The horrible tale of the Cartesian Lasagne
Posted on February 2, 2011Straying slightly from politics today, but if you can’t use a blog for arbitrary personal ranting once in a while then what’s the point?
The potential gulfs between human perception and “true” reality have been debated by philosophers such as Descartes for centuries. I recently found myself plunged into this rather highbrow debate in a very unexpected setting. It occurred in the dining car of an East Coast Main Line train, where it seemed that any link between perception and reality had been suddenly and inexplicably severed.
Observe, for your delight, the delicious looking picture of East Coast Trains lasagne, featured on their menu:
Looks nice, doesn’t it? Succulent, tasty, crisp, well-structured lasagne, huh? Well, your senses – or East Coast Trains – are lying to you (I’ll let you decided which is more likely). In reality this is the plateful of grim reality that greeted me:
Compare and contrast, as they say in GCSE exam papers.
Is it just me, or does the second picture look less like the first, and a lot more like something that might be produced if the Downing Street cat eats a dodgy rat? See, I knew it would get back to politics in the end.
Tags: Descartes, Downing Street Cat, East Coast Trains, GNER, Lasagne, Philosophy
Categories: Opinion
Compare Burger King pictures with actual product. Caveat emptor…
16.02.2011 13:47
Awww poor diddums.
16.02.2011 13:54
I think you were actually just unlucky. I ordered a GNER, I mean East Coast Mainline, lasagne just before Christmas and it was much more like the picture. Perhaps a supplier change for 2011??
16.02.2011 15:48
The Burgers are just the same, normally re-heated in the Microwave so you get rock hard spots in the Beef and bun! The price you pay for Travelling first class on the rail.
16.02.2011 16:34
The much lamented Wrexham and Shropshire Railways service (First Class, mind!) annoyed my wife and myself. Soup that was so-so and my wife’s two choices were not available so she had what looked like boil in the bag macaroni cheese. They also forgot to put any desserts on the train, they had changed rolling stock at Marylebone and had left them on the other train to go to waste, presumably.
My meal was a sort of sliced beef thing (another boil in the bag masterpiece) and some rock hard vegetables. The pinging of a microwave was not a welcome sound.
17.02.2011 02:18
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mark Wallace, The Fact Compiler. The Fact Compiler said: RT @wallaceme: Crash Bang Wallace: The horrible tale of the Cartesian Lasagne http://bit.ly/eAvkay #gner #eastcoast <<Nationalised innit! [...]
17.02.2011 02:25
Yes, travelling in first class can be such a drag can’t it.
17.02.2011 12:37
I’m sorry! But every time I look at the two pictures, I suffer another laughing fit. Sandwiches next time? Oh no! Here I go again……………….
17.02.2011 20:24
Ah, dear boy, that is nothing. Next time you are in the States try negotiating the gustatory minefield which is the Amtrak dining car. There, the PICTURE of the lasagna would look like the lower picture and the reality doth boggle the mind (and the food on Acela doesn’t count – that is passable and has a quite good, low price Cabernet.)
23.02.2011 19:39