# So how does being a boring eater work? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 25, 2013, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-being-a-boring-eater-work/653926 "2013-03-25T16:24:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-being-a-boring-eater-work/653926/21 "2013-03-25T19:54:39Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Because of the metric system? What is the metric equivalent of ‘Whopper’ anyway, Grande? ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-being-a-boring-eater-work/653926/22 "2013-03-25T20:01:22Z")
My stepfather is an incredibly boring eater. For years he ate a bowl of Special K for breakfast and a turkey sandwich and a banana for lunch, every single day. If we go out to a pizza place, he orders plain cheese for himself. If we go to an Italian place, he’ll get spaghetti with marinara sauce. If we go to Chinese, he’ll insist on the one Chinese place in town that can make him a grilled cheese sandwich. Grilled cheese is his favorite thing to eat at an unfamiliar restaurant, and has been since he was a boy. He proudly declares that he likes ordering grilled cheeses because he’s never had a really bad one. At steakhouses, he used to order a sirloin, well done, but he’s cut back on red meat, so now he just gets a vegetable plate. The funny thing is, he’s not a picky eater at all. He’ll eat just about anything without complaining, and will eat basically anywhere, but he’ll invariably choose the blandest and most familiar thing he can find given the selection. For him it seems to be about consistency. He wants to eat something he’s had before, and he wants it to taste as much like the last time he ate it as possible. Spices and sauces are extra variables, so he’ll avoid them if possible. His favorite food isn’t something that can be made well, but something that can’t be made badly–and badly seems to mean unpredictably. I’m sure if he went to restaurant that gave him a grilled cheese with gruyere and stilton on crusty Italian bread, he’d change his tune about grilled cheeses. But then again, he wouldn’t order it unless he was pretty sure it was American cheese on plain white bread. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-being-a-boring-eater-work/653926/23 "2013-03-25T20:05:02Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > What is the metric equivalent of ‘Whopper’ anyway, Grande? Big Kahuna! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![perfectparanoia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@perfectparanoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/perfectparanoia)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-being-a-boring-eater-work/653926/24 "2013-03-25T20:19:02Z")
I am what I think the OP would call a boring eater. I am willing to eat anything and try anything new but if I go to a restaurant I have been to before, I will have the EXACT same thing as last time. It was good then, it will be good now. I don’t go out often enough to take a chance on a new menu item. Anytime I have (under the pressure of my husband) tried a new thing in a restaurant it has not been as good as the thing I already knew I liked. Why mess with a good thing? The big exception to this, obviously, is buffet. I will try a little bit of everything and go back for seconds on my favourites. ETA: However, I eat a wide variety of things. Indian, Sushi, Vietnamese, Ethiopian. I will try anything once. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-being-a-boring-eater-work/653926/25 "2013-03-25T20:42:59Z")
I worked with a guy who explained that he just got no pleasurable reaction from the taste of food. Food just tasted ordinary to him, no matter what it was, and he didn’t have any interest in trying new things. I worked with another guy who bought the exact same items from the grocery store every week, and knew to the penny how much it would cost. He would complain if his grocery bill went up by 25 cents. He ate the same thing for every breakfast, the same thing for every lunch, and the same thing for every dinner. Every day. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-being-a-boring-eater-work/653926/26 "2013-03-25T21:03:06Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > I think it has a lot to do with social class, and ethnicity. For example, here in the NE, the “old money” likes terrible food (bland, non-spicy, tasteless). This is because they all went to prep schools, where they were fed such slop. > Also, for many people, eating is a task, not a pleasurable experience-so it doesn’t matter what you eat. Which is why dishes like “boiled dinners”, salisbury steak, and apple crumble were invented. Don’t know what a boiled dinner is, but salisbury steak and apple crumble are awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-being-a-boring-eater-work/653926/27 "2013-03-25T21:05:38Z")
I’m adventurous so long as I’m in my comfort zone. I also don’t like sliced tomato on a burger or sandwich, but I have no problem with chopped tomatoes on bruschetta. Then again I don’t like chopped tomatoes on a taco or in a salad. Tomatoes in a sauce, fine. Stewed, whole tomatoes, yuk. Raw oysters, fine. Sushi, generally fine. Had a dragon roll once with some eel that I belched up for a day until I killed it off with raw onions on an Angus Whopper. And that was at a fairly high end sushi joint. Ox tail, love it. Beef liver, can’t take it. And I’ve tried, so it’s not just a one time deal, I’m fairly certain I just don’t like it. Foie gras? Fine, so it’s not all liver, but I’m not a fan of chicken liver. I ate candied grasshoppers or crickets or something when I was a kid, to be cool. But I’m not going to search out a meal of bugs today. Lobster? Bring it, and it’s just a big sea bug. I guess I’ll try a lot of things, there’s just certain things I’ll never acquire a taste for. I don’t stop trying, I was in my 30s before I found any way to enjoy any type of raw tomato dish. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-being-a-boring-eater-work/653926/28 "2013-03-25T21:09:08Z")
Part of it, at least for me, is about the cost. I always get the same thing at Panera because a couple times I’ve tried different things and I didn’t like them and now I’m out $10 AND I’m still hungry. Grr. If I make a recipe and I don’t like it, now I’ve got 3 more servings to get rid of, and I paid for all these ingredients AND I’m still hungry. Grr. So it’s just easier to be boring and get the same stuff at the same restaurants than to be the idiot sitting there not eating because their dinner doesn’t taste good. This is, of course, a symptom of also being picky. For me it’s easy for stuff to be too spicy or too bitter or have fish in it, and that’s what makes me not like it. Not such a roadblock for someone who likes spicy or bitter or fishy. ETA: I’ll try new things if it’s a bite or sip of someone else’s stuff. That’s how I know that all beer and wine tastes the same to me - I’ve tried a lot of it, thanks to sips of other people’s stuff. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-being-a-boring-eater-work/653926/29 "2013-03-25T21:19:04Z")
> [@perfectparanoia](#): > > I am what I think the OP would call a boring eater. I am willing to eat anything and try anything new but if I go to a restaurant I have been to before, I will have the EXACT same thing as last time. It was good then, it will be good now. I don’t go out often enough to take a chance on a new menu item. I don’t think that’s boring at all. I’ll eat pretty much anything you put in front of me, from brains to insects to rotting, smelly fish to whatever you can think of, but if I find something I _love_ at a particular restaurant, it’s difficult for me to stray from that. In fact, that particular thing is usually why I go to that restaurant, whatever it may be. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-being-a-boring-eater-work/653926/30 "2013-03-25T21:24:37Z")
> [@bump](#): > > People who aren’t really picky, but who don’t branch out in the presence of obvious alternatives are the ones I’m curious about. And, I’m not necessarily talking about traveling either- my brother-in-law is the classic example I think about- he’s as Midwestern as they come, and will order a burger at otherwise good Tex-Mex places, and just won’t do anything other than meat & potatoes, relatively bland American food. I think I’d have a hard time getting him to go to a German place, even though it’s right up his alley. He just doesn’t realize it and isn’t willing to find out. > > I just can’t quite get inside his head- is it literally a matter of “Why?” vs. “Why not?”, as in when I’m confronted with something new, I think “Why not?” and try it, and he thinks “Why?” and doesn’t? It feels wrong to waste food and to waste money and really wrong to do both in one blow. Because I know that I simply will end up not liking a lot of foods, I’m often hesitant to order something way outside of my comfort zone because if I don’t end up liking the food, I’d end up paying money to throw away perfectly good food. When I’ve eaten just a a bite or two of a full plate, it felt like I was breaking multiple commandments. So, while in theory, I’ll try pretty much anything at least once - in practice, I’m not very likely to order “anything.” ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-being-a-boring-eater-work/653926/31 "2013-03-25T21:34:53Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > I think it has a lot to do with social class, and ethnicity. For example, here in the NE, the “old money” likes terrible food (bland, non-spicy, tasteless). This is because they all went to prep schools, where they were fed such slop… The same stereotype exists about upper-class English people & their boarding schools. It’s not very surprising since alot of the old money families in the Northeast tend to be from British (or Dutch) descent. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-being-a-boring-eater-work/653926/32 "2013-03-25T21:38:05Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > What is the metric equivalent of ‘Whopper’ anyway, Grande? I dunno, I didn’t go into Burger King. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-being-a-boring-eater-work/653926/33 "2013-03-25T21:46:24Z")
> [@bump](#): > > People who aren’t really picky, but who don’t branch out in the presence of obvious alternatives are the ones I’m curious about. If you don’t really care for food, being adventurous isn’t particularly rewarding. I try new things…and about 85% of them are no better (if not worse) than the same sort of “meh” that the foods I already willingly eat are. Why take the time and expense to try things I’m probably not really going to like anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-being-a-boring-eater-work/653926/34 "2013-03-25T21:57:01Z")
My boyfriend is the least adventurous eater I’ve ever met. It’s cute (legitimately, not being sarcastic). He’s almost 30 and there are so many things he’s never tried. Mostly because he was never exposed to them. He’s quite willing to branch out, but he’s just never had a reason to. A big part of the problem is: his mom never made adventurous dishes at home, and they never went out to eat. He was homeschooled for most of high school (due to bullying) and didn’t go to college, so he wasn’t ever exposed to other cultures like I was. In contrast, I went to a college with an enormous foreign population and there were lots of small foreign restaurants with authentic Mexican, Italian, Thai, Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Mongolian, etc. I don’t think it’s difficult to see why someone who grew up eating a very white-bread diet wouldn’t branch out much. Some examples: he’s never tried sour cream (I can’t count the number of times we had taco night at my home growing up!). Until we started dating, he thought cheesecake was a cake (made with sugar, frosting etc) with actual bits of cheddar and american cheese on it. He’s still never tried it, although I’m going to take him to the cheesecake factory soon. 😉 He has told me that taco bell tacos (without sour cream, naturally) are the spiciest thing he can tolerate (no, they’re not spicy at all). He thought he hated mayonnaise until I told him baconators had mayo on them… he loves baconators. He bravely added mayo to a homemade cheeseburger and discovered he REALLY liked it. So it’s just down to lack of exposure, really. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-being-a-boring-eater-work/653926/35 "2013-03-25T22:01:21Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > What is the metric equivalent of ‘Whopper’ anyway, Grande? I think Grande is a Whopper Jr. Venti is a Whopper. Tall is just a regular hamburger. They used to have Short, but then the slider fad hit and they decided to stop selling Short so as to not be too trendy. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-being-a-boring-eater-work/653926/36 "2013-03-25T22:06:16Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > I think Grande is a Whopper Jr. > > Venti is a Whopper. Tall is just a regular hamburger. They used to have Short, but then the slider fad hit and they decided to stop selling Short so as to not be too trendy. Just realize the subtext of this particular side conversation is coming directly from the movie Pulp Fiction. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-being-a-boring-eater-work/653926/37 "2013-03-25T22:52:25Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I think I’d have a hard time getting him to go to a German place, even though it’s right up his alley. He just doesn’t realize it and isn’t willing to find out. Well, oddly enough much ‘American’ food is actually German in origin. I would be willing to bet you could rummage through an online German recipe list and find plenty of stuff he would be willing to eat as long as you didn’t tell him it was German before he ate it. Stuff like hot dogs, hamburgers, salisbury steak, beef rollmops, cole slaw, lentil soup are all German recipes originally. > [@ralph124c](#): > > I think it has a lot to do with social class, and ethnicity. For example, here in the NE, the “old money” likes terrible food (bland, non-spicy, tasteless). This is because they all went to prep schools, where they were fed such slop. > . Thanks I think… 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-being-a-boring-eater-work/653926/38 "2013-03-25T23:01:15Z")
I work with a woman who wont touch vegetables and basically wont eat anything without meat in it. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-being-a-boring-eater-work/653926/39 "2013-03-25T23:05:21Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > Grilled cheese is his favorite thing to eat at an unfamiliar restaurant, and has been since he was a boy. He proudly declares that he likes ordering grilled cheeses because he’s never had a really bad one. That’s weird, because I’ve had very many bad grilled cheese sandwiches in restaurants. > [@needscoffee](#): > > I worked with a guy who explained that he just got no pleasurable reaction from the taste of food. I always start to think that’s so bizarre when someone says that. Then I remember the reactions I get when I say that I have absolutely no interest in music, that is is just white noise to me, and that I don’t respond to it emotionally at all. So I let it slide. But I think that’s it for a lot of people. Eating is just a necessary task to fuel the body. They go out for the companionship of friends but aren’t getting anything from the food itself. Asking why they don’t eat different things is, to them, like asking if they get bored always putting the same gas in their car. “Don’t you ever just have an urge to go to Shell instead of Chevron, just for something different?” ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-being-a-boring-eater-work/653926/40 "2013-03-25T23:40:28Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#): > > That’s weird, because I’ve had very many bad grilled cheese sandwiches in restaurants. I agree! It’s one reason I think that what he really wants is consistency. I’ve had plenty of bad grilled cheeses, but they’ve been bad in a pretty limited number of ways: either too greasy or unevenly cooked (or both). He’s quite health conscious, so you’d think he wouldn’t want a disgustingly greasy grilled cheese, but I guess a grilled cheese always tastes like American cheese, bread and grease, whereas a hamburger might have a plain bun or a poppy seed bun or a sesame seed bun, the bun might be buttered and toasted or plain, the patty might be thick or thin, overcooked or undercooked, juicy or dry, come with ketchup or mayonnaise or mustard or special sauce, and might have any number of toppings. He doesn’t like all that variation; he wants something that will taste the same as last time, even if that might be something greasy and disgusting. I don’t think he actually notices the flavor of what he eats, just whether it matches his expectation. > [@](#): > > But I think that’s it for a lot of people. Eating is just a necessary task to fuel the body. They go out for the companionship of friends but aren’t getting anything from the food itself. Asking why they don’t eat different things is, to them, like asking if they get bored always putting the same gas in their car. “Don’t you ever just have an urge to go to Shell instead of Chevron, just for something different?” I think this is a big part of it for him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-being-a-boring-eater-work/653926.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-being-a-boring-eater-work/653926.md?page=3)