Gen Z “suffering menu anxiety at restaurants”

[djchapsticks]

12 hours ago, Chris Partlow said:

I don't mind sweet potato, but it doesn't 'crisp' as well as regular tatties and it's a nightmare to mash by hand.

Both of these ring true because it's not a potato, it's essentially a turnip or parsnip.

It's also rank rotten. It's far, far too sweet to go with anything really in my experience. Funny seeing menus advertising you 'upgrade' to sweet potato fries for £2 more. 

[velo army]

13 hours ago, carpetmonster said:

They’re low GI as compared to normal spuds; I think it was when that diet started appearing. 

Aye, when I worked at TGI's folk would order the sweet tattie fries as the "healthy" option. My response that they were deep fried and covered in salt didn't dissuade them. The burger they'd go with was around 1500kcal too.

 

 

[Leith Green]

35 minutes ago, velo army said:

Aye, when I worked at TGI's folk would order the sweet tattie fries as the "healthy" option. My response that they were deep fried and covered in salt didn't dissuade them. The burger they'd go with was around 1500kcal too.

I was at our American neighbours Thanksgiving a few weeks back - in addition to the usual (turkey and bevvy) they offered me a concoction - apparently popular in the USA - of mashed up Sweet Potato, Pecan nuts, brown sugar...................they thought it was healthier than usual as they hadnt put in Marshmallo !!

 

[Hedgecutter]

I had sweet potato fries yesterday and they were superb, so f*** the lot of you haters.

Tbf though, they have to have a degree of crisp to them.  Soggy ones ruin a meal.  It's a tightrope, one that's giving me anxiety.

[BFTD]

1 hour ago, hk blues said:

It's not that mad - we were in an Indian restaurant on Sunday and they had no rice.  

We left.  

At least they still had the mains, I suppose. I was at an Arbys that had run out of roast beef, and had been that way for days. The staff were wondering why they were still open - capturing the huge market of people looking for chips and nothing else, presumably.

[scottsdad]

Sweet potato fries done in the air fryer, nice and crispy - magic. 

[hk blues]

1 minute ago, BFTD said:

At least they still had the mains, I suppose. I was at an Arbys that had run out of roast beef, and had been that way for days. The staff were wondering why they were still open - capturing the huge market of people looking for chips and nothing else, presumably.

I suppose so, but both the wife and son wanted Biryani so we were f****d! Strangely enough they opted to go to a Greek restaurant instead and had kebabs - they could have had that in the Indian.  

[GHF-23]

13 hours ago, coprolite said:

There’s a guy at my work who’s “gluten intolerant” but doesn’t understand gluten so makes ordering an arseache. Rice? Can’t have that because of the gluten. Nor Nachos. Fine with a beer or six though. Because that doesn’t have much though. He’s probably gen z but I don’t know the gen rules. Younger than me and I’m an “x”.

We had that at our wedding reception at a brewery. Some of her family's boomers are "gluten intolerant" but none have a diagnosis of anything and make the rules up whenever - became a big deal whether the gluten free beer was properly "de-glutanised' and I wanted to say you're just West Coast hippies can we stop pretending this is real for a minute please. Meanwhile our friend who is coeliac (sp?) had her gluten free pizza made first in a clean oven and drank Gin and Tonic, no fuss whatsoever.

The one I can never work out is soy based stuff, I thought that was all off limits but I made dinner for a group including our coeliac (sp?) friend a few weeks ago and realised Miso is gluten free which I thought was a soy sauce byproduct

[scottsdad]

On the gluten thing, over time my missus has become more and more intolerant of various foods. In particular bread and pasta - if she eats too much it gives her really bad stomach cramps. Also most types of juice and wine, if she drinks them give her serious bad guts. She can only really drink Irn Bru and one type of wine. 

This has developed over the years. 

[pozbaird]

The menus I have anxiety with are the McDonalds electronic board menus. One - I’ve seen the snottery nosed school kids prodding at them in front of me. Two - they are sluggish and unresponsive to prodding. Three - they are badly laid out. 
 

Never has the phrase ‘fcuk um’ been so apt. Greasy, filthy, snottery, slow, and difficult to deal with. The menu equivalent of an Old Firm away support at your ground.

Edited December 20, 2023 by pozbaird

[Hedgecutter]

Pray for them when the Quality St / Roses get handed around.

 

(something I probably put in PTTGOYN this time every year: c***s that want you to eat nothing but the coffee ones because they don't like them)

[Jives Miguel]

Speaking on the phone, answering the door and speaking to servers/shop assistants when you don't know exactly what you want are all horrible experiences. Fully with Gen Z here.

 

Another aspect of the menu thing folk aren't thinking about, when you order you're speaking out in front of a group of people. If you have a phobia of public speaking then that will cause you anxiety.

Edited December 20, 2023 by Jives Miguel

[DiegoDiego]

10 hours ago, GHF-23 said:

The one I can never work out is soy based stuff, I thought that was all off limits but I made dinner for a group including our coeliac (sp?) friend a few weeks ago and realised Miso is gluten free which I thought was a soy sauce byproduct

Soy beans have no gluten content. However, soy sauce usually has plenty of wheat in it as well. Miso usually only has soy, but occasionally includes grain.

[Deanburn Dave]

8 hours ago, Jives Miguel said:

Another aspect of the menu thing folk aren't thinking about, when you order you're speaking out in front of a group of people. 

In an italian restaurant I ordered from the menu a couple of fancy sounding  Italian dishes flawlessly......and then fecked  my reputation by saying at the end of the order "gracias".

Oh the shame.

[Sergeant Wilson]

On 19/12/2023 at 10:47, Bonksy+HisChristianParade said:

I was placed next to a woman at our Christmas meal last week who ‘didn’t like’ any of the starters, and who only ate the roast potatoes from the main course. She basically just had dessert for her dinner. Fussy eaters are genuinely up there with nonces for me as some of the worst people in society.

I hope you ate hers.

[Silvio Tattiescone]

1 hour ago, Deanburn Dave said:

In an italian restaurant I ordered from the menu a couple of fancy sounding  Italian dishes flawlessly......and then fecked  my reputation by saying at the end of the order "gracias".

Oh the shame.

In Cartagena with the wife I totally mangled an order, managing to combine Spanish, English and French.  The young waitress just looked at me then, with her hand on her hip said exasperatedly "Look, just pick one and I can figure it out". In English. 

[ICTChris]

My brother-in-law asked for a chicken tikka masala in a Chinese restaurant once, he saw curry on the menu and assumed they'd do them.

[hk blues]

On 20/12/2023 at 18:08, pozbaird said:

The menus I have anxiety with are the McDonalds electronic board menus. One - I’ve seen the snottery nosed school kids prodding at them in front of me. Two - they are sluggish and unresponsive to prodding. Three - they are badly laid out. 
 

Never has the phrase ‘fcuk um’ been so apt. Greasy, filthy, snottery, slow, and difficult to deal with. The menu equivalent of an Old Firm away support at your ground.

Those could be equally applied to the school kids and the menu. Not so much the 'fcuk um' bit, though. 

[Desp]

On 19/12/2023 at 17:01, Richey Edwards said:

Sweet potato fries and mash has become popular for some reason. I'd rather have normal fries or mash. There are very few food items that I will not eat, but sweet potato is one of them. It's rank rotten.

I thought this was a more recent thing - I probably just live under a rock though.

It's certainly more of a thing than it was a few years ago, certainly in restaurants.  I don't actually mind sweet potato, tbf.

It's probably just the latest in these daft phases.  Remember about a decade ago pulled pork was all the rage?  Then a few years ago the trend of having salted caramel in every fucking dessert kicked off. 

 

[Richey Edwards]

7 minutes ago, Desp said:

It's certainly more of a thing than it was a few years ago, certainly in restaurants.  I don't actually mind sweet potato, tbf.

It's probably just the latest in these daft phases.  Remember about a decade ago pulled pork was all the rage?  Then a few years ago the trend of having salted caramel in every fucking dessert kicked off. 

 

Culinary hipster shit.

Should make a thread for new trends.