Cooking a romantic meal for someone you love is a great idea … but a lot of things can go wrong if you aren't careful. If you're cooking for a date or a partner, you want things to go off without a hitch – but there are lots of hidden hitches just waiting to spring up and smack you in the palate, as it were. Fortunately, if you can avoid certain foods you just shouldn't make for a romantic dinner, you should be good to go.
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1. French Onion Soup
French onion soup is scrumptious … but it also has a lot of onions. Mostly it has white onions, which aren't so bad – Vidalias are sweet. However, a lot of recipes also call for red onions and those are seriously smelly, so you can see why you wouldn't want to make something that has the potential to give you really bad breath at the end of the evening.
2. Garlic Heavy Pasta
Pasta is actually a really great idea for romantic dinners, but you have to be really careful with your sauce. A little garlic's not bad – and a little garlic goes a really long way. Don't get too heavy handed with it, or else your good night kiss might get a little whiffy as well, and no one wants that. Bad breath is awful, especially when you're trying to be romantic.
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3. Bone-in Meats
Foods with the bone in are a bad bet for romantic meals. It kind of ruins the atmosphere when you have to either pick meat off the bone, or pick bones out of your mouth. Plus, that can be a choking hazard, and nothing kills romance faster than having to execute the Heimlich maneuver on your date. That pretty much kills the mood.
4. Fishy Fish
Fishy fish is another one of those smelly mood killers. Now, not all fish is really fishy smelling. If you want to make fish for dinner, you'll just have to do a little research to see which fish are the most mild – but remember to try and pick all those bones out! The smell factor is awful, but remember, bones aren't any fun either.
5. In-Shell Shellfish
A nice lobster tail or some shrimp scampi are great romantic meals. However, if you have some seafood that needs to be shelled, save it for another time. Most people won't try to do this at home anyway, but if you're thinking about it, think twice. It's all kinds of messy, and that can quickly kill a mood as well.
6. Salad
Salad is a really important course. It's easy and delicious, so it's a favorite for homemade romantic meals. If you've ever gotten a bit of spinach or frisee stuck right between your two front teeth, however, you can understand the need to be careful. You can make salad, but try to use ingredients that don't have a tendency to get stuck.
7. Anything You Haven't Made before
My sister-in-law to be once tried to make lettuce wraps for the Better Half's brother. She'd never made them before, failed miserably, and then had a kind of huffy hissy fit that pretty much ruined their entire romantic evening. I laughed, but that's beside the point. The point is that you should never try to make something new on an important occasion. At the very least, practice it before the big night.
Don't worry, there are tons of other meal options that are perfect for a really romantic dinner. You just have to do a little sleuthing to figure out what they are. What's your favorite food on a romantic date?
Top Photo Credit: vsoriano@pacbell.net
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