Ooh, I love that stuff, but it is an acquired taste. I learned to like it when my Dutch mother tried to pass it off as “candy”. I spoiled her fun by liking it. Great for sore throat.
I have a friend who lives in Sweden and at our annual beach house in Florida, he brought some of that. I’d have to say that was the weirdest thing I’ve eaten. It does take some (read a lot) getting used to. Its flavor became more acceptable in proportion to the increase of alcohol intake.
Hey, what doesn’t?
Preach it! Moses had locusts, I have engineers. I brought in a huge coffee cake and two 1/2 sheet cakes (leftovers from a big party I had at my house) one morning - sent an email out at 7:00 AM saying that it was here. Not even a crumb left by 7:45. I don’t know how they do it. I’ve seen them take leftover lettuce off a tray - no meat left, no tomatoes left, no pickles left - just the lettuce and back to their cubes they go with it.
One day I brought in a bag of Pepperidge Farm cookies (unopened) that was three months past its sell-by date. They were gone within an hour and a half.
I love watching when an unusual item – such as a bag of Dove chocolates – is placed on the free food table: people approach cautiously, then someone will touch the bag. Sometimes someone will pick up the bag and read it. Finally, someone will sample the food, signalling that it’s OK for everyone else to dig in.
Eating correlates to boredom. I know I eat way, way more at my desk (heck, I’m eating now) than I would outside the office.
It’s a little sad, really, that so much of America is so bored.
Well, hey, if she’s stupid enough to eat something that makes her sick, I say let her.
People eat food that is available.
It’s left over from when we were monkeys or something.
One of the best ways not to eat so much food is simply not to have it around. Anyone remember that big food study out of Cornell a couple years back where the guy did experiments like he’d give people a giant bucket of 2 day old popcorn, and give other people a small bucket of fresh popcorn, but they had to get it refilled if they wanted more.
The giant-bucket people ate more popcorn.
People with bigger plates ate more.
Candy in glass dishes was eaten quicker than candy in opaque containers.
Food will be eaten.
My career is just now moving into the “vaguely responsible for what some other people do, sometimes” stage… not management, but leading some projects. I am happy to report that last month I had my first chance to take a team out for a celebration lunch, and we went to a nice, interesting local restaurant, not a chain. I am fighting the good fight for people with tastebuds!
Because, yeah, considering I really dislike the food and not very much of it is healthy, I don’t consider being dragged out to Chilli’s or its ilk a treat. I can afford my own food; I don’t need free mediocre food, and I’m not especially grateful if I get it.
If it’s been a busy week sometimes the management will order lunch for our group of around 15 techies. It’s usually pizza since it’s easy to get something for the vegetarians. Last week the veggies were away so it was KFC. The food was laid out in a small meeting room. At first it was too busy to squeeze in so I came back to my desk for a bit of SDMB. Ten minutes later it was gone and I got no lunch.
Damn. Add Steaks and that’d be me.
Ah, wait. Did I just admit that? :smack: lol
This is why I generally skip company functions that have more than eight or ten people in attendance. That many preferences results in protracted argument, with the result that the organizers are forced to compromise with the blandest, most inoffensive middle-of-the-road restaurant available. I might as well just go into the server build room and season the packing peanuts with Bacon Salt.
The seven people in my immediate department, though, are a godsend. As a group, we’ve acquired a taste for Chinese, especially dim sum. A few weeks ago, we tried a new Chinese place, and I explained the trick of asking for “the other menu,” which has the more unusual and authentic dishes. Not only were they not weirded out, they were legitimately enthusiastic.
I love my teammates. And I expect to have most of them eating chicken feet by the end of the year. 
My workplace feeds us if we work the weekends. You should see the stampede when it’s announced that the food is laid out. Then again, I’m one of the champion eaters in this workplace. I still don’t have the record at the pancake breakfast.
Damn you shakes fist.
I’ve noticed this at a lot of offices, too, but my current team doesn’t do this, oddly enough. People seem to have a lot more self control. It helps that my company is really meeting-oriented (meaning it helps us not attack food - doesn’t do much for our productivity, though). So people are rarely at their desks or if they are, they’re on a call. It’s hard to give a presentation with your mouth full. Even better, most people here like ethnic food - we’re going for Indian Monday and I can’t wait!
The one thing I tend to attack is the dreaded plate of cookies. I love cookies. They’re my favorite food group. Other than that, I can take it or leave it.
Sometimes this is a result of pleasing a group, as well.
Last year my entire family and GF went on a cruise, which included a day in Key West. GF and I set out alone. For breakfast, we got eggs benedict with crab cakes topped with key lime sauce. For lunch we got some conch fritters, followed up by key lime pie.
The rest of the family, all eleven of them, couldn’t decide what to get for lunch. They ended up getting pizza.
Yeah, I stopped looking out for her wellbeing. I think it’s the rest of the staff’s secret plan to knock her off, which on some days, I’m on board with.
grabs the Weight Watchers book
Wait…how many Points are in packing peanuts? 
I don’t get the hate for Applebee’s and Chili’s and their bretheren. I understand not wanting to go there if it is just you and your SO or whatever, but when you have a group of people who all want different things is it really so bad to have a shrimp-kabob or a rack of ribs or even just a burger every now and again so that everyone in the group can find something they would like?
I can find something to eat at most any restaurant and I do love going to local places in my neighborhood but I also understand that there are people who do not share my tastes. Going someplace where they have something for everyone means that though I might not get the sesame chicken I was craving I also don’t have to sit and try to figure out what on the menu isn’t covered in curry either, so I can happily munch on a burger or some blackened chicken to make sure everyone gets something they enjoy.
It’s not about everybody getting something they enjoy. It’s about a few people getting something they enjoy and the rest getting something they won’t complain about.
Actually it seems to me that it is more that you (general you, not any person in particular) don’t mind if someone who is sensitive to spices has to sit with their soda and watch everyone else enjoy their exotic meal but for you (again, general you) to have to sit and have something that is kind of bland for your taste it is a travesty. Heaven forbid everyone be able to find something adequate on a menu!