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Make a jus gravy, which sidesteps the starch factor altogether, and is full of flavour:
Deglaze the pan with half a litre/2 cups of low- or no-salt broth (if there is much salt in it, it may be unbearable once it is reduced), including a couple of tablespoons of wine, if you like (sherry or madeira are both good), and reduce over low heat (you can do this over higher heats, but watch the pan like hawk) until it reaches a consistency you like. Then season it to your taste.

I haven't come across a chestnut soup that involves starch as a thickener (the chestnuts do the thickening), so that really shouldn't be a problem.
I make a pumpkin chestnut soup. The recipe is flexible (you can even make it without the pumpkin, if you prefer, but you'll need to double the amount of chestnuts you use, and I think the pumpkin does add something), as there are no tricky chemical reactions to keep track of, so it can easily be adapted to produce a very wide array of different end-products.

You'll need about a tin (the smaller size) of pumpkin, at least a cup of dried chestnuts, chicken broth (home-made if you have it, two tins of the best you can get your hands on, otherwise; if you're vegetarian, a good vegetable broth would works just fine), and the seasonings that strike you as best fitting in with the rest of the menu (I've done everything from just salt and pepper, to a wide array of spices, e.g. saffron+cardamom+nutmeg+cloves, etc.).

Overnight, soak the dried chestnuts in two cups (or one tin) of broth (in the refrigerator). I usually soak the chestnuts in the pot I'm going to use, ready to go the next day
The next day, add another cup of broth (the dry chestnuts absorb a lot of fluid), bring the chestnuts to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer the chestnuts until they are tender.
At this point you have two options:
A. remove the chestnuts from the broth, and fork-mash, puree, or rice them, according to whether you want a smooth soup or one with a less even texture, then return them to the broth, add the remaining broth, the pumpkin, and the spices, and simmer until it reaches the desired consistency.
OR
B. simmer the broth until it has reduced to the point that, in combination with the natural sugars in the chestnuts, it is a thick brown glaze over chestnuts (these taste delicious, and I've used these on their own as an accompaniment to various savoury dishes). Mash the chestnuts (or leave them whole, if you prefer), add the pumpkin, and as much broth as needed to give you a consistency you like, and season.

Capsule version: Simmer chestnuts in broth until tender, and reduce broth to a thick glaze if you so please; mash chestnuts to the desired texture, add pumpkin, more broth, and seasonings; bring to a boil and simmer for a minute, or until you're happy with the texture.

Salads are traditonally salted: that is, technically what makes them 'salads' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salad#Etymology).

But if you don't care for it, or if you're restricting your salt intake, you might ask if they couldn't skip the salt.

I mostly do transatlantic flights, where everyone is eating the same disgusting food at the same time, and since they're focusing on having it not end up on their clothing or in their lap, this distracts from the general repulsiveness of the experience.

On US flights I bring a few nutrition bars and some water (and rather wish other people would do that too). Some people get airsick, and the smell of food/sound of chewing and crunching doesn't help; I'll do whatever necessary to avoid someone chundering anywhere near me in a relatively confined and poorly ventilated space.

Also, the bars remain fully edible, even if flattened or smashed by other things in my carry-on. If you pick decent ones, they're fairly nutritious, too. I occasionally bring Cliff blocks or those Powershot thingies. You get odd looks from those sitting nearby, when you eat (suck?) the latter, though

I'd say that anything strong-smelling should be out of the question, except, perhaps, coffee.

I may as well be honest: we travel with the bare minimum of personal necessities, and leave the rest of the luggage space for food and kitchen stuff. Last trip was to Emilia Romagna on the mototrbike, and we each brought almost nothing with us, but filled the originally empty space in the sidebags and topbox with so much stuff that the suspension had to be tweaked a bit, before we headed home.

Of the places you mention, I only know Florence (but since I grew up there, I don't often eat out, but at friend's homes). I can recommend Il Cinghiale Bianco (in the oltrarno), with one caveat: if the bloke at the door is not in a great mood, remember a previous engagement and go elswhere, because the experience of myself and my friends is that the entire staff shares the same mood on any given night, and when they're having a grouch, they can ignore you for simply ages.

There is also a quite good place at Via del Moro 22, near Piazza Goldoni, called Ristorante Osteria di Giovanni... not certain whether or not they speak English, however.

I really recommend doing a little shopping at the panifici and salumerie, and making sandwiches! I also recommend the botanical garden (not so much the Boboli Gardens, which aren't so relaxing) as a great place to sit and eat them :)

I still want to know whether it is actually LEGAL to NOT mention the existence of a fee; in many businesses, this is illegal.

There are actually two separate discussions going on here: whether or not it is okay to charge various fees, and whether or not is ethical to not alert customers to these fees.
The former is purely subjective, and the ethics surrounding a lack of transparency when it comes to costs is, too (clearly, many feel that ethics cannot be permitted to interfere with desired profits) illegal (objective); on the other hand, ethics aside, this failure to inform smells like it is on the border of illegal.

Perhaps RLB is not entitled to special treatment, neither do I see that the restaurant industry should be exempt from the same standards that govern the business practices of other industries

Annoy more people, I believe. Sorry, guys...

The recipe wazup posted sounds good, so I'm going to just post a recipe I use to make savoiardi (it comes from an Italian woman who is not, however, my mother), if you're in the mood for making them (ones from a shop or a bakery are fine, though!). The measurements are bit odd, because this is an Italian recipe, and I had to convert grams to ounces; I did not convert this to volume measurements, because they aren't as reliable as weights.

They come together pretty quickly, and can be used at once; you can get going on the other parts of the tiramisu while they're baking.

Lady Fingers (savoiardi)

7 oz. sugar
6 eggs, separated
Grated peel from one lemon (orange and lime are good, too)
The rest of that same lemon, for its juice
Pinch of salt
4.5 oz. flour (I use an equvalent of all-purpose flour)
2 oz. corn starch (I've used rice flour and potato starch with equally good results)
A vanilla bean
Pastry bag (improvised is fine) with 1.5 cm (that's a bit over 0.5 inch) tip
Baking paper/parchment

Preheat oven to 320° F
Sift together the flour and starch, and set aside.
Beat the egg whites and half the sugar together, until you have very stiff peaks, adding a squeeze of lemon juice towards the end.
Beat together the yolks, remainder of the sugar, as much as you can scrape out of the vanilla bean, the peel and another squirt of lemon juice, until light and well-aerated (about 8-10 minutes by hand).
Using a large spoon, not a whisk, gently incorporate the flour-starch mixure, taking care to not 'defluff' the eggs.
Gently add the egg whites, still taking care to not 'defluff' the mixture.
Tranfer mixture to pastry tube, and extrude onto baking sheets covered in baking paper: make them about 4" long and a bit over 0.5" wide, and about 2" apart.
Bake 20 minutes.

If they are going to be served on their own, you can dust them with powdered sugar.

N.B. For the coffee in which the savoiardi are dipped when making the tiramisu: Assuming it is appropriate for your guests (e.g. no one among them is avoiding alcohol), adding a couple of spoonfuls of grappa to the coffee is a nice touch, and I have also sometimes replaced the coffee entirely with an espresso liqueur (e.g. Borghetti). The total amount of alcohol per serving (unless the portion is really big) will not make most people tipsy.

@shortstop: Frankly, I can see the points raised by both parties, but what I find troubling is the restaurant's failure to indicate that there WOULD be a fee; there is no way that that was appropriate, and the gracelessness etc. of the reaction doesn't change that.

I keep a list of places that have 'surprise fees', most of which I discovered the expensive way, and yes, I paid them without a fuss, but I share this list with friends, and no longer patronize these places myself.
I am perfectly willing to pay even quite silly fees at places that manage to take the trouble to say (for example) 'Another napkin? Certainly, but we charge a $10 for additional table settings, even partial ones' (yep, that happened, and yes, I took the napkin, since I had half a glass of water in my lap :D ).

I just don't see this going through...

The pork filling for Thai lettuce wraps that I often make looks pretty unfortunate, and the sooner it disappears into the lettuce leaves, the better, visually. But the scent and flavour are amazing.

My first thought was that the guy was probably mentally ill; my second thought was that he was offended by your eating on the subway, and this was actually a broad, sarcastic hint.

@avaryne: yep, that sounds like typical transit authority response; I reported a man smoking crack, and all the response I got was 'Well, what d'you want ME to do?' My suggestion that she call the police was simply greeted with a repeat of the original statement.