To be annoyed by the expression "hand-picked"?

[VickyEadieofThigh]

You get this expression all over the place now, but it's found especially in holiday ads.

Cottages, hotels, "experiences" are "hand-picked". Or worse "curated".

It's taken over from "pan-fried" (what else would you fry something in if not a pan?) as a thing that makes me stabby.

I'm sure others have similar phrases that give them the rage.

(And yes, I know there are worse things in the world, etc but this is AIBU and this thing annoys me).

Mine at the moment is "created". People create knitted garments, birthday cakes , and opportunities for their children to learn. Except in most cases they don't . They "crate" them. And it drives me mad.

The alternative to hand picked is of course picking something by a machine, an apple which is hand picked is likely to be better than a machine picked one, since a person would not bother picking one which is bad.

Like pan-fried it is not redundant at all. You can not like it 'cos it's wanky, but not because it's not providing information about how something was selected.

Justmuddlingalong

The alternative to hand picked is of course picking something by a machine, an apple which is hand picked is likely to be better than a machine picked one, since a person would not bother picking one which is bad

Given the amount of technology (cameras, lasers, X-rays, infra-red scanners) that are used in food picking, sorting and packing, there's not likely to be any difference these days.

I honestly didn't know there was such a thing as machines that pick fruit - I know they can transfer and pack but I really didn't think they could pick. So they actually get hold of strawberries and pull them off the plant?

I really hate the overuse of the word 'beautifully' when used to describe how something works.

It covers your greys beautifully
It smoothes on beautifully
It works beautifully

Stop it just stop it

‘Open sandwiches’.

No, just food on a slice of bread!

Saying "a flared trouser" rather than "flared trousers", or "a red lip" rather than "red lips" gets on my tits too. It sounds so pretentious.

Not many strawberries will be picked by machine, and the ones that are are almost certainly better than human picked as BarbaraofSeville says, but other fruit are very common and most of the picking from machine will worse as they just pick all the fruit from a plant. However in those cases there will then be subsequent machines doing the grading.

I still think even with the machines which BarbaraofSeville rightly says will often be better than human, what they don't have is the objective choice in picking the right thing for the individual/circumstance, ie picking the right sweetness of strawberry that complements the rest of the dish etc.

@Iwalkinmyclothing

Saying "a flared trouser" rather than "flared trousers", or "a red lip" rather than "red lips" gets on my tits too. It sounds so pretentious.

yes yes yes!!! this is a gorgeous shoe

so what do I do? Hop?

'Boutique' as applied to hotels and B&Bs. As far as I am concerned a boutique is a small clothing store (possibly showing my age). It is totally meaningless when used to describe accommodation.

A pub we used to go to which did meals used ridiculous descriptions, e.g. 'set aloft' - sausages set aloft buttery mashed potato (always buttery, never just mashed). Didn't make me angry it just used to make us laugh.

e.g. 'set aloft' - sausages set aloft buttery mashed potato 🤣🤣

I used to work for a company called Handpicked Hotels... Could write a book about the place!
Certainly nothing was Handpicked....

They even bought in big bags of pre boiled eggs....

Sourced. Why is everything these days sourced? You just bought it, like everything else.

Red lip, so annoying. Lips, there are two of them.

And why are clothes always ‘pieces’.

People totally put the “anal” into “artisanal”, especially when they are describing coffee or avocado bloody smash on toast!

I prefer the term wok-fried to pan-fried.

Hand cooked, or hand fried for crisps. It creates this image in my head of someone holding the crisps in their hands while frying 😬

'Pop of colour', oh and 'little' when applied to an article of clothing as in the historic 'little black dress' or when someone is modelling a garment and the commentator says "You can just add a little cardigan", or even worse "You can just add a little cardigan for a pop of colour" 😬

Gourmet used to describe anything from a kitchen in a posh house, to something that's got avocado on it.
Home cooked meals advertised outside pubs. So someone cooked it in their house and then brought it in for you in the pub?

Forgot about smashed avocado. You’ve just mashed it. With a fork.

And they still taste disgusting...

Made from scratch...what's wrong with homemade? 😡

how does homemade work when it's made in a commercial kitchen?

A pub we used to go to which did meals used ridiculous descriptions, e.g. 'set aloft' - sausages set aloft buttery mashed potato (always buttery, never just mashed).

Others, I'm sure, will say I'm going too far now - but the phrase 'on a bed of...' annoys the crap out of me. The Masterchef contestants do it all the time when describing what they're cooking.

And speaking of Masterchef contestants - why do so many of them, when asked to describe their dishes, say "Today we're doing..."

There's only one of you, mate! What's with "we're"?

Designer this, designer that.
Obviously, every item that had ever been produced was "designed" by someone, starting with those designer cavemen furs.

Stabbie.
Reach out (to someone). You fucking phoned them.
Pissed for pissed off.
Talking with (to) someone.
Artisanal.
Admittedly I've only seen three on my list on Mumsnet, never read or heard them used in real life. three on my list