Foods you eat strangely

[HotMelly]

It must be my OCD, but I kinda play a game with different foods in my mouth. For example, The little "Gold Fish" crackers, I hold one between my teeth and see if I can split it perfectly down the middle. As for popcorn, I try to save a pile of only the soft white corn and dispose of any hulls. Yes I do the Oreo cookie thing also. If I have Campbells vegetable soup I try to save the peas til last. If I have a slice of cheese I try to chew it so it is a perfect circle.
Anyone else have any weird habits.? Nothing wrong with me, with me, with me

[MEH]

Hi!

I loved your post!

I eat rod pretzels in a rather odd way. I like to break off the ends of the rod and then sip coca cola through it before eating it. No joke! I started eating pretzels this way when I had jaw surgery about 15 years ago. I wasn't allowed to eat solid food for 6 weeks, so this was a way I found to get the pretzel down. The habit stuck.

Nothing wrong with me either!

Take care-

-Mary
www.BestinKitchen.com

[bermudagourmetgoddess]

I don't eat the potatoes in New England Clam Chowder, never have don't know why. I can only eat a banana sliced and on a plate...and I turn my plate when eating to have the food that I am eating right in front of me...Nope nothing wrong with me! ;)

[Glencora]

I give the potatoes in clam chowder to my cat.

I don't eat the "crust" on pancakes. My SO says that such a thing does not exist, but it does.

Edit: Reading this thread..wow...and I thought I was peculiar.

[goodhealthgourmet]

Glencora, it certainly DOES exist, and i don't like it either! it's too dry - i always trim it off.

[HotMelly]

Oh My Gosh MEH, I have done that with the pretzels. Sometimes I see if I can eat all of the brown off of the pretzel and leave the light insides.
And as for "Life Savers" I try to not bite them but suck them til they disappear. I have also used the black licorice sticks as straws.

[BeaN]

Melly you seem to be implying that some people DO bite Life Savers. Am i reading you correctly? It's unfathomable. . .

[Caralien]

My husband and I both crunch through hard candies, including Life Savers and mints. I never knew that was really so strange.

[foodiesnorth]

Never met a hard candy I can't chew through EXCEPT jolly ranchers...they fascinate and repel me for that characteristic. Why are people so offended by chewing hard candies? Even my 10 year old (standing beside me as I type)...she can't understand her old dad's habit!

[alkapal]

i'm a chomper, too. i guess i'm too impatient. and yes, jolly ranchers are the exception.

[sfumato]

Me too! I can't suck on those things- I have to crunch them up. Even jawbreakers, which I have only had a few times in my life.

[juster]

If you get the right kind of candy cane, with just a BIT of a hole in the middle, you can stick it in an orange and suck out the juice!

[adamshoe]

when younger, I would eat/ scrape all the chocolate from a 3 musketeers bar so I was left with nothing but fluffy nougat. I also liked to eat cheese doodles as if they were an ear of corn (Taking tiny bites while rotating the doodle....) I am perfectly sane!! Adam

[Sal Vanilla]

OMG I totally forgot about doing that as a kid (3 musketeers). I used to lick the fluff clean. I used to do that with Twix too. Bite off the cracker and then carefully lick off the chocolate.

Hmmm... maybe I AM disturbed.

I also used to peel the apple with my two front teeth (a habit I started when I lost one front tooth). I would completely peel it. I think I was pretending to be a bunny. No not strange...

[Terrieltr]

For me, it was kit-kats. I'd eat the chocolate off the sides, then separate the wafers.

[hungryungry]

me too! or with ferrero rocher chocolates, I eat the chocolate off the waffery orb before I put it in my mouth

[TampaAurora]

Do you also nibble the edges off of Reese's cups?

[catrn]

I always eat the edges off Reese's (including the Resse's Christmas tree and especially the Reese's Easter eggs). Yumm! Leaving the best for last!

[alkapal]

the reese's easter eggs are the best reese's candy product because of the higher "filling-to-chocolate covering" ratio.

same deal with the "fun-size" nutrageous, compared with regular nutrageous candy bar size. why are the fun size only available -- and rarely -- at halloween?

why is it so hard to get the brach's fiesta malted milk easter eggs? i put mine in my mouth to dissolve the white coating, turning my tongue white. then, i let the chocolate start to melt in my mouth, then ...CRUNCH down to split into the malted milk center. i can eat almost the whole bag, and then feel sick. maybe it is a blessing that i can't hardly ever find them at eastertime.

[TampaAurora]

Nutrageous, Take Fives and Reese's are the way to snack! (See a pattern.) All must have the chocolate edges bit off before consuming.

[Melania]

OMG! I thought I was the only one who did this with Kit-Kats!

I like to put a bit of chili on one corner of a saltine & bite it off. I do all four corners of the cracker except the last corner goes on top of the spoonful of chili (there is nothing left to hold on to).

I also cut up my spaghetti and place bites on my garlic bread.

Wow - I never realized how weird I was until I wrote it out!

[jujuthomas]

i used to make spaghetti sandwiches - well buttered italian bread and bites of spaghettie. YUM!

[TampaAurora]

Garlic bread with spaghetti on top - only can do at home but so good.

[L_W]

I was just wondering this over the weekend. Why is there not such a thing as a spaghetti sandwich? If you grilled it (it would have to be leftover spaghetti, so it was more "solid") in a pan you could even hold it together with Mozzarella....

[Raedia]

My MIL tells me that spaghetti (from a tin) on toast was popular in England during the war... that's sort of similar?

[fudisgud]

we used to make these with left over spaghetti and those sandwich makers irons where it would seal the bread in the middle and sides while toasting it (the diy hot pocket makers). those were my favourite sandwiches growing up!

[KristieB]

I used to do this with goulash.

[The Professor]

with Goulash??
I'm guessing that you're not Hungarian. (or not referring to real goulash)

[BobB]

Goulash is the Czech Republic is eaten with what is usually translated as dumplings, but which actually resembles slices of dense white bread more than what we here call dumplings. So eating it as a sandwich with bread is not that weird, at least compared to some of the OCD practices described in this thread! ;-)

[cuccubear]

I remember that as a child, I would put my Spaghetti-O's on a hamburger bun and gobble it up.

Loved the carbs as a kid, I guess.

[AngelSanctuary]

hah! this reminds me of how I eat my chocolate covered ice-creamsicles, eat the chocolate first and then the ice-cream on a stick!

[ideabaker]

Ha ha, for me it was Butterfingers... I'd scrape off the thin chocolate layer (to which there was always attached a bit of the flaky inside stuck) with my teetch, then throw the rest of the bar away. That was only after Halloween, when we had chocolate in the house.

I now every once in a while purchase Hot Tamales. I open the box, let it sit for two months until very hard on the outside. Then I suck and let dissolve (takes a loooong time) two or three during a movie. A big box of Hot Tamales from Blockbuster or the Movie Theatre lasts me three years!

[alkapal]

i got a great deal on hot tamales and lemonheads after halloween. i'm puckering up just thinking of the lemonheads. neat little virtual tour: http://www.ferrarapan.com/html/lh_tou...

[Firegoat]

I also would eat the chocolate off a 3 musketeers bar first. Still do if I have one. Cheese Puffs I like to suck on.

[goodhealthgourmet]

the best way to eat the fat cheese puffs (e.g. Jax) or cheese balls (Planter's) is to suck on them until they pretty much dissolve.

[pinkprimp]

Sometimes, I can't help but eat the whole bag that way and my cheeks get raw from all the hard bits pushing against it.

[goodhealthgourmet]

my tongue & the roof of my mouth used to get so sore from doing it!

[EmoryJ]

I suck Cheetos/Cheese Balls till they disintegrate too.....it's so great that so many of us do these things 'cause I know no one showed me that haha.......and, this is';t all that weird if you've been to Cincinnati (or Steak and Shake), but I make Cincinnati Chili Three Ways by eating shitty canned chili over spaghetti with ketchup and parmesan cheese.......it's a comfort thing.....and it's a sure thing to give me wicked gas.............oh boy!

[jjbourgeois]

Hmmm, I used to do the same thing with Snickers bar.

[Michelly]

Ditto.

[lynnlato]

Ummm, how good does coca cola taste through a twizzlers "straw"? Really good!

[TampaAurora]

Sprite through a Twizzler was a favorite treat as a kid. Especially when accompanying popcorn with raisinets mixed in, and a animated film in a theater.

[goodhealthgourmet]

Root beer or Dr. Brown's Cream Soda through a *Chocolate* Twizzler...even better!

[sfumato]

Too funny- mr. sfumato LOVES pretzel rods and tries to get a clean, straight break with his front teeth when he bites off a piece.

I like to bite skittles in perfect halves and make flavour combinations. I don't eat them too often, though.

[milkyway4679]

Whenever I eat a dill pickle, I salt it a little bit, and then dip it in mayonnaise...

[Romanmk]

When I was a kid I would cut all my lasagna into bites before starting to eat. It was more like shredding it, with fork and knife, until I had a coarse puree. An efficient way to eat that my parents didn't abide.

[cuccubear]

Almonds – I eat them the same way you eat Gold Fish, trying to split them perfectly in two... Pistachios – after the nut, I save that little piece of “skin” stuck to the inside of the shell for last... Chili – I have to scoop it up with crackers instead of a spoon...

[szmeterling]

were we parted at birth?? same thing with the almonds, but with pistachios, I can't help but eat the "skin" first - it's my favourite part

[Will Owen]

Back in my lunch-at-my-desk days (drawing board, really), one of my favorite lunches was to buy a small carton of cottage cheese, a couple of green onions, a can of either sardines or smoked oysters, and a small box of Ritz crackers. I would chop up the fish or oysters very coarsely and the onions more finely and stir these into the cottage cheese, then use the crackers to eat it all with. Didn't usually have a lot of company at these times...

[Cathy]

When my boss started to have meetings at lunch- and told us those mandatory meeting hours would not count as hours worked- nor would she provide a meal for us supervisors, I would bring in my roll of braunschweiger, chopped onions, slices of bread and mustard packets and would proceed to make myself a sandwich in front of everyone.

After three weeks, Dominos pizza started appearring (each time with her holding a timer hoping it was delivered in 30 minutes or less, so she could get it for free). I still brought my braunschweiger, BTW.

In further answer to the OP's query, I only eat baked potato skins, not innards, I only eat popcorn with chopsticks (makes it last longer doing piece by piece) and I only make cooked tapioca pudding, eat the skin off of it and then let a second skin form which I also eat and then the third skin is not much so that is when I finish the pudding...

[alkapal]

cathy, i love and may adopt your sun tzu "braunschweiger stratagem."

[missfunkysoul]

i don't do this any more, as i can't even remember the last time i had a fruit roll-up...

but when i was a kid, the ONLY way to eat them was to wrap one around your index finger and suck on it until it was gone. i know i wasn't the only one!

[Emme]

exactly! jennifer garner's character does this in 13 Going on 30. always makes me smile... and kind of crave a fruit roll-up.

then of course there were gushers. which you bite off a small corner, suck out the goo, and eat the remaining gummy shell.

[soypower]

is there another way to eat fruit roll ups?

[goodhealthgourmet]

nope, that's the official (and IMHO, only) way to eat a fruit roll-up...and if it's apricot, all the better - the color doesn't stain your finger too badly :)

[hungryungry]

I used to bury it in the snow at recess and then dig it up at the next recess, it was like and extra long lasting popsicle (but I also wrapped around my finger, in the summer)

[goodhealthgourmet]

ok, now THAT'S a new one.

but it reminds me of trying to make candy in the snow with maple syrup after reading about it in "Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder :)

[kubasd]

yeah i did that too after reading little house in the big woods! unfortunately i tried it using mrs. butterworth's so i just made maple flavored snow. Which still tasted good, but not quite the same.

[hotteacher1976]

Haha I did the same thing! Ahh, the 80s!

[hungryabbey]

haah I did this as well.

[tracylee]

re: plate rotation. Up until recently - and I'm 43, I had to have the plate in the exact spot in which it was first set down. A guy I dated realized this and would reach over and rotate it slightly, trying to drive me crazy. I then went to lunch with my boss at a fast food place, and as he was sitting down, he rotated my entire tray 180 degrees. I was convinced he'd been talking to the guy I was dating about how to drive me nuts!!!!

OK, I think I'm finally almost over that - keep your hand away from my plate!

[missfunkysoul]

you could be a seinfeld character! so funny.

[BeaN]

there is a reason that we call them "exes."

[EWSflash]

I sorta like to have what I'm eating right in front of me on my plate, too. No big deal if you want to keep it in the same position, BUT gosh, I would think that anybody that tried to keep you from doing that (or the inverse, keeping the plate in the same position) has some control issues, not to mention their impulse control issues! You could always slap them good and hard and then look shocked and say "Oh sorry, I have impulse control problems too!

[alkapal]

tracylee, you might be interested in "plateguard", "pocket-picket" and "taster-taser."
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/5355...

{;^D.

[tracylee]

Ooooh! great idea! Good thing I've mostly gotten over the plate being turned thing, but if someone were to reach over and sample off my plate without asking, a taser might be in order.

[alkapal]

yes, my "taster-taser" is small enough to be kept discreetly in purse or pocket, yet powerful enough to stop cold that unwanted intruding hand.

[pinkprimp]

If I am at home, the way I eat a sandwich is to take the first two bites regularly (ingredients intact, etc) but after those two bites, I will eat each component seperately (ie; first the top slice of bread, the tomato...)

[cresyd]

I am like this with all "hand held" type foods. Burritos, falafels, sandwiches, etc. Usually I consume it ingredient by ingredient - unless it's something like a burrito, however I require a fork. And the bread/tortilla/pita is saved for last. However, grilled sandwiches that have only a few ingredients I will eat whole.

I rarely eat food like that in public anymore...

[pinkprimp]

Hehehe, for things like burritos and wraps, I ALWAYS use a fork because I will eat the tortilla/bread/pita first and my favourite ingredients last...

Which reminds me of the way I ate chinese hotdog buns as a child...bun first (but leave the bread closest to the sausage last because it was nice and moist from the sausage) and then suck the sausage to make sure there is no bread stuck on it...then eat it by sucking out the "insides" first.

I am so glad NO ONE besides SO has seen this (and that he thinks its "adorable") hah!

[L_W]

Wow, here I was, thinking I was gonna be "so odd" because I cannot and will not eat a sandwich as a sandwich. It MUST be taken apart. Even grilled chese---first the crust, then I peel off the fried crust and finally the gooey cheese (which is held is place by a thing layer of bread). Supposedly as a kid (back when I ate beef), I would eat a Big Mac layer by layer...in public. Now, most of my dis-assembly of food is done in the privacy of my home!

[cresyd]

I'm impressed that you keep it to grilled cheese as well. If it's a "large" grilled sandwich (one that has more than three ingredients in addition to the bread - then it gets disassembled. But if it's cheese and one other ingredient (and maybe two...), then I manage to eat it all together.

I guess the whole sandwich deconstruction has to do with eating ingredients separately. Cause while I won't (normally) dissect maki rolls into separate parts - I always prefer to order chirashi so I can eat the ingredients separately.

[Emmmily]

Up until about high school I did that with pizza, ostensibly because I didn't like tomatoes so I had to get rid of the sauce. First I'd eat the pepperoni (saving one piece for last, since it was the best part), then the cheese, then I'd scrape off the sauce with either a knife or a napkin (ew), then eat the crust, then my final piece of pepperoni. Luckily I grew out of that one.

[jeanmarieok]

Whenver I order eggs benedict, I flip the hollandaise/poached egg/ canadian bacon over onto the english muffin, so the hollandaise and egg yolk can soak perfectly into the muffin. I get strange looks, but hey, I like it the way I like it.

And I eat goldfish crackers exactly like the hotmelly does.

[pinkprimp]

That sounds like a great idea! Whenever I get sunny side up or over easy eggs, I always have to eat the runny yolk first.

[Jeri L]

That's not a strange way to eat eggs benedict...it's a LOGICAL way to do it! (Yeah, I do it too...)

[patricium]

I don't flip - I just slide the canadian bacon slice out from in between before breaking the yolk. I'm not sure it's a good idea for me to be doing food acrobatics in the morning. ;-)

[small h]

I have been known to wrap a pickle spear in a slice of American cheese. And I am completely normal.

[Eric in NJ]

Used to drive my grandmother nuts with this. I would eat a piece of pie by eating the top crust then the filling then the bottom crust. If it was lemon meringue one of her best, I'd eat the meringue then filling and bottom crust. I don't know why but I stopped doing that.

[ktb615]

I eat triscuit crackers "row by row". That equals out to about 10 bites per cracker I think. I like to take sugar wafers apart and eat them piece by piece as well.

[Emme]

that's funny, when i could eat them, i would eat those mother's cookie wafers from outside in... take off outside wafers leaving as much creme on the remaining cookie as possible, then at the end having a nice thin wafer with all the creme on it.

i used to do similar with oreos, but i'd take three or so. take off one side of each, pawn the creamless side off. then pile all the creams on one wafer. eat the naked wafers. then enjoy that sickeningly sweet wafer with the multiple creams

[hungryungry]

I used to twist them open, scape off the white stuff and oly eat the cookie... I still do, I just dont eat them very often

[meatn3]

I must eat by following the spiral with cinnamon rolls & the like. The first bite must be gently teased away from the body of the roll and cause no rips...

[Emme]

i used to the same! but i'd also turn the thing upside down, so that the icing would pretty much fall off. the last bite of the cinnamon roll itself is the best - the cinnamony gooey center core. then use a spoon to eat up the icing.

[SFDude]

I almost always save a bite of meat (or fish or poultry) to finish my meal with. I have done this since I was a kid. My grandmother noticed this and noted that my grandfather (who passed away when I was quite young) had the same habit.

[hill food]

as a child I noticed that bananas grow in a tripartite configuration lengthwise and HAD to nibble them apart that way.

[goodhealthgourmet]

oh, wow..i went through a phase for a few years when i had to eat bananas that way! i can't believe someone else did it too. now i can only eat them sliced - preferably with the skin still on, and i peel each slice as i get to it.

[hill food]

I suppose eventually one accustoms oneself to the rolling eyes of parents.

[chicgail]

And as life progresses, one eventually accustoms oneself to the rolling eyes of one's children. Ain't life a gas?

[Emme]

i have several...

apples/pears - i slice into really thin thin slices, but leave a couple larger ones, then eat from smallest to largest

aspargus - i eat "icky end" up to the floral end

egg white omelettes - i eat the veggies out of the middle first, then eat the eggs

[jujuthomas]

I used to have to eat the ruffled edges off my ritz crackers... and since I started dipping the salad into the dressing I like to eat it with my fingers. nothing strange about me!
My SISTER - she's weird tho... haha. She puts the mustard and ketchup on her burgers in perfect spirals, one inside the other. And she eats all the cake out of the frosting of the layer cake, leaving the frosting schlumping on its edge, then eats the frosting. She also eats the filling out of her pie first.

[HotMelly]

When I have potato chips with dip I always eat the broken or small chips first so I can have the whole and round ones last. If I have wavy or ruffle chips I try to break them perfectly down the wave.
Ever try to write your name with long pieces of spaghetti ?

[jujuthomas]

OH and with sandwiches she cuts the crusts off, eats them, then cuts little square bites off it and eats each little square as she cuts it. funny.

[Jeri L]

I eat layer cake like your sister does. When I was in college a friend watched me for awhile and said, "I have never seen anyone eat cake as sensuously as you do!" I'm a little different with sandwiches. I cut them in quarters (diagonally preferred) and then eat the crusts off all the quarters before eating the "best bits".

[L_W]

I eat cake and pie EXACTLY like your sister. Definitely NOT weird IMHO.

[Clarkafella]

I cut my baked potato into cubes before I eat it. Is this normal?

[Sal Vanilla]

I do that with Goldfish too!
I also eat corn on the cob like a typewriter - left to right and back to beginning.
Captain Crunch cereal - I eat the yellow nuggets first and then joyously gulp in big spoons full the crunch berries. Ditto with Raisin Bran: Pick out raisins and let the bran sog and then eat giant spoons full.
I eat carrots (when raw) from the outside to inside in sheets. There is a core to carrots and one or two layers surrounding it. I nick off the top layers and consider the perfectly nibbled out core the prize!

Not at all weird.

My dog - a complete savage while eating - if a pea is in her food, she will leave it at the bottom of her dish... alone, unscathed and completely licked of gravy.

[Will Owen]

"I also eat corn on the cob like a typewriter - left to right and back to beginning." We used to do that, too, and go DINGGG! at the end, until one parent or another would tell us to quit.

I've mentioned before that our (non-peanut butter) sandwiches always had butter and mustard on one slice of bread and mayonnaise on the other. When I was a kid I liked to eat the crusts off, nibbling around the outside, and this would crimp the edges of the balloon bread we used, so that by the time I'd gone all the way around the sandwich would be like a plump pillow, stuffed near bursting with the butter, the condiments, and the bologna or whatever. I considered that luxurious tidbit to be my dessert.

[chicgail]

Wow. When I was little, my best friend's mom used to put butter on sandwiches and I haven't thought about that for years. Even when I was about 7, I didn't understand the concept of putting butter on a sandwich (chicken? bologna? salami?) that also took mustard and/or mayo. That seems stranger to me that creating the pillow-filled with sandwich goodies.

Maybe it's a cultural thing.

[Will Owen]

Strictly a FAMILY cultural thing, I think, since most of my friends' families put just one sort of condiment on maybe one slice of the bread and let it go at that, and no butter. In our family, bread required butter, period. The only sandwiches that didn't get butter inside were grilled cheese, which got it on the outside. Hot dogs and hamburgers didn't count...

[alkapal]

""I also eat corn on the cob like a typewriter - left to right and back to beginning." We used to do that, too, and go DINGGG! at the end, until one parent or another would tell us to quit."

alkisal and will owen, thank you kind people for cracking me up this morning!

[sleepyscience]

Me and my brother did the exact same thing with corn on the cob as a kid. We only got away with it a few times as well. We had inspiration however.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9p8ia...
(the scene were it occurs is around 4:30 if you don't want to wait)

[hill food]

there's a similar WB animation that I tried to find (in a half-hearted manner).

[alkapal]

i am trying to find it, too.

but looking for it, i found all these cats eating corn on the cob!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjW1BT...

here's the deal, i was going to post that link on the older thread about "foods your pet loves" -- and chowhound has REMOVED the topic <not just locked it, mind you, but removed it.> i could say a lot right now, but i'm gonna hold my tongue. <did the cat get my tongue?> ;-(.

[kattyeyes]

Thanks for that link and the laugh. I love how the cat puts his paw up on the cob to eat it.
>>^..^<<

[Petrichor]

Yes, i do that w/ raw carrots, too--the core is the best part! And with bananas: i nibble the firmer part around the outside, and leave the core, my favorite part, for last--it's softer and sweeter than the rest.

[ajs228]

My mother does a similar thing with the corn. When she's finished her cob will look rectangular, just because she eats it in such orderly rows.

[Sal Vanilla]

A weird thing I used to see people do to their food that used to freak me out: When people would poke a hole in the center of their burrito and carefully get at the filling leaving the empty tortilla perfectly formed (other than the small hole). I would just think that the person was probably a serial killer or something. it is very freaky to see. Saw it maybe 4 times in a dozen years - still skeaves me.

[alkapal]

alkisal, don't go to IHOP with me, as i soak my stack of harvest grain and nut pancakes with their butter pecan syrup, and then proceed to eat the stack from the center of the top pancake, outward and downward. not *quite* like an archeological dig, as i have not laid out measuring lines....

i eat pepperoni off the pizza, then the tip of the pizza toward the crust, have a bite or two of crust, then move on. come back to crusts and eat at end (if they were good.).

eat smaller "half" piece of sandwich first, so i have "more" in the second round.

cut burger in half (all fixin's, please) and eat the edge that was sliced first. (but first, must nibble any protruding pickle edges from burger's entire perimeter.)

cut egg salad sandwiches (on white bread, natch) into ninths -- after decrusting. <wow, that "decrusting" sounds like something the CDC should look into ASAP.>

let raisin bran get soggy.

drink captain crunch cereal milk from bowl.

eat bacon slices while standing at the stove. (shhhhhh, don't tell.).

crunch m & ms in my teeth to try and split them.

eat the edges of the reese's cup.

dig out the tunnels of fudge in "fudge royale" ice cream (used to really make my dad angry! -- 'cause it was his ice cream!!!).

doritos -- corners first.

hmmmm....i'll think of more, i'm sure.

[Firegoat]

ah m & m's without peanuts. I like to peel them with my teeth and eat the candy coating first.
for some reason I have no desire to do this do the peanut m &Ms. Although I do sometimes bite them in half, and suck out the peanut.

[chicgail]

What a relief to know that all those secret habits I have for eating goldfish or pretzel rods or triskets is shared by so many other apparently otherwise sane human beings.

I also love to eat slightly under-ripe bananas by using my teeth to scrape off the outer layer and get to the sweet inner layer later (a little obscene, I know). I do something similar with slightly under-ripe plums.

With popcorn, I like to nibble the outer "flowers" off and then let the center puff melt in my mouth. Takes a long time to eat that way.

[Petrichor]

Ohmigosh, I just tried to tell how I eat a banana above....you explained it much better. It's the only way to eat a banana!

[CeeBee]

I have to eat skittles and M&Ms by color. In the case of skittles, I eat my least favorite (purple) first, then yellow, orange, green and then my favorite (red).
If I'm eating Doritos, I have to look at both sides first and the side with more cheese (or whatever), must go into my mouth facing down (so it hits my tounge).

[goodhealthgourmet]

i used to do the same "eat by color" thing with M&M's, Skittles, Necco Wafers, Smarties, Mike & Ikes...actually any candy that came in multiple colors.

other childhood junk food habits:

Twix & Kit Kat were eaten by layer. Milky Way sometimes, but it got very messy with the gooey caramel.

i used to peel as much of the chocolate covering off a 3 Musketeers as i could before eating the rest of it.

goldfish, like so may other CHers, were split in half between my teeth. as are almonds & macadamias, to this day.

pretzel rods - also did the "straw" thing...used them to drink soda. alternatively, sucked on the pretzel until it got super soggy, then scraped the soggy outer layer off with my teeth before eating the core.

Mallowmars & Pinwheels - separate the chocolate-covered marshmallow top from the cookie base, but the cookie had to remain in one piece or it as ruined. then eat the marshmallow first, followed by the cookie, in tiny bites.

any iced cake or cupcake (Hostess, Tastykake, etc) - peel off icing, eat cake first, then icing.

Twinkies, split down the middle, scoop all filling into one half. eat dry half first, then finish with filled half. same with Devil Dogs - transfer all filling to one side, eat dry cake first, then other half.

Ring Dings/Ding Dongs - eat as much outer chocolate coating as possible, then split cake in half, do the filling transfer as with other filled cakes.

Yodels - eat outer chocolate coating first, then unroll, and eat from one end to the other.

salty/savory chips - only eat in pieces, never whole, so i'd dig out the broken ones from the bottom. once they were gone, i'd have to eat whole chips one at a time by breaking off a piece & eating it. i'd only bite into one if it was being used as a dipping vehicle (preferably a pretzel or potato chip for cream cheese or onion dip).

good lord, i could go on for days. yes, i'm a freak.

[jujuthomas]

OH! I did the same thing with yodel-type cakes, but where I grew up it was little debbie swiss cake rolls. YUM.

[Jacey]

I used take off the outer layer of chocolate from swiss cake rolls, unroll it and lick the cream and then eat the cake.

I used to eat Nutty Bars layer by layer. I used to have one in my lunch box when I was little just about every day. I saw them recently at CVS and looked at their nutritional info. I was shocked--well, not that shocked, the amount of calories in those delicious things.

[alkapal]

ditto on the little debbie swiss cake rolls. (but i liked the oatmeal creme pies much better).

[tracylee]

re: chips. In the months since I first read this thread, I realized that when I eat chips and salsa or nachos, I always go for the broken chips. If I run out, I'll break whole chips for scooping.

[Caralien]

With Skittles, eating them in rainbow order, beginning with lime, which also happened to my least favourite.

[ajs228]

I like to take two Skittles between my thumb and index finger and squish them together, except one always stays intact while the other squishes. I don't know why I think it will ever turn out differently. It never does.

[fudisgud]

oh my goodness! i was going to write about this as well, thinking i was the only person to eat skittles this way! dh always kind of looks at me like i'm crazy... i also then take the one that squishes and try to eat the broken pieces of candy shell of first (not ever really successful at that, though)

[Pampatz]

I eat my M&M's by color in rows of eight starting with the brown ones and proceeding through the colors I like best, but always ending with any fancy new colors that might be in the bag. Potato chips - I want the broken ones and the ones that fold in half while frying.
My youngest daughter is really wierd. She will not eat food that touches. Then she eats her food one by one. No mixing of food in the mouth. A chef or taco salad is plated in its individual component parts - nothing touching.

[Sal Vanilla]

There are quite a few people like that (food not touching). It get's tricky when they are out and order Mexican food or stir fry. A lot of people do not want meat juices sneaking into other things - especially chicken juice.

[Will Owen]

I used to be that way about spinach juice getting into my potatoes. I'd get so upset when Mom would carelessly plop the spinach down right next to the potatoes, and then laugh at me for fussing about it. "It all goes to the same place anyway," she'd say. "Now eat it!" As I was not given any alternative options, I did. I've been told that requiring a child to eat anything will certainly warp the poor dear and give him or her some kind of complex. I agree - it warped me into a person who'll eat damn near anything.

[jujuthomas]

I actually put my spinach in a bowl so that the juice does not get in the rest of my food!

[juster]

I never did the not-touching thing, but when I was a kid I would eat one bite (and one sip) of each thing in my meal, around in a circle. When something ran out, I'd just skip it until I had one bite of one thing left.

[BobB]

I was also a kid who wouldn't eat any foods that touched each other (mashed potatoes? yes. peas? yes. peas in mashed potatoes? no way!) Somewhere around adolescence I grew out of it.

[Melania]

I put my pancakes/waffles on a plate separate from all the other breakfast food. I can't stand syrup getting into my eggs or on my toast!

[chicgail]

Syrup on eggs or toast is not so good.

But I always make sure I "accidentally" get it on my bacon or sausage.

[TampaAurora]

Maple syrup on turkey bacon and sausage is done on purpose in my house - and with relish.

My everything bagel with turkey bacon and peanut butter is legendary - everyone laughs but they are sooo good.

[Eric in NJ]

Just remembered, as I haven't had PC's or waffles in a long time, but I put peanut butter and syrup on mine.

[lucygoosey]

i don't eat pancakes but waffles always get peanut butter and syrup! i also like peanut butter and syrup in my oatmeal.

[The Professor]

I think I probably have quite a few food quirks, but the two I am always called out on are:
1) Apples--I eat the whole thing except for the stem. I eat (and really savor) the core and the seeds. I was shocked that in a SEINFELD episode, Kramer professed the same habit (though he said he ate the stem too). I felt validated, in a weird way.
2) Pretzels and Potato Chips-- I eat them together, one of each in the same chew. It's really the only way I truly enjoy either of them...together.

[harrison]

I too do the pretzel/potato chip thing - but it has to be the mini pretzels only!

I do the same things with the following combos - much better together than apart - peanut/raisin, almond/dried apricot,

I also use a graham cracker as a spoon while eating chocolate pudding!

[mpjmph]

Ages ago I tried to teach my campers the graham cracker as a spoon trick whenever they would forget to pack a spoon in their lunch. You don't know shame until a 5 year old gives you a look of complete confusion.

[szmeterling]

I haven't seen anybody write about popcorn. I take any piece that has a definite fluffy protruberence (I refer to it as the "ghost's head"), and nibble away the little bits around it before popping it into my mouth.

As a result, I usually eat popcorn 1 piece at a time, in several nibbles, which strikes other as extremely amusing.

[cuccubear]

szmeterling - maybe we -were- separated at birth! I do the same thing - one piece at a time, nibble, nibble, nibble -- and, I used to save all the "ghost heads" as you call them until the end.

[chef chicklet]

I like the way you think, the only way to eat popcorn!

[Melania]

I also eat popcorn one piece at a time. I eat the lightest colored pieces first and work the bowl down to the really yellow, salty, buttery ones - these are the best pieces! Mmmmmmm!

[chicgail]

The bags of jumbo raisins of different colors:
1. Take a handful
2. Eat the big black ones first
3. Eat the small black ones next
4. Eat the big red ones next
5. Eat the small red ones
6. Eat the big golden raisins
7. Eat the small golden raisins
8. Take another handful.
9. Repeat

I am absolutely crazier than I thought I was.

[ideabaker]

But you are very systematic, chicgail!

[lawgirl3278]

When I eat a soft pretzel (Superpretzel style), I eat the little nubs at the ends of the dough first.

When I eat an English muffin, I fold it in half and take a bite right out of the middle first. I have no idea why...maximum amount of nooks and crannies I guess!

[goodhealthgourmet]

FYI, other similar threads..

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/531018
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/530873
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/404973
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/566964

[Bill Hunt]

While this might not qualify, I love to eat the entire fried shrimp, tail and all, so long as they are crispy. My wife leaves neat little tail shells, with all meat extracted (do not know how she does this), while my plate will be clean.

Now, she also does not eat potato "skins." She will scoop out the interior and leave the "skin," regardless of what the prep is - with the exception of "potato skins" (think TGIF here), where she DOES eat the skin. Go figure.

Hunt

[hill food]

BH: you have to pinch the shrimp tail at just the right point while sucking out that last little piece of goodness.

[Bill Hunt]

That must be her trick. I'm sure that she learned it, while eating crawfish, while I was fishing with them. She is very efficient.

Hunt

[chicgail]

Bill, I do the same thing!

Your wife misses the best part -- even the most nutritious part -- of both the shrimp (calcium) and the potato.

[Bill Hunt]

I keep telling her of all of the iron in the potato skin. She just rolls her eyes and leave it. Oh well, if they are nice and crispy, with maybe some of the cheese from the potato on them, I just grab them on the way to the dishwasher.

I do not know why she doesn't balk at the TGIF-type "Potato Skins," but she eats those, with no problem. Same for her halved new potato, cream fraîche, caviar appetizers - she eats the skins.

Hunt

[EWSflash]

I love the potato skins if they haven't been roasted in foil. Slap a little lemon jhuice and sour cream with salt and pepper, it's heaven.
AND-
Anybody who isn't delicately extracting the last little bit of shrimp out of the tail and eating it is missing the best, sweetest part! I don't mind the shells if they're not too thick, but around here we get Guaymas shrimp and they tend to have thicker shells (it seems like to me).

[Melania]

I lightly clench right above the tail shell with my teeth & twist. Works everytime.

[alkapal]

that shrimp extraction technique does it for me, too! i cannot leave that shrimp meat in the tail. mr. alka will eat the tail. a bit too much crunch for me!

mr. alka is also a "food not touching" person. he's in finance, and his accounting background must be the explanation for him keeping all the food items separate and in their proper place. ;-). me? i like my food touching, especially as i can mix & match flavors (especially good at my indian buffet....).

speaking of indian buffet, i take the nice caramelized chunks of chicken tikka, and put them into the makhani/butter chicken *sauce* from the butter chicken (sans chicken). why? because a lot of places "cheat" and don't use the properly tandoori-ed chicken, and instead cook the chicken in the sauce). i always make a pool of yogurt, and then put into that a smaller pool of coriander/mint chutney. that is then accessed at critical times of "additional seasoning" requirements -- and dipping the leftover naan that has gotten a little cool and dry.

my first drink of any beer is a gulp -- and it better be cold. i'm not an esoteric "beer connoisseur" but i know good beer from so-so beer. as such, i am therefore immune to admonitions that i'm not getting the full flavor. thank you very much, but i'm drinking it to my taste. (that is hard for many hounds to accept, isn't it?).
;-). we do have a friend that is a true aficianado, and he is still sipping and taking notes after i've popped my second top on my red hook or heineken. btw, grolsch on tap is good. grolsch in regular capped bottles (not the clamp-style) really goes flat quickly -- fizz and flavor. ;-(.

[Fydeaux]

Does anyone remember a book that came out maybe 20 or 25 years ago called "How To Eat Like A Child"? I swear, many of these posts are identical to things in that book!

As for me, when eating jello or pudding or the canned cranberry sauce, I cant help squishing it through my teeth! I do my best to avoid these items except with close family.

Corn on the cob HAS to be eaten by the rows. So does matzah. My dad always thought I did this just to make the maximum amount of crumbs possible.

The proper way to eat chocolate cherry cordials is to nibble a small hole in the chocolate, suck out the liquid, and then eat the remainder of the shell and the cherry in one mouthful.

(Not an strange 'eating' thing, but the hanging of teaspoons from the nose at the end of family dinners deserves mention. Maybe not.)

[goodhealthgourmet]

matzah - *must* be broken neatly along perforations into long columns and set on the plate. columns are then consumed one by one, by breaking off one bite-sized piece at a time...each piece is then individually adorned with a light coat of spread (cream cheese, butter , preserves, nut butter) or a spoonful of appetizing salad, holiday condiment, or other topping (tuna, salmon, whitefish, hummus, charoset, horseradish...) right before popping it into the mouth.

[chicgail]

And if I may add to your brilliant description of eating matzah, the butter (or presumably the cream cheese) is best spread on each column with one's finger which renders it soft enough to cover the matzah column without breaking it.

[Kate is always hungry]

Of course columns! After breaking mine into columns, I nibble off the rough edges where the perforations were. Then I continue as you do. This only works for boxed matzah. Have you ever eaten round, hand-made Schmura matzah? No columns, no perforations. Passover dinner with my Chassidic friends means Schmura matzah eaten from a plastic bag.

[goodhealthgourmet]

yeah, only works with the boxed stuff. we're a Streit's family. Manischewitz is terrible.

i don't think i've had real shmura matzah since we took a tour of one of the bakeries in Brooklyn on a Hebrew school field trip when i was a kid :)

[1sweetpea]

Streit's unsalted, columns, oy gevult, you're bringing back memories. I can remember kids bringing sandwiches made with matzah for school lunches, but my eating of the matzah column by column was not for public consumption. One year in religious school we made schmura matzah. We purposely undercooked a few for a doughy appeal. It was awesome, especially with the grains of kosher salt sprinkled on it. Anyone else avoid the egg matzah or whole wheat version like the plague?

[chicgail]

Several people mentioned schura matzah. I had it only once. It was oddly both dry and chewy and generally not palatable. Maybe I'm missing something, but I'm not looking forward to eating again.

Give me Yehudah over Streits or Manechevitz any Passover.

[szmeterling]

I missed the earlier references, but I think you mean "shmura" matzoh. Shmura means guarded - as in the wheat is guarded from contact with moisture (before making the matzoh) so that it does not become chometz (leaven). While all matzoh for Pesach is so guarded, shmura matzoh is made from wheat guarded from the moment it is taken from the ground while the regular matzoh is made from wheat guarded from the time of milling.

The gustatory difference is that shmura matazah is typically handcrafted while the other is machine made.

Machine made matzoh manufactured outside of the Pesach season is typically (maybe always) NOT shmura at any point in its production and should not be used during Pesach.

[Fydeaux]

Egg matzah, whole wheat matzah...white grape juice matzah, for crying out loud! All of those 'boutique' matzahs are strictly for avoiding!

In fact, I dont even care for the stuff available throughout the year. I always buy a couple extra boxes of Kosher L'Pesach matzah to use the rest of the year when the matzah brei jones kicks in. (As soon an Pesach is over, it goes on sale very cheap at the Kosher Market where I live.)

As for shmura matzah, it's fine for use in the seder, but not for snacking on.

The sandwiches on matzah for lunch ar school during Passover...I remember them well. But I also remember being in New York City during Passover as a child. There was a place in the diamond district called Deli City at which I had a hot dog on matzah. It was somewhat less than successful.

[EmoryJ]

wow, I did all that stuff (including, recently, nose-spoons)....I can hear the sound squishing the pudding/jello makes through your teeth while I'm writing this......I love this post...you're quite the catalyst tonight Plummy..

[umbushi plum]

when i was a kid i used to eat meat pies (i'm australian they are everywhere! down here!) by first eating the pastry lid then squirting tomato sauce over the mince meat inside eating that and then i would be left with the delicious outer pastry to devour on its own. i did vaguely the same thing with sausage rolls too.
and of course the only way to eat a cup cake was iceing first and then the cake. i also went through a phase (actually i am still in this phase come to think of it) of choping up apples in to different shape slices same goes for peaches, pears and stone or core fruit in general. ;-)
my mum is a lot worse than me however. she disects her food, bit by bit in case something foreign or fatty or brown has slipped in there. when out at a restaurant it is especially bad she will order a sandwhich and then proceed to pick every bit of chicken or lettuce that dosn't stand up to her standards. usually she ends up with a plate of food that looks as if a bomb had landed in it. :-)

[HotMelly]

My son-in-law hates the thought of bones touching his lips. When we go for wings he leaves half of the meat on the wing so he doesn't touch the bones. Same with ribs.

[melly]

Well HotMelly...I like your name. :) As a kid, I loved Campbells Navy Bean soup. I would make a spoon out of white bread and try to eat it like that. The bread always had to be smashed up and then dipped in. I ate the beans last. I still do it when I need comforting...but rarely have white bread in the house now.

I also used to love to wrap white bread around a dill pickle spear and eat away....okay, I still do if I have the bread. Multi-grain does not work.

[bubbles4me]

I like to eat with my fingers....not sure what that is about but I tear things like sandwiches and burritos with my fingers and then place them in my mouth.

Used to ball up the inner part of white bread, sprinkle with salt and eat.
Apples are eaten, (this freaks people way out) by plunging my thumb nail into the flesh and cutting out tiny little circles.
Butterfingers were picked clean of chocolate, (never really liked chocolate) and then eaten.
Chex Mix, eat all the cereal bits first then eat the rest.
(Only at home) Always eat salad with my fingers.
Chicken Soup, meat and veggies first then noodles.
Pringles, whole thing popped in my mouth, pressed to the roof of my mouth then smashed by pressing my tongue against it.
English Toffee, picked clean of chocolate, (like the Butterfinger) and then sucked on for as long as I can before it breaks.

[goodhealthgourmet]

a few of us had that discussion about eating salad with our fingers in a thread about a year or so ago. for some reason i only do it when the salad is in a container (i.e. from a salad bar), never when it's on a plate.

[jujuthomas]

I eat salad more with my fingers now that i dip the bite into the dressing instead of putting the dressing on top. but not in restaurants, only at home or at work. :)

[goodhealthgourmet]

juju, assuming you employ the dipping method as a calorie-saving technique, may i suggest an alternative? it's the method i teach all my clients, because dipping the veggies can soak up more dressing - and calories - than you realize.

dip the tines of your fork into the dressing, then spear a bite of salad and eat it. you still get the flavor, and i bet you'll discover that you use less dressing this way.

of course, it doesn't really apply when eating salad with your fingers...although i guess perhaps you could just dip the tip of your index finger in the dressing before picking up a bite of salad ;)

[jujuthomas]

thanks for the tip, I do dip the tines when eating salads in restaurants... esp if I'm not confident the dressing is low fat, or if low fat is unavailable.

[AngelSanctuary]

siu long baos or xiao long baos if anyone's mandarin. those little soup dumplings.

Everyone eats them whole but I will bite a small piece to create a hole, pour the soup into a spoon, drink the soup, tear open the dumpling completely, eat the meat, and then finally eat the skin.

I always thought everyone ate them that way until my father was like wth? but my older cousin eats like this too ^_^! How can you eat it all in one go like that anyways? those things are freaking hot!

[goodhealthgourmet]

that reminds me of the way i used to eat knishes as a kid. cut off the over-baked, dry ends & discard. peel off the top dough covering and eat that first by breaking off bite-sized pieces with my fingers. then distribute the filling evenly to desired thickness, moving any excess off to the side. eat excess filling with a fork. finally, eat the base dough topped with filling with a knife & fork.

it drove my parents NUTS to watch me.

[LA Buckeye Fan]

Two words: potato salad. I love thick cut french fries. I love baked potatoes. But I can't stand biting into a cube of potato. My mom caught me "mashing" my potato salad before I would eat it...from that point on she starting making "mashed potato salad" so I didn't have to do the work myself. That woman was a saint.

[HillJ]

My Dad would eat asparagus like a buzz saw from tip to tale, no utensils....us kids would laugh like crazy.

[thew]

stella dora swiss fudge cookies.

eat the cookie from around the chocolate
eat whatever cookie is still stuck to the bottom.
play with the squishy chocolate before eating

as i kid i would often try to suck all the candy off m & m's before eating the chocolate

[goodhealthgourmet]

thew, thanks for that memory....it was the ONLY way to seat a Stella D'Oro swiss fudge!

[senorbob06969]

ha just thought of anotyher.....when it comes to corn on the cob i eat it in perfect rows starting from the stalk to the tip

[senorbob06969]

ha this is so funny cause i seriously think i have ocd when it comes to eating certain food too.....for example apples, when i eat an apple i always eat all of the skin first before getting to the ":good stuff" lol.....then when it comes to dinner entrees i usually always accompany my protein with rice and veggies and always finish the veggies first (and if broccoli is included in the veggies i save those til the end lol) ummmmmm what else....when i ea pears i always have to cut them into slivers....never eating it out of hand......when i get frozen yogurt i tend to eat the yogurt first and then eat the fruit i put on top at the end........as you can see i havbe a lot of little quirks and im sure fgiven more time, i could think of many more

[umbushi plum]

i just thought of another one- rosted pumkin with the skin on sprinkled with cumin seeds paprika mexican chilli powder and dried corriander then once its cooked i sprinkle every mouthful with heaps of dried sumac it is wonderful i end up with a whole bowl of dried spices left over from the incedent though.

[chicken kabob]

Munch on whole red peppers like an apple.
Cut layer cake slice into very large bites with knife-and pick up bites to eat with fingers.
Eat the outer rim off baked items before I eat he center
Peel and eat the crusty part of bisuits before eating the inside-the center I like to eat in "dough balls"
Eat the top chocolate layer of a mini peppermint pattie before eating the mint layer and bottom chocolate layer simotaneously

[lynnlato]

The only way to eat a pancake is slathered with butter, maple syrup and topped with a dippy fried egg. Then you break the yolk and let is ooze all over the pancake. The perfect meld of sweet & salty. :)

Oh, and I prefer to eat with a fork. For instance brownies or some sandwiches - I just like using utensils. It's not so much that I don't like getting my fingers dirty, but more about taking my time and enjoying it. I've been like that since childhood. I can remember eating these baked chocolate fudge krispy bars in the school cafeteria and being teased for using a fork to eat it.

[Melania]

I eat certain types of donuts with a fork. Not the fluffy doughy kind - the ones that are like cake. I also heat them in the microwave for a few seconds.

[goodhealthgourmet]

lynn, you're not alone :) i always eat rice krispy treats and any sort of bar cookie - blondies, brownies, etc - with a knife. depending on the width, i sometimes cut it lengthwise first to get narrower slices (i don't know why, but i much prefer eating rectangular or column-shaped food to squares), and them i slice one piece off the end at a time as i eat it.

Melania, have you ever eaten Entenmann's Crumb donuts? not only did i used to eat them with a knife & fork, i tried to get the same number of those little topping nuggets on each bite.

sheesh...i joke all the time about my OCD, but seriously, judging from my posts one might think i could benefit from some serious meds :)

[saltnseltzer4me]

I love those donuts especially for those rounded cube-like nuggets on top! I often just pick those off, eat them, and give the rest of the donut to my hubby.

[KristieB]

I knew you would be from PA just from the dippy egg comment!! I'm from the opposite side of the state where we also eat 'dippy' eggs.

[fbf242]

I eat PB + J (actually, more often almond or cashew butter + J) open faced - sometimes I make it as a closed face sandwich but I always open it to eat it. I rip the crust off one the pieces of bread and eat that first. Then I fold the rest of the bread in half (like some people do with pizza) to eat it. Repeat with the other piece of bread.

[HotMelly]

I love eating whole fish whether it be Yellowtail Snapper or Catfish....I spend too much time trying to eat all of the meat from the bone just like the cat on the cartoons. When I finally pick all of the meat off of the fish I hold my prize catch of a totally de-meated fish up in the air and go "TA-DA" , Like I have just won the Academy Award for fish eating.

[kattyeyes]

When eating a donut, I eat all around the hole until there is just a thin ring of donut left, then make a wish, then bite into the hole. Have been doing this since I was a kid.

Whenever I finish a bottle of beer (or bottle of wine), I blow across the top of the bottle to make a sound. My own little way of announcing the bottle is finished!

When eating a Dairy Queen sundae (hot fudge and caramel), I lick every last bit of topping from the plastic sundae cup shamelessly. So does my mom. Guess it's in the genes. ;) Our highest dessert compliment: "It was so good, if I was home, I'd have licked the plate!" Too much fun reading everyone's food quirks! Happy 2009, all!

[umbushi plum]

yay, someone else who likes the grizly parts of fish sucking the eyeballs is my favourite part it sounds horrible but its lovely, sucking the head gizzards is also a disgusting habit of mine needless to say this is a solitary activity.

[saltnseltzer4me]

HotMelly, that is hilarious! Ta-da!

[EmoryJ]

You and me both Melly! I LOVE Pla Choo-Chee at a Thai restaurant - and take my sweet time eating ever y single morsel - with my hands from the carcass - TADA!!

[tracylee]

OK, aside from the whole plate orientation I mentioned above:

Eggs, sunny side up on toast or pancakes, forked so the yolk soaks into the bread.

And I don't like getting my fingers messy, so yeah, I use utensils with just about everything.

[adventuresinbaking]

I used to only eat pop tarts by nibbling off the crust and then eating the centers. I still do it sometimes, but not as habittually.

I really only like to eat apples cut up, preferably unwaxed green ones with a small smear of peanut butter.

I also need to make peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches by spreading jelly first on the bread and then the peanut butter. This one actually started by necessity. In our house my sister had a peanut allergy, so we had to make sure the jelly was not contaminated.

[goodhealthgourmet]

i forgot about the Pop-Tarts! oy, i used to perform extensive surgery on mine before i could eat them. the edges were too dry & tasteless, so i'd try to cut/break them off as cleanly as possible & toss them. then i would split it horizontally, separating the two crusts while trying to keep the filling distributed as evenly as possible (the unfrosted ones were always easier because the dough was more pliable; the frosting was always a hard shell that cracked). anyway, i would lay the two halves on a plate, and eat them individually, systematically breaking off a bite-sized piece one at a time. i'm just realizing that i did/do that with a lot of foods.

[al b. darned]

>>>
I used to only eat pop tarts by nibbling off the crust and then eating the centers.
<<<

What other way is there to eat Pop Tarts? I thought it was SOP.

[alkapal]

as a kid -- and even today -- i won't generally eat an apple unless it is sliced. my mom used that technique on me, and now i use it on mr. alka (who is veg and fruit averse).

and, who else used to put butter on strawberry pop tarts straight from the toaster? then eat while still really hot, and lick the butter from your fingers?

[patricium]

Cupcakes - carefully peel away the paper, and split the bottom half off of the cake. Place this on top of the frosting to make a sandwich. Keeps some of the frosting gooeyness off your fingers. And I developed this habit as an adult.

I've always peeled candy bars and sugar wafers. KitKats are great because you can first peel off the chocolate (if they're the right temperature, you can get it to come off in fairly large pieces.), then take the cookie layers apart.

Corn on the cob - one row at a time, removing the kernels mostly whole with my bottom teeth. I've recently discovered that a co-worker does this same thing.

[ideabaker]

I eat buffalo wings with a knife and fork (don't like my fingers to get all sticky)... didn't know that was strange til I moved to Texas and got laughed out of a bar :-/.

In the same vein, I eat Jamaican beef patties by separating the crust to open wide, then eat the center with a fork and throw out the crust. It is the best way to get a beauty shop in the Carribbean to laugh you out of town...

[pinkprimp]

Lol,I eat my Jamaican beef patties the same way I eat my pop tarts: nibble around the crust, then split the two sides apart, and eat the side without all the filling first. Mmmm!

[Firegoat]

When I was a kid I used to take a pop bottle cap and punch out circles in slices of american cheese so that I had perfectly circular rounds of cheese to put on ritz crackers. I don't do that now.... maybe because I don't have any american cheese....

[ajs228]

You know, it's posts like these that make it even harder for me to understand people who say they only "eat food for fuel", and that they don't see the fun in it. Food is obviously very fun!

[hill food]

ajs: my theory is harsh potty-training.

[alkapal]

hill food, "harsh potty training" is funny! well, not the potty training itself, but attributing to it the creation of "utilitarian" adults. ;-).

[hill food]

Alkapal: I think it creates faced gremlins running amok worried about who knows what else that doesn't matter. "those are the WRONG antibacterial wipes!"

god knows how any of us survived, course given how the slightest problem at a central production of food has widespread fallout these days...

I have family members that think the dinner table is for eating and eating alone, forget talk, it's a chore to be done with. - so sad.

my idea is to eat it by your choice within bounds:

1. separate foods - OK
2. all mixed up - OK
3. sequentially - OK
4. in rotation - OK

(dad made fun of me for 1 and 3 - I'm long over it)

just do it nicely while not making a mess - and for god's sake carry on a conversation while doing so and don't wolf to the point of aspiration.

[alkapal]

yes, we survived, even though our moms didn't (at least i don't think my mom did) rinse every toy in dilute chlorine water every 15 minutes. (i'm thinking of a clorox commercia that i just saw.).

as to eating, just don't chomp, stuff your mouth with a shovel-full of food, or talk when i can see food in your mouth. oh, and don't put in even *more* food before finishing and swallowing the prior bite.

[hill food]

amen.

and we're up too late.

[alkapal]

or waaaay too early! ;-). time for breakfast? or another ncis? hmmmmmm......

[fickle]

I screen every segment of a clementine in the light first before consuming. If there's a seed, I toss it. I've actually refrained from having a clementine in public if the audience would consider it too bizarre (usually at christmas parties!).

[brookiemonster]

My mother refuses to eat anything blue, as there is no naturally-occurring blue food. This encompasses, but is not limited to; m&m's (as the other colors touch the blue ones), blue cheese ("mold is not food") and artificially colored blueberry vodka drinks.

Oddly enough, real blueberries are okay, as they are "purple, not blue."

[cuccubear]

Hmmm, the only blue food I can think of is leftover, cooked red cabbage. It always turns blue by the next day or so. It might be unappetizing, but tastes the same.

[al b. darned]

My SIL is the same way, so for her birthday every year DW tries to find her some sort of "blue food": Blue corn tortilla chips, blue Pepsi, blue Gatoade, blue potato chips (actually they are made with purple potatoes, but look blue when turned into chips), blue Peeps, raspberry popcicles, etc.

BTW - Does anyone know how blue = raspberry? In nature, raspberries come in many colors, but blue is not one of them.

[foodiesnorth]

I let red licorice (twizzlers) dry out and then let them melt in my mouth. It drives others in the house crazy. I won't let the kids eat itbecause I have almost choked on my dried licorice many times! That is my story and I sticking with it...I inherited very little genetically from my paternal grandfather...this trait seems the exception! He too refused to let me have the hardened little chokers.

[chicgail]

Good grief. You just reminded me that I used to love it when my mother made jello in individual bowls. I would be sure she left at least one in the back of the refrigerator for a week (if I could stand waiting that long). By that time it was rubbery and chewy and exactly the way I liked it. It was especially fun to pull the ring from the edge of the jello off the bowl with my teeth.

[EWSflash]

Oh, yeah- I do that with Red Vines and Dots.

[al b. darned]

I am perfectly normal, just ask me.

Oreos, Pitter Patter, or any sandwich cookie...twist them apart trying to keep all the filling on one half. Put the two filling halves together, making "double stuff" cookies (or in the case of Double Stuff Oreos, "Fourple Stuff"). I then eat all the single cookie (filling-less) halves first.

Back when they made 3D Doritos, I would bite the corner off each one and fill it with squirt cheese.

I, too, try to split almonds and Goldfish down the middle with my teeth.

Chili can only be eaten on top of a saltine or Wheatsworth cracker. Beef stew is similarly eaten or a spoon full at a time on slices of Italian bread.

Large crackers (saltines, wheatsworth, triscuit, etc.) must be eaten in multiples of four. Cookies must be eaten in multiples of three. And Triscuits are eaten a row at a time.

Waffles have to have butter and syrup in every square.

Eggs are eaten by putting a forkful at a time on an English muffin or toast.

The only sardines that are edible are the small ones that come two layers in the can (King Oscar Brand) in oil. They must be eaten on a saltine or Wheatsworth cracker, two to a cracker facing in opposite directions. Cheese may be eaten with them provided it is sharp cheddar, cut to fit the cracker and placed on the cracker before the fish.

The only way to eat asparagus is with the fingers, starting at the top and working down. Corn is to be eaten typewriter style.

Now, DW is weird. She:

Cuts a bagel in half, puts on the cream cheese, puts it back together and eats it like a sandwich.

Eats corn on the cob circumferencially.

Won't *touch* sardines.

[jlp8]

Doritos and other chips: in my sandwich
Smartpop in my salad- I even have my best friend who eats nothing weird doing this.
Blue M&Ms last because they taste the best.
Sandwiches picked apart.
The rind off Smoked Gouda.
Cheetos have to be crunched with the side molars very noisily and in quick bites.
Popcorn- without touching with hands, in a bowl, with the tongue.
Nothing touching on the plate

[blancadog1]

I eat twix candy bars by discecting the chocolate carmel section off the cookie. I also do the same with my Aunt's toffee...I pick off all the chocolate and eat it first before eating the tofffee.

[vorpal]

1. I put my food in the freezer prior to eating it. I'm too excited to wait for it to cool and will usually end up being impatient and burning my tongue otherwise. Besides, I like my food a little closer to room temperature as I find the flavours become more pronounced.

2. I eat saltines like they're potato chips. Completely plain, i.e. nothing on them, and I'm indifferent as to whether or not they're salted. I'll go through an entire sleeve, and on occasion two, in 10 minutes, and often multiple times a day.

3. When at a restaurant, I constantly feel the urge to rearrange the table. I can't help but move my plate, cutlery, and glass around every few minutes.

4. I like to eat salt. I just sprinkle some in my palm and lick it up.

5. Not that unusual, I'm sure, but I eat the things on my plate one dish at a time and rarely alternate between them.

6. I love making and consuming pie fillings. I just cook them in a pot and grab a fork. No crust necessary.

7. Same for stuffing. I'll prepare a huge batch and eat it raw over the course a few days without it ever having met a bird.

8. I enjoy making a massive number of deep-fried and pan-fried dumplings and having a meal exclusively out of them.

9. I'll buy a box of cheerios, open it, and let it sit for a couple weeks until it's really stale. Then and only then is it the perfect snack!

What a fun and enlightening post this has been!

[hill food]

"3. When at a restaurant, I constantly feel the urge to rearrange the table. I can't help but move my plate, cutlery, and glass around every few minutes."

I've developed an unfortunate attitude towards certain pieces of flatware in my drawer. It's nobody's fault - just not right. "I'm expected to use THIS fork? It offends."

Sad.

[ajs228]

4. I like to eat salt. I just sprinkle some in my palm and lick it up.

You're like a deer! Ha!!

[goodhealthgourmet]

"6. I love making and consuming pie fillings. I just cook them in a pot and grab a fork. No crust necessary."
~~~~~~~
whenever i make a pie or tart, i always have a little extra filling left over, which i save to be enjoyed on its own. if it's pumpkin, i'll pour the extra filling into a ramekin and bake it alongside the pie, and then enjoy it as a miniature pumpkin custard.

i've always thought the filling was the best part anyway, and certain ones just beg to be eaten on their own (or used in other ways). ever since my sis requested it straight a few years ago, i now make an extra batch of the filling for my apple-cherry tart, and keep it in the refrigerator. it's amazing stirred into yogurt or cottage cheese, or as a topping or filling for pancakes or crepes.

[Emme]

when i was a kid, occasionally i'd make rice krispie treat batter when i got home from school - just a mini batch, but eat it warm - i much preferred it to the set version.

[goodhealthgourmet]

we used to do that in the MW - nuke the marshmallows, stir in the Rice Krispies (and occasionally some chocolate or PB chips), and eat directly from the bowl with a spoon.

[jujuthomas]

when I was a kid i only ate the fillings. my grandmother would make me an individual pumpkin custard each thanksgiving. :)
Oh - and my sister only ate the crusts. lol

[vorpal]

Mmmmm... that sounds like a FANTASTIC idea: pie filling and yogurt! (Especially cherry or apple.) I'm in heaven thinking about it.

[goodhealthgourmet]

cherry & apple *together* is the best - i use dried tart cherries in my apple filling ;)

[Emme]

re #5
i believe there are two types of eaters - the separate eaters and the together eaters. i myself am a separate eater, saving the best for last generally. or often the order is vegetables, then protein, then if consuming it, the starch or fruit.

[vorpal]

I've noticed a lot of separate eaters (my hubby included) like to save the best for last. I'm quite the opposite: I eat the best first! I find that when I'm hungrier, i.e. earlier in the meal, food generally tastes better, and also, by eating the less desirable items earlier on, I run the risk of ruining my appetite for the more delicious treats.

[lucygoosey]

I'm a food mixer. I like to experiment during the meal and then save "the perfect bite" for last. If i start to fill up, I eat that bite and proceed as space permits. I have been mocked countless times but I stand by this practice.

[vorpal]

Pshaw to the mockers. Food is to be enjoyed, and thus should be partaken in in the manner that you find most enjoyable.

[al b. darned]

OOOHHH!!! Not in our house as a kid. Thou SHALL ALWAYS mix your eating. There was nothing more rude in life (according to Mom) than eating all of one item and moving on t the next.

[Fydeaux]

My house too. I can still hear Grandma Fydeaux's voice in my head instructing me to 'eat around the plate'. Ma Fydeaux came up with some nonsense about how 'the little man in your tummy in charge of the vegetable pile has NOTHING to do, and the potato pile man is SO overworked' that I dont think I bought in to even as a three-year-old.

And even though I'm now a grown up and can eat cold leftover Chinese food right from the container or chocolate cake for breakfast, I still feel a bit strange if I dont 'eat around the plate'!

[umbushi plum]

oh my gosh another person who puts there food in the freezer to cool it down! my variation is even weirder, i take frozen spinach portions or brussel sprouts zap them in the microwave until they are an inch from death then stick em back in the freezer so the over cooked veggies get icey cold i swear i eat this every day at breakfast a whole large plate of it, i know hello my name is lucia and i have freeze food problem.

[HillJ]

As kids....
red licorice string we would braid into long thick ropes and then eat them.
Those super-hot, gigantic red fire balls you could bearly keep in your mouth we would stick between two square oven mits and lick until the size was more manageable.
We would work (soften) a packaged marshmallow between our two hands and turn it into "taffy."

[kattyeyes]

As teenagers at summer camp...
Our camp store sold out of Twizzlers the summer we decided to make a "trust me" game out of eating them. Boy/girl pairs would eat the Twizzler from opposite ends and meet in the middle...kinda like "Lady and The Tramp" with the one piece of spaghetti. Ahh, the days of Twizzlers and innocence! ;)

[HillJ]

kattye, what a riot! Don't you think someone @ the Twizzler plant has a good laugh with the daily "how I enjoy Twizzler" stories out there. When I go to the movies, I HAVE to buy a package of Twizzlers, have to. Just for the giggles!

[madgreek]

Licorice ropes become straws for me. It's un-avoidable. I try to match them with the drink e.g. fruit flavored ones with soft drinks, water and juices, and black licorice with veggie and tomato juices as well as most alcoholic drinks (ouzo is best of course).

[goodhealthgourmet]

pulling taffy from store-bought marshmallows - i forgot about that one!

[TampaAurora]

Potato leek soup must be eaten with saltines.

[HillJ]

TampaA...and a peppermill at the ready! Nothing like fresh cracked pepper in leek soup!

[TampaAurora]

Thanks for the reminder, must put new pepper grinder on the list for shopping. Almost out at home!

[KristieB]

I HAVE to have saltines if I am eating:
Chili
Clam chowder, the creamy kind
Potato soup
Tomato soup
Any creamy or cheesy soup.

Never do I use saltines with brothy soups.

[lcool]

softshell crabs,#1 pull off and eat legs #2 pull off and eat claws #3 then pick up knife and fork,eat body in two bites
cake,very fastidiously ,architecurally avoid and leave icing
if pie crust is excellent ,remove top and eat like a cookie

[alkapal]

with snow crab legs, i like to crack the leg in half, then try and pull out the longest piece of crab meat with my teeth.

if the pie crust is not good, i'll just eat the filling. same with pizza crust.

[lcool]

I do agree with the bad crust pie methods.However I rarely order it out and if it appears tough I avoid it politely.

[EastBayShortcake]

Sandwiches on loaf bread must be eaten from the outside in - all bites of crust first, leaving the "best part" of the sandwich for the end.

[The Professor]

The best part for me IS the crust. LOL!

[yankeefan]

I have a lot of odd ones, but the one that immediately comes to mind is that (especially with the cold weather) I am infatuated with all my sandwiches being pressed panini-style.

I put just about anything and everything on there and that is another story. The odd part is that after I make them with whatever type of bread, I eat them by peeling one layer off at a time and eating like that. Im not sure why I like it like that but I do.

[miss margie]

Maybe I am not so strange after all. My only quirk is eating from the back of the plate towards the front. It has only cost me a few seconds if the best food is closest me.

[Allison L.]

Whenever I get a bag of cheetos - puffed or baked, doesn't matter - I put them in a big bowl and set the bowl out on the patio. The more humid it is outside, the quicker this takes, but I wait for them to go stale so that they are not crunchy anymore. I love chomping down on them and having them smash right down as if they are deflating. Then they get stuck to my teeth. This is a good thing. I also like stale oreos, and stale animal crackers. I leave packages open in the pantry just for this purpose.

[BobB]

I take this in the opposite direction - I intentionally let Fig Newtons get stale so that they are hard and chewy. When they're fresh they're too soft to be satisfying.

[madgreek]

I do the same, but wish they would make the fig centers much more dense and chewier, like fruit leather. That way, the cookie would still be moist and tender instead of stale. To me, the cookie part tastes better fresh.

[BobB]

Fig Newmans are better in this regard, but the regular (not low-fat) version can be hard to find.

[Shalgrith]

Many people have found this odd, but I quite enjoy it...
I was on a camping trip once, and my friends and I cooked pasta and made salads to go with it (we eat well on our camping trips). However, because I cooked, I received the last dish, and there wasn't much sauce left, so I mixed the spaghetti sauce that we had made with ranch dressing, about a 2:1 sauce to dressing ratio, to make enough. It turned out to be very tasty, although my friends seemed to lose their appetites...~_^
I've been eating spaghetti with a little bit of ranch dressing in it ever since.

[alkapal]

shalgrith, there is no dearth of ranch fans on chowhound. it is just buttermilk, mayo and herbs. what's wrong with that?

[hill food]

old boy scout trick when craving more but stuck with KP. HA.

ok a bit of a grubby scenario, but for a 12 year old - who cares.

[madgreek]

With apples, I usually eat them in disc-shaped pieces. I'm very particular about how I do this. I cut the discs parallel to the imaginary line that would go from pole to pole. The first and last pieces look like half circles, and all of the others are discs. I eat them one by one immediately after cutting. I eat everything but the stem and seeds. I take the stem off when I get to it and pop the seeds out with a paring knife. Cutting it this way makes the core pieces easy to chew, so I just eat them to avoid waste. Without the seeds, the core tastes just as good as the rest of the apple, only denser.

Also, I take citrus (usually only grapefruit) apart by taking the skin off, and removing each half moon section, then carefully peeling away the natural film which encases them. I pile up the fruit meats in one bowl, and the "skins" and peels in bag or another bowl. Then, I dump the trash and eat the fruit.

I used to at the centers out of ice cream sandwiches by cutting it in grids with a knife, eating the cubes of ice cream created, then eating the two slices of cookie after pressing them back together.

God, people are strange and wonderful creatures :)

[jujuthomas]

my husband eats grapefruit and oranges the same way!

you reminded me - i used to let my ice cream sandwiches melt a little, then i'd smoosh them so the ice cream came out the sides to be licked away until only the cookies were left.

[hill food]

sorry ice cream sandwich centers are to be reduced, but not entirely to almost just the outsides. a certain amount of center really ought to remain. (ahem)

otherwise...

[lcool]

Not strange,the most normal way to eat an ice cream sandwich.Now madgreek and hill food have modified the practice to strange.

[hill food]

no y'y'y'you're the freak! apostate! heretic! you're gonna have to make sure all your steps add up to an even number today or there'll be all hell to pay somehow.

(heh)

[lcool]

Nah ,I'll just pull rank of some sort, because I am older.born on VE day

[KristieB]

I thought I was the only one who ate grapefruit this way!! I am so relieved that someone else does the same thing.

[alkapal]

speaking of ice cream, who *doesn't* let the ice cream sit on the counter a little when you get home from the grocery store, and open the container and eat the soft part around the edges? and so on. and so on. ;-). pretty soon, you have an "ayers rock" formation. or one of these rock formations: http://www.scienceray.com/Earth-Scien...

[madgreek]

We are diametrically opposed in this regard. My ice cream must be eaten firm. Preferably, straight out of the chest freezer (but give it a minute at room temp so it's not rock-hard). My wife and kids make wait forever and make a sort-of ice cream "soup" by stirring. This skeeves me out. If I wanted a milkshake, I'd make one.

Also, if you let it thaw to that point and put it back in the freezer, the ice crystals get larger after re-freezing, and mouthfeel is compromised.

[alkapal]

it just thaws at the *edges* of ayers rock! ;-)
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=h...

count me out on the ice cream soup!

[cupcakeadozen]

well i cant think of anything for me. but i know this girl who when eating her fires, only eats the part that her fingers don't touch...its really weird.

[chicken kabob]

I think u must mean FRIES?!

[hill food]

when I eat fire I try to be sure none of it touches my fingers

[HotMelly]

Not to mention my age.But this habit started many, many years ago. I would take the orange peel and cut it in a wedge so it would perfectly fit in my mouth to make a smiley face. I would grin and all they could see was orange. To this day I still do it, and I don't stop until someone notices me.

[alkapal]

"I don't stop until someone notices me." very, very funny, hotmelly.

we always did that in elementary school in florida, where we had lots of orange smiles!! sometimes i still do it and "show" mr. alka. he thinks i'm nuts.

[HotMelly]

Not very Lady-like, but I remember how far I could spit a watermelon seed (when watermelon had seeds)

[alkapal]

you gotta spit at least a couple of seeds!!!!

[HotMelly]

I guess one of my wrong doings is trying to taste foods while they are too hot. It is usually potatoes or something that stays hot very long. It burns the roof of my mouth, and sometimes it leaves this little "freekin'" piece of skin hanging down from the big space in the middle of my upper two front teeth. My space looks like Madonna's or that 60ish model who's name I can't remember. But she was in some vampire movie. ????¿¿¿

[tracylee]

I always do that with pizza...dig in before it's cool enough to eat.

[hill food]

1970's - Lauren Hutton?

[KristieB]

I am so with you on this one!!

[Passadumkeg]

I never thought I was so normal (or boring?). I am ambidextrous and my wife claims she can tell my mood by in which hand I hold the fork while eating. I like liverwurst and maple syrup on my French toast, however.

[furryabdul]

i dont know if this is the right place for this but growing up my mother always made us toast spread with mayonaise and then topped with ripe bananas. (sliced on top then mashed with a fork) sometimes she would sprinkle sugar on top. i still eat this once in a while. brings back happy memories.
:)

[schrutefarms]

I don't know why, but whenever I have a plate of fries in front of me, I find myself picking them up one by one, and setting them down, holding out for the best one. I'm still not even sure what that is, but apparently my fingers know what it feels like! Don't share fries with me, or I'll touch all of yours.

[KristieB]

I eat Ferrer Rochar by first eating the nuts and chocolate off of the shell. Then I split the wafer shell in half and eat the half without the hazelnut. Then I eat the other half, saving the nut for very last. I split M&M's in half with my teeth, preferably so that the one half is mostly candy shell. I split all nuts in half with my teeth if I they are whole and split easily. I also shave off most of the pretzel layer of Combos with my teeth saving the filling with it's thin, pale pretzel shell for last. Reallly tears my mouth up and the sodium wreaks havok on my system. And I only eat Combos in the car. Same with Corn Nuts, which I split with my teeth and eat the little nugget at the tip last. I eat a lot of things with my front teeth, and yes there is some wear and tear on them.

As a child I would only eat cereal in pieces of three. If it was Fruit Loops I would either have three of the same color or three separate colors on my spoon. Same thing with Trix. And I still don't like certain foods touching. For example syrup should NEVER touch my eggs. It's ok if it touches my breakfast meat on occasion, but NEVER the eggs.

I also peel the cheese and toppings off my pizza and save it for last. Usually the first slice gets this treatment because it is so freakishly hot.

And I used to love to put a Ritz cracker in my mouth and then take a swig of Coke. The sweet and salty together is amazing and it fizzes up in a unique way. But I'm diabetic so I don't drink Coke anymore.

[KristieB]

I almost forgot, when I peel and eat a grapefruit I can't stand the membrane that holds the little pulp sacks together. It is so tough and bitter. So I peel that off also and eat just the juicy pulp. Sort of like eating pomegranates without the seeds inside the little sacks. Drives my mother nuts when I do this. However she reads a magazine from back to front so what does she know?