I usually take leftovers home from restaurants, but I never take home food from Mexican restaurants, and here is why:
First: I always glop sour cream and guacamole and so on onto it, plus pile on the lettuce and tomato, etc… things that you don’t want to reheat, and scraping it all off will also remove the sauce, and then what’s the point? And eating it cold? Nooooo thanks.
Second: tortilla-based foods get soggy and that’s bleah.
Third: it just looks unappetizing as hell the next day in the styrofoam box.
So what foods do you like, but will say “no thanks” to the idea of saving the leftovers?
Pasta. They always ask if I want that half-plate of linguini boxed up, and I shudder. Cold spaghetti can be a good thing, but not leftovers.
In fact, seeing as how we don’t have a dog, I can’t think of anything I’m willing to take home, except maybe the remains of a bottle of wine, which is both illegal and rare (that any would remain, not the bottle).
My favorite resturant used to have a dish they called “Shanghai Trout” which was a flilet of fish (breaded in almonds) on a bed of spinach and rice with a delicious sauce. I absolutely loved it, but every time I ordered it, I knew I’d be throwing out half of it.
I tell you, I tried every way I could think of to reheat it and it just couldn’t be done. the spinach always became brown and goopy.
I agree. And I’d say fish, but specifically the whole fish with head you get at the Thai restuarant - it’s amazingly good when you get it, but when you take it home you throw it out without even opening the box because you know it’s going to be in there, looking back at you.
Depending on the sauce, it can taste fine re-heated. Tomato based suaces are good for that, but most pastas of this type are pretty cheap, so you might as well have it fresh. Something like lasagna, though, can sometimes taste even better then next day.
My mom has one of those vacuum sealers for food, and she says that she vacuum seals her leftover pizza, and when she reheats it it is exactly like when it was fresh (not all dry and weird like it is if you try any other way.)
Acctually, some places (I think my state is one of them, but I could be wrong,) have laws that let you take home wine bought at a restaurant, under the theory that you bought it, so God damn it, you’re intitled to all of it. Basically, the restaurant "
re-corks" it, though it’s not a real cork. I think it’s almost like they put a champagne cork on it, with a twisty wire thing so that it isn’t considered an ‘open container’ if you have it in the car with you.
