Memorable bad meals you've eaten

[Kolga]

@ivylass

Some of the finest restaurants I’ve eaten at have have been in downtown Charleston. Sticky Fingers for BBQ, Tommy Condon’s for she-crab soup, Kasinky’s for dessert and coffee. You can’t make it in downtown Charleston as a restaurant if you aren’t high quality.

I don’t know where you were, but believe me, you didn’t get a good idea of Southern cooking. I know some people who’d kill for a plate of shrimp and grits, and love to debate the merits of variations of sausage gravy.

To be fair to ralph124c, once you get out of the large cities in South Carolina, it can be relatively difficult to find decent restaurants. Most of the ones in my hometown, for example (a small town in the Piedmont) are the typical meat and threes, with the threes being things like green beans boiled until mushy, black-eyed peas in watery broth, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes with gravy, etc.

Occasionally, there will be a hidden gem, but tourists and out-of-towners (and those of us who no longer live there) probably wouldn’t be able to pick them out of the crowd without local recommendations.

[Jragon]

@wheresgeorge04

So you can’t eat spaghetti and meatballs because of the mixed tastes, but you can eat a hamburger (meat, bread, theoretically tomato, ketchup, cheese, etc…) or pizza (bread, sauce, cheese, toppings)?

Joe

Pizza is a special exception, and I eat hamburgers mostly plain, the warm meat and bread are okay (I can’t eat cold meat on bread except in very specific circumstances with certain types of hard bread). And it’s not that I CAN’T eat spaghetti and meatballs, but the meatballs have to be on the side untouched by sauce or noodles.

[John_DiFool]

I wonder how many of these places (the public eateries) were actually fronts?

[Yorikke]

@Jragon

Pizza is a special exception, and I eat hamburgers mostly plain, the warm meat and bread are okay (I can’t eat cold meat on bread except in very specific circumstances with certain types of hard bread). And it’s not that I CAN’T eat spaghetti and meatballs, but the meatballs have to be on the side untouched by sauce or noodles.

A real question, not dicking you around - do you have OCD? I have heard many pieces of anecdotal evidence that the food separation thing is common in people who have OCD…

Joe

[Patch]

The last time I was at IN-and-Out Burgers I had a lukewarm hamburger, topped with ketchup, mustard, and hair.

Not a strand of hair – a mass of hair. It was like someone clipped their ponytail while working the grill.

[Patch]

@fifty-six

This is the worst meal I never had.

That’s not a meal. That’s what you leave behind hours after you’ve eaten a meal. :eek:

[Rachael_Rage]

@Jragon

What do you guys have against people who don’t like seasoning? I just don’t like mixed tastes, Spaghetti = fine, Spaghetti and meatballs (or meat sauce) = blech. I can tolerate casserole, but I won’t enjoy it. Barbecue sauce on anything is a no-no, as is anything remotely spicy (so no peppers in anything, even the “Sweet” ones that I still think taste spicy). I even hate sandwiches except for a handful of subs that are okay. In fact, I hate mixing tastes so much I have to make sure nothing is touching on my plate and I get teased for eating all of one thing, waiting, eating the next item, rinse and repeat (I have to finish one thing before I start another so if I had a hamburger and chips I’d eat the ENTIRE hamburger and then ALL the chips and THEN whatever else I may have and THEN… you get the idea).

Yeeeahhh… this isn’t normal. Sorry, I shouldn’t judge, but it’s just not. Not everyone loves spice, I get that, but “mixed tastes” is what most people think of as “food,” and is the basis for the joy of eating and cooking. Your response makes it sound like we’re the weird ones for wanting food to taste like something, but you’re the odd bird here, I’m afraid.