Culinary Confusions

When I first started going on holiday with my former partner she would get annoyed when I pointed to the menu when ordering drinks or food (to be fair, she got annoyed at quite a few things) but she did manage to convince me that this wasn't a polite thing to do as it implied that the server didn't know their own menu or wouldn't understand someone ordering in an English accent. So, duly convinced, I dropped the habit and things (mostly) worked out well. However there have been a few memorable exceptions. Like when heading to a Roman amphitheatre for a performance of Oedipus Rex performed by a Korean troupe (in Korean) which, possibly, would make quite a few want to put their own eyes out but actually turned out to be quite dramatic. What better way to start the evening than a tequila based Margarita cocktail? Remember, no pointing involved, so what we got were two ice cream sundaes. Could have been Margherita pizzas I suppose (but they're coming up next). Like at one of our favourite beach front tavernas when we ordered Greek salad and delicious hot chips (I rarely eat chips at home but always enjoy them in Greece). The salads were fine but the longed for chips (still no pointing) arrived as a bowl of shrimps. Just what two vegetarians hadn't ordered. It was made worse by our feeling these were probably quite an expensive item on the menu. We felt a bit awkward about going back there for a few days but decided that we liked the place and we liked the food so went back for lunch. We ordered Margherita pizzas (said they were coming up). Sadly, that's exactly what didn't come up and we were presented with Pepperoni pizzas instead. After the shrimp incident we just felt we couldn't send them back so did the only thing we could which was to fork off every piece of Pepperoni and put it to the side. Quite what they made of that in the kitchen I can only imagine. Another island, another lunch (and still no pointing). Cheese omelette and (you guessed right) a portion of chips. A few minutes passed and the charming young woman came back to ask if I wanted the chips with my omelette to which I said yes ( I didn't want them as separate courses). My omelette duly arrived and I waited for my chips but eventually started to eat only to discover that the chips were inside the omelette. Clearly, the word "with" had been taken in quite a different way (and no amount of pointing would have helped here). Not a dish I can recommend in case you were thinking of trying it! What do you think - is pointing at the menu impolite? I now think it is and don't do it anymore. What are your own culinary confusions, food fails, dining disasters? Please keep it confined to Greece ( no I got sea slug instead of snake stories thank you) and above all please do not identify individuals, taverna names or locations -just keep it generalised. Remember it's not them, it's you (probably).