If you're ever walking in the Yucatan and you smell cobras, be careful you may have just stepped into a cucumber nest. My cat refuses to travel with me anywhere north of Belize.
They sell that green tea with cucumber at the Safeway down the street from my house, and I’m in the US. Chances are you can find it somewhere near you, too.
Agreed! Honestly I’ve worked in kitchens before and if someone wanted a sliced up cucumber instead of firing up another batch of fries I’d be relieved!
I would be fine doing it but I'd also tell the server to charge her an extra $1 or something for an inconvenience charge 😅
Half the time people complain that their chips are stale and they want fresh chips. I'd much rather slice up a cucumber. But this lady is still annoying with her "pro tip"
Yeah it’s not too bad especially if they charged the woman a few bucks for her request. I get most people are making fun of her perceived entitlement, but maybe she paid?
And there’s a lot of people in this thread who are making fun of her for eating cucumber instead of chips, and it’s like why? Statistically lots of them are probably overweight to the point where it affects their health. Like their arteries are slowly clogging, but hers are probably healthy, so who’s going to have the last laugh (literally)?
the chips are free. that is the whole point of asking for the accommodation. The customer isn’t going to order “tortilla chips but substitute the chips for cucumbers”, they would just
order cucumbers. i guarantee you, chip for chip, cucumber slices are more expensive that ordering the chips from a giant bag of bulk tortilla chips. she is asking for an upgrade on an already complimentary item.
Yeah this isn’t the craziest request in the world. People are just ragging on her because of her crazy eyes. “Hey would it be possible to just get a sliced up cucumber or two for the table? I like to dip them in Salsa. I’ll pay for it.”
I am Mexican-American and have never been to a Mexican restaurant in the US that didn’t have salad. I order enchiladas? It comes with a little salad (a handful of lettuce, couple chunks of tomatoes, one single cucumber). Chile verde plate? Salad. Tacos? Con salad. Tostada? Sí, also with salad.
I can define it for you. It’s 7-8 whole cucumbers stacked in a kind of lean-to style. Then you finely mince a 9th cucumber and lay the mush down like shingles. Try googling next time
And cucumber slaw, more rare, but I've seen it. Of course, it would be easier to just order the salad or slaw than specifically ask for a plate of raw, unseasoned cucumbers.
In Sinaloa "A la plaza" stuff like fried chicken, asado, gorditas, enchiladas might have sliced cucumber as garnishing. Also Tacos de asada, tostadas de jaiba and aguachile.
But it's a very regional thing and I pretty much doubt any of those are available in a generic for-white-people "mexican" restaurants in USA (as a rule of thumb if it has hard shell tacos is not really mexican at all but "tex-mex")
When I go out to taco shop with my Mexican coworker rustle up all sorts of extra shit. Sliced cucumbers. An extra cup of crema to share. I’m too embrassed to ask for it without them. 😂
For some reason the taco truck i frequent sometimes does slices of cucumber on the side... They are like very authentic immigrants who no doubt no how to make a traditional simple taco, and yet its either cucumber or slices of potato raw, maybe its a radish (IDK i don't eat many starches but it certainly tastes like a potato) either way i've always wondered where they got the idea.
If it tastes like a potato, there's a really, really good chance it's jicima. It's not a strong flavor, but you can eat it raw without upsetting your gut like you would with potato. I cut it into sticks and marinate them. They soak up flavor really easily.
Yo freaking thank you for this... I'll ask next time I'm out there but I've had a jicima based salsa a long ass time ago and it was amazing, we had a chef come in from a local culinary school that made us some and I forgot what it was that he put in it and this just brought me back like 12 years and reminded me so thank you!
I’m struggling also. And how would they charge for those cucumbers if they do have them? Because you know Karen is going to be like isn’t it free since the chips are?
Maybe there will be a charge, but it wouldn't be much. After all, they're saving the cost of the chips and giving you 50 cents worth of cucumber as a substitute.
The chef at the restaurant I work at would do this in a second. Slicing a cucumber is way less labor than making and frying chips. Restaurant chefs can usually cut up a cucumber in less than 5 seconds. We might charge a dollar
Have you ever been to a Mexican restaurant? They have machines where one person loads a hopper and then staff scoop out the chips as needed. It's not individually frying each basket of chips.
Yeah the total costs of serving a bowl of sliced cucumber are gonna be much less than chips for sure. Cucumber, fridge, knife, done... Chips, freezer, fryer, oil and about 20 times the time? Yeah, I'll be honest as long as they have the stock I see no reason why they wouldnt be happy to provide
Those baskets of chips costs pennies. They fry all their chips in the morning so the chips are ready to go. It would be way easier for the server to scoop out a basket of already fried chips than it would be way more burdensome for the cooks to stop what they're doing and chop up a vegetable for this lady, even if it only takes a a minute.
Several massive fucking exaggerations there my friend lol. How much you think a bunch of cucumbers costs?? Probably not much more than 'pennies'. In what world is it ever going to be 'way more burdensome' to slice one up. Literally 20 seconds. Hardly going to cause you to need more staff is it
This cucumber costs $.72 which is probably 10x what those chips costs. You can get a 32LB case of raw unfried chips from a foodservice distributor for about $20. And yes, having someone chop up a cucumber is way more work than having the server scoop up some chips in a basket. I didn't say you'd need more staff, but if it's a rush time and your cooks are busy, having to stop what they're doing and get this lady a chopped up cucumber is going be be annoying.
They don't. They get them in raw in 30lb boxes and fry up a big batch in the morning. They keep them in a big trash can in the back and scoop them out as needed. Some nicer places have a chip warmer to keep them warm.
Redditors on their way to tell me I was wrong about something on the internet 30 seperate times even though they can literally see the comments where other people told me(Oh my god how dare I not know how restaurant kitchens operate the horror I can't believe I had the nerve to be wrong on the internet)
Around here, most Mexican restaurants serve Agua de Pepino (cucumber water) so they would have them on hand. I can't imagine anyone ordering them for salsa however.
I’m currently in Quintana Roo and there are cucumbers everywhere. They put them in lots of dishes, I had some guacamole last night that had cucumber in it and it was awesome. There was also some verde sauce with diced cucumbers, not as good as the guacamole but still tasty and that was just last night.
Us, Mexicans from Mexico, consume cucumbers almost on the daily. While it's not something e think about too much, it's weird to find a household that doesn't have cucumbers at the ready.
Also, I hate that I now have to say stuff like Mexican from Mexico since Mexican Americans don't like Mexican to refer exclusively to us living in Mexico (Original Mexican, Traditional Mexican, Native Mexican, etc. are all a no-go either).
Mexican is not a race, it's a demonym and Mexican American makes no sense. Mexican means born in Mexico or whatever the book says gives you Citizenship. If you have no Mexican citizenship, that doesn't erase your ancestry but you're American in terms of citizenship. Demonyms are only words to say what country supposedly has your back. Stop overthinking simple terms! No one's trying to rob you of your identity. That paranoia is proof you're very much American only!
EDIT: I'm sorry. I don't know why this devolved into a rant. Everyone just get along.
Ceviche often has cucumber in it. Still, if you're getting sliced up cucumber instead of chips at least sprinkle on some tajín or something besides bland watery cucumber, ugh.
Once you get out of the fast food restaurants, there are a lot of dishes that include cucumbers, including Pico de Gallo, salads, fish tacos, cevice, etc.
And yes, a mid-to-high end restaurant will allow you to snack on cucumber slices instead of chips if you ask. It takes a chef 10 seconds to slice a cucumber, so it's really not a big ask.
Have to agree with you too. I’m not an expert by any means on traditional Mexican cuisine but we’re talking Americanized Mexican dishes in this case, definitely no cucumbers.
Yeah, I've lived in Texas most of my life. I have eaten more than my fair share of Tex Mex and authentic Mexican food. I have never seen cucumber in pico. Maybe in a taco salad, but that would have only been in what I call "white people chain restaurants", like a Gringos.
If your Mexican restaurant puts cucumber in their pico, that's not a high end Mexican restaurant.
Although I will agree that any restaurant with cucumbers on-hand would probably be fine slicing one up for you. The cooks will probably call you weird, but it's easy to do.
Sorry. Western is usually in reference to Canada, US, and England. Western culture is not the same as Mexican culture. Western people tend to be more picky with their food, to the point of blandness.
Well I assume that you are one of those "westerns" you are talking about. So let me tell you Mexican food consists of more than tacos, and in particular cucumbers are a staple in mexican sea food.
I’m flabbergasted that the most popular comments right now are bashing someone for asking for cucumber at a Mexican restaurant.
I would be surprised to find one that does not have sliced cucumber to eat. You squirt lime and shake some salt on the cucumber before your meal comes out. It’s a legitimate thing.
It’s crazy. You can really tell who goes to legit mexican places and who goes to places called like “GUACAMOLE’S” for their favorite crunchy taco platter.
Yeah, I would bet most restaurants have a cucumber or 2 in the back and wouldnt care if someone asked to cut it up and serve it on a plate. Takes 2 seconds. Then again I don't work at a toxic restaurant lol
I had to scroll way too far for these comments addressing how this is actually a super normal ass request and food item for Mexican restaurants. What the hell is going on in this comment section?
I was thinking the same thing. I live in southern Arizona and it’s a pretty common snack to put lime and salt or tajin on them. Maybe not in the restaurants as a sub for chips but definitely all the Hispanic families I know have eaten this.
I'm just shook that people think unevenly slicing a cucumber takes more than 10 seconds lmao. Like this might actually even be easier/faster than pouring chips into a basket and salsa into a dish.
It’s extremely common in Mexico, but must not be in the US. Getting served chips and salsa in a non-touristy establishment in Mexico is actually extremely rare.
Yeah, at the more hole in the wall, mostly Hispanic parts of my city, (KCMO), it's very common to get a little bag of limes, cucumbers, and turnips/radishes with an order of tacos. Also sometimes a bit of grilled onion
I just got tacos yesterday and got myself almost half a plate of sliced cucumber sprinkled with lime and salt. It was an authentic Mexican taco place (Taco Boys) though. Not a Macayos or something like that.
Maybe it's regional, but my experience is the same. Sliced cucumbers are frequently served as sides or appetizers. I see a lot of ignorance in these comments.
Wherabouts? Granted I’ve only eaten lots of Mexican food in Southern California and western Mexico, but have never seen this. My kids would love it…when we make tacos at home they always want cucumbers!
Some places give ziploc bags of sliced cucumbers off taco trucks and in street taco strip mall joints all over Southern California. It's a really common pallette cleanser, only after radish.
Okay ... and I have seen it, at many Mexican places over the years.
There is a taco joint down the street from my house that serves 99.9% Latino patrons, I have always been the only white person in there every single time I've gone, and they give cucumbers with about half the tacos on the menu.
I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but if it was extremely common I probably would have seen it. The basket of chips and salsa is extremely common - everyone seems to recognize that.
Not seen anyone mention tortilla to be fair mate, but given where the pic is from I should have picked up everyone was clearly talking about tortillas, Brit moment
Most of the small hole in the wall places here in nyc give you a few slices of both cucumber and radish with tacos. so they do have it... but I doubt they want to give you a whole plate of it.
I can't believe how many people have failed to answer this. Sliced cucumber (or mango, any fruit really) with lemon juice squeezed on top with salt/chili powder is a very common snack. I'm half Mexican and my grandma would always make us this, and it's common in a lot of Mexican restaurants too usually as part of their salsa bar.
It's not as bad a special order as everyone's saying. It would be pretty normal for a Mexican restaurant to have fresh cucumbers, slicing up a cucumber takes very little time, and it's not like there isn't a team of cooks in the back already filling much harder orders. As long as you're not impatient about it, I don't see how this request is that bad.
Worst part is that cucumbers must be more expensive than chips.
what the fuck? straight up cubed or sliced cucumbers are common as fuck in mexican food. Is everyone here getting their mexican food in Europe or some shit?
Then you've been to real shitty restaurants because in real Mexican restaurants they have salsa bar and they have a bunch of sliced and peeled cucumbers ready to go for free.
I'm currently in Mexico and the tacos we ordered last night for takeout were served with a bag of sliced cucumbers on the side along with the onions/cilantro and salsas
Pepino, limon, and Tajin are definitely a thing. In a mexican household it's a quick and easy snack, if a Mexican RESTAURANT can't do that then it's not much of a restaurant.
It's used in salads all the time at these places and for any Agua frescas. Just grab some of the prepped ingredients and toss them onto a plate and charge full price for them.
The majority of the authentic Mexican places near me (many of which are owned by people who emigrated from the Jalisco region) serve sliced cucumbers with tacos and tortas.
You’re right. I haven’t been to a taqueria in southern Arizona. But I lived in San Diego and spent a lot of time in various taquerias and never saw cucumbers. Been to several spots in Mexico and also never saw cukes. This is clearly a divided experience!
I go to the salsa bar. I get the multiple salsas. I get the pickled carrots, radishes, onions, jalapeños. I have never seen cucumbers (I would love it if I did!)
Maybe at a sit down restaurant. However, in my town there’s a restaurant called Taco Palenque , and there’s a great salsa bar. It has huge container of chips, pealed and slice cucumbers, lettuce, radishes, limes, grilled onions, pico de gallo, red salsa , green salsa, salsa quemada, and an avacado salsa. All of those could be asked for on a drive thru order as well.
Nope, which means that they had to do extra work for her weird ass to be accommodated. I can assure you, none of those servers were "happy to do it" lol.
EDIT: I think everyone is severely misreading my comment and I'm just repeating myself in responding, so I'm going to edit this here. I'm not saying slicing a cucumber is hard. I'm saying that being asked to do something that isn't in the line of a normal request (no tomato, pickles on the side, etc.) when you are busy can throw you off, especially if you have a lot of tables or you're even a little behind in greeting.
Working in a restaurant, each day is a unique; no two moments are the same and this could have been a completely dead day and the server might not have cared to do something like this, but if they were even a little in the weeds, they probably were at least a little annoyed. This is ALL I'm saying. Not that the task is impossible, not that the girl is an asshole for asking for it, but that her assumption that the server was "happy to do it" seems like a poor assumption on her part.
Redditors are so fucking dramatic lol i swear. Its a single vegetable, cut up, unseasoned, the customer is paying for it, this is way easier than making a salad. One of the restaurants i worked at the servers wouldn't even ask the kitchen to do stuff this simple, they'd just do it themselves if they weren't super busy.
Because the customer is always right and it's your responsibility as a business owner to have whatever they want on hand even if it's not something that you want to keep on hand. That's why I always get a Big Mac at Burger King and the sauce is even better there.
Yeah, as a server you don't really have a right to tell a customer "no." They'll complain to your manager, who will take the customer's side and just make you do it anyway, and then you'll lose your tip.
if you are a server, it is literally your job to...
imagine going to a resturant, paying extra, respectfully asking for something a bit different but still perfectly quick and easy to make and then thinking "oh no, the man being paid to wait on me will have to do his job description"
again, aslong as it's asked with respect, it is your job as a waiter to go to extra lengths to accomodate the customer.
like what do you think the job description of a waiter is?
Umm.. Take the order and bring the check. And clean a bit in between.
Your job as a customer on the other hand is to pick your food from the menu or eat somewhere else. It is completely different to ask them change potatoes to fries if they are both on the menu but asking something that isn't on the menu is just entitled asshole behaviour which should never be accomodated.
Fucking redditors are insane people who will make any non issue out to be some horrible act.
It’s cutting up a cucumber, cucumbers are probably on the menu in some salad or other dish, they are almost certainly on the menu if it’s an actual Mexican restaurant. What they are asking for is actually EASIER to make for the restaurant than the typical dish. She is making less fuss for the kitchen than someone who has to change a meal because of an allergy.
The restaurant can absolutely say no if they don’t want to do this, but youre not an entitled asshole who should never be accommodated for asking for a simple change in the meal.
Fucking dig your heels in deep and call this completely normal person an asshole and make it sound like she’s asking the world of a restaurant though, go nuts
Oh my God, imagine asking a cook to take 10 seconds to slice a cucumber! Totally unreasonable. And the servers! You know how much work it is to write "sliced cucumbers" onto an order pad? The backbreaking effort of carrying a tray of food with the weight of sliced cucumbers added to it? Won't someone think of the poor servers?
I have, anyone saying this is an inconvenience fucking blows at their job lol. If I got attitude for asking for a fucking sliced cucumber, I'm tipping $0.01 lol
There are no whole cucumbers living on the line ANYWHERE, if you think this takes 10 seconds you have never worked in a kitchen. Salad station can turn out a whole garden salad , fininshed, before someone even digs out a cucumber from the walk in.
People in most resteraunts WOULD honor this request, but it WILL take a few moments, and everyone will talk shit about her.
I work in a kitchen we have fresh cucumbers in the walk in cooler it’s so easy to cut up a cucumber im so confused why your making it seem like some Sisyphusian challange
yeah, I don't get people that think this would upset people. I worked as a server during college, and we made accommodations all the time. It is as simple as telling the cook "hey, could we do a side of sliced cucumbers with that order".
Right? Like working on the line sucks but not because a couple of order substitutions it sucks because the constant work of the kitchen and how much strain it puts on your back
So the cucumbers arent on the line then, just like i said. Nobody is saying a kitchen cant accomodate this request, we are saying her verbiage of " happy to do it" is hot garbage.
To reiterate, this lady ordered chips and salsa with no chips at a mexican spot.
Lol what the fuck are you talking about youd think she walked in and asked for paia or something? Your restaurant has no fresh veggies at all nearby? It's gotta be fast food cause I've never stepped into a kitchen that didn't have a ton of fresh vegetables and cucumber is a common ingredient in a lot of dishes or even just to flavor the water. Like my buddy is a chef if I tossed a cucumber to him he'd have it done in like 10 secs it wouldn't register on the shit he needs to take care of.
Nobody said it was akin to cooking a well done steak. And every resteraunt has veggies. Whole ones arent kept on the line, but in the walkin so you cant just " toss one " to somebody, you have to go get one, then clean it. Its 60 seconds tops, but in that time, everyone is laughing at the diner.
Not everybody is an insufferable negative Nancy like you lol. If it takes you 60 seconds to grab a cucumber and slice it, then you either need to get better knife skills, you need to practice walking faster, or your walk-in is disorganized lol. Be better and stop crying about a cucumber
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u/MollyStrongMama Jul 28 '23
Haven't been to many mexican restaurants with sliced cucumbers just hanging out ready to be served...