... about to walk out the door, he says it's the best menu item at the restaurant there, but then looks down on my plate and I'm working on a tuna salad.
So what should I do?
1. Tell him to mind his own business
2. Tell him that I prefer tuna to chicken
3. Ignore him completely and watch the TV on the wall
or
Engage the stranger in a conversation...
I could sense an accent in his voice. This was a Greek diner in Maitland. I was sitting with my wife for a late lunch. He was in his late 40s, clean-cut, affable.
I asked him where he was from. He said: Lebanon originally. I said I had several clients from Lebanon, all with an entrepreneurial spirit that did very well.
I told him that I usually get on the Greek proprietor's case because he has chocolate cake, macaroni and cheese, and other American junk food available. After a while of kidding him that he should be ashamed that he doesn't have more authentic food, one day he shows up with what looks like sausage or intestine wrapped in cellophane. In twenty minutes he serves me a single thick tentacle of octopus. It was great.
The stranger laughed. I went on and said that I had been in his country many years ago (from being based in Turkey) playing basketball with the local U.S. military dependent high 
school team and the one at American University in Beirut. (before the civil war) He said that he and his wife had gone to school there! She then walked up and he introduced her to us. I continued with my story: I had one night off at the tournament and remembered the pyramidical juice cartons that were sold on the main boulevard. They both smiled and remembered that very well.
He said he had been working in the area for over thirty years. Me too. He was a civil engineer who basically prepared raw land/ real estate for purchase by developers for vertical construction. He had to have landscape architects involved now because of the zoning and building requirements for land development. He didn't really work with architects but I suggested that I could supply conceptual designs to help him market his properties.
That struck a note of interest.
I am meeting him for lunch in a few days.
As he left I said: Do you also say 'Merhaba'? He smiled and said yes.
That is a standard greeting in the Arab speaking world.
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