Food quirks
June 4, 2009 | My Jottings
Almost everyone I know has some sort of strange food preference, and I have a few myself – maybe they were inherited.
When my father wanted a snack he chose one of two. He would spread lardy Skippy crunchy peanut butter on a piece of white bread, then wrap that around a whole sweet pickle and eat it like one does a hot dog. If he didn’t have time for the bread, he would just dip the pickle in the peanut butter and eat it that way. I didn’t know until I was older how strange this was.
Dad also practically lived off of crackers and milk. He would crunch an entire sleeve of Premium soda crackers into a large bowl, then pour whole milk over it. It would turn into a half-crunchy, half-mushy white mess, and he loved it. I can still see him spooning that into his mouth while watching Perry Mason on TV.
He didn’t like chocolate, and also ate only vanilla ice cream, and he avoided most vegetables like the plague. He hated whole grain anything, would eat fruit now and then, and thought he was doing well to eat a small salad made with a few pale leaves of iceberg lettuce topped with Wishbone Italian dressing, which was a staple in our house. Despite his fairly unhealthy diet, he lived to be a vigorous 87 years old.
In my family we often had oatmeal on the weekends, but I never saw anyone put sugar or milk on their oats until I was an adult. We put crumbled, crisp-cooked bacon, and bits of scrambled eggs, and pats of butter on top of our oats. And then sprinkled it with salt. Sweet oats? Shudder.
I know of someone who likes white spaghetti noodles mixed with cold French dressing. Someone else I know craves pancakes topped with about an inch of peanut butter.
I like chocolate and peanut butter in almost any form, although that pairing might not be considered quirky. Considering how many new candy bars Reese’s is putting out lately, I think millions of others like peanut butter and chocolate too.
Sometimes I crave blue cheese dressing and peanuts together, so I’ll mix those two in a salad. Once a year or so I revert back to an old childhood snack and dip graham crackers in milk, several of them all held together and dunked in that manner.
When I was pregnant I used to crave blue cheese dressing spread over a slice of strong rye bread. It must be something about the mold in the cheese. Maybe I just have a compulsion to get as much mold into my body as possible. (Come to think of it, that might just explain everything…)
So this brings us to this month’s bloggy giveaway! What are your food quirks? Or the odd food preferences of someone you know? Do you like unusual food combinations, like soda crackers and milk, peanut butter and pickles, or chicken and grape jelly?
If there are three or fewer comments posted, I’ll use the eenie-meenie-minie-moe method of choosing this month’s prize winner. If there are more of you who share, I’ll consult random.org, so anyone who leaves a comment has a chance at the “yummy” prize. The winner will be announced in the morning on Tuesday, June 9th.
Bon appetit,
I haven’t posted in a long time ~ so busy ~ but I can share in this one! My mom used to make us peanut butter, mayo, and sliced dill pickle sandwiches for a treat! We once had a Brazilian visitor who tasted peanut butter for the first time here in the states. He also loved fried eggs. Want to know what he really liked? You may have guessed, eggs fried in peanut butter! One of my very favorite desserts tho was one my friend Jodi and I were introduced to when we were visiting the Netherlands in 1973. It was white bread spread thickly with REAL butter (we always used margarine at home) and chocolate sprinkles sprinkled equally as thick as the butter. These sprinkles were very different than the ones found in our grocery stores for a cake/cookie topping. Not sure how, but they were. I have only had it once after returning to the states and a friend of mine who was Dutch-Indonesian knew where to buy the sprinkles. She bought me some and even though the taste was a little different (my adult tastebuds I suppose) it was still wonderful and transported me right back to Amsterdam. What a fun treat!
Good morning Julie! I love a big scoop of fresh salsa on top of a mound of low fat, small curd cottage cheese along with a side of tortilla chips. The first time I was seen eating this in public (it was in the hospital cafeteria), I didn’t get rave reviews based solely on appearance but it caught on with a few people. I also love, and have loved since I was a young girl, Cheez It crackers alone, dipped in Jif or eaten with baby dill pickles.
Hi Julie! I remember that my dad had the strangest food quirks. He loved to eat sandwiches made from peanut butter, cheddar cheese and mustard. I tried it once, just to see what the hoopla was all about. It was truly wretched! On occasion, he’d unwrap an 8oz. bar of cream cheese and eat it like a candy bar. Just thinking of it makes me shudder! Even worse, was watching him drink a full glass of buttermilk. He’d just chug it right down and smack his lips afterwards. Ugh!
Hmmm… I have eaten many strange things. The most horrifying thing I have ever eaten is an iguana that I named Pedro. After hours of playing with Pedro, the Nicaraguan men came, bound him up, shoved a stick through him, and roasted him over the fire. He was then served as my dinner. Extremely traumatic for an 11 year old. As to the chocolate/peanut butter fixation, I wholeheartedly agree! Oreos with peanut butter spread atop is one of my favs! I also love pretzels dipped in cream cheese. Yummy.
I really can’t think of any food quirks I have because I have always been a picky eater. As I have aged, so have my tastebuds, thankfully, and I have eaten so many more things than I ever used too. However, when I was in college my boyfriend at the time, now my husband, his roommate would go squirrel hunting. One day he invited me over for dinner and made squirrel. It wasn’t bad much to my surprise. Tasted a lot like chicken. When he opened the freezer door where he had been keeping them I was horrified to see them all perched in the door!
Julie-
Well, I have nothing to say as horrifying as Jenna Dean or Ronda! YIKES!!!!! I would have to wonder if any therapy was required after those incidents!!
And get this, just two days ago, my good friend talked me into trying a peanut butter and pickle sandwich!!! I thought she was crazy but it was actually pretty tasty!!
Probably the most “exotic” thing I’ve eaten is escargot that my dad made me try. It was prepared in some type of wonton shell thing and was actually pretty good.
I am generally somewhat averse to meat. I do eat it in small quantities but if I lived alone I would never make it. I tried being a total vegetarian for a number of years but fell off the wagon when a piece of beef jerky called my name.
There’s also a story behind me eating a jelly bean sandwich one time, which I would not recommend. Ick. Bread is good. Jelly beans are good. Together they are not good.
I do like saltine crackers with margarine spread on them.
A special treat that we used to get as kids when we stayed with our grandparents was “toast, cream and sugar” which was a piece of toast with half and half poured over it and covered in brown sugar. It was SOOOOO good and we weren’t allowed to have it anywhere but there.
And in college I used to make “cream cheese, cheddar cheese and pickle” sandwiches. There was a process of toasting, refrigeration and other steps before it could be consumed. Yummy.
First of all…
The instant that I read the name of this blog-note, “food-quirks” I thought of Grandpa Sooter. I also thought of my dad, because his food habits are getting to be very similar to Grandpa’s. Dad loves peanut butter and pickle sandwiches, and he makes a glass, full of crumbled saltines with milk poured over it, as a snack. He also likes the oatmeal with bacon, eggs, and chili over it. He has it once a year for his birthday.
I have a couple weird food quirks, but I know of several people that are even more weird than I.
When I eat McDonalds Chicken Nuggets… I dissect them. I eat all the fried stuff off, then dip the little white piece of chicken in ranch and eat it. Weird, I know.
I really really really like to put a huge mound of cottage cheese in my salad, instead of salad dressing. MMM!!! So good!
I only eat one thing at a time on my plate. I will eat all of my green beans before my chicken. Always one thing at a time. And I NEVER mix anything!!!!
I put basil on everything. I love basil.
Ok, now for the best stuff.
My friend Abby won’t eat a grilled cheese sandwich unless she has melted chocolate chips into the cheese. Isn’t that disgusting?
My roomie, Chrissy, dips her graham crackers into Blue Gatorade. She made me try it one time and I loved it! It’s really good!
A little girl that goes to the daycare that I used to work at would only eat Apples if she could dip them in ranch.
And when my friend, Danni, went to Poland, anywhere you ate they served bread with a bowl of lard. Not butter, lard.