3 quick bites: Which menu items confuse diners most?

Which menu items confuse diners most?
Do your customers know what you’re talking about when they read your menu? Are there words they don’t recognize but are too embarrassed to admit? OpenTable has some interesting info: a new “Menu Jargon Decoder” designed to help diners decipher such terms as ballatine, en brood, shiso, okonomiyaki and more. (That last one is a savory Japanese pancake.)

Find more tricky items’ definitions here>> 

Invasive lionfish roars on the menu
The “kill the lionfish” movement encourages chefs to menu the invasive species, which destroys marine life. Spiny lionfish are hard to catch, mainly because they must be hunted by divers and speared. Luckily for the ecosystem, the issue—and also the adventurous aspect of eating something so scary looking—has resonated with chefs. For the past couple years, the Caribbean restaurant Norman’s Cay in New York City has sold out consistently of such dishes as jerk lionfish, lionfish ceviche and curried lionfish and training waitstaff to explain the problem to diners. Other outlets, like Whole Foods, are selling lionfish, too.

Get more lionfish facts in this article in Civil Eats>>
 
Move over, rainbow bagels, and make way for galaxy desserts
Donuts, macarons, cookies and cupcakes decorated in interplanetary blues and purples and dotted with glittering constellations have overtaken rainbow donuts as the new it-dessert, according to a recent article in Cosmopolitan. “It’ll make you feel like you’re holding the entire universe in your hands (or you know, in your stomach.)”

See a gallery of starry-night sweets, including moon cookies, galaxy cupcakes and more >>