I’ve got several cases:

1) Five Spice Stewed Pork

At a fancy Thai restaurant, this caught my eye. Wanting to try something more exotic beyond the tried and true dishes like Pad Thai, drunken noodles, coconut fried rice, etc., I decided to give this a shot.

For those unaware, this is what the meat looks like…

… the rest are accompanying ingredients that vary from dish to dish (so for example, it may also include white rice). It was delicious and well made, but why was I deceived? My mother makes this dish, all, the, time! There’s nothing “special” about it! So in addition to the opportunity cost of missing out on trying out something (actually) different, I spent $15 (prior to tax and tip) on something that I’ve been eating for a long time now! It’d be like in American cuisine, paying $15 (plus tax and tip) for dish of bacon, eggs, toast, and potatoes!

.

2) Ramen noodles with vegetables

At a Japanese restaurant, I order a bowl of just that. I thought “vegetables” would include at least 3 types of vegetables. Turned out, “vegetables” to them meant just onions

.

3) Blood pudding

At an Irish restaurant, I had steel-cut oatmeal before, so I figure we’ll try another sweet dish for breakfast. For some reason, I thought it would be some fruit flavored pudding (yeah, one of the few times I skipped looking up something on my phone prior to ordering). I should’ve taken cues when the people dining with me admired my flair for trying something different and “out there” (I didn’t take heed of those remarks). Turned out, “blood pudding” or “black pudding” is some form of Irish sausage that contains pork blood! It was good though!