Why to people insist on cooking popcorn in the office?

Asafoetida maybe??

I don’t know the outcome. I would hazard a guess that the company paid her off with a severence package of some kind.

A woman at my office heats a bag of microwave popcorn every single morning at 8:45. The artificial smell is certainly a gagger, but I’m not thinking about the smell when she heats up the daily bag. I’m more grossed out when I imagine the chemicals she’s consuming. So gross.

Ah yes. Those nasty chemicals… Glad I don’t eat any chemicals.

I microwave popcorn once or twice a week at work but I don’t use that nasty pre-packaged stuff. I have one of these coffee pot looking things and then just add a little real butter and salt for flavor.

Count me among those who hate microwave popcorn, especially the burnt stuff.

But on of the worst was when my desk was next to the kitchen. There was once an office party where Mexican food was ordered. There was so much trash that it was overflowing. And housekeeping didn’t show up for a week. Egads, that was intolerable.

And when I worked at a bank, one of the tellers would heat up Chinese food every morning. Not too bad, you think? This was not general gau’s chicken. This was ass-flavoed sausages, heated in a crock pot, se we’d get the stink all morning and a good part of the afternoon. Customers would walk in, make a face, and run out.

This teller was actually costing the bank business? I’m surprised management never did anything about it, then.

Though I’m equally surprised at the stories of people eating the same thing over and over every single day. Where do they get it from (especially in the case of the fish)? Why do they cook nothing but it daily?

Management was her cousin.

Indian person checking in here. I am guessing one of the smelly things in Indian food is probably chaat masala. There is no doubt this has a bit of a smell of hydrogen sulfide - i.e., the same smell in rotten eggs. It’s due to some very highly pungent black pepper and asfoetida.

Now it’s odd, I hate the smell of rotten eggs but when I smell chaat masala, my mouth waters. It’s all about what you’re used to, I guess. I never, ever eat chaat masala in public though. At home, I get a bunch of sweet, sweet watermelon and sprinkle chaat masala all over it and apologize to my SO (of Chinese descent - nothing in Chinese food smells as strongly as Indian food). I LOVE chaat masala.

In Spain I’ve only seen it in theaters (movie or regular - but these, only during comedies or musicals) or during parties that people weren’t having in their own home: it could be a place they owned and used specifically for parties and family celebrations, but not in the house. In one of my US jobs there was a “do not cook or heat anything that smells at all” policy; I understand some people had needed explanations of what “anything that smells at all” means.

I’m with the OP. We have someone in our office who burns popcorn at least once a week. Even when it’s not burned that fake butter crap smells gross.

I usually eat the same thing for lunch every day (non-stinky cheese sandwiches that don’t require a microwave.)

One time I walked into the living room and thought I was smelling Parmesan cheese, but it turned out to be my dad’s feet. :frowning:

Try boiling a pig’s stomach some time. Or making your own stinky tofu.

I’m sure my co-worker gets his fish (live or frozen) from the Chinese supermarket. Why eat it every day? Probably because he thinks it’s healthy.

WANT!!!

Me too!

Does anyone else think that the artificial butter stuff smells like pee?

Worst thing I’ve ever smelled cooking at work: a lady brought in leftover chicken from the previous night’s dinner. It turns out that this chicken had been purchased at a steep, steep discount due to its expiration date…surprisingly, she didn’t get sick from it.

The thing I’m still not getting is why is popcorn so popular (no pun intended)? Why aren’t more people eating peanuts or pistachios or pretzels or any of the other snack foods that start with a P?

Popcorn is high in fiber and low in calories. You can eat a much larger serving of popcorn – because it’s puffed up – than you can of most other snacks. Popcorn is also less processed than pretzels, crackers, and other flour-based products. It’s hard to add a whole lot of “hidden ingredients” to popcorn other than topical flavorings and some oil. You don’t have to drown it in butter or salt if you don’t want to.

Freshly popped popcorn also has fewer additives, and it’s hot, and people like hot food.

Peanuts and pistachios, like other nuts, are high in fat and overall calories and as a result serving sizes are much smaller.

Well, in my experience, that’s not exactly daily foodstuffs! My SO’s family has never made either of those things and I’ve been with him sixteen years now. Chaat masala is very common.

BTW popcorn as Ascenray says is less calories and a delicious yummy snack. You can low butter and low salt popcorn.

People burn popcorn because they use the popcorn button instead of listening like the instructions say. But usually that’s only a few burnt kernels that you’d only notice when you opened the package. But if you have those smaller packages for snacks–those will burn.

I have experience there: I did this at college my first year. I even walked out of the break room while it was going. It set off the smoke alarm at midnight or later. Everyone had to leave the dorm. My roommate convinced me not to fess up the RAs when they asked because he was sure people would be too upset after being woke up and made to go outside at that time.