Cooking vs Restaurants

[Astreja]

 The main abuse *this* waitstaff suffered last night was the sore-knees slog up the staircase to advise my daughter that dinner was ready.  We really should get an intercom between the first and third floors.

Old school

I don't think that'll work around here -- the floor-to-floor acoustics are sufficiently damped down that I can practice on my E flat clarinet and she can blow shit up in various video games, and not disturb each other.

[Neo-Scholastic]

Dining at fine resturants exposes us to dishes we can then learn to make at home. Otherwise when we dine out it is for special dishes that cannot be easily replicated at home.

[Spongebob]

I don’t outburst when someone suggests pizza. I do, however, get a little cranky when they try to pressure me into it, by saying things like, ‘But you haven’t had it from [insert name of their favourite pizzeria here]’ or ‘But I make it [an interminably dull recitation of their own special pizza recipe]’.

‘I don’t like pizza’ seems to be one of the hardest English sentences for people to understand.

Boru

Yep, you are definitely in a minority there.  I once had a friend just hated cheese, but for some reason he liked pizza.  Go figure on that one.  Anyway, I'll take your slice.  

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Yeah, guacamole is big here and I want nothing to do with it.  Yes, I have tried it, more than once.  No, I don't like it.  I do like Tex-Mex food and it's available on every street corner here but I always have to specify 'no guac'.  I also don't care for pico de gallo - not a huge fan of chunks of raw tomato and one tiny shred of a leaf of cilantro is more than enough for me.

OK, interesting side note.  Apparently a small percentage of people have some additional taste receptors on their tongue that picks up certain molecules in cilantro that taste like soap.  So, if cilantro tastes like soap to you (and it's particularly off-putting), then you are among a special group.  The rest of us just can't taste that.

[Ranjr]

Soap would be an improvement.  Cilantro overtakes then deadens my taste altogether.  I'm ready for that fad to end.  Speaking of fads, stop trying to sell me quinoa.  This is rice country.

[arewethereyet]

Soap would be an improvement.  Cilantro overtakes then deadens my taste altogether.  I'm ready for that fad to end.  Speaking of fads, stop trying to sell me quinoa.  This is rice country.

I agree that soap would be an improvement. Your description of what cilantro does to taste perfectly describes what I experience.

Same for green bell peppers. The year dad had a bumper crop of them, mom put them in everything but our cereal. I still can't stand the damn things. You can't pick them out of a food and go on to enjoy the rest as it will all taste like bell pepper. Same with cilantro. BLAH

[Spongebob]

Soap would be an improvement.  Cilantro overtakes then deadens my taste altogether.  I'm ready for that fad to end.  Speaking of fads, stop trying to sell me quinoa.  This is rice country.

You're apparently one of the special ones.  And I appreciate a variety of grains.  Rice (different kinds), quinoa, couscous, sorghum, barley...etc.

[Angrboda]

Couscous is like an embryo that hasn't differentiated into what it will become in the mature form.

[Ranjr]

I prefer barley in liquid form.

[arewethereyet]

Soap would be an improvement.  Cilantro overtakes then deadens my taste altogether.  I'm ready for that fad to end.  Speaking of fads, stop trying to sell me quinoa.  This is rice country.

You're apparently one of the special ones.  And I appreciate a variety of grains.  Rice (different kinds), quinoa, couscous, sorghum, barley...etc.

One of my grandmothers made a ham soup loaded with barley. I was never able to replicate it but that's okay as the rest of my family wouldn't eat it anyway. <sigh>

Learning to like grits was a struggle for me. So was making them. Southern husband could eyeball the right amounts of water and grits but it took me a while to learn to make something similar. Funny thing is that I thought he liked his better than mine till just a few months ago when he said mine were better...'course that could be his way out of ever making grits again...he's sneaky like that.

[Spongebob]

I can see that food diversity can be a challenge for some of you.  I understand, no judgement from me, but I am also a huge advocate of trying new foods.

@arewethereyet Regarding grits.  Now that's one of my favorite southern foods.  I've known a lot of northerners who just can't or won't develop a taste for them.  What a lot of those folks aren't aware of is that grits are quite diverse, as in not just for breakfast.  There are a number of ways to prepare grits and they fit in nicely in other meals.  And don't forget that grits are not just a southern food, its also served as polenta in many countries.  I've seen some recipes where you allow the grits to cool and solidify, then slice it into patties and fry them.

And if you haven't tried an arepa, then you certainly should.  It's a sort of muffin made from ground corn meal but it doesn't have the consistency of a cornbread muffin; it's a little more dense and moist.  Stuff it with cheese and pulled pork.  Delicious.  I've had these at specialty restaurants but never tried to make them at home.