Fussy Eaters

[MOB]

I think there is also another problem here sometimes: people who don't really go out for meals but when they do, feel all important and use it as an opportunity to exercise their 'customer is always right' mandate and simply throw their weight around by ordering awkward combinations and things that aren't on the menu. When you combine that with bog standard fussiness it becomes a teeth grindingly awful experience altogether.

It's not self importance but insecurity.

I remember seeing a documentary which featured a restaurant in Hollywood USA ( 'Spago' I think) where the narrator pointed out that most actors are notoriously insecure and that most 'A-list' actors will never order something from the menu at Spago, because this would mark them out as ordinary: they have to have a special dish that the chef prepares only for them.

This was beautifully lampooned by Danny de Vito in the 'Get Shorty' film: he meets John Travolta and Rene Russo (+ possibly one more person) at a restaurant, hands back the menu unread and orders an egg-white omelette with chives for everybody (and which nobody actually eats.)

 

[Caveat]

I think you have it MOB.

Gene Hackman was the 'other person' in that scene by the way. Great movie!

 

[mathepac]

Id be interested to know the results of the MSG free place - ...

Don't assume that the use of MSG is the sole preserve of Chinese restaurants - any kitchen that buys in ready-made sauces, stocks, stock cubes, prepared spices, gravy mixes or seasoning will be serving MSG, whether its French, Italian, burger joint, chipper, Indian, deli, etc.

As mentioned in another thread, if you buy those expensive little "spice-rack" jars in the supermarket, they also contain MSG, as do stir-fry sauces, bottles of "Bolognese sauce", packet soups and casserole mixes, etc. We probably feed ourselves more MSG in "home-made food" than the restaurants do.

 

[Latrade]

Don't assume that the use of MSG is the sole preserve of Chinese restaurants.

Funny thing is that MSG has been used in chinese cooking for centuries, it's just a salt from seaweed after all. So it's hardly authentic for a chinese restaurants to be MSG free.

 

[Eithneangela]

Whenever I invite people for 'a bit to eat' I cook simple stuff (stilton stuffed chicken wrapped in parma ham, lamb lasagne, stuffed pork steaks, stuffing being usual breadcrumbs, herbs, butter, eggs, etc.) and loadsa salads, especially really spicy salsa. Then, leftovers are frozen (meat stuff for hubby - I'm a veggie!) and any salads left for mise, the rabbit. Always get warm feedback from happy guests - maybe the 240 bottles of wine we brought back from France earlier this year has something to do with that! LOL!

 

[MandaC]

Whenever I invite people for 'a bit to eat' I cook simple stuff (stilton stuffed chicken wrapped in parma ham, lamb lasagne, stuffed pork steaks, stuffing being usual breadcrumbs, herbs, butter, eggs, etc.) and loadsa salads, especially really spicy salsa. Then, leftovers are frozen (meat stuff for hubby - I'm a veggie!) and any salads left for mise, the rabbit. Always get warm feedback from happy guests - maybe the 240 bottles of wine we brought back from France earlier this year has something to do with that! LOL!

Sounds gorgeous but that would be very exotic fare to some people, eg, a lot of people dont eat Stilton or parma ham.

Personally, fussy eaters bore a hole through me. Sometimes I think it is all about attention seeking.

Most of the bland eaters I know have very poor diet, eg, all white carbs, bland tasting stodge.

Was in a lovely French fish restaurant in the Vendee and overheard a woman saying to her husband that she hated French food. It was hard not to ask her why she went to france.

 

[sam h]

MOB

Quote:
Originally Posted by Caveat http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?p=968146#post968146
I think there is also another problem here sometimes: people who don't really go out for meals but when they do, feel all important and use it as an opportunity to exercise their 'customer is always right' mandate and simply throw their weight around by ordering awkward combinations and things that aren't on the menu. When you combine that with bog standard fussiness it becomes a teeth grindingly awful experience altogether.

It's not self importance but insecurity.

You guys nailed this issue on the head, in relation to insecurity. I also worked in a restaurant (many in fact) & I clearly rememebr one "leading" hairdresser coming in. A fairly notive waitress was almost on the verge of tears as he kept sending back wine, making extraordinary demands about his food, being pass remarkable to her, clicking finger etc. He sent back his 3rd or 4th "corked" bottle (different wines each time - none corked). I brought over the next bottle and showed it to him and asked if he would like to send it back before or after we opened it (in a very polite way ). There wasn't another peep out of him after that.


Have to say, I hate being the person who organised a night out for a group 'cos there's always one.....I don't like indian/chinese/steak/vegetarian/food etc. I have my likes & dislikes, but most menus have enough choice to be able to get a meal out of it.....so go with the flow (even chinese/indian will normally offer some "european dishes"). Surely it all about the company & the quality of the wine !!

PS - Bombay Pantry is a FAB indian take-away

 

[truthseeker]

Don't assume that the use of MSG is the sole preserve of Chinese restaurants - any kitchen that buys in ready-made sauces, stocks, stock cubes, prepared spices, gravy mixes or seasoning will be serving MSG, whether its French, Italian, burger joint, chipper, Indian, deli, etc.

As mentioned in another thread, if you buy those expensive little "spice-rack" jars in the supermarket, they also contain MSG, as do stir-fry sauces, bottles of "Bolognese sauce", packet soups and casserole mixes, etc. We probably feed ourselves more MSG in "home-made food" than the restaurants do.

Yes I agree - personally I check all ingredients on supermarket food so as not to be ingesting MSG in all its various guises, I dont buy any packet soups, sauces etc, make everything from scratch but I was shocked recently to see the humble Tayto crisp now contains MSG - very disappointing, another one to knock off the list.

In restaurants I tend to go for drier dishes so am hopefully avoiding it there as well - although you can (and I have done) ask in restaurants if the sauces are made from scratch and if they use MSG - its a reasonably well known food intolerance and normally in any good restaurant the chef will be able to tell you if its used in their kitchen.

 

[Caveat]

...the humble Tayto crisp now contains MSG -

Now? I would have thought that this was always the case and maybe they have only started mentioning it now?

Apart from crisps/snacks that make any claim to the contrary I would have thought that practically all crisps contain MSG and have done so for decades.

 

[truthseeker]

Now? I would have thought that this was always the case and maybe they have only started mentioning it now?

Apart from crisps/snacks that make any claim to the contrary I would have thought that practically all crisps contain MSG and have done so for decades.

Maybe so.

 

[Staples]

Whenever I invite people for 'a bit to eat' I cook simple stuff (stilton stuffed chicken wrapped in parma ham, lamb lasagne, stuffed pork steaks, stuffing being usual breadcrumbs, herbs, butter, eggs, etc.) and loadsa salads, especially really spicy salsa. Then, leftovers are frozen (meat stuff for hubby - I'm a veggie!) and any salads left for mise, the rabbit. Always get warm feedback from happy guests - maybe the 240 bottles of wine we brought back from France earlier this year has something to do with that! LOL!

I hate being asked for "a bit to eat". It can potentially range from crackers and cheese to a full gut-busting feast. I never know how much to fill up with in advance and given that the wine generally flows regardless, this is an important consideration.

 

[Latrade]

Yes I agree - personally I check all ingredients on supermarket food so as not to be ingesting MSG in all its various guises, I dont buy any packet soups, sauces etc, make everything from scratch but I was shocked recently to see the humble Tayto crisp now contains MSG - very disappointing, another one to knock off the list.

Just out of interest, why the focus on MSG? Is it the taste or something else?

You guys nailed this issue on the head, in relation to insecurity. I also worked in a restaurant (many in fact) & I clearly rememebr one "leading" hairdresser coming in. A fairly notive waitress was almost on the verge of tears as he kept sending back wine, making extraordinary demands about his food, being pass remarkable to her, clicking finger etc. He sent back his 3rd or 4th "corked" bottle (different wines each time - none corked). I brought over the next bottle and showed it to him and asked if he would like to send it back before or after we opened it (in a very polite way ). There wasn't another peep out of him after that.

I actually think it goes a bit further than this. I hated the way everyone become an armchair wine expert just because they remembered a couple of grape varieties. They'd spend hours "studying" the wine menu asking what people were having just so they could select the right wine. It was all fake. Just as their "checking" the wine was fake. They didn't have a clue what they were doing and we're supposed to be impressed. The days of just chosing between white or red were the best.

But like everything else, it seemed with some money in our pockets some people got ideas way above their station. I started to hate the meeting up at a restaurant stuff mainly because of this show (and of course those who had irrational notions that they didn't like certain things they'd never even tried).

 

[Vanilla]

A fairly notive waitress was almost on the verge of tears as he kept sending back wine, making extraordinary demands about his food, being pass remarkable to her, clicking finger etc. He sent back his 3rd or 4th "corked" bottle (different wines each time - none corked). I brought over the next bottle and showed it to him and asked if he would like to send it back before or after we opened it (in a very polite way ). There wasn't another peep out of him after that.

This can work the other way around too, though. I remember once being taken out to dinner in a very, very expensive and notorious restaurant by my then boss. We ordered starter and a very expensive bottle of white wine. The wine was corked. My boss had had a few drinks already and I was driving so I was saving myself for the one glass of wine. The boss wasn't sure ( tastebuds squiffy) but I was, it was clearly corked. So we sent it back and a sniffy waiter brought a second bottle. Which was also corked. The embarrassment.

Then another thing that really annoys me about restaurants is when they have say a 2006 Chteauneuf du pape on the wine list, you push the boat out and order it, and along comes the waiter with a 2008 bottle. And if you point it out they can't understand the objection at all. That doesn't happen with properly trained waiters/waitresses but there are very few career waiting staff in Ireland.

 

[truthseeker]

Just out of interest, why the focus on MSG? Is it the taste or something else?

The taste, or more precisely, the aftertaste. It just leaves me tasting it for hours afterwards - me no like.

 

[sam h]

Vanilla, I reckon you frequent posher restaurant than I have worked in !!!

You're right, if a bottle is corked, you should send it back. You are likely to get another corked bottle if you select the same wine as it is probably a batch which wasn't seal/stored right.

In the case with the hairdresser - None of the bottles were corked, we checked them all. His friend came over to me to say well done, as he can be an embarresment to be out with

 

[liaconn]

Vanilla, I reckon you frequent posher restaurant than I have worked in !!!

You're right, if a bottle is corked, you should send it back. You are likely to get another corked bottle if you select the same wine as it is probably a batch which wasn't seal/stored right.

In the case with the hairdresser - None of the bottles were corked, we checked them all. His friend came over to me to say well done, as he can be an embarresment to be out with

I'm amazed any of his friends agreed to keep going to restaurants with him, if he always made a show of himself like that. I hope he was picking up the tab.

 

[sam h]

I said friends, but I reckon they work for him. It was a guy spoke to me & there were some dizzy girls who kept giggling at everything he said (this was aggggeeessss ago!!)

Don't get me wrong, if there is a problem with a meal or drink, I'm a firm believer in saying it as we pay alot of money to dine out - but there are people who will try to find something to complain about.

 

[roland]

This topic was mentioned in the "Pet Hates" thread but I think it deserves a whole thread of its own.

I worked as a waitress for years and was constantly amazed by the attitudes of some people. "I'll have a steak and I want it very well done - now I mean very, very, very well done, completely black - if there is any bit of red or pink or even light brown I won't eat it. And I don't like vegetables so I want just chips on their own with my steak and I want LOADS of tomato sauce. And I'll have a diet coke".

I think part of the problem is that in general Irish people are just not educated about food. Too many are happy with Tesco rubbish - how can anyone actually buy tasteless tomatoes from Tesco and eat them? Millions it seems. How many go a little bit our of their way to source food from our farmers? Not many at all. Too many of us are happy to eat rubbish. Too many order rubbish when they go out. Too many are happy to pay ridiculous prices for rubbish when they go out. The main source of complaints then is from the nonsense ones referred to in this thread i.e. from people who are complaining for attention only.

Stemming from all of this you then get restaurants who are happy to serve up sub-standard rubbish, or on the other hand good restaurants which are just not appreciated for what they do. "Oh sure they're very expensive" I keep hearing. Cost alone it seems is the only decider, and yet the same people will pay many thousands sorting out a heart attack years later.

A good example of the lack of education is the amount of Irish people who ask for a fillet steak very very well done i.e. pretty much burnt. I know some people think they like it that way and sure isn't the customer always right, but think about it - it's like asking a chef to dip a choice piece of produce into petrol and set it alight before he serves it - sure you might 'like it' that way, but it's an insult to the produce and the chef and the efforts made to source, prepare and serve it. Unless we educate ourselves a bit more about food and complain about the right things, then the only eejits filing the vaccuum will be the eejits who don't know what they are talking about.