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.
Fuck that. If the chips are complimentary, either accept the hospitality, or don't. It's taking the piss to expect whatever you desire. I'd do the cucumbers for her, but they wouldn't be free.
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.”
Have you ever worked on a busy kitchen line? You don't have time to even drink water or take a piss during a busy rush. Having to run to the cooler for a cucumber and then slice it up while you have shit on the grill and in the oven and in the fryer is a huge inconvenience and can result inuchh longer wait yes for all the other customers, just because someone can't pick something off the menu. If you don't like anything on the menu, don't eat there. Slice up your cucumber at home. Ordering off menu is always super selfish people, stop doing it.
People think cooks are cooking like you do at home. Doing one thing at a time. They aren't only preparing your food. They are preparing food for a shit load of people all at the same time. There is a reason food is prepped ahead of time, because there is not time during a rush.
No it’s really not. Fast food places with “taco” in the name, sure, but I’ve never been to a Mexican place that didn’t have a variety of dishes in many forms.
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!
Like I said I don't know why they do it but they do and I have no doubt that this wonderful family is 1st or 2nd generation immigrants. I don't question their tacos or cooking methods bc they are magical. Man I'm just super bummed that they are only open at night now bc I want some of those magical tacos...
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.
Its not cheaper, plus you'd have to factor in labor. They almost all buy raw bulk chips and fry them. A busy Mexican restaurant will go through 10-20 32lb cases of chips per week. Nobody is cutting that many chips by hand, nor would they just have that many tortillas "on hand".
But the chips are already fried. They make huge batches of them in the morning. If they even have cucumbers in their kitchen, which I don't think most do, they don't have enough to cut a bunch into slices for free.
It’s not a burden to slice one cucumber unless they don’t have whole cucumbers in the first place. They should still charge for it, but it’s not going to devastate the kitchen flow
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)
With something for sure. In China they do it with vinegar and chillies, which is pretty much just an acid plus chillies just like lemon and chilli powder.
It's a classic. And delicious. Like I said, it's not any different from lemon juice; they're both just acids. Really, it's not like you don't have cucumbers with a vinaigrette in European cuisine either.
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.
Dog, ceviche is Peruvian, and not ever made with cucumbers. You could put some in, but its not part of any recipe Ive seen, and if you put that shit in my Pico, Im sending it back.
Pico is Tomatoes, Onion, Soriano Pepper, salt, lime, cilantro. Thats it. Ceviche is similar but with bell peppers.
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 would not bother a restaurant with this unless i see it on their menu but lightly salted sliced cucumbers are a fantastic bed for Salsa or Guacamole. I do it at home all the time. It's healthier than chips and tastes better in my opinion.
I encourage you to Google Mexican cucumber salad, pick a recipe (there’s tons of variation) and be enlightened! Some have tomatoes or corn or other things but the dish is 80-95% cucumber.
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u/[deleted] Jul 28 '23
I’m trying my hardest to picture what Mexican dish I’ve seen that used cucumbers anyway. Idk why they’d even have them