Foods you always "deconstruct"

[2roadsdiverge]

So what are the foods that you tend to pick apart to eat, rather than eating as a whole?

I'm not talking about charcuterie plates or sampler platters that are designed to be eaten separately. I'm also not talking about picking out the parts you don't like (such as onions in a salad or nuts on a brownie). I mean those foods where you eat all of one ingredient or part separate from the rest, before eating the rest.

Do you eat the frosting and cake separately?
Pick the pepperoni off your pizza before you eat the slice?

Does anyone have a spouse or friend who does this to your annoyance, or who gets annoyed by you doing it?

I have a friend who orders steak with mushrooms and onions, and every bite has to have meat, mushrooms, onions, as well as any sauce, all on the fork together. Meanwhile, I love mushrooms so much I eat them all first.

[HillJ]

On the rare occassion I eat a muffin, bottom first-top last.

[sasha1]

I used to peel bagels, eating the crunchy outside entirely before the chewy middle. The peeled naked bagels looked pathetic and pasty, kind of like the first time one goes to the beach after a long winter...

[jbsiegel]

I **STILL** peel bagels (and soft pretzels)!! And, the chewy middle is REALLY good if you squish it a bit before biting off a piece. :-)

[sasha1]

Oh I didn't mean to imply it wasn't good. My favorite kind to do that with used to be spinach bagels. I do prefer the crunchy bits though. It's likely why I started this odd practice in the first place :)

[jbsiegel]

Funny...I prefer the doughy bits. Actually, I like to eat most of the "edges" off of anything before the middle - cookies, bread, hamburgers, you name it!

[SeaSide Tomato]

Burgers often come served open-faced with the lettuce and tomato on the top bun and the burger on the bottom bun.

I have to have my burgers(from the bottom up): bun, tomato, lettuce burger (toppings like bacon pickles/onions if applicable) then bun.

So-when a burger is served to me this way, I can't just close it up. I have to remove the L&T, close top bun over the cheesey burger, flip it over, re-insert L&T on the bottom (add my ketchup, etc) then eat.

It's not that I'm a fanatic--it stays to gether better this way--especially if the tomato is on the very bottom.

Ok, I guess am a fanatic about it.

[huiray]

I've never eaten a burger that did not fall apart about halfway through or so, unless I "deconstructed" it substantially before chowing down. Or, stuff just spilling out from the sides/opposite side of the now-soggy-and-breaking-up-bun by the 1/2 to 2/3 way through. So "deconstruction" is necessary for me if I want to ameliorate the mess when I eat a burger. Yes, I am talking about restaurant burgers/burger joints. (At eatouts etc at home or at friend's places I can choose what to put onto the bun or have on the side and munch along with the meat patty+bun)

[2roadsdiverge]

Pop-Tarts. I always eat the edges first, so that the top and bottom pieces are only held together by the filling. Then when i take a bite I can separate them, or even peel them apart before i eat them.

[steakman55]

I detest stacked foods, with the meat on top of the vegetables on top of the mashed potatoes, etc., except for dessert. I always spread it back around on the plate like God intended it to be.

[ForFoodsSake]

Me too. I always deconstruct these types of presentations back into their own little piles. I just like eating one thing at a time!

[daintree]

Does "deconstructing" a beer bottle count? ;)
For some reason, I *always* peel the labels off my beer bottle as I drink them. Eventually, I get a few naked bottles on the table and some fairly intact labels. Sometimes, if it's been a particularly good night out (or a damn good beer), I'll save the labels and stick them in my notebook. :D

[pdxgastro]

Does anyone break open an onion ring and pull the onion out of it and eat it? And then eat the breading?

Taco truck tacos. They give you 2 tortillas with the filling. I observed my friend sliding one tortilla from under its mate and then divide the filling between them. Now I do it too.

[2roadsdiverge]

I have a friend who does that with onion rings, but she discards the onion. She just wants the breading. She eats the bread off a corn dog and tosses the meat, too.

[pdxgastro]

Such a waste.

[Munkipawse]

i noticed my friends doing the same thing too and i started doing it as i liked eating two smaller tacos rather than one big messy stuffed one.

[sheilal]

I have to eat Nutty Buddy Bars one peanut-buttery layer at a time.

[CyndiMartin]

I deconstruct all candy bars. I can't enjoy them just biting off a chunk.

[srsone]

the 100 grand bar

eat the chocolate/rice crispy coating off first ..then the chewy center....

[lunaburning]

Cinnamon rolls. I always have to un-spiral them before I eat them.

[2roadsdiverge]

Me too! Great example.

[Emme]

eat from out to in... i used to scrape all the icing toward the center to have the most frosted bites at the end...

[pinehurst]

As a child, with Hoodsie cups, I would always eat all the chocolate, then the vanilla. I have a beloved nephew with Asperger's who eats every meal and snack color-sorted. His rule is green first, white food never. I don't think we even notice food deconstruction anymore!

[huiray]

Interesting. So - your nephew would never eat things like rice, most types of bread, vanilla ice cream, white-skinned beans/seeds etc?

[pinehurst]

White bread has to be toasted. His mom stirs ketchup into mashed potatoes. Vanilla ice cream is out. I'm sure he's had cannellini beans *in* richly colored things, like minestrone, but he wouldn't go for them in any state close to "as is". He likes fried rice, and brown rice, but yeah, not white.

[Jay F]

I don't do any of these things except the one with M&Ms (brown, orange, yellow, red first, then I keep the blue and green ones for tomorrow--only if I'm sitting at a table, though). I can't imagine taking a Kit Kat bar apart layer by layer. That's such a lot of work.

[rhumphrey205]

Sandwiches, especially steak sandwiches. I eat a few bites of the sandwich itself, then just give up, open it, and eat the parts that are the tastiest (like the steak)! :)

[ForFoodsSake]

Same here with gyros and burritos. Most of the time I'll eat them like normal, but I love to deconstruct them and eat one thing at a time!

[Isolda]

Pizza, if it is the kind where they put the cheese over all the toppings. That style is less common here, but when I encounter it--really, they should put warning signs on the door--I peel the cheese off, cut it into small pieces, then put some of them back on the the other toppings.

[jester99]

dumplings i bite a small hole and eat the inside first and then the skin afterwards which i drench in whatever condiment i am using.

[tatamagouche]

Yay black vinegar.

[chefmindy]

I have this habit of eating my lasagna in layers. Which makes no sense to me because lasagna is delicious in a whole piece! I also peel off the toppings of my pizza and eat the dough and sauce first. I pick the cheese off of cheese buns and eat it first.

[huiray]

Fried eggs, sunny-side up. I cut off the whites bit by bit, eating as I go along, leaving just the yolk with the residual edging of egg white - then I slide the egg yolk carefully onto my fork and pop the whole thing into my mouth. I get mildly annoyed if the yolk breaks on the plate or before it gets into my mouth.

[small h]

I do this, too, sometimes. But only when I'm alone, as I've seen dining companions react negatively.

[huiray]

Really? Interesting. What are their objections?

[small h]

I can only speculate based on the alarm I've seen in their eyes, but it probably has to do with an egg yolk looking like an awfully big thing to eat in one bite (even though it isn't, since it squishes down).

[huiray]

:-)
Ehh...ignore them - or reassure them that there is no reason for concern!
If someone said something snarky about how I eat these sunny-side-up eggs, I would tell them they need to fixate upon something else to obsess about. ;-)

[shanagain]

I think it probably just alarms us "dippers." Or the thought of not dipping makes us dippers sad, I think. ;-)

[cgarner]

it makes the toast very lonely when you don't use it to mop up the yolk

[huiray]

Eh, the toast is just fine with butter and jam, chomped on without benefit of egg yolk. For that matter, toast + egg yolk is faintly repulsive to me. In fact, I even often skip the toast altogether when having this kind of breakfast. :-)

[dump123456789]

What about egg yolk with a toast chaser ? Hold the whiteless egg yolk in your mouth, then start eating the toast. It mixes in your mouth, so none of the yolk is wasted by being left behind in streaks on the plate.

[small h]

So there I was, on vacation earlier this week, having breakfast in Newport, RI with my partner. Breakfast came with Portuguese bread, which does not pair well with egg yolk. I says to the guy, I'm going to eat these yolks whole, and he says, oh, please don't. I told him to look away. You have inspired me!

[huiray]

(((BIG GRIN)))

[GraydonCarter]

Portuguese bread? Like sweet bread?

[small h]

Yes, it was challah-esque. Or brioche-y. Depending upon your ethnic frame of reference.

[DunkTheBiscuit]

Me also, with the fried eggs. When I was a kid my gran used to give me fried egg sandwiches and I'd nibble round and round the whole thing until I was left with just the yolk between two yolk shaped pieces of bread, then glomph the whole thing so the yolk exploded in my mouth. I may still do that sometimes...

Other things. Custard slices - I'll hold them upside down by the very edges, peel off the bottom layer of pastry then use it to scoop up some of the custard, until I can eat the top/bottom layer of iced pastry with just a thin layer of custard. Pies - I pick out the nicer looking bits of pastry to leave until last. Muffins - I break off the top and eat the stump first.

All these are things I do at home. When I'm out and about, the only time I really start fiddling with my food is when it's a sandwich that's piled too high to fit in my mouth. Then it's lid off, pull out bits to make it more polite to eat, replace lid.

[huiray]

"...then glomph the whole thing so the yolk exploded in my mouth..."
--------
...and that was and still is quite a nice mouth experience...
:-)

[shanagain]

Fried chicken must be deconstructed. I use the chicken skin to scoop up gravy or mashed potatoes (or both).

Yes, I'm five and like eating with my fingers, messily.

[jamieeats]

almost everything, actually. i tend to pick one piece out at a time and go so far with pizza to eat the toppings, then the cheese, then the sauce, then the inside of the crust...of course i only do the real picking apart when i am at home. when at restaurants, i order things like fish or meat that can't really be picked apart separately, or a salad where it's quite easy to do.

[dratlover]

I am with many of you.
American tacos must be deconstructed so that cheese lies next to meat, then add back lettuce and tomato.
M&Ms...eat all colors but red, yellow, and green first. Then arrange them to look like little stoplights.
Three Musketeers....chocolate eaten first.
Kit Kats...layer by layer...I am an expert.

[jamieeats]

i eat the chocolate off of my 3 musketeers first too! i also try to do the same with snickers and milky way, but those can be a little more challenging to deconstruct...luckily i don't eat too many candy bars.

[jbsiegel]

I do the EXACT same thing with my 3 Musketeers (one of my all-time fav candy bars) and MIlky Ways. Not really a huge Snickers fan. I like to put them in the fridge - easier to eat the chocolate off.

[jbsiegel]

I pull EVERYTHING apart. My basic philosophy is save the "best" for last!

So...any kind of bread is eaten crust first followed by the insides. Any cake / cupcake - frosting last. Crumb cake - crumb topping last. Eggs - yolk last. Cookie bars are usually eaten in layers (if possible).

I'm also really bad about saving the "middle" of something for last (thinking it must be the best). So...I eat around the edge of a hamburger first, around the edge of cookies, etc.

My husband thinks I'm a lunatic!!!

[dinnerwithfox]

I eat like a child to be honest, I cant just eat something as is.

I must play with my food and pull it apart and only eat what I want to eat, leaving the rest.

I dont do this at other peoples homes of course or restaurants, I think that'd be rude of me to do!

But in the privacy of my own home (or with close friends) I let my inner child come out

[Firegoat]

Three musketeer candy bars. Eat the chocolate first, then the gooey, nasty looking filling. I've also been known to pull the onions out of onion rings and just eat the breading, but usually only if I think the onions are too thick and/or slimey.

[Emme]

omelettes - eat filling first, then eggs (which is why i hate the frittata/pancake style omelette)
reese's PB cups - eat chocolate off first, then PB center
kit kat - each chocolate off then eat each wafer layer
eggplant - eat the peel off first
broccoli/cauliflower - eat the stalks first

[CanadaGirl]

How do you get the chocolate off a Reese's cup without smearing the peanut butter? I'm perplexed :)

[dagrassroots]

I do it too. Nibble the outside chocolate rim then peel off the top and the bottom .

[Emme]

exactly.

[sheilal]

I do the exact same thing with a Snickers fun-size candy bar. Chocolate is eaten first, then the nougaty, peanuty center.

[eclecticsynergy]

Used to eat Snickers that way when I was a kid- chocolate edges first, then the bottom, then the nougat, and finally the caramel with the chocolate top. Still do it that way if I'm eating one at home.

[CanadaGirl]

Do you eat the peanuts with the nougat or with the caramel?

[eclecticsynergy]

Peanuts for me go with the caramel. Actually, what I was visualizing when I posted was a Milky Way, which receives the same treatment.

It's a rare indulgence these days, but I'll have to buy myself one or the other now that the seed's been planted. Or the nut...

[cleobeach]

You put them in the freezer first, works particularly well with the mini sized cups.

[GraydonCarter]

When I first saw this topic, I thought it was going for "deconstructed food" in the haute cuisine sense, "to break apart and then reconstruct in a new manner." Or serving a dish in a deconstructed manner, like an apple pie that is presented as a puffed pastry with the apple filling prepared separately and poured over the pastry rather than filling it. Has anyone tried desconstructed dishes at home? The same ingredients prepared in a form different from the original, then recombined again. The look is different, but when you eat the dish you got the same flavor sensation as the original.

[2roadsdiverge]

That was actually my inspiration for the topic, GraydonCarter. A friend and I were talking about the trend of deconstructing dishes on shows like Top Chef. This took us to talking about how we deconstruct certain dishes all the time.

[emmie]

Pickle spears. I scrape all the seeds out with my front teeth. Then chew out the middle, then eat the skin. And Twix: eat all the chocolate of the bar, then the caramel, then the plain cookie last. Now that I think of it, I usually pick off my pizza toppings and eat those, then tear off the crust and eat that, then finish with the "just cheese" pizza.

Actually, I go through phases where I don't like my food to touch so I deconstruct a lot of things!

[cgarner]

Toffifay...
pop the dark chocolate disc off the top eat that
peel the caramel off of the creamy center, eat that
scrape the creamy center off the hazel nut
then finish with the hazel nut
(I don't eat them when anyone's looking)

[CanadaGirl]

I do pretty much the same thing, except it is my mouth the whole time and the order is: chocolate top, hazelnut and filling, then the caramel last.

[shanagain]

Ditto on Twix!

[dulce lover]

Snickers....first the sides, then the bottom, then the nougat, then the rest...chocolate, peanuts, and caramel...yum!

BTW, learned this from watching my mom eat them like this. Thanks, Mom!

[sbp]

My son pulls every piece of pepperoni of a slice and creates a stack he calls "pepperoni mountain". Which he eats as the last bite.

[buttertart]

I love this.

[RealMenJulienne]

I was a weird kid. I used to peel off all the greasy coating off a Mcnugget to examine the spongy meat underneath, then eat the two seperately. Would also do that with Chef Boyardee ravioli. Don't do that anymore thankfully. The closest I come now is when eating a burger, hot dog, or sausage I always cut out a bit of the meat to try it independetly of the mustard, onions, or whatever else is on there.

[Popkin]

OMG lol I used to do that to my chicken nuggets too!

[Laurenjo28]

I still do that to chicken nuggets! I irritates my mom so much lol

[2roadsdiverge]

I have a friend who likes fried breading more than almost anything else. She will order onion rings and eat the breading and leave the onions. Same thing with fried mushrooms and pickles. She'll eat the cheese from fried mozzarella, but only after the breading. I've even seen her order a corn dog, and throw away the hot dog after she ate all the breading.

[tatamagouche]

No offense to your friend, but I bet a butterfly dies every time she does that.

[GirlyQ]

I still eat chicken nuggets/strips that way! I can't help it.

[ipsedixit]

The crust on a Klondike Bar.

[2roadsdiverge]

ohhhh! Good one!

[alliegator]

Goetze's caramel cream candies (I have not seen these in a very long time). I need to pop out the sugary center and let it dissolve in my mouth, then have the caramel.
I need to find some of these.

[srsone]

cracker barrel has them...

[alliegator]

hey thanks!

[breakfastfan]

+1, and my meme (grandmother) taught me to do that!

[mamueller]

Definitely sandwich cookies - more to get rid of the sickly sweet middle so that I can savor the cookie part. Same with cake, but will usually just dispose of the icing except for a very thin layer. Pie most definitely. I will eat off the top crust, then the filling, then the bottom crust. Now, the edge of the crust is saved until last, unless it is a little burnt, in which case I will eat that first to get it out of the way. Always save the best bite for last, no matter what.

[2roadsdiverge]

Saving the best bite for last is a whole 'nother discussion! Depending on the food I may want to eat the best bite first, so that I get it when it is still hot or crunchy or icy or distinct.

[srsone]

im the opposite...i want the sugary goodness inside of a cookie first ..cookie parts are secondary

[srsone]

any sandwich cookies...
oreo..
nutter butter...
double stuff oreo...making double double stuff cookies...
sugar wafer cookies ...
any kind....

[cgarner]

Lucky charms... when I was a kid, I always ate the cereal pieces first, leaving a bowl full of marshmallows and milk... Then I'd slurp out the milk and eat spoonfulls of soggy marshmallows

I would so tediously make sure that every bite in the beginning had no marshmallows in them, to be honest, it's hard for me to not do that to this day
LOL

[cleobeach]

My son sort of shields his bowl when my husband walks by as Daddy will see that wealth of hoarded marshmellows and can't stop himself from trying to dip into them.

[2roadsdiverge]

Love it!

[caseyjo]

I used to do this as well! At one point, I attempted to do this with an entire box. I stole it from the kitchen, grabbed a couple mixing bowls, and started sorting. My intention was the return the cereal to the box and eat all the marshmallows, but of course my mom figured out what I was doing. She was not happy about it either.

[Peg]

Pretty much anything baked in pastry. I eat the filling then the pastry, no matter the kind of pastry or filling.

[Laurenjo28]

I do it with sausage biscuits haha. I will eat the sausage then spread strawberry jam on the top and bottom slices of the biscuit and eat them seperately. Same with Poptarts. I'll eat the outer crust parts, then pick the frosting off of the top. I eat the outer, crunchy part of an eggroll first, then eat the filling.

[monavano]

Occasionally the top bun of a hamburger.
Wraps- too much redundancy most of the time, and I pick it off until the wrap is only one layer. Then it falls apart. Then I deconstruct it.

[klyeoh]

Australian pavlova. I grew up in Perth and this was like the go-to dessert for many lazy hosts/hostesses. I'll pick it apart, eat all the berries & fruits, dip some of them in the cream, and leave the sweet meringue till the end :-)

[TheHuntress]

Well, if you're from my home town you will understand that the only way to eat a Crunchie is to bite off all the chocolate and then eat the honeycomb separately. I don't think they do Crunchies in the US, although it is likely I shall be corrected.

[klyeoh]

You can find Crunchies in the US now, where I spent 30% of my time between 2006-2009. Personally, I liked to bite a Crunchy (or Violet Crumble) bar all the way thru, and feel the outer chocolate layer mix in with the honeycomb :-)

My fave chocolate bar is still Cherry Ripe - now THAT is a bit harder to come by in the US! But I'm not complaining - after all, the best Aussie lamington I'd ever, EVER tasted was not in Australia, but by Alison Barakat (aka Bakesale Betty) in Oakland, California!

[TheHuntress]

I have attempted to deconstruct a Cherry Ripe, but it's just not possible, and I also have a tendency to deconstruct lamingtons too, now that you mention them :) I also do exactly the same thing with Magnum icecreams, bite off all the chocolate and then eat the ice cream.

[klyeoh]

What everyone should deconstruct is one of those "apple strudels" from Corica in Northbridge - they are more like mille-feuille. My German friends visiting Perth never failed to be confused as to why we'd call these baked goods "apple strudels" :-D

Corica's apple strudels became legendary amongst Singaporean tourists, and they'd lug boxes & boxes back home.

[TheHuntress]

Hmmm, I guess I'm deconstructing one of those for lunch tomorrow.

[klyeoh]

Cool!

[huiray]

Oh, you mean these? http://heart-murmur.blogspot.com/2009/08/corica-apple-strudels.html
Heh... http://www.truelocal.com.au/business/...

[CanadaGirl]

That's how I eat a Crunchie too.

[cocoagirl]

sandwhiches- especially with two much bread

[buttertart]

Sandwiches, because American sandwiches always have too much meat on them for my taste.

[tatamagouche]

Ditto sandwiches, although it has nothing to do with too much anything—it's more that rather than biting into them with both hands, I like to tear sections off and then eat them. I don't know why.

And I do tend to eat cake first, save frosting for last—if I bother with the cake at all.

[huiray]

If I eat cake (rare) - I scrape off the icing, eat the cake, leave the icing behind.

[tatamagouche]

I like it when I'm with a companion who's like you—two pieces, they get all the cake, I get all the frosting, everybody's happy.

[huiray]

I take it you love Danishes, pancakes & syrup, sugar pop cereal, other sugar bombs etc for breakfast?

[tatamagouche]

Actually, no—I rarely crave sweets (and especially not at breakfast)! It's like I get all my sugar needs met at special events where there's cake. Odd, I know.

[srsone]

gotta be Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs.........

[huiray]

No, it's not that - it's because they're too big to fit into my mouth when intact.

[cocoagirl]

Definitely agree with the too much meat as well. Actually the only reason why I find Subway doable- not much filling

[Pixie Muse]

Oreo cookies would undergo open heart surgery when I was a kid.

[monavano]

+1 on Oreos

[ROCKLES]

I still take apart the oreos--especially the double stuffed, then eat one the cookie, then get another and make a quadruple stuffed oreo. I will always be a kid at heart!!

[odkaty]

Cake or cupcakes — cake first, then frosting. I do the same with cobblers — fruit then topping — unless dosed with cream. Ice cream doesn't work, but a splash (or two or three) of heavy cream makes the whole cobbler come together.

[sueatmo]

From a handful of mixed nuts, I might pick out the cashews, then the Brazil nuts. But mostly I don't deconstruct my food.

[pilotgirl210]

OMGosh.......I will do the same with M&Ms. I eat all the brown ones, then the orange (my least favorite colors), then the green, which leaves just blues and yellows. My favorite colors. Even my kitchen is done in cobalt blue and lemon yellow.....tee hee.

[pilotgirl210]

Oops. Forgot the reds. Eat those after green :=)

[jbsiegel]

Oh...no no no. The orange ones come first, then the yellow followed by green, blue and red. The last (because they taste best because they are "all chocolate" - LOL) are the browns. When they used to have two shades of brown, the light brown came first then the dark brown!

[jbsiegel]

Almonds first, then macadamia, then Brazil and pecans. Then cashews last.

[lawkitty]

I always eat one variety at a time. Brazil nut first (my favorite!) walnut, cashew, almond, then hazelnut. Skip/pick out any peanuts; not worth my time unless they are in shell or in peanut butter! Wierd, yes, but true!

[huiray]

I don't generally eat mixed nuts. I buy and eat single-variety nuts - kept in its own container/bag - even if I may have more than one variety at the same time.

[invinotheresverde]

Grilled cheese. Crust first, then grilled bread peeled off, finished with the cheese/bread stuck to cheese.

[2roadsdiverge]

Whoa, now that is cheesy dedication!

[Emme]

how i used to eat quesadillas!!

[invinotheresverde]

"Used to"? Bah!

[Emme]

allergies... the spirit lives on however.

[invinotheresverde]

For shame. I shall do my part to eat your share, and then some.

[small h]

I don't deconstruct bibimbap; I just refuse to un-deconstruct it. If that's even a word. I know that one is supposed to stir all the elements together into one big shmush, but I prefer to eat everything separately. It's like a buffet in a bowl.

[2roadsdiverge]

"un-deconstruct"? Isn't that just "construct"? LOL

I know what you mean about bibimbap, but I have to stir it up a bit. I get it in the sizzling stone bowl with an egg, so I need to cook the egg on the bowl. But I don't want to stir it too much so the rice gets nice and crispy. Mmmm.

[small h]

Yeah, you're right. "Construct" is probably the best word. And the shortest! I've had to fight off well-meaning waitresses who come at me armed with those super-long spoons when they see me stirring the egg into a ridiculously tiny area of rice, so as not to disturb the rest of the bowl. This probably makes me seem crazy, but I don't care.

[huiray]

Reconstruct.

p.s. I don't particularly care for bibimbap myself. :-\

[amyzan]

I only mix the top layer of rice in with the toppings, so the bottom can crisp up while I dig in, because I can't wait, you know. Then, after the crispy bits have had time to form, I take the soup spoon and start scraping them up into the rest, so there are crispy bits in with what's left of the rest. This is my "best" stone bowl bibimbap.

But, I am also realizing from this thread that I don't much deconstruct food, generally.

[CanadaGirl]

If you're not Canadian you won't get it, but I eat all of the layers in a Coffee Crisp bar one at a time, from the top down. Messy, but yummy.

[2roadsdiverge]

I know those candy bars, and I get you. Your post reminded me of the classic deconstructed food: Oreo cookies!

[CanadaGirl]

Oh, but a Coffee Crisp is so much better! I especially love the thick layer of coffee-flavoured stuff in the middle. I'd buy just that part if I could - it's why I eat it layer be layer.

[wattacetti]

Coffee Crisp has Oreos beat. I could always "convince" American colleagues to see things my way in exchange for a bar or two.

The layer-by-layer eating is less messy with the Halloween-size bars. Also less fulfilling.

[CanadaGirl]

True about the less mess with the Halloween bars. But, my favourite middle layer is thinner in the Halloween bars, so I'd rather deal with the mess :)

[LeoLioness]

I once had an Orange Coffee Crisp (limited flavor? It was either in Canada or England, I can't remember). I fear I'm now ruined for life.

[CanadaGirl]

It may have been Canada, as I remember seeing them a while ago. I never had one, as I do not like the combination of orange and chocolate. You need to try the original sometime. Mmmmm, mmmmmm, mmmmmm.

[LeoLioness]

I can get the original ones around here (for a princely sum) and love it, but orange + coffee + chocolate = really, really love it.

[montrealeater]

CanadaGirl, your patience impresses me. Faced with a Coffee Crisp, there is NO WAY that thing isn't down the hatch in less than 120 seconds.

[CanadaGirl]

I dare you to try it my way ;)

[2roadsdiverge]

Oh I wasn't comparing the two. Your post just reminded me that there are foods that are almost designed to be deconstructed.

I know they aren't the same as Coffee Crisp, but I eat Kit Kat bars layer by layer, from the top down. I consider it a victory if i can get a whole layer lengthwise without it breaking.

[CanadaGirl]

Oh, I knew you weren't comparing. I was just ranking ;)

[beachmouse]

I do the Kit Kats similarly, but first I nibble off the chocolate around the edges in order to expose the layers of cookie before stripping the cookie layers off one by one.

I've actually got a Coffee Crisp sitting in my pantry right now- the local Publix has been beefing up their UK junk food offerings lately, and I got one there to try since I've heard good things about them.

[CanadaGirl]

I wonder if the UK Coffee Crisp tastes the same as a Canadian one. I'm going have to try to find one and do a taste test :)

[huiray]

Never really got why oreos and other sandwich-type cookies are deconstructed by folks. All of these taste better to me when the components are eaten together, as they were designed to be.

[greygarious]

I once had a job as one of two people caring for lab animals at a hospital's small research facility. The 8 rhesus monkeys were intelligent creatures doomed to living in individual steel cages with nothing to entertain them. So we supplemented their Purina Monkey Chow with other foods we brought in. Usually fresh fruits and vegetables but on one occasion, neither of us remembered, so we gave each one of them an Oreo. They sniffed and examined. Then 5 of them ate their cookies as is, but the other 4 opened them and licked the filling first. I am quite sure they could not have encountered creme-filled cookies before....nobody needs to persuade ME that monkeys and man have a common ancestor!

[CanadaGirl]

Love it!!!

[alliegator]

me too :)

[sbp]

Makes a nice light snack. It's how I like my coffee. Crisp.

Not Canadian - but originally from Buffalo. Wish we had Coffee Crisp here.

[buttertart]

I was dreadfully disappointed in a Coffee Crisp I bought in Brooklyn a while back (was Crunchie-shaped and in a boring wrapper, not the fun double-layered cigarette-packagy one I remember as a kid). Not what I remembered at all. Me or it?

[sbp]

You got me; I haven't had one in decades! I did have some Mackintosh Toffee a few years ago (renamed Mac).

[CanadaGirl]

It!! The package has changed from a few years ago, but the Coffee Crisps in Canada are perfectly rectangular and taste just as good; I've never been disappointed.

[GraydonCarter]

Tines up or tines down?

I usually have to reconstruct a Big Mac because one of the patties has slid halfway off the bun and the pickles are all stacked up instead of being somewhat distributed across the burger.

[2roadsdiverge]

Hah, i guess re-construction is a different question! It could include improperly tossed salads or pizza toppings that slid off the crust I guess ;)

[alliegator]

And tacos. I'm a crazy person when it comes to taco re-construction!

[huiray]

I sometimes "reconstruct" the overall dish when I eat sushi/sashimi or with elaborately plated and geometrically laid-out dishes (whether appetizers or entrees), including high-end stuff in fancy restaurants, as two examples in this direction.

With sushi/sashimi I sometimes eat the pieces in a pattern that appeals to me at the moment (whether by taste or by visual design) and rearrange the remaining pieces and/or ginger/ and/or other garnishes into a new configuration, or an increasingly compacted recreation of the original arrangement.

With elaborate apps/entrees I sometimes also rearrange the bits and pieces as I go along; or with those laid out in geometric patterns (apps, in particular) I do both deconstruction and recontruction - such as eating a finely chopped accompaniment laid out on the plate in a flat 'landscape' field in a geometric manner, by sweeping a part of the field up with my fork in the same diagonal (or whatever) direction at the same angle, and/or cutting the main bit in a complementary angle steadily piece by piece... At other times I just attack it and demolish it in short order. :-)

[pdxgastro]

Oh my gosh, I'm a stickler for even distribution too! Pickles on hamburgers, for sure. But even when I make a sandwich, I fold round lunchmeat in half so that it has a straight edge, and then I line it up with the straight edge of the bread. I hate a bread bite with no meat! It's miserable.