Do you abuse food?

Like this?

My first thought was “Yes. I put the carrots next to the ham and they’ll just have to get over it.”

I’m not sure where this line is drawn. Plain spaghetti or rice are often bland and tasteless. How much sauce or butter is “enough” will vary by the person. For instance, I make some of my own pasta, and I like it with butter or even plain sometimes, but my husband sees pasta only as a sauce delivery vehicle – in this case, should he eat the sauce and leave the pasta out entirely?

Simply cooking food is making it “unnatural” in some ways. When you gather greens, steam them, and add a sprinkle of salt or butter, you’re in no way eating them the way they should “naturally” be. Unless you eat raw, minimally processed food, it could probably be considered abuse in this context.

Then there are things like my grandma’s mac and cheese, which is pasta covered with yummy cheddar goodness. I assure you, that’s the way it’s meant to be, and not abuse at all.

I just baked chicken with a butter, lemon juice, and hot salt sauce on it. It was good. I think it was more love than abuse.

@syz: wow, um, no, not like that.
like, do you mask your food with sauces and cheese and salt and/or whatever to make it taste good to you, but actually, your broccoli should just be, well, broccoli, without the cheese. you know what i’m saying?

like, if i go to a family picnic and i serve pasta with a light sauce of basil, olive oil and parmesan, maybe with a hint of pesto. the norm would be spaghetti and sauce, but i bring pasta to the table the way it really should be enjoyed.

i turn out to be the outcast.

@charlie: I see what you mean. I think in this case, “the way it should be enjoyed” might be a cultural thing. People get set in their tastes, and it’s hard to make them like something different – because in their “native” culture, the way pasta should be enjoyed is with ladles of sauce, and any other way is “not right.”

@laureth: gotcha!
my sister and i had this conversation earlier today and we both agreed pasta should be just spaghetti with a light touch of sauce, not excessive sauce and noodles under a blanket of red sauce.

I am on your side of this one, I think. The first time I served up pesto on homemade pasta, Spouse was all, “Where’s the sauce?”

(...and I was all, “I made this with basil from the farmer’s market and good olive oil and Grana Padano and YOU WILL LIKE IT!!!”)

I don’t smother my food with sauces, etc. but I’d love to bitchslap a piece of chocolate cake right now!!

Or for excess, how about this? Today called a Turducken

” The largest recorded nested bird roast is 17 birds, attributed to a royal feast in France in the early 19th century (originally called a Rôti Sans Pareil or “Roast without equal”) – a bustard stuffed with a turkey, a goose, a pheasant, a chicken, a duck, a guinea fowl, a teal, a woodcock, a partridge, a plover, a lapwing, a quail, a thrush, a lark, an Ortolan Bunting and a Garden Warbler.

The final bird is small enough that it can be stuffed with a single olive; it also suggests that, unlike modern multi-bird roasts, there was no stuffing or other packing placed in between the birds. This dish probably could not be legally recreated in the modern era as many of the listed birds are now protected species

It’s like eating a birdwatcher’s notebook.”

Hey, charlieco, one man’s natural is another man’s naked. I like food on its own and with sauces. It varies. I do not, however, assign virtue to naked food.

We are human beings: We enhance things. Our environment, our food, our art and music. Some enhancements are good and some may be abominations, but I don’t think we can throw out the baby with the bathwater and abandon the whole idea of enhancing food.

I lift my Buffalo wing dipped in blue cheese dressing in salute to you, my friend.

These are ones I can’t stand (rather they are just gross or they insult heritage):
ketchup and eggs
ramen noodles with sauce
pasta and ketchup
candy pizza
etc…

@marina! she’s back!!!
well at least for a moment…
good to see you online tho!

and 25 away from 12k!!! help lurve her to the goal

I used to abuse food all the time. That’s partly why I’m now a Type II Diabetic.

It KILLS me when i see people putting ketchup on steak….. EAT YOUR DAMN STEAK THE WAY IT IS. Its delicious. Dont ruin it by masking its taste.

I’m a sauce kind of girl. I could do without the pasta altogether, as long as I had bread to dip in my spaghetti sauce :)

@Uber; “There is no accounting for other peoples’ taste” is such a powerful idea that the Romans said it. De gustibus non disputandum est” (from memory.)

Nixon used to put ketchup on cottage cheese, I think.

I called my niece a cheese monger.
This little girl can take down an entire platter in one sitting.
As any kid is wont to do, she asked me what it meant.

After pondering this for a moment, her response was:
I might be a cheese monger, but you’re a sauce monger!

Touché, little girl. Touché.

I abuse food all the time. I whip cream and beat eggs on a regular basis, and I also like to skewer vegetables.

@ Darwin
HOW DARE YOU?
Just kidding. (I had to let that out because I laughed so hard at your post)

@augustlan Yum, dipping! For me, it’s French bread in cioppino (and I don’t care if it’s not authentic—not sourdough).

@Darwin Me too (hangs head in shame). I have even separated eggs, stabbed holes in potatoes with forks. The list goes on. Shall we form a 12-step group?

@Marina – sure, right after we finish dinner. :-)

But I hate eggs.

@kid – possibly they hate you right back. Have you ever tried to make friends?

Surprised nobody’s mentioned the dangers of Cereal Killers.
Death to Cheerios! – Run away!

I firmly believe that any kind of food can be enhanced by one of these 3 things: chocolate, cheese, ketchup. Can anyone come up with something that wouldn’t taste good with at least one of these?

I don’t even have an abusive past to blame this on. No one in my family is as intense about “adding some flavor” to their food.

Edit: @scamp – lurve to you. our whole family has been bitch slapping cake today to celebrate a relative’s birthday. perhaps we need counseling?

TACO TOWN!!

I have seen that on SNL haha!! one of the first skits I had ever seen

PnL; Cottage cheese (or cotton, according to Major major major major in Catch-22. His chocolate-covered cotton never caught on for some inexplicable reason. The military never cottened on to the scheme.

I grew up with;
Roasted lamb and mint jelly
Roasted port and apple sauce
Steak and mustard
Brisket and horseradish
Burgers and catsup
Franks and mustard and relish

Animal protein was never served naked in our household.

@Pnl Ice cream sundae with ketchup. Chocolate and cheese are tougher though. BTW, I feel the same way about mushrooms.

@marina i dont think she was saying you can put ketchup chocolate or cheese on any food, but rather there is no food that isnt made better by adding any of the above.

“chocolate, cheese, ketchup. Can anyone come up with something that wouldn’t taste good with at least one of these?”

Broccoli and chocolate;
Cheese and marshmallows;
Ketchup and lemon meringue pie.;

@Uber; Think of things not to serveu with Vladimira (like hot fudge sauce) Not that I am suggesting you put another shrimp on the barbie. That would be like sautéing Milo.

Uberbatman is right. My point was that at least one of those condiments can be used to better any food. So, ketchup won’t go with everything, but I bet that one of the other 2 would go with that food. Sorry about the confusion ladies.

@PnL No, my apologies for not reading your post more closely. I am now going to do penance by mixing myself a ketchup, chocolate, cheese smoothie and drinking it all.

Marina – Glad to have you back :) Now that you mentioned it, I am very curious to know how that smoothie would taste…ugh.

You’re interested? I am disgusted! Honestly, I think ketchup is low class seeing what all these people do with ketchup marina.
I hate chocolate…always vanilla for me.

A plain cheese smoothie, though? Now that’s a high-brow beverage.