Picky eaters ...

[itchyrider]

Your not filming come dine with me are you??

 

[wheres_my_beard]

Try waterboarding.

It's like a cheeseboard. But with water.

 

[Hover Fly]

A pal o'mine has a very strict cereal, fresh fruit and vegetable only diet, not even pretend meat substitute is allowed. But at least he knows he's a bit odd and brings his own food, for instance it has to be 2 tbspns of barley flakes, one of rye, and one of wheat for breakfast so he brings them with him.

 

[ColinJ]

I was going to suggest that but also do you know why he won't eat certain things? Is it a proper reason of is he just being randomly picky?

I contributed a huge bowl of salad to a family party once and nearly everybody said how lovely it was, but one guest commented that it was a shame that I'd included celery because otherwise she really fancied eating some of it.

I suggested that it surely wouldn't be a big deal to just leave the celery if she didn't like it. (I was thinking rather negative thoughts about 'pickiness' at the time but I was being polite.)

She said, no, it wasn't that she didn't like celery, it was that she was allergic to it and it could kill her. Ha ha, thought I - celery allergy, yeah, right! Then she showed me her EpiPen ... Celery allergy - I'd never heard of that one before!

 

[vernon]

She said, no, it wasn't that she didn't like celery, it was that she was allergic to it and it could kill her. Ha ha, thought I - celery allergy, yeah, right! Then she showed me her EpiPen ... Celery allergy - I'd never heard of that one before!

I was reminded of celery allergies when I was in France last year and saw some foods with celery warnings on them. Thirty five years ago I used to work in horticulture during the summer holidays and one of the green house crops was celery. I saw a few extreme reactions to celery where contact with the stuff caused wheals and in extreme cases, huge blisters to form. There was a stash of medication in the site office to deal with the allergic reactions. In all cases the victims were unaware of their allergies - celery (and salads come to that) didn't feature in most of my peers' diets.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I have a colleague like that.

It's difficult finding anything that he likes when we go out for a meal.


He can not cope with the smell of curries so that rules out the majority of restaurants in Bradford. He's branded Nando's as being vile. Fish and chips are too greasy. Burger King and MacDonalds will do at a push so we push him towards one of them as we head off for a curry

I love the idea of someone who is a fussy eater going for a MacDonalds. I'm not a fussy eater at all, but if I found myself with a MacDonalds meal I'd be more likely to throw the "food" away and eat the packaging.

 

[Adasta]

Personally, I hate mushrooms

I'm with you on that. People go mad for mushrooms, saying they're so tasty and they add to every dish.

I don't understand it; they all taste like rubber to me.

 

[vernon]

I love the idea of someone who is a fussy eater going for a MacDonalds. I'm not a fussy eater at all, but if I found myself with a MacDonalds meal I'd be more likely to throw the "food" away and eat the packaging.

McDonalds is suitably bland and tasteless for most picky eaters. I think my colleague asked for no salad and no mayo.

A different colleague was quite happy eating a McDonalds chicken burger having refused to eat in any of the Chinese restaurants in London's Chinatown on the basis that they were dirty and the meat was non-halal. I wasn't aware that McDonalds served halal meat at the time or at any time since.

 

[summerdays]

somebody should teach him some manners... my ex had an aversion to onions and when guests at friends houses, she'd stop eating the moment she realised there was an onion in the dish... something I found hugely embarrassing.

That's me I'm afraid ... don't know why as all my siblings love them. All my friends know and since they are lovely friends usually go out of their way to either prepare food without onions or lift out a bit before they add onions.

With one set of my friends catering is a real problem: coping for my no onions, and another's gluten free and dislike of mushrooms, and another friend's allergy to tomatoes, and yet another who is vegetarian and allergic to strawberries. But as a group we love cooking and so come up with lots of dishes to cope.

I would love to be able to eat onions but they make me retch... it is a real pain in restaurants having to check which food I can eat. If I went to someone's house and there was onions in the main meal I would just eat the rice/pasta/etc. But it would be my problem not my host's.

Luckily I have managed not to pass on my dislike to my children.

 

[Adasta]

I would love to be able to eat onions but they make me retch.

I knew a girl with the same problem. She said she hated the texture of onion.

She'd never heard of balsamic vinegar before she came to uni, but that's by the by.

 

[XmisterIS]

What happens when you all go round to his house to eat.... what do you get?

He doesn't invite people round for dinner, he can't cook!

Have you asked your mate what he will eat?? Maybe cooking that for everyone would solve the problems.

You may all end up eating Philadelphia sandwiches on Mighty White bread with no crusts with a glass of watered down orange juice though...

Quite - it would solve all the problems for him ... he is the weirdest eater I have ever known - broadly speaking, he dislikes anything with any flavour of any kind. He only likes things like white pasta (not brown) with extra-mild cheddar, or a baked potato with butter and nothing else, or white bread with butter and nothing else, burgers have to be just a plain burger (with no flavouring whatsoever) in a bun with nothing else, the only flavour of ice-cream he'll eat is vanilla with no sauce or anything on it, the only biscuits he'll eat are rich tea or other equally bland flavours, he hates all vegetables, most fruit except banana, etc, etc! Frankly, I have no idea how he is still alive and not severely malnourished.

I made pasta with sauce, he just had the pasta. Still he grumbled because it was brown pasta and not white - but I was damned if I was going to do an extra pan of a single portion of white pasta just for him - I would have had to have gone out and bought a whole bag of the stuff, and I don't eat it.

It can sometimes be a child's was of trying to control their parents - I went through a phase of being an excruciatingly picky eater when I was a kid. My Mother soon cured me of it; if I turned up my nose at what was put in front of me and didn't eat it, I went hungry. Simples!

 

[Arch]

I'm with you on that. People go mad for mushrooms, saying they're so tasty and they add to every dish.

I don't understand it; they all taste like rubber to me.

I sort of want to like them, and I can understand other people liking them, and I do try a bit, everyso often, and I've managed to go from hating to merely disliking. My mother didn't like Olives until she was fifty, so there's time to get to 'not fussed either way', or even 'quite nice'.

An ex used to do a mushroom 'burger' - a big flat mushroom, fried whole in garlic and butter, served with slices of good cheddar in a bun. I could look at it and think 'oh, that looks tasty', but just not like the texture myself.

Allergies are another thing. I'm fortunate not to have them (well, only to cats, but I don't eat many of them), but I know people with wheat and dairy allergies, and it's a real nuisance to them because there are things they'd love to eat that they know would make em quite ill.

 

[phil_hg_uk]

Another one who dislikes onions and mushrooms here

 

[PBancroft]

When we host, I don't mind if someone has the odd dislike of a certain foodstuff - if we know in advance we'll work around them. If the person in the OP's example is as picky as suggested I'd be tempted to go with the bottle of water and pack of Jacob's Crackers option. Or get a McDonald's in advance, and reheat it especially.

If he moans so much, why are you inviting him?

 

[Amheirchion]

A baking potato costs about 20p? Shove it in the micro, nuke it for the required time, and get on with creating some good food for you and your friends.

My cousins are fussy eaters, although better than they were a few years ago. Whenever we head round to Nans for tea she always does an extra load of new potatoes, as she know they'll eat them, and I hoover up the rest of the veg.

Personally I can't stand tomatoes, unless they're covered in several mm of salt, which led to an embarrassing episode at the in-laws. We'd been served up a pasta dish with half cherry tomatoes in it, this didn't bother me, as I will eat pretty much anything if it's put in front of me, even dreaded tomatoes, but my girlfriend (now fiancée) tried to take the tomatoes off my plate not realising that I'd eat them anyway.. Cue hurt looks from the mother-in-law. On the plus side, she hasn't served me tomatoes since.