Of course we don’t just scoop it out on to a plate. Yes it is usually pasta with sauce on top, sometimes cheese, and veg on the side. But we really can’t cater for people who want it without without cheese or sauce, this veg or that, or refuse the pasta because it might have a little bit of veg mixed in.
I assure you this is a true story:
I used to bartend at a sports bar. One day a couple of my regulars came in and the lady asked if she could get an order of “hot wings” without any sauce. Nothing on them whatsoever. Yeah, sure, no problem.
I entered the order and explained the deal to the cook. He and I had been working there together since the place opened. He said yeah, sure, no problem, and I went back out to the bar to do bartender stuff.
A few minutes later I walk back into the kitchen, watch the cook pull the wings out of the fryer, plate them, and put them in the window. I take the plate out to the lady, ask if she needs anything else, and then go do bartender stuff. Shortly thereafter, the couple calls me over. The lady explains to me that the wings are still “waaaay too hot and spicy”. (No, lady, they aren’t.) Okay, sure, no problem.
I take the plate back into the kitchen, and I ask the cook, “Dude, did you do anything to these?” He says no, and looks at me like I’m an asshole for asking him if he did what I had asked him not to do. He knows that I know he didn’t do anything to the friggin’ wings. “Okay, leave these here for a minute.” Okay, sure, no problem. I walk out to the bar and do bartender stuff.
A few minutes later, I walk back into the kitchen, grab the exact same plate of wings, and take it out to the lady, ask if she needs anything else, and then do bartender stuff. Shortly thereafter, I go over to the couple to confirm my suspicions, and ask if “these wings” are any better. She is all smiles and positively glowing, “Ohhhh, yes! They’re PERFECT!” she says.
Knowing their limitations, your error was serving them anything other than lukewarm hotdogs & mayo.
Some people are better accommodated by total surrender to their limitations rather than trying to feed them a simplified version of complicated (i.e. grownup) food.
That’s a tough problem. But for sure for the previous 40 years a heck of a lot of Americans hurt themselves by eating exclusively for taste rather than nutrition. We’re bound to have some wild pendulum swinging before things settle down to sensible.
Good points. But I blame “teh interwebs” and they aint going away.
In other words, too many people read some stupid article about how Eviiiiil gluten is. Tried cutting it out for a couple weeks (which also cuts out almost all junk food, carbs, etc). Lost a few pounds, felt better- thus “gluten intolerant”. Which they ain’t.
I am mildly lactose intolerant. But once I stopped guzzling milk and added probiotics, I can eat cheese etc with no issues.
So yeah, cut back on the junk food, but that doesnt mean to stop all gluten.
Yeah. An incredulous herd on the spook is a sight to behold.
But … for those of us who choose low-carb for its own benefits, the gluten intolerance mania has been a godsend. An utterly misguided godsend, but damn handy nonetheless.
Not that I eat special no-gluten equivalents of high-gluten foods. I detest weird science in my food. Just that now ordinary sandwich & burger joints have bread-free options. etc. Asking for no bread no longer makes the waitress cock her head funny nor does it make the cook scratch his head in bafflement.
before you scoff, there may actually be some truth to the gluten intolerance thing:
Nutrients. 2016 Feb 8;8(2). pii: E84. doi: 10.3390/nu8020084.
Evidence for the Presence of Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity in Patients with Functional Gastrointestinal Symptoms: Results from a Multicenter Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Gluten Challenge.
Elli L1, Tomba C2,3, Branchi F4,5, Roncoroni L6,7,8, Lombardo V9, Bardella MT10, Ferretti F11,12, Conte D13,14, Valiante F15, Fini L16, Forti E17, Cannizzaro R18, Maiero S19, Londoni C20, Lauri A21, Fornaciari G22, Lenoci N23, Spagnuolo R24, Basilisco G25, Somalvico F26, Borgatta B27, Leandro G28, Segato S29, Barisani D30, Morreale G31, Buscarini E32.
Author information
Abstract
Non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) is characterized by the onset of symptoms after eating gluten-containing food. We aimed to single out NCGS subjects among subjects with functional gastrointestinal symptoms. Patients were enrolled in a multicenter double-blind placebo-controlled trial with crossover. Symptoms and quality of life were evaluated by means of 10-cm VAS and SF36. Iron parameters, transaminases and C reactive protein (CRP) were evaluated. After a three-week-long gluten-free diet (GFD), responsive patients were randomly assigned to gluten intake (5.6 g/day) or placebo for seven days, followed by crossover. The primary endpoint was the worsening of symptoms (VAS increase ≥3 cm) during gluten ingestion compared to placebo. One hundred and forty patients were enrolled and 134 (17 males, mean age 39.1 ± 11.7 years, BMI 22.4 ± 3.8) completed the first period. A total of 101 subjects (10 males, mean age 39.3 ± 11.0 years, BMI 22.3 ± 4.0) reported a symptomatic improvement (VAS score 2.3 ± 1.2 vs. 6.5 ± 2.2 before and after GFD, p = 0.001). 98 patients underwent the gluten challenge and 28 (all females, mean age 38.9 ± 12.7 years, BMI 22.0 ± 2.9) reported a symptomatic relapse and deterioration of quality of life. No parameters were found to be statistically associated with positivity to the challenge. However, 14 patients responded to the placebo ingestion. Taking into account this finding, about 14% of patients responding to gluten withdrawal showed a symptomatic relapse during the gluten challenge. This group is suspected to have NCGS.
KEYWORDS:
double-blind placebo controlled challenge; functional gastrointestinal disorders; gluten-free diet; irritable bowel syndrome; non-celiac gluten sensitivity
Nice cite. But you have to note that is 14% of patients with functional gastrointestinal symptoms. Not general population.
Funny because it’s true. I made mac’n’cheese for Easter brunch-- usually I use pepper jack and add a minced jalapeno but figured that would be too much for the Easter crowd. I skipped the jalapeno and found the resulting cheesy goodness to be perfectly mild. But about half the adults and all of the kids wouldn’t eat it because it was “too hot.” I don’t like things that are too hot either but I guess my taste buds must be blown out because it didn’t register as hot at all to me.
I agree with this. The only picky eater that ever bothered me was a woman I used to work with. She wouldn’t eat so many normal things, totally fine by me. But…when a group of us would go out for lunch or have a carry-in at work she would constantly make comments about how gross or disgusting what other people were eating was or about how whatever she liked was what any sane person would prefer.
Actually the booster most common in French food is no boosters. The notion that you can’t eat something without hiding it under sauces and spices is viewed as “poor man’s cooking”: if the base ingredients are good, there’s no need to hide them.
I was more picky in childhood. Typical bs, my beans touched my meat!, and I wanted plain meat and bread sandwiches. Gradually I began to try and like more things. Thankfully I had a patient mom.
My diet today is pretty varied. I still dislike fish, onions and tomatoes. But otherwise I eat almost any vegetable or meat. I prefer plain food. A $100 plate at a French restaurant would be wasted on me. But I wouldn’t waste my time going to a place like that anyhow.
The Gawker guy was beyond obnoxious. I was never that picky or dumb.
I am a picky eater, and have been my whole life, but I try really hard not to let that affect others. I minimalise my social interaction around food-related events - i.e. I avoid getting invited to dinner at other people’s homes, because it’s just a hassle to have to explain my weird tastes. If we’re going out to a restaurant there’s usually something I can order, but if there isn’t I’m fine to go without. I understand that it’s my problem, not theirs, that I have these quirky dislikes of food.
I have told my roommate numerous times what I don’t like to eat, and have asked him repeatedly to not cook anything for me, but he just doesn’t get it, and at least once a month he will leave food out for me that I simply won’t eat. Usually it’s some godawful soup, or entire meals piled high on the plate (his eating style is to shovel food into his mouth in rapid gluttonous gulps), but sometimes he’ll come back from the supermarket and shove snacks he bought right into my hand, not listening to my refusal, or today he gave me some pizza that I wouldn’t touch with a barge pole, it being almost 100% toppings I would never order.
It’s wasted food I did not request, and yet I feel guilty for not eating.
It sucks.
Or you can use AllChars, a free app that lets you bring up diacriticals, ligatures, math symbols, and more by pressing and releasing Ctrl, then a two letter code. Most of them are instinctive enough you don’t need to look them up and for those that are not, Ctrl,h, h brings up the help screen with the table list.
Ctrl, e, ’ = é
Ctrl, e, ` = è
Ctrl e, = = €
Ctrl 1, 2 = ½
Most of the time, the reverse of the two letters works just as well (Ctrl, 3, . … and Ctrl, ., 3 ³ being the major exception).
My take on why PE’s attitudes are not respected is because they usually end up dissing the food that other people enjoy and in turn and by extension diss the people. No one wants to hear that what they eat is disgusting and that has several implications, first it can diminish the enjoyment of their food, second it can bring a rain cloud over a dinner event to have one person not eat for that reason, and third it is reflective of the person that they would eat disgusting foods. Also the time and care that went into the food preparation is totally un-appreciated, in that it is negatively appreciated, all that care, skill and work gets harshly criticized - no one likes this, so no sympathy can be expected by this PE.
But if a PE comes out and appreciated the effort but apologizes that he/she is unable to enjoy it due to the condition, letting people know a bit about it the PE is much more likely to get respect.
Yeah well, you can also just use the system’s own character map or the Spanish keyboard… it’s got everything you need for most Latin-alphabet languages, using two-key combos (I know you’ll get a list of a zillion different “Spanish” keyboards - they’re not different). There are some symbols in Scandinavian languages that the mechanical Spanish keyboards could make but electronic ones can’t. The font still needs to have the symbols, tho.
Look, eat what you want to eat. If you feel you have some weird food allergies or in tolerances, so be it. Live with them.
But keep your food thing out of my face, and do NOT tell me the way I eat is wrong.
grumble The items listed as a flavorings in French cooking were, iirc, butter, olive oil, lemon, parsley, white wine, and garlic. So yes, they *do *use quite a bit of those.
And they do cook quite a bit without any of those. Heck, the list you give is missing both salt (which for many dishes such as grilled meats is the only thing added to the base ingredient) and vinegar (guess where vinaigrette gets its name). Whomever wrote it just lost all cred.
There are two things here:
-
People who have a different range of foods that they eat than some other people. No big deal.
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Jerks who make a big deal out of this. Either by screeching about their food choices or being screeched at for for their food choices.
The first is just a consequence of human nature that’s no big deal to mature people.
The second is just jerks being jerks. Whether it’s food, politics, religion, clothing, etc., there are some people who will want to force their views on others. The actual topic is not relevant. Jerks will be jerks no matter what.
It’s okay to be irritated with jerks. But don’t take the topic as a cause for being a jerk.