# Idiosyncratic verging on neurotic things you do with your food **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 15, 2020, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiosyncratic-verging-on-neurotic-things-you-do-with-your-food/849509 "2020-03-15T00:52:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiosyncratic-verging-on-neurotic-things-you-do-with-your-food/849509/21 "2020-03-15T20:11:51Z")
If I’m drinking a bottle of something, the label has to be pointing away from me, like I was on a show with product placement. If I am drinking a soda out of a paper cup, the seam has to be under my fingers. M & Ms are sorted by color and eaten one at a time in rotation. Any other way is Deviation and Heresy! ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiosyncratic-verging-on-neurotic-things-you-do-with-your-food/849509/22 "2020-03-15T20:18:00Z")
> [@DrForrester](#): > > Personally, I think that popcorn is unpleasantly like styrofoam. However, I am related to someone who feels that popcorn is best eaten when covered in tomato sauce, as though it were pasta. I am assured that this is perfectly normal, but I’m growing less and less sure of that as the years pass. > > … Okay, that’s not even \*\*\*remotely \*\*\*normal. 😃 God, I’m imagining a Dopers’ picnic, with me eating broken chips first, **silenus** twisting his bottles & cans around so the label is correct, \*\*BrickBat \*\*picking over the salad greens looking for rusty lettuce… and the M&Ms :smack: Holy crap! Feeding time at the zoo, amirite? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Tarataratara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Tarataratara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tarataratara)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiosyncratic-verging-on-neurotic-things-you-do-with-your-food/849509/23 "2020-03-15T20:35:13Z")
Animal crackers must be slaughtered humanely. I always bite the head off first. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiosyncratic-verging-on-neurotic-things-you-do-with-your-food/849509/24 "2020-03-15T21:07:55Z")
not me personally but I knew someone who worked in a group home for kids who were severely autistic so they bought things in bulk…and i went shopping with her once and she painstakingly tried to buy things that we’re all the same size and color when I asked why she said to wait until we get back and when we did she opened up the cereal cabinet and showed me plastic containers of froot loops and fruity pebbles (!)sorted by color … apparently it triggered quite a few of the residents to have them mixed up… Now fruity pebbles are about the size of rice Krispies …she never bought them again as long as she worked there ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiosyncratic-verging-on-neurotic-things-you-do-with-your-food/849509/25 "2020-03-15T21:51:08Z")
> [@Tarataratara](#): > > Animal crackers must be slaughtered humanely. I always bite the head off first. I have to keep them from running away, so, legs first. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiosyncratic-verging-on-neurotic-things-you-do-with-your-food/849509/26 "2020-03-15T22:53:32Z")
> [@Tarataratara](#): > > Animal crackers must be slaughtered humanely. I always bite the head off first. 😃 I did the same thing when I was a kid. I usually get ONE too many ice cubes in the cup. So I’ll grab one out of the cup, and back into the ice bin it goes. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiosyncratic-verging-on-neurotic-things-you-do-with-your-food/849509/27 "2020-03-15T23:10:33Z")
Wow. You people are strange. I can’t think of anything! Perhaps when I eat an apple I always eat it the same way: first, around the equator, then the North Pole, and finally the south pole. Then I just nibble around the remaining flesh to clean it up. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiosyncratic-verging-on-neurotic-things-you-do-with-your-food/849509/28 "2020-03-15T23:38:24Z")
Double post. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiosyncratic-verging-on-neurotic-things-you-do-with-your-food/849509/29 "2020-03-16T00:07:32Z")
I thought I didn’t really have anything, either, but I thought of one. (Before COVID-19,) I don’t mind sharing food or drinks with people. If someone takes a bite off my plate or tastes my soup or has a sip of my drink, it doesn’t bother me at all. Except… milk. I can’t share it. If you take a sip of my milk, just keep it. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiosyncratic-verging-on-neurotic-things-you-do-with-your-food/849509/30 "2020-03-16T00:59:00Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > For both pizza and pies, I’ll eat the crust end first, then work my way to the point. After all, the point is the best part, so it gets saved for last -\* DUH!!\* I do the same thing. If I’m eating a whole pizza in two sittings, I cut the crust off, all the way around, and save the middle for the second meal. I also save the best for last with layer cake, eating the cake first, then the frosting. This can get rather creative. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiosyncratic-verging-on-neurotic-things-you-do-with-your-food/849509/31 "2020-03-16T02:10:26Z")
My M&M style is sort of a game. I pour the little bag out onto a fresh piece of paper and leave them as they emerge. Then I eat them one by one in a way that reduces their randomness. If there’s three browns and a green, I eat the green to leave a solid patch of brown. If there’s a red between two blues, the red is downed first. The goal is that by continuously eliminating the odd one, I will eventually have a few separate groups of individual colors. At that point I eat them one of each color in order. If I have two complementary items like cheese and bread, I will take advanced steps to make sure that one does not run out before the other. Things like cutting both items in half and then half again so that at worst the disparity will only affect one quarter of the food. With mixes like chex mix, I eat the least favored parts like the pretzels first so that I can have the best stuff (the chex) all by itself at the end. Pizza-wise, I always make sure that there’s a little bit of “Middle” with each bite of crust so that I’m not having just bare crust. I do this with pop-tarts, too. ---
**Author:** ![DummyGladHands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiosyncratic-verging-on-neurotic-things-you-do-with-your-food/849509/32 "2020-03-16T04:40:23Z")
> [@Alpha\_Twit](#): > > When eating oranges or grapefruit, the fruit must be peeled and all of the segments separated from each other before I will eat any of them. > > When eating pancakes and sunny side up eggs, the eggs go underneath the cakes so that the yolk soaks up into the cakes. I’ve seen too many people place the eggs on top of the cakes which just interferes with syrup distribution. Now I’m neurotic. I would NEVAH mix pancakes and eggs on the same plate. Dated a guy who did that. Exactly one time. (date, I mean) ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiosyncratic-verging-on-neurotic-things-you-do-with-your-food/849509/33 "2020-03-16T05:26:19Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > **#15:** Don Cherry the jazz trumpet player? The guy in all the Ornette Coleman quartets? Tell us more. Sorry, not that Don, no Art Farmer, no Micheal Ray. It was the somewhat-fallen-from-grace hockey icon, or, at least I thought it was, but I turned out to be horribly wrong. [It was Ron.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpXkgNkAuRE) > [@ThelmaLou](#): > > God, I’m imagining a Dopers’ picnic, with me eating broken chips first… Hm, ‘picnic’ is a bit of a [trigger word](https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2wzpjn) for me. (I’d might have to bow out.) > [@silenus](#): > > If I’m drinking a bottle of something, the label has to be pointing away from me, like I was on a show with product placement. This was truly my laugh-out-loud moment of the day. Thank-you. Partly because I can kinda relate to it, sort of, whenever I behold a thick-head-pour of Stella Artois in my SA glass with the legendary red and white SA logo _actually facing me_ to constantly remind me of the grand elixir that it is. > [@Bayaker](#): > > I also don’t like anything to hang over the edge of the bread in a sandwich. I’ll fold or sometimes cut the meat/cheese to make it fit more exactly. Heh, to quote that again - I’m sure [Mr. Tufnel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHGJEdjCoeU) sees where you’re going, here. Mushrooms need to get sweep-kicked, thrown into a headlock, and given _good noo-gies_, no matter what shape or form they come in. I once engaged in intense psychological warfare with an Italian mother of an ex who thought I was undereating or something and took it upon herself to give me perhaps the largest serving of spaghetti I ever had, and immediately I espied the offending fungal foes, in all their white-brownish anti-glory. As the meal went on, I didn’t need to look up to feel her glare as I _just **HAD** _ to oh-so-stealthily shuttle the gross little fucking things to the side of the plate, relegated to a perimeter of shame and effrontery. It was a vain effort to tactically pick those moments when she was, say, in a particularly animated exchange - I still always felt the Maltese falcon stare-down. By the time I finished, there was almost a three-quaters circle around my plate’s perimeter of the slimy blotches, and yeah she wasn’t too big on that, for sure. When she asked if I had allergies and I said no she said the only Maltese phrase to her daughter that night, and I’m like, Oh _great_. It never quite worked out again, having another dinner there. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiosyncratic-verging-on-neurotic-things-you-do-with-your-food/849509/34 "2020-03-16T06:30:43Z")
MrsRico thinks me strange to spoon-spank hot foods like stew, oatmeal, menudo, cioppino, paella, etc. But these MUST be properly disciplined. Get DOWN, little gumbo! Long ago, Safeway’s bad, cheap beer IIRC was Scotch Pride in 11 ounce bottles. Each bottle NEEDED a couple drops of anise tincture. Try it out. ---
**Author:** ![jerez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c68b51/32.png) [@jerez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerez)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiosyncratic-verging-on-neurotic-things-you-do-with-your-food/849509/35 "2020-03-16T09:56:46Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > …Well, that’s just plain wrong… It’s been a trend for several years now. Google “gin and tonic glass” and you’ll see. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiosyncratic-verging-on-neurotic-things-you-do-with-your-food/849509/36 "2020-03-16T11:20:03Z")
When my kids were growing up, I found they could feed themselves easier if I quartered their sandwhiches. I would quarter mine as well, so they wouldn’t feel they were being babied. Then, the first time my gf was out to eat with me and my kids, she cracked up laughing. She had previously noticed me cutting my burger or Rueben into quarters, and now she saw me, my son, and my daughter each doing it without realizing it was odd. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiosyncratic-verging-on-neurotic-things-you-do-with-your-food/849509/37 "2020-03-16T11:32:42Z")
I don’t know if this qualifies, but I eat my hamburgers upside down. But there’s a reason! The “top” bun is usually a lot thicker than the bottom bun, so if you flip the burger over, it’s less likely to collapse on you. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiosyncratic-verging-on-neurotic-things-you-do-with-your-food/849509/38 "2020-03-16T12:49:43Z")
A couple of habits: When eating out, I always taste a side dish before the main item. I save the last bit of the favorite item on my plate for last. When I’m done eating, I always drink some water/seltzer. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiosyncratic-verging-on-neurotic-things-you-do-with-your-food/849509/39 "2020-03-16T12:54:48Z")
When I was a kid I would carefully perform surgery on meat to cut out pretty much anything that wasn’t obviously muscle. Everyone else would be done long before I even started actually eating. I don’t do it anymore, but I still kind of have the urge to. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiosyncratic-verging-on-neurotic-things-you-do-with-your-food/849509/40 "2020-03-16T13:28:39Z")
I have color hang-ups. I like foods to be nice colors like brown ;), yellow, or white. Green is good as long as it’s the food’s natural color. Red is on a case-by-case basis. Blue is right out. It’s basically food coloring I have an issue with. I saw [this IHOP commercial](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRLFyiE7bEI) about cereal pancakes, and nearly vomited. If someone was eating something like that in my presence I would have to leave. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiosyncratic-verging-on-neurotic-things-you-do-with-your-food/849509.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiosyncratic-verging-on-neurotic-things-you-do-with-your-food/849509.md?page=3)