Your Worst Meal Was?
May 24th, 1999, 11:40 AM
#1
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Your Worst Meal Was?
I read the most memorable dining experiences but, I cannot find much out about the worst. What was your worst meal (or entree) in Europe. I would especially like to know what it was AND what it was called on the menu, if you knew what you were ordering, and whether it would be a good 'dish' had you ordered it elsewhere (I guess I am really looking for local dishes to avoid. I do not think that cow brains would appeal to me but, who knows, I DO love snails).
May 24th, 1999, 12:25 PM
#2
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On a recent trip to Italy, all my meals were delicious. But I must sat that my worst meal was on Lufthansa Airlines. YUK, why does German Airline serves pasta (and really bad pasta at that)? Leave the pasta to the Italians who know how to get it right. Surely there must be some german food they can serve. Beside for that they also had a choice of fish which made the plane smell like a bad day at Fisherman Wharf! We also took a small connecting jet from Munich to Rome on Lufthansa and they served a fabulous salad plate which included salmon, salads, meats and cheeses with champagne and fresh pasrty for dessert! Why couldnt Lufthansa serve something like this on their transatlantic flight? <BR> <BR>
May 24th, 1999, 01:08 PM
#3
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The worst meal was a plate of raw oysters eaten in Cadiz which lead to the Worst Experience in Europe #57. <BR>The one dish that I've come across numerous times in Spain is the regional soup of Andalucia - cocido. Think over-cooked garbanzo beans in a watery broth floating with rubbery pieces of pig skin. No spicing, just a trio of really unappetizing textures.
May 24th, 1999, 03:03 PM
#6
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When in Holland avoid Dutch Restaurants. Its not really good and the Dutch dont even eat it. Have Indonesian, french or Italian instead. Dutch street food is very good, try 'Kroketts" at FEBO automats, cheese sandwiches (kaas broodjes), pastries, etc. All are delicious!
May 24th, 1999, 03:33 PM
#7
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Exactly one year ago (well, on the 25th) my husband ordered Rognon de veau grille, at Arpege in Paris. He thought he was ordering grilled lamb. He was, but it was some sort of organ dish. He had suffered from a fluttery stomach earlier in the day, and this pretty much did him in for good. I believe his face turned three shades of gray. Meanwhile, I had an astounding Canard Vendeen au Poivre. Up until then we thought we'd been doing quite well with our old high school French. You sort of wish you didn't make mistakes like this when you're paying $300 for dinner for two.
May 24th, 1999, 09:42 PM
#8
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The last story is like mine as it was in Paris and also at a very expensive restaurant. I thought I was ordering veal (normal veal) and I got served his horrendous looking, appallingly smelly and stomach churning tasting thing! I started crying when I knew I had to eat it as it cost a fortune. Turned out later it was veal KIDNEYS. It was the worst thing I have ever eaten in my life as it was so awful every disgusting $$$$ mouthfull. <BR>
May 25th, 1999, 04:25 AM
#10
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I always used to be baffled by phrase books' inclusion of various menu items I would never order. Now I realize that you want to learn these words precisely so you know that the part of the veal calf you're ordering is the kidneys (or, as we now all know the "rognons") or the liver ("fegato" in Italian, for all you people headed to Venice, where it's the local speciality). <BR>My worst meals were all occasioned by reading guidebooks. Or by going to Germany or England.
May 25th, 1999, 04:35 AM
#11
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Without a doubt, the in-flight meal on the late, unlamented British Midlands Airways. Plopped down in front of us on a London-Edinburgh flight was a blob of gray mutton smothered in some kind of paste. Surrounding the mutton were peas that had been cooked to oblivion and had turned that kind of sickly green-gray color that things get just before they die. <BR> <BR>We didn't eat it, but we had to look at it and smell it for fifteen minutes before we could convince someone to take it away. <BR>
May 25th, 1999, 10:00 AM
#13
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A word which tripped me up, although the dish tasted pretty good, was ris de veau. Riz with a z is French for rice. Ris with an s is French for sweetbreads, which is an English euphemism for pancreas. By the way, gesiers are gizzards, langue is tongue, foie is liver (and foie gras is heaven on earth!) Lapin is rabbit, lievre is hare, chevre is goat, or cheese made from goat's milk. Grenouilles are frogs. My husband and I look for these things on menus, even though we may not want to eat them, because they're a good sign the restaurant is not catering to foreign tourists. European ideas of American cooking are not flattering. In spite of accidentally ordering ris, gesiers, and a few other weird things, the very worst meal I've had in Europe, bar none, was the night a small, French, farm town decided to put on a Tex-Mex dinner. Now, THAT was bad!
May 25th, 1999, 10:13 AM
#14
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Actaully, sweetbreads are the thymus (not sure if that helps, but I believe Dave is a man of science, so I thought I'd throw it out there. Also they're delicious, but if you order them they may ask if you know what they are). Another menu item in France are the cheeks of various animals and the feet: joue and pied. As I recall, this trip is a reward to Dave's daughter for doing so well in French class, so she should be able to identify most of the words on the menu. The only tricky part is when they're being poetic: we were going to stay far away from the "coeur du Charolais," because we weren't up for beef heart. But Madame explained that it was, in this case, a little tenderloin steak (definitely not a contender for "worst meal")
May 25th, 1999, 10:18 AM
#15
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Oh, please, Martha, tell us about the Tex-Mex meal!!! Living here in the Southwest, I'd love to hear a French interpretation (I will admit, though, I did have pretty good Tex-Mex food in Bordeaux and in Paris - we just couldn't resist it) of menudo...
May 25th, 1999, 10:20 AM
#16
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<BR>About 10 years ago, on a business trip right near London's Gatwick airport, we were taken by our clients to a pub one evening. There were 4 of us and we each ordered something different; steak, chicken, pork, lamb. Imagine my surprise when all 4 dishes arrived looking exactly alike! My dish tasted non-descript and I assume the other 4 dishes tasted the same as well!
May 25th, 1999, 01:53 PM
#17
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My father-in-law is still upset about a meal years ago at a 3-star restaurant because the waiter didn't warn him that sweetbread (similar to the word for veal in French) is the thymus gland or pancreas. In contrast, I ordered sweetbread at Trumilou, a cheap Paris restaurant with good food, and the waiter told me what I would be getting, albeit a little brusquely. The second time I was there, I was trying to decipher the menu with the help of an electronic translator concealed in my lap. A waiter came up behind me, asked me what it said, and when I replied "nail," he told me that the item was like beef stew. The moral is that you get what you ask for in expensive restaurants.
May 25th, 1999, 02:01 PM
#18
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In a restaurant in Wales (Caernarvon, to be precise) my husband and I both ordered rack of lamb. Since the restaurant claimed to be a "bistro" we both pictured something small and trimmed in the French style. Well, what we were served looked more like something Fred Flinstone would eat. Certainly not rack of lamb, maybe rack of sheep (or rack of brontosaurus??). It was large, fatty and quite chewy. And to think, I figured lamb would be good in Wales! <BR> <BR>The most disgusting thing I ever tasted was not in a restaurant. My father, who is Greek, served us grilled kokoretsi one Easter, and I, being the trusting daughter, ate it. Kokoretsi is lamb livers, and kidneys and other parts, on a skewer wound up with some intestine. Yuck!!!
