Too embarrassed to try a buddy's cooking.....

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The_Face_of_Boo
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25 Oct 2011, 9:42 am

Even been in a situation where you are too embarrassed to eat someone's bad cooking? ...especially when you're invited?

There's that buddy (coworker) who keeps insisting on me to eat of his food while his cooking sucks big time.

"Do you have lunch today?" He asks, "No, buy some sandwich from the cafeteria this time".
"No need! I made a great meal: green beans in olive oil"! ! " (local meal that I like but his sucks) the guy says.
"Thanks, but I am too hungry and they might not be enough" I replied ---> (evasion tactic).
"No worry, I have plenty for two, Look!" showing me two filled Tupperwares ---(evasion tactic failed).
"I made them!!" he proudly announces it, "come let's eat!"

While I was halfway the meal I asked "are you sure those are green beans?".
"Sure they are, what else would they be?" Saying surprisingly.
"I dunno, they look darkish and taste different, what did you put with them?" I replied.
"Maybe it's just because they stayed for about 2 days in the fridge" says he calmly.

Here I starting checking my food to see if there's anything crawling in there.

Ok.....brb (WC).



Last edited by The_Face_of_Boo on 25 Oct 2011, 12:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

jackbus01
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25 Oct 2011, 11:43 am

You need to be more assertive about not eating his food and he needs to learn to take "no" for an answer.
I would have simply said "I'm not interested in your food."



AardvarkGoodSwimmer
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25 Oct 2011, 11:46 am

Maybe when he pushes a second time, you might say, 'No thanks, I've been really looking forward to the sandwich.' That way, whatever he says, you have a definite thing, and a positive thing, which you can repeat if needed.

That is pretty poor that he's left them in the refrigerator two days and visible decline of quality.

I see you're from Beirut. (I live in Houston, Texas myself.) And I really think offering food and either accepting or declining is heavily cultural specific. That said, it sounds like he couldn't take a hint or he got "trapped" or "stuck."



The_Face_of_Boo
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25 Oct 2011, 12:17 pm

Here's another incident not long time ago:

I was once invited for a dinner (me and my coworker) by a French we used to have work with, he lived in an isolated and guarded area on a small hill, once I reached there I was introduced to his wife who looks exactly like 101 Dalmatians' villain, unbelievably too much make-up, all fur, pure evil smile, holding her weird mutilated caniche - scary.

"You'll enjoy her cooking tonight!" He says.

Once been in the dinner room, there was just a big plate of extremely slim steak and a bottle of wine, I started wondering if there would be any salad but there was none, not even a single broccoli ...just the plate of plain steak in the middle, weird...but fine.

He asked me whether I wanted the steak with sauce or without sauce, I said without sauce because I imagined there would some acetone traces in the sauce.

Then before even starting, he decided to make a little speech, he stood, raising the cup of wine and said stuff like :" A cette occasion, j'aimerai vous remercier pour votre collaboration ....bla bla bla" , he's the kind of Sylvester the cat , so he literally caused a little rain while he was speaking, I was watching the raining manifestation on the food, and told my colleague in low and in our local language "it's gonna be served with true french sauce after all". He could barely hold himself, and the man started asking me to share the joke, how embarrassing it was.



Last edited by The_Face_of_Boo on 26 Oct 2011, 3:06 pm, edited 3 times in total.

The_Face_of_Boo
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26 Oct 2011, 12:37 am

*bump*



smudge
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26 Oct 2011, 12:38 pm

The last paragraph is funny!!

Just keep saying that you're very busy everytime he mentions making food for you, or change the subject. Or say you prefer food from some particular place only, or you prefer to make your own. Be insistent. If you go over to his and he's already made food, tell him you're stuffed or feeling sick.



The_Face_of_Boo
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26 Oct 2011, 2:38 pm

smudge wrote:
The last paragraph is funny!!

Just keep saying that you're very busy everytime he mentions making food for you, or change the subject. Or say you prefer food from some particular place only, or you prefer to make your own. Be insistent. If you go over to his and he's already made food, tell him you're stuffed or feeling sick.


Well, I usually come up with such excuses but sometimes I get really corned. He's the friendliest coworker with me and he was always assisting, he even invited me to his upcoming small family wedding, that's why I can't like to reject his invitation every time.



anna-banana
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26 Oct 2011, 3:05 pm

eat it up. seriously. I know how hurt I get if someone refuses to eat what I'd cooked (happens often :P)


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The_Face_of_Boo
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26 Oct 2011, 3:07 pm

Yea, I realized that in order for any friendship to develop, small 'sacrifices' are necessary.