Funniest/Most Embarrassing Restaurant Experience

[Claire]

I started, many moons ago, to order with a doggie bag in mind. Splitting an entree isn't always an option if there is a plating fee, which a lot of places do. My favorite steakhouse piles on so much food that my friends and I now order soup instead of salad, because it travels better, and if I have a taste for steak, their largest porterhouse which becomes dinner for two a couple of days later.

Appetizers are always too much -- so we invent our own tapas, everyone at the table ordering an appetizer and then we pass them around.

Cannot remember ever having enough room for desert.

Yes, my appetite is a lot less than it was (and so is my weight), but not because I exercise less. If anything, more. But, post-menopause my sense of smell went haywire and it still does when under stress, and I just eat a lot less. Since I've always been on the heavy side, I guess it is a good thing.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Shrek and I often share, if I have something yummy I let him have it off my fork. We do seem to spend a lot of time feeding each other portions of our meals or slipping something we know the other likes onto their plate...

We do the same. I'll fork up some of my entree, Himself does the same, then we exchange forks. Some people tsk-tsk because it might be germy, but what do they think happens when we kiss???

 

[Cooking Goddess]

...And Addie, I don't think it's lack of exercise, I think the metabolism slows down and the restaurant portion sizes have gotten way too big.

You've got that right GG. I've taken to ordering a take-out container right along with the rest of the meal. To me it seems easier to remove it from the plate before you start to eat. I'm not a germ-a-phobe, but food will stay fresh longer if there isn't any bacteria introduced to the food. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

.... Splitting an entree isn't always an option if there is a plating fee, which a lot of places do.....

There's always an end-around to the plating fee. One vacation Himself and I were driving past a rib place with the smoker sitting right out front. You know how they have those fingers of smoke signaling seductively in cartoons? I think I saw them come from that smoker! We had dinner planned back at our lodging and didn't want to order a full meal since we really didn't want to be taking all kinds of food back home. When we saw a $5 share fee we did them a one-up. He ordered the full meal, I ordered a bowl of soup. When our meal came he had some of the soup and I...used the charger under the soup for my portion of dinner! They couldn't say nothin' since I wasn't using a separate plate AND I had ordered a food item.

 

[Claire]

We do the same. I'll fork up some of my entree, Himself does the same, then we exchange forks. Some people tsk-tsk because it might be germy, but what do they think happens when we kiss???

This is a line I've used often when hubby and I share a fork or sip each others' drinks ... hey, we've already exchanged bodily fluids!

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Which of course reminds me of the story of the elderly couple who go to a fast-food burger joint. They don't have a lot of money, so they get one burger, one order of fries, and one drink, 2 straws. The husband sits politely and waits for his wife to eat her half. Someone said to him, "That was so considerate of you to wait for your wife, but why don't you just cut the burger in half and divide the fries?" The husband responds, "Because it was her turn to use the teeth first."

LOL...haven't quite reached that amount of sharing.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

We do the same. I'll fork up some of my entree, Himself does the same, then we exchange forks. Some people tsk-tsk because it might be germy, but what do they think happens when we kiss???

This is a line I've used often when hubby and I share a fork or sip each others' drinks ... hey, we've already exchanged bodily fluids!

My point exactly, once it's on our table we are allowed to do what we like...fortunately I have stopped doing table dances. But, I have no problem sharing with Shrek or anyone. I just get a clean fork for people I don't regularly kiss and I do appreciate someone asking before they reach.

 

[buckytom]

my wife, son, and i share just about everything when we go out to dinner. we almost always order appys, or soups and salads, but only 2 of anything and we split them between the three of us.

we each order our own entrees, of course, but we always try each others. it's usually offered at some point, but we ask if you can't wait, lol.

and if there's room for dessert after all of that, we order one and ask for 3 forks or spoons.

i don't mind sharing anything with good friends in the same manner. again, everyone being polite to ask if it hasn't been offered. but it often doesn't get to that. i guess the staring and drooling is enough to trigger the offer of a taste.

i've always shared foods, sometimes even with strangers (but they get their own utensils, and no double dipping).

must be the norwegian in me.

 

[simonbaker]

my wife, son, and i share just about everything when we go out to dinner. we almost always order appys, or soups and salads, but only 2 of anything and we split them between the three of us.

we each order our own entrees, of course, but we always try each others. it's usually offered at some point, but we ask if you can't wait, lol.

and if there's room for dessert after all of that, we order one and ask for 3 forks or spoons.

i don't mind sharing anything with good friends in the same manner. again, everyone being polite to ask if it hasn't been offered. but it often doesn't get to that. i guess the staring and drooling is enough to trigger the offer of a taste.

i've always shared foods, sometimes even with strangers (but they get their own utensils, and no double dipping).

must be the norwegian in me.

I'm with you on this one BT. May come from coming from a large family, everything was always served family style. I am 6 out of 9, sharing has always been deemed as a normal thing to do.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Shrek was appalled at the manners of my family at first, sharing plates, bites, etc. And we were on our good behavior since we had a guest, no licking the plates. We have worn him down and brought him to the fun side. Before he ate with us, he had never had a meal go from the pan to his plate, everything went into a serving dish before it hit the table.

 

[buckytom]

wow, 6 of 9? (can you give me you're next younger sister's number... j/k).

but yeah, it's probably from being the last of six in my family. while i never had hand-me-downs as the four older than me were girls, we shared a lot of everything else.

but it's also a norwegian thing, afaik. my mm always stressed sharing, which i can remember doing even in kindergarten right through grade school. but i've later learned it as a scandinavian trait of hospitality. in the more remote regions of norway, if you eere having a party, you put a light outside to invite any passers by in to join your guests. (my mom's family is from the really frozen north of norway. in later years, they watched soviet subs go past on the surface).

but historically, scandinavians are very accomidating people. hence, the creation of pot lucks featuring a specisl hot dish that each person was known for in the northern american midwest.

 

[Dawgluver]

I have no problem sharing, and DH and I will frequently exchange forks if we actually get something different. I recall meeting up with Baby Bro and one of his pre-wives at an expensive restaurant. Pre-wife wasn't hungry, she said, and didn't order anything. Of course, her fork was busily stuck in my salad, steak, and whatever else I'd ordered, and she did the same with DH's and BB's meals. She just wanted a little taste, she said. First time DH and I had even ever laid eyes on the woman.

 

[buckytom]

hey dawg, what's a pre-wife, or more, one of pre-wives?

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I have no problem sharing, and DH and I will frequently exchange forks if we actually get something different. I recall meeting up with Baby Bro and one of his pre-wives at an expensive restaurant. Pre-wife wasn't hungry, she said, and didn't order anything. Of course, her fork was busily stuck in my salad, steak, and whatever else I'd ordered, and she did the same with DH's and BB's meals. She just wanted a little taste, she said. First time DH and I had even ever laid eyes on the woman.

She would have had holey, bloodied hands...

 

[buckytom]

you're not a norskie, are you pf?

 

[PrincessFiona60]

nope Heinz 57...

 

[buckytom]

you come from pickles? lol.

did you know that when heinz first started his company, he needed a slogan for his tiny but budding business, so he made up "57 varieties" in order to sound more important.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Sharing isn't just for Swedes and Norwegians bt, I think it also comes out of the Depression. Or maybe just Depression Polacks. And no cracks about being Depressed BECAUSE we're Polacks. No one had a lot, so friends and neighbors shared. I learned that from Mom and Dad even though I was an only child growing up in the 60s. Mom's expression was to "put an extra potato on" just in case someone stopped by. To this day whenever someone new moves in to the neighborhood I'll introduce myself while handing over some kind of homemade foodstuff. And most times dinner in our home is self-serve from the stove and counter...even when we have family or friends over! Makes for more room at the table and keeps the food a tad warmer than if it was in serving dishes.

 

[buckytom]

i don't think i mentioned that it was entirely exclusive to norskies, cg, but funny you should mention poles. they seem to have the same trait of sharing, but in my experience, to a lesser, more ethnocentric sense. in other words, i you're a fellow pollack, you're in. if not, go away. again, though, if you are polish, you might as well be family.

i live in a neighborhood where 3 out of 4 houses are eastern european, mostly polish. the other side of town - on a hill - is mostly italian. the two are known as guinea heights and pollack valley.

 

[buckytom]

ok, getting back to the topic of this thread.

so now i've been dating this girl for a while after the raccoon eyes/atlantic city thing, and i take her out to a really fancy restaurant one night.

the lighting was low, the music soft, the ambience top notch.

as we looked at the menu, we ordered a nice bottle of red wine (an '88 ruffino riserva ducale oro, my go to wine when trying to impress a girl back then).

as they brought out the bottle and gave us a taste, they placed ridiculously tall stemmed wine glasses on our table and began to pour. i wouldn't have noticed, though, as i was enamored at the tanned, blonde beauty sitting across from me in a white, sleeveless dress. i could see nothing else.

which was really unfortunate. staring into her eyes, i reached for my wine glass, tipping it over which was just tall enough to dump it's contents all over her bright white dress.



she sat there stunned for a second, then just sort of laughed at what a klutz i was as i stumbled over myself to help clean it up in a futile effort with a napkin and a table bottle of san pellegrino.

thinking quickly, i offered to take her shopping the next day to buy a new dress, and of course to take the stained dress to a cleaner to see what could be done.

the dress was ruined, but i did get her to stay over for the shopping trip the next day.