Restaurant food fads that should be retired

[flickster]

@Bridget Burke

And I’ll think twice about trying regional favorites out of their home region–no matter how fashionable they’ve become. For example: Should I ever make it to Dublin, Tante Zoe’s Cajun/Creole restaurant would not be my first choice…

Cajun is believed to have been the food of poor Negro folks, who lived along the waterways and swamps that dot Louisiana. Creole on the other hand, was the more aristocratic cuisine of the up tempo New Orleans city people.

Umm, nope. And I’m sure Ireland’s famous salmon is better un-blackened.

:eek: :eek: :eek: at Tante Zoe’s historical reference…Ain’t So is right :dubious:

[Anne_Neville]

@Ceejaytee

Gigantic plates artfully decorated with squiggles of sauces

Seconded. The whole “small portion of food on big plate” thing needs to die, now.

[OneCentStamp]

@Bridget Burke

I’ll still eat mesquite grilled dishes at any of the Goode Company Restaurants. Jim Goode knows what he’s doing.

Thanks, Bridget, for picking out my dinner destination tonight. The Goode Co. BBQ on I-10 and Voss sounds really good…e now.

[devilsknew]

@bouv

No, chipotle is specifically a smoked jalapeño, usually canned in adobo sauce. Other smoked chiles have there own name. Smoked pablanos are anchos, for example.

But I lervs me some chipotle, so bring it on, I say.

No shit, anal boy. That’s what I said in my post. Why don’t you try reading for comprehension? Chipotle is a smoked chile, so it’s one of the many ways of saying smoked chile. And as I pointed out in that post, chipotle is not just a smoked jalapeno, as you say, but a ripe,red, jalapeno.

mumble, mumble,…Grimacing Bowlus Holder…

[Chingon]

@devilsknew

No shit, anal boy. That’s what I said in my post. Why don’t you try reading for comprehension? Chipotle is a smoked chile, so it’s one of the many ways of saying smoked chile. And as I pointed out in that post, chipotle is not just a smoked jalapeno, as you say, but a ripe,red, jalapeno.

mumble, mumble,…Grimacing Bowlus Holder…

Somebody’s fussy…

[bouv]

@devilsknew

No shit, anal boy. That’s what I said in my post. Why don’t you try reading for comprehension?

This line:

“Chipotle” is just another way of saying smoked chile.

Sounds like you’re saying chipotle is a merely a synonym for “smoked chile.”

Would you say “Honda Accord” is just another way of saying car?

[Shoeless]

@Bambi Hassenpfeffer

The menu calls it Spinach & Artichoke Dip.

The POS system calls it SPIN DIP because it has limited space to work with and the employees call it spin dip because they say it thousands of times weekly. I know a lot of restaurant workers who work at various places with a spinach dip and they all call it spin dip just because it’s easier. But the menu never says that.

Reminds me of when my wife and I went to Jason’s Deli and ordered a couple of Southwest Chicken Chilis. The girl behind the counter yells out “I need two Swillies!” Yum… appetizing…

[Chingon]

@bouv

This line:
Sounds like you’re saying chipotle is a merely a synonym for “smoked chile.”

Would you say “Honda Accord” is just another way of saying car?

Well to be fair chipotle, or chilpocle comes from the Nahuatl words chil (chile) and pectli (smoke), so it does literally mean smoked chile. I don’t think however that the nuances of Nahuatl change the fact that chile chipotle refers to a jalapeno that has been ripened deep red on the plant and smoke-dried.

digression over

[Chingon]

Now on topic:

I am tired of everyone insisting on “toasting” my gorramn sammitch! I like a nice cold refreshing sandwich and don’t require melted cheese on everything I eat! The worst offense happened when someone tried to “toast” my cold cut combo!

[Qadgop_the_Mercotan]

Candied baby starfish and limburger spread. It’s nice once in a while, but jeez, give it a rest! And if you’re gonna make the attempt, use real limburger, not “processed limburger food”.

[Geek_Mecha]

Ditto the towers of food and sauce squiggles. I want food that looks appetizing, not a work of art. I want to feel like I’m eating my food, not dismantling it.

I hate the practice of putting lemon wedges in ice water. To me it screams, “Our water tastes like shit and we’re too cheap to buy a water filter.”

I also hate the practice of calling things “Asian” if they have mandarin oranges and almonds in them and “Hawaiian” if they have pineapple or mango flavorings, but these are probably lost battles.

[teela_brown]

Stop putting bleu cheese on my steaks. I like bleu cheese and I like steaks, but I don’t like them both together.

I bet this loathsome trend came about because someone thought they could cover up the flavor of a crap-ass steak by loading a bunch of blue cheese on top. Ick.

[Greg_Charles]

@Audrey Levins

I don’t have a problem with “chipotle mayo” or anything else about chipotle, other than the fact that it’s more omnipresent than Britney Spears. Play a new record, please?

Nitpick: omnipresent is a superlative. Nothing can be more omnipresent than something else … and anyway neither Britney [sic] Spears nor chipotle are really everywhere, because they’re not … oh, crap! She is here! She’s bald and she’s carrying a tub of chipotle. OK, my apologies.
Please help me!

[OneCentStamp]

@teela brown

Stop putting bleu cheese on my steaks. I like bleu cheese and I like steaks, but I don’t like them both together.

I bet this loathsome trend came about because someone thought they could cover up the flavor of a crap-ass steak by loading a bunch of blue cheese on top. Ick.

Hey, I like bleu cheese on my crap-ass steaks!

[Greg_Charles]

@Qadgop the Mercotan

Candied baby starfish and limburger spread. It’s nice once in a while, but jeez, give it a rest! And if you’re gonna make the attempt, use real limburger, not “processed limburger food”.

What three things in life are inevitable? Death, taxes, and SDMB followup posts like:

Hey, I like candied baby starfish and limburger spread!

(Also, you know not all of us can afford real limburger, your highness!)

[Ephemera]

@Chingon

Now on topic:

I am tired of everyone insisting on “toasting” my gorramn sammitch! I like a nice cold refreshing sandwich and don’t require melted cheese on everything I eat! The worst offense happened when someone tried to “toast” my cold cut combo!

I was asked once if I wanted my vegetarian sub toasted and was puzzled at first but decided to give it a try, anyway. Wasn’t bad, actually.

[IvoryTowerDenizen]

Monster-sized servings.

I don’t like to bring leftovers home. Eating out is usually a treat and I don’t mind indulging once in a while, but if I bring it home I then will indulge again for lunch and maybe for dinner!

Hubby and I will sometimes split a meal, but we don’t always want to do that. So, offer some reasonable portion sizes!

At one of favorite places you can ask for anything on the menu to be a kids meal (smaller portion). Up until recently my kids would split the kids size and still have some leftover!

Now my son is almost 13 and can eat me under the table.

[garygnu]

@Chingon

Now on topic:

I am tired of everyone insisting on “toasting” my gorramn sammitch! I like a nice cold refreshing sandwich and don’t require melted cheese on everything I eat! The worst offense happened when someone tried to “toast” my cold cut combo!

This gets me, too. It does not make a sandwich taste better.

For the chipotle thing, the bit that I can’t stand is the implication that chipotle flavor is super spicy. The flavor is OK to me, but has less kick than cocktail sauce.
If you say in the menu some dish is spicy, it damn well better be spicy. (I’m looking at you, Red Robin “5 Alarm” burger.)

[some_white_dude]

Rachael Ray is at least partly to blame for the propagation of the chipotle fad. She must use those things in half of her 30 minute meals. They are delicious, though.

I can’t think of any fads that I want to be gone. Goat cheese seems to be everywhere nowadays, but I can’t get enough of it. The slightest mention of goat cheese in a menu description and I automatically consider ordering it.

[Chingon]

Also, the ranchi-fying of everything! Wasabi-ranch, chipotle-ranch, southwest-ranch, cucumber-ranch, pizza-ranch, bacon-ranch, buffalo-ranch, ranch-ranch. I swear to god that ever since it became acceptable to use ranch as utilitarian dipping sauce the battle against obesity was lost. Ranch has become the new ketchup (catsup…ketchup…catsup…)