Food/Food Culture Pet Peeves - Page 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by IceMan 

I can't stand using "protein" for whatever the meat is or should be. I call whatever it is "meat"; chicken, fish, tofu, soylent-green, whatever. I think this was started by "Competition TV Food/Cooking Show Judges", most of which I can't stand. Scott Conant is one of the biggest bananas of the bunch. Marc Murphy is an idiot too. I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin', but I think those two(2) guys used "protein" first. Oh yeah, I could be wrong.     

I understand your feeling, but sometimes it's just useful - say you're planning a meal with someone, they say they want polenta and tomato coulis, you can ask for what protein would that be, rather than ask for what meat or fish or shellfish or fowl would that be. It's just a more general word. 

This thread reminds me of a guy my husband used to work with.  He was all about convenience even when it came to food.  We were at his place one night for a BBQ and the only thing that was actually cooked there was the steak.  They went to Nortown Foods in TO and picked up all of the side dishes and dessert.  I made a salad and they were wondering where I bought it and my reply was "I made it" and they were shocked. 

The next day we went to Canada's Wonderland with them and their laziness toward food totally shocked hubby and I.  The food at Wonderland is overpriced crap so we brought our own.  We brought homemade mini subs, veggie sticks, fruit and homemade cookes but we did buy drinks there so we could at least sit and eat in the eating area.  They brought their own food too but it was party sandwiches that they had ordered from the Pickle Barrel and a premade salad from there too.  Hmm....  they wondered where we bought the mini subs and again got the same reply as the night before. 

I agree with Jermaine Jones.  EVOO isn't the problem...It's the fact that every time Rachael Ray says EVOO, right after she has to say Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  So why even say even say EVOO. 

I hate all acronyms, which are rampant in my own profession and i refuse to use them.  They have something of the "in group" feeling to them.  The first time i saw evoo was in these forums. In ordinary conversation with friends who ask a recipe I just say "oil" or at times "olive oil" and usually specify  when i'm writing in an international context, and most of the time in everyday conversation I only specify if it's NOT olive - like i might say peanut oil, but normally i just say oil - since this is more or less what everyone uses here.  I can see that that can be a form of snobbery too, but i also say "olive oil" if i want to specify, or in certain cases when it's used uncooked on top of something, like salad, potatoes, etc, i might specify extra virgin, that is, when it really makes a difference.  For a soffritto in a very flavorful sauce it probably doesn't.  I use it because i don't want the chemicals that remain when non extra virgin is processed.   

Years ago my family had a subscription to gourmet magazine.  One of the readers wrote a letter to the editor saying "you should stop writing "freshly ground black pepper" in your recipes - all the people who will use freshly ground will use it anyway, and the others who don't normally use it won't use it anyway, so don't bother" and they accepted this suggestion.  If someone won't use extra virgin, either because they dont; know the difference or CAN'T AFFORD IT (this may not be considered by food snobs to be a consideration, but it is for the majority of people on the planet) they won't.  But to say evoo or extra virgin every time, it seems to mainly serve to say that I  use extra virgin, see how superior i am?

The use of "evoo" sounds like a particularly in-group kind of thing, because it's not just that we use extra virgin olive oil, but that we have our own pet name for it that others may not know.  In writing on word documents (not, of course, on a website) you can set your automatic correction to write out the entire phrase from the acronym (like if you want to write "extra virgin olive oil" you can set it so that if you write evoo (or even xxx) it will automatically come out with the entire phrase.  Very useful, and renders the need for acronyms useless as a time saving device. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by KYHeirloomer 

Sometimes that works, Chris. F'rinstance, we have restaurants, particular in the south, where they serve "a meat and two" or "a meat and three." The word meat is used generically, because it could be beef, or pork, or chicken.

 

But, in general, do you include poultry and fish in the term "meat,"? I don't. Nor, would I'd guess, do most people.  I usually differentiate between wild game and domestic meat as well.

 

KYH, maybe it's a European thing, but we use the word "meat" for beef, veal, lamb, goat, duck, chicken, fish, etc. etc.  Wild or bred, makes no difference.

It's not strange over here to hear a chef speaking of fishmeat, crabmeat, lobstermeat, musselmeat...

But in general, my pet peeve is not about looking for the right word. In my original post I wrote; ...Sounds like something coming from a clinical laboratorium, not from a farm where people put all there love and hard work in breeding or growing fantastic products....

I was just saying that in my opinion using words like evoo and protein don't express a lot of respect for those respective products. We're cooks, amateurs or pro's; we're not working with foodgroups, we work with pork or beef or lamb or olive oil..etc. Doesn't that sound just a tiny small minuscule little bit more appreciating than protein?

FrenchFries; thanks for clarifying the cultural difference of this on both continents. Makes perfect sense to me!

CHRIS

 Same thing in Soviet Union  when I was there all meats were called Shishka.  I though it meant Shish Ka Bob at the time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChrisBelgium 

KYH, maybe it's a European thing, but we use the word "meat" for beef, veal, lamb, goat, duck, chicken, fish, etc. etc.  Wild or bred, makes no difference.

It's not strange over here to hear a chef speaking of fishmeat, crabmeat, lobstermeat, musselmeat...

Really? In France I've never heard of the term meat applied to any kind of seafood - which leads me to a question I should have asked you a long time ago: are you Flemish or Wallon? Because in French the term "viande" (meat) is typically only use for butcher meats: beef, veal, lamb, pork. Poultry is a gray area: sometimes it's included under the umbrella of "meat", but most of the time it deserves its own section. But I've never heard of "viande de crabe", or "viande de moules" etc...

Quote:

Originally Posted by French Fries 

Really? In France I've never heard of the term meat applied to any kind of seafood - which leads me to a question I should have asked you a long time ago: are you Flemish or Wallon? Because in French the term "viande" (meat) is typically only use for butcher meats: beef, veal, lamb, pork. Poultry is a gray area: sometimes it's included under the umbrella of "meat", but most of the time it deserves its own section. But I've never heard of "viande de crabe", or "viande de moules" etc...

I live indeed in the Flemish part. 

There is another term in french that also means meat. It's the word chair wich is used in a more general way like in;  chair de... (fill in any meat, seafood or fish, even tomatoes!).

In flemish we only have one word for chair and viande which is "vlees" meaning "meat" in english.

Viande is indeed a butcher's product.

Ah "chair", yes, that one could apply to many things more than "viande". But I would translate "meat" to "viande" and "flesh" to "chair". 

Wow I just looked up "meat" in the dictionary.... I was surprised by the first meaning, especially 1a!

Definition of MEAT

<<people acting like SOME people's food allergies or illnesses apply to everyone (from sugar to gluten to salt to milk to wheat to anything good>>

In what context have you observed this behavior?  Speaking as someone with serious food allergies, I would  never make anyone else abstain from something I can't eat.  On the other hand, if I am dining with a former pasta fanatic who now has celiac-sprue (gluten intolerance), ordering pasta for myself would be kinda mean. 

As a home cook, I've found that working around people's allergies have turned me on to some delicious alternatives.  Lactose intolerance?  No problem -- almonds plus water and sweetener = yummy flavored, dare I say "gourmet," milk for your coffee.  No eggs for baking?  Flax + water (or oil, depending on the recipe).  It doesn't taste the same, but it has its charms.  No to bananas but yes to mango?  Blended mangos, oddly enough, taste like banana (or perhaps that's just wishful thinking on my part because its on my list of no-nos.).  My next challenge will be making and baking with gluten-free flours.  I have no idea what to expect, but am excited.  :)

The only substitution that I haven't enjoyed -- and have no clue how to work around -- is the use of non-dairy milks in savory dishes.  Desserts are just fine, but a cream soup with soymilk?  Yeeeeech. Nasty.  (Coconut milk is an exception -- it tastes delicious in Indian, Ital and Asian dishes.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kittycat 

<<people acting like SOME people's food allergies or illnesses apply to everyone (from sugar to gluten to salt to milk to wheat to anything good>>

 

In what context have you observed this behavior?  Speaking as someone with serious food allergies, I would  never make anyone else abstain from something I can't eat.  On the other hand, if I am dining with a former pasta fanatic who now has celiac-sprue (gluten intolerance), ordering pasta for myself would be kinda mean. 

 

As a home cook, I've found that working around people's allergies have turned me on to some delicious alternatives.  Lactose intolerance?  No problem -- almonds plus water and sweetener = yummy flavored, dare I say "gourmet," milk for your coffee.  No eggs for baking?  Flax + water (or oil, depending on the recipe).  It doesn't taste the same, but it has its charms.  No to bananas but yes to mango?  Blended mangos, oddly enough, taste like banana (or perhaps that's just wishful thinking on my part because its on my list of no-nos.).  My next challenge will be making and baking with gluten-free flours.  I have no idea what to expect, but am excited.  :)

 

The only substitution that I haven't enjoyed -- and have no clue how to work around -- is the use of non-dairy milks in savory dishes.  Desserts are just fine, but a cream soup with soymilk?  Yeeeeech. Nasty.  (Coconut milk is an exception -- it tastes delicious in Indian, Ital and Asian dishes.)

 

 

 

Kittycat, I wasn't referring to allergic people wanting others to eat like them, but those who are NOT allergic who believe that because something causes allergies in some, nobody should eat it because it's unhealthy (e.g. people who DON'T have celiac disease avoiding gluten, or who are NOT allergic to milk thinking that milk is dangerous or unhealthy). 

As for soy "milk"  there's a funny youtube of Louis Black on milk - he says: soy MILK??? soy MILK??? it's not soy MILK it's ^&#$#ing soy JUICE! 

I've had to try it once when i was a guest and someone had nothing else and i can say there is little that is worse in your coffee than bean juice. 

I agree that i wouldn't flaunt my ability to eat anything without problems if i were eating with a friend with allergies or diabetic or celiac - I agree that would be mean.  I'm not so cautious, however, with these people who go to a quack doctor who says they can heal anything with a diet and who, after doing some mumbo jumbo with the person holding sealed glass bottles of different substances and a pendulum tell them (always) that they are allergic to milk and wheat.  I find it even an affront to those who actually ARE allergic to these things.  (I don't know about there, but there are tons of quack "doctors" (no medical degree) who do this stuff, and even more people who follow them.  It is a disservice to those who actually do have food-related diseases or allergies because it makes it seem less credible!)

My peeve is people who say "I'm vegetarian but I do eat fish". NO YOU ARE NOT!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by indianwells 

My peeve is people who say "I'm vegetarian but I do eat fish". NO YOU ARE NOT!!

vegetarians that eat fish are called  pescetarians. They are genarally more concerned with health insted of "doing it for the animals".
 but I am constaintly getting into arguments with vegetarians, ahhhh it is so much fun >:)
 

To me, "meat" means any animal. Chicken, beef, pork, fish.... all different kinds of meat. They're certainly not plants, right?

Which has, of course, led to the discussion of whether or not I should consider eggs to be "meat" since they're also not plants.  Which I don't. I mentally put eggs in the same category as milk and cheese -- animal derived foods. This is the category that a vegetarian will usually eat, but not a vegan.

I have a pet peeve against vegetarians who refuse to eat meat because it's morally wrong to eat animals. I question the logic whereby they value the life of a cow over the life of a potato. There's no inherent reason one life should be morally OK to end but not the other one. With the exception of phytoplankton, virtually all life exists by ending other life -- incorporating external, living biomass into its own body, extracting the usable resources, and discarding the waste.

I also take pleasure in explaining that, because of the way they metabolize their food, mushrooms and fungi are closer to being animals than they are to being plants. I like to explain the proper way to "slaughter" or "butcher" mushrooms.

I save the anti-vegetarianist rants for the truly annoying, militant vegetarians, though. If they want to have the right to preach to and annoy me, I reserve the right to do the same in reverse.

I don't like hearing EVOO. Smacks of elitism, like scientific reports that throw around acronyms because surely everybody who matters understands what they mean. But I also happily throw around phrases like "mono lipid bilayer" when I'm explaining how soaps and oils interact so I'm not sure I have the moral high ground on this one. Maybe we all like to feel elitist every now and then.

I have a pet peeve against people who call produce "fresh" that was picked before it was ripe on another continent. So much flavorless drek in the so-called "fresh fruits and vegetables" section that was picked before its time. I like local, in-season produce so much better.

I dislike people rolling up dozens of different regional food styles into the "Tex-Mex" category. Mabye it's because I live in New Mexico and we have a long-standing rivalry with Texas. We would never, ever, EVER say our food was anything like theirs. Not even close. Our food is also totally different from Mexican food. We get unreasonably emotional when lumped into larger categories, and it's hard to accept that the rest of the world simply doesn't seem to care.

"Kobe" or "Waygu" anything....that's ground.

Like...sliders....or burgers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by EJDutcher 

vegetarians that eat fish are called  pescetarians. They are genarally more concerned with health insted of "doing it for the animals".
 but I am constaintly getting into arguments with vegetarians, ahhhh it is so much fun >:)
 

 

My MIL is a pescetarian, but mainly for the welfare of animals...she's certainly not healthy.  She won't eat a single chicken, but will HOUSE a dozen shrimp. Don't make a bit of sense to me...
 

My peeves with current food culture-

Precious little presentations of food with tiny bits of who-knows-what arranged on a plate. 

Flavor "Dust"-excuse me, I remove dust from my furniture. I don't want to eat it.

Smoked fruit- it sounds like it might be good, but it never is! It tastes burnt.

Plates that are too big for the dining table. Sheesh! If there is no room on the table for 2 plates, cutlery, water and wine glasses, s&p shakers and a bud vase-your table is too small or the plates too big!

Smears of sauce. Give me the sauce please, don't tease me with a chintzy suggestion. Sauce a dish or don't sauce. 

Narrow rectangular or square plates. Really, it looks kind of nice, but try eating from it-food always end up on your lap!

Cream sauces drizzled over beautiful food. It looks disgusting. I know, this is my imagination running away with me..... but still. Put the pretty stuff on top and the white, hacked-up lugie underneath, OK?

OK, this is not technically a food issue, but a service issue-waits who squat down next to the table to talk to you about the menu or whatever. Too intimate and it looks like a severed head just landed on the table. 

Now, I know this one will set off all the molecular gastronomists, but I HATE foams! Again, it's the hacked-up lugie effect. The taste never compensates for the visual effect. Sorry.

So many of these issues stem from the over-contrived approach to cooking these days. I think chefs get more bang for their buck by using superlative ingredients and allowing the food to be what it is, not manipulating it beyond human recognition. Case in point-Dan Barber of Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Tarrytown, NY. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by siduri 

Years ago my family had a subscription to gourmet magazine.  One of the readers wrote a letter to the editor saying "you should stop writing "freshly ground black pepper" in your recipes - all the people who will use freshly ground will use it anyway, and the others who don't normally use it won't use it anyway, so don't bother" and they accepted this suggestion.  If someone won't use extra virgin, either because they dont; know the difference or CAN'T AFFORD IT (this may not be considered by food snobs to be a consideration, but it is for the majority of people on the planet) they won't.  But to say evoo or extra virgin every time, it seems to mainly serve to say that I  use extra virgin, see how superior i am?

Extra-virgin is often specified for precision, rather than prestige. It distinguishes between the fruitier extra-virgin variety and the more neutral varieties. For example, I have known some chefs that use pomace oil for cooking dishes where they either want a more neutral flavored oil or want to cook at a temperature where the oil would smoke. I do agree that the abbreviation sounds weird, but that might be my aversion to Rachel Ray talking.

My pet peeve is the "ewwwwww, gross" reaction that people have to stuff that they are unfamiliar with. Also, Rachel Ray and people who use the expression "pet peeves."

My personal "peev" is when judges on certain shows "freak out" when a saute pan actually has flames coming out of it......lol......You always hear the "Oh no!...and, sigh, Oh boy".....What gives?  And they call themselves chefs/food authors/restaurant owners, etc?  Like fire on a grill (yes, I've heard that one as well) and a flaming saute pan is a big no-no.....Flames are a part of cooking.....when those flames actually begin to burn/overcook the product your cooking, yes, they can be a problem...But that comes down to the skill level of the person cooking the food...Just my opinion..lol...

T

I can't stand it when my mother nags at me about doing things "wrong" while I am trying to cook, like the time she got mad at me because I didn't cook the spaghetti squash right.

According to her they have to be cooked in the oven for 1 1/2 hours......

yeah...

over-kill, I know.

I can't stand it when my team members in class (currently a culinary student and we cook in teams of 3-4) can't get their shit together. In class I like to be well prepared and organized so that all of the food can be served hot/cold on time! People who show up late, look sloppy, or stand around not doing anything unless they are told need to pack up, get out of the kitchen, and stop wasting their money on culinary school.

/people who don't like to clean up after themselves in the kitchen...cleaning is a part of the job, get over it -__-

If they stand around and wait to be told ,or  they are lazy , they wont last long in this business.

What pisses me off is when a person eats all the ingredients of something I am cooking like cream in ice cream, cheese and eggs but when I make a awesome quiche they act like they are allergic to it. They wont eat chicken I have cooked saying it makes them lose bladder control but eat fried chicken sandwiches from Arby's 3 days a week.

Parents that make their kids picky eaters. A friend has a kid that turns his nose up at everything. I make a great taco salad and her kid eats all the different parts separately but when mixed together he looks like he has drank hemlock and is going to die. I refuse to leave out one ingredient he doesn't like and say eat it or have your mommy get you a burger on the way home. When I was growing up I had to eat at least 4 bites of whatever food was put in front of me, I didn't like it I went to bed hungry. 

Going to a friends house to cook for them, they know exactly when it will be ready. When I get there they are eating a big meal when I came over to cook a big meal. Then they are too full to eat so I leave some for them only to see it rotten in the fridge days later. Also when they want you to make something and I have to start by cleaning and sanitizing their kitchen as well as afterwards as I know the dishes wont get done for a couple days. Also when I am cooking part of a meal and they are supposed to warm up something and they are to busy texting to turn the stove on and I get a cold veggie. When you are cooking and people act like you are inconveniencing if you ask them for help especially when handling meat so you don't contaminate other things by touching them. 

People that don't get how dangerous working with raw meat like pork and chicken is in the kitchen. I have friends that thaw in hot water in the sink without washing it first, I never thaw in a sink with hot water, I plan ahead and defrost in the fridge . People that sit raw chicken in 8 different places in a kitchen when I am cooking half the meal causing me to go into sanitizing mode several times or even knock something on the floor I saw raw chicken or pork dripped on. 

Women and men that are so damn lazy they open a can of Hunts tomato sauce ( a brand I will NEVER cook with) puts it in a pan with no seasoning and pours it over noodles when I have left spices there on purpose so they could use them and they eat this crap, disgusting. I even leave garlic and a garlic press there and they are too lazy.  

Someone that picks up a knife I am using to make salsa and guacamole to open a package of meat or cut it and puts it back on the cutting board, thank God I noticed and cleaned the board and knife before resuming. Now I carry my own knives when I cook for friends that are extremely sharp and tell them don't touch. I also pick a spot and tell everyone else to pick a spot and stay in that area to prep food. I also insist on taking care of the meat now as I have never gotten a person sick with my food. My food safety is starting to be picked up by friends now and I refuse to eat certain things because a person that is not safe cooked it, now they are all getting anal about keeping things clean. 

Getting invited for dinner after I cooked the previous weekend to be served boxed foods, your'e joking right. I know you can't cook that well but make a effort. Also when this person makes mac and cheese with Velveta and adds milk to it ruining it. When I make a mac and cheese from scratch with $15 bucks worth of cheese and they pour ketchup all over it, I am not friends with this person anymore. Also people who use a whole bottle of hot sauce on something I just made, when I eat a friends food I eat it as served and don't insult them by drowning it in a cheap bottled hot sauce. 

When you are invited to dinner and the cut of meat they got is at home on the sole of my shoe. Think I keep about a grand with of good cuts in the freezer, never got a complaint about tough meat when I cook. I know not everyone can afford what I buy but get chicken over a lousy cut of beef that I can't even chew. I am more impressed that you are cooking for me so serve me cheap chicken which I like over tough meat. 

People that can't spice food. They never taste so it has no spice to it or way too much. When meat is over spiced with seasoning salt to the point that it takes my blood pressure up while pieces of the meat have no spice, mix it with some flour and dredge the meat in it then grill or fry it.

People that when you show them how easy it is to bake a cake from scratch they still make it from a box. People that think its funny that they are too lazy to cook from scratch for their family. 

Plates with chips missing, I am known for being clumsy around chipped plates. 

I think that about covers it. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquared 

...

 

Parents that make their kids picky eaters. A friend has a kid that turns his nose up at everything. I make a great taco salad and her kid eats all the different parts separately but when mixed together he looks like he has drank hemlock and is going to die. I refuse to leave out one ingredient he doesn't like and say eat it or have your mommy get you a burger on the way home. When I was growing up I had to eat at least 4 bites of whatever food was put in front of me, I didn't like it I went to bed hungry. 

 

Going to a friends house to cook for them, they know exactly when it will be ready. When I get there they are eating a big meal when I came over to cook a big meal. Then they are too full to eat so I leave some for them only to see it rotten in the fridge days later. Also when they want you to make something and I have to start by cleaning and sanitizing their kitchen as well as afterwards as I know the dishes wont get done for a couple days. Also when I am cooking part of a meal and they are supposed to warm up something and they are to busy texting to turn the stove on and I get a cold veggie. When you are cooking and people act like you are inconveniencing if you ask them for help especially when handling meat so you don't contaminate other things by touching them. 

 

...

Women and men that are so damn lazy they open a can of Hunts tomato sauce ( a brand I will NEVER cook with) puts it in a pan with no seasoning and pours it over noodles when I have left spices there on purpose so they could use them and they eat this crap, disgusting. I even leave garlic and a garlic press there and they are too lazy.  

 

...

 

Getting invited for dinner after I cooked the previous weekend to be served boxed foods, your'e joking right. I know you can't cook that well but make a effort. Also when this person makes mac and cheese with Velveta and adds milk to it ruining it. When I make a mac and cheese from scratch with $15 bucks worth of cheese and they pour ketchup all over it, I am not friends with this person anymore. Also people who use a whole bottle of hot sauce on something I just made, when I eat a friends food I eat it as served and don't insult them by drowning it in a cheap bottled hot sauce. 

 

When you are invited to dinner and the cut of meat they got is at home on the sole of my shoe. Think I keep about a grand with of good cuts in the freezer, never got a complaint about tough meat when I cook. I know not everyone can afford what I buy but get chicken over a lousy cut of beef that I can't even chew. I am more impressed that you are cooking for me so serve me cheap chicken which I like over tough meat. 

 

...

 

People that when you show them how easy it is to bake a cake from scratch they still make it from a box. People that think its funny that they are too lazy to cook from scratch for their family. 

 

 

Plates with chips missing, I am known for being clumsy around chipped plates. 

 

 

 

I agree that it's annoying when kids are encouraged to be picky eaters.  However being that it's someone else's kid they have the right to parent them whichever way they want to.  It's not a reflection of who you are as a chef so you shouldn't let that bother you.

Who are all these friends that you are talking about?  Why are you going over there and cooking for them when they don't appreciate it?  I'll be honest, I have some friends who think they can cook but I actually do not like their cooking and so before I eat at their house I eat a meal and often times when they give me food it goes rotten in the fridge because I don't like it. 

If someone wants to eat Hunts tomato sauce there is nothing you can do to dissuade them.  It doesn't matter how much seasoning you leave for them, why is it so important to you that they eat what you think is good?

Buying meat is tricky.  Not everyone can afford expensive cuts of meat.  When I have a dinner party I make it a point to buy a lesser cut of meat like lamb shoulder, beef chuck, or pork belly.  I am thrilled when I can show off how delicious these affordable pieces of meat are if they are prepared correctly.  Any joe schmoe can buy a tenderloin and cook it medium rare, not many people can make a masterpiece out of a lamb shoulder. 
 

I make cake from a box.  It's good cake.

Chipped plates have their charm.  I get it that this is a thread about pet peeves but geez, you're persnicketty!

Amen! Koukouvagia.

I don't think persnicketty begins to describe it. This is someone with a serious my-way-of-the-highway problem.

BTW, Esquared, despite what you seem to think, not every problem can be solved merely by throwing money at it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by KYHeirloomer 

...This is someone with a serious my-way-of-the-highway problem.

 

 

You mean my-way-OR-the-highway no?  Don't worry, I mess sayings like that up all the time.  I remember when I was a teenager my friend called me up the day of her birthday and boasted "I'm 18 now I'm 18 now!"  All I could think was, who cares if she made tea now?

I don't always serve the best meat for friends, most couldn't tell $2 a pound pork tenderloin from $8 a pound meat so they get the $2 a pound tenderloin. It's not about the seasoning I left as I want them to use it it is the laziness of warming up a can and then saying mine is better but not making theirs better and then wanting me to eat with them and I do because it is an insult when something is offered and you refuse it. Funny when I left 5 cans of my sauce there it was gone in a week. As for cake a scratch one is fast and easy and the crap ingredients that comes in a box are missing. Just saying that I like to get back a little of what I give. As for the idea of my food going bad in the fridge because it tastes bad people usually plow through my food when they haven't eaten, don't think I would be asked to cook as often as I am if my food was only worthy of rotting in a fridge. I think the food going bad is that they are too good to eat the same food a second day, I just made seafood chowder, I will eat it for 4-5 days. Most of the friends have been dumped for better friends that appreciate when I come over to cook and even pitch in on the grocery list. Chipped plates under the rim is fine but where the food sits or in the middle of the plate is not cool, I ended up with a piece of a plate in my mouth one time from a chipped plate, don't use them for guests. 
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koukouvagia 

 

I agree that it's annoying when kids are encouraged to be picky eaters.  However being that it's someone else's kid they have the right to parent them whichever way they want to.  It's not a reflection of who you are as a chef so you shouldn't let that bother you.

 

Who are all these friends that you are talking about?  Why are you going over there and cooking for them when they don't appreciate it?  I'll be honest, I have some friends who think they can cook but I actually do not like their cooking and so before I eat at their house I eat a meal and often times when they give me food it goes rotten in the fridge because I don't like it. 

 

If someone wants to eat Hunts tomato sauce there is nothing you can do to dissuade them.  It doesn't matter how much seasoning you leave for them, why is it so important to you that they eat what you think is good?

 

Buying meat is tricky.  Not everyone can afford expensive cuts of meat.  When I have a dinner party I make it a point to buy a lesser cut of meat like lamb shoulder, beef chuck, or pork belly.  I am thrilled when I can show off how delicious these affordable pieces of meat are if they are prepared correctly.  Any joe schmoe can buy a tenderloin and cook it medium rare, not many people can make a masterpiece out of a lamb shoulder. 
 

I make cake from a box.  It's good cake.

 

Chipped plates have their charm.  I get it that this is a thread about pet peeves but geez, you're persnicketty!

 

I know persackitically what you mean, KK. But in this case it has more to do with lousy typing. The keyboard that came with the new computer really sucks, and I'll be replacing it soons possible. But in the meantime, expect lots of typos. Sorry.

When I was a kid I worked in a Vegetarian Hotel in Fallsburg NY.  They were all Anemic looking people with no color in their faces like zombies . In those days everything was made from Protose and Nutrose. and nut meats. They did eat eggs.

I think one of my biggest pet peeves is how a lot of people are more than willing to eat beef, pork and chicken but the thought of eating game meat seems to almost turn their stomach and actually seem to look down at me for eating it.

Another one for me is as a lot of you guys have already mentioned is picky eaters, one thing I always tell my son is "Try it once and if you don't like it try it again just to make sure" ..... the funny thing about my son though is the fact that he will say he's not hungry when offered something like a ham sandwich but put a plate in front of him with mystery meat and tell him it's something ohh say beef tongue and he won't hesitate and try to eat everything including the plate 

Food doesn't have to be expensive to be good ... take fejioada for example it's black beans cooked with whatever left over pork products and what not served over rice, and it's absolutely delicious .... if it's cooked properly (my wife tried to get me to eat some that had hot dog cut up in stating that our sister in law who is from Brazil showed her how to make it that way ... I took one bite and refused to eat any more of it)

(statement)  "EW EW I don't like that""  (question) Have you ever tried it    (answer)   No      (question) Then how do you know you don't like it ??

Typical of some of statements I have heard over the years.