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Original poster

Travelled to friend's house for dinner, just strawberries for desert - AIBU to think it's low effort?

660 replies

Carefreebie · 24/07/2024 00:44

On the weekend my partner and I travelled to a friend's house for dinner. The journey was over an hour by train.

The main course was sausages with nice sides (potato salad, tomato salad, another salad). That was nice.

But desert was just strawberries with some pouring cream.

We had a nice time, but AIBU to feel that the desert was very low effort and unexciting, and should have been more exciting than strawberries given the journey?

When my friend came to mine, I did a 3-course meal, feeling I should make a big effort because of her long journey.

OP posts:
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ruethewhirl · 10/08/2024 22:16

TheKeatingFive · 10/08/2024 15:45

A crushed biscuit and butter base, with strawberries and whipped cream on top, and toffee sauce on top of that (either shop-bought or melted toffees)

Might be just me, but this sounds totally unappealing. It would take away from the strawberries natural essence to pair them with something like toffee.

So if you served this to me, I'd be wishing you'd just let them be and embraced the simplicity of serving them with cream. I wouldn't

write a thread about it though.

Agree. Strawberries are lovely and fresh, personally I wouldn't want to clag them up with something as sweet as that. And I have a sweet tooth.

TheKeatingFive · 10/08/2024 15:45

A crushed biscuit and butter base, with strawberries and whipped cream on top, and toffee sauce on top of that (either shop-bought or melted toffees)

Might be just me, but this sounds totally unappealing. It would take away from the strawberries natural essence to pair them with something like toffee.

So if you served this to me, I'd be wishing you'd just let them be and embraced the simplicity of serving them with cream. I wouldn't

write a thread about it though.

ruethewhirl · 10/08/2024 15:38

Carefreebie · 01/08/2024 00:24

I enjoyed the sausage main course. It was good.

We did have a nice time with them and of course we enjoyed catching up and said thank you for the meal.

I see this friend loads - we go to the same tennis club and often meet up after work. It would've been much easier for us all to go to a restaurant more centrally but I wanted to agree to go to hers because she'd made the effort to come to mine.

She would never read this, and I would never voice dissatisfaction about the strawberries to anyone IRL but my partner.

The strawberries were from a supermarket and she had about 2 punnets. This time of year, you can get them for about £4 for 2 punnets. Some are saying they're expensive - surely not at the moment, unless you're getting them from some fancy place.

To me, strawberries are a nice fruit but on a par with kiwis or oranges. I would have them for breakfast with yogurt. I know it's a tradition to eat them at Wimbledon, but on their own with a bit of pouring cream, i think they are boring. It sounds like most people on here disagree.

There are lots of low effort ways to make them into more exciting desserts. For example:

  • Eton mess, with shop-bought meringue and whipped cream
  • Sponge cake (homemade or from a shop) spread with strawberry jam, with strawberries and whipped cream on top
  • A crushed biscuit and butter base, with strawberries and whipped cream on top, and toffee sauce on top of that (either shop-bought or melted toffees)

If you came off badly in your first post, you're coming off even worse here; by reeling off a list of ways she could/should have made the strawberries more 'exciting' you seem to have spectacularly missed (or chosen to ignore) the point pps have made that it shouldn't be about how 'exciting' the food is.

Re your other post, I would not mind one iota if a friend served me beans on toast.

Starlia · 10/08/2024 11:34

@Carefreebie all your dessert suggestions sound disgusting, cheap and low effort.

Comedycook · 03/08/2024 17:57

Poddledoddle · 03/08/2024 17:22

What is your life lacking, that you need your food to be exciting??

Deary me...why do you think restaurants exist? TV chefs? Cookbooks? Street food vans? Or should we all sit eating plain rice/bread to prove we're not greedy cows?

SocksAndTheCity · 03/08/2024 17:47

Epicaricacy · 03/08/2024 16:48

you are conveniently forgetting that the OP was pushing for rubbish desserts - shop bought cheap sponge with a bit of jam - as being highly superior to strawberries.

Again, even Michelin-star restaurants have strawberries on their dessert menu...

Show quote history

Sponge and jam isn't inherently 'rubbish' if that's what somebody wants to eat. Food is food - sometimes I want steamed fish with greens or home made dhal, and sometimes I want supernoodles or plastic cheese slices with Spam; not everybody is obsessed with the nutritional value of everything.

What is rubbish is the embarrassing, graceless ingratitude of the OP at being given perfectly good food by her friend, regardless of what it was.

Poddledoddle · 03/08/2024 17:22

What is your life lacking, that you need your food to be exciting??

Epicaricacy · 03/08/2024 16:51

Comedycook · 03/08/2024 12:53

Exactly!

But the latest obsession amongst mainly middle class women who are desperate to differentiate themselves between those and the plebs are UPFs....

Queueing up to tell us that they couldn't possibly bare to eat anything with a hint of sugar or that has been made in a factory....faints at the mere thought

It's so tedious

Show quote history

oh please, unclench.

No one expects the friend to have a cow in her garden and make her own cream 😂

Don't try to reverse the thread, it's all in reply to the OP miffed because someone dared serving her fruits at the end of a meal.

Do you find yourself superior because you demand more than strawberries and cream?

Epicaricacy · 03/08/2024 16:48

Comedycook · 03/08/2024 12:41

You said this...

The love of some people for stodgy food will never cease to surprise me

I can find many other examples throughout the thread

Show quote history

you are conveniently forgetting that the OP was pushing for rubbish desserts - shop bought cheap sponge with a bit of jam - as being highly superior to strawberries.

Again, even Michelin-star restaurants have strawberries on their dessert menu...

Comedycook · 03/08/2024 12:53

SocksAndTheCity · 03/08/2024 12:49

God, I haven't heard anyone use the word 'fattening' in real life for years. It's like hearing my mother in 1981 all over again.

Exactly!

But the latest obsession amongst mainly middle class women who are desperate to differentiate themselves between those and the plebs are UPFs....

Queueing up to tell us that they couldn't possibly bare to eat anything with a hint of sugar or that has been made in a factory....faints at the mere thought

It's so tedious

SocksAndTheCity · 03/08/2024 12:49

God, I haven't heard anyone use the word 'fattening' in real life for years. It's like hearing my mother in 1981 all over again.

Comedycook · 03/08/2024 12:46

I love strawberries and cream. Would rather have that than a fattening sugary dessert

And this

Comedycook · 03/08/2024 12:42

Strawberries on their own might be boring to you, but I suppose most healthy foods are

Another example

Comedycook · 03/08/2024 12:41

Epicaricacy · 03/08/2024 11:03

because people like strawberries? 😂

Show quote history

You said this...

The love of some people for stodgy food will never cease to surprise me

I can find many other examples throughout the thread

HungryWombat · 03/08/2024 11:26

xsquared · 01/08/2024 09:50

The thing is, why do you need her to make a fancy dessert, just because you travelled to hers?

Thinking of the last time we went to visit a relative after driving for nearly 3 hours, we got jacket potato, bean chilli, cheese, salad and for dessert, summer fruits with cream and shop bought scones.

We were just glad to be able to stop after such a long journey to be fed and catch up with them.

Strawberries on their own might be boring to you, but I suppose most healthy foods are.

Oooh that sounds lovely. Right up my street!

Epicaricacy · 03/08/2024 11:03

Comedycook · 03/08/2024 08:22

This thread is hilarious. Not the op....but the smug competitive eating types with their utter obsession with UPFs and their superiority complex.

because people like strawberries? 😂

Comedycook · 03/08/2024 08:22

This thread is hilarious. Not the op....but the smug competitive eating types with their utter obsession with UPFs and their superiority complex.

Epicaricacy · 03/08/2024 08:13

TriesNotToBeCynical · 01/08/2024 00:35

All ways to ruin perfectly good strawberries and cream.

Show quote history

couldn't agree more.

The love of some people for stodgy food will never cease to surprise me.

Thesecretingredientiscrime · 02/08/2024 02:27

It is time to show her how it's done. Invite those plebs to yours for a traditional mille-feuille.

VeryHappyBunny · 01/08/2024 16:16

Summerflames · 01/08/2024 14:28

I don't know ow about sausages and salad mind 🤣 I think I'd just have the sausages.

I'm vegan, so I'll just have the salad - perfect division of food.

Summerflames · 01/08/2024 14:28

I don't know ow about sausages and salad mind 🤣 I think I'd just have the sausages.

InterIgnis · 01/08/2024 12:38

That is a perfect pudding on a hot summer’s day, same as sausages and salad is a perfect meal.

Summerflames · 01/08/2024 12:09

Carefreebie · 01/08/2024 00:28

Also, to those saying 'it's not about the food, it's about the company', and who say you wouldn't care what you were given to eat - if you travelled a fairly long way and were given beans on toast, I'm assuming you wouldn't mind?

That is of course a very different situation to my friend's (in case anyone thinks I'm making out it's comparable!)

Edited

An hour isn't a long way. Nope wouldn't mind. You sound ungrateful and this is a really odd thing to even get worked up about.

CrayonCritic5 · 01/08/2024 12:08

For the love of God woman change your ways. Listen to what people are telling you. Be better.

Solibear · 01/08/2024 10:22

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