Upfront
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE
Here’s a tip BY
Amelia Lester
V
D R E A M D E S T I N AT I O N
Jabali Ridge RUAHA NATIONAL PARK, TANZANIA
Perched on a hillside overlooking the baobab-studded grassland, this elegant, eight-suite lodge is the perfect base for exploring Tanzania’s vast Ruaha National Park. Lions, leopards, cheetahs and elephants roam free, making game drives and walking safaris a highlight. Between animal-spotting escapades, make time to relax in your well-appointed room, dine under the stars, or soak up the remote beauty in the infinity pool, suspended high over the savannah. Tatyana Leonov
WOLTER PEETERS; ILLUSTRATION BY SIMON LETCH
E AT / D R I N K
A SLURPY bowl of dandan noodles ($12.50) at Chatswood’s Mama Mulan is the ultimate comfort/discomfort food. Available at lunchtime only, the thin, hand-pulled noodles are bathed in a rich, nutty chicken stock, painted fire-engine red with chilli oil and topped with ladles of spicy minced pork, spring onions and peanuts. Sichuan peppercorns seal the deal with a disconcertingly addictive ma la effect; Chinese for, “Help, my tongue is numb and my mouth is Jill Dupleix on fire.” We think.
MAMA MUL AN LEVEL 1, THE CONCOURSE, 409 VICTORIA AVENUE, CHATSWOOD; MAMAMULAN.COM.AU
OTERS IN Washington D.C. recently confirmed at the ballot box what Australians have always known to be true: that tipping is awful. Initiative 77, as it was known in the numericallyobsessed American fashion, phases out the minimum wage for tipped workers, which is $US3.33, and puts servers, bartenders, and other employees on the same minimum wage as everyone else, which is $US12.50. (A two-tier minimum wage for tipped and untipped workers is common in most states and in the federal government in the US. Under this system, if the tipped worker does not make up to the standard minimum wage in tips, his or her employer is required to make up the difference.) The proposal was divisive: on the one hand were the restaurant workers, on the other, the restaurant industry. The industry said it would make eating out more expensive, but research shows that risk is predominantly borne by cheaper restaurants. It’s possible that higher minimum wages will make it more difficult for teens to find work. But overall, the system will be more equitable for restaurant workers, in that front of house staff will no longer make outsized wages at the expense of the kitchen. (In fine-dining restaurants, studies show that servers make 80 per cent more than kitchen staff.) What about the effects on customers? In 2011, the American statistician Nate Silver surveyed 400 international travellers about tipping and service. In analysing the results, he coined the term The Tipping Curve. “The countries that received the highest grades for customer service tended to cluster at either end of the [tipping] spectrum,” Silver wrote in The New York Times. “In Japan and Thailand, tipping is rare, but the service is regarded as excellent. The most tip-friendly countries – the United States and Canada –
also received above-average marks for service.” European countries, where tipping is sporadically practised and a service charge often added to the bill, scored below average in Silver’s survey. There were also weird exceptions, like Russia, where tips are expected of foreigners, not natives, and Egypt, where tipping is common but at a flat rate. But Silver’s conclusion was that ambiguity in tipping creates bad service. Better to have a clear tipping policy nationwide, or none at all.
Better to have a clear tipping policy nationwide, or none at all. The US is moving away from a uniform convention on tipping. Before D.C., seven states already adopted similar measures to phase it out, and in restaurantdense cities like New York, individual businesses have started bundling service with the bill. The first country I thought of, though, when reading Silver’s article was Australia, where, over the last decade, tipping has become a much more fraught issue. I don’t really know what the right answer is, and neither do a lot of other people: a survey by online restaurant reservation platform OpenTable last year showed that 80 per cent of Australians feel confused about whether or not to leave a gratuity. Food is expensive in Australia, and all restaurant workers are paid a living wage. But when a member of the service staff comes to the table brandishing an EFTPOS machine and asks if I want to leave a tip, it feels pretty mean-spirited to decline. At least in the US, the tip is usually left in writing, on the receipt, away from judgmental eyes. But as long as we insist on paying in this way, the awkwardness will continue. Consider yourself tipped off. n
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