JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Quirky Eating Habits!!!

I was wondering if any of you, or your family members or friends, have any really strange eating habits. If so, I'd love to hear about them! I was thinking about this as I was preparing lunch for me and my wife early this afternoon.

I have but two that come to mind. I like jalapeno peppers on a lot of things. I put them on just about all meat dishes I eat, a double helping on my pizza, and I pile them high on all my Mexican dishes. When I get out of the shower in the morning, I pop the top on a Dr. Pepper and pull a jalapeno pepper from the jar. It is soooooo good!! However, I do pass on the Jalapeno jelly when I go to my brother's house. I love green salads...a simple side salad of lettuce and a few typical, traditional veggies, topped with Thousand Island. However, the quickest way to make me turn away from a sandwich is to put lettuce on it. No sandwich I eat ever has lettuce on it...NEVER!!!

My wife has several. She will never, under any circumstances short of destitution, eat the same thing two days in a row. If I make a pot of chili or a home-made soup, she will have a bowl that day but not the next...no matter how much she likes it. She has to put a day between. Heck, I'll eat something Ilike several days in a row! Also, she will not eat off of a paper plate...even if it's a simple sandwich and a few chips. It MUST be a regular plate from out dinnerwear. Also, dinner must always have dessert. It's not necessary for lunch, but it's mandatory for dinner. I'm not much of a sweets eater at all, so I couldn't care less about a dessert 95% of the time. I do like my home-made tapioca pudding, though. And last month I made a cherry pie that was pretty good.

Helen has a friend back in her hometown of Bakersfield, CA. who puts mustard on EVERYTHING! And I do mean EVERYTHING. Whatever is on her plate gets mustard...the meat, the veggies, the spuds, the salad, the dessert. Yes, she puts mustard on her cookies, her pudding, her pie, her cake, her Jello, etc! If it's on her plate, it gets mustard...plain and simple. I'll pass!

I have a friend here in St. Louis, whose wife puts ketchup on her ice cream. It makes no difference what flavor...it gets ketchup! Again, I'll pass!

My step-daughter from my previous marriage loved to play with food coloring. We often had rainbow mashed potatoes, red green beans, yellow peas, blue corn, etc. The rainbow mashed potatoes were actually kind of pretty! Three or four drops of each color, whip it a few times with a spatula and there you are! Streaks of four or five colors throughout the dish.

So, how about you guys and gals? Anything interesting?

Hmmm - I've thought a lot now, and I think I only have one: The hot dog and the bun have to be the same length. Whichever one is too long for the other gets trimmed.

I love jalapenos too, Al. And that jalapeno jelly? I eat a big dish of that every friday night. I love spicy food - ate Thai three days in a row once and lost my voice.

It's gotta taste good too though.....

Scott

Wow....this is really making me think. I like really spicy food as well....and love jalapenos....different for a woman they say, but then...I like being different...LOL.

Also....I like ketchup on my mashed potatoes. I eat very little butter on ANYTHING, but love my ketchup. I also like it on anything with macaroni or pasta. Must be the mixture of starch and ketchup that I like.

When I put my food on my plates....I don't like it touching each other, even though it all ends up the same place....but on my plate, it has to look pretty(guess the ketchup on the mashed potatoes negates that though)

If I eat M&M's....I have to eat the green ones first and save the brown ones for last. Wow....as I'm reading this over..I see that ketchup may not be my only problem.

Oh...one more.....I like pepper on everything.......very little salt...but pepper for sure.....I've never eaten cottage cheese without first putting pepper on it....WHAT is up with that?

This is an interesting thread though...but...thank you very much Al....now I think I'm due for at least a 50 min. session to discuss my childhood...HA.

Well Al, funny you should ask,
We were visiting some friends years ago out in St. Charles, now St. Peters I think just west of St. Louis. We had sliced tomatoes for lunch with the regular meal. AS usual I started to put sugar on my sliced tomatoes. Their boy a teenager or more done a screeching halt. I guess I and my siblings are the only ones in the country that puts sugar on their sliced tomatoes.

My wifes mother was also startled to see me put sugar on sliced tomatoes. My mother put sugar on her tomatoes so I learned it from her.

Sometimes I put ketchup in bean soup to flavor it.

Ray...that is funny. I ALWAYS put sugar on my sliced tomatoes. Also in my stewed tomatoes. I didn't know there was any other way. That's the way we did it when I was a kid.

Made me think of a funny story about my son though, for some reason. We were at my grandmothers when my children were small. We sat down to eat and she had made a large bowl of potato salad. Well, my son was about 7 at the time. He proceeded to take two slices of bread, spooned a whole lot of the potato salad on one slice, packed it down slowly...while the other folks stopped eating and watched him. He put the other slice on top and started to take a bite. The whole table got a big kick out of it, especially Grandma. He thought it was Egg salad. We still bring that up to him whenever we have potato salad.

Scott,

That's funny! Is it a matter symmetry? I've noticed that some people who have a need to have everything uniform tend to do that in multiple facets of their life. Just part of their personality, I guess.

I'm guessing you can get then in Florida, too, but here in St. Louis you can buy "bun-length hotdogs". They match up perfectly in length to the buns. That would save you some effort and consternation!

Thanks for the interesting story.

Alan

Janice,

First of all...great picture. You're as pretty as I thought you would be!

Kind of interesting, isn't it, when we start thinking about the little quirks we have! My aunt and uncle, mother's brother and his wife...both now deceased...always put ketchup on thier mashed potatoes and eggs. You're not alone!

Helen has 9 brothers...no sisters...and the only one who is younger than her is the same about food not touching on his plate. He carefully separates them with his fork and then eats them separately...first the meat, then the potatoes and then the veggies. He eats all of one iten before going to the next.

My son has thing about M&Ms, too. He alwaya eats the red ones first. But, after that, it doesn't matter.

I'm with you on the pepper. I pepper almost everything pretty heavily. I like hot spices and sauces, other than Tobasco...too bitter for me. I like curry, lots of cumin, the hottest picante sauce/salsa I can buy. Jalepeno peppers and habeneros straight from the jar work just about right!

Now, I differ with you on the salt. I use a lot of salt with my pepper.

Thanks for your contribution to the thread! All the best to you.

Alan

Ray,

Good morning! Good to see ya on the thread.

Funny you mention St. Charles and St. Peters. St. Charles is my hometown. I graduated from St. Charles High in 1965. Both of my kids (kids? They're 37 & 39 years old!)graduated from St. Charles High, also. My son lives in St. Peters, which directly adjoins St. Charles. And yes, they are due west of St. Louis, both towns bisected by Interstate 70. Actually St. Charles and St. Peters are no longer small towns. St. Charles is almost 60,000 and St Peters is over 50,000. I live in Lake Saint Louis, 6 miles west of St. Peters, also on Interstate 70.

I know several people who put sugar on their tomatoes...my mother being one of them. But, she puts sugar on or in almost everything! And I mean that literally. When she opens a can of corn, green beans, peas, etc., they get a heaping teaspoon of sugar. And her chili is essentially brown colored granulated suger with a bit of a chili flavoring. In a large pot of chili, she puts in a full CUP of sugar!!! I'm usually not very hungry when I visit my mother. But I don't visit very often. She, and the rest of my family, live in Branson. I live in the St. Louis area, 275 miles away!

Now, I also put a small amount of ketchup in my bean soup...not much but some.

Thanks for the interesting story! Talk atcha later.

Alan

Hi again, Janice!

I was reading your reply to Ray about your son and the potato salad incident...funny! My wife makes mashed potato sandwiches. She piles mashed potatoes about half an inch high between two slices of bread, sprinkles on a little paprika and goes for it! I prefer my mashed potatoes (not on a sandwich) with a lot of butter and either onion gravy of home-made milk gravy (country gravy).

I'm not much of a sweets eater and use sugar sparingly. I load my tomatoes up with way too much salt and pepper.

Alan

Here's another one that my wife says is quirky on my part.

I LOVE canteloupe! As do a lot of people, I sprinkle on a fair amount of salt. But, and my wife says this is the quirky part, I also pepper it pretty good, too. Yum, Yum!

Another one, I guess, is my eggs. There is only one way I can eat an egg...masacred! I put it in the skillet, break the yolk and spread it over the entire eggs. i then fry it until it is dark brown on both sides. My eggs stay in the skillet, on medium-high heat, for over ten minutes. I then salt and pepper them until you almost can't see the egg beneath it. There is a Denny's just down the street from my house. They manage to get my eggs pretty close to the way i like them. I do not order eggs out in a restaurant anywhere else. A couple of years ago I sent themback 4 times at IHOP and they still weren't edible for me!

Alan

Great thread, Al.

My daughter has quirky eating habits. I wish I knew what they were. She's finnicky, but won't say what she wants, just that "there's nothing here to eat."

One summer day, my son was off at a buddy's house and it was just my daughter and I at home. She was hungry but, as usual, said, "There's nothing here to eat." I asked her if she wanted a ham and cheddar cheese sandwich, turkey and swiss, peanut butter and jelly, a hot dog, beans and rice, spaghetti, leftover chicken, any one of five kinds of soup, macaroni and cheese, a salad, bananas, apples, oranges, grapes...nope...nothing. So, since it was something to do, we got into the car and drove off to the supermarket. We strolled down every aisle, she rejected everything. Finally she told me, "They don't have anything here to eat."

Mike,

It sounds more like your daughter has "NOT"-eating quirks! Does she weigh more than 10 pounds? Just wondering!!

Alan

Al...well thanks for the comment on the picture. Hope it doesn't spoil anyone's lunch, since we are talking about food here...HA...no...that was nice of you.

This thread is really interesting and lots of fun. It's good to know that I'm not the only quirky one.

Lots of fun stories here about something that we all love to do besides write. I hope more people will jump in.

Al....pepper on your cantaloupe?....sorry...you lost me there...LOL. But then....I don't even like cantaloupe, but now watermelon is on my top 3 list for sure.

Jan

Janice,

You are welcome. But the photo speaks for itself. It really didn't need my comment to be obvious.

And yes...LOTS & LOTS & LOTS of pepper (and salt) on my canteloupe!

WARNING: DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE A DELICATE STOMACH REGARDING FOOD!!!

Here's a sandwich my mother makes...and eats. Before reading, see note above...you have been properly warned!


A liberal spread of crunchy peanut butter
Ketchup
A slice of tomato
A tablespoon of horseraddish


You read correctly...she actually eats this!!! Now you know why I am never hungry when I visit my mother! This along with all the sugar.

Alan

Now I see why you don't make that trip too often...it's self preservation. Survival is a very strong instinct.

I have a sandwich I eat on occasion that doesn't seem odd to me, but others find it weird. I love peanut butter and my grandmother used to eat peanut butter and sour cream. I tried it when I was a kid and loved it. It is tart and flavorful, and there is nothing else I know of that tastes like it.

My mother-in-law likes a peanut butter and lettuce sandwich.

I love a simple type of comfort food that I have been eating for nearly 37 yrs, here it is try it and maybe you too will be addicted to it as I have:

2 cans of Van Camps porkn beans
1 medium onion (chopped)
Kraft velveeta cheese(the others won't work as well)
1 pkg weenies (cut into small irregular chunks)
2 or 3 fresh russet potatoes(fried to crisp outsides soft middle)

place beans , weenies, onions, cheese into pan and heat over medium heat until cheese starts melting then cover simmer until done

in a serving bowl(I use a BIG ONE)place fried potatoes at bottom the layer bean mixture over then layer of potatoes then another layer of bean mixture, topped louisianna hot sauce and sour cream with fresh serrano slices on top(or if you can't take much heat use jalapenos or if you can't take no heat use chopped bell peppers. YUM-YUM!

as a bread I use either sourdough (toasted) or english muffins (toasted under broiler with butter)

Janice,

My mother has many odd habits. Her culinary selections are just a small slice of her oddities!

Alan

You guys are actually giving me some ideas for cool things to try.

Remembered another one - When I was working one of my odd summer jobs, I used to take chopped ham sandwiches for lunch. One of my co-workers suggested putting potato chips between the ham and bread. It tasted good - and had a nice texture too.....

Scott

Good morning, Jack.

I don't feel very well this morning and I am trying to amuse myself with this thread. So far, so good.

I'll have to pass on your sandwich as it is my belief that sour cream is one of the mechanisms God uses to punish me for my numerous sins. There are about 5 or 6 foods that I classify as villanously evil and are probably the work of Satan's malfiescence...sour cream heads the list, followed closely by Ranch dressing.

I've never tried a peanut butter and lettuce sandwich. That's probably do-able, though! I'll try it soon.

nubbin...

Now, that sounds like something I could like! Well, other than the sour cream. Please see my reply to Jack regarding my view of sour cream.

I would first brown the weenie pieces real good (8 or 10 minutes) as I just cannot eat hotdogs that aren't well-fried. But thereafter, minus the sour cream, this sounds wonderful. thanks for the idea! much appreciated. Jalapenos, habeneros, serranos...all good stuff! And I like both Louisiana Hit Sauce and Red Devil hot sauce. The only hot sauce I do not like, of the ones I've tasted, is Tobasco because to me it tastes very bitter.

The next time I'm ready for a relatively quick lunch, this will be my choice. Thanks again for the idea!!!! All the best to you.

Alan

Ham chunks and chips? I would have to brown the ham chunks first. But thereafter, this sounds okay. I'll definitely try it.

Some good ideas, huh? If you try my mother's sandwich, I will have to question your sanity here in the public forum! But then, it's always good to have friends of questionable sanity. It makes for interesting exchanges! Hope all is well with you and Gwen. All the best from Helen & me.

Alan

Alan,

As per your last post, r.e. questionable sanity....well, seems I fit right in then....HA

Anyhow, that was funny. Now I'm getting hungry.

J

I was just talking to my neighbor about this thread. Here's his quirk. I guess it isn't REAL strange, but I've never heard of it. He puts Bar-B-Q sauce on his fried potatoes. Anybody else do that?

Alan

My quirky eating habits are I like to eat potato chips and ice cream mixed together. It has to be ruffles plain chips and vanilla ice cream. I put sugar on beans, greens and cabbage. It was the only way my mother could get me to eat them as a kid. Oh yeah I hated liver with a passion and the only way my mother could get me to eat it was to put jelly on it. I made a liver sandwich with gravy, jelly and smothered liver.

Yup... Have had that experience
Being from a cultural back ground where we call "gravy" aka "red sauce" or "marinara" and marrying into a family that takes a perfectly good steak and DEEP FRIES it and covers it in a white saucee, "gravy".....I'd say we have some food issues...

Redlady...

Pleased to meet you! I think I'm going to have to pass on your liver and grape jelly sandwich.

But hey, to each his own. So, you're even picky with your quirks! :/ But, as long as you enjoy it, more power to ya! thanks for your contribution to the thread...one of the more interesting one! Wishing you well.

Alan

Bullchik,

Yep, I agree...you have some food issues! Actually, your family, and your husband's, remind me a bit of my deceased aunt and uncle. Not only did they smother their deep-fried steak in white gravy...they loaded it up with ketchup afterwards! They even put ketchup on dry cereal! Ketchup and Cheerios...woohoo!!! Or not!

Thanks for passing on those quirks. Take care of that side of Misouri and I'll see what I can do on this side. Bye for now.

Alan

Scott's post reminded me of how I used to eat bologna sandwiches as a kid: bologna on white bread with Miracle Whip and a layer of potato chips for the texture. I haven't had one in years, but now I may have to make a trip to the grocery store.

Several years ago, a friend introduced me to one of my favorite sandwiches: Tomato, a thick slice of onion and cottage cheese on pumpernickel bread. Um UMM!

Kevin,

Potato chips seems to be a popular compliment to a lot of sandwiches. Can't do cottage cheese. But the tomato tomato, onion and pumpernickel all sound good.

Thanks for telling us about your little quirks.

Alan

As many of you know, I lived in Germnay almost 12 years. When you order Pommes Frites (French Fries) there, they will squirt a hefty layer od mayonaise over them.

Now, my wife does like to dip her French Fries in Thousand Island or ranch dressing at times. I can deal with the Thousand Isalnd; but I have already given my diatribe about the numerous evils of Ranch dressing.

Alan

If I eat something salty, then I need something sweet to balance it out. "They" say it's a middle age thing. Damn those hormones!!!

Oh, one more thing. I like cookie dough better than I like cookies. Don't let Wy and Ben read this, though. It will get them both stirred up.

Hi Tricia!

Yep, those hormones are a tricky bunch! Ask any guy married to a middle-aged woman....me, for example!

There is no rhyme or reason to my eating habits. I simply eat what I want when I want to eat it. I am very heavy on salt and very lean on sugar. Cookies, pies, cakes, , brownies, fudge, etc, rarely (fudge - never) find their way to my mouth. Iced oatmeal cookies is an occasional exception. I have only one "sweets" addiction, and it contains mostly natural sugars....Gummi Bears! I can eat a five-pound bag of those guys in just a couple of days.

When I lived in Germany, I was just 20 minutes from the Gummi Bear factory. When you tour the factory, you get a kilo (2.2 pounds) of them as a gift. I toured frequently...at least once a month!

Super sharp cheddar is another of my favorites. Again, lots of salt. In fact, I went to the deli this morning and bought two pounds of the super sharp. It will be gone by the end of the week.

Ben and Wy will disown me as an associate composer/writer since cookies rate very, very low on my scale of food choices. I doubt I even eat two dozen cookies a year. That's an afternoon for those two!

Wishing you well. BTW, how's the hair doing?

Alan

About as strange as I get is sashimi and Sapporo.....Try it sometime.

Did sombody say cookies?

HAAAAAAAAAAAAA!