TIFU by not heeding the nicest, ever-worded warning from a server.
So for my birthday, we continued our new “experience instead of presents” tradition and I chose a Vietnamese restaurant. Then I saw Bamboo Shoot Soup with duck on the menu, and was like, “Oh cool! Like little bamboo slices in stir-fries!” The server hesitated, “Are you sure?” — and I, in my inexhaustible confidence, said yes. Big mistake.
Upon its arrival, the soup seemed benign, even smelled congenial. Then I took a sip. It of course tasted like… a zoo smells. Earthy, funky and in some way wild animal enclosure-ish. My whole family tasted it and made the same horrified face. We then understood why the server had been hesitating. I’d eaten the duck, which was okay, but the soup was beyond salvage — not even after we tried to cover it up at home. We tipped well, owned the L, and learned one of those lessons that if a server ever asks “Are you sure?” — you’re not fucking sure at all.
TL;DR: Didn’t take the server’s advice on bamboo shoot soup, found out why — it was like a petting zoo in liquid form and learned always to listen when the waiter loses their confidence.
TIFU by not listening when the server asked “Are you sure?”
