Is there some food that you eat in a special way that can only be described as a ritual?

I always eat around the outside of burgers and sandwhiches before eating the center. I also eat them by ripping off small chunks of which I then take little bites.

Two eggs, over easy, always flipped carefully onto the top of the homefries, two splops of Tabasco artfully on the yolks, then cut up into bits and ingested with reverence. In public I refrain from licking the plate.

Mint chocolate chip ice cream is my favorite. Whenever I have it, I fish out all of the chocolate chips. I chew about half of them, and savor the other half as they slowly melt in my very cold mouth. Once I have finished all of the chocolate chips, I stir the ice cream to achieve an even consistency between the part that’s still completely frozen and the part that started to melt while I was working on the chocolate. I slowly savor the ice cream with tiny bites until the last little bit is gone.

Dark Chocolate sometimes with the wrapper still on it to enhance the experience…because I say so!

When I have oreo’s I eat the first four like a regular cookie, then I start to pull them a part and lick the center.

I line up my french fries according to size and then eat the smallest, crunchiest first. If I don’t the crunch goes away, and I miss out.

Steak & Eggs. Egg on top, and let the yolk pour all over the steak. I don’t know if everyone does that, but I have had comments made to me that suggests not.

In general I eat my food so there is a perfect bite at the end. Sandwiches and pizza I try to make each bite similar, same amount of crust on each piece. So a small bite from the middle then from the edge, so it is sort of equal in my mouth at the same time.

I cut my spaghetti, not sure if that counts. I actually like linguine best.

I hate eating food with a spoon, that I perceive as food that should be eaten with a fork. Even cake. Sometimes it is served with a spoon if it comes with ice cream. I still prefer a fork, and you can hold the ice cream anyway.

When I eat pizza, I eat the whole slice except for the crust, which I save for last. People always ask, “Don’t you like the crusts? I notice that you aren’t eating them.” But I DO eat them, I just eat them last.

@Kardamom I think that is normal, and what I do is weird.

@JLeslie I think it’s normal too. LOL. That’s why I can never figure out why people keep asking me if I’m going to eat the crusts.

I like to eat ice cream with a fork too. Don’t know why, but it just seems more logical.

Oh yeah, I will also eat all of the chocolate from the top, bottom and sides of a Snickers bar before I eat the inside part. And I also eat the top section of chocolate from Reeses peanut butter cups first, before eating the inside.

Krikey! Now I’m hungry again. Just when I finally got out of that cheese spread thread from yesterday!

@Kardamom Are you from NYC?

@Kardamom Maybe they want your crusts?

@JLeslie No, I’m from CA. I too thought that maybe they wanted to eat my crusts. Which is even weirder than me saving them for last. Would you want to eat someone else’s crusts that have already been nibbled upon?

I’m still hungry, by the way.

@Kardamom I only asked because in NY they fold their pizza and eat it with their hands, sometimes on the go, and it is difficult to eat the crust at the same time when you are eating a pizza like that. In places where they use a fork and knife, or it is deep dish, or a crispy crust, or personal sized pizzas, instead of an xlarge slice, it would be more difficult.

@yarnlady Oh wow, I have a very similar thing I do with fries that I’ve been picked on for many times! I lay mine out then gather them up by size- largest first- and bundle them in my fingers so that each bite has the same size french fries in it. All the long ones first, then the medium longs, then the mediums, etc. I pinch all of one size together and enjoy!

@JLeslie Ok, now you’re just playing with me! All this talk about deep dish this and crispy crust that and extra large slices. I mean it, I’m still hungry and I’m getting off of this thread right now so I can go track down some pizza and save the crusts for last! = p

@Kardamom I’m getting out of bed to heat up a piece of Papa John’s pizza out of my fridge right now!!!!

I wish I owned stock in pizza.

If I make a pizza or sandwich I too, want every bite to have the same thing on it- no pickle on this one bite and onion over there. Fussy about my eggs, too. Over easy and nicely on the plate so I and only me, breaks the yolk with my toast- not too dark toast.

Putting ketchup on each individual french fry from one of the old time plastic bottles with the snipped nipple. Haha. Snipped. Nipple.

I insist on eating the holes in my doughnut first. My mother always told me that was the best part, more wholesome see :¬)

I eat pizza with a fork and knife. Actually, I do that with a lot of foods people expect you to use your hands for… fried chicken, for instance. I don’t like messy hands. :(

I remove the skin from fried chicken. I got in trouble with my step-dad for “wasting” it when I was little until my mom explained that I was “saving the best for last.”

I will not eat more than two times around an apple. Not getting anywhere close to the core – yuck.

I hold M&Ms or Reese’s Pieces in my hand until the centers are soft, then I squish them in my mouth.

The weirdest thing I’ve seen is a friend in HS who put salad with Thousand Island dressing on his pizza then folded it in half and ate it like a taco.

@augustlan I eat a lot of finger food with a fork and knife also. I prefer not to get my hands messy or sticky. I also like a lot of napkins. Lots and lots of napkins. Lol. But, pizza I eat with my hands. I remember when we moved to MD people ate pizza with a fork and knife (the pizza sucked back then in MD) and my family thought it was so odd.

What an interesting thread.

I have eggs over easy when I have eggs in a restaurant. At home, never.

People sometimes seem suprised that I finish food that tastes good. Seems normal to me, but obviously we’re all wired differently. So I suck the marrow out of the lamb shank, and eat the roe from the lobster, suck out the head of the crayfish, butter and eat the baked potato shin, eat the kiwi whole, etc.

@6rant6 : But the kiwi’s beak is so damned long, however do you swallow it?

@JilltheTooth The key is beak first. Otherwise the feathers get all fluffed out. Talk about socially awkward moments! Do I pull it out or try to cram it in farther?

Baked potatoes. I’m upset if the slit open potato doesn’t “fluff” neatly. Once fluffed they take a fork and gently break up the insides away from the skin, butter, sour cream then black pepper. I will squoosh shut the potato and let all the good melt some then shred cheddar cheese on top, a little sprinkle of salt and then I can start to eat it. The skins I save for last to cut up and clean the plate of butter and goodies with.

I eat my M&M’s (and any similar candy that has multiple colours) in pairs according to colour (I make sure there are equal amount of colour pairs left at the end).

Oranges: especially clementines, I will first puncture the skin with a knife because I hate getting that stuff in my finger nail. After carefully peeling it, I peel the white stringy stuff off of each pie piece before eating them. It takes me a long time to eat an orange, lol.

Potatoes: I mash them down to about 1cm high (at most) covering half my plate then add whatever topping. This goes for any type (boiled, mashed, baked), except fries.

If I make pizza, sandwiches, or an other layered/multi topping food ..every bite must be equal as @JLeslie said.

Those are my more common food oddities that I can think of at the moment.

@PluckyDog Is the mashed potato thing so they cool off quickly? Funny you mention clementines because I like those when I travel or am not at home, because they peel so easily. I don’t have to woory about my finger winding up in the fruit, because I have nails.

@JLeslie I do that to my potatoes because it spreads it around.. like a pizza I guess. Then I can make sure every bite has the same amount of topping on it. As for the clementines ..it’s the juice in the peel that goes under my fingernail (not so much the gunk that other types have). I hate when there’s anything under my nails which may be why I keep them fairly short (well I play guitar on occasion too) ..lol.

Here’s a revival of this question in November of 2015.