In front of you is a dinner plate on which sits a portion of carrots, a portion of green beans and a portion of tilapia. In what order do you consume the food?
I eat all the carrots, then all the green beans, and lastly all the tilapia.
Let’s say you buy a burger and fries at the drive-thru.
I eat all the fries before I even take bite one of the burger.
If forced to defend my technique, my only explanation is that I’m subconsciously eating my least preferred food item first while I’m the most hungry, and saving my favorite item for last.
My wife thinks I’m a freak. She prefers to take alternating bites of each item. So she may may eat some green beans, followed by a forkful of tilapia, and then a bite of her carrots, etc.
So which of us is doing it wrong? How do you do it?
Sides are supposed to complement the main dish so they should be eaten along with the tilapia. So, a bite or two of the fish… a bite or two of one or both sides… repeat until full.
I’m with Spud, except sometimes i get lazy and just keep eating one item. But if I’m enjoying my meal and paying attention to it, I will alternate items and finish them all at about the same time.
If there’s more food than I’m going to eat, at some point i eat less of the stuff i don’t like as much, and only finish the good parts, though.
I generally eat all of one item, then all of another, and so on. The exception is certain specific food combinations whose flavors are meant to be combined.
And when I’m eating a meal that includes French fries, I always eat them first, because it makes a huge difference to the flavor of fries to eat them while they’re fresh and hot.
Neither of you is doing it wrong. You’re just doing it differently.
I either eat some of one, then some of another,and so on, generally winding up with a little left of each and then eating that (presuming I’m still hungry); or else I mix a couple of items or maybe even everything, depending on what it is, so each bite has some of each. But that’s me. It doesn’t mean anybody else has to do the same thing.
If I’m eating a traditional “meat and a couple of sides” like described in the OP, I’ll take alternating bites of each item like Stuntman Mike’s wife. However as Chronos alluded to, sometimes I’ll make a dish where the different elements are meant to be combined, in which case I’ll try to get a little bit of everything in each bite. Like last night, I made blackened tuna steaks with mango salsa served on a bed of rice. In this case the mango salsa isn’t meant to be eaten on its own, it’s meant to compliment the spicy tuna. In which case I try to get a little salsa, a little tuna, and a little rice in every forkfull.
I will agree with you completely. Are you getting it from the plate to your mouth? Are you enjoying it? If so you are doing it properly.
I was just stating the way I would normally do it. Tilapia with Green Beans and Carrots isn’t terribly exciting in my book, but if I was having a Rib-eye, Grilled Asparagus, and my marinated mushrooms it would be a shame if they weren’t eaten alongside, or as I usually do… in the same bite.
I eat some of this, some of that, some of the other. Sometimes I’ll mix multiple foods together.
But, there’s no such thing as a “wrong” way of eating your food. The worst thing that could happen is if you can’t eat one food because it got touched by another, and if this happens when you’re an adult? That might be a little OCD, and you might want to talk to a professional. But only if it is really causing you quality of life problems.
I like to mix up the foods and eat them together. My son eats everything separately, even when they sort of go together. Strange to see, but he eats it, so it’s all good.
Yep. I can’t think of a meal I’ve ever eaten in a rigid sequence like Consume Side A first, Consume Side B, Consume Main Dish. It’s all eaten together, sometimes even on the same fork. So it would not be unusual for me to load a piece of tilapia on my fork, then stab a carrot and some beans and consume it all in one bite. Typically, though, it’d be a bit of tilapia first, then probably carrots and green beans together. Not rigidly alternating or anything like that, but a bit of one and the other here and there.
I tend to agree with your wife that your style is a bit unusual. Not unheard of – I’ve seen others do it that way – but it’s kind of getting into oddball behavior territory to me (nothing to be ashamed of, we all have things we do in a way most other people don’t).
ETA: Actually, now that I think of it, I do a “save the best for last” type of thing with eggs sometimes. I like my eggs with runny yolks, so I’ll sometimes eat around the yolks on a fried egg, eating all them first before bursting the glorious golden yolk and eating it up along with my starchy sides (hash browns, toast.)
I graze. No, I’m not a horse. I eat one item at a time. I might have a few carrots. I might eat crackers. A banana. Bowl of soup. Tiny meals spread thru-out the day. Right now the Dr. has me on a protein drink twice a day (blech!) It’s kinda harshing on my routine.
Normally, I’d say a mix but we went to a diner for lunch today. I got a Reuben, it came with fries & a side cup of cole slaw (there were a couple of them on a separate plate). I had a few hot fries & then picked up the sandwich. It was so sloppy that I ate the whole thing before wiping my hands on a napkin & then finishing the fries. Only then did I pick up a fork for the cole slaw.
That depends, that potato chip that’s soggy from pickle juice? No way! I’ll eat the chips, I’ll eat the pickle, but not a brine-soggy chip.
“Doc, of course I’m swallowing those suppositories; whaddya think I’m doing with them, shoving them up my ass?”
I’d toss the whole plate out and order something decent.
Really, it depends on whether or not I’m eating by myself. If I am, then I am likely reading as well, and therefore will eat each item in turn, as is is less distracting and I can concentrate on my book. If I’m eating with the wife or others, then alternating dishes is called for because otherwise you look like a freak. Plus it’s probably a nicer place with better food and not just fries and a burger.
Well a good Reuben throws all the rules out the window. It is probably my favorite sandwich and I would dive into it exclusively as well. I’d probably get potato salad instead of fries, then the slaw and desert would be the pickle spear. I might still intermingle the sides and pickle but I’m sure the Reuben would be gone before I even noticed the other things on my plate.
If it’s a hot meal, I tend to favor eating first the item that will cool off the fastest, because I like my hot food to be hot. In the OP’s example, that would be the tilapia. So probably three or four bites of the fish for each bite of the other two until the fish is gone. After that I don’t care much.
