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:

1. Blue cheese dressing will leave your breath stinky.
2. Salad is tough to wrangle and will undoubtedly get stuck in your teeth. This may also cause bloating.
3. Lobster? Really? On a first date? Do not order the most expensive item on the menu unless your date does too.
4. Garlic butter will ratchet up bad breath even further. Oh, and don’t get anything with onions either.
5. Lobster PLUS greasy butter equals a mess on your face and your outfit.
6. 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.
7. 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

You wait a couple days with no call. You think, “No big deal, that’s expected – he’s probably just playing it cool.”

You wait a few more days, and still your phone is silent. Completely silent. Did you write the correct number down? Maybe he got hit by a car? Possibly he was stricken with severe laryngitis so he can’t utter a word? Is there any hope?

Now it has been two weeks and you finally toss in the towel: This guy is NOT going to call you.

The MANel

Why would he chat you up and then never call? Here are some of the answers I got from a recent “MANel” discussion board (a five-man Q&A panel), to the eternal question of “Why would a guy ask for your number and then never call?”:

• He was going to call you, but he washed your phone number or lost the piece of paper/napkin/etc.
• He got your number along with a few others, and one of them agreed to go out with him before he called you
• He asked for your number as a way to wrap up the conversation the two of you had
• He thought it was the courteous thing to do after talking with you
• He just wanted to see if he could your number – like a catch-and-release singles program
• He already has a girlfriend, fiance, wife…boyfriend

Cupid is NOT Calling

Countless single women have wrestled with the “Why didn’t he call” question, and short of hiring a psychic, you’ll probably never know why this nice guy never called. The best course of action is to stop wasting your time analyzing all the possible reasons why he’s not calling. Men are like buses: there will be another one stopping by any minute. so turn off your phone, leave your house and shake it off. NEXT!

Dating Debrief

What are some reasons you’ve heard of why a man doesn’t call, or why haven’t you called a potential date after getting their phone number?