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.

[TeriPie]

haha...I don't eat the CLAMS in clam chowder and it's one of my FAV SOUPS!! ....LOVE the potatoes and all the creamy goodness but NOT the rubbery clams! LOL....I know, I know....THAT IS strange huh? ;-)

[kattyeyes]

<<.I know, I know....THAT IS strange huh? >>
Nope, I'll eat oyster stew, but not the oysters. And I like clam chowder, too, though am psyched when fewer clams find their way into my bowl. :) I'm in it for the cream and the butter, what can I say?

[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.

[PressPlay]

HAha the couple times I've been silly enough to forget, I have literally fused my mouth closed for the better part of an hour after trying to chew a jolly rancher with my molars. NOTHING was jolly about this experience! You might ask why one wouldn't just pry their jaw open but believe me I tried and only stopped when I was pretty sure I was gonna lose a filling with it.

[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!

[PressPlay]

Used to suck candy canes down to the sharpest point I could and then poke my brothers with it heh heh heh

[ajs228]

You know, a lot of jails & prisons have banned candy canes because prisoners were doing the exact same thing, only poking a lot harder. Candy can be dangerous.

[alkapal]

yeah, i got yer candy cane. right *here*!

red and white shiv alert!

[EWSflash]

LOL!

[Safety_Yellow_Flash]

YES! I used to do that when I was little, only I would poke myself to see if it hurt, or try to stab it through a piece of paper.
"Look mommy I have an umbrella!"

[NancyHT]

Hah! I used to do that with candy canes when I was little. My mom showed me how. And long red licorice "shoelaces" I used to roll into a flat disk and eat it like a cookie.

[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...

[RiJaAr]

with twix you have to carefully eat the cracker and then the chocolate and then its just the gooey caramel you can slowly let melt in your mouth... messy business tho

[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.

[herbalista]

Any candy with a soft center, 3 Musketeers, York Peppermint Patties, See's chocolates, I always "filet" them, eating off all the chocolate and then sticking the whole center in my mouth and letting it melt slowly.
I also filet my sandwiches, eating all the crusted edges first, then the center. And I love pancake crust, to me it's the best part and I save it for last!
Oh yeah, and cheetos, i always slide them across my lips and collect the cheese on my lips to lick off after I've chewed the cheeto itself. I usually only do that when I'm alone, thank heavens. I separate my M&M's by color then eat them largest quantity first. I'll eat any plate of several foods one at a time, saving my favorite thing (usually the mashed potatoes) for last.
Oh lordy, OCD are us! Maybe I should increase my Prozac...

[lizlefebvre]

wait - next time, try it my way!
First, eat the outer chocolate-nut layer.
Next, split the wafer-orb in two, and usually the center soft orb with detatch from one half of the wafer-orb.
Eat the empty wafer-orb half.
Pop the soft ganache orb into your mouth, suck off all the soft ganache, and when the nut is clean, eat it last!
It's fun and makes the candy last longer... Orb orb orb!

[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!

[cookin]

that sounds like a good idea!

[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.

[bermudagourmetgoddess]

I am so glad that I am not the only one who has gobbled up spaghetti sandwiches...made spaghetti last night and I think a sandy is calling me tonight, I will take L_W suggestion and grill it with some Mozzarella!

[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!

[PressPlay]

Nutty Bars!

[nooyawka]

I do that too with Kit Kats!

[nooyawka]

I totally do that too with Kit Kats!

[alkapal]

nooyawka, do you realize that you made almost identical posts 12 days apart?
;-).

[02putt]

Me too! Except I would break a wafer off and eat all the chocolate on the ends and sides first then the wafer.

[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!

[kemi5]

YESSS!!! Or smash them in between the roof of your mouth and tongue!

[nooyawka]

Yes! Both the mashing and the sucking technique, and every once in a while, if I'm impatient, I'll bite and chew them like a normal individual. I find that switching between the techniques leads to greatest enjoyment.

[02putt]

They are totally addictive. We get cheeseballs in Canada but nothing like the buttery taste of Planters. I brought 6 containers back with me from St Martin. I had to buy another carry on and put some clothes in it to fit the containers! The roof of my mouth was raw for about 2 weeks. Then they were all gone.

[jjbourgeois]

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

[Michelly]

Ditto.

[kemi5]

LOL...I did the same with the the 3 musketeers bar!

[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.

[deedwan]

I would do that with red vine licorice ropes. Bite off the ends and then drink through it like a straw...never considered a pretzel though....hmmm..

[milkyway4679]

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

[kemi5]

ROFLMAO!!! So unique! I love it!

[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."

[Diane B.]

I like something similar for lunch... a can of sardines (tomato style, or the ones in water with a splurt of ketchup on top) kind of smooshed down onto Rye Krisp crackers--the "seasoned" ones. I must have cottage cheese on the side with them too... good taste combination.
If I add a can of V-8 and strips of raw green bell pepper, and it's a great dinner too.

[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.

[Auriana]

My husband makes fun of me because I eat about half a sandwich, burrito, whatever, then take it apart and eat it component by component. It's just better that way!

[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.

[sasicka]

I do it exactly opposite! I first carefully cut out all egg white and eat it and then I put the yolk on my toast and try to eat it in one big bite or max two, so that I dont loose too much of that great gooey stuff :-)

And when baking, I save one yolk and eat it raw mixed with sugar.

[The Professor]

I've read that the healthiest and most nutritionally beneficial way to eat egg yolks is to eat them raw (assuming you trust the source of your eggs).

[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. ;-)

[lil magill]

that's brilliant. i always wonder why i can't have the meat on the side. sauce and eggs should go into the muffin! the meat is just in the way..... when i have eggs over, i have to have them on top of the toast when i cut in. in South Carolina they just cut 'em up and stir them into the cold runny grits that have slid all over the plate. now that i don't get...................

[alkapal]

>>cold runny grits<<

no sirree. that's not right. no self-respecting southerner would serve grits like that. plus, grits aren't runny if well prepared -- even less so if they are cold.

i've cut up eggs in hot grits, and even eaten that on hot buttered toast! it's comfort food.

[small h]

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

[profeana]

I thought I was the only one who liked the pickle/American cheese combination. I used to take pickle slices and put them on little cheese squares. I thought it tasted like cream cheese for some reason.

[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

[deedwan]

I do that exact same thing with triscuts. I also eat a 3 muskateers by eating the side panels of chocolate off all the way around, the I pick the top off, trying to get as big of a section as possible,
then the bottom thin layer of chocolate and then the fluffy chocolate I eat bite by bite.

And I sometimes will pull a grilled cheese sandwich apart so that I can put the melted cheese
side directly on my tongue, it's a texture and taste thing.

[hill food]

weirdo.
(smirk)

[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.

[herbalista]

Oh lord, cake and pie! I have to divide my cake bites so I have equal amounts of cake and frosting with each bite. And pie, I eat the outside (slanted) edge first, so that the rest of the piece can be cut into bites with equal amounts of crust and filling.
I have to admit that I'm definitely worse about all this stuff when I'm stressed. Sigh...OCD ain't pretty.

[hungryabbey]

I do this as well, ha, with both the cake and the pie.

[jmcarthur8]

If you go out to dinner with my sister, and she orders cheesecake for dessert and offers you a taste - don't eat the point of the cheesecake (on purpose or not) unless you have an alternate ride home. She saves that bite for last, religiously. Always starts at the crusty end and works her way in.
She does that sandwich cut in squares thing, too. On the same wooden cutting board instead of a plate for the past 30+ years.

[Emme]

that's funny, when i could eat it, my FIRST bite was the point... then eat toward crust. when 2/3 of the way through, eat off the back crust, then eat around the skins/sides back toward the center.

why the cutting board?

[alkapal]

point first!

[jmcarthur8]

Emme, don't know why the cutting board. I remember her using it up in her bedroom when she was in high school, snacking and watching TV. Guess it just got to be a habit. I don't think I've ever seen her eat a sandwich on a plate.
By the way, I eat my cheesecake like you do.

[BobB]

German ancestry? When I lived in Hamburg, Germany about 35 years ago it was standard to eat simple bread-based meals - mainly breakfast, sometimes lunch - off of small wood or laminate boards called frühstücksbrettchen (literally "little breakfast boards") instead of plates. From what I hear, it's a custom that has mostly faded out of popularity these days and is seen as rather old-fashioned.

[cuccubear]

It does have a certain "old world" appeal.

[Blush]

My husband eats sandwiches/burgers/hotdogs from a wooden cutting board! I wonder if the rest of his family does this. He is of Polish descent.

[EWSflash]

I like to eat quesadillas on one particular cutting board, with a little pool of chamoy on the board to dip some of the pieces in.

[hungryabbey]

If theres topping on it.. I save the most excessively topped piece the last bite.

[grayelf]

jujuthomas, I used to do that with layer cake when I was a kid (now I just make sure my last bite is mostly icing!).

[Clarkafella]

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

[Auriana]

I squash baked potatoes into mashers.

[EWSflash]

LOL- so does my husband! Once we were eating with a bunch of people- mostly family- and after Mr Mr had beaten his potato to a near-mashed consistency, with the butter ever so evenly distributed, one of his buddies said "Oh just eat the goddamn thing, will ya?". We all laughed

[jujuthomas]

LOL EWS. My mother smashes her baked potatos up and goes so far as to pour milk on them!

[just_M]

I fork my potato open then squash the end toward one another, which creates a fluffy sort of eruption. I then fluff the potato while adding salt and pepper. Fork/fold in butter, then add sour cream and chive and taste for salt and pepper. Then sit back and enjoy the world perfect potato of the moment!

[alkapal]

sounds just right!

then once the buttery, potatoey, sour creamy part is gone, i usually eat the skin

[buttertart]

With lots of s&p if you're anything like me (which it would weem you are, alkasis!)

[alkapal]

yes! it definitely needs the salt. not TONS of pepper, but if it is fresh-ground, then i'm happier. my ratio of toppings to potato is ideally one-to-one!!!! (i'm not exaggerating much). ;-).

[buttertart]

My baked potato secret (gleaned from none other than the Galloping Gourmet: wash 'em, cut a thin slice off one end of 'em, sprinkle salt all over 'em (not too heavily, but enough), and bake 'em at 400-450 until done. Crisp-skinned and nice and salty, the salt seems to kickstart the salting of the inside. (Works quite well in the mic actually too, the skin comes out crisper and not as limp dishraggy as just straight miked - the tip comes from the days of the refrigerator-sized RadarRange and not even Graham Kerr could have predicted one in every household in these latter days.)

[just_M]

Oh yes the crust is the best part! Cooked like buttertart's, except I'm a stabber not a slicer ;-) I love the salty, crispy skin! Sometimes with a dot of butter or a drag through any any sauce that might be left, mmm. I even go so far as to save the husbands for later toasting (kids are smart they eat theirs).

[buttertart]

I sometimes slash them rather than slice the ends off, it depends on the whim of the moment.

[just_M]

eeh, Eeh, EEH! Psychos in the kitchen!

[buttertart]

Better there than elsewhere!

[just_M]

Yes, its best to keep it contained. And look at the results of our madness. The kitchen is just another studio for the crazed. At least my kitchen is ;->

[buttertart]

Mine too. 95 again tomorrow AND dinner guests coming AND a fancy baking project in the works...it's obsession central!

[just_M]

Madness under pressure = magic. Have fun and much success! M

[alkapal]

i thought madness + pressure = messure.

~~
"if we all go crazy together, then nobody will notice." -- alkapal's true sayings 2010 ©

[kattyeyes]

Redefining normal by consensus! ;) YES!

[just_M]

"if we all go crazy together, then nobody will notice." -- alkapal's true sayings 2010 ©

I like this so much, if I were crafty I'd make a plaque!

[buttertart]

We all of us on here have, no? :) Alkawisdom. Alkarisms!
The day was a blur but a lot of fun in a manic way. Posted on it on Baking V and the present What's for Dinner.

[kattyeyes]

Doesn't that sound so 'restaurant menu-y'--
"Perhaps you'd like to try our potato of the moment?"!!! :)
Wait for it...coming soon to a resto near you.

[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...

[02putt]

My Ma used to eat buttered buns as sandwiches. A lot of them. The buns had to be crusty not soft and plain white and definitely not chewy. Doesn't sound too odd right? She would squish the bun so flat with the palm of her hand once she had applied about 1/2 pound of butter on it. I only use butter for cooking but sometimes like it on my dinner rolls and nowhere near as much of my Ma. One night I was concentrating on getting the bun totally flat at the dinner table. Once I accomplished the mission I looked up and was just ready to take a bite when I noticed my husband staring at me. I took a bit of my bun and gave him the look that said "What?" He looked over at our teenage daughter and she was doing the exactly the same thing with her bun. Too funny. Of course she felt the eyes and her and said "What?" My husband just shook his head while grinning and I of course said Nana would proud. We howled.

[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.
>>^..^<<

[02putt]

My teenage daughter was staring at her corn quite intensely while holding it up. My husband asked her what she was doing and she told us that her Math teacher told the class that every row on a corn cob has an odd number of kernels. Of course I thought she was puling my leg so I counted mine and low and behold she was right! Do you know how hard it was to break the habit of counting my kernels every time we ate corn? And what this has to do with math is beyond me. Until I met the teacher. He has quite the sense of humor and the kids really like him. He has taken a dry subject and made it fun. Which in turn leads to better learning. I dare you not to be tempted to count your kernels!

[kattyeyes]

Oh no, and native corn is still in season--I must eat and count! AH HA HA HA (like The Count on Sesame Street)! I'm completely with you--whatever it takes to make learning fun.

[hill food]

awesome (and a little OCD)

[mamachef]

Ohhhh Noooooooooo. No you ditten. Oy. Power of suggestion. :)

[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.

[profeana]

I still love to peel M&Ms before I eat them. I try to split the candy layer perfectly in half.

I also used to love eating scrambled eggs with ketchup. I saw my cousins doing this once and learned it was the best!

Oh, and I can only eat marshmallow peeps after they have been sitting unwrapped for at least a week. They get the best texture.

[Fromageball]

Mmm...I only like stale peeps. Not stale = not good.

[grayelf]

Firegoat, I do the crack and eat thing with Smarties. And I do eat the red ones last -- behold the power of advertising.

[buttertart]

No, red just tastes better. A true fact about all candy except licorice.

[youngnsassy]

I HAVE to bite off the 'longer end' of those Doritos first!

[alkapal]

well of course! it tastes the best!

[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!

[tacocat]

I do the same with popcorn! I'll also leave it sitting out until it's stale and chewy before I eat it.

[Fromageball]

I like popcorn mildly burnt(not charcoal, but pretty much anything before that) with butter and fresh ground pepper.

[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.

[hyacinthgirl]

Ok, I do everything that you mention above ghg, and more... oh so much more.
I'm like the engineer of junk food, I am COMPELLED to take it apart, disassemble it, then eat it from least good part to most delicious part.

The one that gets me the most looks from loved ones is the way I eat pizza. I eat the crust. Then the toppings. Then I flip the pizza off and peel off the bottom layer of crust/sauce and eat that. Then I flip the chees back over and eat off any burned brown cheese bubbles. Then I eat the rest of the cheese. It's insane, and only true loved ones get to see this native behavoir live in the wild.

[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)

[profeana]

I love doing this! Then you get the best flavor.

[nooyawka]

Yes, I do the same thing with Doritos! Sometimes, I'll lick the side with more cheese first.

[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.

[nooyawka]

My friend calls me a "separatist". I usually eat the different parts of a plate of food individually. I don't mix them nor do I "multitask". And I eat the least favorite thing first and continue in sequence so as to leave my favorite item for last. My friend on the other hand mashes everything together and drowns it all in ketchup. A meal with us is a study in contrasts!

[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.

[DishinWIthDaisy]

this made me laugh out loud. How could you not enjoy that! Its like a compact pudding pie :)

[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.

[nooyawka]

I will always put the dumpling sideways on my spoon, and then proceed to nibble a small hole on the edge where the curve meets the bottom, and blow into the dumpling so as to let the steam out. (The dumpling has to be sideways on the spoon because if it sits upright, you have the hard knot on top and you can't easily nibble that.) Then I drizzle in some sauce. And sometimes I'll suck all the juice out first before dissecting the dumpling.

[mariacarmen]

your dumpling must be very happy after all that attention!
( :

[kattyeyes]

I know this is old, but just read it months later and CACKLED out loud, not just laughed at your response. HA HA HA HA HA!

[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!

[Maxmillion]

OH! I always blow across an empty bottle !

I thought I was the only person who did this!!! :)

[thew]

i never wait til it's empty! i want to hear the tone get lower as i drink

[Maxmillion]

well, of course! :)

[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.

[hyacinthgirl]

I think we need to have an eating party. We can sit there and deconstruct all of our food and laugh at those who gobble things up in one bite. I simply *can not* imagine eating a poptart that hadn't been de-crusted and had the sides separated.

[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.

[aggiecat]

The cupcake sandwich is brilliant!!! I can't eat cupcakes unless they are sugar free but the first sugar free cupcake I see is getting this treatment.

[Emme]

i deconstruct candy as well. same with kit kat. and reese's PB cups... eat the chocolate off of the outside, then eat that sweet salty PB core.

[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.

[grayelf]

This kind of jello is excellent for badminton practice -- just dice and serve -- as we discovered in high school using the caf jello :-).

[EWSflash]

My favorite jello is extremely bouncy. I add a package of Knox gelatin AND put in a little less boiling water.

[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 ;)

[aggiecat]

Isn't that called "pudding" for cream pies and "compote" for fruit based ones? ;)

[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'!

[1sweetpea]

It's the same in my house, Vorpal. I go for the best bites while they're hot, fresh and perfect. The rest can be eaten later, when they're not at their peak. My husband does the opposite, "getting rid" of the less interesting items in advance of savouring the best part(s). I've occasionally eyed his fish or lobster, wishing I hadn't gobbled mine up first, but you can't have it both ways!

My husband has often wondered why I'll leave a sandwich to sit while polishing off all the sweet potato fries in one go. Simple answer: they're hot and crispy. The sandwich can wait. But, if the side is a salad, the sandwich is probably going to get a lot more immediate attention.

[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).

[guilty]

I see this as a food trend for 2011; high-end restaurants serving cocktails with licorice (or candy) straws in complementary flavors . . .

[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.

[Jay F]

Kristie B: Never do I use saltines with brothy soups.

I hardly ever eat "brothy" soups (which I call "broth and chunks"), because I hate the word "broth."

[alkapal]

broth and "chunks"? and that sounds *better*? LOL!

[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?

[meatn3]

Lauren Hutton?

[BobB]

Bingo!

[cuccubear]

Where the heck'd you find that picture? she's got a black eye! Think she left an orange peel in too long and somebody socked her? terrible! :-)

btw - HotMelly, that was a favorite trick of my sister's too! She would just sit there quietly pretending to eat or drink until someone noticed. Always cracked me up

[Maxmillion]

I sometimes do that with orange peels!! My Dad used to do it when we were kids. I think it's a European thing (my Father was Czech).

Also, in The Godfather Marlon Brando does it in the scene in the tomato garden and scares his little grandson just before he.......

[Maxmillion]

Ayers Rock aka "Uluru" -- the sacred monolith.

[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?

[viennashade]

Why even bother even peeling it? For those of us who realize that the naringin in the membrane is what makes grapefruit juice bitter, the shell makes a nice little bowl from which to scoop out the good part.

That's what grapefruit knives are for. Ever since I was a kid, I take each half, go around along the outside with the g-fruit knife (keeping the membrane intact so that it builds up a neat little reservoir of juice in each cell), and then go around along the inner edges of the membranes with a regular straight-tip knife. I then put sugar on it, and scoop out each delectable little half-segment with a special tiny spoon (also from my childhood), until all I'm left with are the juice reservoirs. Then I sprinkle it with sugar again, which somehow seems to bring out even more juice, and go around again with my spoon, scraping till I get all of the juice.

Without the bitter stuff, grapefruit is so good probably anybody would like it (even white grapefruit - even without the sugar). Okay, so I'm throwing away some of the good-for-you bits, but hey, it's not like I'm eating red meat here!

[dinnercraft]

Oh goodness, I have a ton of these, and always thought I was alone in my weird obsessiveness until reading through this thread.

I like to bite the caramel off of a Twix bar...if you get it right, there is no caramel left on the cookie, and it comes away clean. Then, I dip the cookies, covered with chocolate on three sides, into coffee...like the world's most disgusting biscotti.

[Sapa]

Best question ever. My Mom makes samosas in puff pastry shells. I cut off all the corners, and save them for last. I usually have chutney for the samosas, and half of the corners get soaked in the chutney for about 10 seconds to get really mushy and flavorful, while I eat the other half plain and crispy. Good stuff. Done it that way for, oh, 20 years...

[hill food]

we're just freaks - screw 'em and be kind

say Happy New Year and hope they're as indulgent

[soft tofu]

I take the head off of a gummy bear and re-attach to a bottom of another bear (different flavor). Of course, I assemble and eat these one at a time. (I don't do this with other gummy animals.)

[hyacinthgirl]

I love this! You create a Gummy Island of Dr. Moreau!

[Auriana]

My favorite PB&J starts with two lightly toasted slices of buttermilk or sourdough bread, generously buttered, and then lightly spread with PB on one and J on the other. Best washed down with nonfat milk with ice cubes.

[aggiecat]

Ok, I'm really going to get honest for this one. i only eat breakfast cereal dry. I'll take a bit of cereal, chew and swallow, then a sip of milk from the glass. Repeat until cereal is gone. Add more milk if necessary. I've never liked milk on my cereal and I keep trying it 43 years leater just to see if that hasn't changed. Nope, I still can't stand it. Really weird, I know. I feel such shame now.

[Emme]

this isn't weird. it's perfect engineering of a meal. when i could still eat it, i never liked milk on cereal. once under pressure from a friend, i sat with an empty bowl, a box of cereal and a glass of milk. i would toss a bite of cereal in the bowl, then spoon a drop of milk into the bowl, then eat the bite. repeat. it was tedious and unnecessary, but my friend said i had to try enjoying cereal and milk together. nah.

[tracylee]

Same here, only at this point I can't drink milk, so I have multi-grain Cheerios as my late-night snack! Years ago I gave up milk making my cereal soggy and started separating them.

[aggiecat]

Tracylee; is it lactose intolerance or preference on the milk thing? If it's LI, do you live anywhere near an HEB store? They have this milk called Mootopia which is reduced sugar, increased protein and fat and lactose free. BUT, this is the part that is magic, it tastes EXACTLY like real 2 % milk. I hate the ordinary lactose free milk because it is too sweet and the texture is off. Tis stuff tastes really good just like milk should....yum. i have LI and can't tolerate much sugar so it's perfect for me.

[tracylee]

Thanks, aggiecat. I'm able to eat as much cheese as I want, of every kind, so I don't think it's lactose intolerance (from what I've read of LI). It's really post-stomach-surgery gastric issues that plague me. At least I've gotten over most of the dumping syndrome caused by any sugar. Now it's down to just sweet dairy.

We don't have an HEB store, but I'll keep a lookout for Mootopia, and maybe give it a try.

[grayelf]

I used to love milk on cereal when I was a kid but can't stand it as an adult. Solution for me : cereal on vanilla yogurt, fullest fat I can get.

[aggiecat]

Just thought of one more: Little Debbie Swiss cake rolls. Eat all the chocolate overing from the outside. Unroll the roll of cake and creme filling, eat cream filling then eat cake. if it's too stale to unroll, then bite of small bits of cake and cream as if you were unrolling it from the outside in. Lick fingers. Feel more shame. Eat another. ;)

[buttertart]

I particularly like the way to deal with ones that are too stale to eat the other way. Staleness is a virtue in some foods and candies.

[jujuthomas]

swiss cake rolls get stale? not in my experience, lol!

[Propagatrix]

For a regular meat-potato-vegetable dinner, I have to leave one little morsel of everything on my plate, and then I eat those last bits together in one bite.

I eat pizza by removing all the cheese/toppings with a fork and eating it first, then consuming the crust separately. The husband does not eat the outside crusts, or “pizza bones” – he gives them to me to consume. (These are especially good dipped in barbecue sauce or blue cheese dressing.)

Also, I dip French fries in mustard and eat them with a fork.

[tracylee]

Thought of this thread again as I was eating my afternoon snack of sliced swiss cheese. I always roll it up before I eat it. OK, maybe not as odd as other things!

[hill food]

tracylee: try the cheese rolled around a cornichon

[BobB]

Hmm... what about taking a thick slice of swiss (like a half-inch to an inch thick) and stuffing cornichons into the holes? And if cornichons, why not olives? Or blue cheese? Or steak tartare! Think of the possibilities!

[cuccubear]

Hey Bob, then wrap the olive-stuffed swiss cheese block in filo dough and bake until golden, kinda like a Brie. (I wonder if that would really work?)

[hill food]

I like the flavor combo, but would worry about the (low) moisture content in most swiss.

maybe layer the filo and cheese etc. like baklava

[alkapal]

shred corned beef or pastrami, add the swiss, kraut & mustard, then bake in the phyllo. i've been on a reuben binge lately.

[kattyeyes]

That is both naughty and nice! :)

[tracylee]

Hmmm, now if only I liked cornichones! I'll ponder what else to roll in it, though.

[hill food]

pickled okra is good too

[woodleyparkhound]

I always eat a piece of pie starting with the crust and working my way toward the pointed end. This goes along with my weird credo that I started in my head as a very small child, and still do with everything I eat which is "save the best till last". I will single out the best looking bite or bites of whatever I'm eating and eat around that until I'm finished with the rest of it, so as to finish eating with the maximum of good taste remaining in my mouth. Like if I come across a particularly huge chunk of cookie dough in cookie dough ice cream, I'll save it till last. It's second nature to me now -- I do it without consciously thinking about it.

[Emme]

i do the same... save the best for last.... order of the items to be eaten, best bite of the item being eaten... i eat the stalks off of broccoli or cauliflower first, eat from the un-flowered end up to the flowered end of asparagus, eat the peel off of the eggplant first... oh i'm weird.

question is: do you eat a cupcake bottom up?

[woodleyparkhound]

Yes - I always eat a cupcake bottom up! :--) I laughed when reading your post, Emme, as we seem to do all the same stuff!

[pdxgastro]

Sometimes I break off some cake from the bottom of a cupcake and put it on top of the frosting to make a cake-frosting-cake sandwich.

[RAGHOUND]

This isn't just me, it's my parents and siblings too! My wife and children think we're all insane. At breakfast, with over-easy eggs and whatever meat we each choose, we cut the meat completely into pieces, then cut the eggs completely into pieces, then mix the eggs and meat (and potatoes if we're having them) all together, sprinkle on some salt and pepper and then dig in! I've noticed people in restaurants giving us looks as we worked though the process. That' how Mom & Dad did it, that's how we do it. I don't think it has permeated the next generation - they all think we're nuts!

[alkapal]

in the south, we often chop up our bacon-grease-basted fried egg in the grits, then generously salt and pepper -- esp. the pepper. i like to eat it with triangles of good rye toast and a side of country sausage. i sometimes put sausage on the toast then scoop up the grits-egg combo with the tip of the toast triangle. that's a nice bite!

i haven't seen the chopping up of the sausage into this mix. but, i grew up with, and have often made, sausage-scrambled eggs, where the eggs are added to browned sausage, to cook the eggs and thus finish cooking them together as one dish. nice and savory! one might shake some frank's hot sauce on this dish. ;-).

[librarianjen]

I love a good PB & J sandwich, but I always - always - mix the peanut butter and jelly together in a small bowl or cup before putting it on the bread. Try it - it's soooo much easier to spread this way. I can't stand trying to spread jelly on bread, because it never goes on 'evenly' enough for me - lumps everywhere.

And this way tastes better! Yes, I know - same ingredients and all, but it just DOES. tee hee

[CarmenR]

This was mentioned, but I also eat M&Ms by color, with blue ALWAYS being last- I remember when blue were the most coveted and rarest color so I guess its a throwback.

I eat animal crackers by biting off the heads first always. SIDENOTE- I didn't realize how much I LOVE animal crackers until about a year ago I discovered trader joes brand (in a tub.) They're technically the organic ones and they're sort of expensive for animal crackers but they taste JUST like I remember!

Twizzlers are an appropriate straw substitute when both ends are bitten off

And, common in the south but not here in NYC, ranch goes on everything. Fries, chicken, bread and even pasta. Ranch if my favorite hangover-continent

[jenniferlove]

Bananas -- I'll gently squeeze them with my fingers until the banana itself separates into three even segments (like a triangle, with the round outer edge) and eat each segment on its own. I don't like to eat my bananas in slices or by biting at it with the skin peeled.

Twix -- when I used to eat really junky candy, I'd eat the chocolate and caramel off the twix, and then save the cookie for last.

Kit Kat -- like some other people posted, I'd nibble at the chocolate and then separate the layers.

Yeah, the whole banana thing really puts me up in the weird category. Nobody in my family has ever seen or heard of anybody else doing this with a banana.

[jester99]

Fruits like apples and peaches, i cant take a bite out of it, i need to break it down or cut it apart. Sandwiches I will cut it in half or rip in half. Sandwiches made from like white bread loaves I will eat the crust first before eating the white breat part.

also combos, i will like eat the outside pretzel part and then eat the cheesy middle

[grayelf]

I like to make a little mix of white vinegar, salt and pepper to dip my patty melt in. No idea why I started doing this but it's v. tasty. And it's also the only time I eat non-freshly-ground pepper -- has to be the powdery black dust.

[mariacarmen]

Until i was a late teen, i would take individually wrapped american cheese slices, keep a slice in its wrapper, put it under my shirt next to my tummy, and let it sit there until it got warm and soft. then i would peel off the wrapper and eat it, still warm from my body heat!

[rickityr]

I like to bite the end off a big dill pickle, then roll it between my hands to loosen the innards, suck them out then stuff the shell with p-butter and chomp it down.

[EWSflash]

Ha ha, me too!

[natewrites]

Twizzlers--as a kid I'd bite off both ends and use it like a straw to drink my soda.

Marshmallows--to this day, I love to stretch a jumb marshmallow between my fingers til it's the consistencey of fresh taffy.

[HillJ]

Holy cow natewrites, we must have been campers together! Twizzler straws and marshmallow taffy was all we ate....throw in a jar of PB with chocolatge syrup drizzled through it and we were bunkmates! Way up thread, I mentioned both of these childhood memories of food.

[goodhealthgourmet]

+3 on all of those. did you also eat hot chocolate mix straight from the packet, and Tang or lemonade mix straight from the can?

and of course squirt cheese went on your finger or directly into your mouth...no cracker necessary.

aah, camp :)

[guilty]

Country Time lemonade mix straight from the can was awesome.

[kattyeyes]

Must taste like Pixy Stix!

[hungryabbey]

I too loved the twizzlers straw. And it would get a bit soggy.. and when I ate it, it just dissolved in my mouth. And it flavoured whatever I was eating just slightly.

[mollybode]

Hot Chocolate. This is something my grandmother would make for us. I never met anyone else that had it this way. She would put a piece of Gouda cheese in the bottom of the mug and then pour the hot chocolate into the mug. We would drink it and then scoop out the melted cheese with a spoon.

[hill food]

ok that is odd, are you sure it was gouda? I can sort of see mascarpone or cream cheese, but an aged cheese?

[GraceW]

I put ketchup on everything and hot sauce. Especially at breakfast, on my eggs.

[RAGHOUND]

Reminds me of a guy I was stationed with in the Air Force. He would smother his eggs with hot sauce and, when I asked him why, he replied, "if you're not sweating, you're not eating!".

[SandyCat]

I have really gross habits with eggs. I love eating hard-boiled eggs whole... it took some wide-eyed stares in college to get me to actually eat them in more than one bite. Also, if there's a sunny-side up, over easy, or basically any egg that's been prepped with the yolk runny (which I do like), I will usually eat all the white first, nibbling down as close to the yolk as I can without spilling any, then I'll shove the whole yolk portion into my mouth so there's no yolk loss. I still haven't trained myself out of doing that yet; I really don't want to lose any of that yolk!

[loodle]

That is the only way to eat sunny-side up eggs! If the egg breaks and there is yolk-loss (heaven forbid!), the egg is no good and is given to my sister.

[alkapal]

"""""I love eating hard-boiled eggs whole.."""

sandy cat, maybe you were a fox in a previous life. http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2007/07/...

[nooyawka]

Wait do you mean, you peel a hard-boiled egg, and then munch on it? Or do you also eat the shell?

As to sunnyside up eggs, I like to cut carefully around the yolk with a knife, then pick up the whole yolk and eat it all in one gulp (yes, making sure not to break the yolk), and then leave the egg white for last. I prefer the white to the yolk so I leave my favorite part for last.

[cristallin]

This may sound really strange and totally kills the point of sushi, but I like taking it apart and eating it component by component.

The first few rolls, I'd eat regularly, but after a while I start trying to find where the seaweed ends and pull it loose. I eat the filling and then I eat the long unrolled piece of rice and seaweed. I don't mind it since I love the rice and seaweed combo all by itself.

[mamachef]

I eat my food on a salad plate rather than a dinner plate, if we're at home. throwback to teenage days and mom's advice, "it will look like more on a small plate." I also generally use a salad fork instead of a classic dinner fork. I also ALWAYS leave one bite of food on the plate, which drives absolutely everyone BUT me crazy, but baby sister's the same way: If she's eating breakfast, you can be positive that there will be one swollen rice chex floating in her leftover milk. Baby brother used to require what he called a "lake" on and around his waffles and pancakes: every hole had to be filled for the waffles and it had to be under the waffle and on the plate up to the definition of the rim. Mom ate ice cream from an actual 1/4 c. measuring cup on the theory that she was the one in control here, but it kind of negated the point when she'd refill it five or six times. BFF says, "when I eat a chocolate cake, I have to be alone, in the dark, preferably rocking back and forth and twirling my hair."
Nope, no food issues in our family either. I SAID, NO FOOD ISSUES IN OUR FAMILY EITHER! QUIT LOOKING AT ME FUNNY!

[hill food]

yeesh I thought you were looking at me, that's why I put the egg spoon (no NOT a fork) down. maybe I'll just eat later after you're asleep.

[just_M]

mamachef, I think I might be related... I do the exact same, salad plate, salad fork and leaving one bite. The leaving one bite though was taught to me by my Gran. She said it was polite and indicated to your host/ess that the meal was delicious and plentiful. You had been served just the right amount and couldn't ask for another bite. Oh yes and beverages in skinny glasses taste better than the same beverage in a fat glass (except some cocktails).

As far as my ice cream problem, that can be laid squarely on the shoulders of Dr. Dean Ornish. He was my dietary guru in my early twenties. Anyway he said "the first and the last bite are always the best" so for pretty much any sweet but especially ice cream two bites. But then thankfully I'm not huge on the sweets. Now if only that were true of certain other things - bacon and wine come to mind, two sips? As if! ;->

Then there is my phobia of crumbs contaminating beverages mixed with my obsession with crunch. Which means absolutely no dunking! Bite, then sip, then crunch the flavors together. So good. When I was a kid I even did this with cereal, drove my mother insane.

Nope, no food issues here! Good gravy what have I done to my children! Oh well, they'll live.

[mamachef]

I have had moderate, which is to say no, luck at all with Dr. Ornish's plan. My problem isn't the first and last bites, it's all the ones in between! Same goes for trying to find a substitution for the one food I'm craving - if I want a See's Bordeaux, a Reese's will not fill the bill. I'm with you on certain glasses for certain things; I have to have my iced tea and sodas in a large PLASTIC cup, tapered at the bottom and flaring at the top, filled with crushed, not cubed, ice. And I'm right there with you also on the complete horror of crumbs in a beverage. I do not dip; not biscotti, not scones, not nothin' nowhere nohow.

[Jay F]

I don't dunk, either. It's messy. And people use it as an excuse to smack their lips and slurp, and there's nothing worse than mouth noise.

I drink most of my iced tea at home, and thankfully I have no accompanying ritual. I don't like drinking out of plastic anything, though.

I think the salad plate thing is silly (how, exactly, am I supposed to get to the last bite if not by eating every bite that comes in front of it?), and I dismissed Dean Ornish years ago because of his near-complete hold on a friend of mine whose eating disorder behavior manifests in his going on a new brand-name diet every year or so. My friend insisted that it didn't matter how many carbohydrates you ate, you had to give up _fat_. The only times I've ever lost weight are the times I stopped eating sugar and white flour. So, bye-bye, Dr. Dean.

When I'm eating a typical meat-potato-veg meal, I must have a bit of each food in my mouth before I'll chew. I know a lot more people who eat each food separately. I don't think of it as an obsession, though, just a matter of showing respect for the balance of textures and flavors.

[thew]

it doesnt matter how much carb OR fat you eat for the most part. it matters how many calories you take in and how many you burn off in a day

[alkapal]

""""" Oh yes and beverages in skinny glasses taste better than the same beverage in a fat glass (except some cocktails)."""""

yes...tall, thin glass.
(but not a bloody mary).

[just_M]

<<yes...tall, thin glass.
(but not a bloody mary).>>

I remember watching Popeye with Robin Williams and Shelly Duvall when I was 10. Olive Oil only wanted to drink out of skinny glasses and I remember thinking YES! its not just me!

I've never tried a bloody mary, that I remember. So far I've been a screw driver girl but those dreamcicles at my last brunch with exSIL were pretty dreamy. Like a 50/50 bar for adults ;->

[mamachef]

I like my bloody mary served up in a Mason Jar, myself. And if I'm really puttin' on the dog, several spears of different Happy Girl pickled vegetables. And in Summer, with fresh veg. and herbs, textured almost like an alcohol-laced gazpacho.

[just_M]

I love gazpacho. Maybe I just need to adjust my thinking. I can see me now at the next nice brunch, "I'd like the gazpacho and a shot of vodka please" That would be eating strangely, but tastily. :-)

[hill food]

just_M: reminds me of a country club joke among the lunch set, altered here for your use "no this Gazpacho is All wrong, where's Manuel, HE knows the gazpacho I like."

big plate vs. small plate, I like the big plate because I can eat more without feeling guilty/weird (I have under-eating issues, it can take me a couple days to eat a full meal)

[nooyawka]

I loooove gazpacho, I think in no small measure because I like to say the name...gazpacho.

[hill food]

the Castillian pronunciation is the best IMHO. as an OT sidebar I hope you've seen Almadovar's "Women on the Verge" gazpacho plays a central role.

[ncyankee101]

Likewise with garbanzo beans - I think I like the word better than the taste, but always grab them when they are on a salad bar.

[EWSflash]

In old-diner language they're called "whistle berries". Cracks me right up.

[MmmVegan]

The way I like to eat pizza is completely ridiculous.
First I tear off the crust piece by piece and sort of scoop up the toppings with it until the toppings and crust are all gone. Then, if I'm able to, I'll try to peel the crust in half, with the dry bottom and saucy top. I always have extra sauce on my pizza so I can "dip" the bottom crust bit into the sauce and eat it. And then my favourite part, the saucy, soft, top crust with no toppings, yummy!
Only my family and my boyfriend sees me eating like this though, usually I have manners, I swear! :)

[hill food]

weirdo

[hill food]

but I did say that with respect for your method. weirdo. (I do hope the smirk and not the snark could be read in that).

[Jay F]

I can't even picture that.

[guilty]

That soft, saucy part of the crust is indeed divine. Not that I've ever dissected a slice of pizza to get to it . . .

[Slowdive]

When I eat baked potatoes/yams, I always carefully peel off the skin, cut it into squares, and eat those individually before eating the flesh. I will also either eat sandwiches with a knife and fork, or I'll eat each component separately (after taking a bite or two of it whole) starting with the bread crusts. Also, if I'm eating peas or beans, I spear each individual one with my fork and eat them one by one. I never thought that was weird until someone asked me why I don't just use a spoon. If I'm eating something like a quiche or casserole with a crunchy/crusty top I'll eat the crust first and often don't finish the filling. Oh, and when I make toast and there's more than one piece I always have one that's super toasted and one that's light; I like the contrast I guess.

[Passadumkeg]

WOW! I never for a second, thought I was so freakin; normal! Thanks, guys, better than a visit to the shrink.
I must have had a repressed childhood. Mom was an old school English teacher and my brothers and I referred to supper as The Spanish Inquisition. Eating strangely was forbidden. Good manners ruled!

[mariacarmen]

I think most of these behaviors were probably not flouted before the parents, but were things people did when no one was around. maybe i'm wrong, but my parents were sticklers too, early on, so hiding my cheese on my belly to warm it is something they never saw!

but i have a whole new picture of you as a dutiful little eater! ( :

[Passadumkeg]

Nah! I'm a slob, but can't leave anything on the plate!

[mamachef]

At our delightful dinner-table, complete sentences in correct English were a requirement. Daddy had a little tiny clay statue of a buzzard that a client had given him, and it sat at his place every night. I'm serious here, folks. If you piped up, say, "pass the potatoes" instead of the complete sentence, you'd look up to find the buzzard pointing your way. It was equivalent to a withering look. The upside is, I speak well to this day; the downside, a distinctly uncomfortable feeling when somebody else speaks poorly at table. I'm always concerned that they'll look up and find the buzzard pointed their way, and it's a terrible feeling.

[BobB]

But "Pass the potatoes" is a complete, grammatically correct English sentence. Impolite, yes, but grammatically correct: imperative form, implied subject, active verb, article, object.

[nooyawka]

Yeah, I agree with Bob. "Pass the potatoes" is a complete sentence.
I'm confused. What would have been missing from that sentence? "Please"? Or a person to whom the potatoes are passed, for example: "Pass the potatoes to me"? "To me" is a preposition phrase and is not required in order to make a sentence.

[Passadumkeg]

You for got the "please". I would have gotten corrected.

[mamachef]

The "please" is what was missing, pdk. "Please pass the potatoes" was the acceptable form, and the only acceptable form, at dad's table.

[BobB]

And you can put the "please" ALMOST anywhere.

Legitimate:
Please pass the potatoes.
Pass the potatoes please.
Pass, please, the potatoes.

Illegitimate:
Pass the please potatoes.

Yes, clearly I'm having one of THOSE Friday afternoons!

[buttertart]

I loved your pb sandwich post.

[BobB]

Thanks - but why say so here instead of under that post on a different thread?

[misslinnea]

I like to eat vanilla ice cream in a bowl, and take a spoonful, then take a swig of Diet Coke. I know, people say..well why don't you just do a float? But I just like to do it this way because then ice crystals form with each bite. And it has to be Diet Coke, no exceptions. LOL

[mamachef]

I do something similar with chocolate ice cream, not the gourmet kind, nothing fancy, just store-brand ice cream. It has to be very hard-frozen, and I scoop it into a clear water tumbler and then cover it.....with milk and eat it with a spoon. Love those ice crystals and the way the milk cuts the fake richness of the ice cream; won't eat it any other way.

[misslinnea]

Oh I used to have a friend in elementary school that lived a few houses down from an area ice cream/pizza shop and we used to do the same thing. Maybe that's why I like it so much, fond memories. Thanks for reminding me of that.

[TeriPie]

OMG!! MEEEE tooo!...only with cheap chocolate IC tho.....LOL!

[mimolette]

It's not a habit but I doubt too many people do this: I discovered the baby swiss cheese Madrigal does not melt easily. So I cut it into slices and bake them on a cookie sheet. They turn into cheese puffs, neat snack.

[Retroh777]

My lebanese family eats raw lamb mixed with Bulghur wheat and spices. We all love it! As a result of that fav taste; I'd say nothing is wierd to eat!
ps yes , you have OCD. Don't worry; as everyone you know is neurotic anyway!
retroh!

[hill food]

I would actually snarf that. and that's saying something,

[The Professor]

I've had the raw lamb dish... It's delicious.

[ncyankee101]

Wow am I the only normal one around here? LOL

Actually I don't have any weird things I *always* do with my food (though I do have a sort of OCD thing with only wanting nice crisp bills). When I was young I was often guilty of the goldfish / almond/ macadamia splitting, the eating Kitkats layer by layer, sucking candy canes to a sharp point then poking people with them, making cold spaghetti sandwiches (with yellow mustard) among others.

But one I did when young that I haven't seen mentioned - I would eat the crust off a piece of bread, smoosh the middle part down flat then use it to make sort of a pierogi by filling it with things such as peanut butter and/or jelly, mashed potatoes, etc. and then pinching the edges closed.

I can't really think of anything I do now that is unusual - other than liking to eat pieces of cake immersed im a bowl of milk. That's not weird is it?

Oh yeah - and I occasionally will nest a carrot stick inside a celery stick and eat them together.

[hill food]

I used to mash my sandwiches flat (cold cuts only - too squishy otherwise) but never tried making a patty out of it, but then I guess that what's done with panini or cubanos after all, just grilled.

[mariacarmen]

you reminded me, i used to take white sandwich bread, pick off the crust, pinch little pieces of the white part and make little condensed balls out of it, and then eat the white bread like that.

[mamachef]

OMG mc! The first time I ever saw "Wonder Bread" was at a WASP neighbor-kid's house, and she showed me how to do that! Little balls of doughy goodness, right?

[goodhealthgourmet]

Little balls of doughy goodness, right?
~~~~~~~~~
absolutely! and we would also pour sugar onto some of the pieces before squishing them...little balls of doughy goodness with a sweet sugar crunch :)

[meatn3]

We would do that too! My grandfather had us use the little bread balls for bait (easier for little hands to put a hook through than a worm). We would sometimes pretend we were fish and feed the bread balls to each other while making fish faces and sounds - kind of hysterical when you are in the 7 and under crowd!

[juniper1970]

I like to eat the white part (pith) of an orange - people have always picked on me in school, college and work. I often will cut the zest off and eat the pith first then the fruit.

[buttertart]

I like to eat that too - apparently it's very rich in vitamin C (that's not why I eat it though, it's the interesting texture and taste).

[Firegoat]

My bf eats the entire orange, except the pips.

[mariacarmen]

wait, what? the peel too? why stop at the pips!

[nooyawka]

Wait...isn't that part bitter though?

[buttertart]

The pith? Mildly. I don't eat every scrap of it.

[lulou23]

I must eat my tuna salad ice cold. After mixing tuna, mayo, chopped green onion, celery and dill, I place it in the freezer until it is almost frozen, then make a sandwich.

I remove grapefruit segments from halved grapefruits, squeeze juice from grapefruits, then mash grapefruit and juice in bowl to make 'soup.' Heavily salt until salt amount makes me make a face. I can only eat grapefruit, sliced apples and canned pineapple if salted.

[lizlefebvre]

My BF eats entire chicken bones. Well, almost: he eats both ends of gristle and crunches down as far as he can until there's nothing left of the piece of chicken but a little dry stick of bone fragment.

As for me: if I'm eating anything creamy (custard, yogurt, ice cream, whatever), i eat each spoonful in several bites.

And a bit with a dog: my dear old dog would eat anything I gave him; absolutely anything EXCEPT a raspberry. But he would try, just to please me. He'd try, make a face, and spit it out, and try, and spit it out... I almost wet my pants laughing the first time I watched him do this!

[nooyawka]

Yes, well almost, on the chicken bone thing. I will chew and eat all of the cartilage and sinews off a chicken bone, especially wings. The tips of the wings - I will gnaw on those too. Gristle, I love the gristle. I will not consider having done justice to a chicken bone until it is absolutely clean.

[mariacarmen]

i love the doggie/raspberry story - hilarious! what a sweetheart.

[buttertart]

We had a shepherd once who would eat anything (including fish guts that were none too fresh) but would not eat baloney. You could sneak it in with any number of other cold cuts but when that one hit the tongue it would be deposited on the floor.

[Umami_G]

Where it start:

Try to suck a hole in a Reese's PB Cup

Twizzlers. Make it a straw YEP

Eat the center out of a small hard pretzel to make a heart without breaking it. Challenge

Let a fruit roll-up dissolve without chewing.

Eat the white part of Candy corn first.
.
Not drink the last part of a soda/beer from can/bottle EVER!!!

Candy cane down to point. Said before. LOL funny!!!

Eat all the chocolate off a Skor bar and try not to break the toffee.

Only eat food under a table.

Tongue out the yellow of a Cadbury egg.

Almond split. YEP

Melt Cheese Balls in mouth. YEP

[LiveRock]

I use my top teeth to pull each kernel out of corn on the cob. The cob ends up looking clean as a whistle when I am done and always amazes my wife who teases me mercilessly about it.

Come to think of it, I sort of do the same thing with ribs and chicken wings...when I am done there is not a single scrap of meat left on the bone.

Randy

http://recipesrandycooks.com

[nooyawka]

Yeah, I learned that trick from someone else, and I do it too now. It agrees with my OCD personality. But do you agree with me that it's much easier to eat this way from top down, as opposed to from bottom up? Meaning, the top of the cob should be rotating away from you as you eat each row.

[goodhealthgourmet]

Eat all the chocolate off a Skor bar and try not to break the toffee.
~~~~~~~~~~~
wow. total flashback to summer camp :)

[TeriPie]

haha..TOTALLY still do THAT! :-)

[nooyawka]

I will eat a burger, by nibbling at the edge and go all around the burger, before diving into its center. Especially when the bun is bigger than the burger.

[jillian68]

I do the same thing with Goldfish Crackers! As for Reece's cups - I eat the edges, then "peel" the rest of the chocolate off - then make a peanut butter ball and eat that last! Works even better with the special holiday Reece's like trees, hearts, etc! but, my mom has the strangest yet - at Easter, she eats the Zitner's buttercream candy eggs sandwiched between 2 saltine crackers - she says the cracker helps "cut" the sweetness of the candy! Gotta love her!

[buttertart]

I could go for the last one - sweet and salty together, dynamite.

[noodlepoodle]

I peel the skin off of grapes with my teeth little strips at a time, and then pop the naked grape in my mouth and eat it.

I often eat my supper in an 8 inch glass pie plate. Handy to hold while watching TV and nothing dribbles off.

[tracylee]

My boyfriend heats and eats soup out of a cut glass candy dish I got at some event somewhere. I'm pretty sure I've told him what it is, but to him, it's the perfect sized soup bowl.

[ChristinaMason]

I hope it doesn't contain lead!

[tracylee]

Oh, I'm sure it was poured into a mold of some sort. I just looked at it and it's got "Indonesia" molded on to the inside bottom.

[buttertart]

I do that grape thing sometimes too.

[nanobabes]

I understand the rationale of the pie plate. I always prefer to use a plate that's more like a really shallow bowl. I find it contains liquids in a dish better, and makes eating every morsel easier.

And my mother does a similar thing w/ grapes. Oh lord, she'll sit there for hours w/ a bowl of grapes and peel each one individually with her fingers, a big pile of peels collecting on the plate. I understand the appeal, but it is just way too time consuming for a tiny bite for me.

[alkapal]

ho ho -- the a-peel!

[nanobabes]

haha, I actually saw the opportunity for that pun right after I clicked on "reply"

[TeriPie]

LOL...OMG....I absolutely HAVE to eat my frozen Marie Callenders POT PIE in a PIE TIN! ....not the cardboard it comes in, but after baking flip it out into a standard- pie tin and break it all up and EAT it! My MOM used to flip it out of the little tin it baked in(back when they were tin not cardboard) to cool it off quicker and we used to BEG to eat it out of the little tin it baked IN!! hahaha

[loveballet101]

Cupcakes must be removed from their little paper wrapper thingy. i then pick at the cake portion of it, leaving just the very top of the cake portion (like a muffin top) and the frosting. I then bite into it from the side, like an open-faced sandwich

[Emme]

+1

[nanobabes]

Since the heydays of elementary school when your classmate would bring in cupcakes on their birthday, I have always broke off the bottom, and placed it on the top and eaten the cupcake as a sandwich. yummm.

[hungryabbey]

I also do this exactly!!

[Wea]

Oh boy!!

1- Hot chocolate from the packet MUST be made by muddling the mix with marshmallows & a good amount of Bailey's. The marshmallows absorb the alcohol and fluff up quite nicely... I've also just stopped there and eaten the alcohol soaked marshmallows. (^_^)

2- If I'm running late for work and must stop at the local diner, I'll order a cheese omelet and home fries. Liberally s/p and then cover everything with syrup- yes, syrup on my cheese omelette.

3- I love pancakes but because my mother routinely made pancakes crispy on the outside, pretty close to raw on the inside- served with King Syrup (gag!) I have issues eating them more than one at a time, on a plate. The only way I can eat them now is if they are small and I'm allowed to tear them into bite-sized pieces to be individually dunked into syrup- NOT King Syrup (gag!). I absolutely cannot eat them with a knife & fork...

[EWSflash]

I'm going to have to try the Baioley's with marshmallows sometime

[nanobabes]

Salads are a time-consuming nightmare for me. I love them, but they have to be eaten a very particular way. All the vegetables have to be first cut up into small pieces. Each forkful has to have at least one of each element of the salad. Not SO weird, right?

But by the time it gets towards the end of the dish it gets more cumbersome. I then make piles that have at least one of each element of the salad. Some piles will be missing all elements since they're not equally proportionate. I make sure to eat those lacking piles first, so that each bite gets better, and save the most "diverse" biteful for last. I do a similar thing for most meals (piles of steak/mashed potato/vegetables) but it becomes more of a project with salads.

[alkapal]

sounds like fun! do you make piles only at home or out at restaurants, too?

[mariacarmen]

you might want to get that looked at.....
just kidding. ( :

[nanobabes]

lol, it's only a problem if it interferes with my ability to function! and alkapal, I do it everywhere. i hate when at the end of a salad all the red onion or bacon bits finally appear, or when you only get a biteful of greens ... to me it's just maximizing the tasting experience!

[alkapal]

well, i always leave the little broccoli florets till the end, because i don't like raw broccoli, but feel duty-bound to eat my cruciferous veggies.

[BobB]

And that brings up a whole other issue (which has been discussed out here before, I'm sure): the dichotomy between those who eat the least appetizing bits of a dish first to get them out of the way, and those who save them for last.

I tend fall into the former category, it's just easier to eat the parts I don't like as much when I'm hungrier. But I'm not an absolutist about it - if I'm eating a big ribeye that I know I'm not going to finish in one sitting, I WILL eat the fatty, delicious cap strip first!

[EWSflash]

Oh HECK yeah.

[kubasd23]

I always save the best for last! I guess it's my way of prolonging the enjoyment of my meal, maybe?

[alkapal]

bobB, re-reading this post of yours made me chuckle, because it bridged the gap between raw broccoli and a nice ribeye. you know, it is proven that if you eat that broccoli in the same meal as the steak, the steak has no negative health effect.

just like drinking diet coke and eating a snickers is a non-caloriic event.

or standing up while you're eating. just doesn't count.

yeah, dream on, alkapal.

[natewrites]

My sister used to eat Cheetos with a fork, and would dip them in mayo. Gross. (of course, she denies this as an adult).

[hypomyces]

I live in a lobster and snow crab fishing town. When we eat them, we eat everything-the litttle legs on the lobster and all the meat contained in the nooks and crannies of the crustaceans.
When I eat MY lobster and crab, I set aside the lobster or crab meat in a pile, and once all the meat is removed from the beasts, I start eating- everyone gets jealous watching me eat forkfulls of the stuff.
p.s. I prefer my crab and lobster room temp. instead of steaming hot.

[hill food]

oh yes I can't relax and enjoy the shellfish any other way (my perspective is from West coast Dungeness and East coast Blue - lots of little bits that must be hunted down no matter how long it takes). I suppose etiquette-wise it is the equivalent of slicing up your steak all at once, but ehh fuck 'em. I chew with my mouth closed etc. and do use the proper fork.

[nanobabes]

Seeing some posts about broken chips reminded me of something my friend does. I first noticed this after a night of partying, when we got munchies and devoured Tostitos and salsa con queso. When we got towards the end of the bag, my friend coated her fist with the cheese, then dipped her fist into the Tostitos bag, so she basically had a Tostito-crusted fist, and proceeded to lick it off. We were inebriated, so I laughed it off, and the next day told her that she was eating like an infant the night before. But she insisted that she does that all the time when she gets towards the end of the bag!

I, on the other "hand" (hee), dump all the broken chips with a little bit of the salsa and eat it as a mixture. I feel very classy by comparison.

[GraceW]

Recently I have been eating the green leaves with the strawberries. Maybe I should just make a strawberry salad that would probably be healthier than eating the leaves which are probably laced with something bad.

[DishinWIthDaisy]

I group multi-colored candy into color specific groups and then eat the colors from smallest amounts to most. I also eat peanut butter out of the jar with a spoon. The running joke in with my sister and cousins is the frozen fun size Snickers that my mom mom always had. We would sit around and gnaw on them. Gosh I loved them!

[ncyankee101]

Everybody eats peanut butter out of the jar with a spoon, silly. Nutella too. Don't they?

I can't buy either of them because I eat more that way than on bread. Used to do the same with almond butter but I got that under control. Mostly

[GraceW]

I am very impressed that you 'got the almond butter under control.' I could never do that with any nut butter. Bravo to you

[ncyankee101]

Thanks - but it's largely because it is unsweetened and spooning it out and drizzling some honey on it can get a little messy, so it is less of a temptation - though I do cave once in a while, thus the "mostly under control" ;-)

I eat the almond butter mostly as a late night snack where I smear some almond butter on a slice of bread, then a little honey, wrap it around a banana. Sometimes add a little cinnamon.

[alkapal]

have you ever tried frozen bananas? peel & wrap tightly in foil. unwrap like you are peeling it (holding the foil as your grip near the bottom) it tastes like a good creamy popsicle!

[frannieface77]

what a fantastic topic! A lot of mine have been mentioned and I remembered them while skimming the thread...sorry for repetition :) But there's definitely a list!

-Ever noticed how you can "peel" the crust off a bagel (since it's been boiled)? Peel it and eat it before tearing into the bagel (obviously this only applies to untoasted and plain)
-I LOVE LOVE LOVE chocolate chips AFTER they've been baked into something. I'll routinely demolish a cookie to eat the chips, with crumbs clinging to them. I swear both the texture and flavor change. yum.
-Pulling out corn kernels with your teeth so that the cob is totally clean. Now I think cobs with skins stuck on them look gross.
-Anything that can be bitten in half, try to bite in half, i.e. the goldfish. I also try and bite pretzel sticks (the slightly fatter ones, not the skinny ones) in half.
-Bite grapes in half and suck out the flesh from each, then eat the skin.
-Any hard fruit MUST be sliced AT LEAST in half, and stone pits must be removed. Apple seeds/cores, however, I generally do not remove and just eat in the slice. I prefer to eat the core/center of the apple slice first, until I have the peel with some flesh attached. Then I bite into that "normally".
-Classic eating the chocolate coating off candy bars (i.e. someone mentioned three musketeers)
-SO WEIRD: I like to completely peel my banana before eating it. I like them VERY ripe so the inside of the peel is soft and very stringy, and I use my teeth to pull the stringy fleshy inside of the peel off and then I eat it. I then discard the inedible portion of the peel and turn my attentions to the banana itself, which I tear bite by bite with my fingers. mmmm.
-I can't keep crunchy peanut butter in the house, but if I do I hoard the crunchy bits.
-I fish at the bottom of chips/party mixes/puffs/salty snack bags for the crumbs. crushed up tortilla chips from the bottom of the bag are the best.
-Another really strange one: Carrots have a round "core" in the middle. I like to bite partway through the carrot, then lever it off of this center core. Continue on the other side and isolate the core, then eat it. I do NOT always do this- tedious and not always successful haha.
-if eating cookies dipped in milk, dip the cookie, suck off the milk, repeat until soaking it makes it highly saturated and falls apart in your mouth.
-Pop tarts: break off the unfrosted edges, take a small (bite or two) piece and try separating the frosted top layer but leave the filling mostly on the bottom layer, eat the filling, then the top layer.
-I like to pick the plumpest raisins (preferably golden) and roll them between my fingers to soften them up more.
-If possible, tearing things instead of biting straight into them (such as sandwiches)
I also have some odd things that aren't really habits. I'll occasionally eat the rind of a lemon slice, for example.

[Emme]

used to do the carrot thing. still will with baby carrots :)

[frannieface77]

oh, me too! It's vaguely relieving to know I am not alone in my folly... :)

[alkapal]

gosh, my little pretzel story can't hold a candle to frannieface's post! LOL

on pretzel twists, i nibble off the nibs that extend, then bite each section in turn. no particular order there.

as to splitting the goldfish, i know of what frannieface posts -- splitting it so the halves are identical.

i wonder if frannie was an avid dissectionist in biology classes? LOL

on peanut m&ms, i try to separate the candy shell from the peanut (it is a technique to slow me down eating them). (though i have been good and not eaten those in probably a year).

[frannieface77]

omg I do that with peanut mnms too! but not slow down, just cause it's fun. i eat them too fast anyway >.> I think I may have come off as sounding rather crazy in my post...I do NOT do all of those ALL the time hehe. Except peeling bagels. I do that every time.

but i have rarely dissected anything in my life (though it's rather interesting) and don't particularly like sciences whatsoever, and am as far form OCD as can be. For me, it's more like "playing" with my food than "I must eat it this way or MY WORLD WILL END"...and some people are definitely on that side of things, lol.

please, nobody judge my character based on the post on this board... okay, the bagels and bananas *are* a little weird. *hides*

[alkapal]

judge not lest ye be judged.

no worries, frannie, you are among friends.

[tracylee]

I'd forgotten until I read about peeling bagels! I peel steamed char shiu bao It makes soy sauce absorb better.

[youngnsassy]

Tim Tams are long and complicated.
First, I lick and eat the chocolate coating off. Then I try to separate the wafers in a way that all the frosting will just stay on one side. If that doesn't happen, I lick and scrape with my teeth the frosting off the wafer that has less, which by that time gets soggy, then eat the biscuit slowly. THEN i slowly lick and scrape the frosting off the other wafer and chew on that as well.

The first time I did it in front of my bf he was speechless and ate 3 by the time I finished one, and when I saw him bite into one, whole and intact, I was surprisingly quite taken aback that anyone ate them that way. Heh

[woodleyparkhound]

I discovered the "Tim Tam Slam" on CH and had a friend who lives in Australia bring some Tim Tams so I could try this. Wow. It was so wonderful that I immediately was grateful that I can't buy these in the states.

[youngnsassy]

I just googled the Tim Tam Slam and sounds like it'll go very well with a shot of Baileys. Anyone who can do the whole shot is the grand champeen!

[woodleyparkhound]

I think to do a Tim Tam Slam, the liquid must be hot. The taste of Bailey's would be great, but I don't think it would really work as a slam since it's room temperature.

[alkapal]

um, young and sassy, your boyfriend should be very happy that you treat a mere tim tam like that. LOL

[youngnsassy]

HA it only applies to Tim Tams though =p

[plasticanimal]

Love this topic!

I always eat yogurt or pudding off the BACK of the spoon, scooping it with the spoon upside down. Somehow in my mind it tastes better.

I always bite into an apple with only my bottom teeth because it makes a bigger crunch sound. I also bite into the skin of the piece that's in my mouth a second time with my bottom teeth for a second satisfying crunch.

I make the Close Encounters Of The Third Kind mountain with every serving of mashed potatoes I've had since UHF came out. If my brothers are there, I say "this means something. This is important".

[alkapal]

i have favorite spoons for eating certain soups and stews.

[LN2008]

I totally do this. This also spills into my office and hygiene too. I can only use a yellow toothbrush or a yellow mechanical pencil. These are literally the only things I do this with, everything else I couldn't care less about... and yes, I use other writing utensils.

[yummfood]

What a great topic!
-Whenever I have a bag of trail mix, I always eat the nuts first, then the raisins, and save the chocolate m&ms for last. Sure, I could just buy a bag of m&ms, but for some reason the m&ms that I get in trail mix feels more special! :) Plus, they tend to have a slightly salty coating from the salted peanuts that give it that salty/sweet combination that I love.

-I do the whole, dissecting a kit-kat bar and eat it in layers thing....but that doesn't seem to be all that strange...well, at least not on this board! Same goes for reeses, snickers, any candy bar.

-When I eat ice-cream straight out of the tub, I never dig right in the middle. I always scrape from the outside (along the wall of the container) with my spoon, until eventually, there's sort of a mountain/island of ice cream in the center of the tub. Then I just continue to scrape from the outside in.

-When I eat ravioli, I try to cut off and eat all of the edges first, and then leave filling filled centers for last.

I have a lot more weird habits, but a lot of them have already been mentioned, and a lot of them I just can't remember off the top of my head...probably because they seem completely normal to me. HA.

[alkapal]

i've dubbed the ice cream technique "running the rim."

learned that technique in grade school. best done when ice cream is just home from your trip to the grocery, when it is softer around the edges.

OH YEAH, RUN THE RIM, BABY!

[Emme]

the ice cream thing i always did because it gets melty around the rim first... i like it melty... as a kid i would nuke my ice cream for 10 seconds to get it going...

ravioli! eat the edges, the eat the noodle part off of the center, last bite is filling with sauce... too many pasta dishes for me are just sauce vehicles....

[bearmi]

I am Chinese but I hate to use chopsticks (the disposable ones give me splinter) so I only use fork at home. When I go out for Chinese food with my non Asian friends, I usually request for a fork too. Most of the time the waiter/ waitress will give me a funny look because I am the only Chinese at the table and also the only person who isnt using chopsticks, but what can I say. Forks are easier to use if you are eating from a plate!!!

And speaking of eating strange food combination, when I was in high school, I came across a Chinese cookbook written by Chinese Americans. Most of the recipes were from the 1960's when Asian ingredients were scarce, especially for expats who lived in small rural towns. One recipe was Hot and Soup Tuna Soup. Basically, its canned tuna + eggdrop+ soy sauce + chicken broth + vinegar + white pepper. Not sure why, but I was so obsessed with it and made the soup almost daily. Now I think back... I dont even know how I ate it!! Sounds kind of gross to me!

[mamachef]

I have an oddity where microwave popcorn is concerned. Towards the end of the bag, I just basically hold the bag in my mouth and tip it up to send it cascding towards the appropriate receptacle. I do not do this in the company of others, but one time I was with my BFF who I can do anything around, and I did it, and she about fell over laughing, her comment being, "look at Marci and her OATBAG." : )

[LN2008]

I smash up oreos into my applesauce. My dad taught me that and I didn't think it was strange until I hit high school. My other thing is ketchup and hotdogs in my macaroni, another thing I didn't know was strange until later.

[frannieface77]

That reminds me of when I was little and my mother would cut hot dogs into little bite sized pieces and mix them in our mashed potatoes! no ketchup though...