Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[hiromichi]

What does "that ended with a diamond ring on the petit four tray" below mean?

A new dish is appearing on menus across the nation. Restaurateurs say they have little choice other than offer it, though it horrifies many customers.
That item is the $40 entree.
Until recently, such prices were the stuff of four-star, white-tablecloth meals, the kind that ended with a diamond ring on the petit four tray.
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Hiromichi

[CP]

A petit four is a French pastry, the kind that might be found in an expensive restaurant only. A petit-four tray is a nice, little silver tray used to deliver nice, little, expensive desserts in expensive restaurants.

If you wanted to propose marriage to your sweetheart, you might book a table at a nice, little, expensive restaurant and tell the maitre d' ahead of time what you plan to do. You have a romantic dinner, you order dessert, and the waiter brings your sweetheart a nice, little petit-four tray with her dessert and a diamond ring on it. The rest is up to you.

That's what the author means by the $40.00 for the entree for the kind of meal that ends with the ring on the dessert tray.
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[hiromichi]

CP, I get it. Thank you very much.
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Hiromichi