do not believe that story to be correct.

However; as a teen, following my years of McSlavery, I worked in a deli where our "world famous" chicken salad was half Saval tub chicken salad, a half a jumbo jar of mayo and all the leftover rolls ground into crumbs from the day before.

the "world famous" label came from the owner. We really weren't known outside of Woodlawn really.

My experience with restaurants is that they are so busy you can't even get a parking space let alone get in the door. I constantly have to turn around and leave because they are too crowded, as I had to do last night. The parking lot looked like a Car Max lot. Charlies new place in Stuart, Florida. Unbelievable!

I worked as a waiter at a very well known crab house in town about four summers ago. We were told to always take off the uneaten crabs off the larger banquet tables and bring them back to the kitchen. The kitchen would then resteam them and sell them again. Management told us to do this as discreetly as possible. Needless to say the restaurant used to have really great crabs but has gone way downhill in terms of quality. Probably a health code violation as well. This place caters mainly to tourists now as I think the locals have gotten fed up with bad crabs.

tman, would that be the oldest crab house in town? I wonder!