Foods you should never order on a first date

On the last Sunday of January 2018, my friend Hope and I decided to go for burgers at Big Square along Lang’ata Road. We found a corner table next to a socket. If you are a gadget freak and you love spending time in restaurants, the skill of finding an appropriate table next to a socket is important. This is generation Y, where before you ask for the menu, you have to enquire about the Wi-Fi password.  Big Square burgers are full of life. They are juicy, tantalizing, big and crunchy.

Across our table, we saw a fairly young lady with a man. The lady was enjoying her burger and this could be seen from how delightful her eyes were. I could not see her mouth. She was literally biting off more than she could chew. The burger was enormous. There was just something off about the whole scene. The juices from the beef, was gushing over her hands. Yuck!!!!!! The sauces would drip on her white dress leaving enormous stains and the worst happened, the tiny piece of the beef fell on her lap. Crumbs of the bun could be seen on the corners of her mouth and on her lips. Her red matte lipstick was no longer attractive. We could tell how un-easy the man was. He kept looking aside and he developed interest in staring at the ceiling pretending to stroke his beard as though deep in thought. The guy was embarrassed. You do not possibly go on a date looking all fabulous and you leave looking like a clown. It’s even worse when a guy pretends to have a phone call or when he asks for permission to go to the washroom. To avoid such embarrassing situations, the following are foods that should be off your radar when going on a date with a guy:

Burgers are good. They are tempting. They should however be avoided because of how messy they are clumsy. No one wants to have their faces with foundation painted with sauce.

Soups are generally served in liquid form. There are a variety of soups. Mushroom soup, chicken soup, cream soup and egg drop among others. Soups are generally served as starters and in some restaurants, porridge is served as a starter. The slurping sound while one drinks soup is very un -attractive. If you are aware that you cannot take soup in a proper manner, avoid it.

Spaghettis are delicious but the act of eating them requires so much skill. First, one needs to roll the strands on the folk of which chances are slim that the fork will contain all strands. Some of them will fall off the folk with a higher risk of falling on someone’s dress. Then there is the gross part where one has to pull the strands in to their mouth. The whole scenario is disturbing.

Spinach is a very versatile food which can be eaten raw especially in salads. It has high nutritious benefits because it contains an excellent source of vitamin K, vitamin A, magnesium, foliate, manganese, iron, calcium, vitamin C, vitamin B2, potassium, and vitamin B6. Despite its profound benefits, the sight of spinach stuck on one’s tooth is obnoxious. It’s embarrassing if your date gathers courage to tell you that you have spinach stuck up on your teeth.

The thought of being taken to a fancy restaurant is intriguing and very romantic. Be warned, the minute the waitress places the menu on the table and you start flicking through the pages of the menu. Try as much as possible to order foods that you are familiar with. Do not eat sushi or calamari just because you heard they are delicious. As the saying goes “seeing is believing” in eating, tasting is believing. A date is not a try out food affair. It’s more of a setting that at most times aims at analyzing who an individual is. It is embarrassing if one orders something that is new to them and they end up not finishing the food. It feels like an ambush. It is important to stick to what you know.

You only have one chance to make the first impression. Most dates happen in restaurants or food joints. Try as much as possible to order what you are comfortable with. If perhaps you are not good at using the fork and knife technique, don’t force issues. No one wants a scene of game of thrones on their plate where the fork and knife will be at war with the food.