Yes and why do they say "EVOO-extra virgin olive oil" please just say one or the other. If you have to explain what EVOO mean EVERY.FREAKIN'.SINGLE.TIME.YOU.SAY.IT then please just say extra virgin olive oil in the first darn place!

Ummmm I'm pretty sure people have said "veggies" for as long as I can remember and I'm OOOOOLD!

Onions and/or garlic in everything.

I'm allergic to both.

We had a part-time cook where I worked who, I SWEAR, would put onions in chocolate cake!

This is after I would tell her I was allergic to them. I always brought my food or ordered in when she cooked.

She would still fry up a pan full of onions and the odor would waft up the hall and bust my head open.

I always have to ask when eating out and never go anywhere without a large bottle of liquid benedryl and my epi-pen.

Did I tell you about my mother-in-law who put onion AND garlic powder in the mashed potatoes and served them to me? She knew I was allergic. I tasted them in the first bite, Thank God.

Betty (Who never eats at the MIL's house now)

"STICKER SHOCK"

Originally the stickers were put on fruits to indicate special higher quality. Then they started to glue them on everything.

A little while ago for fun, on April 1st, I bought a bunch of grapes and I put a sticker on every single grape and served the grapes to friends.

You should see how angry my friends were. They really wanted to immediate march to the store where I bought the grapes and give the owner h e l l.

Try it on April 1st on your friends. It’s fun.

dcarch

I agree with the portion sizes. Each dish looks like it could be shared by four people. How can you have appetizers, salad or soup, entree and dessert? Impossible. I stopped going to most of the local restaurants. The chains are the worst for the large portions - they probably see it as being competitive. I see it as obscene and off-putting - not to mention unhealthy!

Hi Bettyd! I'm glad I'm not the only one who is allergic to garlic. I don't feel so alone anymore! However, I can eat onions. I know they are in the same family, but they don't bother me. I can't carry an epi-pen due to high blood pressure, but I do carry benedryl capsuls. If you go to Canada, and Maine, and don't go to the chains, you can eat almost anything on the menu! I was told many times, many places there, that if it didn't say it on the menu, it wasn't in the food! Garlic that is.

May your life be garlic and onion free!

Tami

I'm glad to hear that others have problems with portions, too! Too much food on my plate and my appetite goes away. Why, oh why, do so few restaurants have meals for smaller appetites? I often just have soup and salad, but I can easily make that at home, so it's not worth going out just for that.

I agree with a lot of these, especially the balsamic vinegar. Ick! But one I haven't seen posted here is about vegetables. I want mine cooked. Not semi-cooked, but really cooked. I'd rather have them done to pulp like my mother did than half raw. If I have to cut my broccoli and carrots with a knife and fork, just forget about it.

I rarely eat in restaurants. I will pick up food from my favorite Thai restaurant but that is about it. I have not been in any of the chain restaurants in at least a decade. When they started put chipotle on stuff, and you are allergic to it, you can't even sit in the restaurant. About 4 years ago, I was shopping at the Farmer's Market when they set up on the Nicollet Mall on Thursdays. I was walking along and was across the street from the Masa restaurant. The wait staff brought a bunch of food (containing chipotle) out to the patio to a large group. I got one wiff of it and the wheezing started and my throat started to tighten. I was able to get away before I had a major allergic reaction.

patti, I agree, I want my vegetables cooked (until tender) or I want them raw, not half cooked, that crisp-tender thing is a farce, they come on the plate so undercooked that they are still cold in many instances.

I'm glad I'm not allergic to anything except bee stings, it's got to be so much easier to eat where ever I find myself.

Annie

I remember when the food "stacking" fad first hit. The idea I guess, was to add an extra dimension to food presentation. The chef where I worked at the time got a dark look on his face during the manager meeting where it was "suggested" that he follow the fad, but he took a deep breath and started building towers on the plates. Sheesh. The servers noted that the first thing people did was remove the meat/fish/chicken from off the potato/grain/pasta mound so they could cut it without the "ground floor" slithering and squirting out all over the place. I thought that trend was over and done, do y'all mean it has come back??? :P

I'm with you, dcarch, when it comes to those annoying stickers. If your cashiers are so oblivious as to not know one variety from another, perhaps you should take 10 minutes to show them, Mr. Manager. If I, who don't look at them all day long can tell the varieties by sight, they should be able to manage it.

Sorry beverlyal, but we must, I fear, agree to disagree about the potato peel thing. I far prefer to have the peels. I love the flavor they impart. I know that not everybody does, so I tend to peel if I'm cooking for people I don't know well, but it isn't laziness that keeps me from peeling them, I just honestly think they taste better in.

I could live without "Wraps" but I guess they must be popular, as ubiquitous as they've become.

About serving sizes, I have a pet peeve. If the restaurant is going to serve so much darn food that one entree is plenty for two people, charging a fee for splitting said entree between two people makes me want to spit. I know, I know, I was in the restaurant biz for many years...and I've heard all the arguments regarding table turnover vs. sales, and labor cost arguments. But if you tick people off by charging them to split an entree they can't eat on their own you just ensured they won't come back.

Many people split an entree not because they're cheap but because they'd like to have an appetizer or dessert without making themselves ill! When I was a waitress, I actually suggested to folks that they might split an entree if I overheard them talking about how they never had room for dessert etc...and I was always top place in my sales.

Happy to note that some restaurants are beginning to offer a "petite" option on their entrees.

Who decided that lavender blossoms were food, anyway????

Sally, I fought and nagged and made myself a pain at the restaurant where I worked for years to get them to offer something other than Pasta Primavera for vegetarians. Jeepers, how boring when there are so many really delicious vegetarian meals!

So, when we began offering a monthly specials menu, the chef and I got together and insisted on a vegetarian option. Grilled eggplant Napoleons, mixed grain and dried fruit pilaf with roasted butternut squash and raita, veggie curry in puff pastry "boats"...many many dishes we came up with. These dishes became quite popular with folks who just thought they sounded interesting, or who wanted to eat light. I think many restaurants miss a good niche market by not offering vegetarian meals. They've got the ingredients on hand, why not give it a shot?

barnmom, "Apparently I need to eat out more often so I get annoyed, too! Grins."

ROFL!!

One thing I'm "so over" is the trend towards (overly) friendly service, even in high end restaurants. If I go to the local dive bar where they serve the most delicious hamburgers and the waitress asks, "what'll you have, guys?" I'm fine with that. But if I take the time to dress up, and spend the money to eat somewhere that has an impressive wine list, separate forks for appetizers, salads and entrees, and a bartender that actually knows what is meant by an order for a martini(don't get me started on that!) I don't want my waiter to place his hand on my shoulder, lean on the table edge, or inquire into our satisfaction level with the phrase, "So how're you guys doin'?"

I want REAL butter, and it has to be cold for my bread. Not margarine, and not even unsalted butter because it just tastes like grease to me. I never want room temperature butter on bread--on my mashed potatoes it is OK. And NEVER give me slimy oil that I am supposed to find terribly sophisticated and fabulous. I want butter or even cheese for my bread, but I absolutely hate slimy olive oil. I wish restaurants would serve both butter and oil (if they must) and let me choose. If the establishment wants to avoid wasting items, then please ask if I prefer oil or butter.
Nancy

Cilantro - I hate it. More good Mexican food has been ruined with cilantro than anything else.

I don't like 'cheese food' or 'processed' cheese, and don't even consider putting it on my hamburger.

I am VERY allergic to Red Dye #40 and it is in far too many things. This allergy is becoming more common now because the dye is used so much. If the natural food didn't start out red, don't color it red. My entire life, red dye has tasted bitter to me so I always avoided it, but now I have no choice.

I have not noticed large portions in my area, except in one restaurant, and we always bring it home for the next day.

I don't like lemon in my water unless it is lemonade.

I love garlic, crisp-tender vegetables and al dente pasta. I don't like a salad with bitter greens in it, and until I read it on this forum, I had never heard of 'wedge salad'. I have lived and traveled in many states an several foreign countries and have never had a chunk of iceburg lettuce thrown on my plate. What a joke!

Not sure how any who has been around as much as you say has missed a classic wedge salad.
It's been around for easily 50 years.
Chipotle is merely a smoke dried jalapeno...so if you allergic to that you must also be allergic to anything with jalapenos like salsa, enchilada sauce poppers etc.

I am so over cubes of cheese served at a cocktail party or a buffet. What do you do with a 1 inch cube of cheese? Cut it up? Put the whole thing into your mouth, place it on the cracker next to it and try to bite it?
I went to a reception this evening...lots of cheese cubes and steak on a skewer, pieces too big for one bite and no knives.
Linda C

Here is a link that might be useful: Morton's steak house

tami ohio,

I usually just lurk, but I got so excited to find someone else who was allergic to garlic that I posted!

It started out years ago with reactions to just onions. Last year garlic started causing a reaction.

Makes me sad. I love them both.

Betty

I never saw a "wedge salad" offered in a restaurant until the restaurant where I worked for years put one on their menu recently. To me, a wedge of iceberg lettuce was something that my Mom made for us when she was too darn tired to make a real salad. Don't get me wrong, I loved it. But a hunk of iceberg with nothing but dressing and maybe (if one get's fancy) a sprinkle of cheese or bacon bits isn't "haute cuisine" nor worth what a restaurant would have to charge for it.

Many chipotle peppers used in restaurants are the canned sort, packed in adobo sauce Teresa...I wonder if it's the peppers you are allergic to or something in the adobo sauce?

Oh Linda, pass those cheese cubes along to ME!! :D I love a big old chunk of cheese...er...when I'm not dressed up and trying to look less barbaric than is my wont. But, I must say I do wonder why that presentation is so common at cocktail parties, so often alongside a platter of crackers. I can see popping a cube of cheese into my mouth, but not trying to bite through it and a cracker without making a mess and looking clumsy. For the same reason, I take issue with any and all hors d'oeuvres that are larger than bite-sized at cocktail parties. You're all dressed and made up and walking around with only one hand free (glass of wine or cocktail in the other) and you're meant to bite into a tart or slide one bite off a multi-bite skewer, or gnaw the meat off a chicken wing knowing that you've not a third hand with which to wipe crumbs or sauce off your face.

>

I know that people seem to have a love/hate relationship with cilantro (I happen to love it), but isn't it considered a staple of Mexican food? Seems like it would be difficult to avoid with that cuisine.

Sue

Sue, I grew up surrounded by Mexican food in Tucson and lived my very early childhood in Mexico. I don't recall finding cilantro in my Mexican food until I was in my 20s and had moved to California in the mid 70s. I wonder if it became more ubiquitous through the decades. It is still a item one must request at a local popular budget Mexican eatery chain here in town.

That's interesting, Barnmom. Maybe it got introduced in "Tex-Mex" food over the years? I wonder if chefs like Rick Bayless use cilantro frequently?

Sue

Somewhere I have an old herb catalog that list coriander as a spice from the cilantro plant, then says the plant itself is considered a weed. I totally agree. It seems to me that it has been in the last 10-12 years that Mexican places just seem to dump handfulls into their food. I wish they would only add it after asking if you want it.

I think I have heard the Barefoot Contessa say that she never uses it.

Mexican restaurants are rare here. We did go one that serving authentic mexican food apparently. There was a strong flavour that I didn't like at all, and it was the cilantro. Too overpowering.

I raise vermicomposting worms. I brought a huge box of old produce home from the grocery store. There was a large bundle of cilantro. My kitchen stunk with it as I was chopping it. I actually wondered if the little guys would eat it. (they did).

Yes, it's certainly a love it or hate it herb.

I don't really care for the spring mix. It's so light and gets slimy fast. I like a substantial crunch to my salads.

I love cilantro, but I know it is a strong flavor that some just can't like.

It IS an herb that is used in Mexico, but Mexico is a huge country, with many regional variations in cuisine. If you don't like cilantro, try a different restaurant. Of course, it seems like the chain type restaurants all use it in just about everything...I think it is sometimes used like salt, a strong flavor that is easy to toss in, covering up for the lack of more subtle flavors.

WOW, I guess I have an unsophisticated palate or I'm more tolerant than I thought. My only real issue is my food touching. I had breakfast at Perkins yesterday and my scrambled eggs with cheese was touching my pancakes--No touching!!

I love this.

I'm so over ....

Food Network Star (insert name) groaning in the throes of ecstasy when he/she takes a bite of (insert food.) GAH!

Restaurant waitstaff that stand at your table, wait for you to be quiet and then BARK out orders when serving. Feel like it's roll call .... "HAMBURGER???" "Here" "CHICKEN????" "Here"

Agree with cheese on everything, Annie, and over-friendliness, Rachellen.

Cathy in SWPA

Well, for years I was ahead of the trends so I'm actually glad that some of the food I ate years and years ago and was considered "weird" has now made it into mainstream. Wraps, pita bread, hummus, whole wheat pasta, that lowfat bean dip with the corn in it . . . man am I ever glad I can now purchase them in my standard grocery store. I love all of them. I don't go out to eat very much and when I do it's not at trendy restaurants for the most part, so I haven't even experienced these food fads. And I've never seen wedge salad on a menu at any place I have been. Ate a lot of iceberg as a kid but don't really care for it, my lettuce of choice is romaine.

Yes, the cheese cubes are weird, I think they came along with that low carb fad because folks were eschewing the crackers. That's a food fad I will be glad to see leave, low carb. But I hope its spinoff, an emphasis on whole grains, will STAY! I am so pumped that I can buy whole wheat pastry flour in the regular grocery, and other things too.

I will be glad to see long menus with expensive, sweet, complicated drinks served in martini glasses leave the scene, which I think is likely given that folks are tightening their belts. Besides, it's just a way to make it look like you're getting a big drink when you really aren't. I never could justify buying one, although I will admit if I didn't have to diet and had a lot of money they would be fun to drink. As it is they are just unnecessary temptations!

I too would like to see the "cheese on everything" fad die down. I'm sure it is a conspiracy of the dairy council, lol!

Pomegranite for me is just "meh." I don't think it should go away completely for those who like it, but adding it to everything is just unnecessary to me.

I'm not a chipotle fan either, and I think some of those things you get in a restaurant with chipotle in them must have red dye, which might account for the reaction. Red dye so you KNOW there's chipotle in there.

Oh and if Thai food leaves the scene I will not miss it. I know it is one of the world's great cuisines, but I just don't care for most of it, so I think it is overemphasized, but that's just me. Bring on the Thai for those of you who love it.

Greek yogurt is OK, but I wish it hadn't supplanted regular yogurt. Same thing happened when the "French" style yogurt became all the rage. Now all the groceries carry are the pudding type yogurts and the Greek stuff, and the diet stuff. Bring back good real yogurt, like Dannon used to make in the 70's. And while you're at it, bring back chewy bagels. But I guess folks don't like them. I tease BF about his "goyim bagels" but he doesn't like the chewy kind, they "hurt his mouth" poor baby!

Wine snobbery drives me insane.

dcarch

Shrimp served with the tails left on, usually in a "saucey" dish.

None of it really bothers me... I guess I"m "over" arugula and goat cheese, but that is just because I don't like them but I wish I did.

As for cilantro, I have heard that some people are genetically predisposed not to like it. For people who think it tastes like soap, there is a physical reason you do. It's not that you just don't like the flavor; you CAN'T like the flavor!

I thought of something else that I am SO OVER today -- Fiber. I love the natual fiber that goes along with whole grains, but the fiber they put in foods just to make them "lower carb" or higher fiber has the consistency of cardboard to which I am sure it is closely related. Three times I have accidentally or puposely bought something that was a "lower carb/high fiber" version and had to throw it out. This is how brilliant American marketers are. I can just see the cellulose people in a meeting . . . "OK this stuff is inedible and a waste product of food manufacturing, let's foist it on the public as healthful and good." They then sent out their intrepid salespeople to all the major food companies with a PowerPoint presentation about how by adding this carp to their regular products they could easily and simply jump on the "low carb" bandwagon. And since they are trying to save money on research and development, the marketing guys at the companies all bought it! BLEEEAAACH!

oops I realize that my response to "I'm so over..." was more of a pet peeve.

Teresa,

The banana sticker on my son's forehead? I do that too!!!!!! I'm still giggling along with you!

LOL! Guess that is just a "mom" thing, rob? I am over doing that.....he's way bigger than I am and is now 33.

Teresa

When my boys were small we pasted all our banana stickers on the refrigerator also. Four in the family; that's a LOT of stickers. They covered the whole freezer door!

Not too fun to peel them all off though!

I agree, did do it would've been better stated. He's 11 and I've already stopped.

Why would you pell them off maxmom? ;)

And to add to "so over" not food products, although this the cooking forum, "orange" or "citrus" cleaning products!...Everything from dish soap to laundry soap. toilet cleaner, furniture polish oven cleaner etc etc....all lemon scented! Almost ruining my taste for lemon bars!

And the produce stickers in my grocery stores have the uPC on them...they tell if you have a fugi apple or a cortland or a honey crisp or whatever. I picked up about 5 pounds of apples, Jonathans I thought which are my favorite for pie and were $.99 but they were charging me $1.50....some of the Johathans has slipped over into the cortland bin or vice versa.

Though I'm laughing in agreement with many of the above comments, I also disagree with some of the comments above too, so I just work hard on frequenting restaurants that best suit my overall taste.

But for me, the biggest pet peeve, not just a 2010 issue, is when a menu item is described as something very straightforward like a mixed green salad or a hamburger or a latte, and then you get a plate that's randomly doused with pomegranate seeds or a bizarre "secret sauce" or a "dusting" of cocoa powder and chocolate syrup or "flavored" foam.

DH sometimes thinks I'm crazy when I grill a waitperson exactly what's on an item. Or sometimes I'll just ask something like: "Please, may I have a latte with no extra foam, no chocolate sprinkles, no syrup, no dusting of cocoa or cinnamon or nutmeg, no flavored milk or weird added coffee flavors... did I miss anything???"

Ditto on the cilantro-- it's a great big ICK for me!

I don't get bothered by a lot of the stuff mentioned here. If I don't care for something I pretty much just ignore it and/or order something else.

I do agree that the tiny fruit stickers are a pet peeve, and I hate paying for "too large" of portions of food, especially things that do not keep/reheat well.

Linda

Another cilantro hater here. I'm glad to know it's genetic rather than cultural.

dcarch, whenever someone is being a wine snob I quote (with a straight face) the caption from this James Thurber cartoon. It usually flummoxes them and shuts them up, at least for a moment.

Here is a link that might be useful: thurber wine snob cartoon

"A little while ago for fun, on April 1st, I bought a bunch of grapes and I put a sticker on every single grape and served the grapes to friends.

You should see how angry my friends were. They really wanted to immediate march to the store where I bought the grapes and give the owner h e l l."

I've been hoping someone would ask.
No one did, so I will.

Where in tarnation do you get that many little stickers to put on bunches of grapes? ? ??

Rusty

"Chipotle is merely a smoke dried jalapeno...so if you allergic to that you must also be allergic to anything with jalapenos like salsa, enchilada sauce poppers etc."

No lindac, I am not allergic to anything with with jalapenos, salsa or enchilada sauce. Just the smoked, dried chipotle peppers. I don't know why this is so difficult for you to comprehend.

Your friend,
Teresa - the one who is alergic to chipotle

OOh! Sorry....I thought perhaps you didn't know what chipotle is.

Teresa, Do you have trouble with soy sauce?

I have agree with Doucanoe, if I don't like it, I just don't order it or buy it. Why pay for something I don't like/want? Or go to that restaurant either. And if you have an allergy, let the host or server know in advance.

What I do not want is HOT or highly seasoned! Why do all the tv cooks want to put a "kick" in everything. I like to taste the food!

Molten lava chocolate cake. I like chocolate, but I've found restaurant versions disappointing and I'd rather have a really good, but really simple, traditional homemade chocolate cake.

I hate getting powdered sugar on pancakes, or french toast.
Happily, it's not all that common here.

Betty, I'm soooo glad I'm not alone! I would itch, just face and neck, for years when we ate pizza at a local bar. Never really thought anything about it. Then, about a year before I got pregnant with DS, who is now 23, I had allergy testing done for food allergies. I went on the diet, not eating anything that I was found to be allergic to, which is really quite a lot, and lost 10 pounds a month. Then I got pregnant and couldn't stay on it due to morning sickness. Had to have the crackers. Wheat and beef, yeast, mushrooms, dairy, chicken, turkey, egg yolks, just some of what the blood work turned up. But the biggest was garlic. My reaction to most is "just" weight gain. But, darn it, every time I went on that diet, I got pg!!!!! Even tho I have pieces/parts missing now, I WILL NOT go back on that diet! LOL God works too many miricles for me to chance it!!!!

I can't walk into an Italian restaruant, and we have to pick and choose our pizza places. Onions just give me gas, no hives. Chives started to bother, so I quit using those.

Feel free to email me thru my page if you want to comiserate!

I don't like my food stacked either. And my maternal grandfather never liked food to touch on his plate either. DS is the same way, tho he is getting better about it. And don't drown everything in seasoning. Let me taste the meat/potatoes/rice/vegetables.

Tami...who is a very plain and simple cook.

Tami, there's probably a lot of ladies that want to avoid your diet, lol!

LPink, I think you and I could go to one of those restaurants that serve huge portions and share a dish with no problem. As I read your post, I was thinking uh huh, yep that's me, to everything. Although I do love cheese and put it on almost everything myself, and Chipotle is fine in small doses.

Love cilantro, hate iceburg lettuce, and would feel cheated if I paid for a salad and all I got was a wedge of iceburg lettuce with some creamy dressing on it.

Rachelellen, I appreciate your efforts at the restaurant you worked at.

I've never eaten anywhere that was pricey enough to stack their food.

The grocery store I shop at the most puts two, count en, two stickers on their organic produce. One is the upc code one with the name of the fruit. The other just says organic. When I shop for those products, I peel the organic stickers off and stick them on the display. I don't want to have to deal with extra stickers at home, and the other stickers have the price on them, so I'm not trying to cheat them. As for the checkers not knowing what the produce is, watch out when you're checking out. I purchased some leafy red lettuce one day at Wally World, and had to argue with the checker that no, it's not Romaine. The checker in the next aisle heard our argument, looked over, and confirmed that I was correct. Turned out the twist tie thing that had the price on it was incorrect, so whomever wrapped them up for sale didn't know what they were doing, either.

Cathy, I guess many of us are airing pet peeves, as well as what we're so over.

Oh, here's another one I haven't heard mentioned. I'm so over loud, loud loud restaurants. Turn the volume down, please! And have either the t.v. or the music off - they don't both need to be on.

Sally

pink warm mama, I was just thinking the same thing myself today. I watched Guy Fieri and then I watched Bobby Flay and thought "I do not need hot peppers in EVERYTHING, geez...".

Annie