Eddie’s Food Annoyances: When Your Dining Companion’s Food Is Much Tastier
Adeline loves food, lots of it and often, both at home and out. Usually, that goes well, but sometimes it doesn’t. In the series Eddie’s Food Annoyances , she shares her observations. This week, her dining companion was served something tastier than she was.
Ordering food in a restaurant has always been a bit of a Sophie’s Choice, because what if you don’t choose the best thing on the menu? That’s a risk in itself, but it’s particularly awful when your dining companion has something on their plate that’s just a little better than yours. When your plate is set down, you look across the table and simply know. The colour is prettier, everything is coated in just a little more shine and it smells out of this world.
There’s almost a little sign above it saying: Nananananaaa, this is tastier!
Against Your Better Judgment
You’d think that ‘what you don’t know can’t hurt you.’ But I’m the kind of person who always wants a bite, which means I also know that the other dish really does taste a thousand times better. In these kinds of awkward situations, you’re actually better off using the ostrich tactic. Just stick your head into that not-so-appetising dish and start humming away merrily. Preferably so skilfully that the person on the other side of the table thinks they got the inferior dish.
But no, I know it and still pretend otherwise. So it can happen that I’m forcing down my rather disappointing dish against my better judgment, while also having to pretend that it’s absolutely delicious. This is possibly even worse than ordering the wrong thing.
Lost in Oblivion
The annoying thing is that situations like these make you play it a little safe. Once I’ve noticed that a restaurant knows how to grill a particularly delicious entrecote, just try to talk me out of ordering that entrecote. Even though the risotto made with, say, long-forgotten vegetables might taste far more divine. But then you run the risk of suddenly having a thoroughly unsatisfying night out if those long-forgotten vegetables don’t perform and should have been left forgotten.
Double Order
Going out to eat thus becomes nothing more than a carefully calculated risk analysis. At a restaurant you know, choose the star of the menu. At a new establishment, first try to introduce shared dining . If that doesn’t turn out as hoped, switch to the same formula. This literally means ordering exactly the same thing as your dining companion to limit the damage.
You do need to make sure you’re the last to order, though, because what if that rascal suddenly decides to change their mind? Then you’re left with the not-so-delicious short end of the stick. It is a little sad to order the same thing, admittedly, but at least you can still exclaim, semi-awkwardly, that you two are being wonderfully original. After all, everyone does that with the infamous double order.
Going out to eat—no one said it was going to be easy.
Read also:
- Eddie’s Food Annoyances: those people who don’t do shared dining
- Eddie’s Food Annoyances: that pretentious waiter at the table
- Eddie’s Food Annoyances: soggy tea bags lying around
