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