Ever witness someone eat a normal food in a really strange way?

[tdn]

Last week I was at a hot dog restaurant, and saw a woman eating in the strangest of ways. The hot dog, bun, and a little pile of relish were arranged on her plate as if they were seperate dishes. She was eating with a knife and fork. At the end, she was eating the crust of the bun like it was a breadstick. I thought maybe she's foreign and is unfamiliar with the concept, but she spoke without an accent.

Years ago a Parisian took me to lunch. He wanted to be a real American, and so ordered the American burger. He was a bit miffed that the various dishes were stacked, and so pulled them apart. Bread, bacon, cheese, salad, and meat. All eaten with knife and fork.

[Tikki]

There was a restaurant I used to go to where I frequently ordered a club sandwich. I used to like to pour ketchup on the plate and dip the sandwich in it before every bite. It was just good that way.

I once knew a guy who would stick his tongue all the way out before putting his fork or spoon into his mouth. Eew!

[Least Original User Name Ever]

I eat my Snickers with a knife and fork.


...What, you don't?

[cowgirl]

My grandfather used to put salt and pepper on his cantaloupe.

We used to laugh at him, until we tried it.

Yum.

I always prefer to eat fish with my fingers (actually, I generally prefer to eat everything with my fingers, but I usually limit it to fish and mussels when I'm in public). I get a lot of strange looks.

[DeadlyAccurate]

I'll eat really thick burgers with a fork and knife. I've also crumbled a taco onto a plate and eaten it like a taco salad.

[Sattua]

I once had a friend who would eat a banana by teasing it apart into the three vertical sections, then eat the sections one at a time.

[AuntiePam]

I saw a woman cut up a steak sandwich once, in bite size pieces. I thought it was weird, but maybe the steak was too tough to take bites from.

Maybe the sandwich-cutters are trying to be tidy. Sandwiches can be messy and hard to hold.

[Annie-Xmas]

I cannot bite into a muffin. I have to rip little pieces off and eat them.

[Dazzling White Diamonds]

I frequently order a chicken fajita quesadilla at a local Mexican restaurant - I will open the quesadilla and eat the inner contents with a fork. Then I will refold the empty tortilla and eat it using my fingers.

[teela brown]

I'm sure I posted this before.

We were traveling and staying in Paris, and were starving for a burger, so we went to Planet Hollywood. I saw a French gentleman at another table who had ordered the baby back ribs. He was trying to eat them with a knife and fork at first, and not having much success getting any meat off that way. He finally ended up stabbing one rib with a fork and holding it in the air and nibbling at it delicately. It was all I could do not to go to his table, pick up a rib, and show him how to eat this American dish the American way: gnawing them clutched between your two fists and getting sauce up to your ears on each cheek!

[susan_foster]

I dissect my pizza. Eat the toppings. Pull off the cheese (they always put too much on, so sometimes I don't eat all of it). If I'm home alone, scrape off the sauce with a fork. Then the crust, which is the best part. Oh, and all of this is done with a knife and fork.

I also like to take Milky Way's, pull off the chocolate, eat that, and then make balls of nougat and eat them.

Susan

[rocking chair]

ya know those coconut creme easter eggs? i take the chocolate off, eat that; then use a melon baller on the coconut creme. place the coconut creme balls in a baggie with cinnamon. i then have a nice time eating the irish potatos.

[Hey, It's That Guy!]

My grandfather used to put salt and pepper on his cantaloupe.

We used to laugh at him, until we tried it.

Yum.
I sprinkle salt, pepper, cumin, and chili powder on ice-cold cubed watermelon, or shake the cubes up with the spices in a little plastic bag. Very VERY good.

[KneadToKnow]

teasing it apart into the three vertical sections
FWIW, this is hands-down one of the coolest food tricks ever.

[Valgard]

I've eaten honey in an unusual but thoroughly pleasing (to both parties) manner.

:-D

[devilsknew]

I eat roasted sunflower seeds hull and all. Good fiber.

Do you spit or swallow when it comes to sunflower seeds?

[JThunder]

I have cousins who insist on cutting up their spaghetti with a knife and fork. They then proceed to eat it with a spoon.

Oh, the humanity.

[KneadToKnow]

I eat roasted sunflower seeds hull and all. Good fiber.
I have eaten roasted peanuts this way, but not in a long time.

[Quiddity Glomfuster]

I sat beside someone on a plane once who ate his crackers and cookies like a mouse - leetle teeny nibbles all along the edge. Then start again on the next edge. Very wierd.

Me - nothing that odd. I don't eat bread crusts because they gag me so I leave a little stack of crusts behind when they're left on the bread. Oh and my dad used to pour half-and-half on his cake and eat it from a bowl - even iced cake. I do that once in a while.

[Wile E]

I was once at a dinner with a large group of people, one guy was eating his shrimp shell and all ... I think he was just drunk though.

[Scarlett67]

I have cousins who insist on cutting up their spaghetti with a knife and fork. They then proceed to eat it with a spoon.

Oh, the humanity.
My mother always cuts up all her spaghetti into tiny bite-size pieces, first thing. (But she uses a fork to eat it.) I can't stand it.

ONLY when I'm home alone, I eat spaghetti by getting some long strands on the fork, then raising it over my head and lowering it into my mouth. For some reason I find this great fun. I repeat, I do it ONLY when I'm alone and can eat like a pig to my heart's content.

[shamrock227]

I dissect my pizza. Eat the toppings. Pull off the cheese (they always put too much on, so sometimes I don't eat all of it). If I'm home alone, scrape off the sauce with a fork. Then the crust, which is the best part. Oh, and all of this is done with a knife and fork.My Mother insists that I am the only person on the planet that does this. I am really glad to find out that I'm not.

Funny story about that. One time when we were eating pizza together, she was in the midst of making fun of my eating method, a big old glob of cheese dripped off right onto her shirt :D (Her response was even funnier "Ah. Now I understand why you eat it that way. Doesn't change a thing, you're still weird." -- I love my Mom)


Gyros are too messy for me to pick up and eat, so I eat everything inside with a knife and fork and then I eat the pita by itself.

[Mirror Image egamI rorriM]

I eat my peas with honey

I've done it all my life.

It tastes a little funny

but it keeps them on the knife.

[Shagnasty]

I was once at a dinner with a large group of people, one guy was eating his shrimp shell and all ... I think he was just drunk though.

I am a generally well mannered and conventional eater but I eat shrimp with the shell on. It adds some crunch and tastes pretty good. The shells aren't hard to swallow once you have chewed everything. It is slightly unusual but not unheard of by any means.

[NinjaChick]

I cannot bite into a muffin. I have to rip little pieces off and eat them.
I do the same thing! It's the only way to eat a muffin, says me.

[Askance]

When I go to a restaurant the US I see an amazing number of people cut their food with the knife and fork, then put the knife down, transfer the fork to the right hand, eat one mouthful, fork back to left hand, pick up knife, then start the process all over again. Is it thought to be impolite to use the left hand to lift the fork to your mouth or something? Seems incredibly elaborate and inconvenient.

Come to think of it, these may be the same people who hold their fork like you would hold a knife to stab someone; I can see that would make it hard to eat with. I must see if there's a correlation next time I go.

[Cunctator]

When I go to a restaurant the US I see an amazing number of people cut their food with the knife and fork, then put the knife down, transfer the fork to the right hand, eat one mouthful, fork back to left hand, pick up knife, then start the process all over again. Is it thought to be impolite to use the left hand to lift the fork to your mouth or something? Seems incredibly elaborate and inconvenient.I think that's just the general custom in the US. I agree that it seems strange to us. But then they probably think our practices are somewhat odd.

[Scarlett67]

When I go to a restaurant the US I see an amazing number of people cut their food with the knife and fork, then put the knife down, transfer the fork to the right hand, eat one mouthful, fork back to left hand, pick up knife, then start the process all over again. Is it thought to be impolite to use the left hand to lift the fork to your mouth or something?
No, we're just accustomed to using our dominant hand for both knife and fork. I agree that Continental style seems more convenient, but to my North American hands it just feels awkward when I try it.

[LSLGuy]

I had a friend who ate both oranges & grapefruits like normal folks eat apples. IOW he just bit into it, skin & all, chewed & swallowed. Unlike an apple though, there is no core. The whole thing went down the hatch - even the seeds.

I had another friend who had mustard on french fries;never ketchup. He said he learned that in the Navy -- it kept folks from snitching his fries. Yecch. He also put mustard on popcorn, but not much. Other than that he said he really didn't like mustard.

Both these guys are generic college grad white middle age Americans.

[Scribble]

I sprinkle salt, pepper, cumin, and chili powder on ice-cold cubed watermelon, or shake the cubes up with the spices in a little plastic bag. Very VERY good.

Other really delicious, but slightly unusual (to some of us, anyway) things on fresh fruits and veggies:

1) Go to your local Indian import store and pick up some chaat masala. Sprinkle that stuff on your fruit and fresh veggies. Yum, yum, yum. Especially on a hot day. Chaat masala is also delicious on pizza and pasta. Actually, the only thing chaat masala isn't good on is chocolate, IMHO. Though I've never tried it on ice cream. Maybe it's bad on that, too. I do know, though, that it can be good on some sorbets.

2) Lime juice, salt, and chili powder on fresh fruits. You can buy delicious fresh fruits with this stuff on them in Mexico (or, at least, in the part of Mexico I visited--the area bordering Guatemala and Belize.) It's very, very addictive.

3) For fresh fruits--a touch of balsamic vinegar and sugar.

4) A mixture of honey and lemon juice, heated up until the honey dissolves, and then cooled in the fridge. Pour over fresh fruit, add salt and pepper.

[Zsofia]

I have never seen this in the flesh, but it strikes me as inherently wrong (albeit perhaps, as people say, convenient) to eat bananas in a method espoused by people on this board as authentic to other parts of the world - to use the stem as a handle and peel from the other end. One day I hope to witness it.

I once shared a bowl of popcorn with a guy I'd known for only a short while, after sharing a whole lot else with him, to find that he ate the unpopped kernels, crunch crunch crunch. I was horrified to think that I'd had sex with a guy who eats popcorn kernels. I mean, nice guy, but ergh!

[Amblydoper]

I like thin crust pizza to be cut into squares. First, I eat the 4 "corner" pieces that have one small bite of pizza, and the rest is crust. Next comes the 8 "edge" pieces, which have a lower pizza-to-crust ratio as a normal slice. Finally, the best part is the 4 "center" pieces, which are all pizza and no crust. I savor these last few bites of the pie like an orgasm. Its delicious.

I would do this at Howard's Pizza in Montana (not sure if the chain exists elsewhere), but Domino's and Papa Johns will also cut pizza into squares. Its just not the same though.

[StuffLikeThatThere]

I eat my peas with honey

I've done it all my life.

It tastes a little funny

but it keeps them on the knife.

I'd ask if you are my dad, but he's dead. I heard that little ditty approximately 1,345,489 times in my life. Today is the first time I've ever heard anyone but my dad say it.

You're really making me miss my dad. Stop it.

[Khampelf]

The story's apocryphal, meaning I don't remember which spy thriller I read it in, but; It was said after the homosexuality scandals in intelligence circles in America and England, operatives in the home office were eating banannas like they were corn on the cob.

[Asimovian]

I eat all pasta with a knife and fork. I conceded long ago that I simply suck at twirling pasta onto a fork. Either I only get it half-right and it slips and slides off the fork before I can get it into my mouth, or I twirl aggressively and get it on, only to find that I've flung marinara/alfredo sauce onto myself and my dining companions in the process.

I simply don't have the patience anymore. I'm going to get the food in my mouth the most efficient way I know how, and I'll worry about the funny looks when I'm full.

*sigh*

I hate to even tell this story, but other people seem to get no end of joy out of watching me do this. When I get pancakes -- which is frequently, because I love me some pancakes -- I cut them up before I eat them. "Big deal," you say. "Lots of folks cut up their pancakes." Well, I...go a little further. I butter the whole lot of them, and then I cut them in half one way, and then make an identical perpendicular cut. And then four slices down the middle of the new wedges. If you're not good with visualization, this amounts to making pizza slices. Then I dump a little butter in the middle of it all and pour syrup over the whole mess.

I've never thought this was a big deal. I developed this habit in my youth at my mother's insistence, because she swore I was going to choke and die on a pancake if I didn't take smaller bites. It stuck. And I'm reminded everytime I eat pancakes around someone for the first time just how unusual I apparently am. A waiter at IHOP once remarked that it was a shame I was going to eat my meal because I'd created a piece of art.

[Idlewild]

The story's apocryphal, meaning I don't remember which spy thriller I read it in, but; It was said after the homosexuality scandals in intelligence circles in America and England, operatives in the home office were eating banannas like they were corn on the cob.
"Shall We Tell the President? I think. Only memorable thing in the whole damn book which I read a decade and a half ago, so don't take my word for it.

My mother used to say the pea rhyme. My grandmother used to tell us that at boarding school she and the other girls were taught to eat all their fruit with a knife and fork, including using both knife and fork to peel bananas and oranges. I've never tried, but it's a little odd to contemplate. I ate cheetos with chopsticks once or twice because I wasn't in the mood for orange fingertips.

[Hey, It's That Guy!]

Other really delicious, but slightly unusual (to some of us, anyway) things on fresh fruits and veggies:

3) For fresh fruits--a touch of balsamic vinegar and sugar.

Oh, I love this! I slice strawberries up very thin, then cover them with balsamic vinegar and let them steep in the fridge for a couple days. Then I spoon them, vinegar and all, over good vanilla ice cream, preferably Breyer's. I haven't met anyone yet who appreciates this like I do, but it is awesome.

[China Guy]

Something I've only seen one guy do as a regular practice, a Tawanese who grew up mainly in the US, and that is eat french fries with chopsticks. This is not a common practice in Asia, but this guy did it every time. Said fries were to greasy for his fingers...

[Mosier]

My family gives me a pretty hard time for putting salt on my ice cream.

Seriously though, give it a try on just one spoonful. I can't imagine how anyone could dislike it once they give it a shot.

[Secret Volcano Lair]

When I eat a container of yogurt that has the fruit on the bottom, I eat the plain yogurt first and then eat the fruit.

I usually eat pizza with a fork, and I like to eat the caramel off the top of a Twix candy bar first, then get as much of the chocolate off the cookie as possible before eating the mostly plain cookie (I wish they would just package the cookies by themselves). When eating assorted candies like Starburst or Skittles, I always sort out the different flavors and eat one of them at a time, usually saving my favorite for last.

A friend of mine used to eat TV dinners one item at a time...the vegetable first, then the potatoes, then the meat. He also liked to eat raw potatoes.

[matt_mcl]

3) For fresh fruits--a touch of balsamic vinegar and sugar.

One that amazed me, at an Italian restaurant I frequent, was balsamic vinegar on vanilla ice cream. (Yes, I know, either everyone is going to go "WTF?" or they're all going to go, "Dude, LOL! Gelato vaniglia all'aceto balsamico has been around forever!")

[Bosstone]

Back when Hot Pockets were new, I would perform autopsies on them. I'd use a knife to make two perpendicular cuts to open the shell up, then eat the tasty inner BBQ beef with a fork. It was a comforting ritual, oddly enough.

On preview: That combination had never, ever occurred to me, matt_mcl. I must try it soon.

[matt_mcl]

It was really good. Really surprisingly good. It had an odd caramel taste to it, while retaining the bite of the vinegar.

Oh, here's another one I've gotten flack for: putting salt on my salad. "That's the etymology of the freaking word!" I tell them, but do they listen?

[StuffLikeThatThere]

Oh, here's another one I've gotten flack for: putting salt on my salad. "That's the etymology of the freaking word!" I tell them, but do they listen?

I do that, although I didn't know I was being, like, historical and stuff. I just don't much like dressing, and a little salt does the trick nicely. But thanks for telling me about that. Now I can give people a reason, as if "That's how I like it" weren't one.

[devilsknew]

I don't think it's too strange, but I like to dump my pot pie out of its aluminium pan... the pasty and flacid side up then I cut the whole pasty up into tiny pieces and homogenize it (stir it all up into one soggy pastry, beef, veg, and sauce stew the particualarly crispy edges well soaked/ (I hate pot pie edges and their acridity.))

[Hunter Hawk]

I have never seen this in the flesh, but it strikes me as inherently wrong (albeit perhaps, as people say, convenient) to eat bananas in a method espoused by people on this board as authentic to other parts of the world - to use the stem as a handle and peel from the other end. One day I hope to witness it.
This is how I eat bananas. If you try to peel a banana from the stem end, the tip gets squooshed, which is revolting.

Of course, this method doesn't work with those little bitty bananas, since the skin is too tough.

[sinjin]

I once had a friend who would eat a banana by teasing it apart into the three vertical sections, then eat the sections one at a time.

Sattua's friend: Yer yella'!

[Hey, It's That Guy!]

One that amazed me, at an Italian restaurant I frequent, was balsamic vinegar on vanilla ice cream. (Yes, I know, either everyone is going to go "WTF?" or they're all going to go, "Dude, LOL! Gelato vaniglia all'aceto balsamico has been around forever!")

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8645624&postcount=37

Try it my way next time, with the strawberries.

[Autolycus]

While drink rather than food, after I swallow a bit of soda I will always make a quiet "aaah" noise. My sophomore year room-mate picked up on this.

[cochrane]

It mostly seems to be a New York type of thing, but folding a slice of pizza in half just seems wrong to me. I eat mine flat, sauce upwards. I know you take a chance of a large slice dripping sauce and toppings into your lap, but I couldn't get accustomed to folding it like a calzone.

[Rigamarole]

I am one of the most non-violent people you will ever meet, and yet this thread makes me want to punch someone.

[Scribble]

I am one of the most non-violent people you will ever meet, and yet this thread makes me want to punch someone.

Uh...why? :confused: You get really angry at the idea of someone eating a banana from the non-stem end? You absolutely cannot abide the idea of balsamic vinegar on ice cream or strawberries? Disassembling pizza strikes you as a crime against humanity?

[Rich Mann]

...<snip>...I hate to even tell this story, but other people seem to get no end of joy out of watching me do this. When I get pancakes -- which is frequently, because I love me some pancakes -- I cut them up before I eat them. "Big deal," you say. "Lots of folks cut up their pancakes." Well, I...go a little further. I butter the whole lot of them, and then I cut them in half one way, and then make an identical perpendicular cut. And then four slices down the middle of the new wedges. If you're not good with visualization, this amounts to making pizza slices. Then I dump a little butter in the middle of it all and pour syrup over the whole mess....<snip>....

I was not aware that there was any other way to eat pancakes. How do the people who laugh at you eat their pancakes? Do they pick up the whole pile on their fork and stuff it into their mouths?

Seriously--I want to know if there is a way of eating pancakes that is significantly different from the only way I know of.

[Rigamarole]

Uh...why? :confused: You get really angry at the idea of someone eating a banana from the non-stem end? You absolutely cannot abide the idea of balsamic vinegar on ice cream or strawberries? Disassembling pizza strikes you as a crime against humanity?

Sort of. Imagining all these bizarre eating practices just makes me feel strangely unsettled. Like something is really not right with the world - which I already knew logically but the visions of disassembled pizza just make it that much more real and visceral.

[Mangetout]

I had a friend who ate both oranges & grapefruits like normal folks eat apples. IOW he just bit into it, skin & all, chewed & swallowed. Unlike an apple though, there is no core. The whole thing went down the hatch - even the seeds.I've tried that once or twice with oranges - it's a really weird sensation because the zest oils in the rind make pretty much the whole bottom half of your head tingle so much it feels like it's buzzing. I guess if you eat them like this all the time, you'd get used to it, but I found it incredibly strange and a bit uncomfortable.

I do usually eat the lemon slice (including rind) that I get in drinks.

[Kyla]

I prefer to eat popcorn with chopsticks. I'll eat it with my fingers too, but if I have chopticks around, I'll eat it with those. Like the guy who eats donuts with chopsticks, it keeps my fingers from getting greasy, which is good if I'm snacking on microwave popcorn at work and don't want the keyboard from getting gross. I used to keep a set of chopsticks in the office just for that purpose. My coworkers all thought it was hilarious, but my fingers stayed clean, dammit.

I have known several people who eat skittles and M&Ms by seperating them by color and them eating one color, then the next, and so on. Skittles actually taste different depending on the color, but why do this with M&Ms? I don't get it.

At a rather frou frou restaurant/wine bar in Chicago (on N. Clark in Lincoln Square...I'm blanking on the name), I had a delicious appetizer of fruits drizzled with vinegar. I've never had vinegar like this before or after...it was so rich that at first I thought it was chocolate.

[Nava]

My brother used to be able to get greased up (or down, depending on how you look at it) to his elbows when eating chicken. The one time the rest of the table applauded was when he managed to get grease to his shoulder. As Dad said, "I'm not sure if it's shameful or amazing, I didn't know a chicken drum had that much grease in it."

I cut my pancakes into sort of squares, nothing wrong with using wedges instead.


Teased-apart or sliced banana with lemon juice (real, not that concentrated BEEP) is yummy.

[Pushkin]

I used to have a vile cow-orker who would eat like a crab. That is, she would hold her head over her plate and move her knife and fork like the little mandibles around a crab's mouth that it uses to pull food up into its mouth :dubious:

[Surok]

I had a friend who ate both oranges & grapefruits like normal folks eat apples. IOW he just bit into it, skin & all, chewed & swallowed. Unlike an apple though, there is no core. The whole thing went down the hatch - even the seeds.



If there's lemon slices to go with tea, or with cognac, I'll eat the whole slice, including peel. It's fairly common over here, I assume because citrus fruits were so unavailable to the vast majority of the population, you needed to make the most of them once you got your hands on one.

[don't ask]

I remember when I was a teenager for a while I used to make a snack by getting a slice of white bread, cutting of the crusts, putting on a slice of cheese and then folding, rolling and squeezing the whole mess into a little ball. The only idea I have of an origin for the idea was my love of dumplings and going fishing with an old guy who showed me how to make dough baits for trout fishing.

[Annie-Xmas]

I do the same thing! It's the only way to eat a muffin, says me.

Wow! I have never met anyone who ate a muffin like me.

Someone once remarked after seeing me eat a muffin she would never eat another one.

[CalMeacham]

I havben't seen this, but I'd like to. Robert Heinlein, in his non-fiction travel book Tramp Royale, describes how South Americans eat fruit -- using a fruitknife and a fork, neatly dissecting the fruit without ever touching it with their hands.

Do they still do this? Has anyone seen it? Is it still commonly done?

[Mangetout]

I remember when I was a teenager for a while I used to make a snack by getting a slice of white bread, cutting of the crusts, putting on a slice of cheese and then folding, rolling and squeezing the whole mess into a little ball.It's a great way to show argumentative kids that maybe their hands did actually need washing.

[krisolov]

Oh, I love this! I slice strawberries up very thin, then cover them with balsamic vinegar and let them steep in the fridge for a couple days. Then I spoon them, vinegar and all, over good vanilla ice cream, preferably Breyer's. I haven't met anyone yet who appreciates this like I do, but it is awesome.

I just had this for the first time this past weekend. I thought my tongue was going to explode with joy.

[Kalhoun]

I eat my Snickers with a knife and fork.


...What, you don't?
Um...my husband actually does this. He did it the other day and I found it highly unnerving.

[Hampshire]

I am one of the most non-violent people you will ever meet, and yet this thread makes me want to punch someone.

I kinda know what you mean. If I was eating with someone and they started to disect their pizza and scrape the sauce off I would feel like standing up, flipping the entire table and it's contents onto the floor, and scream "what the hell are you doing?!!"

[Aangelica]

Wow! I have never met anyone who ate a muffin like me.

Someone once remarked after seeing me eat a muffin she would never eat another one.

You mean there are people who actually just take a big honking bite out of a muffin? No foolin'?

Iiieeeeewwww.

Muffins are only to be eaten by pulling off a bit at a time.

[shamrock227]

I kinda know what you mean. If I was eating with someone and they started to disect their pizza and scrape the sauce off I would feel like standing up, flipping the entire table and it's contents onto the floor, and scream "what the hell are you doing?!!"
Yeah, but I don't do that in public. Eat with a knife and fork, yes - I don't want pizza on my clothes, but the whole disecting thing is at home only.

[matt_mcl]

Oh, here's something: where I went to school, it was the fashion, when hamburgers and potato chips were served, to put the potato chips INTO the hamburgers.


Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew.

[Kevbo]

I was raised by parents who came of age during the great depression. Wasting food was not tolerated. You WILL eat the pizza crust.

I don't hate the crust, just that it is rather dry, and not how I want to finish the meal. So I always eat the crust first, then the rest of the slice. All my friends make fun of me for eating my pizza "backwards".

[WarmNPrickly]

Good pizza can only be eaten with a knife and fork. Ask anyone from Chicago.

[Merkwurdigliebe]

I've got a friend who really tries my patience while eating out. I'm sure his mom really would be disgusted at the way he eats. He always eats with a knife and fork, as is the common European style but he is so focused on every single aspect of the meal. It's quite irritating but I don't know why. Every single bite will be a perfect combination of meat and sauce, or potatoes and such. And he's so annoyingly focused on eating that it's mainly annoying because he can't even hardly hold a conversation while he eats, and at the end, he uses his knive to get any remaining sauce or juice left. Is plate will literally be clean. I find that so nerve-wracking

I don't understand the thing about eating all of your food. I think it's a horrible idea. Just throw it away, what's the point in treating your body like a trashcan? Any extra calories you consume will be converted into fat anyway.

[amelioration]

This thread reminds me of when Alistair McCello and I went out to eat a couple days ago, and he was very amused by the way I ate a Chinese donut (which are the size of donut holes): cutting them into three pieces or so and eating them with a fork. Apparently I do that with donuts fairly often, but I don't even notice.

Originally posted by Christopher
Good pizza can only be eaten with a knife and fork. Ask anyone from Chicago.

It's so true! There's a Chicago-style pizza place near my college with absolutely amazing pizza, and it would be impossible to eat it any other way. It's so very thick, stringy, saucy and delicious. Mmm.

[Kalhoun]

Oh, here's something: where I went to school, it was the fashion, when hamburgers and potato chips were served, to put the potato chips INTO the hamburgers.


Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew.
That really rocks on a peanut butter sammich.

[Freezair SilverEye]

Before I can eat a grilled cheese sandwich, I must carefully spread a layer of ketchup on top of it before it becomes edible.

Tried it one day as an alternative to tomato soup and never looked back.

[FatBaldGuy]

I'd ask if you are my dad, but he's dead. I heard that little ditty approximately 1,345,489 times in my life. Today is the first time I've ever heard anyone but my dad say it.

You're really making me miss my dad. Stop it.My dad used to say this all the time, too.

[frog princess]

I eat one thing at a time. I generally eat whatever would taste the worst cold first. Turkey dinner would probably go like this: broccoli, then squash, then mashed potatoes, stuffing and turkey last. I will actually turn my plate so what I am eating is directly in front of me. When my daughter was born my husband insisted I give her a bite of cereal then a bite of fruit ("and repeat until gone") so I didn't "break her".

My husband and kids like to put grape jelly on their grilled cheese sandwiches.

[FatBaldGuy]

Many years ago I was in Palm Springs on a business trip and decided to eat in one of the local Mexican restaurants. A couple of tables away from me was a young lady. When her food was served, she pulled a pair of chopsticks out of her purse and ate her Mexican meal with them.

FTR, she did not appear to be asian, and seemed to be a typical college coed.

[Freezair SilverEye]

I'm also guilty of dipping French fries in milkshakes, but I picked this up from my mother. Message board scuttlebutt from various places suggests this is not an uncommon practice, either.

[Monstre]

This is how I eat bananas. If you try to peel a banana from the stem end, the tip gets squooshed, which is revolting.
Not if you take a knife and make a small quick slice at the top, just below the stem (kind of like you're slitting its little banana-y throat), then pull. Peels nicely, no tip squooshage.

I tend to sort the M&Ms by color first. I mean, not the whole bag -- just the handful I'm working on.

[Max Torque]

A former co-worker of mine used to eat all of her candy bars one item at a time. A single Twix bar took forever. She'd first carefully nibble all the chocolate off, then gently eat the caramel, and finally bite into the cookie. Ludicrous. And then it was time to start the other bar.

[matt_mcl]

I don't understand the thing about eating all of your food. I think it's a horrible idea. Just throw it away, what's the point in treating your body like a trashcan? Any extra calories you consume will be converted into fat anyway.

Perhaps people in this situation should order smaller portions, rather than waste good food.

[Redfrost]

It mostly seems to be a New York type of thing, but folding a slice of pizza in half just seems wrong to me. I eat mine flat, sauce upwards. I know you take a chance of a large slice dripping sauce and toppings into your lap, but I couldn't get accustomed to folding it like a calzone.
You have clearly never had pizza in New York. You have to fold the slice in order to eat it or the cheese and sauce slip off because it just kind of hangs from the crust at the back. Fold it, wear it, or use 2 hands. Your choice :) Same thing applies to Philly pizza.

[Cervaise]

I cannot bite into a muffin. I have to rip little pieces off and eat them.I do this. Not because I have any particular, uh, phobia about biting into a muffin or anything, but because eating it that way causes a cascade of crumbs down my front. Tearing off bite-size pieces is just neater.

I slice strawberries up very thin, then cover them with balsamic vinegar and let them steep in the fridge for a couple days. Then I spoon them, vinegar and all, over good vanilla ice cream, preferably Breyer's. I haven't met anyone yet who appreciates this like I do, but it is awesome.I have a recipe for you.

1. Make olive oil gelato (http://www.sugoodsweets.com/blog/olive-oil-gelato)

2. Make your "strawberries macerated in balsamico" as you describe, plus a bit of sugar, but only for a couple of hours (you want chunky, not wet pulp)

3. Drain thoroughly (reserve strawberry-vinegar syrup for another use), and use the thick paste to make deep-fried ravioli (the basic concept (http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_32984,00.html))

4. As the ravioli are cooling/draining, dust lightly with confectioner's sugar

5. For each serving, use two scoops of the gelato and two still-warm ravioli

6. Thank me profusely

[Asimovian]

I was not aware that there was any other way to eat pancakes. How do the people who laugh at you eat their pancakes? Do they pick up the whole pile on their fork and stuff it into their mouths?

Seriously--I want to know if there is a way of eating pancakes that is significantly different from the only way I know of.Most of the people I know do not take the time to prep and cut up their entire stack before eating them. They just sort of cut as they go.

Frankly, I think my method makes more sense. Once I'm done cutting them up, I no longer need a knife. And cutting into your pancakes with the side of the fork is just plain silly. :) It's all about efficiency, baby!

[tdn]

Perhaps people in this situation should order smaller portions, rather than waste good food.
I don't think I've ever been to a restaurant where you could specify portion sizes. But at home I only cook what I will eat.

[Honey]

I've eaten honey in an unusual but thoroughly pleasing (to both parties) manner.

:-D

Funny, I don't remember this. ;)

[Wee Bairn]

Oh, here's something: where I went to school, it was the fashion, when hamburgers and potato chips were served, to put the potato chips INTO the hamburgers.


Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew.

Checker's seasoned fries inside the burger, though, is delecious.

[panache45]

Regardless of what I'm eating, I always save the best part for last. A sandwich, including burgers, gets eaten around the edge first, then the middle. Pizza, or pie, crust first. Cake, the cake first, then the frosting (which isn't always easy). Oreos, first all the wafers, then a huge blob of the white stuff. Mixed nuts follow a specific sequence, ending with the cashews.

The only problem was in my childhood, when I'd be saving the best for last, and my brother would snatch it away.

Of course I try not to do this in public.

[panache45]

Good pizza can only be eaten with a knife and fork. Ask anyone from Chicago.Nonsense. That's why Chicago is the second city.

[Rocketeer]

I salt my Coke. It gets strange looks, but hey, it seems to mitigate the sweetness.

[Roadfood]

No, we're just accustomed to using our dominant hand for both knife and fork. I agree that Continental style seems more convenient, but to my North American hands it just feels awkward when I try it.Try using your non-dominant hand for the knife. It'll take some practice, but I think you'll find it easier than the traditional European method. I'm a lefty, and I spent some frustrated time trying to do (what for me would be) the European method (fork in right hand, knife in left), until I realized that the knife usage really doesn't require as much coordination as the fork usage. So I tried fork in left hand (my dominant) and knife in right. A little practice to get the back-and-forthing down with my non-dominant hand was all it took. Now I can hold the fork tines-down while cutting, then smoothly flip it over, tines-up, to do the eating, if I want, since the flipping is easy with my dominant hand.

[CapnPitt]

A guy I used to hang out with would only eat part of his french fries. He'd never eat the end where he was holding the fry. Same thing with chicken fingers. He just refused to eat the part of the food that his hand touched.

[Annie-Xmas]

I always eat the cake first, then eat the frosting with a spoon. Then eat the other people's leftover frosting with a spoon. Then eat the frosting left on the cake plate with a spoon.

I have a thing for eating frosting. With a spoon.

[Hilarity N. Suze]

I just ate a corn dog in an odd way. Okay, it's a hot dog, on a stick, covered with cornbread, essentially. So the normal way is to hold the stick. My normal way is to pour some mustard onto a plate, dip the corn dog, and eat it.

But this one split in the microwave. So I had to eat it with a fork. And then I needed a knife, in order to get it cleanly off the stick. So yeah, that was a bit unusual.

Fortunately I performed most of this operation in my office so nobody questioned why I needed a knife and fork to eat a corn dog.

[Hilarity N. Suze]

As a young person, I was once taken to a nice restaurant in Italy. Dessert was a pear. A whole pear. Which was fine...

But the pear was served on a plate, with a knife (good) and a fork (WTF?). Fortunately, although I was 15 at the time, I had already learned the trick of "when served something strange, or in a strange way, watch what other people do." The other people used their knife to cut a piece of the pear, then used the fork to, well, fork it up to their mouths. So that's what I did.

That's the only time I've ever eaten a pear with a knife and fork. But I haven't been to Italy in a long time.

[Scribble]

I salt my Coke. It gets strange looks, but hey, it seems to mitigate the sweetness.

In the South, it's pretty common to put salted peanuts in Coke and other sodas. In India, people make masala Cokes. They take a glass with ice cubes and add some salt and pepper, and then pour in the coke (or so I've heard from people from India.)

[Scribble]

I haven't tried this with your typical, popular sodas (Coke, Pepsi, 7-Up, etc.), but I have done this with some fru-fru sodas (Clearly Canadian, for example): Add cream. Not fake-o Oreo cream or canned whipped cream, but cream from the little cartons in the dairy case. It turns a regular soda into a cream soda. Very fattening, but very addictive.

[The Hamster King]

One of my favorite breakfasts is Irish oatmeal with soy sauce and furikake (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furikake).

[Scribble]

One of my favorite breakfasts is Irish oatmeal with soy sauce and furikake (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furikake).

I'll have to try that some time.

More yummy cross-cultural food eatin' weirdness:

1) Haldiram's hot mix with olive oil, picked up on warm bread or pita. Starchy, salty, spicy goodness.

2) Olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and chaat masala--mix for a great salad dressing.

3) Chicken soup with miso mixed in. That stuff is good! In winter, you can make a pretty satisfying soup by heating up a can of good chicken broth (I recommend College Inn) and adding some cracked wheat and tofu cubes. When the soup comes to a boil, add the miso, stir so that the miso gets distributed thoughout the soup. The cracked wheat cooks quickly, and the soup is delicious.

4) Semi-Greek milk shake: Vanilla ice cream, milk, and baklava. Put in a blender, whip like crazy. (Maybe I should try this with balsamic vinegar next time!)

5) Semi-Indian ice cream: Vanilla ice cream with blended-in soan papri (sometimes spelled soan papdi--check your local Indian grocer to see if they have it.) Similarly, ice cream with just about any of Haldiram's snack mixes blended in is great too. Unless you use chocolate ice cream or ice cream that has chocolate pieces or chips in it. Then you just end up with slightly icky weirdness.

6) On the other hand, chocolate ice cream with cinnamon mixed through it is delicious, as is chocolate ice cream with cayenne pepper and mint extract, crystals, or a tiny bit of essential oil. No, I'm not making that up. And I guess this isn't really all that cross-cultural, but it came to mind, so I threw it in the list, anyway.

7) Oh, and a rich, highly flavorful vanilla ice cream with Chinese 5-spice mixed through is terrific.

8) French fries with applesauce and/or sour cream. This one should be pretty easy to get used to for those of us who remember enjoying latkes at Hanukkah.

[Full Metal Lotus]

Poached (Very soft and runny) eggs with HP Sauce
Sliced fresh tomatoes sprinkled with sugar and chilled (A berrylike taste)
Sardines... with Hot Chocolate chaser
Chives, allowed to go to flower, then eat the flowers (as a salad topping)
Ice cream (Vanilla) with instant coffee granules and corn flakes
Yogurt with sugar and espresso
Cherios with chocolate milk


FML

[matt_mcl]

I had heard about the chili and salt on fruit thing before, so I tried it today. It was actually quite good. Must try it on some other kinds of fruit, or maybe on a fruit salad.

[Sierra Indigo]

For anyone who likes spicy and fruit combos, a beautiful thing is Indonesian Fruit Rujak (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rujak). Tropical fruits served with a spicy-sweet-hot sauce. Mmmm.

Most of my weird food quirks involve putting potatoes where most people think they shouldn't be. Fries go into all of my burgers. Potato chips (crisps) make the most excellent sandwiches with a bit of tomato sauce or barbecue sauce (white bread). Toasted ham and cheese croissants are made better, much better with the addition of salt & vinegar chips.

But my meat pie eating methodology is something that hubby says is an abomination...

Take one meat pie from the bakery (not frozen, but not hot. One you'd heat yourself at home). Carefully slice/prise the top off and lay in a slice of Kraft cheese. Replace the lid and bake in the oven until the pastry is golden and crunchy. Or a little overdone even. The crunchier the better.

Once said pie is cooked, remove from the oven and divest of lid. Scrape the meaty/gravy/melty cheesy goodness onto your plate. Add tomato sauce and stir. Carefully cover the pie lid and pastry case with sauce. Then eat meat first, then lid, then case.

[Hostile Dialect]

While drink rather than food, after I swallow a bit of soda I will always make a quiet "aaah" noise. My sophomore year room-mate picked up on this.

AAAAAGH! That kills me. My last roommate did that--with those gigantic 32 oz soda things--and I always had to go into another room to keep from ripping him limb from limb.

[Missy2U]

I eat one thing at a time. I generally eat whatever would taste the worst cold first. Turkey dinner would probably go like this: broccoli, then squash, then mashed potatoes, stuffing and turkey last. I will actually turn my plate so what I am eating is directly in front of me.

I do this too. It's amazing how many people don't understand this very simple concept: eat what tastes the worst while it's hot - it will taste even WORSE cold. :D

Oh - donuts - if they are cake donuts (versus raised) I eat the bottoms of them first, saving the top with the frosting for last.

[gigi]

I sat beside someone on a plane once who ate his crackers and cookies like a mouse - leetle teeny nibbles all along the edge. Then start again on the next edge. Very wierd.I eat sandwiches and burgers like this: all the way around the edge and then typewriter-style on the remaining central part.

[Cervaise]

I had heard about the chili and salt on fruit thing before, so I tried it today. It was actually quite good. Must try it on some other kinds of fruit, or maybe on a fruit salad.Take fresh sliced pineapple, sprinkle with cayenne to taste (or tolerance), and broil or grill. MmmmMMMmmm.

[gigi]

I do this too. It's amazing how many people don't understand this very simple concept: eat what tastes the worst while it's hot - it will taste even WORSE cold. :D You could tell the difference in my brother's and my personalities from birth. When we were kids, he would go for his favorite thing on the plate first and I would go for my least favorite. We were forced to eat a ration of veggies, liver, etc., and that would be what I got over with first.

[Quartz]

and at the end, he uses his knive to get any remaining sauce or juice left. Is plate will literally be clean. I find that so nerve-wracking

I don't understand the thing about eating all of your food. I think it's a horrible idea. Just throw it away, what's the point in treating your body like a trashcan? Any extra calories you consume will be converted into fat anyway.
My parents knew people like that: they'd been in the Death Camps in WW2.

[BMalion]

I have a friend who swears that he cannot chew and swallow any food without taking a sip of water. I find that odd, mainly because he also insists that the only way aspirin will work is if he chews them up and swallows them dry.

Did you spot the inconsistancy? I know I did.

[nashiitashii]

I'm sure I posted this before.

We were traveling and staying in Paris, and were starving for a burger, so we went to Planet Hollywood. I saw a French gentleman at another table who had ordered the baby back ribs. He was trying to eat them with a knife and fork at first, and not having much success getting any meat off that way. He finally ended up stabbing one rib with a fork and holding it in the air and nibbling at it delicately. It was all I could do not to go to his table, pick up a rib, and show him how to eat this American dish the American way: gnawing them clutched between your two fists and getting sauce up to your ears on each cheek!

I admit that I picked up the habit of eating a lot of "finger foods" with a knife and fork, including ribs. However, in contrast to the man in the story, I can pick a rib bone clear with a knife and fork without getting my fingers dirtied.

I eat grilled cheese sandwiches as well with a knife and fork; greasy fingers just feel really gross to me.

[Hostile Dialect]

I don't understand the thing about eating all of your food. I think it's a horrible idea. Just throw it away, what's the point in treating your body like a trashcan? Any extra calories you consume will be converted into fat anyway.

When you've been poor enough that you had no idea how you would find your next meal at any given time, you gain a certain appreciation for food. When it's in front of you, you eat it, because you understand that no matter how cushy your life is right now, something could change in a New York minute and you may have to make those calories last.

[devilsknew]

Sliced fresh tomatoes sprinkled with sugar and chilled (A berrylike taste)


I've had fresh tomatoes with salt, pepper, sugar, grits and eggs.

[zenith]

I cannot bite into a muffin. I have to rip little pieces off and eat them.

Do you eat the top first and "stump" last ,as well?

I not only eat the top first, but if I'm in the mood for butter or jelly, I spread the toppings on the underside of the top after the stump has been removed and rarely eat the stump with either butter or jelly.

[TygerDralion]

One of my favorite sandwiches:

slice of white bread
thin scraping of mayonnaise
salt
pepper
sliced tomato
plain potato chips
slice of white bread

Wonderfully crunchy and flavorful!

[Nava]

Try using your non-dominant hand for the knife. It'll take some practice, but I think you'll find it easier than the traditional European method. I'm a lefty, and I spent some frustrated time trying to do (what for me would be) the European method (fork in right hand, knife in left), until I realized that the knife usage really doesn't require as much coordination as the fork usage. So I tried fork in left hand (my dominant) and knife in right. A little practice to get the back-and-forthing down with my non-dominant hand was all it took. Now I can hold the fork tines-down while cutting, then smoothly flip it over, tines-up, to do the eating, if I want, since the flipping is easy with my dominant hand.

I'm "lefty forced into righty" and sometimes I'll be able to keep the fork in the right and the knife on the left, like I was raised to do; sometimes I just... it's like I've forgotten how to use them! I'll swap them back and forth but neither case seems satisfactory :(

I'm a lot more likely to have that problem in the US, because in Spain I'll substitute the knife for a piece of bread - US "bread" ergh... well... uhm... nope, not made for pushing food around. You need to toast it lightly to give it the consistency needed to push something around.




I eat magdalenas (which have the shape of muffins) top first except if I'm dunking them in milk. If I'm dunking them, I have to peel off the paper. It they're my favorite, made with a bit of lemon and square instead of round, I start by a corner, simply because that's how they fit best inside most breakfast cups.

[Scissorjack]

I eat the whole apple - core, seeds and all.

[Wile E]

I am a generally well mannered and conventional eater but I eat shrimp with the shell on. It adds some crunch and tastes pretty good. The shells aren't hard to swallow once you have chewed everything. It is slightly unusual but not unheard of by any means.

I'm sorry, no disrespect intended but I think it is pretty unheard of. I live in Florida where seafood is pretty common so I've been to a lot of seafood restaurants and eaten a lot of shrimp and seen a lot of other people eat shrimp I have never seen anyone else eat the shells. Everyone else at the table obviously thought it was weird but politely did not say it to his face. Yes, I have seen people eat that last little tail bit on "tail on" shrimp but I am talking fully shelled shrimp with the little legs and everything - they call those "peel and eat" for a reason. That's what this guy was eating. I definitely don't want little hairy legs on my food.



Many years ago I was in Palm Springs on a business trip and decided to eat in one of the local Mexican restaurants. A couple of tables away from me was a young lady. When her food was served, she pulled a pair of chopsticks out of her purse and ate her Mexican meal with them.

FTR, she did not appear to be asian, and seemed to be a typical college coed.

Many diet tips I have read suggest eating everything with chopsticks, it makes you eat slower so you will hopefully start to feel full before you've shoveled in too much food. Your food may also get cold and you'll get tired of trying to eat with chopsticks so you may eat less.



I also put potato chips on my sandwiches. They're best on tuna fish which needs more crunch. I also use the chips to scoop out and eat any tuna that is oozing out the sides of the sandwich.


I get really annoyed by those commercials where they make a nice grilled cheese or PB sandwich, cut it diagonally and then take a bite right out of the center. That's not how you eat diagonal cut sandwiches! You have to bite each end alternately, then eat the crust so you are left with the best part, the middle. If you eat out the middle your sandwich collapses and you are left with crusts with little or no cheese or PB that your mother makes you eat so as not to waste food.

[Zebra]

This is the most dissappointing sex thread ever!

[Wile E]

This is the most dissappointing sex thread ever!

There's always the Eating Chicks Like Donut Holes thread.

[ouryL]

...a guy liking dip of a baby carrot stick... :dubious: