Dating Etiquette 101:
Let’s play a culinary quiz game that I like to call: What’s wrong with this first-date dinner order?:
I’ll have blue cheese dressing on my salad, and then the lobster with extra garlic butter and some cheesy broccoli.
There are seven potential pitfalls to this dinner order:
- Blue cheese dressing will leave your breath stinky.
- Salad is tough to wrangle and will undoubtedly get stuck in your teeth. This may also cause bloating.
- Lobster? Really? On a first date? Do not order the most expensive item on the menu unless your date does too.
- Garlic butter will ratchet up bad breath even further. Oh, and don’t get anything with onions either.
- Lobster PLUS greasy butter equals a mess on your face and your outfit.
- Melted cheese on any food item has the risk of stringiness, and the last thing you want is a strip of cheese hanging off your chin.
- Broccoli can cause bloating too, along with gas and cramping. There mom, THAT is why I don’t like broccoli!
Some other foods to avoid on the first few dates are beans or carrots (gaseous masseous!) and carbonated drinks. Although belching at the table is a complement to the cook in some countries, it doesn’t work well on a date. I also recommend staying away from messy finger foods like pizza, burgers, ribs and chicken wings. Spaghetti can be a tough call too, so opt for the bowtie or rotini (corkscrew shaped) pastas.
Now, this is not to say that you should sit there and just drink water. An example of a good item to order is a chicken dish, which is usually not overly pricey. Fish dishes are iffy and could be a bit smelly, so if it’s a toss up between this and steak, then get the meat!
I also recommend taking a survey of what your date is ordering before making your move. If he’s going for a moderately priced meal on the menu, then you might want to consider sticking around that price point.
However, if you don’t ever want to see him again, then pull out all the stops and go for the surf and turf with a side of cauliflower, and get a to-go dessert!
Bon appetit!
“Into the Soup” with Heidi Lee hosts special guest Kristi DeWitt, AKA the Date Diva!
Check out Heidi Lee’s hilarious radio show Into the Soup, featuring “Cooking for Love.” I’m on about 15 minutes into the show, and I recount my famous “Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum” chicken wing story. Yum! Check out the show which covers what not to eat on a date, look for the clip titled “Into The Soup Radio: April 30, 2011–Cookin for Love” at
http://www.intothesoup.com/category/food-features/week-radio
