By Sassy

July 17, 2008 2:35 PM | Link to this

Oh My, that would be a dilema … that’s why I am soooo grateful to my foodie friends! And they don’t mind being the proverbial guinea pig either.

I also enjoy cooking meals to tease and tantilize.

It does make you wonder why they bid on that item … Hmmmmm?

By mm

July 17, 2008 2:51 PM | Link to this

I also view eating like it is a something to do instead of something to enjoy and I’m, also, a very picky eater. Instead of complainig about us ‘bland’ eaters it why doesn’t she just find someone else to cook for? The solution is really simple. There is no need to compalin, that only makes the situation worse for everyone. My roommate likes to cook and she also likes to cook and eat ‘exciting’ foods. I can’t handle what she makes so I make my own food (and she cooks for herself now). She doesn’t complain about my eating habits as I don’t compalin about hers. If I do go somewhere, I make it a point to either bring money so I can buy my own meal or to bring my own food to eat, just in case. If you don’t like it, move on. No harm done to anyone.

By Becky

July 17, 2008 3:09 PM | Link to this

I love food & am very willing to try different flavors..My enitre family will try something new if its cooked for them..I never know what my sister is going to have when I go to her house for dinner…She (like me) has about 35-40 cookbooks & will find somethin g she thinks looks good & cooks it..I too would wonder why this family bid on this item if they aren’t foodies…

By Sugar

July 17, 2008 3:14 PM | Link to this

Sassy My friends are alway “guinea pigging” for me. I tell them that up front. I am constantly trying new things, and as a single gal, I need a receptive audience…..if they don’t like something, they are honest enough to let me know. It doesn’t hurt my feelings.

Now, I have a family member who is very picky. She will not stray outside of spaghetti with Ragu sauce. BORING. I got her though. I made homemade spaghetti sauce in a huge pot one afternoon, and simply placed an empty jar of Ragu on my counter, next to the stove. She ate it all up and raved about how good Ragu was, and did we agree?? You should have seen the look on her face when I told her it wasn’t!! Needless to say, she doesn’t really trust me anymore…

Another family member does something like this at restaurants….”May I have a ceaser’s salad, with no cheese or croutons, and Ranch dressing?” That’s not a caeser’s salad, it’s Romaine with Ranch. She will not try anything new at all. Poor baby.

By Lissa

July 17, 2008 3:15 PM | Link to this

I’m a very picky eater, and I can assure you that I never show up for dinner and expect to like the food prepared. It’s simple - I just pass on what I don’t like and try what I might be able to swallow. I don’t eat vegetables, seafood, spicy foods, and I won’t eat anything with chunks of tomato, onion, or peppers. I don’t find it as that limiting, but others certainly do.

Perhaps the people who bid on the item simply wanted a good tasting meal, but nothing “exotic.” Maybe they just wanted a break from cooking for once.

By A

July 17, 2008 3:20 PM | Link to this

I always thought I was a picky eater and on occasions found that I didn’t (think) I liked the food prepared. But not wanting to seem ungrateful I would try the meal anyways and found that there are a lot of things that I didn’t like when I was young that now taste good. Now I’m dating this guy that only like chicken and mac & cheese…. how many ways can you fix that??

By kt

July 17, 2008 3:34 PM | Link to this

I don’t think I am a picky eater & will try just about anything new to decide if I like it or not. My boyfriend does not eat beef or pork so when he came to my family’s house for dinner and we had beef lasagna he was only left to eat salad & he doesn’t really like salad either, lucky for him my brother in law made some fish for him.

By Are You Kiddin' Me

July 17, 2008 4:05 PM | Link to this

Won’t eat “vegetables, seafood, spicy foods, …anything with chunks of tomato, onion, or peppers”? so… you eat nothing but potatoes, beef and ranch dressing? Glad I’m not your arteries. Egads.

By Critic

July 17, 2008 4:05 PM | Link to this

I put on a dinner party for my wife’s cousin and a few of their lifelong friends. I stumbled across some prime grade tenderloin and decided that the occasion called for it. Once everything was served, one of the guests asked for, of all things, ketchup for her steak. Not even steak sauce! I explained to her what prime grade was and asked her to at least try a bite, but she wouldn’t budge. To each his own, I suppose, but this was surely her loss.

By Native

July 17, 2008 4:11 PM | Link to this

I feel I’m a little on the picky side, I will not eat stand alone eggs, but after reading some of the comments here, maybe I’m not so picky after all. If I am out somewhere and served something I’m not sure of and there aren’t a lot of other things on the menu, I will at least try a bite. If I don’t like it, as long as it doesn’t gag me, I will choke down as much as possible to avoid offending the cook.

By Fred

July 17, 2008 4:19 PM | Link to this

I had a co-worker who had a habit that used to drive me Krazy. We usually order lunch in and ate with another office worker in the break room. After about 3 weeks, I noticed that she would literally disassemble whatever lunch we picked up. Every piece of the meal was taken apart, inspected then slow put back together before she would eat. Sometimes all the entree would go back in the mix, othertimes it would be bits and pices. Again, it could be a hamburger to saled, to spagetti. It was painstacking process that took 10 minutes plus. I questioned her motive one day. She replied that was standard fare for her since childhood. “To insure nothing yucky ever got into her meal.” I no loner work with but only reflect on this in a humorous manner.

By Fred

July 17, 2008 4:19 PM | Link to this

I had a co-worker who had a habit that used to drive me Krazy. We usually order lunch in and ate with another office worker in the break room. After about 3 weeks, I noticed that she would literally disassemble whatever lunch we picked up. Every piece of the meal was taken apart, inspected then slow put back together before she would eat. Sometimes all the entree would go back in the mix, othertimes it would be bits and pices. Again, it could be a hamburger to saled, to spagetti. It was painstacking process that took 10 minutes plus. I questioned her motive one day. She replied that was standard fare for her since childhood. “To insure nothing yucky ever got into her meal.” I no longer work with but only reflect on this in a humorous manner.

By Stan

July 17, 2008 4:21 PM | Link to this

I am somewhat picky. I don’t like raw tomatoes, most summer squash, olives (odd since I loved spanish olives as a kid) but will try almost anything. If I’ve never had something before then I don’t know if I like it or not. I would have bet that I wouldn’t like sushi, but I love it, I still don’t get too exotic with it but I don’t do califorina rolls either.

My wife loves everything that I don’t like and I love the stuff she doesn’t like so that makes it hard sometimes.

By new mom

July 17, 2008 4:28 PM | Link to this

I have known some adult picky eaters, but I have two friends in particular whom I can’t believe haven’t already died of a heart attack. One is in her early 30s, one in her late 30s, and honestly—neither will eat any vegetables (unless you consider french fries a veggie!) or any meat unless it’s fried. Seriously, the only things I have ever seen them eat are hamburgers, chicken fingers, and french fries. Oh, and desserts too.

And as far as cooking for them, that’s not really an issue—they rarely go somewhere to eat where the either don’t know what’s being served, or haven’t just eaten before they came, so they have an excuse not to eat.

I remind myself of them when I think about introducing new foods to our baby girl—I don’t want her to grow up thinking that “kid’s meal” food is all she needs to eat. I love almost all foods, with the exception of seafood. However, whenever we are out and my husband orders some seafood, I always try a bite, in hopes that I might find some I like!

By lisa

July 17, 2008 6:19 PM | Link to this

Boy! I thought I was picky till I read this! I’m printing it so my husband can read it - maybe he’ll stop making fun of me for all the stuff I won’t eat (raw mushrooms, any kind of game meat, squash of any variety, lima beans…). My mom had a rule when we were growing up: you had to try three bites of each item she prepared no matter what it was. And if you didn’t like what was fixed? Tough luck, there was always breakfast the next day! Why did those people bid on the dinner? They should have taken the money and gone to McD’s!

By FCM

July 17, 2008 6:46 PM | Link to this

You actually brought up several issues.

Why did this family bid on the item? I agree with another poster that they probably just didn’t want to cook that night.

The cook admitted she was disappointed in having to cook a boring meal. How about for the one this school year she offer a “tapas party” or a “Morracan Meal” or whatever and have a ‘sample’ menu available. That way its clear to the bidder that just a cook is not what they are getting…then she can ‘fine tune’ to the family…for instance my allergy to shell fish would keep me from bidding on a “Carribean Seafood Extravanza” but not a tapas party…where maybe we could do something other than a shrimp or crab.

Someone who likes nothing? I always try to do something that I know most people like…especially if I am having them over the first time. They probably aren’t coming over unless I know them enough to know they eat red meat, or spagetti, or whatever.

Do you cook for people who just see eating as fuel? Yep! All the time. However, most of these people still appreciate good tasting food. They may go home to make noodles with shredded cheddar on them (yes, one really does that) but that will not stop them from appreciating a good meal they didn’t make. One guy was astounded at the various salads I made for us…I would usually slice up grilled meat put it over greens, and top with whatever I had on hand that sounded like it would go in a salad. Slice pork loin, strawberries, pecans, sharp cheese (blue?) with a sweet vinegrette was particularly good with a nice cold Chard. He spoke of it for days.

Now I am fairly picky. I don’t like Mayo on my burger and will send it back if were out and there is any on it. I don’t like mushrooms and will ‘eat around them or ask that they be left out when I go out. At other people’s houses I eat what is before me (with the exception of the shellfish)….I have learned I like lots of things this way.

New Mom you keep feeding that baby different stuff…Don’t give up if she ‘out grows it’ either. Kids get bored with same old same old too. She may love the broccoli this week, hate it next…that’s ok, she’ll come back to it. Also remember that salt and sugar are largerly learned tastes …we get PLEANTY in a healthy diet without ‘adding’ it. My oldest didn’t have syrup on pancakes until she was 3 and stayed with grandma! She thought everyone ate them plain.

By Jesse

July 17, 2008 7:04 PM | Link to this

In high school and college I had this friend who REFUSED to touch bread. She would not eat a sandwich of any kind, biscuit, muffin, roll, you name it. She wouldn’t even try it and admitted to us she had not eaten bread since she was 4 years old. She also wouldn’t touch vegetables (except green beans) or fruits (except orange juice or strawberries).

However, she did eat pizza and donuts, even when we tried to tell her those were bread products too, so why don’t you just try a sandwich?

By Stranger...

July 17, 2008 8:11 PM | Link to this

My wife is a picky eater, and I’m a foodie, so it can be tough sometimes. But I did learn something from it. Some people, like my wife, are picky TEXTURE eaters. I think most foodies think that picky eaters would like the taste of new foods. But even if they did, they might not like the TEXTURE. That is why she eats romaine salads instead of Ceasar salads. No extra crunches, or surprises.

Anyway, I just wanted to pass that along. It’s not always the taste that the picky eaters don’t like.

By JJ

July 18, 2008 7:16 AM | Link to this

I used to be somewhat picky. No tomatos (still don’t like them); no onions, no peppers of any kind.

Since I started watching Food Network I have tried numerous new things, and love most of them. I still can’t do tomatos, but will eat them in a salad if they are finely diced.

Now I love onions, but not raw. I love to cook with onions. My food tastes bland without them. I recently received a grill pan for the top of the stove, and I have been grilling and carmelizing onions with just about every meat I cook on the grill..

I love to try new things, so I’m open. But I will not do mushrooms. Uh uh, no way, no how. That is one veggie I will not touch…….

By Lissa

July 18, 2008 3:33 PM | Link to this

Are you kiddin’ me - “Won’t eat “vegetables, seafood, spicy foods, …anything with chunks of tomato, onion, or peppers”? so… you eat nothing but potatoes, beef and ranch dressing? Glad I’m not your arteries. Egads.”

HA! I don’t like Ranch either! :P

What’s wrong with being a picky eater? It’s not like we tell you that you’re a horrible cook - we simply prefer not to eat certain foods. Visit another culture and you’ll be seen as the picky one if you “choose” not to things like dog, rat, etc.

By FCM

July 18, 2008 9:31 PM | Link to this

That’s right some people are so ‘picky’ that Beijing removed “DOG” from their menu. Which being an Amrican I find to be a good thing, Fido is my friend not my dinner. If you think I am kidding you might check the AJC Archives…they ran the article earlier this week or last.

Still, there are ways of being ‘picky’ and ways of being ‘rude’.

By momtoAlex&Max

July 20, 2008 3:35 PM | Link to this

Still, there are ways of being ‘picky’ and ways of being ‘rude’

FCM you got it. Being picky is one way some people use to get attention for themselves. Like to stand out and feel special.

My husband has a friend who will eat NOTHING (and I mean NOTHING) but bread and french fries. Yeah, you can imagine what his health status is.

By Disgusted

July 20, 2008 5:48 PM | Link to this

Nothing. Here’s the bag of chips.

By Teacher

July 30, 2008 10:27 PM | Link to this

I am allergic to a lot of foods and always keep an Epi-pen handy. When I am invited to eat dinner with someone, I make sure they are aware that some of my allergies are life threatening. If it is not someone I know very well, I might ask how close they are to the nearest hospital!

I always volunteer to bring something, so at least I will have something to eat. I always ask anyone who is coming for dinner if there is anything they can’t eat.