I often go to restaurants and have food envy - why oh why do I choose the wrong thing on the menu only to see my friend or partner or even the children have chosen something more delicious

Does anyone else suffer from Food Envy?

Yes my husband does! He will eye up my restaurant main meal against his and ask why it looks more interesting than his and why there seems to be more on my plate than his plate! Poor fella! I always tell him I'm available if he wants to consult with me before he orders!
Regards,
Dawn.

Yes, but it's usually my fault, Mr Griz isn't very food literate so I tend to interpret and suggest things I know he'll like, and then order something different for myself, and regret not ordering what I suggested for him!

Nope, never. I'm usually the one with the dish that others have food envy for. I'm also the one that at ethnic restaurants the owner comes over and asks if I've lived in that country. In a Japanese restaurant I once asked why they asked me that question and they said that I don't order like a New Zealander! I tend to order stuff that looks tasty or that I wouldn't make at home or that I haven't eaten before. I cannot stand chicken breast or eye fillet steak as I find the uniform texture tedious. I love meat that has some fatty bits, some overdone bits and some gristly bits.I adore vegetables of all sorts and offal of all sorts. I love all sorts of textures from gelatinous beef tendons to crunchy deep-fried fish bones. I am a huge fan of eating with my fingers and eating off bones and shells and cracking things and picking things out of bones and shells.

If I don't know what something is I'll ask, rather than just avoiding it and going for the familiar.

I think that if you order food like this at a restaurant the chef puts a bit more love into it because it's probably the food that they love to prepare.

Apologies if I've expounded on this before but I'm passionate about people, especially young people and children, eating a variety of foods and textures. I'm horrified at the number of my friends in their mid-late 20s who won't eat anything that is on the bone because they've been brought up on chicken breast or homogenised foods like mince and sausages and chicken nuggets.

Hear hear.

Me too. Four of us have been eating Dominion Rd over the last 2 school terms. We meet there on Friday nights, we have never eaten at the same place twice. Each person orders 1 plate and we all share. Our rule is that at least 2 of the dishes must be something that we would never usually eat and we take turns deciding. It has been so much fun, however I have decided pig's intestine is not something I would miss if I never ate it again.Oh yes, for those of you who don't live in Auckland, Dominion Rd is full of fantastic little, mostly Asian, eating places.

Not very often, I usually ask if Im unsure and get a pretty good idea of what the meal consists of before ordering it. If it comes with a sauce, Ill often ask for extra especially if its a delicious jus to go on steak.

DK sounds like the perfect dining partner.

Im known to scoff oysters straight from the pot in the supermarket carpark, cook lavish meals for ONE, sit by myself shelling a big bucket of garlic prawns or tucking in to tender BBQ ribs.
I would always choose thigh over breast and scotch over eye fillet.

@ Vanessa45 - I love that comment about the oysters in the carpark!

I have had food envy.

My other half often copies my order (especially with wine if we are ordering by the glass) which drives me crazy!! I prefer him to order seperately so we can taste each others.