Culinary Pet Peeves

[gpackin]

Places that do not carry Dr. Pepper! Then say "we do not carry Dr. Pepper, is Root Beer okay" HECK NO it is NOT okay!!

I know, Dr. Pepper is nothing like Root Beer and they always say that.

[tollbaby]

ugh! Dr. Pepper is a cherry cola!!!! Root Beer tastes like licorice and chocolate! Totally not the same flavors at all!!!! Now if they asked if Cherry Coke was okay, I'd understand.... but rootbeer?????

[laurie]

Dr. Pepper isn't really like Cherry Coke, either. I love Cherry Coke, but I can't stand Dr. P. And I have a friend who loves Dr. P. but won't touch Cherry Coke.

[gpackin]

What flavor is Dr. Pepper anyway. I like it, but I never knew what flavor it is supposed to be.

[ashellinak]

What flavor is Dr. Pepper anyway. I like it, but I never knew what flavor it is supposed to be.

I have never associated it with any flavor, not cherry, not coke and NOT Root Beer!!

All I know is that it is the best darn pop ever created and it should be mandated that all establishments carry it.

But that is just my opinion

[voralfred]

Well ,Dr. Pepper is definitely a cherry-flavored cola.
How close exactly it is to Cherry Coke can be a matter of discussion. I'm sure experts can easily distinguish between the two, just as tastevins can tell which year a specific wine was made, or whether the grapes came from the east part or the west part of a specific quarter mile hill. I lack this expertise, both for wines and for colas, I don't remember drinking Cherry Coke (from the Coca Cola Company) but I did drink Dr. Pepper and it does have a cherry taste in it.

[mccormack44]

I agree with both those who identify Dr. Pepper as a Cherry Cola and those who say it doesn't taste like Cherry Coke.

When the colas first came on the market they were fountain drinks. Coca Cola (R) was one of the first (if not the first) and Dr. Pepper was also a very early contender.

Early sodas (pop?, soda pop?) were called phosphates. There were various flavored syrups at the fountain along with the supply of carbonated water. Different formulas were available; apparently, some soda fountain attendants (and even some customers) mixed their own combinations. (There is a scene in Gene Stratton Porter's "Freckles" where the heroine does this for the hero.) (I know I'm the "Grand Dame" but this IS before my time; I'm telling you what I heard from adult conversation and what I learned from various contemporary novels like "Freckles.")

Cherry and Lemon flavors were very popular syrups at the soda fountains, as was cola when it appeared. Dr. Pepper capitalized on the Cherry-Cola combination and sold it as a prescribed amount in their syrups. Cherry Coke (R) and Lemon Coke (R) were limited to fountain colas until after WWII (this IS in my day), so at home you drank Coke, Pepsi, or one of the other colas or Dr. Pepper. My mother established her own flavored cola by accident. After mistakenly pouring coke into an unfinished 7-Up glass, she discovered she liked that flavor. She served half-and-half Coke/7-Up frequently from then on; she called it "CUp" My sister and I then experimented with Coke and ginger ale; half-and-half "Cale" became our favorite when we didn't want full strength Coke. But I have always liked Dr. Pepper also; I continued to prefer it to the other cherry colas after Coke and Pepsi put theirs on the market.

Sue

[tollbaby]

I've often put grenadine into diet coke, or used the juice from the bottom of a jar of maraschino cherries Jack Astor's makes the *best* Cherry coke I've ever had.

One of the reasons I'm incredibly sad I can't have caffeine anymore

(oh, and I agree that although they're both cherry flavored colas, cherry coke tastes NOTHING like Dr Pepper.)

[violetblue]

We put grenadine in Sprite to make kiddie cocktails for the kids. They like it.

[voralfred]

The first time I went to NY I was offered celery-flavored lemonade. Not home mixed, it came out of a bottle. Sounded weird, but when I tasted it, well, it was OK. I would not make it my favorite, but, yes, definitely OK. Is this restricted to the NY area or have any of you tried something like that?
BTW, Pure Evil, is it necessary to tell ashellinak exactly whose fault it is that some places do not carry Dr. Pepper?

[gpackin]

There is a soft-drink brand called Dr. Brown's who makes a celery flavored soda Called Cel-Ray. It's kind of like a celery flavored ginger ale. Dr. Brown's is popular in NYC, but you can find it other place in the US, especially in Jewish delis. I prefer the Black Cherry over the Cel-Ray myself.

[voralfred]

Yes, that was most probably it. It was indeed something like ginger ale, with a celery flavor. Not bad, but I prefer just standard Coke or caffeine-free Coke. Not diet Coke, though, I don't like it at all. We can find caffeine-free Coke with true sugar, not sweeteners, in France.

[tollbaby]

I had some rather interesting Burdock & Dandelion cola while in England... tasted like liquid licorice I wouldn't rush out and buy it again, but it wasn't bad. I imagine it would make awesome ice cream floats

[ashellinak]

It's amazing how one persons Dr. Pepper peeve can cause quite a dialogue! GO ME.

I spent some time at the Coca Cola Museum in Atlanta, GA where we got to sample pop from around the world. Yeah - there is some pretty nasty stuff that people drink, LOL.

You know what else gets my goat when I am eating out = when the food takes up the entire plate! They leave no room for cutting. I also like my salad mixed and some restaurants will layer the ingredients, and use up the WHOLE plate, so you can not mix the salad without causing a mess.

[mharmon]

Butchery Peeve: Defatted & Too-Small Brisket

In recent years, virtually all supermarkets in my region have been completely de-fatting their briskets before packaging them for the meat case. Brisket, more so than almost any other cut of meat (except for pork belly) NEEDS a generous layer of fat to be left ON during it's traditional long slow braise towards tenderness ... otherwise it becomes overlean and DRYish, even with the braising. Rubbing it with oil doesnt even come close to cutting it, and draping it with fat trimmed from other cuts of beef (ex: rib roast) is not as effective, because it tends to shrink unevenly, leaving dry edges, plus the flavor/texture of the fat itself is different, when it comes from different parts of the animal.

It's also become difficult to get WHOLE brisket in the supermarket ... they routinely split it into 2, 3 and sometimes even 4 smaller cuts.

I've found the only way to get a decent fat-on brisket, whole or otherwise, is to either go to a private butcher, or to a restaurant supply warehouse that sells whole meat primal cuts in cryovac.

Sad how the hoi polloi's mindless and misguided quest (carefully cultivated by a greedy and unscrupulous meat industry) for leaner, lower quality, and increasingly flavorless and poorly matured meat is making it ever more difficult for culinary aficianados to prepare food with optimum flavor and texture.

It boggles the mind that although the price, availability and general safety of our meats have all improved greatly over the past 100 years, the actual eating quality (re: flavor & texture, as well as animal welfare) has sharply DECREASED in parallel with the rise of intensive mass-market production.

My taste in meats has reached a tipping point, and I'm increasingly patronizing private butchers as a result, wherever logistics and spending money permit.

I agree. Brisket should have a layer of fat on it. I also hate having to buy 2-3 small briskets instead of one decent size brisket.

[the grim squeaker]

Dandelion and burdock ice floats rock!

[tollbaby]

I'm glad I'm not the only adventurous soul to have bought a bottle of that stuff LOL I can't see anyone drinking it straight - it's got a very cloying flavor - but it'd be lovely with ice cream

[the grim squeaker]

In the UK, its a mainstream item. Go into any superstore and They'll have it.

[gpackin]

I wish Ribena was easy to find in the US.

[Mary Russell]

There was a HUGE Ribena craze in Kenya when I left. Especially frozen Ribena. Haha. It was crazy!

[Mary Russell]

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseacti ... id=2356963

A video for a Digital Multimedia class talking about Ribena.

[tollbaby]

In the UK, its a mainstream item. Go into any superstore and They'll have it.

No, I know that... that's where *I* bought it. But both my boyfriend and I had never seen anyone else buy it I tried it on a whim

[the grim squeaker]

And did it float your, er, float?

[Darb]

Peeve summary to date.

Numbers assigned retroactively, for ease of reference. I have not attempted to re-organize these, or regroup related or redundant items - they appear here in the order they were posted.

--------------------- PAGE 1
1. Stemware, incorrect handling of.
2. Buffet, wasteful diners
3. Faux wine snobs
4. Food photography
5. Buffet, unsanitary slobs
6. Bad menu spelling
7. Culinary incompetence (Catering/Restaurant)
8. Erroneous and/or incomplete culinary techniques (in printed recipes)
9. Poor/unbalanced seasoning
10. Menus without prices
11. Not keeping water full
12. Inattentive/disappearing staff
13. Glassware that’s too small (ex: juice)
14. Gratuity already included on bill (i.e., mandatory pre-set tipping)
15. Flavorless cold cereal
16. Buffet, sneeze guards that aren’t low enough.
17. Lazy chefs/butchers
18. Cheesy canned muzak
19. {server perspective} Customers who don’t read the menu, and misorder.
20. {server perspective} Customers who don’t listen to explanations.
21. {server perspective} Customers who mistreat or disrespect their servers.
22. Customers who send stuff back for little or no reason, and otherwise complain/bully the staff for freebies over perceived slights or imagined errors, when nothing is wrong with their meal.
23. Waiters who carry soup with their thumb in the soup.
24. {vegan} ordering vegetarian pasties and receiving meat ones.
--------------------- PAGE 2
25. Lousy garlic bread
26. {vegan} Insufficient & unimaginative vegetarian selections.
27. Misleading coffee cup size terminology (makes it sound far larger than it truly is)
28. {chef perspective} being forced to work with co-workers with no aptitude for cooking.
29. {chef perspective} coworkers who brag about culinary skills they don’t have.
30. {chef perspective} coworkers who fire everything at once, and far too early, so they can finish and gab rather than serve food at it’s peak.
31. {chef perspective}coworkers who take breaks whenever they feel like it, regardless of meal rush timing ... or who stop completely because of a minor nick or burn. Suck it up !
32. (chef perspective) coworkers who flat line – i.e., who can’t/won’t learn from their mistakes or skilled instruction.
33. (chef perspective) coworkers who can’t be bothered to label or organize anything, or even take temperatures of sensitive items.
34. Overrated and overpriced mail order meat (ex: “Omaha Steaksâ€

[daetara]

i totally agree that dr. pepper and cherry coke are nothing alike...but what about dr. pepper and mr. pibb? are they interchangeable? if they said "is mr. pibb okay?" would you be just as annoyed? i don't like either of them so i'm clueless here.