Disgusting Stuff At My House and Yours

[mrissa]

markgritter made Soup That Smells Nasty for lunch today. It had been ages since he'd last made it, and I was okay with that, but now the weather is inching towards fall, which means more STSN for the foreseeable future.

Tonight I'm making asparagus (roasted, with garlic, mmmmmm) because C.J. will not be here for dinner. If he was here every single night, I'd get to the point where I said, "Well, tough; the rest of us like asparagus, so you can dig carrots out of the veggie bin or frozen peas out of the freezer or make yourself a salad or whatever." (Anyone who doesn't get their RDA of fruit and veggies in this house is a total hoser and not even trying.) But he doesn't eat here every night, so it's easy enough to make sure asparagus is around when he isn't.

The problem with STSN is that it doesn't actually make me ill, so I don't feel it would be reasonable to ask him not to make it. There are things I will ask him and timprov not to make because the smell of it will put me off food for days. timprov also has a few quirky ones -- my poached pears in white wine, for example, will put him off food indefinitely. (He likes pears. He likes white wine. He likes the spices I put in it. It's just the combination heated on the stove that's problematic.) But we all gross each other out from time to time, just not enough to put in anti-requests.

If you live with people, what do your housemates make that grosses you out? Is it bad enough for you to ask them to eat it when you're not home, or is it just something you flee from personally? If you live on your own (or with people, why not), was there something your parents ate that was truly vile? (seagrit: there is a limit on how many characters can go into these posts, so just pick a few Dave Favorites. :) ) And what about school cafeterias (college or before): what really grossed you out there? The very thought of my grade school's canned peas is enough to make me glad I've already lunched. What's the worst stuff in your food world?

Comments

[carbonel]

I used to be a much fussier eater when I was a kid, and I particularly hated things that mixed into other things. If my corn touched my mashed potato, I couldn't eat the parts that intersected, for example. That seems to have mostly passed, and I enjoy a greater variety of textures than I used to.

There are a lot of things that other people eat that I don't like, but as long as I don't have to eat them myself, it helps alleviate the oatmeal shortage, as it were. The few things that I hate being around when they're being cooked or eaten are items with a strong (and to me, obnoxious) smell.

High on the list are sauerkraut and baked beans. Those are on the "I'd really have to be starving to eat these" foods, and the aromas tend to be awfully gregarious.

As for foods that I like that others might find objectionable, I can't think of much except for the time that Steve Bond, Jean Mornard (then Messer) and I drove out to Boston for a weekend trip and brought all our own food so as not to waste time in restaurants. I had what I thought was garlic mustard, and Jean just hated it. Turned out it was actually pure garlic spread. Went very nicely on roast beef sandwiches, I must say. But Jean complained every time the jar was opened. I can't remember if she has general opinions about garlic, or if it was just that brand.