# The Anti Comfort Food Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 9, 2005, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-comfort-food-thread/283809 "2005-01-09T01:24:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![LindyHopper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ebca7d/32.png) [@LindyHopper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LindyHopper)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-comfort-food-thread/283809/81 "2005-01-10T17:39:56Z")
Tequila, of course. Due to a get-together while home from college for winter break, where we decided to watch _Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure_ and drink tequila. I think I had 14 shots before I staggered off to bed. _Not_ pleasant. I can drink margaritas, but _making_ them is difficult; if I get a whiff of the tequila smell I start to feel faint. And Wheat Thins. I ate like a box of them in a half hour or so in daycare when I was about 8, and I can’t go near them now. Blech. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-comfort-food-thread/283809/82 "2005-01-10T18:31:11Z")
Rum. A couple of years ago, a friend made “authentic New Orleans Hurricanes” for Mardi Gras. I drank one and was puking sick that night and hung over for two days. To this day, the smell of rum kicks my upper GI tract into reverse. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-comfort-food-thread/283809/83 "2005-01-10T18:51:28Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Yeah, I’m another sweet pickle hater. Pickles of any variety are nausea-inducing enough for me, but I really **really** get queasy at the smell of **DILL**. Blech. Even if the dill weed isn’t in pickle form, I can’t stand it – I can still remember getting nauseous on a choral concert trip back in high school (1983) because they’d prepared garlic bread with dill on it. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-comfort-food-thread/283809/84 "2005-01-10T19:02:15Z")
Eggs. I truly believe I would starve to death before I ate an egg. I just…can’t. Macaroni and cheese for me too, which is odd, because I love pasta and I love cheese. But for some reason, fat noodles make me go bleeacch. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-comfort-food-thread/283809/85 "2005-01-10T19:17:47Z")
> [@GingerOfTheNorth](#): > > Strawberry flavoured anything. I had the beginnings of the flu once, but went over to my friend’s house anyway. Her mother gave us milk with Strawberry Quik in it. I barfed spectacularly pink everywhere. Since then, no way, and it’s been 28 years. That’s too bad, because in my never-humble opinion, Strawberry Quik is the nectar of the Gods. Mmmmm, Strawberry Quik. Okay, okay, they officially call it “Strawberry Nesquik” now. Maybe they were worried that their trademark would be ruled a Household Word by the courts or something. ---
**Author:** ![lachesis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@lachesis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lachesis)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-comfort-food-thread/283809/86 "2005-01-10T19:49:13Z")
take heart, o ye averse-conditioned foodites! it CAN be overcome. when i was quite young, the REALLY BIG THING was to have dinner at the Flagship Restaurant here in DC. they had rum buns as a meal side that were to _die_ for. in my early teen years, we went to dinner there one night with some guests from out of town. i think i was feeling a bit “off” during dinner. my swordfish (the only fish i considered edible) wasn’t making me happy, and i consoled myself with my rum bun (and any and every one i could beg/filch/con from everyone else at the table). i wound up laying down across two chairs by the meal’s end, i was feeling so rotten. think i managed to hold the puking session until we finally got home afterward. rum buns don’t taste nearly as wonderful the second time around. for _ **years** _ afterward, the smell of a rum bun would gag me. that was a crushing blow, let me tell you. i wasn’t overly thrilled with swordfish either for a while, but the rum buns got the major portion of the blame. fast forward many years later. we’re once again dining at the Flagship, where i haven’t been probably since the infamous incident. my god, they STILL serve rum buns, after all these years! i take a tentative nibble at one… and all is good. damn, all is GREAT! all those years, **wasted**! :: sob :: my aversion has receded with the mists of time. sometimes just countering the old bad memory with a pleasant (or at least neutral) one will do the trick. even though i’ve had somewhat similar incidents (drinking strawberry soda when you’re coming down with mono does Very Bad Things to your tastebuds), i’ve managed to overcome the bad associations. so for those lamenting lost loves … there IS hope. YMMV, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-comfort-food-thread/283809/87 "2005-01-10T23:07:28Z")
Dismissing the various things I won’t eat due to taste, the only thing I can think of that fits this category is creamed tuna. It was a recipe my mom would make on the nights where she was working. It was easy for us to heat up. It was tuna, peas and some kind of cream sauce served over rice, noodles or toast. We had it at least once a week for about 2 years until I couldn’t stand it anymore. It’s come back to haunt me because my wife is enthralled with tuna helper creamy noodly. Basically the same thing, only pre-made. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-comfort-food-thread/283809/88 "2005-01-10T23:35:42Z")
Ya know, there’s a theory out there that there’s no such thing as Stomach Flu – it’s food poisoning. So for those of you who told a story “I ate x and then came down with stomach flu…” bear that in mind. For me, it’s gin. I had an overexposure incident to it once. The fact that it’s the stinkiest of distilled spirits doesn’t help. When my wife was pregnant, she suddenly decided that the smell of Las Palmas canned enchilada sauce was repugnant (it was a staple up to that point) and we haven’t had it since. ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-comfort-food-thread/283809/89 "2005-01-10T23:37:33Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > But for me, it’s **grapefruit**. No special circumstance – I didn’t get a piece of grapefruit caught in my throat as a toddler, or have a grapefruit try to climb out of a citrus-fruit box waving its feelers at me, or something – I just am completely repelled by the taste. It’s intensely sour and cannot be sweetened enough to overcome the sourness\*, and it dominates other food. Grapefruit tastes (to me) like vomit, I can’t even get a whiff of it without gagging cuz it even _smells_ like it to me. The only thing grapefruit I can stand is the grapefruit soda, which is as far from grapefuit as it can be. My other is cottage cheese. I have no problems with it in other stuff (like lasagna) but to eat on its own? _gag_ I did get sick after having cottage cheese and juice as a snack in preschool, but now I think it’s more the texture/smell that turns me off so I can’t even try to eat it unless it’s masked. ---
**Author:** ![beckwall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b487fb/32.png) [@beckwall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beckwall)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-comfort-food-thread/283809/90 "2005-01-10T23:38:19Z")
Can’t. Do. Olive. Garden. Gag. (can’t even drive past or watch the commercials) Green Gatorade - related to the prep before a lower GI test, where I had to mix evil powder in a clear liquid and I chose Gatorade. Bad flash back on that one. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2005, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-comfort-food-thread/283809/91 "2005-01-11T00:08:50Z")
> [@tracer](#): > > I can still remember getting nauseous on a choral concert trip back in high school (1983) because they’d prepared garlic bread with dill on it. WTF? Garlic bread with dill is an abomination! No wonder you got queasy. > [@LifeOnWry](#): > > So I slug down this sticky sweet fluid - and immediately crash to the floor, sweating profusely and projectile vomiting, in a room full of expectant mothers, some of whom become extremely sympathetic, and join me in the vomit-fest. My poor doctor had never seen such an outright explosion of horror. and > [@SolGrundy](#): > > so I had the “pleasure” of lying drunk and sick and wanting to die on my bedroom floor while listening to songs about people drinking themselves to death. and [QUOTE=Malkavia] I can only assume that my parents were just trying to get these vile, contemptuous food items out of their pantry and were as surprised as the rest of us to find that their chunky toddler would inhale a can of beets like Popeye on speed.[?QUOTE] are all so very funny, in that “oh, I really shouldn’t laugh at this horror” kind of way. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2005, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-comfort-food-thread/283809/92 "2005-01-11T00:10:08Z")
Damn! Sorry 'bout that. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2005, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-comfort-food-thread/283809/93 "2005-01-11T00:58:02Z")
> [@Flutterby](#): > > My other is cottage cheese. I have no problems with it in other stuff (like lasagna) but to eat on its own? Cottage cheese in lasagna? Ew. Do they not have ricotta in Canada? ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2005, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-comfort-food-thread/283809/94 "2005-01-11T01:13:24Z")
The recipe calls for ricotta or cottage cheese, and I’ve only personally made lasagna once. With cottage cheese. My mom dislikes ricotta, so I never buy it (same reason I don’t buy ricotta pierogies) ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2005, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-comfort-food-thread/283809/95 "2005-01-11T08:29:56Z")
> [@tracer](#): > > That’s too bad, because in my never-humble opinion, Strawberry Quik is the nectar of the Gods. > > Mmmmm, Strawberry Quik. Mmmmm, ipecac! I thought everybody acknowledged that Strawberry Quik was one of the most vile substances ever devised by humans. IIRC, on “Mystery Science Theater 3000” one of their recipes for Rainy Day Do It Yourself At-Home Ipecacs was Strawberry Quik mixed with marshmallow circus peanuts. But really, I think Everlast said it best: > [@Shamrocks and Shenanigans (Boom sha-lock Boom)](#): > > The House of Pain’s the name of my clique > You get me down, punk, get off my dick, > You make me sick, like Strawberry Quik, > Your style is wack, you ain’t the mack, > So yo, step back, while I attack, > And sing a new tune like Boom sha-lock Boom ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2005, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-comfort-food-thread/283809/96 "2005-01-11T08:51:23Z")
> [@Anastasaeon](#): > > Lutefisk. And yet you live in Ballard? :dubious: For me, it’ Scotch. Sophomore year in college, some friends of mine and I decided to take on Scotland. We lost. Oh lord, we lost. It’s only a couple years ago that I became able to drink whiskey of any sort again. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2005, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-comfort-food-thread/283809/97 "2005-01-11T17:17:29Z")
> [@tracer](#): > > That’s too bad, because in my never-humble opinion, Strawberry Quik is the nectar of the Gods. > > Mmmmm, Strawberry Quik. You can have all of mine. Forever. > [@Aesiron](#): > > Cottage cheese in lasagna? Ew. Do they not have ricotta in Canada? Have you tried it? It’s REALLY GOOD. I prefer it to ricotta. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-comfort-food-thread/283809/98 "2005-01-11T18:53:00Z")
I like cottage cheese but ricotta is so synonymous with lasagna in my mind that even thinking about replacing it with something else makes me shudder a little despite them being pretty similar. It’s like ketchup on spaghetti or something. ---
**Author:** ![zoog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7ea924/32.png) [@zoog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoog)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2005, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-comfort-food-thread/283809/99 "2005-01-11T19:02:00Z")
Put another one down in the tequila column. I was sick for four days once after a tequila drunk, and now I can barely stand the mention of it. Don’t even think about opening a bottle in my presence… ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2005, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-comfort-food-thread/283809/100 "2005-01-11T19:27:54Z")
> [@Tikki](#): > > I can’t eat Top Ramen any more. Just seeing it in the store makes me think of how much I ate of it when I was habitually broke. I now think of it as “poor food.” Back when I was habitually broke, I subsisted on Ramen and cans of baked beans (not in the same meal, of course). I never had any problem with the noodles but it took me several years before I had another can of beans. > [@Aesiron](#): > > I like cottage cheese but ricotta is so synonymous with lasagna in my mind that even thinking about replacing it with something else makes me shudder a little despite them being pretty similar. It’s actually pretty good. Cottage cheese mixed in with Prego spaghetti sauce and layered between the noodles was how my mom maked lasagna. She never really learned how to cook. Naturally, I now prefer layers of ricotta, sauce, and noodles but cottage cheese will do in a pinch. > [@](#): > > _It’s like ketchup on spaghetti or something._ Not at all. Before he started buying Prego, my dad would make his own spaghetti sauce. You guessed it, he used a ketchup base. Blech. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-comfort-food-thread/283809.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-comfort-food-thread/283809.md?page=6)