Food inconsistency when dining out, which turned into a lap band thing...

While reading through GreenYogurt's archives about her experiences trying new foods and some of her commenters talking about inconsistent foods when dining out, it inspired this rant.  Yay!

I hate incorrectly prepared food. It’s one of my biggest pet peeves. Of course it doesn’t help that both my husband and I like to cook (he’s a professional for heavens sake) so nine times out of ten when we go out to eat we are like “Damn we could have made this better ourselves and saved the money.” He and I both agree that the most important thing for a restaurant or any food service establishment to have is *consistency*.


I probably shouldn’t admit this in public, but I’ve sent food back because it wasn’t prepared the same way I had it “last” time I was here.  At TooJay's I love to order their brisket dinner plate.  The first time I went there and ordered it, it was thinly sliced and heavenly.  As it was for the next few times we went. Around the third or fourth time, it came out and it was very thickly sliced, and in my world (Lap Band World) it was indigestible.  So I called the waiter over and asked him if they changed it, he said no, I said well it seems very different, they usually slice it thinner and while I hate to say this, I have to send it back.  I did, and the manager came over later and asked what was wrong.  I told him.  He went back to the kitchen and realized that the first few times, I was getting the brisket sliced "sandwich style" which was thinner, and this chef in the back was now slicing it regular and that was the problem, so he told me from now on when I come in to order it, to just order it sliced "sandwich style".  Glad that worked out, because their brisket rocks!

Also, I like my eggs over medium. There’s a reason for that; A) I like my yolk runny. B) I am completely GROSSED OUT if the white is runny at all and C) If it comes out over cooked, or it is over cooked because they left it under the heat lamp too long, I’ll send it back. See (A).  D) I can only eat the yolk of an egg most of the time, so it's that much more important to me that it's cooked correctly.  I explain that more down yonder.




Image of Perfect looking over medium fried eggs borrowed from allfavoriterecipe.com


Due to my lap band, I have a lot of issues with texture and consistency of food.  For example, I usually can't eat the whites of the eggs even if they are cooked perfectly, they get stuck. If it’s something like that, it's my problem and it happens that I can’t consume a certain meal because of my body, but it is good and prepared properly, I’ll have the meal packed up and I’ll take it home where I will try to eat it again, or I’ll just throw it away. Sometimes I can hardly even touch a meal, and inevitably I’ll have to excuse myself, and go “PB”* so I am not in pain. I’ll return to the table and the wait staff will come over and ask if everything is ok with the food. I’ll say yes and just have them box it up.

You would think after having this band for so long, I’d have I figured out by now. But that is NOT the case. Well not really. It seems I’ve outsmarted the band. You see, I’ve gained a significant amount of weight back. I’ve got to figure out how to reverse this y’all. I’m working on it.


Char


**Productive Burping – It’s kind of like throwing up, in that food is coming up like when you throw up, but it feels differently. I don’t really know how to explain it. You can probably google for an explanation far better than mine.  I did that and this girl seems to explain it better than I can.  Basically something gets stuck and it has to come up.