Tuesday 28 July 2009

Disaster dinner

Sometimes, with the best will in the world, the gods are just against you.

I emailed Sid this afternoon to ask if he'd like to come round for dinner this evening, since I haven't seen him since before I went away. The reply came back saying that he was meeting a friend for dinner at the pub and I should join them. I checked my points, thought what the hell, I've got enough for that, and after a quick and very leafy sprint round the supermarket (lots and lots of lovely veggies gracing the inside of my fridge now!), I joined them up there.

Now, let me be clear on this point - I thought this all through, down to the potential food choices before I even got to the pub. I was either going to have the soup of the day or pasta with a tomato sauce - both well within my points.

The boys wanted a starter and main, so with that in mind, I did a slight re-jig and opted for the pasta, but garlic prawns instead as the soup of the day was tomato as well. Garlic prawns thought I - how bad can it be - a small dish with some prawns, garlic, onion and probably a bit of butter. A couple of points at worst

Fuck me, but they were literally swimming in a cream sauce when they arrived. With bread on the side. Ok, fine, I can deal with that - they tasted good and I left some of the sauce. Besides, I thought smugly, I've got a healthy main.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but when I order something that is listed as a "delicious tomato and basil sauce on fresh tagliatelle", I expect there to actually be a tomato sauce. As in - a tomato base, with visible herbs, and possibly some other chunky veg thrown in.

Nope.

Fucking cream sauce, with random chunks of raw tomato stirred in. I'm not kidding - there was no tomato in the sauce base whatsoever - it was cream and possibly white wine. And the tomato chunks were pretty much just about warmed through, but that was it - definitely, in no way, shape or form cooked. And basil? Not that I could see.

I was gutted - I was so looking forward to my plate of lovely tangy sauce, and I was faced with a bowl of cream with some pasta swimming in it. Worse still, I don't even like raw tomato. Adore it when it's cooked; not so much when it's raw.

Sid took pity on my distressed expression and swapped dinners with me, but since he had pasta with chicken and bacon (also in a, you guessed it, cream sauce), it wasn't any better points-wise, just tastier from my point of view. And all with more freaking bread on the side.

I am sooooooo unamused.

So my points are screwed for today - I reckon I'm about 10 over for the day. I didn't eat all the cream sauce with the prawns, and to be honest, I only ate just over half the pasta as it was just too rich, but I've estimated the points on the cautious side.

Restaurants should be far more careful with their descriptions - a "tomato and basil sauce" is not the same as a "creamy sauce with fresh tomato" which is what the menu should have said.

I'm not the happiest bunny right now. :o(

1 comment:

Cole Walter Mellon said...

So many of my disasters begin with "what the hell..."

Buck up. Your heart was in the right place...