Ah, where do I begin... I will preface this by saying I am a non-proselytizing ovo-lacto vegetarian, who will gladly cook meat for others - I've even hand-made sausage. My dietary "quirks" are not something I inflict upon other people. I also, like many vegetarians, expect to pick at salad, bread, and perhaps a side at a big meal and don't want anyone to go out of their way for me. However, I appreciate honesty when someone tells me what is/isn't edible for me, as I've been a vegetarian for so long that I become sick to my stomach (and often vomit) when people intentionally or unintentionally put meat products (even broth) into my food. (So far, Thai fish sauce in non-huge quantities seems to be digestible, and considering my fondness for Thai food, that's one area where I will budge, the other being traditional rennet.) My father-in-law got the idea that my vegetarianism and stated inability to digest meat products properly was merely "being picky." There were two or three instances where he told me that a particular dish was edible for me, I ate it, became ill later, and after we arrived home, FIL would call our house while I was being ill in the bathroom, gloating over how I'd eaten broth or whatever, and thus I was just "faking." The first time we chalked it up to his ignorance and stick-in-the-mud ways. (My mother-in-law keeps forgetting I'm a vegetarian until reminded; that's how alien it is to their way of thinking.) The last time it happened, my husband let loose on his father with an amazing tirade that hammered the point home. My vegetarianism has saved me from horrible food disasters-in-the-making at their house. My father-in-law is cheap. He also used to work in the grocery business, so he thinks he knows everything there is to know about food - and he doesn't. He's eaten awful-smelling meat from a freezer that had lost power for a day or two - getting very ill afterwards but stalwartly denying that it was the meat or that he shouldn't have eaten it. On one occasion, he had heard how some of us liked sushi, so he bought a pre-made sushi platter from a supermarket for the get-together at their house, intending it to be an appetizer. Which was a week later. I'm sure he bought it a week in advance because it was on sale, probably because it was old. What to do? Throw it in the freezer, of course! And then I suspect it had a day or two in the refrigerator for defrosting - or perhaps he left it out on the counter. One of the inlaws happened to hear his plan, either from him or my MIL, and called around to warn all of us to not eat any of the sushi. Someone brought some cheese and other munchies along, and we all scarfed up as many as we could before he brought out the sushi platter, then we all claimed being too full to eat more appetizers when he'd grumble that no one had touched the sushi. At another get-together, there were a couple dishes of shrimp and cocktail sauce amongst the appetizers. One - and we can't figure out why it was only one - of the dishes apparently had shrimp that had an odd, too-mushy texture and an off taste. Perhaps he'd bought two packages of shrimp and one was old, or one was put in the fridge instead of freezer after being purchased far ahead of time, I'm not sure. After discussing this in the kitchen away from him, we sent someone to sneak the contents of the bad bowl onto their plate, and threw it all away. I'm sure there are more, and that I'm merely repressing the memory...
