# Childhood food misconceptions **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 31, 2015, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-food-misconceptions/741823 "2015-12-31T15:46:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2016, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-food-misconceptions/741823/181 "2016-01-16T08:12:46Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > Yorkshire Pudding. That’s the one. > > Perhaps not as bizarre as I remembered. But there are many, many other bizarre British dishes. :sigh: I’m not even going to bother. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2016, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-food-misconceptions/741823/182 "2016-01-16T08:18:01Z")
> [@RobDog](#): > > :sigh: > > I’m not even going to bother. > > :rolleyes: Heh. Heh. Sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you. Perhaps I should have said it was the \*\*names \*\*of the dishes that were bizarre and not the dishes themselves. ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2016, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-food-misconceptions/741823/183 "2016-01-16T08:59:50Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > Heh. Heh. > > Sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you. Perhaps I should have said it was the \*\*names \*\*of the dishes that were bizarre and not the dishes themselves. Yeah, OK, I’ll grant you that 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2016, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-food-misconceptions/741823/184 "2016-01-16T16:40:32Z")
> [@RobDog](#): > > Well, you _could_ insofar as there’s nothing actually stopping you, but you might well be the first person ever recorded as doing so. > > You’re confusing bread pudding with bread sauce. No. I could make a bread pudding that would be yummy with an entree. Depends on how you season it. I know what bread sauce is, and that ain’t it. ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2016, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-food-misconceptions/741823/185 "2016-01-16T19:20:59Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Yes, yes, I got that. But in what sense is it a pudding? From Wiktionary: > [@](#): > > Noun[edit] > pudding ‎(plural puddings) > > (originally) A sausage made primarily from blood. > **Any of various dishes, sweet or savoury, prepared by boiling or steaming, or from batter.**  [quotations ▼] > A type of cake or dessert cooked usually by boiling or steaming.  [quotations ▼] > A type of dessert that has a texture similar to custard or mousse but using some kind of starch as the thickening agent. > (Britain, Australia, New Zealand) Dessert; the dessert course of a meal. ---
**Author:** ![fighting\_ignorant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ac8455/32.png) [@fighting\_ignorant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fighting_ignorant)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2016, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-food-misconceptions/741823/186 "2016-01-16T19:56:15Z")
> [@maxjohnson](#): > > When I was a kid I overheard my parents talking about rices from leprosy camps. I didn’t really understand if they were donating to them or eating them. Anyway, it crept me out and I didn’t eat rice at home for 2 weeks. When I did eat rice again, I would stare at my hands and afraid it would transform into leprosy. I do not understand this one ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-food-misconceptions/741823/187 "2016-01-20T03:04:02Z")
When I was a child we had a crabapple tree on our property, and was told they weren’t something one would want to eat. Somewhere in there, juice makers started putting out a drink called “cranapple” (cranberry and apple juices mixed, I now assume) and somehow I got it in my head that they were saying crabapple, and thus thought it was gross and something no one in their right mind would drink. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-food-misconceptions/741823/188 "2016-01-20T03:13:22Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > The Simpsons always made beer look tasty and as a child I couldn’t wait to drink it. > > Then I finally did. what a complete and utter disappointment. I can’t believe willingly drink this. If you haven’t tried beer yet, do yourself a favor and don’t because it’s absolutely fucking terrible TV has always done it’s best to make it look like some wonderful tasting ambrosia, but I knew better long before actually tasting it, from smelling it, that it would taste awful. And I was right. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-food-misconceptions/741823/189 "2016-01-20T03:41:48Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Oh yeah: “goriyachi pirozhki, pirozhki goriyachi,” over and over. When I was there, they arrested on of the sellers for making them from murdered homeless people. When I was young, I used to be so excited for Tuesdays when we would get our weekly ration of Soylent Green. Those high-energy plankton chips were delicious! Only later when I grew up and after my best friend’s suicide did I find out the truth. ---
**Author:** ![Calla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Calla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calla)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-food-misconceptions/741823/190 "2016-01-20T03:44:25Z")
When I was a young kid my brother told me that the purpose of ketchup was to cool your food down. If I had something on my plate that was too hot to eat, I would put cold ketchup on it so I could eat it right away. I went through a phase of eating it on just about everything. I also used ranch dressing for the same purpose. I guess I assumed that condiments were just flavored food coolants. I also have an aversion to even the thought of trying turducken. It just sounds gross to me, and the first four letters spell “turd”. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-food-misconceptions/741823/191 "2016-01-20T03:53:08Z")
> [@Calla](#): > > When I was a young kid my brother told me that the purpose of ketchup was to cool your food down. If I had something on my plate that was too hot to eat, I would put cold ketchup on it so I could eat it right away. I went through a phase of eating it on just about everything. I also used ranch dressing for the same purpose. I guess I assumed that condiments were just flavored food coolants. > > I also have an aversion to even the thought of trying turducken. It just sounds gross to me, and the first four letters spell “turd”. What if someone put slices of turkey, duck, and chicken next to each other, instead of nested? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-food-misconceptions/741823/192 "2016-01-20T06:01:40Z")
We would always make toasted cheese sandwiches by laying some cheese slices on a piece of buttered bread and placing it under the oven broiler until the cheese bubbled. When I later got a toasted cheese sandwich for lunch at the school cafeteria – two slices of toasted bread with some melted cheese in the middle – I thought, “this is wrong, the cheese is not even toasted.” I still think of a proper toasted cheese sandwich as one slice of bread with cheese on top, broiled. > [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Not exactly a misconception since my idea that sushi is made from raw fish was completely accurate. But it turns out that my dislike of cooked fish and my dislike of raw meat does not correspond to a dislike of sushi. Took until adulthood to figure this out. Not to be pedantic, but your idea of sushi is mostly, but not _completely_ accurate. I made a shrimp something-or-other for which I peeled several dozen raw shrimp. I have had sushi combos that had shrimp nigris in them. That is \*not \* raw shrimp. And California rolls are supposed to have crab in them – unless that is surimi, that is also not raw. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-food-misconceptions/741823/193 "2016-01-20T07:00:43Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > I still think of a proper toasted cheese sandwich as one slice of bread with cheese on top, broiled. And you are right. What you got in the school cafeteria was a grilled cheese, heated (as the name implies) on a grill. I always make that distinction. I love grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, but when I want toast with Marmite and cheese, I stick it under a broiler so that the cheese itself is toasted and brown and bubbly. Dammit, now I’m hungry at 2:00 am! ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Calla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Calla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calla)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-food-misconceptions/741823/194 "2016-01-20T10:49:53Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > What if someone put slices of turkey, duck, and chicken next to each other, instead of nested? I would probably eat a little of each, separately. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-food-misconceptions/741823/195 "2016-01-20T15:40:14Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > Did they look like any of [these](http://www.sees.com/lollipops/assorted-lollypops/296.html)? My husband adores the toffee and would mainline it if he were not also diabetic. One of his aunts worked at a small candy company, she hand dipped the chocolates, and each piece of candy had what they were marked by the swirls on the tops so if you were faced with a box of little brown lumps, all you needed to do was memorize the swirl code and you didn’t need the cheat sheet in the top of the box. Her christmas gifts to everybody were always boxes of chocoaltes customized to what she knew people preferred [so mrAru always got lots of toffees )] ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-food-misconceptions/741823/196 "2016-01-20T19:12:54Z")
> [@Calla](#): > > When I was a young kid my brother told me that the purpose of ketchup was to cool your food down. If I had something on my plate that was too hot to eat, I would put cold ketchup on it so I could eat it right away. I went through a phase of eating it on just about everything. I also used ranch dressing for the same purpose. I guess I assumed that condiments were just flavored food coolants. As I kid, I believed I could take a drink of milk to cool down what I was eating or, as was more frequently the case, help wash down food I didn’t like but was forced to eat. Come to find out many years later that etiquette demands that you swallow all your food before taking a drink. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-food-misconceptions/741823/197 "2016-01-20T19:24:46Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > As I kid, I believed I could take a drink of milk to cool down what I was eating or, as was more frequently the case, help wash down food I didn’t like but was forced to eat. Come to find out many years later that etiquette demands that you swallow all your food before taking a drink. ☹ My best friend, at a young age, found herself at restaurant meals having finished her drink before finishing her food, leaving herself high-and-dry with no recourse. So she developed a habit of taking a sip or two at the outset (I guess to vet the beverage for quality), then eating _everything on her plate_ before drinking any more of her beverage, so that there would be no worry of it running out early. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-food-misconceptions/741823/198 "2016-01-20T21:04:17Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > That may have been where Canadian Bagel set up. Depends on which exit you used. > > A few years back, they opened up a new exit 'way on the other side of the square/parking lot. You no longer have to navigate your way over Tverskaya aboveground, which was a real bitch once they closed the pedestrian tunnels for renovation. It was a huge industrial bakery right next to the university. When I went there, you had to navigate people going not only to and from the metro, but also into the train station so it was just a mad rush of people. I kind of miss it. This would have been around 1996. I remember hearing one time that people in Ethiopia eat off one big plate, meaning there is a communal plate the whole family eats off of, but I thought there was one big plate everyone in the country ate off of. It’s weird the way a kid’s mind works. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-food-misconceptions/741823/199 "2016-01-20T21:43:32Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > I remember hearing one time that people in Ethiopia eat off one big plate, meaning there is a communal plate the whole family eats off of, but I thought there was one big plate everyone in the country ate off of. It’s weird the way a kid’s mind works. That reminds me of “There are starving children in Africa” - “OK, can we send them this food?” which brings to mind me talking to Grandpa on the phone when I was very little. He said “I am pushing a raisin through the phone to you” and I fully expected that raisin to emerge from the receiver. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-food-misconceptions/741823/200 "2016-01-20T23:01:59Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > It was a huge industrial bakery right next to the university. When I went there, you had to navigate people going not only to and from the metro, but also into the train station so it was just a mad rush of people. I kind of miss it. This would have been around 1996. You must have arrived on the green line. If you attended the Foreign/Business University just off Tverskaya, you were there at the same time as a girlfriend of mine, Valentina. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-food-misconceptions/741823.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-food-misconceptions/741823.md?page=11)