Things that are pissing you off- Food & Drink Edition

Originally Posted by Cary Grant

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Hothouse tomatoes are always in season... and from an enviro and shop local standpoint, they're probably the better deal. They're grown locally, they're much fresher, and they didn't have to be packed and shipped halfway across the country... and frankly, many of the world's better-respected chefs these days often admit that CANNED tomatoes are frequently a better choice for many dishes.

For me - eat in season REALLY applies to one are: fruit (besides tomatoes

). Especially apples. The ubiquity of the top 3 apples has meant many folks have no idea what a truly fresh apple is.
Hothouse tomatoes basically taste like ****. Canned tomatoes, good ones, are fine.

Ad Hoc at home - while big family style meals are the point, I hate that I don't have a massive enough cast iron pot to cook half this stuff in. Time to fork over $200 for another one.

Yup, I guess I'm one of those impossible to please customers who likes his red wine at cellar temperature. Some wines - like Pinot noirs and some Italian varietals - even a bit colder. On average, about 62 degrees.

But restaurants will never get this right.

So, along with your red wine, order yourself an ice bucket with a moderate amount of ice and a lot of water - submerge bottle until at appropriate temp. If waiter gives you a sideways response about "not chilling reds", take that as your cue to educate the stupid motherfucker.

And you might point out that his restaurant's crappy wine list with all those over-alc'd new world monsters actually taste better when the heat of alcohol is tamed a little by temperature. Not that you'd actually choose to drink one of those bullshit "wine cocktails", unless the list had nothing but overripe, overextracted, overalc'd grocery store wines... but that's another (worthy) rant.

Of course, this doesn't work for a wine that requires a thorough decanting, but how often do you wait for wine to thoroughly decant at a restaurant anyway? At home, for most good reds, I give it at least 4 hours.

In the end, there are but a handful of restaurants where I'd be willing to purchase a truly good bottle and pay the markup. You just can't expect proper wine service at most places.

Originally Posted by Ricardo Malocchio

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Yup, I guess I'm one of those impossible to please customers who likes his red wine at cellar temperature. Some wines - like Pinot noirs and some Italian varietals - even a bit colder. On average, about 62 degrees.

But restaurants will never get this right.

So, along with your red wine, order yourself an ice bucket with a moderate amount of ice and a lot of water - submerge bottle until at appropriate temp. If waiter gives you a sideways response about "not chilling reds", take that as your cue to educate the stupid motherfucker.

And you might point out that his restaurant's crappy wine list with all those over-alc'd new world monsters actually taste better when the heat of alcohol is tamed a little by temperature. Not that you'd actually choose to drink one of those bullshit "wine cocktails", unless the list had nothing but overripe, overextracted, overalc'd grocery store wines... but that's another (worthy) rant.

Of course, this doesn't work for a wine that requires a thorough decanting, but how often do you wait for wine to thoroughly decant at a restaurant anyway? At home, for most good reds, I give it at least 4 hours.

In the end, there are but a handful of restaurants where I'd be willing to purchase a truly good bottle and pay the markup. You just can't expect proper wine service at most places.

Mmmmmkay. It sounds like you kinda painted yourself into a corner there with your expectations and criteria of what would make you happy when drinking wine while dining out.

Vegetarians.

Originally Posted by Cary Grant

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Hothouse tomatoes are always in season... and from an enviro and shop local standpoint, they're probably the better deal. They're grown locally, they're much fresher, and they didn't have to be packed and shipped halfway across the country... and frankly, many of the world's better-respected chefs these days often admit that CANNED tomatoes are frequently a better choice for many dishes.

For me - eat in season REALLY applies to one are: fruit (besides tomatoes

). Especially apples. The ubiquity of the top 3 apples has meant many folks have no idea what a truly fresh apple is.
1) it is probably more accurate to say that hothouse tomatoes can be grown anywhere, where they are always in season. the "hothouse" tomato industry is actually located mostly in Canada (cheap land). and if you're talking environmental costs ... i'd like to see their heating bills.
2) most good cooks recognize that canned tomatoes are better than out-of-season tomatoes FOR SOME PREPARATIONS. making sauce, etc. you would not make a salad with canned tomatoes. No you wouldn't.
3) oddly enough, Golden Delicious can be a perfectly wonderful apple, if it is allowed to ripen. It's not the variety that's the problem (though it is with Red Delicious, but that's a more complicated story than it might seem). It's the way they're harvested. Also, some apples store better than others. you can't compare apples and apples in all matters.

here's another biggie for me: people who are "allergic" to things they don't like (or don't think they like).

The food allergy thing is really annoying when people use it's fear factor to their advantage and butcher a well thought out dish just because they don't like garlic. I always find it funny when people pull this bullshit, especially since my food allergies are absolutely ridiculous and I have never, ever, even mentioned it when I've been out at restaurants. You just need to be mindful of the menu really.

I was once serving a lady who was "allergic" to garlic. Of course there was a fair amount of garlic in the pasta she began with, but once she realized Mediterranean Sea Bass is not the same as Chilean Sea Bass she was suddenly allergic to garlic and could not eat it.

Originally Posted by foodguy

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here's another biggie for me: people who are "allergic" to things they don't like (or don't think they like).

picky eaters. Hate. It's such a first world luxury. Same with vegans.

Originally Posted by Johnny_5

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I was once serving a lady who was "allergic" to garlic. Of course there was a fair amount of garlic in the pasta she began with, but once she realized Mediterranean Sea Bass is not the same as Chilean Sea Bass she was suddenly allergic to garlic and could not eat it.

pleas tell me you still charged her. It's not like returning a ****** camera to the store (which in turn re-packs and sells it) ... it's a total loss on your part they if do not pay.

Originally Posted by gomestar

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picky eaters. Hate. It's such a first world luxury. Same with vegans.

Pretty much everything discussed on SF is a first world luxury. So what? I think most vegans would agree with you - their point, if I may speak for them, is that if you have a choice of what to eat, you should minimize the amount of what they consider to be cruelty. This is why they hate the stupid hypotheticals that omnivores predictably throw at them, e.g., "what if you lived on a deserted island and all there was to live on was fish?," "what about cavemen?" etc.

Now, I am in no way excusing impoliteness or needless nitpicking of the sort described with the sea bass above. I would also distinguish between choices made on an ethical basis and those made on a fear-of-the-unknown or ignorance basis.

Full disclosure: my girlfriend is vegan, and she goes to great lengths to ensure she is provided for with minimum disruption to fellow diners or guests. But there are always bad apples out there.

Originally Posted by samus

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Pretty much everything discussed on SF is a first world luxury.
fair enough.

Originally Posted by samus

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you should minimize the amount of what they consider to be cruelty.
while I am no advocate of the meat industry and make it a priority to buy as much as I can from a farmer I have befriended, I never really understood the argument that eating meat is a type of animal cruelty.

Originally Posted by samus

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Full disclosure: my girlfriend is vegan, and she goes to great lengths to ensure she is provided for with minimum disruption to fellow diners or guests.
GF's sister is/was a vegan. But I think she did it for attention (she likes to cause scenes and makes sure everybody knows about it and how special she is). And I don't think she was a very good vegan, how exactly do you turn vegan and gain 20 lbs?

Originally Posted by gomestar

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while I am no advocate of the meat industry and make it a priority to buy as much as I can from a farmer I have befriended, I never really understood the argument that eating meat is a type of animal cruelty.

I'm the same way, basically. I understand how they make that ethical judgment, but I haven't made that leap myself. I have, however, started eating less meat and when I do, I try to do the local/organic/etc. stuff.

GF's sister is/was a vegan. But I think she did it for attention (she likes to cause scenes and makes sure everybody knows about it and how special she is). And I don't think she was a very good vegan, how exactly do you turn vegan and gain 20 lbs?

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Heh. Like I said, bad apples in every bunch. But my girlfriend in particular hates the notion that veganism is just a weight-loss plan - especially the book "Skinny *****" which popularized that idea. I mean, you can be vegan and eat nothing but french fries and gain a hundred pounds.

Originally Posted by iammatt

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Hothouse tomatoes basically taste like ****. Canned tomatoes, good ones, are fine.

I'm a bad judge as I'm not too fond of fresh tomatoes but some of the co-ops and some of the better restaurants up here are sourcing from a local hot house and the chef's are raving about them. We get them from plant to table in a day or so which even the best options from the wet coast cannot do.

Originally Posted by gomestar

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pleas tell me you still charged her. It's not like returning a ****** camera to the store (which in turn re-packs and sells it) ... it's a total loss on your part they if do not pay.
When she got her fish I overheard her saying to the kitchen waiter, "I thought chilean sea bass was a large fish....." A few seconds later I strolled over and asked her if everything was alright. She had told me that she was "allergic" to garlic and could not eat the whole branzino that she had ordered. She was so full of **** the whites of her eyes turned brown. My response was (with very straight face), "Well there was plenty of garlic in the pesto you consumed with your appetizer, I will call you an ambulance" And started briskly walking to the phone. Her response, "No, no, no it's fine! PLEASE DONT!! I just thought it was a different fish and wanted something else!" and she proceeded to eat the fish. At this point the table next to her was aware of the situation and had a really tough time containing their laughter. It was clear that the lady was extremely embarrassed. She ate very quickly, paid her check, and left in shame. I had actually felt kind of bad afterwards, but she could have avoided the situation by being up front with me, or even asking a question or two.