Results 1 to 28 of 28

Thread: Are you hard to please?

  1. #1
    Herbsman
    Guest

    Question Are you hard to please?

    I cook a lot at home, and am pretty enthusiastic about fresh, natural ingredients, and herbs, spices and seasoning.

    I find that on the rare occasions that I go out for a meal, I am usually disappointed.

    (Apart from the last time I ate out - at Brown's in Coventry. That was very tasty and varied, and the portion size was just right to satisfy a cyclist's appetite).

    I cannot remember having one meal that I really enjoyed or thought 'wow, this is better than anything I have cooked/could cook at home'. I can't remember any really awesome flavours jumping out and making my tastebuds tingle.

    So as a result, I don't tend to bother eating out.

    I am sure there are places out there that serve amazing vegan food, but none of the places local to me have wowed me, nor did Pogo cafe.

    Kind of makes me wish I was crap at cooking. Then everything else would taste amazing in comparison

  2. #2
    cedartree cedarblue's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    2,964

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    i hear you herbsman - we rarely go out to eat apart from pizza express and a special trip to a veggie/vegan place.

    'home cooked' just means they cook it, and probably from a frozen product, only 'home made' is made there.

    i'm generally disappointed by food out now as it's generally the standard vegan/veggie alternatives. that's not to say i don't love eating out - i do - but it rarely lives up to expectations.

  3. #3
    Hemlock's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    South Downs UK
    Posts
    1,312

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    Totally agree Herbsman, a lot of vegan meals I've had out have tasted exactly like cardboard. Especially vegan burger type meals.
    Silent but deadly :p

  4. #4
    [LMNOP] ellaminnowpea's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Northeast, U.S.
    Posts
    1,306

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    I can't cook so I suppose I'm slightly easier to satisfy when eating out. The only things I can cook/ prepare: oatmeal, steaming veggies, opening cans of beans, and cooking quinoa. Believe it or not, I've never cooked a full meal. I don't bake or use spices - my meals are rather plain.

    When I go out to eat, I have a hard time finding things to eat that are vegan, so if I'm hungry enough I'll eat it as long as it's not too fatty or salty. I don't have the most interesting meals, most of the time I don't even use spices, so going out to eat is a treat. I have to say though, a lot of people think I"m hard to please solely because of the veganism and the fact I don't want to eat fried food everyday. [Its a college town with little variety].
    “I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.” ~ Alcott

  5. #5
    organic fanic august's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    usa
    Posts
    42

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    It seems that I'm rarely really satisfied eating restaurant food- vegan or before vegan ( I don't even like to think of before vegan). It seems when we eat out at some point in the meal I think of how I would have prepared the food and how much money I would save in cooking the meal at home.
    Cooking for myself I totally cater to my preferences. I know what I like and I'm sure to prepare my food that way. I am glad that my husband has pretty much the same tastes as I do so that makes cooking easier and more satisfying. I find cooking relaxing so I enjoy it.
    I did have the best french toast I've ever eaten last week at a local vegan cafe. The bread was organic sour dough-rye swirl bread that was about an inch thick. There was just the right hints of vanilla, orange and hazlenut. It was topped with excellent organic maple syrup and agave glazed organic raspberries. Unfortunately it was served with a side of very bland, fried tofu cubes that I didn't eat. I will be going back for more french toast until I can top the recipe at home.
    "The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking." -byron

  6. #6
    cobweb
    Guest

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    i don't really see the point to eating out anyway - as i see it you're just paying 10 times as much for something you could make at home and eat whilst sitting in comfort and not being gawped at by other people.

    You never know where other people's hands have been or what they're putting in your food anyway .

  7. #7
    baffled harpy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    6,655

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    I can see if you really like cooking there isn't much point. Personally I'm not very fond of cooking so I do like eating out even if I think "I could have made this myself". Veggie or (ideally) vegan restaurants are nicest though, so that you don't have to worry about cross-contamination etc.

  8. #8
    Haniska's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    Virginia
    Posts
    757

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    I want someone else to cook for me
    With Chinese food I'm always like "Obviously they put this tofu in the sauce the exact moment that the waiter told them my order." ie. the cubes of "raw" tofu are in sauce but the sauce has made absolutely no penetration.
    The incidence of animal products in my food is becoming increasingly upsetting.
    The sweetness of mixed drinks is ridiculous. Hows a girl to get her buzz on?
    Of course, my drunk ass appreciates the food better.
    The main thing I think is that I don't really fry food but I'll let other people fry it for me. Nankings in Richmond has some very lovely dishes, I give it up to them.
    it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble

  9. #9
    Wonderwoman's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    mars
    Posts
    29

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    I've stopped eating out as much since going vegan. Apart from a vegan local restaurant, I'm just too damned suspicious about what they put in the food (like oyster sauce in 'vegetarian' stir fries....grrrr). About a week after my partner and I went vegan, he got horrid food poisoning from a place we used to go to all the time, so that probably helped turn us off eating out too. As much as I love being cooked for and like the feeling of going somewhere special...it's just not that much fun anymore.
    In her satin tights.....fighting for your rights.....

  10. #10
    told me to Mr Flibble's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Warwickshire, UK
    Posts
    2,639

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    Quote Herbsman View Post
    I find that on the rare occasions that I go out for a meal, I am usually disappointed.
    I'd say so, usually. Some places are good (ironically Browns wouldn't be on my list), but others are useful when you're out places or if you just can't be arsed to cook. Sibilas in Birmingham is generally on the good list, thou I've yet to experience cake in a Midlands restaurant that is better than stuff I can myself.
    "Mr Flibble - forum corruptor of innocents!!" - Hemlock

  11. #11
    Rentaghost Marrers's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    UK Croydon/Brighton
    Posts
    2,857

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    I love eating out and am usually impressed with the food (sometimes very impressed).
    But I am not very good at cooking and rarely do it (usually without a recipe when I do so the results aren't great).
    Idleness is not doing nothing. Idleness is being free to do anything. - Floyd Dell

  12. #12
    Fervent vegan DiaShel's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    New Zealand
    Posts
    1,212

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    I haven't eaten out since becoming Vegan. I really enjoy the experience of going to restaurant and having someone wait on me. I can't wait to get out of Connecticut and go someplace that has a Vegan restaurant.
    "To reduce suffering means to reduce the amount of ignorance, the basic affliction with us." -Thich Nhat Hanh

  13. #13
    Herbsman
    Guest

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    Quote Mr Flibble View Post
    Sibilas in Birmingham is generally on the good list
    The first (and last) time I went to Sibilas, I ended up with really painful digestive cramps soon after the meal - part of which was cold.

    When I got home I ended up sitting on the toilet passing liquid from where solids normally come out, every few minutes for the next few hours. Not a pleasant experience at all.

    I don't like pain so I wouldn't there again even if they paid me.

    Never experienced anything like it before or since.

  14. #14
    Cake Fairy Cherry's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Rugby. In the middle.
    Posts
    1,554

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    Interesting thread. Yes, I have to say that I'm usually disappointed, but then most of the time when I eat out it's to be sociable so my expectations are that the food is definitely vegan and hopefully edible. I don't really expect to enjoy it.

    Good heavens, your Sibilas experience doesn't sound pleasant. How unfortunate. I was about to say that Sibilas was one of my favourites too. It's the best place I've ever eaten in for starters/main courses and I couldn't fault the food or presentation, though as Mr Flibble says, you can make better cake at home. Their's is too dry.

    My second favourite is Lancrigg vegetarian hotel in Grasmere (Cumbria/Lake District). Their food is at least as good as we can do at home but more interesting. Good deserts too. The best cake I've ever eaten when I've been out is from The Lakeland Pedlar is Keswick. Not sure if it's better than I can do, but definitely better than I was expecting!! I'm rather fond of the pizzas from Zefferellis in Ambleside too. Drat, this isn't much good when you live in Warwickshire...

  15. #15
    hydrophilic tipsy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    PDX
    Posts
    938

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    my, my... i have a dirty mind...

    'are you easy to please?' had so many options.

    i didnt even think food....
    the aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, dunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.
    -henry miller

  16. #16
    Herbsman
    Guest

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    Quote Cherry View Post
    Good heavens, your Sibilas experience doesn't sound pleasant. How unfortunate.
    The only possible explanation was that it contained nuts (to which I'm allergic) BUT I did ask first to make sure the dish didn't contain nuts. Which makes the whole thing even more confusing.

  17. #17
    cedartree cedarblue's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    2,964

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    Quote Marrers View Post
    I love eating out and am usually impressed with the food (sometimes very impressed).
    But I am not very good at cooking and rarely do it (usually without a recipe when I do so the results aren't great).

    do you eat out a lot then marrers?
    what about day to day eating?

  18. #18
    Rentaghost Marrers's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    UK Croydon/Brighton
    Posts
    2,857

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    I don't eat out as much as I'd like to! Day to day eating doesn't really involve much cooking except sometimes soup or a (recipe-less) stew or stir-fry. Otherwise I tends to be a grilled burger / fishless finger etc with boiled veg, or houmous and veg, or occasionally pasta and a bought sauce.
    Idleness is not doing nothing. Idleness is being free to do anything. - Floyd Dell

  19. #19
    perfect RedWellies's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Herefordshire, England
    Posts
    1,564

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    Quote jjdaiquiri View Post
    my, my... i have a dirty mind...
    Haha, I was along the same track as you,JJ, although I was thinking more generally.

    As for eating out, I think if you can find somewhere with a decent chef, you should be OK. Luckily, around here, many places are moving towards locally grown and organic produce.
    "Do what you can with what you have where you are."
    - Theodore Roosevelt

  20. #20
    journey
    Guest

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    I like to eat out sometimes for social reasons and to have someone cook for me for a change, but yes, am usually disappointed by the food (and the price). But I recently was surprised at an Irish pub (Americanized) that I thought would have nothing I could eat. The on-line menu had 4 items that were vegan or could easily be made vegan. When we got there, only 1 of those items, a completely vegan hummus/pita/veggie thing was on the menu - and it was delicious, filling and inexpensive. I was so surprised - you really don't expect to find anything at a pub here. (So made sure I told the owner how much I appreciated having vegan options).

  21. #21
    sugarmouse
    Guest

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    Cynics are never disappointed!
    But my food is much better.
    I go out to eat sometimes, more cos its soemthing to do when family visit or whatever.
    But I wouldnt choose it just for sake of the food.

  22. #22
    Haniska's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    Virginia
    Posts
    757

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    Good point. Its hard to remember I bought food at a restaurant by myself.
    it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble

  23. #23
    AR Activist Roxy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    South Australia
    Posts
    4,977

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    Quote jjdaiquiri View Post
    my, my... i have a dirty mind...

    'are you easy to please?' had so many options.

    i didnt even think food....
    lol - me neither.

    I don't think I'm hard to please when it comes to eating out. No one else cooks for me, so it's nice to have a treat, and have a vegan meal made for me, on occaision.

  24. #24
    RubyDuby
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    3,294

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    I'm not usually disappointed in the food when eating out... assuming it shows up as a vegan dish. I'm more disappointed with the attitudes of the wait staff and cooks not wanting to answer questions and just general looks/responses they give. I love going out to eat and I like the idea of helping to change the stigma that comes with veganism, but it gets really exhausting trying to be nice while getting crappy service. I'm also trying to save money so need to stop going out anyway...
    Each snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty.

  25. #25

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    I really enjoy the treat of eating out, as it's usually with the family. I don't always see eye to eye with them, especially when it comes to opinions on what we should/shouldn't eat, but i really do enjoy their company... and they usually pay.

    It takes a lot to disappoint me eating out at a restaurant, the only time i'm ever underwhelmed by a meal is usually at a chain.

  26. #26
    Aurore's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Paris
    Posts
    144

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    i agree with that last post. i mostly cook at home, for myself if not ocasionnally for the whole family (i need to test the recipes !!).

    i'm usually not disappointed at restaurants. my only source of anger relies in the fact my parents always go out to the same restaurants, one of them serving vegetarian dishes made with fish instead of meat . that makes me laugh. thank goodness i love their french fries.
    i'd like my family to try a restaurant more veg friendly but as there's not any in the neighbourhood and my parents are minimalist, there's no way i can convince them to go far into Paris just for one meal.

  27. #27
    steven1222
    Guest

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    I have not eaten at any restaurant since I went vegan, but it is not easy to find a direct causation there. I prefer to pick up my food from a shelf instead of having it handed to me. When I want a good prepared food product, I go to the expensive health food store, which is still cheaper than a restaurant. I like to see a list of the ingredients in the food. I only eat alone. For those reasons, it would be impossible for any restaurant to satisfy me even if I entered the place (which I wouldn't)

  28. #28
    Haniska's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    Virginia
    Posts
    757

    Default Re: Are you hard to please?

    Very true about it being less than a restaurant anyway. Might be something to do with fiance, have separate lasagnas one night or something. With a nice salad and garlic bread.
    it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble

Similar Threads

  1. Replies: 17
    Last Post: May 31st, 2007, 04:42 PM

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •