In class today, I'm finishing a tuna tartare with a lemon vinaigrette; searing halibut and plating it with braised fennel and swiss chard in a cardamom sauce, braising rabbit and plating it with a bean puree and ginger sauce, and frosting a chocolate cake with ganache and serving it with toasted-almond ice cream.
Part of my grade will be on how attractively I can plate these items to make them look contemporary and elegant.
Tomorrow I am eating with my father and his wife, probably at a local meat-n-three where choices of entree range from meatloaf to pork chops and vegetables vary between "mashed", "deep-fried", and "stewed with fatback".
I'm not saying the latter option is bad* we're just talking about two very different levels here.
* - Except possibly in the sense that if you eat this way your whole life you may very well die of heart disease by age forty.