So is the problem his taste in food, or your need to be all-inclusive all the time?
When people tell me they want to go somewhere that I really won’t find anything to eat at, I’ll tell them to have fun, and do something else. And I’m fine with that. Occasionally, I have run into people who decide that I just have to come along, and start trying to modify things–quite frankly, that’s there problem at that point, not mine, I’m OK with the way things were.
If this is someone you meet up with often enough that it wouldn’t be a big deal if someone missed it because they were out of town or had some other engagement, it’s probably not a big deal to occasionally eat at a place that he might not like.
If this really is a special, rare thing that everyone clears their calendars for, suck it up and eat at a steak place or whatever, save the Vietnamese/Mexican fusion stuff for the 330+ days out of the year you are not eating with him.
So can I, but not every time. He will have to learn to eat something from a regular menu. People have to grown up, someday, and you are just enabling him.
DrDeth, you’re right but it’s not Spoke’s responsibility to force the friend to grow up.
It’s “a pain in the ass”, with one person getting what he wants while his friends “put up with” it. What is he willing to do for the sake of getting together? Is he willing to cut himself out of the social circle over food?
I suppose the friends are viewing him has having some kind of disability and they don’t want to punish him. Perhaps. I guess the issue is how much control does he have over his eating habits, and how much are the friends willing to tolerate.
Certainly not, but they shouldn’t be enablers. Let’s assume there are four of them. One wants to only eat plain burgers and fries, another is a O-L Vegetarian, another does paleo and the fourth is Eatus Anythingus.
Each gets to pick one time in four. But having all four bow to the eating peculiarities of the burger dude for every meal is crazy.
Okay, I think that we basically agree but it seems that you want to stipulate what the friends should and shouldn’t do. If they think that it’s a pain in the ass to go along with this guy, and they still choose to go along with him, then that’s their decision.
I checked their menu, and my god that’s cringe worthy. I’m surprised they let outside food in, and then plate it for him. My 3 year old niece can eat more than this guy.
PITA sounds good to me.
I could care less if someone wants to only eat french fries for their rest of their lives. But it is a real pain in the ass when a group of people want to go to the Indian buffet around the corner from work and one stick in the mud goes “No Indian, too spicy .”
This happened last week. I tried to sell her on their tandoori chicken trying to convince her it taste basically like BBQ chicken, and that it’s not spicy and she could always take the skin off if she didn’t like the flavour. She wanted nothing to do with it, so we all had to go to the pub and she has the chicken brochette on rice. sigh
I think it has a lot to do with growing up and how parents handles picky behaviour from their kids. My mother was a this is what I’m cooking type of cook. If you don’t eat it. You starve, because she wasn’t cooking anything else. When I was a kid I disliked more foods than I enjoyed. But I ate them all and eventually started to enjoy almost everything by my early teens.
I always thought so until someone decided that we’d go to a Legal Seafoods in Boston for a work function. No one was asked if they like fish, and three of us didn’t. There were a grand total of 3 things on the dinner menu for that floor that aren’t fish.
I’m guessing that two of them were steak and some sort of grilled chicken, which is usually what people mean by simple food at a seafood place. At a steakhouse , there’s usually a couple of seafood dishes, a couple of chicken dishes and maybe a burger. There’s not going to be much of a selection if you don’t want fish at a seafood restaurant- but there will be something simple like a steak or grilled chicken without a lot of spices or sauce.
My ex wife when she was a teenager was an extremely picky eater, then she ended up on a choir tour of Europe and basically was cornered into eat what is provided or don’t eat. She got over her pickiness very quickly.
I don’t even think grilled chicken is an option there. For non seafood items they have a couple appetizers, steak and salad. The kids menu adds burgers, pizza and chicken fingers. I occasionally eat their with an actual child, not to many options for them.
It’s a really poor choice of places if you may have people who don’t eat seafood. If you’re looking for seafood it’s a sure shot but there are definitely better seafood places in Boston for the money.
