To think that garlic bread is a stupid side for pizza

[UnderperformingSeal]

Here, have some bread and cheese to eat next to your bread, tomato and cheese.

OK, the takeaway places have been doing this forever, and they must do it because people will buy and eat it, not that I understand why. But OH and I were recently at a familiar high-street chain Italian restaurant probably best known for pizza and pasta, and three out of seven side options were forms of garlic bread - and the rest were variations on fries! No salad, no roasted veg, not even slaw. If this were not poor enough, eight (8!) starters were bread-based too, another was merely olives (which I love but they're a nibble, not a starter) and the bread-and-cheese-free one I wanted and had been looking forward to all afternoon was sold out. Perhaps no wonder.

I moaned at them about all this, and their lame excuse was that it's a reduced menu post-lockdown. Fine, but other restaurants are offering reduced menus too - still with variety. I'm not an Olympic swimmer and don't need to carb-load like one so ... reduce the feckin' stodge?

@MikeUniformMike

I have noticed over the last few weeks that people are getting fat. It might have been the lockdown. I thought it was where I lived but I noticed it in a neighbouring town too.

The shocking thing is that it seems that a large proportion of children are noticeably overweight. Not all of them, but many.

It's eat out to help out. Some people have really gone for it

I remember a French colleague I used to have; she was horrified by the British way of having carbs on carbs
Lasagne with chips instead of salad, etc.

Oh I LOVED Ambrosia macaroni pudding! Preferred it to the rice pudding, even - nicer texture. Couldn't stomach the semolina at all - too gritty - and my mum never bought the tapioca or sago as I think she just knew it wouldn't go down well!

I know it's an abomination to real macaroni-lovers, but fuckit, I grew up on it in the 1970s and I love it

If you have it with pasta surely you dip it in the sauce? I always do but you need to get garlic with CHEESE, any cheese, all cheese! Then its like 2 pizzas you can alternate between.. oh I love garlic bread with cheese

Here, have some bread and cheese to eat next to your bread, tomato and cheese.

You seem to be confusing cheese on toast with garlic bread.

Besides garlic bread tastes nothing like many pizzas - e.g. I often have tuna, anchovies, capers on my pizza

@Lilyargin

Couldn’t agree more. I hate this. No wonder so many Britons are overweight. Also, people copy this and do it at home now.

Its not a new thing though. We always had pizza and garlic bread growing up. Garlic bread cooked in foil on the bbq is delicious.

You could say the same about vegetarians tbh - have some vegetables to go with your vegetables.

Garlic bread with pizza is perfect. YABU.

It's lovely and tastes totally different

I like garlic bread. Not everything I eat has significant nutritional value; as I don’t have an eating disorder, I know that food is for both nutrition AND pleasure.

Fortunately also I’m not afflicted with the very unusual stomach of a PP who simply cannot digest a slice of garlic bread.

Sometimes I eat lentil curry with a side serving of rice. I assume that’s also horrifying.

I’m 167cms and have been 55 kilos all my adult life (I’m 40). Because I eat things like garlic bread and pizza occasionally and things like vegetables multiple times a day.

I suppose the easiest thing to do in this situation would be just not to order garlic bread and carry on enjoying one’s meal.

I think it's one of the most annoying things on MN - and I see it all the time - that so many people don't just say 'I don't like this food' they feel compelled to explain why no one should like it and why liking it is the inferior choice. I don't know anyone in real life who does it.

Yep - MN is a whole other world!

Yeah it's stupid. Should always be wings

I bloody love garlic bread as a pizza side! But my DH is with the OP and says why have double dough? He’d rather have wings or ribs or nachos (if we are talking Dominos etc)

But he’s very much about garlic bread if it is with pasta.

I’d basically have garlic bread with anything 😂

I think the issue isn't trying to stop people who like garlic bread from having it, but wishing that restaurant had more non-bread alternative sides to cater for varying tastes.

I suspect the reason that many restaurants don't do this is that a pizza kitchen only has one means of cooking - the pizza oven - and many non-bread options couldn't be made in a pizza oven (which is much hotter than a conventional oven).

my family have a variety of food fussinesses and anxieties and refusals and eating out together requires extensive research to find a place which has an option everyone can eat, and pizza is in the tiny intersection on the venn diagram that everyone likes.

as I am trying to lose weight, when we have pizza I prefer to eat only about a quarter to a third of an actual pizza and have a side of undressed salad. not all pizza places have salad available as a side, or only offer salads that are 50% cheese (either mozzarella or feta). When a main item is very high in calories, the point of a side for me is to bring down the average calorie content of what I am eating so I can have a small amount of the delicious high-cal thing and then a forkfull of broccoli or whatever to spread it out. garlic bread is in a different category of side dishes - padding to increase the size of a meal for those who won't be satisfied by just a main dish. restaurants whose sides are all bread-based are only catering for the latter category.

Agree. Garlic bread with spag Bol, but with pizza it's just an odd match.

I don't really understand garlic bread in any context except maybe as a snack, like you might have a piece of toast.

It's always served with meal that's already carb heavy, if not pizza, then something with pasta. Or as a starter, why would you eat a huge plate of bread before your meal arrives?

I quite like it but I don't know where it fits in a half sensible diet.

What do the Italians do with it? Is it even Italian or is it an American thing?

It’s cheap.

"It's not a new thing though. We always had pizza and garlic bread growing up.
Garlic bread cooked in foil on the bbq is delicious."

Always? I clearly remember when frozen pizza first started appearing in the shops and my mum served us this exotic cheese on toast. Pizza restaurants were definitely not even a thing when I was growing up I had my first ever pizza in Italy and was amazed to see them flinging the dough around. I don't remember garlic bread with it but then my mum we would have been suspicious of anything laden with garlic.

Garlic? On bread?

My local Domino's used to do mozzarella sticks as a side dish,

@ForrestTrump

Here, have some bread and cheese to eat next to your bread, tomato and cheese.

You seem to be confusing cheese on toast with garlic bread.

Besides garlic bread tastes nothing like many pizzas - e.g. I often have tuna, anchovies, capers on my pizza

Have you never seen Domino's garlic bread, @ForrestTrump?

Yanbu. I've often got angry under similar circumstances!

@FinnyStory

"It's not a new thing though. We always had pizza and garlic bread growing up. Garlic bread cooked in foil on the bbq is delicious."

Always? I clearly remember when frozen pizza first started appearing in the shops and my mum served us this exotic cheese on toast. Pizza restaurants were definitely not even a thing when I was growing up I had my first ever pizza in Italy and was amazed to see them flinging the dough around. I don't remember garlic bread with it but then my mum we would have been suspicious of anything laden with garlic.

Certainly as far back as I remember. We also used to go to pizza hut as kids.

"I suppose the easiest thing to do in this situation would be just not to order garlic bread and carry on enjoying one’s meal."

Far too sensible and rational for MN I'm afraid.

After reflecting on my previous response, I think perfection would actually be pizza, garlic bread and chips.

Have planned pizza for tea tomorrow after this thread