I believe this is really the ‘there IS no wrong’ thread, but food prescriptivism is a weird thing.
Lots of egg mentions, but I don’t think hard-boiled yet. When I was a kid I hated eggs-- I thought they were slimy and disgusting (I love them in all forms now). The only exception was, I really liked them hard-boiled. My mom routinely overcooked hard-boiled eggs, and I never knew this until many years later, when I learned that a greenish cast on the outside of the cooked yolk was a dead giveaway that the egg is overboiled.
My son likes making ramen soups with an added hard-boiled egg cut in half, and he cooks his HB eggs the Asian way, so that it’s a very soft yolk- almost runny still in the very center of the yolk. I still like a firm yolk in my HB eggs, and I’ll take a bit overcooked instead of under.
Sorry to disagree on scrambled eggs. I hate overcooked scramble with those rubbery tasteless bits. Mine are not runny European style, but rather fluffy and slightly moist. You accomplish this with lower heat and continued folding of the eggs in the pan. And adding any milk product is just wrong.
Like the OP, I like to boil up macaroni until it’s soft, then toss it in butter and salt. Comfort food, indeed.
My fried egg sandwich must have the egg over easy and runny. It’s a mess to eat, but so good.
Pancakes are supposed to be cooked on an ungreased surface. I like crispy edges on mine, so they get fried in a bit of unsalted butter. I also prefer cornmeal in my cakes.
Despite all warnings to the contrary, my wife insists on her burgers being rare. Medium is as low as I’ll go.
I sous vide pork chops rare, then do a very quick torch sear.
Then again, I love Mett (raw, minced pork with onion).
I have also sampled chicken sashimi at a chef’s tasting. I’m glad I tried it, but don’t think I’ll ever try it again.
Yeah, at the end of the day, who cares as long as you like it? That said, I am interested in local traditions and rituals and proscriptions/superstitions whatever you want to call them. Like weird rules like “you don’t drink cappuccino after 11 a.m.” or, locally for me, “you don’t put ketchup on a hot dog.” That kind of stuff is fun if not taken too seriously, but I also understand people being protective of their traditions.
But the mashed potato one is odd, as there isn’t really a universal way to serve mashed potatoes. I like them that way even if there isn’t any gravy to pour over them (though there will be some juices from the meat usually served with.) I just like texture and them tasting and feeling like, well, potatoes in my mouth, not pudding/custard.
AKA “Medium boiled.” 
(That is what they’re called.)
That’s far too overdone. Just wave it in the general direction of the kitchen for a couple of seconds…
Some chefs I respect a lot, add way more salt in cooking than I believe I would like. I assume they know what they are doing, and they are making the dish to their own tastes, but for me, that’s way too much salt.
I assume that probably also means there are chefs who are human beings with tastes for salt similar to my own, who will serve food seasoned to their own tastes, and the people with higher levels of salt preference will find that they wish to add more at the table. That’s why the cruet set is there, or should be.
There is no objectively ‘right’ amount of seasoning.
Ah, thank you, didn’t know that was the ‘official’ term for that style of cooked egg.
I agree with you on mashed potato preference. Give me ‘real’ mashed potatoes, mashed by hand, still with the occasional lump. None of that silky smooth pureed nonsense for me.
My frequent potato side go-to is garlic smashed potatoes-- roast a whole head of garlic in olive oil, smash up baked potatoes with skins still on, mix in roasted garlic, butter, thyme, coarse black pepper, and grated parm. Yum.
I like eggs cooked hard, especially poached.
Salt added at the table is not the same as salt added during cooking. There is a proper level of seasoning, and the default is not minimal or none.
My Martini
I buck the modern trend of using less and less vermouth by making it old style 2:1 Gin to Vermouth.
I sneer at the very idea of using Vodka instead of Gin. (this I’m sure is plain old doing it right)
I shake the bajeezus out of it, I’m sure that I’m “bruising” the hell out of the poor Gin but it’s my martini.
I serve it in a regular glass instead of the stupid tippy martini glass.
And… 4 large olives, I’m filling that toothpick with olives because olives are great.
I don’t bother trying to order a martini away from home, it’s too much trouble.
What’s your name?
Steak. Cheese Steak.
On a slightly more serious note, I thought the reason why you typically stir and not shake a martini is because shaking causes too much ice to melt into the martini, over-diluting it. Is it really possible to ‘bruise’ liquor?
There is no universal agreement on what constitutes a ‘proper’ level. Anyone asserting that there is some objective ‘proper’ level is just deluded about the status of their own preference.
I mean, I agree with this part in principle (as a matter of material science), but the notion that salt must be homogenously incorporated into the dish is again, a preference.
Gin Snob: Aerating the gin causes the most delicate notes of the infusion to be exposed to blah blah blah, I need a stiff drink to save me from this explanation.
People are strange. What a bizarre thing to send hate mail over.
I’m thinking we might enjoy dining together…
And i hate restaurants that add enough salt to make you happy. 
No, it’s not the default. Most people seem to like more salt than i do. But i don’t salt chicken before cooking it, and often find other people’s chicken overly salty. Kosher chicken is routinely too salty, even when no extra salt added. (They add salt in the koshering process.) And brining turkey… Way to make it rubbery.
I should try this! I’ve occasionally had rare or medium rare pork by mistake, and it was delicious.
I like most meat raw, but there is something icky about the texture of raw chicken. Also raw squid.
Anyway, i think I’ve found my “i like it wrong” theme. I add a lot less salt than what most people seem to want.
Yeah, I think the weirdest case of this is my preference for using a can opener to open cans, even if they have a pull-tab type top (can opener still works fine and I prefer the experience and comfort of the process). I routinely get people calling me an idiot for not using the pull tabs, and one guy took it to email, telling me (well, ranting at me) that if I wanted to carry on using a can opener, I should only do that on cans without the pull tabs, and I should go to the effort of seeking those out. People are indeed strange.
1/3 the Olive Oil the recipe calls for. It’s a guiding star of mine in the kitchen. I’ll scrape some burn off the pans to taste what I’ve put all this effort into making. Think modern diets have warped our collective taste buds into something akin to taste bud blindness. Any prepared item I can buy from any store or restaurant can readily be described as sweet, fatty and soft.
Our collective popular culture Modern American pallet range is the size of a Manhattan front yard.
Can you give an example? I’m having trouble following what you’re trying to say. And what does the last sentence mean? Clearly, I need some coffee, but my brain ain’t braining and I don’t quite get it.
ETA: ok, I’ve figured out the last sentence. I had the wrong “pallet” and wrong “range” in mind. I think overall American tastes are fairly broad these days compared with when I grew up in the 80s.
Sure. Certainly by that metric we have expanded our range considerably.
But given that I can pick up a banana for less than my car is burning while I am in any gas station despite not one banana tree within 1000 miles of me I feel we have fallen short of our potential when the only thing you can order at Panda Express is Sugar Chicken in various shapes and colors.
I mean, that’s a weird preference on your part, (or maybe my can opener has gotten full and i should but a new one) but i can’t think of a more harmless preference. That’s so squarely in the realm of “it works for you”.