In this thread people are talking about how they prefer to prepare ramen noodles. I noticed quite a few like to add extra stuff to them, that doesn’t come with the package itself. e.g. adding eggs and mushrooms in ramen, ACK! Then I got to thinking…
I don’t like mixing different foods.
I, generally, prefer not to add extras to whatever food I happen to be making. When I do add “extras” it’s usually just a condiment. e.g. I do like Tabasco in scrambled eggs. I put the Tabasco in before cooking and mix it in real good.
I, also, tend to be the type who eats one-thing-at-a-time from the plate, instead of taking random bites from each item. Sometimes, people comment on this habit, so I figure I must be in the minority. FTR: I don’t “freak-out” if e.g. my peas go into my mashed potatoes. I’m not nearly that finicky.
So, am I freak? Are there any others here likewise?
I know several ‘plate-spinners’ (i.e. one who eats all of one thing, then spins the plate to the next), The Missus among them. Don’t think it’s all that uncommon. I’m exactly the opposite. I take one bite of each at a time, so that everything is finished together. Does that make me weird?
I tend to do the “plate spin” thing as well…My parents have, on occasion, teased me about it, but can’t recall anyone else having mentioned it to me - maybe they were being polite
Jim eats every bite of one item on his plate, then goes on to the next. I eat everything at the same time, and try to make everything finish at the same time. We’re like a poster-couple for OCD eating.
I used to think it was freakish whenever I saw someone do it, but now, it seems fairly common. Some people even have divided plates (like the old school cafeteria trays) to keep food items from mingling together. Now those people are freaks.
I don’t like adding things either. My dad will put veggies and tofu and things into good old Campell’s soup, but I prefer to just eat things how they come out of the package.
I’m a non-mixer, but less extreme than I used to be. When we used to have BLTs at home, I’d ask my mom to put separate piles of B, L, T, and toast (mayonnaised and peppered) on my plate.
Now I agree that BLTs taste much better assembled than disassembled, but I still generally prefer to eat one thing at a time. Unlike FairyChatMom, though, I have no self-discipline and eat the best stuff first.
I’m a mixer. I often put my peas into my mashed potatoes or rice, or cut up my meat and mix it in with something else. Often I’ll get a small amount of everything together on one forkful – potato, veggie, meat, gravy, and eat that mouthful.
And I try to have everything come out almost even, usually saving two bites of the meat for last.
But this raises an interesting question, MSK and other plate-spinners:
Do you shun things like casseroles, where all the stuff is cooked in one vessel, and is supposed to be mixed together, or is it just not putting the peas and rice on your plate from their separate serving containers and mixing them together there?
DAVE, from my experience watching Jim eating, I would guess that non-mixers don’t particularly care for food that is already mixed-up like casseroles. He says he doesn’t mind, but he has an air of distaste about him when he eats them, like he’s doubting the sanity of people who would wreck perfectly good food by mixing it all together.
I’m also in the odd group. I simply don’t like my foods to mix, to me, when the flavors/textures combine, it isn’t an interesting culinary experience, it just tastes/feels really bad. I don’t completely freak out when the foods touch - but all in all, I’d prefer that they didn’t.
So, I ask for everything on the side. I don’t like my food served over a bed of rice/noodles/whatever, but next to them. And I do tend to eat one thing at a time (I don’t spin the plate though, that causes too many people to comment. I just kind of eat one thing and then another & hope no one notices. Usually, saving the thing I like most for last (due to parents who would not let me leave the table until my entire plate was clean.))
Yes.
I love the idea of casseroles - only one pot. You can cook everything at once, and ever so much less to clean up afterwards…how convenient! But I can’t actually bring myself to cook them, knowing full well that I won’t eat them. And when they are served to me, I do tend to eat one thing out of the casserole, and then the next, and then the next. (I do the same with salads, if I think I can get away with it with no one noticing.)
When I have a food item served on a large plate like pasta or salad, especially, I eat from right to left, moving the food carefully into a straight line as I go.
This is perhaps one of the only areas of my life where I’m pretty OCD.
I like some mixed foods; depends on what’s in them. I don’t care for tomato-based foods.
If they’re seperate things, I typically eat them one at a time, with a few bites of the others thrown in. I generally eat the items in the order that they get cold the fastest (thus preventing me from eating something nasty like cold cooked carrots). Vegetables are first, then potatoes or what not, then meat. If I even have meat at all.
