Food Rules

[miss fortune]

when it comes to eating, my inner J comes out to play... I get made fun of by family and friends alike for my extensive set of rules about eating that I have... it's quite terrible

however, I've always been good about trying everything at least once and eating what's put in front of me if I'm a guest, so at least I'm not evil

for some examples here-

-food should not touch... unless we're talking mashed potatoes and gravy or something that's MEANT to be eaten together... if my main course and vegetables ooze together the dinner becomes inedible

- salad should be eaten from a bowl or seperate plate... salad is NOT allowed on the same dish as the main course

- if it's mushy and it's not mashed potatoes or pudding, I probably won't eat it!

- if it's slimy and it's not in the fruit and vegetable (or pickle!) group, I'm not going to eat it

- if it's referred to as a "processed meat product" there's a good chance that I won't eat it... unless it's a sausage

- if it is gray, I'm not going to eat it... food should be aesthetically pleasing as well!

- if it involves soggy bread that I myself didn't make soggy, I'm not going to eat it (take that stuffing!)

that's just a few examples... anyone else have some food rules to share?

 

[Chaotic Harmony]

I'm a texture/consistency whack job.... I can't eat oatmeal, bananas, grits, or anything else that is mushy like that... It seriously makes me gag. Odd thing is... I LOVE banana flavoring, but hate eating an actual banana.

I can't really say that my hatred for fish is anything out of the ordinary... My stomach and fish don't agree, so I don't eat it. Nothing odd about that. Aside from my stomach really hating fish.

Umm.... I can't stand pieces of fruit being in my ice cream or yogurt... I'll eat it, but the entire time I find a piece of actual fruit I'll make a face... And mind you I love fruit... Just not pieces of fruit in my ice cream or yogurt.

 

[Randomnity]

I'm a texture/consistency whack job.... I can't eat oatmeal, bananas, grits, or anything else that is mushy like that... It seriously makes me gag. Odd thing is... I LOVE banana flavoring, but hate eating an actual banana.

I'm like this too! I found that I can tolerate bananas if they're fairly green though - so the fruit is pretty firm and not so strong flavoured. I eat them almost every day now for breakfast because they're cheap and good for you. But when they're ripe enough for those brown speckles..

 

[Chaotic Harmony]

I'm like this too! I found that I can tolerate bananas if they're fairly green though - so the fruit is pretty firm and not so strong flavoured. I eat them almost every day now for breakfast because they're cheap and good for you. But when they're ripe enough for those brown speckles..

Yes! Exactly! I will eat a barely yellow green banana, but if I even see as much as one brown spot, I won't touch it. And if it's really yellow... I'll eat it in the smallest bites possible.

 

[MacGuffin]

Odd thing is... I LOVE banana flavoring, but hate eating an actual banana.

Ah, my banana/tomato rule.

I'll happily eat a banana, but hate it on or in anything, and that includes flavoring. Not on my ice cream, cereal, or in my bread, or pudding.

As for tomatoes, I love the opposite. Smash them into sauces or as another ingredient, and I'll love it. Salsa especially. However, I won't eat one whole, or in slices/pieces where I can easily discern it from other parts of what I'm eating (like slices on a sandwich or pieces in a salad).

 

[EffEmDoubleyou]

As for tomatoes, I love the opposite. Smash them into sauces or as another ingredient, and I'll love it. Salsa especially. However, I won't eat one whole, or in slices/pieces where I can easily discern it from other parts of what I'm eating (like slices on a sandwich or pieces in a salad).

This is probably my biggest rule. I'm glad I'm not nuts!

I'm not sure if this counts, but I also hate when things I love are commonly paired with things I hate. Like bananas and walnuts...I love ANYTHING banana, but I won't eat so many banana things because they so often also contain walnuts, which I despise. No banana nut muffins or Chunky Monkey ice cream for me. :steam: Same thing with ketchup, mustard and mayo on hamburgers. I LOVE hamburgers, but don't like them messed up with those condiments, which makes it hard.

 

[miss fortune]

I agree with the tomato rule as well... and get made fun of by my family for it

the man is another person who loves banana things but hates nuts... he claims that society is out to prevent him from enjoying bananas by pairing them with nuts in everything

 

[Chaotic Harmony]

I've noticed the older I get the more I start to like food I used to hate. About four years ago you wouldn't have gotten me to touch broccoli. Now, I love it. Three years ago, cauliflower, no thanks. Now, hell yes! And my most recent, guacamole! All my life, hell no I'm not eating that stuff that looks like vomit. Now, why thank you I'll have some guacamole on chicken, chips, salad, etc!

 

[Fidelia]

Tube food can be either really good or very revolting. No middle ground. Spam=bad!

I don't like meat that is cold, except turkey slices in salads, which isn't really meaty meat. Meat doesn't belong in sandwiches unless it is warm (hamburgers, hot dogs, hot chicken, beef dip, pulled pork). Generally meat shouldn't be in soups either. I can make a slight exception for beef.

If jello/jellied salads are going to be served with a meal that involves gravy, there should be separate bowls for the jello. Salad should generally have it's own bowl, as whatever said before.

Some kinds of eggs are okay, but there should be no runny middles and something that smelled like devilled eggs is not fit for human consumption.

Raw tomatoes and broccoli are no good, but their cooked versions are fine. (It's something to do with the smell).

I hate fake banana flavouring for anything and am wary of bananas being cooked into any recipe even though I am fine with bananas on their own.

Meat on the bone or fat in meat doesn't work for me. Meat on the bone has too much cartilege, skin, bones and other stuff that makes you painfully aware of what exactly you're eating. If you've ever dissected anything, it will be inetricably linked in your mind then. Fat just has a terrible texture.

 

[Chaotic Harmony]

Ooooh, yeah... Ditto to that meat on a bone thing.... I forgot about that. I've never been able to eat a chicken leg or chicken wing off the bone... If I eat anything like that I will sit there and pick off the meat with a fork....

 

[gromit]

Yes I'm the same way with tomatoes, MacGuffin, EffEmDoubleyou. And with bananas, Randomnity.

Actually for mushy-textured foods (like yogurt or oatmeal) I have found if I add stuff like granola to the yogurt or nuts/dried fruit to the oatmeal it makes it sooooo much better. Otherwise my mouth is like wtf are you trying to give me here - is this a solid or a liquid? If I add crunchy stuff to it then it is fine, though.

 

[Oberon]

I can count on the fingers of one hand the foods that I actively dislike, and I will occasionally eat those anyway due to either a) social pressure, or b) to check that I still don't like them. The big two are oysters and lima beans.

That's quite odd, because I like clams and mussels really well, and I like every other kind of legume except lima beans... but I really don't care for either lima beans or oysters. The oysters have a fishy bitterness that I find distasteful, and I think I was conditioned as a kid to dislike lima beans because my dad would grow them in the garden, and always let them get to be the size of quarters before he'd harvest the d@mn things. By the time they got to the table they were inevitably mealy, tough, and possessed of that nasty green "lima bean" flavor.

And don't try to sneak butter beans under my radar, either. A "butter bean" is nothing but a lima bean with a case of acute narcissism.

As far as other "food rules" go, the only thing I do that's odd is that I eat all of one kind of food on my plate, then move on to the next thing. I do not generally eat a bite of this and a bite of that; I'm methodical about it. Been that way since I was a kid.

In any and all other ways, however, I have all the dining scruples of, say, Andrew Zimmern.

 

[prplchknz]

the only thing I will not eat is grits. everything else is fair game. though I'm picky about quality of seafood I will not buy seafood from the regular grocery store buts that cuz things their are often getting taken back cuz they're bad before the expiration date so I don't trust the seafood from their. whole foods has this really good lemon breaded tilapia that's good with these vegan mashed potatoes and stuffing my room mate makes, so good.

 

[kelric]

Lots of quality food hatred in here!

- if it's referred to as a "processed meat product" there's a good chance that I won't eat it... unless it's a sausage

Processed meat is just completely disgusting. Except for German sausages, or most other high-quality hand-made sausages. Probably heart-busting and should probably be eaten in small quantities, but . Delicious!

Same thing with ketchup, mustard and mayo on hamburgers. I LOVE hamburgers, but don't like them messed up with those condiments, which makes it hard.

Condiments in general are just nasty. I'll eat brown mustard sometimes, but mayo? Yuck. And Ketchup is just the most disgusting thing ever. Nothing worse than sharing your nice salty fries with someone and having them immediately dump that foul toxic waste on them ("Um, they're yours now.") No, there is something worse... ketchup slathered over cheap boiled hot dogs .

Tube food can be either really good or is very revolting. No middle ground. Spam=bad!

Fixed that one for you .

I don't like meat that is cold, except turkey slices in salads, which isn't really meaty meat. Meat doesn't belong in sandwiches unless it is warm (hamburgers, hot dogs, hot chicken, beef dip, pulled pork). Generally meat shouldn't be in soups either. I can make a slight exception for beef.

Yeah -- hot meat sandwiches are much better than cold meat ones. Something about the clammy texture of cold meat that doesn't sit well.

If jello/jellied salads are going to be served with a meal that involves gravy, there should be separate bowls for the jello. Salad should generally have it's own bowl, as whatever said before.

Gravy and jello are *not* a good mix. Probably because cold gravy starts to take on qualities of jello... and not in a good way.

Some kinds of eggs are okay, but there should be no runny middles and something that smelled like devilled eggs is not fit for human consumption.

! Someone else who shares my queasiness when faced with runny eggs. I like eggs, but only in well-cooked scrambled/omelet form.

I hate fake banana flavouring for anything and am wary of bananas being cooked into any recipe even though I am fine with bananas on their own.

Fake fruit flavors of pretty much any kind don't do much for me. Banana and watermelon are the worst, I think. Did you ever get those sugar-free watermelon-flavored lollipops at the dentist? I mean... why bother? The paper-stick in the middle was the tastiest part.

Meat on the bone or fat in meat doesn't work for me. Meat on the bone has too much cartilege, skin, bones and other stuff that makes you painfully aware of what exactly you're eating. If you've ever dissected anything, it will be inetricably linked in your mind then. Fat just has a terrible texture.

Bigtime agreement on this. I'm sort of spoiled I guess, but this is the reason I don't eat a whole lot of meat. I have dissected more than my share of critters, but I think it's the crunch of gristle or the slimy give-way of a chunk of fat that just drives me away from meat. I'm super-picky when it comes to meat (ie, don't order it in restaurants, usually). Vegetables are safer.

Hmm... I don't really consider myself a picky eater... but we've managed to hit on just about all of my food-hates in one short thread

 

[Halla74]

My rule for food is easy to remember and easy to implement:

Halla's SeaFood Diet - If I See Food, I Eat It!!!

 

[Lark]

Apart from the one about food not touching I dont really agree, it rules out just too much food, I love the big trays you see in M*A*S*H I wanted one as a kid, in which you can put all different stuff without it touching.

Observed by some of my friends is a tendency I have to eat whatever is on the plate in turn, ie, veg eaten, then potato, the meat, then, I dont know, apple sauce, they used to tease that they'd get me stew because they couldnt see how I'd be able to seperate it out.

 

[miss fortune]

I've been known to sort out fried rice before... all of the vegetables and eggs picked out so that I could eat meat and rice alone

I also hate meat on a bone.... it's so SLIMY in there and there's things like cartlidge, tendons and veins and arteries... I like my meat NOT to remind me of anatomy class... and sliminess is icky

 

[Fidelia]

I went over to some people's house with my folks last year. They served some kind of rice, salad, buns and then this curried chicken on the bone. I don't like dark meat in the first place and then it was on the bone, so I took some of everything and passed on the meat. The man drew attention to that fact and assured me that the curry was not hot. Then the woman started in. Then he made a comment about me needing to go to McDonalds to fill up after. She obviously thought that I was terribly spoiled and didn't have much patience for my picky ways. When we got to the door, the man commented on it yet again. I had not been obtrusive, nor complained. I felt that that kind of behaviour was far ruder than refusing something! By the time we got to the car I was on the verge of tears and I don't cry in front of people for anything! I can deal with steak that's on the bone (with some dissecting), but with chicken, you can't really separate all the connecting tissue out. Yuck!

Oh yeah - Kelric I hear ya on the watermelon flavouring. Who likes that stuff????

Re tube food - I've had some pasta sauces that are obviously tube food but were pretty tasty. No meat though.

 

[sui generis]

I know I have talked about this somewhere else on the board, but I love to mix foods. Buffet restaurants are awesome not only b/c you can try a little bit of everything, but because there's so many things to mix together! I really like salad and spaghetti. However, I realize that people find this revolting, so I try not to do it in front of people.

I am a vegetarian who hates mushrooms and olives. I hate that most vegetarian pizzas have one or both of these. :steam:

I'm sure there's more, but I can't think of them.

 

[mmhmm]

i don't eat foods heated above 40c/104f.
or processed foods: sugar, dairy, anything pasteurized.