What to Avoid at Restaurants
Friday, February 22, 2013 In Anthony Bourdain's book Kitchen Confidential, he gives some insider tips like don't order fish on Mondays (they're not-so-fresh) and reconsider ordering anything with hollandaise sauce (bacteria fest). He also talks about eating bread in restaurants even though he knows it has probably been recycled from another table.
This brings me what I won't eat at Korean restaurants. When you order a kalbi or any meat dish, they'll bring out the lettuce basket so you can make lettuce wraps. The lettuce is like the bread at restaurants; It was most likely recycled from another table. At the very least, I don't eat the one laying on top since the baskets always gets stacked on top of each other.
Another thing I avoid? I don't order kimchi jjigae (stew). I've heard it's a depository for leftover kimchi.
What about you? What do you avoid eating at restaurants?
Reader Comments (5)
Chili from Wendy's. after I heard they used day-old hamburger meat for the chili, I swore it off. And cole slaw at diners. It's the same problem as the bread-- it gets recycled from another table. And, while I'm talking about diners, many will have a dessert section with ours and cakes, and sometimes they say "Baked on premises". That can mean they had it delivered frozen, usually parbaked, and simply heated it their oven. So, it's usually not worth the money, unless you really want a piece.
Michele, this is great info! I used to love dipping fries into the chili at Wendy's. I did know about the cole slaw and avoided that too.
Another thing, but it's not at restaurants, is jarred pasta sauce with sugar as an ingredient. Coming from an Italian family, I can tell you that you don't need, and shouldn't use, sugar in tomato pasta sauce. It doesn't add sweetness, sweetness comes from the quality and type of tomatoes you use. Sugar just adds sugar. It's extra calories and will just turn into fat. It just makes it cheaper for the company bottling the sauce to produce it.
oh dear! I was avoiding bread for other reasons and the information here as strengthened my resolve.
Michele, good advice!
Hi notesontea, yes, a good reason to not take in extra carbs.