So this happened last week, and I still can’t decide if I want to laugh or cry.
I (26M) have been seeing this girl for a few weeks. Let’s call her Anna. She’s really cool — smart, funny, into weird niche documentaries, and super into international cuisine. On our last date, I said something like, “I’m pretty decent in the kitchen, especially with Asian dishes.” A blatant exaggeration. I can cook… sort of. Instant ramen with egg counts, right?
Anyway, I decided to cook her dinner at my place. I googled a fancy-sounding Vietnamese dish (bún bò Huế — spicy beef noodle soup) and thought, “This is it. I’ll blow her mind.” Problem #1: I’ve never made Vietnamese food. Problem #2: I didn’t follow a recipe. I skimmed like 3 different YouTube videos and winged it.
I went to the Asian grocery store and bought what I thought were the right ingredients. I misread the label and accidentally grabbed fermented shrimp paste instead of chili paste. I didn’t know how strong it was, so I used a massive spoonful and let it simmer for hours. My apartment started smelling… weird. Like dead fish boiled in regret.
When Anna arrived, she was polite, but I could see her nose twitching. I served the soup anyway, acting all confident. She took one sip, smiled awkwardly, and said, “It’s… unique.” I tried it too — and holy hell. It tasted like burning garbage soaked in old socks. I immediately started coughing and tried to play it off like, “Oh yeah, it’s supposed to be intense.”
It was not supposed to be that intense.
She ended up ordering Thai food on her phone while I silently tried not to die inside. We ate in awkward silence, and I haven’t heard from her since.
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TL;DR: Lied about being a great cook, tried to make Vietnamese food without a recipe, used fermented shrimp paste by accident, served my date a bowl of edible trauma. She ghosted me.
Comments
Maybe you can take this as a chance to learn how to actually cook. Also, I recommend following a recipe for the first time, and after you know what it’s supposed to taste like you can start tweaking it so it fits your tastes more. Once you have more experience and confidence in the kitchen you can start to take more liberties with recipes even if it’s your first time.
> It tasted like burning garbage soaked in old socks.
Telling that you know what that tastes like..
If you really like her, maybe own up to your mistake and perhaps you can laugh about it together- i think she might get a bit of a chuckle out of hearing your side of the story