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#1 Fri 06 Nov 09 6:46pm
MsPablo
Occupation Just being me
- From Maryland, U.S.A.
- Member since Fri 28 Mar 08
- No of posts 7075
Now That Was a Bad Idea
Bad ideas in the world of food, here are some that top my list, what are yours?
Limiting customers to one glass of 'free' tap water. We tried to take a glass into the bathroom to fill, there was only hot water from the bathroom taps. Solution: We took our business to the cafe located just a few blocks away where tap water was free! (Berlin, Germany)
Foam -ick, seeing 'oyster foam' on a menu makes me want to gag.
Does anyone else get tired of waiters describing the six 'specials' when taking orders? I'd rather read what the specials are and mull it over while I compare with other menu items.
Parents allowing toddlers to handle the fresh produce in the grocery store. I'd rather no one handle it, especially a kid with hands that have been everywhere.
Last edited by MsPablo (Fri 06 Nov 09 6:47pm)
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#2 Fri 06 Nov 09 8:20pm
mr spice
- Member Occupation Working dad...
- From Germany
- Member since Sat 05 Sep 09
- No of posts 377
Re: Now That Was a Bad Idea
Paper uh plastic?
Sorry?
Paper uh plastic?
Excuse me?
Paper uh plastic?
Do what...?
Paper uh plastic?
Ah..I see, whatever is easiest, I have cash but I can pay with credit card if you like...
Shortly after this point, I realise that the young lady at the checkout in the US supermarket (Auburn Hills, Michigan) is actually trying to say, "Would you like your groceries packed in a paper or a plastic bag, Sir".
Unfortunately, due a cataclysmic shift in educational standards and social skills she is unable to articulate this sentence and thinks nothing of the fact...
Communication. I can only frequent establishments where conversation is the norm...You no talk-ey, me no buy-ey.
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#3 Fri 06 Nov 09 8:28pm
ACDC
Occupation Bewitched, bothered and bewildered Mother
- From Ireland
- Member since Tue 19 Aug 08
- No of posts 4315
Re: Now That Was a Bad Idea
If I had a little think about it I could probably come up with some foody ones, but mr spice and I would probably agree. If I go shopping and the "assistant" (s) are too busy talking on their mobile phones, or, more unlikely to one another, they are not good at communicating face to face with real people, I will leave and if there is a manager who happens to be uninvolved with a phone (not likely to be another human!!) I will state my reason for leaving. It has to be one of the most disrespectful things to happen, you've made your selection in the shop, go to the counter and are ignored or served by someone who never ceases to stop the other conversation they are having with someone else. I have had this happen once or twice, and gave up trying after that. If they can't have manners to interact with their customers, well this prospective customer will depart.
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#4 Fri 06 Nov 09 8:39pm
The White Rabbit
- From Sydney, Australia
- Member since Tue 22 Jun 04
- No of posts 8677
Re: Now That Was a Bad Idea
I went to a restuarant/club. We were in a priviate room, yet the entrance to the employee cloak room was on the opposite side of the room. They were through there the whole night, there was barely ten minutes that they weren't coming through. Seriously annoying especially when the "private" room was $1000 (included 4 bottles of Moet).
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#5 Sat 07 Nov 09 12:52am
frizz1974
-
Occupation Mother of 2
- From Wallerawang, Oz
- Member since Wed 29 Jun 05
- No of posts 9508
Re: Now That Was a Bad Idea
MsPablo wrote:
Bad ideas in the world of food, here are some that top my list, what are yours?
Limiting customers to one glass of 'free' tap water. We tried to take a glass into the bathroom to fill, there was only hot water from the bathroom taps. Solution: We took our business to the cafe located just a few blocks away where tap water was free! (Berlin, Germany)
Foam -ick, seeing 'oyster foam' on a menu makes me want to gag.
Does anyone else get tired of waiters describing the six 'specials' when taking orders? I'd rather read what the specials are and mull it over while I compare with other menu items.
Parents allowing toddlers to handle the fresh produce in the grocery store. I'd rather no one handle it, especially a kid with hands that have been everywhere.
The waiter thing though - I have been working in places where this is expected - and when I was at Fino's - a family run Italian place that was in the same location for over 20 years and had many, many regulars, the regs liked it as the specials were different & they would ask questions about prep or cooking sometimes or what it was being served with. So to me this custom was a good thing.
The coffee shop I go to in town have a big blackboard & as I eat the same thing every visit and so do most of their regulars I would probably be annoyed if they had the girls reading me the board each visit.
I think maybe it depends on the establishment & the regular clientelle.
Kids touching the fruit & veg is gross. Saw a kid with a snotty nose, with trails of green up his sleeve touching the grapes last time & was sickened by it.
In Oz it is illegal to charge for tap water or refuse to serve it - some restaurants went this way in the early 90's & there was a public outcry.
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#6 Sat 07 Nov 09 2:10pm
mrpab
- Member since Wed 23 Jul 08
- No of posts 4567
Re: Now That Was a Bad Idea
I can't believe that they sell pre-made, frozen peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches (with the crusts cut off). Also, frozen chocolate-chip cookie dough already formed into cookies, and arranged on a disposable baking sheet. And cheese-and-crackers already parceled out into individual "snack-packs".
I blame the big food companies and their marketing departments for this 'convenience gone mad', but then if no one bought them, they wouldn't exist ... 
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#7 Sat 07 Nov 09 2:39pm
Birdymum
- Member
- From Newcastle, NSW, Australia
- Member since Thu 23 Oct 08
- No of posts 326
Re: Now That Was a Bad Idea
I don't like Open food bars in restaurants where you are supposed to help yourself.
I have seen kids at the food bars take the wrong thing or overfill their plates. One particularly awful mother picked up the food from her child's plate with her hands and plonked it back on top of all the other food in that container. The child then used it's hands to retrieve the food. 
I then told the staff who happily changed the whole container of food but it makes me wonder what went on that I hadn't seen before I got there.
And never will go back again.
Last edited by Birdymum (Sat 07 Nov 09 2:40pm)
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#8 Sat 07 Nov 09 3:39pm
SonomaEddie
-
Occupation substitute teacher
- From Northern California
- Member since Sat 10 Feb 07
- No of posts 3803
Re: Now That Was a Bad Idea
Tang! (for those of you who may not know, it was a powdered orange juice drink.) Do they even sell it anymore?
Eddie
Last edited by SonomaEddie (Sat 07 Nov 09 3:40pm)
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#9 Sat 07 Nov 09 7:10pm
CarolineB
Occupation Triplet mom and part-time IT marketing manager
- From Bodensee
- Member since Sun 29 Jan 06
- No of posts 2069
Re: Now That Was a Bad Idea
Oh, yes. Tons of it:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=s … =0&y=0
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#10 Sat 07 Nov 09 9:56pm
frizz1974
-
Occupation Mother of 2
- From Wallerawang, Oz
- Member since Wed 29 Jun 05
- No of posts 9508
Re: Now That Was a Bad Idea
mrpab wrote:
I can't believe that they sell pre-made, frozen peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches (with the crusts cut off). Also, frozen chocolate-chip cookie dough already formed into cookies, and arranged on a disposable baking sheet. And cheese-and-crackers already parceled out into individual "snack-packs".
I blame the big food companies and their marketing departments for this 'convenience gone mad', but then if no one bought them, they wouldn't exist ...
You can buy peeled pumkin, carrot & potatoes in cryovac pacs so you can just tip them onto a baking tray with oi l& cook - but my favourite is these "pre-roasted" veg in an foil tray that have been previously cooked (deep fried is my guess) coated with "flavourings" and then frozen.
You have to cook them for 30-40 minutes anyway - so you may as well start off with real raw veggies.
My SIL buys them - she has OCD and doesnt then have to touch the food before it is cooked.
My baby sis in law buys loads of fresh stuff with the goal of eating well but even though she sits on her @rse all day watching tv she never remembers to start dinner until she is actually hungry so by then its too hard & long a process to cook with fresh food so they eat frozen crap or takeaway.
The other day she was justifying eating "Noodle Box" takeaway as she claims its healthy because the menu states "97% fat free" - I was LMAO at her - I couldnt be bothered trying to explain that paying $10 for a box of egg or rice noodles that have been stir fried in oil with a very small amount of meat & veg & loads of salty sugary sauces was not a healthy or budget worthy meal.
I am tempted at times to shake her & call her braindead 
PS : MsP - My Dad was saying yesterday that 2 minute noodles (ramen) send his sugar through the roof - he thinks the flavour sachets must be full of sugar, possibly, but the noodles themselves are highly processed wheat starch - so they would be high GI in themselves.
Have you read anything about this - am I right? I think it would be the noodles themselves that he shouldnt eat.
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