Do your food preferences make you an outcast in your own family or ethnic group?

[AlaMoi]

we were in a restaurant . . . ordered a Caesar salad.   mentioned to the waiter - gosh, no anchovy . . . that _defines_ a Caesar salad....

 

to which he replied:  'oh, terrible sorry.   the kitchen will add anchovy on request, but so many people dislike anchovy we don't normally put it in....'

 

so why in the h dot e double toothpicks do they order an Caesar salad?

[Tropicalsenior]

3 minutes ago, AlaMoi said:

no anchovy

Yep, I got one of those stories, too. A little pizza place opened up down the street from us so we gave it a try. They had something that we had never seen on a pizza menu down here. They had anchovies. So the first time we ordered Pizza we ask for anchovies but they were out. It was pretty good pizza so we tried it again later, still no anchovies. Finally I asked the guy why he never had anchovies and he admitted that he didn't even know what they were. He had just copied his menu from some other pizza place. After that, when I went to order our pizza I just took anchovies to put on it.

[Anna N]

15 minutes ago, AlaMoi said:

we were in a restaurant . . . ordered a Caesar salad.   mentioned to the waiter - gosh, no anchovy . . . that _defines_ a Caesar salad....

 

to which he replied:  'oh, terrible sorry.   the kitchen will add anchovy on request, but so many people dislike anchovy we don't normally put it in....'

 

so why in the h dot e double toothpicks do they order an Caesar salad?

Because I’ve eaten in dozens of restaurants where the Caesar salad is only distinguished from the garden salad by its use of romaine instead of iceberg. No fear of running into one of those horrible salty fishes or anything else one might expect to find in a proper dressing for a Caesar salad.

[Tropicalsenior]

4 minutes ago, Anna N said:

horrible salty fishes

Too many people have been turned off by getting a big bite of anchovy in their salad or on their Pizza. They are salty, but if they are finely chopped or used as an ingredient in salad dressing they can be wonderful. I've converted quite a few anchovy haters.

[Anna N]

10 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

Too many people have been turned off by getting a big bite of anchovy in their salad or on their Pizza. They are salty, but if they are finely chopped or used as an ingredient in salad dressing they can be wonderful. I've converted quite a few anchovy haters.

I was not passing judgement on anchovies. I was doing my best to explain why it’s wise never to order Caesar salad in many restaurants as you are unlikely to ever meet an anchovy. 

 

[jimb0]

my food prefs definitely make me an outsider. i like seasonings besides salt and preground black pepper that's lived in the cupboard for five years, you see.

 

even o'charley's was considered "foreign trash" where i grew up :V

[Tropicalsenior]

11 minutes ago, Anna N said:

unlikely to ever meet an anchovy

So true! And a lot of times if you get anchovy, it is right in the middle of a big blob of iceberg lettuce in ranch dressing.

Edited February 25, 2021 by Tropicalsenior
addition (log)

[Tropicalsenior]

5 minutes ago, jimb0 said:

salt and preground black pepper

Except for her baking spices I think that that was all my mother ever had in the house to cook with, but she was a darn good cook for the time that she lived. In our house, Campbell's soup was foreign food.

Edited February 25, 2021 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[jimb0]

4 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

Except for her baking spices I think that that was all my mother ever had in the house to cook with, but she was a darn good cook for the time that she lived. In our house, Campbell's soup was foreign food.

 

pretty much. neither of my parents were great cooks, i would say. there were some spices in the cupboard but they were never used; i'm honestly not sure why they were there. i have a soft spot for a few things we made, but only for nostalgia, not because i'd really want to eat them today.

 

we were lucky, though; life would have been a lot harder if we hadn't had the cattle to supply the largest part of our diet.

[Tropicalsenior]

24 minutes ago, jimb0 said:

we were lucky

Yeah, we were relatively poor, too, but growing up on a farm definitely had its advantages. We were never short of food. The one thing that I was really nostalgic about was something that my mother called 'Stirum'. It was like a thick eggy pancake that she fried on both sides and then chopped up into 50 Cent size pieces and fried until they were golden brown. Then we ate it with butter and homemade syrup or just butter and salt and pepper. I asked her once for the recipe and she said that she wouldn't give it to me because it was poor people food and she hoped that I would never have to make it. I loved it. I guess it was an actual food because I have found it on the internet but the recipes aren't anything like what she made. No matter what I have done, I can't replicate it.

Edited February 25, 2021 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[jimb0]

4 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

Yeah, we were relatively poor, too, but growing up on a farm definitely had its advantages. We were never short of food. The one thing that I was really nostalgic about was something that my mother called 'Stirum'. It was like a thick eggy pancake that she fried on both sides and then chopped up into 50 Cent size pieces and fried until they were golden brown. Then we ate it with butter and homemade syrup or just butter and salt and pepper. I asked her once for the recipe and she said that she wouldn't give it to me because it was poor people food and she hoped that I would never have to make it. I loved it. I guess it was an actual food because I have found it on the internet but the recipes aren't anything like what she made. No matter what I have done, I can't replicate it.

 

my late father would make depression toast sometimes - a several thick slices of bread, a tablespoon of cream on each, sugar sprinkled on top and broiled until bubbly. 

[Tropicalsenior]

13 minutes ago, jimb0 said:

thick slices of bread,

My uncle used to make Poor Man's Sunday roast. A thick slice of bread with leftover gravy on it. It was one of his favorite meals.

[chromedome]

41 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

My uncle used to make Poor Man's Sunday roast. A thick slice of bread with leftover gravy on it. It was one of his favorite meals.

LOL In my neck of the woods, that's called dessert.

[jimb0]

7 minutes ago, chromedome said:

LOL In my neck of the woods, that's called dessert.

lol. semi relatedly a favourite dessert would have been buttered white bread with canned peaches dumped on top.

[Tropicalsenior]

1 minute ago, jimb0 said:

buttered white bread

One of ours cinnamon toast.

[ElsieD]

Strawberries on white bread sprinkled with sugar.

[jimb0]

3 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

One of ours cinnamon toast.

oh man for sure

[JeanneCake]

when I was growing up, Sunday lunch was pasta, homemade gravy (which I later learned from schoolmates who told me: gravy is brown and served with meat, if it's red, it's spaghetti sauce!) and lasted for hours.  I got to shape the meatballs in the morning which my grandmother fried then dumped into the gravy with sausage, braicole and simmered for a few hours).  I loved all of it.  But when I was about 5 or 6, someone in the family decided it was time for me to have a little wine, and they mixed orange juice and red wine (homemade red wine) so I could have some wine and it was vile.  I probably spit it out.  I cannot abide orange juice To. This. Day.    However, I have sufficiently recovered to enjoy any kind of red wine

 

I'm not a fan of liver to be honest; but my mother was adamant about having a "no thank you" helping of any kind of food - enough for one or two bites so you could  be polite.

 

I also recall my brother and I *begging* for the ravioli or round spaghetti that came from a can.  Chef Boyardee I think it was.  THAT we definitely spit out! LOL

[liuzhou]

I have no chance.

 

My Chinese friends and neighbours think I'm weird when I eat western food and my western friends and family think I'm weird for eating strange Chinese food.

 

I don't care!

[Tropicalsenior]

11 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Chinese food.

At least you're living in a culture that has wonderful food. I can't and won't eat the 'typico' food here!

[Tropicalsenior]

14 hours ago, JeanneCake said:

round spaghetti that came from a can.  Chef Boyardee

I get rave reviews on my spaghetti sauce and yet one of my husband's favorite foods was canned ravioli from Chef Boyardee. He grew up with a stepmother that was a terrible cook and practically starved them to death. One of his favorite food memories of his childhood was when he could get enough money to buy a can of Chef Boyardee.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

32 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

At least you're living in a culture that has wonderful food. I can't and won't eat the 'typico' food here!

This is startling to me.    What are the elements that offend you?    It reads like stuff I could eat every day: rice, beans, pork, fruit.  

[Margaret Pilgrim]

18 hours ago, Anna N said:

Because I’ve eaten in dozens of restaurants where the Caesar salad is only distinguished from the garden salad by its use of romaine instead of iceberg. No fear of running into one of those horrible salty fishes or anything else one might expect to find in a proper dressing for a Caesar salad.

 

18 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

Too many people have been turned off by getting a big bite of anchovy in their salad or on their Pizza. They are salty, but if they are finely chopped or used as an ingredient in salad dressing they can be wonderful. I've converted quite a few anchovy haters.

A lifelong anchovy avoider, I have only recently learned that the pricey Italian and Spanish jarred anchovy are quite approachable and a wonderful ingredient in many dishes.

[Tropicalsenior]

8 minutes ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

elements

It's not the food elements, it's the way that they are put together. The Costa Ricans are notoriously bad cooks. In the typical food, the only seasoning is salt and a prepared combination of seasonings that everyone uses in everything. The Motto seems to be, that if it's done cooking it's not edible until you cook it at least a half an hour more. But you are right, the food products that we get here are marvelous.

Edited February 26, 2021 by Tropicalsenior
Punctuation (log)

[heidih]

For @Tropicalsenior and others with sauerkraut trauma - I was cleaning out storage boxes and this old family classic popped up. Might ease your pain U ade it several times years ago, Chocolate Sauerkraut cake (there are versions on line)