What Are Your Weird Food Quirks?

Happy Fourth of July, everyone! I hope that you're all with family at the lake or pool, hot dog and sparkler in hand.

Matt and I might venture to the pool later, but I think for now it's a walk with the dogs before the firecrackers start cracking and perhaps a run to the mall to hit some sales (that one might be a solo effort). We'll be scoping out Springfield for some fun Independence Day activities, too. My guess it that they have a TON of fun things around town; it is, after all, the Land of Lincoln! Until we find an entertaining distraction, though, I'm writing this blog post celebrating Independence Day in the best way I can think of at the moment: drinking coffee in my PJ's with a homemade cherry kolache topped with whipped cream. Ahhhhhh-merica.

Homemade cherry and grape kolaches. Recipe coming soon!

I stumbled upon an interesting article the other day titled "What Are Your Weird Travel Quirks?" from the good folks over at Hello Giggles. In the article, the author talked about her strange, somewhat obsessive travel behaviors, like refusing to walk barefoot on hotel floors and abhorring the idea of touching her head to her airplane seat's head rest. It got me thinking, and try as I might I couldn't really come up with any weird travel quirks. I mean, I'm pretty adventurous when it comes to travel. I don't really have any strange quirks or habits, unless you count my strict adherence to departure times or my amazing ability to fall asleep on command in any location, land, sea, or air.

I do, however, have some pretty weird food quirks. I think we all do. For instance, Matt hates bananas. He won't even touch them. One time, when we had just started dating, he came over and was very hungry. It was mid-morning, so I thought it would be nice to fix him toast topped with peanut butter, a banana, and honey. I noticed after several minutes that it was taking him a while to eat his toast, and after he was about 85% done with it, I asked, "Are you not hungry anymore?" With the saddest, most sincerely sorry eyes, he looked at me and said very quietly, "I really hate bananas." It was the cutest thing I think I've ever seen.

So, to share the weirdness, here are some of my weird food quirks:

1. At Thanksgiving, I am that gross person that mixes all the contents of their plate up into one, nasty slop of American goodness. Yep. That's me. Matt thinks it's disgusting (as does a large chunk of my family), but my rationale is that it'll get mixed up eventually anyway. Besides, it's a flavor/texture adventure!

2. I am a snob when it comes to Mexican food. I am a stickler for Mexican food. Mexico has such a rich food tradition and culture, and I oftentimes feel like it is somewhat muted for American palates. I'm not saying that Americans have bad taste, but we have a way of taking the spice out of ethnic foods. Ladies and gentlemen, case in point, I give you: queso. No, not queso fresco, a soft Mexican cheese, but straight-up queso, which in the American vernacular is "melted nacho cheese." Not Mexican, not authentic, and frankly, not even food. I bet that "queso" is, 99% of the time, a petroleum bi-product pumped out of stadium-grade dispensers in the back of the kitchen. Can you hear me seething over here? Well now you know: I hate queso. Snobby rant over.

3. I have a deep hate for mushrooms. My superpower is that I am able to detect upon just a sniff if mushrooms are in a dish. I hate, hate, hate mushrooms: the taste, the texture, the smell. Blegh. My apologies if you love mushrooms (Matt does, too).

4. Fried food makes me sick. Literally. It's sad, too, because fried food is pretty good sometimes (who can turn down a good french fry?!), but whenever I eat fried food I get really sick a few hours later. I went through a period of time (about four years) when I didn't eat one bite of fried food, and so I think my body lost the ability to process it or something. Or it just knows that I shouldn't be eating it. Either way, a tragedy.

5. Every time I go to a restaurant, I challenge myself to go home and make whatever it is we ordered. I always like to try to recreate good dishes for less right at home. Matt and I have this fun game where, when we sit down at our dinner table, we'll calculate how much each serving of the dish cost and how it would compare with the tab for the same dish at a restaurant. If you want to feel good about staying in, always play that game. It'll pep you up really quick when you know how much you're saving!


What about you guys? Do you have any weird food quirks? Let me know in the comments!

-Betsey