Bringing your own condiments?
 

If I have one gripe about most casual-dining restaurants it is the sauces they put on dishes such as chicken wings, ribs, beef, etc. Usually it's not very good and they drench the food. I often order such dishes with the sauce on the side so I can decide how much to apply or whether to use it at all.

Lately I've considered bringing my own sauces so my meal can be less salty, a little hotter or not quite as sweet.

Has anyone done this? What was the response? Any problems with doing it?

Bringing your own condiments?
 

It violates the Health Code in many places.

Bringing your own condiments?
 

Just order it to go

Just do it!
In case the restaurant does not like it, they will tell you eventually and you can simply put it back to your bag :)

Seriously?

I already carry a plastic bottle of hot sauce in my laptop bag. Perhaps I should add a few more sauces? :D

Bringing your own condiments?
 

This is fairly common among people who like hot sauce. IIRC, so many people would bring their own bottle of Cholula Hot Sauce that many restaurants started stocking it instead of Tabasco.

In China, I used to take condiments from places serving Lanzhou lamian (the could-be-hotter sauce) and peanut sauce from Fujianese steamed dumplings (peanut sauce) and bring them to other restaurants.

Actually, I lament that I didn't purchase a slew of hot sauces from a market in Changsha (Hunan).

It just shows how back to front the authorities are. The stuff they serve in "casual dining" restaurants itself should violate the Health Code. Full of salt and sugar, both very bad for you and both some of the primary causes of people dying young.

Actually, it doesn't show that all. There's no relationship between the issue of people bringing their own food into restaurants and high salt/sugar food.

Generally, all food served in a restaurant must be "prepared" there or in a licensed facility. Most codes only speak to what the restaurant can serve, so if you bring for your own personal use that would be fine -- but sharing with your dining companions is another issue.

For more, see here: http://www.sociologyinfocus.com/2013...-a-restaurant/

No one is forced to eat there.

I have been known to bring my own food to restaurants that don't serve food I can eat. It would be rude at a table for 1, but if I'm with a group of 20 from work, I'm open about it and haven't been told to put it away or leave.

My daughter brings outside food almost every time we eat out. My grandson is 2 and won't eat just anything. And no one's going to allow him to make a meal out of an order of french fries.

Marmite.
It goes everywhere with me.
Breakfast just isn't the same without it but it has got me some funny looks all over the world.

Siracha sauce for me

I'd rather ask for their hot sauce.

Bristol Palin should have considered this.;)

This topic reminds me of that Seinfeld episode, where Jerry brings his own maple syrup to the restaurant.

http://sriracha2go.com/

http://sriracha2go.com/collections/spicy-samplers

The artisanal ketchup craze swept through DC a few years back, and naturally, our local gastropub joined in. Of course, theirs isn't a patch on Heinz, so we took to bringing a couple of packets along if we ever ordered burgers there.

By the way, does anyone want about a hundred Taco Bell sauce packets? My husband used to have an employee who took as many as he could whenever he went to Taco Bell. Now I have at least one Ziplock bag full of them, maybe more. More than I could ever need. PM me and I'll mail them to you. I suspect Taco Bell doesn't want them back.

cubbie, you might want to reach out to your local soup kitchen to see if they'll take them.

I'll take them all. Are you willing to FedEx overnight them? ;)

While living in China, I carried salt and pepper.

While in Canada, my father in law carried MSG.

It was kind of funny when my father in law started to sprinkle MSG on his food in a Michelin starred restaurant. Chef actually came out to make sure everything was OK, I forgot how to speak English when that happened.

We bring olives onto a flight to have martinis

My mom carries around Maggi seasoning in her purse.

The only thing I would consider is Huy Fong Sriracha.

Brought that srirach and hoisin sauce when we visited Vietnam so we could eat at pho cafes, since the local ones are either positive dreck, will give you food poisoning, or both. We were in heaven.

I do the same with Tabasco for Bloody Marys.I've even had F As borrow it for their own,presumably,Virgin Marys.

I always bring my own maple syrup just like Jerry did.