Mama Kat Thursday: Worst Eating Out Experiences

-
The Mama Kat blog writing link-up prompt for today is, "What is an unpleasant experience you had eating?"
I can immediately think of two horribly unhappy eating-out experiences!
The first happened early-on in our marriage while we were still living in the Washington D.C. area in the early 1980's. We had decided to try a Chinese restaurant in College Park. It wasn't a buffet. Chinese all-you-can-eat buffets hadn't come into vogue yet. This was a traditional sit-down, order-from-a-menu, moderately expensive Chinese Restaurant.
 One of their specials that evening was "Chinese Style Crab." Now I had no idea what this was, but it sounded interesting, so I ordered it. What I got was a platter of small, nearly unrecognizable crab parts in a dark barbecue-like sauce. I picked through it, hardly able to find anything edible in it.
When we left, I told Hubby I was still really hungry and could we stop at a McDonald's? I'm pretty sure I gobbled down at least two fish sandwiches and fries! 
That was the first and only time I ever had to go to McDonald's to get full after a restaurant meal.

The other unhappy eating experience happened to Hubby. It's so memorable to him he won't have anything to do with a Thai restaurant. We were in Panama City Beach and pulled into a small, local Thai restaurant. This was back in the mid-1990's when there wasn't a whole of eating options in the area yet. 
The restaurant wasn't very busy. We were almost the only people there. (A sign probably.)  They had a "fish with garlic & lime" listed on their chalkboard as a special, so Hubby ordered that, while I ordered a regular menu item. My meal arrived a short time later, but Hubby's didn't. I finished my meal. He still didn't have his fish. We waited and waited. The server wasn't attentive and communication with her when she did appear tended to involve a bunch of darting back and forth to the kitchen. We couldn't get any definite information on his meal other then it, "was cooking."
Nearly two hours passed before the server finally presented Hubby with a long foil-wrapped object on a platter. 
Hubby opened it to find a whole fish that had been steamed with lime slices and garlic staring up at him with it's glassy dead eye and Hubby stared back, aghast. 
One thing you never give Hubby and that's a whole fish.  He can't stand it. His limit on fish is actually McDonald's fish sandwich--if must eat fish.
But there we were---he was starved, so he unhappily picked what meat he could off it. 
We should have been told right away what this "fish special" was, how long it would take to prepare and whether we wanted to wait that long.
Hubby surely would've ordered something else if he'd known. I think, though, it was only of those situations where both the servers and the cooks didn't speak English very well.

So, there you have it---our two worse memories of eating out!
*****
What's the worse eating our experience you've ever had?
*****
Thanks for visiting!

Comments

noexcuses said…
Fun post! Asian food was one of my worst experiences, when I was introduced to the hot mustard!!!! There wasn't enough water in the entire restaurant to cool down my mouth! I love the McDonald's chaser! Good for you! Stopping by from Mama Kat's.
Apr 23, 2015, 7:40:00 PM
carol daniels said…
Those fish eyes bugging out at me would have had me running! And, I have found the same thing when ordered Chinese, or other foreign food, that what we envision isn't anything like what we actually get, even though it sounds good on the menu. I will go to a Chinese buffet only because I can see what I am getting. Food surprises and lack of customers are always a bad sign!
Apr 24, 2015, 11:03:00 AM
KatBouska said…
No way could I eat a whole fish. I'm laughing just imagining his reaction to that. Cut that head off PLEASE. lol
Apr 24, 2015, 8:40:00 PM

Post a Comment

Thanks for leaving a comment!

Popular posts from this blog

Good Eating Monday: Apple Cranberry Sausage Stuffing!

-
Image
Now this some wicked good dressing!  I tried it for Thanksgiving this year and everyone loved it! I've been looking for just the right dressing and I may have finally found it!  It's also healthy with a tasty combo of fruit, veggies and a mix of white & whole wheat bakery breads. It will fill a  fill a 9 x 13 pan.  You can use fresh or dried herbs. I've included the measurements for both. Just remember dried seasoning is more concentrated in flavor because it is dried, so you need less of it then fresh herbs. I have fresh Parsley growing outside and this was a great use for it! I found leftover over stuffing wonderful heated up and topped with a over-easy egg for lunch!  Apple Cranberry Sausage Stuffing Ingredients:  5 1/2 cups fresh European style or sourdough bread, white, sliced and cubed 2 1/2 cups wheat bread, whole grain sliced and cubed 1 lb ground pork or turkey ( I used Jimmy Dean's Turkey Crumbles, which was 8 oz and that worked great! ) 1 1/2
Read more

Good Eating Monday: Peach Cobbler Dump Cake!

-
Image
Yes, I tried another new Pinterest recipe and this one is a winner! The primary dictionary definition of a "Dump Cake," is an easily made cobbler in which cake mix is dumped over canned fruit or pie filling.  This recipe was pinned from Del Monte, which means it's been a recipe that's been created & tested in a corporate test kitchen. That's one benefit of all those label, can & box recipes provided by manufacturers on their product packaging. You can even buy cookbooks featuring nothing, but package & label recipes of which many are vintage. The only changes I'd suggest is add one more 15 oz can of fruit. It can be more peaches, cherry fruit cocktail, regular fruit cocktail or whatever you want. (So, I've noted 4 cans of peaches in the recipe.)   It just needs a little more volume on the fruit quantity.  And stir a teaspoon or two of cinnamon into the fruit! Otherwise, this is an excellent, quick dessert you can serve hot with v
Read more

Mama Kat Thursday: Backwoods Indiana Memories: Laundry Day

-
Image
Wringer Washing Machine I remember while growing up in rural Indiana in the 60's and 70's, doing laundry was an all day event. My clearest memories of  "laundry day," come from summer time, when we were out of school.  Mother had a certain day of the week she did laundry usually. I liked to sleep in and I recall waking up around 9:30 to the chugging rhythm the wringer washer already at work.  I'd see all the dirty laundry sorted into piles around the utility room floor: whites, light colors,  medium colors, dark colors and heavy darks, like jeans. (The photo is one I found online of a Kenmore wringer washer quite similar to the last model I remember Mother having in the 70's.) You have to understand, wringer washers only do the washing part. S he'd start with whites, then once the washer finished it's wash cycle, it would stop. Then she'd, by hand, pull each item of clothing out of the washer and feed it through the wringer rollers
Read more

Garden Pic Wednesday: Bachelar Buttons!

-
Image
Garden Pics today: A Profusion of Bachelor Buttons!  Sometimes they are called Cornflowers. I've never had such a thick and prosperous bunch! These I planted last fall from a random leftover box of Wild Flower type seeds and successfully protected them from the December deep freeze. I favor the blue, but they also come in shades of pink and white. My newest Garden addition: This green ceramic frog now sits amongst the Golden Creeping Jenny! I found him at the Dollar Tree.  
Read more

Wednesday Garden Pics: Petunias & Bi-color Hibiscus

-
Image
Since for July 4th, 2012, I thought this pic of my red and white petunia's would be appropriate! You can also see my pretty miniature roses below it. (The petunia's are in a pot; the rose is in the ground next to it.) Petunias need frequent dead-heading and tend to get long and leggy as they bloom out.  I snip those legs and "train" them to be bushy with a limited drape. This forces them to sprout new growth. The next photo, below, is a shot of one of my Hardy Hibiscus I have in the front yard next to the parking spot. Notice one bloom is red and the other, pink. Yet this is one plant from a single root. It's uniquely bi-color. The pink portion of the plant didn't bloom last year, so I didn't know. I plan on trying to save seed from this Hibiscus to see if I can luck into more.
Read more