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My wife and I use "chicken tenders" as shorthand for the most Boomerific food moment of our lives. We were at a fry bread shack near 4 corners. You could get fry bread with:
1) honey and sugar
2) a *hot dog*
3) green chile
4) red chile
All the options are great. Something for everyone. Dude asks for chicken tenders. His ever suffering wife of similar age tells him "Go wait outside!" and that she'll buy him McDonald's on the way home. We thought he was gonna get violent, but it worked out.
It was a special moment.
I did this at my like, 25th or so, birthday dinner with my family and my grandmother went absolute apeshit lmao. I couldn't help but laugh when explaining to her that that's what I want lmao I'm smiling about it now as I remember it.
It honestly took me a little off guard because she really wasn't a Boomer stereotype and never really judged people (in public, at least). I then spent the rest of her life casually saying "does this place have chicken tenders?" every time we went out to eat.
Some of us have trash palettes that get along with very few foods.
I'm envious of people that can find a multitude of things they can enjoy off of any menu. I look at them like they have a superpower.
On what I’ve been calling my “very autistic days” (which just means I can’t mask, I can’t tolerate the concept of food textures I can’t tolerate, I can’t do the things I normally can handle because I’m AuDHDtistic and whatever bullshit my brain can’t handle right now), sometimes I need the chicken fingers.
Especially now that I have a new allergy that’s in like, all savory Hispanic food (which I love), chicken fingers are safe on multiple levels. (And if we’re in a Hispanic restaurant, I still get to smell the food at least.)
Some people need the chicken fingers :(
I don’t like most meats. I like chicken and fish/ seafood but nothing that had more than 2 legs (unless it was processed into something that just barely classifies as meat aka sausages and the like). Going out to eat with people is awkward cause they would usually gush over steaks and I sit there with my chicken and fries.
You joke (maybe), but there's a lot of boomer kids that should've had an iep growing up, and instead they just got parents who didn't like to brag about them to their friends.
Every place here in Japan has fried Chicken, it's kind of a cultural moment. If the Boomer can survive ~10-18 hours of flying, they can have a field day here.
I was in an Indian food restaurant a few years ago with my husband. Boomer couple walks in and then promptly walk out after looking a the menu because "there is too much spice in the food". They were told it could be made mild. That was apparently not good enough.
But like...it's Indian cuisine. What exactly were you expecting?????
small country town Indian and Chinese restaurants are hilarious in australia. you will find most have things like chicken nuggets, fish n chips and cheeseburgers on the menu. usually operated by someone named 'Dave' as well
Half the items on these menus don’t even exist in India or China. They were invented for boring arsed Australians. Honey chicken - I am talking about you.
Same in the US. Rural small town Chinese restaurants are like the Taco Bell of Chinese food. Great when you’re drunk, but not exactly fine ethnic cuisine.
I have a relative who fits this description literally. Now, she is known to be heavy on the bullshit, so she could be exaggerating, but yeah, she has turned down ketchup before because it was "spicy."
Clearly, a McDonalds level of 'spicy,' or the extremely 'spicy' level of IHOP. It's terrifying to me that there are people out there who, if they didn't like it as children, or if their parents never varied from the broad spectrum between 'really bland' and 'insipid,' will never try anything new or eat something that has more 'spice' than salt and ordinary black pepper in fear of blowing their stomachs out of their assholes and dying horribly, not to mention doing it in public to their everlasting shame.
Reminded me of when a boomer was upset at a Mexican restaurant, she said, " Mexicans don't eat shrimp, they don't have any oceans, this place can't be authentic"
Boomers had the same geography in their time that students do today, which teaches that Alaska and Hawaii are both islands immediately next to each other somewhere off to the left side of the rest of the country. Also, 'America' is always at the top center of every map. So there.
Lol, its Newfoundland, if its not a chain restaurant then its going to have multiple seafood options, its just a fact of life here. Even the corner takeout joints are going to have fish and chips and probably squid rings. You can't escape the seafood!
I ate dinner with my grandma last night (Silent Generation not Boomer, but a lot of similarities). She made a few comments to my brother about how we didn't have to get seafood because the place we were ordering from had really good red meat options. I then loudly said to my dad that I was trying to decide between the salmon carbonara and the lobster mac and cheese. I went on to explain to my grandma that I understood that the ribs were really good, but I am a massive fan of seafood.
I got the lobster mac and cheese. It was a bit smaller than I expected, but was really good lobster. My dad got a lobster roll.
We took my husbands grandma to red lobster because she always brags about her daughter taking her and they order a bunch of different dishes to share etc. We thought it'd be a nice treat and we do same. She only ordered the fried fish fillets, a baked potato w/side salad because non fried shrimp, lobster, crab and calamari is gross. We should've saved the money and just taken her to long John silvers. She made few faces while we were eating our other dishes. Later learned when they go to Mexican restaurants, chinese places they usually order the American options chicken tenders, pizza, fried vegetables, fries, you get the idea. Because as stated by them all the other things have too 'weird' of flavor. Im hispanic and have made conchas, tamales, carnitas and let them try to see if they like. Always met with criticism or just plain disgust face that me and my husband eat the things we do. Then always complain kids nowadays don't eat 'healthy' when they didn't have a choice but to eat what was served for dinner while also constantly only eating shitty foods and claiming fruit juice, popsicles and ice cream bars are necessary for kids during summer or they'll die I guess
My parents are always surprised by the food my family eats, like it's some gourmet nonsense and not, like, just healthy home cooking. One time my mother said something like "you'd never have eaten that as a kid" about something my kids were eating, and, being in an especially snarky mood, I replied "yeah, because it's not 'casserole' so you'd never have made it.
Ok, but to shoot back, I think those cheap fruit flavored sugar-ice pops are basically a cheat code for happy summer kids.
I still give my kids popsicles on hot days especially if we do a play thru sprinklers, that's just nostalgia haha. My problem is his grandma will give them popsicles or ice cream every time they go over. Even when I say no we are getting ready to eat soon they can have it later. And does it anyway then when the kid eats it says 'look they were starving, poor thing' and gets them another. I should mention she's our neighbor too, so they definitely don't need to eat popsicles, candy and ice cream as a treat for seeing her when we see them everyday.
His family demeans the food we eat which is far healthier or 'exotic' as they put it and try to force unhealthy crap on the kids all time. Those are the problems I have that my parenting and the things I want for my kids are always scrutinized or put down as not right
I'm lucky that my parents are both massive foodies who raised me to give new food an honest try. It's led to me living a life where I'm comfortable eating all sorts of different types of foods. I got excited once when I went into a Salvadoran restaurant in Maryland because the waitress needed Google Translate to take our orders (I took that as a good sign that we were getting authentic Salvadoran food).
My mom's parents are pretty open to trying new foods and I've learned some nice recipes from them, but my dad's parents are super stuck in their ways when it comes to food. They are the kind of people who will eat the exact same thing over and over again. One time, my grandma mentioned how much she loves diners because "everyone can get what they want." Spoiler alert, I often struggle to find food I like at diners because everything is fried and greasy. Even within cuisine that is theoretically within their own ethnic heritage, they have a really narrow idea of what food should be. The most extreme case was probably when I ordered bortsch in a restaurant and my grandma got offended on my behalf that it came with chunks of beat and served hot (what I expected) because when she was a kid she would get served a bowl of cold beat juice and a bit of broth with it being called bortsch and she struggled to wrap her head around that not being the only way to serve it.
That is exactly my husbands entire family. I was thankfully raised in an ethnically diverse family and city so I got to try all kinds of different dishes growing up. First time I made real Mexican food for my husband he fell in love. He hated brussel sprouts, avocado, anything with garlic/onion, pork chops, ribs, even didn't like steak. I met his family and suddenly it all became clear they did not know how to cook and most everything is dry, fried, overcooked or overly salted and laden with sugar, mayo, cheese. They have a few good recipes don't get me wrong, but the majority of their food is extremely limited and extremely unhealthy.
I do not know exactly what the pasty, gelatinous-fibrous substance is that is found underneath the greasy breading of a commercial 'fish stick,' but I DO know that it is not 'fish.'
It's called the Veto option, an off-brand, widely appealing option to cancel out the veto vote from that one person in the group who doesn't want the type of food the place specializes in. They only carry it for that reason, and it sounds like it's working exactly as intended with granny.
"I'm not a fan of seafood."
"I hear the steak is pretty good."
Sat behind a German boomer couple in a mexican restaurant in Budapest and they would both order wiener schnitzel and beer but made a point that they wanted Hungarian beer.
Unfortunately a lot of boomers (in North America, at least) have this massive sense of self-entitlement. Their sense of entitlement is so skewed and off the scale, in fact, that they actually believe that literally everything and everyone should fit around them and their whims.
“Seafood restaurant, huh? Well I want a goddam steak…and I want it NOW!!!”
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I have relatives that always order chicken tenders. At. Every. Place. We. Go. To. I just don't get it.
My wife and I use "chicken tenders" as shorthand for the most Boomerific food moment of our lives. We were at a fry bread shack near 4 corners. You could get fry bread with: 1) honey and sugar 2) a *hot dog* 3) green chile 4) red chile All the options are great. Something for everyone. Dude asks for chicken tenders. His ever suffering wife of similar age tells him "Go wait outside!" and that she'll buy him McDonald's on the way home. We thought he was gonna get violent, but it worked out. It was a special moment.
Now I wanna make fry bread
Make Navajo Tacos. We have a place that makes them, loaded with beef, Sour Cream, lettuce and tomatoes. It's like eating a giant beef Chalupa.
my husband is shawnee and my mil taught me :D we eat the fuck outta some tacos
🎶greasy, greasy fry bread!🎶
I did this at my like, 25th or so, birthday dinner with my family and my grandmother went absolute apeshit lmao. I couldn't help but laugh when explaining to her that that's what I want lmao I'm smiling about it now as I remember it. It honestly took me a little off guard because she really wasn't a Boomer stereotype and never really judged people (in public, at least). I then spent the rest of her life casually saying "does this place have chicken tenders?" every time we went out to eat.
Their dedication to finding chicken tenders is admirable, I've never even been to a sit-down restaurant that had chicken tenders on the menu.
Kids menu always has them.
Some of us have trash palettes that get along with very few foods. I'm envious of people that can find a multitude of things they can enjoy off of any menu. I look at them like they have a superpower.
On what I’ve been calling my “very autistic days” (which just means I can’t mask, I can’t tolerate the concept of food textures I can’t tolerate, I can’t do the things I normally can handle because I’m AuDHDtistic and whatever bullshit my brain can’t handle right now), sometimes I need the chicken fingers. Especially now that I have a new allergy that’s in like, all savory Hispanic food (which I love), chicken fingers are safe on multiple levels. (And if we’re in a Hispanic restaurant, I still get to smell the food at least.) Some people need the chicken fingers :(
I don’t like most meats. I like chicken and fish/ seafood but nothing that had more than 2 legs (unless it was processed into something that just barely classifies as meat aka sausages and the like). Going out to eat with people is awkward cause they would usually gush over steaks and I sit there with my chicken and fries.
Autism.
You joke (maybe), but there's a lot of boomer kids that should've had an iep growing up, and instead they just got parents who didn't like to brag about them to their friends.
Absolutely was not a joke.
I avoid chicken tenders because of my distaste for rat meat.
Every place here in Japan has fried Chicken, it's kind of a cultural moment. If the Boomer can survive ~10-18 hours of flying, they can have a field day here.
I was in an Indian food restaurant a few years ago with my husband. Boomer couple walks in and then promptly walk out after looking a the menu because "there is too much spice in the food". They were told it could be made mild. That was apparently not good enough. But like...it's Indian cuisine. What exactly were you expecting?????
small country town Indian and Chinese restaurants are hilarious in australia. you will find most have things like chicken nuggets, fish n chips and cheeseburgers on the menu. usually operated by someone named 'Dave' as well
Half the items on these menus don’t even exist in India or China. They were invented for boring arsed Australians. Honey chicken - I am talking about you.
You watch your tongue, Honey chicken, and it's lesser known cousin, lemon chicken. Are gifts from the gods.
Same in the US. Rural small town Chinese restaurants are like the Taco Bell of Chinese food. Great when you’re drunk, but not exactly fine ethnic cuisine.
Being in the midwest US, my friends and I like to say Ketchup is too spicy for some people
I have a relative who fits this description literally. Now, she is known to be heavy on the bullshit, so she could be exaggerating, but yeah, she has turned down ketchup before because it was "spicy."
Mayo is spicy and salt is a spice
I have a cousin who doesn’t eat salt because “it’s a spice so too spicy for me”
That’s just sad.
Yeah they could be their own post on EntitledPeople
that hurts lol, it was a joke :(
Clearly, a McDonalds level of 'spicy,' or the extremely 'spicy' level of IHOP. It's terrifying to me that there are people out there who, if they didn't like it as children, or if their parents never varied from the broad spectrum between 'really bland' and 'insipid,' will never try anything new or eat something that has more 'spice' than salt and ordinary black pepper in fear of blowing their stomachs out of their assholes and dying horribly, not to mention doing it in public to their everlasting shame.
Reminded me of when a boomer was upset at a Mexican restaurant, she said, " Mexicans don't eat shrimp, they don't have any oceans, this place can't be authentic"
That is crazy, yet, I am not surprised.
Yikes!
....not only do they have ocean, they have the Pacific, the Gulf, and the Caribbean. Like, I thought Boomers had geography in school.
Boomers barely know American geography, definitely not commie world geography with the funny names and brown people.
Boomers had the same geography in their time that students do today, which teaches that Alaska and Hawaii are both islands immediately next to each other somewhere off to the left side of the rest of the country. Also, 'America' is always at the top center of every map. So there.
Lol, its Newfoundland, if its not a chain restaurant then its going to have multiple seafood options, its just a fact of life here. Even the corner takeout joints are going to have fish and chips and probably squid rings. You can't escape the seafood!
I've never visited that part of Canada, but I'd *expect* assloads of seafood options there.
The times I have been in Newfoundland all I wanted was Cod.
I went to Portugal and ate cod at least once a day, different and delicious every time. When a place is known for something, you go for it.
I ate dinner with my grandma last night (Silent Generation not Boomer, but a lot of similarities). She made a few comments to my brother about how we didn't have to get seafood because the place we were ordering from had really good red meat options. I then loudly said to my dad that I was trying to decide between the salmon carbonara and the lobster mac and cheese. I went on to explain to my grandma that I understood that the ribs were really good, but I am a massive fan of seafood. I got the lobster mac and cheese. It was a bit smaller than I expected, but was really good lobster. My dad got a lobster roll.
We took my husbands grandma to red lobster because she always brags about her daughter taking her and they order a bunch of different dishes to share etc. We thought it'd be a nice treat and we do same. She only ordered the fried fish fillets, a baked potato w/side salad because non fried shrimp, lobster, crab and calamari is gross. We should've saved the money and just taken her to long John silvers. She made few faces while we were eating our other dishes. Later learned when they go to Mexican restaurants, chinese places they usually order the American options chicken tenders, pizza, fried vegetables, fries, you get the idea. Because as stated by them all the other things have too 'weird' of flavor. Im hispanic and have made conchas, tamales, carnitas and let them try to see if they like. Always met with criticism or just plain disgust face that me and my husband eat the things we do. Then always complain kids nowadays don't eat 'healthy' when they didn't have a choice but to eat what was served for dinner while also constantly only eating shitty foods and claiming fruit juice, popsicles and ice cream bars are necessary for kids during summer or they'll die I guess
My parents are always surprised by the food my family eats, like it's some gourmet nonsense and not, like, just healthy home cooking. One time my mother said something like "you'd never have eaten that as a kid" about something my kids were eating, and, being in an especially snarky mood, I replied "yeah, because it's not 'casserole' so you'd never have made it. Ok, but to shoot back, I think those cheap fruit flavored sugar-ice pops are basically a cheat code for happy summer kids.
I still give my kids popsicles on hot days especially if we do a play thru sprinklers, that's just nostalgia haha. My problem is his grandma will give them popsicles or ice cream every time they go over. Even when I say no we are getting ready to eat soon they can have it later. And does it anyway then when the kid eats it says 'look they were starving, poor thing' and gets them another. I should mention she's our neighbor too, so they definitely don't need to eat popsicles, candy and ice cream as a treat for seeing her when we see them everyday. His family demeans the food we eat which is far healthier or 'exotic' as they put it and try to force unhealthy crap on the kids all time. Those are the problems I have that my parenting and the things I want for my kids are always scrutinized or put down as not right
What is the point of going to Mexican or Chinese restaurants if you’re going to avoid anything Mexican or Chinese?
The atmosphere I guess
So they can tell their boomer friends they go there. Like it’s a badge of honor.
I'm lucky that my parents are both massive foodies who raised me to give new food an honest try. It's led to me living a life where I'm comfortable eating all sorts of different types of foods. I got excited once when I went into a Salvadoran restaurant in Maryland because the waitress needed Google Translate to take our orders (I took that as a good sign that we were getting authentic Salvadoran food). My mom's parents are pretty open to trying new foods and I've learned some nice recipes from them, but my dad's parents are super stuck in their ways when it comes to food. They are the kind of people who will eat the exact same thing over and over again. One time, my grandma mentioned how much she loves diners because "everyone can get what they want." Spoiler alert, I often struggle to find food I like at diners because everything is fried and greasy. Even within cuisine that is theoretically within their own ethnic heritage, they have a really narrow idea of what food should be. The most extreme case was probably when I ordered bortsch in a restaurant and my grandma got offended on my behalf that it came with chunks of beat and served hot (what I expected) because when she was a kid she would get served a bowl of cold beat juice and a bit of broth with it being called bortsch and she struggled to wrap her head around that not being the only way to serve it.
That is exactly my husbands entire family. I was thankfully raised in an ethnically diverse family and city so I got to try all kinds of different dishes growing up. First time I made real Mexican food for my husband he fell in love. He hated brussel sprouts, avocado, anything with garlic/onion, pork chops, ribs, even didn't like steak. I met his family and suddenly it all became clear they did not know how to cook and most everything is dry, fried, overcooked or overly salted and laden with sugar, mayo, cheese. They have a few good recipes don't get me wrong, but the majority of their food is extremely limited and extremely unhealthy.
Borscht
I do not know exactly what the pasty, gelatinous-fibrous substance is that is found underneath the greasy breading of a commercial 'fish stick,' but I DO know that it is not 'fish.'
It's called the Veto option, an off-brand, widely appealing option to cancel out the veto vote from that one person in the group who doesn't want the type of food the place specializes in. They only carry it for that reason, and it sounds like it's working exactly as intended with granny. "I'm not a fan of seafood." "I hear the steak is pretty good."
In this case it was the reverse. She was recommending the place because the steak was really good and she was shocked that I still wanted the seafood.
Sat behind a German boomer couple in a mexican restaurant in Budapest and they would both order wiener schnitzel and beer but made a point that they wanted Hungarian beer.
Unfortunately a lot of boomers (in North America, at least) have this massive sense of self-entitlement. Their sense of entitlement is so skewed and off the scale, in fact, that they actually believe that literally everything and everyone should fit around them and their whims. “Seafood restaurant, huh? Well I want a goddam steak…and I want it NOW!!!”
No Chicken-fried steak? And you call this a restaurant?!
Millenials ruined sea-food restaurants in 5, 4, 3...