Restaurant Rant

Total Refected Power

Diamond Member
Oct 13, 1999
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Quite often I will have to go out to dinner with colleagues. The choice of food often ends up being something that I hate. It often the new "Ethiopian" restaurant or the "Polish-Mexican" bistro. It drives me crazy. Any descenting opinion and it makes you seem "unenlightened". Lately, we all agreed to go someplace a bit more neutral. I am not sure why Americans always feel the need to be trendy and try the most ridiculous cuisine. What's funny is that I do like a variety of food but I am not driven to push the envelope of exotic (weird?) food at every opportunity.
 

thereds

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Apr 4, 2000
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Have you ever thought that they actually want to experiment with varieties of different foods and not necessarily be 'trendy'? Just a thought.
 

Total Refected Power

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Have you ever thought that they actually want to experiment with varieties of different foods and not necessarily be 'trendy'?

Ha. May be true for some but the last place we went to people just pushed the food around the plate and then commented how "good" it was.
 

thereds

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Apr 4, 2000
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lol.

I am sure people go to places for the 'cool' factor. Why do you have to go with them to such places in any case?
 

rlism

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Feb 1, 2001
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It's a social thing. Just like you wouldn't go watch the same movie over and over, or go to the same club every weekend right? They wanna go check out the latest clubs, movies, restaurants, or whateva... and of course they wanna be the first of their peers to do so.
 

thebestMAX

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Sep 14, 2000
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One of the things I liked about Boston the most was its restaurants, especially for the cheap lunches. Same thing at dinner was about 4 times as much so I experimented a lot at lunch. Dont know if its the same now. Know what you mean though.
 

Total Refected Power

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Oct 13, 1999
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Why do you have to go with them to such places in any case?

Entertaining potential "new hires", farewell parties, invited guests etc...

At least lately we have been on a "fish kick".

Yes, Boston has a lot of great Italian, Sea-food and Asian restaurants. Beef isn't very good here. I would be happy with any of those!

 

Linflas

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Jan 30, 2001
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<< I like fish. >>


I cannot stand fish. I like almost any other seafood but fish. I can tolerate salmon if it is disguised in a salmon cake or fish and chips since I can drown the fish in malt vinegar but other than that I stay far away from fish.
 

Scabilian

Senior member
Jan 16, 2001
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<< What's Ethiopian food like? I was always curious about that... >>



its the same as any other food only it has been left out for too long..


actually i have no clue.. ;)
 

rlism

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Feb 1, 2001
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<< What's Ethiopian food like? I was always curious about that... >>



It's like spiced mush. You eat with these ethiopian breads and just kinda wipe it off the plate. Hmmmm, I made that sound kinda bad huh? it's actually ok. Kinda like curried stews or veggies. edit: Oh they have more 'solid' dishes too but I can't really remember what they were, it's been a while.
 

GasX

Lifer
Feb 8, 2001
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I hated Ethiopian food.

The bread is basically a large pancake. You use it to scoop up your curry, etc... Ethiopian curry is not nearly as good as india or even jamaican curry. Frankly it was awful. Ever go to IHOP and have a curried pancake? Not very appetizing.

I realize that judging an entire country's cuisine by one restaurant is a bit of a cop out, but that meal was awful.
 

Total Refected Power

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Oct 13, 1999
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Does every restaurant in Boston serve Chowda?

LOL. No!! The North End (Little Italy) is awesome. My favorite part of Boston. After that I love the seafood available here. The rest just lag in my opinion. :)
 

Elita1

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Nov 17, 2000
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I can understand your situation a bit, TRP.
My dad travels a lot in his business and is often most put out when his colleagues take him out to odd places to &quot;impress&quot; him. When he has clients over visiting him, he has a few choice restaurants that have a great rep and where the waiters already know him and bring out the fancy wine and gorgeous food. It's really kind of funny.
When Optimus went down to Honduras for the first time my dad was determined to impress him and took him to his usual &quot;impress-the-clients&quot; restaurant(well known for fabulous steak) and the waiter greeted him and personally brought out all the best. It was pretty amazing except for one thing---optimus' steak was tough and tasteless, and though he tried he just couldn't eat it. My father was so mortified he's sworn off the restaurant!!!
My dad takes impressing people very seriously:D
 

Total Refected Power

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optimus' steak was tough and tasteless, and though he tried he just couldn't eat it.

Hehe. Are you sure your dad wasn't having a little fun with him! ;) j/k

It is hard to recommend restaurants and I always feel some level of responsibilty. I understand how your dad felt!
 

Khameleon

Senior member
Apr 12, 2001
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When entertaining groups of people, the best bet is to find a place with the most variety on the menu. The food may not be perfectly authentic to the cultures represented, but it is more likely that everyone will be able to order something they actually like.
 

AaronP

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Feb 27, 2000
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whenever I go out, I always get tempted to try something exotic, but I always get the good old cheeseburger and fries, my friends get the exotic crap, then the whole time they're eating, they look at my cheeseburger with more envy than you can imagine.
 

Rio Rebel

Administrator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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TRP,

I agree totally. It used to irritate me to no end when my friends always wanted to go to the most overpriced, crappy spots in town because they were either &quot;trendy&quot; or &quot;exotic&quot;. There was one bakery that made a living off the Berkenstock wearing, Granola looking, activist wanna-be rich kids who went their to eat their 5 dollar muffins.

People are sheep. People are such sheep.

baaaaaaaaaa.