Feeding Frenzy

By Stacey

November 7, 2008 1:06 PM | Link to this

I have a coworker who brings salmon for lunch about once a week and it stinks the whole office up for the rest of the day! Collard greens and cabagge are also bad choices for lunch because they smell so bad when reheated.

By FCM

November 8, 2008 8:51 AM | Link to this

The main reason I go out to eat is I like hot food, not cold. A benefit to the office is the smell doesn’t have to be there (unless I do take out).

By dee

November 10, 2008 8:02 AM | Link to this

I would like to share an enroute to the office gagging experience.

While riding GRTA last week, my morning senses were rudely awakened when someone behind me thought they would un wrap what i believe may have been their lunch?

My stomach is weak in the mornings and the way the stench assaulted my nostrils made me almost want to reach back slap this lady silly.

surely she could smell the unpleasant order. Im not sure if she was eating it or just ramblng through the back because she was seated behind me.

rule number one… if you have a smelly lunch please for goodness sake don’t unwrap it on the bus!

By asudst1992

November 10, 2008 8:18 AM | Link to this

The smell of burnt popcorn in the office bothers me. The aroma lasts for so long.

By Denise

November 10, 2008 8:36 AM | Link to this

Guilty, Guilty as charged. I for first time brought cabbage to work, I was totaly embarrassed by the horrible smell. Lucky for me I keep OUST in my office and was able to immediately get rid of the smell. Definitely not a repeat for me. Wish others felt this way…

By Josh

November 10, 2008 8:42 AM | Link to this

Do not bring fish to work people!!!!!

By Vickie Smith

November 10, 2008 8:51 AM | Link to this

How about walking into the workplace kitchen/dining area to smell CHITLINS that someone brought as leftovers from home! That was really bad. They were heated in the microwave; we had to open the doors to air the place out!

By ANG

November 10, 2008 9:01 AM | Link to this

I am all for brown-bagging it - BUT within reason and what is courteous to everyone. Please leave your stinky seafood, chitlins and cabbage at home. Also, be aware of how long it takes to cook microwave popcorn WITHOUT burning it. I sit really close to the breakroom of where I work. Luckily we have a door to close it off from rest of the building, but it does open and close and the smell of stinky food permeates the facility. I am a person who gets really sick from smelling seafood. I can’t help it - it literally makes me vomit. The people in my building just don’t seem to understand or maybe they just don’t care. People need to be understanding that not everyone can tolerate the stinkiness that some bring for lunch/dinner. It’s not fair to everyone else when you bring stinky food for lunch. Live by the golden rule people.

By JM

November 10, 2008 9:15 AM | Link to this

Microwave popcorn should be BANNED from public places. Same goes for any type of fish (tuna, salmon, sardines, kippers). I have a late lunch hour, and by the time I get to our breakroom, 2 1/2 hours of combined food smells is just awful.

By Kay

November 10, 2008 9:20 AM | Link to this

Oh my goodness…. I sit right next to the kitchen and the smells are AWFUL. Like someone posted earlier, going from Lasagna to BBQ to Chinese is absolutely sickening. Then the sweet poptarts in the morning are disgusting.

I have a fan on my desk and when someone starts cooking I just turn the fan on high and point it in the direction of the smell and that helps some.

As for popcorn, our company imposed a DO NOT microwave popcorn policy as we were starting to be fined from the Fire Dept for false alarms due to people not watching their popcorn and letting it burn then it would set off the smoke detectors. You know it has been published that there are many companies who have also imposed that policy if you want to approach management about curbing microwaving popcorn.

And yes, the fish is the worse….

By Stan

November 10, 2008 10:05 AM | Link to this

some people just have to have something to complain about to feel complete.

If someone burns the popcorn, then tell them loudly and embarass them about it.

Fish- agree leave it at home, exception for tuna salad.

Chitlins??? OMFG please tell me you are joking!!! that is just RONG.

cabbage, I haven’t been able to stomach the smell of that since that cabbage soup diet. Blech!

I have screwed up in the past and let popcorn cook a little too long, no where near setting off the smoke detecter though. I am human and mess up form time to time. If someone else burns something or brings something a bit smelly, I try to just let it go. I work in a very diverse office so something that is smelly to me smelly yummy to others.

Lighten up people…except for the poor sap that had to smell the chitlins…just dam

By ANG

November 10, 2008 10:15 AM | Link to this

To Stan : No I am NOT kidding - some fool brought chitlins to work and microwaved them in our breakroom. OMG it was so terrible - you just cannot imagine.

By Sunny

November 10, 2008 10:18 AM | Link to this

Folks, I agree with you guys - that sometimes smells are horrible - but here is the flipside: I CAN NOT AFFORD to bring only things that are appealing to the senses. Sometimes all I have in my cubbard before payday is a CAN OF TUNA. I try to eat things that I don’t HAVE to heat - or I suffer and eat them cold just to be courteous to everyone else. Now, if my office would like to take me out to lunch on their dime to aviod smelling my home brought lunch, then fine by me. I even keep a can a lysol to spray if the smells are really bad. I know that can be just as offensive mixed with food smells, though. Any suggestions for a person that can’t afford much more than smelly foods sometimes?? I am in an office of 6 ppl. and really am the only one who brings lunch. I try to heat my lunch ( when I do that) ONLY when those have left for their lunch hour. Again, working around others’ schedules as not to offend.

By Critic

November 10, 2008 10:29 AM | Link to this

I used to work for a company that had a policy of no seafood or popcorn in the microwave. That worked well for a few years, but then it gradually gave away to the selfish clods who insisted. I guess everywhere you go there are going to be the dolts who don’t respect anyone and will stink the place up with their nasty smelling fish (popcorn doesn’t bother me, and no I don’t eat it at the office) I want to slap the seafood cookers in the face with a dead raw fish.

By swolf

November 10, 2008 10:30 AM | Link to this

I’m not so sure that some of those “particularly odiferous” lunches aren’t a bit of passive aggreession leaking out!

By Just_Me

November 10, 2008 10:42 AM | Link to this

I cook all kinds of crazy foods for the husband; mind you, i would never think of eating some of these ….concoctions, but he says they are terrific.

I always wonder what people think when he microwaves some of them…(a lot I cook on the grill so not to stink up my house!)—lots of garlic, onion, peppers….FISH….the worst is when he decides to take something I’ve made and add a can of sardines to them.

I KNOW wherever he’s microwaving this stuff people probably want to KILL him. I hate even having the dirty dishes in my dishwasher, and hit the rinse cycle.

So, for anyone out there, having to smell my husband’s invariably disgusting lunches, my apologies-we eat organics (well he does more than the rest of us) and is pretty fastidious about what goes IN.

(and yes, there are times I feel like there is a rotisserie chicken in bed next to me, as the smell of garlic can come out of your pores LOL)

By cathy lee

November 10, 2008 10:46 AM | Link to this

I agree to some point about the smells of some foods but some of us are not fortunate enough to bring good smelling foods all the time so we have to bring what we have or can afford, sorry.

By Stan

November 10, 2008 11:15 AM | Link to this

ANG, just dam…wow

You popcorn nazis should relax a bit. Get a can of Oust, that stuff works well.

By Sunny

November 10, 2008 11:22 AM | Link to this

Thank you Cathy Lee - seems like you are the only one in my court. It is all about affordabilty. But, as stated before - I do try to be as considerate as possible. Even eating my FOOD cold as to not disturb anyone.

By Susan

November 10, 2008 11:31 AM | Link to this

All of you eating stinky lunches - why don’t you eat in your car instead of at your desk?

By GRITS

November 10, 2008 11:32 AM | Link to this

Popcorn, fish, heated up broccoli….

But be careful with the OUST or Lysol, sometimes those are just as bad.

By Jo

November 10, 2008 11:34 AM | Link to this

Oh yes, fish & popcorn. Plus, egg salad, we all know what THAT smells like. I also cringe when co-workers bring in their nasty-smelling greasy fast food. Ugh. I try to stay out of the breakroom & eat at my desk.

By telin

November 10, 2008 11:40 AM | Link to this

I am disgusted and amazed people can eat some of the reheated fish I smell in the office. Has the odor of an unwashed w*******. Another bad smell - you low-carbers - is a freshly peeled boiled egg. Pee-yew.

By Brad

November 10, 2008 11:51 AM | Link to this

I worked an extra summer job at a golf course where most of the work crew were immigrants from Mexico. That breakroom smelled heavenly every day when they reheated their homemade meals.

By sp

November 10, 2008 12:17 PM | Link to this

Working in IT, we have a lot of ethnic people that takeover our breakroom. I have resorted to a small cooler with ice so I don’t even have to experience the stench at noontime. It smells like a man with chronic flatulence who’s eating limburger cheese while getting a perm in the septic tank of a slaughterhouse.

By ;Ron

November 10, 2008 12:20 PM | Link to this

Never smelled anything that bothered me except canned sardines. He would then throw the empty tin in the break room thrash can. If someone would just step outside and eat and throw their containers, etc. problem would be eliminated .

By Carolyn

November 10, 2008 12:20 PM | Link to this

Susan, the reason those offenders don’t eat in their cars is because no one who eats garbage & waste products is productive, ambitious or hard-working enough to even HAVE a car & do you think I’d let them eat in MY car & stink it up? No thanks!

By Truly

November 10, 2008 12:37 PM | Link to this

I like to eat a variety of foods, especially ethnic and seafood dishes. I have learned through trial and error, and finally proper techniques that there are some dishes that are just too pervasively pungent to cook in a confined work area because 1) some foods do not heat up well in a micro wave…try steaming those, btw; and 2) some food generated aromas do no suit others sense of pleasant and enticing…some food odors offend other people…period.

It is the same for perfumes, lotions, or any other aromatic agent…if it is too overpowering for the people that you work with, then please do be considerate enough to leave it at home…I do…and I also try to heat a dish at home in the microwave if I am not certain how strong the smell of heating it may cause it to be…these things are just common courtesy with others in shared and open spaces.

By Bun

November 10, 2008 12:50 PM | Link to this

After reading all those comments, I’m going to start bringing the stinkiest thing I can to the office for lunch. How about a gorgonzola cheese and tuna sandwich. Of course to make sure all is in order, I’ll open it on the bus on my way to work. Then about mid afternoon burn a bag of butter popcorn.

By dogLover

November 10, 2008 12:51 PM | Link to this

I don’t understand why it’s ok for men and women to wear cologne and perfume to work, many of which I’m allergic to, but heaven forbid I want to reheat my salmon that I cooked the night before. What about vegetarians? They have to smell all sorts of meat being reheated. Should all meat be banned as to not offend them? I don’t like the smell of burnt popcorn any more than the next guy, but I’m not curbing my eating habits for people that don’t care about my allergies.

By lovelyliz

November 10, 2008 12:52 PM | Link to this

I would like to add take the smelly leftovers home immediately. If it smells that bad on day one you can imagine what it’s like after being left in the breakroom refrigerator until it turns into penicillin.

By lwa

November 10, 2008 1:28 PM | Link to this

Some of you really scare me. What makes you think you have the right to tell someone else that their food stinks? That is a matter of opinion.

Some people may not know that the smell is offensive to others b/c it smells good to them. The person who eats chittlin’s may not know that they carry an oder that everyone does not enjoy. However, it is a matter of opinion!!

Why would you prefer that someone sits in a car and eat lunch?? What type of society have we turned into. I don’t like it so you have to go?????

The smell of gum makes me sick to my stomach but I am not that arrogant that I would expect my co-workers to not chew gum. I hate the smell of perfume but I deal with. Close your office door, buy a fan for your cube or better yet, quite your job, stay home and only deal with the smells coming from your own kitchen.

If these postings were not anonymous, most of you wouldn’t have a thing to say. Start a suggestion box in your office or file a complaint.

By joey

November 10, 2008 1:45 PM | Link to this

When people complain about smelly food, I bring in little sardine sandwichs on onion rye, bagged in a snack baggie with the seal barely closed. These, I place in strategic locations, carefully hidden in nooks between them and the breakroom.

Once those little stink bombs go off, it’s a riot watching those arrogant, pansy jerks look like they are gonna puke. Since I report later, pretend to be offended, and leave later, I am never a suspect, usually they blame the clean up people. Please, keep complaining; it’s great entertainment.

By kar

November 10, 2008 1:56 PM | Link to this

I don’t mind the smell of cooked food too much. May make me swear off of tuna or cabbage for a while but it’s no big deal.

What’s worse is when people eat this horrific stuff or worse salad and don’t plan for * after effects. * Seriously folks, it’s called Beano. Or try those nice little strips from Gax-X.

It’s to the point where I dread going into my boss’ office in the afternoon.

By doughboy

November 10, 2008 2:35 PM | Link to this

Nothin’ says lovin’ like somethin’ from the oven!