Weird Psych Lim

[firstfrost]

So, I've gone to Chipotle a couple of times with mjperson and have discovered that a particular aspect of their menu EXPLODES MY HEAD. The main section of the menu gives you a choice: burrito, burrito bowl, meat salad, or tacos. They're all the same price. Mike orders the tacos. Last time he got two tacos, this time he got three. But it's the same price, because it's just "tacos". I am unable to order the tacos, because I don't know what the right number to ask for is! So I order the burrito instead, because I know how many it is.

Even as I try to explain this now, I'm not sure it makes any sense. But, let's take a different example - getting coffee in the morning from Tosci's. When I want to splurge, I get a large vanilla latte (and then proceed to not be hungry at lunchtime, but that's a different digression). Sometimes, the barista gives me a latte, and sometimes she asks how many shots of espresso I want in it. The first time she asked, I was totally floored. How many? I don't know, how many is it supposed to have? Is it a choice between one and two? Three and four? (I now think it was a choice between two (default) and three (need-extra-caffeine-hit), but I still could be wrong.)

Except that in the coffee example, I don't know how much espresso makes it taste like what I expect; in the tacos example, I know what a taco is. I probably even can make a guess as to how many tacos hungry I am.

...

Having checked their menu on line, "tacos" is actually canonically "three tacos". Now I can order them, because I know how many they are. (And, sure, you can get two tacos for the price of three if you want, which I am fine with. Sometimes you just want two tacos!)

Comments

[dpolicar]

This reminds me of this story.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

I definitely relate to the latte question! I think it also depends on the size of the latte, because a small (or possibly a Starbucks "tall") often has one, so "two" is +1 (hence the "double tall latte"), whereas a medium ("grande") has two by default so the "triple grande latte" is +1. Me, I just reserve the phrase "with an extra shot" for those moments of necessity.

I also had this problem with ordering coffee at Dunkin' Donuts, until I learned that "two sugars" actually means less than normal because the default action is THREE sugars. (Gleah.)

But I can't imagine a case where I would want to order my tacos -1, unless it was as a snack with my sangria or something. Otherwise, I would effectively be saying "I'm not hungry enough to actually eat yet." :-) Of course, I also wait until my gas gauge is flashing before I consider filling the tank...

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

Otherwise, I would effectively be saying "I'm not hungry enough to actually eat yet." :-)

This is true, but if it's a choice between "eat with the hungry person now" and "eat by myself later", the former often wins.

[jdbakermn.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that it would explode my head also. Too much anxiety at the possibility of underordering. Or of overordering.

At least until someone else ordered them and I could judge their size, and how many tacos hungry I am. But then I'd still have anxiety over the price - if I order two tacos (because I'm two tacos hungry), is that two times the price? Or since "tacos" is already plural, does that mean that two is the price? Or if I order two, and tacos is already plural, are they going to bring me two orders of two tacos each? Etc., etc., etc.

I overthink things a lot of the time.

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

Well, a taco is clearly smaller than a burrito, even when it's a large taco and a small burrito, so I wasn't worried about two tacos being twice the stated price. But I am glad someone else has the same anxiety! :)

[kirisutogomen.livejournal.com]

Simple -- order "tacos". If they ask you how many, just shrug.

[fxz.livejournal.com]

Now we know how you truly can be tormented!

All it will take is a restaurant menu with items like:

1d4 Tacos
2d6 Peking Ravioli
...

;-)

[ironrat.livejournal.com]

1d4 tacos threatens to be disappointing, but 2d6 peking ravioli has the potential to be upsetting either for too few or too many! (So, in that regard, it helped me understand Laura's anxiety.)

[desireearmfeldt]

Hee hee hee.

[navrins]

Among the phrases I'm trying to learn to use, in my "it's okay to admit ignorance if you're trying to fix it" phase, is, "What would you recommend?" Or, "How do most people answer that question?"

(Note I said *trying* to learn. Which generally means I say something else, and then after it's too late berate myself for not saying one of those instead.)

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was basically my answer to the latte question; ordering from a fast food taqueria, there's noise and I'm a quiet speaker - I don't really want to go careening off into unexpected conversations. :)

[fredrickegerman.livejournal.com]

I just stay away from tacos. Too much shell and not enough filling. :-)

But then, I pick Anna's over Chipotle.

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

If it was Anna's, I would get a quesadilla and not worry about it. :) Burritos are often too *much* filling, what with the beans and the rice.

[merastra.livejournal.com]

The standard 3 tacos at Chipotle isn't as much food as the 1 burrito (read, not nearly as filling). So yeah, I might have some of the same anxiety, but I'd pick the burrito anyhow on account of the volume and density.

[jaedian.livejournal.com]

I prefer the salad these days, no numbers to worry about. But we had weirdness with the quesadillas. We would get three small ones which wasn't enough for Alex. And then one time we got one huge one (think burrito sized wrapper) which was perfect. We eventually figured out the three littles ones were the kd-sized and now we get the larger one!

[algorithmancy.livejournal.com]

This story pretty much exemplifies all of my public interactions with human beings ever.

[bakedweasels.livejournal.com]

Not really on topic, but I was floored once at an airport Starbucks at 11:30PM (in LA I think, we were connecting back to SF from Hawaii) to see a woman order a venti mocha with 6(!) EXTRA shots of cappucino. Not only was it a $12 coffee, I couldn't imagine what plan required that.

[brilit.livejournal.com]

OMG!!! I'm on the red-eye to the east coast and I still have 5 hours of work to do on my proposal for the morning!!!! :)