I noticed a strange feature: the restaurant business in our country is developing, and there are fewer and fewer restaurants and cafes that people unconditionally trust. Not only for myself, but also for many acquaintances, I judge: now people, unless they go to an institution that focused specifically on regular visitors, and not on strangers, especially tourists, study the menu as much as possible more thoroughly.
- I am strained by the principle of "waste-free production", which is now declared by many, - admitted recently a friend, looking at the menu. - Constantly plagued by vague doubts that wastelessness is based on the fact that everything is allowed to the last, and not on optimization of the kitchen and purchases.
I thought about it. Hmm... He's a journalist. Sometimes he writes about catering establishments. I won't say that often or he is a restaurant critic - no. There are just such topics. And, in general, he formulated more or less precisely both the reason and the effect of mistrust.
I, frankly, do not trust many dishes in cafes and restaurants either. Yes, I know that none of the restaurateurs has any intention of poisoning me. But I hate the thought that my food is prepared according to the principle "we need to urgently dispose of these ingredients, because the expiration date is running out."
The list of such dishes is small.
So, in an unfamiliar place, I will never order a prefabricated hodgepodge or daily cabbage soup.
Many establishments sound "cold cuts" in their composition, but the composition of cold cuts is sometimes quite... unexpected. Formed according to the principle "everything that the guests did not eat yesterday."
A self-respecting institution, of course, will not allow this - if it protects the clientele, but places where traffic is through - once a person has entered and is unlikely to be seen again - can sin.
Casseroles made from pasta and cereals
I avoid them too. Somehow there was a situation that fusilli (spirals), spider web vermicelli and asterisks were simultaneously present in the casserole.
I remembered that in most establishments the same pasta is sometimes cooked "not for the client", but as a reserve - according to approximate calculation. And in soups, vermicelli can be boiled in advance, and added before serving.
In general, there was the impression that the casserole, moreover called a tricky Italian word, was made from the remains of yesterday's, most likely, blanks. Why yesterday's? Who will send today's blanks to the pasta baked with sauce? The sauce and bake will mask everything
Sauces - cocktails and dips
If the menu includes a salad with cocktail sauce or a dip, I will never order them. Just because cocktail or dip sauce is the classic way to get rid of foods that already neither here nor there - there are too few of them, and the deadline is coming to an end, and, in general, their guests urgently need feed.
Do you have food that you avoid in public catering?