eating out

I hate eating out. Some places are sooooo impossible.  You order green beans trying to be healthy and you get the stuff with allthe ham and grease. Your order broccili and its covered it butter. and you can't just do a salad cause half the time its loaded too!  Such sabotage! grumble, grumble

Yeah I ordered broccoli as my side dish tonight and I could literally TASTE a LOT of butter cooked into it.

I forgot to ask for the broccoli PLAIN. next time I will.

Sigh.. 

You have to get tough when you eat out.   Be assertive. I call it the 'Diva Technique'.  :-)  You're the paying customer and it's your body you're feeding.  It's the restaurant's job to serve you what you ask for, not what they want to prepare.  If you ask for the vegetables served without butter and they arrive larded in the stuff... send it right back.  Don't accept second rate service.

to a certain extent i agree with gi-jane. restaurants like applebee's employ cooks whose job is to make a dish and put it out. they will not care if you want to change it. in these cases it's totally approprate to ask for your chicken grilled instead of breaded. however, nicer restaurants have chefs in the kitchen who have crafted dishes to have a certain compliment of flavors. they have gone to culinary school and want to share with you a new dining experience. just like you wouldn't ask an artist to change his work to suit you, i think it would be rude to ask them to completely change the dish. if you were shopping for art, you would simply buy the piece you liked the most. there comes a point where if you need excessive concessions, you should probably just make your own meal at home.

Would you rather have butter or a loogie in your broccoli? If you're going to ask them to alter the dish, be very polite, but keep in mind that there's a chance they'll competely ignore you, or do something icky to your food. I've heard plenty of horror stories from kids who've worked in the food business.