Picky eaters ...

[vernon]

It can be hard to put yourself into the shoes of others but there are very complex issues around food

Yes like deciding which of twelve pie varieties on offer at a festival pie van I should try first.

I settled for Steak and haggis followed by a plain steak pie. I never got around to trying a macaroni pie - just seems wrong.

 

[ttcycle]

Yes like deciding which of twelve pie varieties on offer at a festival pie van I should try first.

I settled for Steak and haggis followed by a plain steak pie. I never got around to trying a macaroni pie - just seems wrong.

Vernon- I know you don't have food issues!!
lol!

How's the pie making going? Fancy putting some macaroni in it?

 

[david1701]

Another goody is knowing how you will react to eating stuff, like I can eat a sandwhich but be ill in 3-4 days or eat onion/leeks but smell like DEATH after a while. What looks like funny eating is often the result of experimentation. I mean I never ate chilli as a child but have eaten it a few times now and had issues so know to avoid it in future.

 

[Ravenbait]

I have synaesthesia, a near-photographic memory for tastes and smells and an incredibly sensitive digestive system. I'm not picky about food, although I am fussy. Or should that be the other way around?

Mostly I prefer to cook for others because it's easier. If I do eat at a friend's, I tend to specify vegetarian food that's not too spicy hot and just cope with any after-effects. With that restriction (I'm not actually vegetarian) any digestive upset is usually fairly minor and easily managed.

I'd never be rude enough to complain about the colour of the pasta, FFS!

Sam

 

[ColinJ]

I mean I never ate chilli as a child but have eaten it a few times now and had issues so know to avoid it in future.

I chop up 4 or 5 hot chillis and their seeds into a tin of baked beans to 'liven it up' a little and have no problems with that whatsoever. If my brother-in-law eats even a quarter of a chilli, his eyes and nose start streaming, he goes bright red and sweat pours off him. Not all picky eaters are just being fussy!

 

[ttcycle]

I have synaesthesia

haha me too - completely off topic though!!
It's nowhere near as strong as it used to be - I was involved in studies for my old uni and years after publication the lecturer who used my case for his research told me that the broadsheets had published articles about me.

Arse...same guy who used my peer's undergrad research as his own when he was talking about synaesthesia on BBC - shady world of academia!

 

[Amheirchion]

Keeping with the off-topic (sorry) a friend of mine has synaesthesia, but he never realised until he started learning some Russian, for some reason the numbers in Russian didn't have colours attached to them any more. I believe he was more shocked that other people didn't associate colours with numbers than he was that he had synaesthesia.[/off topic]
Carry on with fussy eaters, nothing to see here.

 

[vernon]

Vernon- I know you don't have food issues!!
lol!

How's the pie making going? Fancy putting some macaroni in it?

Actually there are a couple of things that I refuse to eat:

Blue cheese any description
Seabrook low salt crisps - I wouldn't give them to my worst enemy I bought a six pack of them and binned five and a half of them.

On the pie making front - steak and kidney is on the agenda in the next few weeks along with another attempt at hot water pastry and pork pies.

Macaroni pies simply do nothing to motivate me to even investigate how to overcome the blandness. I know they are popular in Scotland but I've never been curious enough to sample one when I'm there.

Now lorne sausage that's a different matter

 

[swee'pea99]

"Macaroni pies"?

 

[buggi]

Having grown up as a picky eater (which i now find out is an actual disorder) i can totally sympathise with the guy and i think your mean!

being invited anywhere was my worse nightmare, trying to force food down my throat which actually made me gag just so i don't offend my host was the worst thing ever. And then invariable, i would gag, which offended them even more.

There is a VERY simple solution to this. phone him up and ask him if he would like toast or a ham sandwich or other simple food of some kind. and then just do him that. He will be eternally grateful that you have been thoughtful, and nobody will have to feel bad, or gag at the table, and no one will be offended.

simples.

o yea, don't have a conversation about his pickyness at the table. it's embarrassing enough when you're trying not to gag without someone pointing it out to the rest of the table that you're not eating your dinner, so that everyone starts asking you why you're not eating. It isn't much fun from the other side either.

 

[ttcycle]

I didn't know they existed either!!

I've come across macaroni in rice -north african cuisine but not macaroni pies!

 

[Fiona N]

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.

I've never liked cheese - it smells and tastes just totally offensive. Even as a kid I wouldn't be tempted to try those little round rubbery ones never mind a good hearty bit of cheddar. But like Arch with mushrooms, I'd love to like cheese. I've tried training myself to eat it and have worked up to ricotta, marscapone, mozzarella di bufo, very young goats cheese (high acidity seems to make it fairly palatable) and very young Wensleydale - but this is tricky, we're talking slivers of about 5mg. Conversely really old aged parmesan is no problem, it seems to have lost whatever I find so offensive.

Things weren't helped be getting a dose of listeria poisoning (probably from mozzarella transported by friends in a hot car all the way from Italy - thanks guys) which gave me a period of galloping allergy to milk proteins. Even milk chocolate was off the menu and it's amazing how many foods like biscuits have milk or whey proteins included. But it left me with a strong disinclination to try things made from milk. I still don't really like ice cream although a good sorbet is a thing of wonder.

At least, for someone who works in Japan, this is a pretty convenient dislike to have as half the population there seems to share it to greater or lesser degrees. It was slightly more of a problem in Switzerland where a vegetarian meal means cheese fondue - give me meat any day

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Having grown up as a picky eater (which i now find out is an actual disorder) i can totally sympathise with the guy and i think your mean!
It isn't much fun from the other side either.

To be fair, if I had to cater for a fussy eater every so often, I wouldn't mind, but it was just that living with my big brother, it was a complete pain in the arse as it was every day, year in year out, and it was my Mum who cooked, not me, but we all felt the pain - all those years of my Mum having to cook separate meals and complaining about it, having to pick specific restaurants (which often did boring food), and then having to eat bland unadventurous food (usually plain<rubbery> chicken or mince*) for everyone at home if Mum only cooked the one thing, yay!

As you say, I doubt it must be much fun for the fussy eater either, but at least he always got to eat what he wanted!

I have learned over the years that some people just have more sensitive tastebuds, hence the fussy eating, and I'll just need to repeat that to myself over and over again if I ever come across anyone like my brother again.

These days, I am not too bothered about the subject as I don't have to cater for a fussy eater, and I rarely see my Brother now, so he can do whatever he damn well likes as far as I'm concerned


* - If I never eat mince again then it will be too soon, I am thoroughly sick of the stuff.
You know how we humans are meant to be 98% water? well, I think I'm 98% mince!

 

[XmisterIS]

Having grown up as a picky eater (which i now find out is an actual disorder) i can totally sympathise with the guy and i think your mean!

being invited anywhere was my worse nightmare, trying to force food down my throat which actually made me gag just so i don't offend my host was the worst thing ever. And then invariable, i would gag, which offended them even more.

There is a VERY simple solution to this. phone him up and ask him if he would like toast or a ham sandwich or other simple food of some kind. and then just do him that. He will be eternally grateful that you have been thoughtful, and nobody will have to feel bad, or gag at the table, and no one will be offended.

simples.

o yea, don't have a conversation about his pickyness at the table. it's embarrassing enough when you're trying not to gag without someone pointing it out to the rest of the table that you're not eating your dinner, so that everyone starts asking you why you're not eating. It isn't much fun from the other side either.

Well ... I dunno ... I went through a phase of being a picky eater as a child, but my parents soon cured me of it with the "it's that or starve" approach! Seems to have worked.

 

[Fnaar]

The only two things I've ever found that I don't like to eat are tripe and raw celery.

Celery cooked (say, as part of a pasta sauce) is fine.