Going out to dinner for the first time with a guy you have a bit of a crush on is exciting. Besides being nervous about whether you have enough to talk about, I also always find it quite complicated how to take a bite in a neat way without a piece falling out of your mouth, a bit of sauce hanging on your chin, or suddenly having your whole front tooth turn green. And looking at each other while chewing, that usually only gets a bit easier after a few dates. Or am I exaggerating now?
I did a round with my male friends asking what to eat and what not to eat during a date, and what is attractive and especially not sexy about different eating habits of a woman.
First of all, what should we order?
Dont's
– Don't order a heavily topped pizza. Anyway, with a small bite, you take the whole parma ham from your slice. Not okay.
– I would also wait a bit longer with spaghetti. Okay, it's neat to eat if you cut everything up first, but that's not how it should be done. Better to twirl it with your fork against the plate. There's a good chance you'll still have to slurp a strand in while bent over the plate. Everything but charming.
– Don't order a complicated salad with olives (rolling off your fork), walnuts (impossible to stab), and large leaves of lettuce. You can be sure the dressing will be all around your mouth.
– Spare ribs we should also skip (I don't think many women mind this, but still). With that gnawing and dirty fingers, you won't make any friends.
– Prawns and lobster. As delicious as it is, it's still complicated to get this out of their shells with your trembling hands.
– Asparagus. It often gives a lot of strings when you take a bite, and secondly, your, pardon, pee doesn't smell so nice from it. And now I don't know how that works with, one more pardon, you know.
Do's
– A simple piece of meat or fish with fries. That's easy to eat and can't really go wrong. No chicken by the way, if you still have to gnaw that off yourself, it will be a mess. You can just eat fries with your hands by the way.
– Risotto, easy, just with a spoon. Nothing to worry about.
– Sushi is also fine and healthy. Of course, you have to be able to eat with chopsticks, otherwise, you'll be found out.
– Sharing is fun and especially very cozy. Don't go to a tapas restaurant, garlic all over.
What I quickly found out is that men find it totally not sexy if you only order a plate of salad and preferably drink a Spa red with it. “I really understand that women want to stay ‘in shape’, but that doesn't mean you have to go through life nibbling like a rabbit. During dinner, you should just enjoy a normal meal and not make it difficult with complicated orders, like: sauce on the side, rice instead of pasta, preferably nothing fried in butter, but olive oil.”
Look, there are of course exceptions for allergies, but generally, men prefer no hassle. “Salad is really not cozy. Incredibly unattractive even, and you're not going to eat salad for dinner? A woman should just order a hamburger and drink beer with it.” Not all men agree on that. Well, about the burger they do. “Ladies who enjoy a delicious burger with gusto, with the juice of the meat running down their chin, that's attractive because they do what they feel like and you can only really enjoy a burger when you go all out for it.” Thus spoke a good friend.
“She should mainly enjoy the food and not make it so difficult,” I read on my WhatsApp. Not every guest finds a beer attractive, I notice. “Pils is not charming, that's really a man thing. A Corona beer is allowed though.” Wow, they are making it difficult for us, but it's a clear matter. Just join in and have fun, no fuss. But to happily dive into a burger and beer, we do need to go to the gym a bit more often. Alright then.
