[Sca-cooks] hate hate hate 'american' restaurant food.

[Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise]

Y'all have probably noticed that I'm no big fan of the capsicums. 
'American' chain restaurant food, however, is slowly becoming overrun 
with 'em. This weekend was the last straw for me.

I was at Ruby Tuesday's, and innocently ordered the "Shrimp Pasta 
Parmesan", apparently overlooking the word "spicy" in the shrimp 
description. (Not, of course, hot, cajun, or anything else.)

What I got was shrimp literally lightly crusted with a 'spice mixture' 
which later investigation showed was about 80-90% powdered red pepper. 
(Yes, I sent it back when I couldn't taste anything but the pepper. They 
cooked it without the seasoning and brought out a tiny cup of seasoning 
for me to put on if I wanted it. The waitress who helped us was VERY 
smart. I dug around in the seasoning and found the few crumbs of actual 
herbs and used those.) 

This, ladies & gentlemen, is ridiculous. People are putting hot pepper 
in deep-fried onions. They are dumping it on everything. Is this like 
the well-done steak problem-- a way of disguising a horrible food? Or 
what?

I like spices. I make mustard, and ginger sauce, and peppercorn sauce. 
But short of pretending to a mild 'reaction' to hot pepper or only going
to diners for american food, is there any safe way to avoid being hot 
'peppered' everywhere?

-- 
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net 
"I thought you might need rescuing . . . We have a bunch of professors 
wandering around who need students." -- Dan Guernsey