Be Excellent To Each Other

I used to be a really fussy eater. Due mainly to the fact that as a child I had a "stomach muscle reversal" for several months, which basically means I chucked up anything I ate. After that I lived on fishcakes and ready brek for nearly three years. I have now largely conquered this for most social situations, with one major exception. I still have a major aversion to cold meats.

This may not sound like a major thing, but the amount of parties where there is a buffet thing with the likes of sausage rolls, quich, sandwiches etc. leaves me feeling like an outcast. In some cases I have literally had to nab bread rolls a bit of salad and a few crisps. Buffets are something I really fear in social situations. Does anyone have any stories like this or have any tips on beating these sort of issues?

I actually can't bare to even see anyone else eat fish or seafood of any kind, it makes me want to throw up even seeing it. i am allergic to must seafood, which most people either already know or understand when I tell them. If someone is eating fish I have to keep my eyes averted the whole time.

the first time I descaled and cooked a whole fish for Crag I thought I was going to pass out, but I am trying to get over this fear.

I am allergic to so many foods - berries, certain vegetables, that a lot of the time big portions of any men are unavailable to me, but I just get on with it and enjoy what I can. I am just grateful I am not allergic t ice cream and jelly beans...

No brain, bad brain, stop that right now.

I am really fussy (not as bad as I used to be, in that I would only eat food cooked by my mum) and don't like anything spicy (ketchup is just about acceptable, but BBQ sauce isn't) or messy (rulling out most pies, sauces, etc).

Essentially I like meat (grilled, fried or roasted) processed stuff like burgers, sausages, fishfingers, chicken nuggets etc, I like a lot of veg (but only really boiled or raw, I wouldn't have baked, grilled or fried veg) and some salad stuff. Growing up I used to like mince and mashed potato, but I couldn't stand shepherds pie (not keen on mash now either).

So yeah, I'm rubbish at restaurants (Which isn't helped that I think that I'll probably cook it to my taste better than they could and for a fraction of the cost) and dinner parties and such. I always tell people not to worry about me when I'm invited for a meal, as I'm just too fussy to cater for.

Malc

hehe D

This keyboard is not as reponsive as my other one, I think - it keeps missing out letters as I type.

haha, oh dear

I'm not bad. I hate sweetcorn, and I don't like tomatoes. Tomato soup, sauce, whatever, that's fine, but actual tomatoes? Blerch.

Ooh - hot drinks. I don't like any of them.

I used to be very fussy, but now there isn't much (that's actually food) I won't eat.

Cold meats is an odd one. You're missing out on some of the world's finest foods there.


Not liking tea makes you a wrong 'un, Grim...

Mostly

I sometimes like Hot Chocolate (and I don't mean the beliveing in miracles kind) although I think the last time I had a cup was about 15 years ago. Can't stand Tea/Coffee tho.

Malc

I'm a human dustbin.

Sprouts can fuck right off though.

I love sprouts. They are my favourite veg to have with a roast. I like them raw too!

yum yum!

Malc

Indeed, there are of course some things that are nothing to do with fussyness - they just ming.

very much so.

Also, mushrooms. I can eat them raw (though I don't), but cooked? Hell no. I can just about eat cod but I'm not keen on most other kinds of fish. I can occasionally have a few prawns but not too many. And aubergines, and corgettes, yuck.

Apart from that I'm good for mostly anything.

Mimi as comical pointed out lets try and keep this on topic.

Anyway. Food allergies must really suck. But in a social situation you can say "I am allergic to that" and people go OK. When I am standing with a plate of crisps I feel quite embarrased. How are you trying to conquer your fear?

(Oooh lots of replies I will post this then look at them)

(And again my reply may be really out of context now)

Neither me or Mrs Grim... like hot drinks. It saves so much hassle. When people come round and we offer them a drink and they say tea or coffee, it's rare that we'll have everything we need to make it.

I'm allergic to mushrooms.

I try and cook fish for Craig once in a while (though I have not done this for some time now, I must try and do so next week) and I try not to look like I am about to all over his plate when I serve him some.

Maybe it is not so much conquering the fear as hiding it

Live fish I am fine with though. If I were in a big fish tank with fish all around me I'd be fine. it's when their dead and meant to be food that they freak me out.

I also am allergic to mushrooms. I LOVE touching them though.

When we get button mushrooms for Craig and I cook them I like to peel all of the mushrooms, just so I can touch them some more.

So light and fluffy and bouncy and comical

You're all freaks. Seriously.

You are no friend of

I also can't stand eggs.

EGGS, SHE SAID EGGS.

I love Eggs!

Malc

Fuck Mushrooms.
Fuck Shrimp.
In short fuck food that looks like crazy alien shit. I'm not eating fungus, do you think I'm mental?

Oh and fuck tea too.

That, to me, is inconceivable. There's no milk downstairs, and I'm actually angry at my inability to make lovely tea right now...

I hate tomatoes, and celery, and cucumber. Mayonnaise makes me physically sick.

I have no food oddities, just two dislikes: aniseed (including liquorice, tarragon, Sambuca, etc) and nuts. I don't like peanuts, cashew nuts, coconut, chestnuts, anything nutty. This always, without fail, results in people asking if I am allergic whenever I mention it.

Not liking tea is weird, Grim....

Wow. Me too, on both. Except coconut, which I don't count as a nut or in any way nutty.

Thinking on, perhaps I just don't like coconut much and it's not related to the nut thing.

In August 1993 I went on a sweetcorn binge and then ejected it from every orifice you can imagine while Noel Edmunds was on the TV.

I now eat sweetcorn in moderation.

That is all.

Hot drinks seems as weird to me as my cold meat thing must seem to others. The main problem I have is that my situation is a bit annoying, but not so much it affects my life on a daily basis. About three or four times a year I think "I should really learn to eat cold sausage rolls and ham" that would solve 70% of the times I feel awkward in. What else....

Mushrooms: These are a bit like how I imagine snails to be. They are merely a texture when they are cooked with any other flavour. I would avoid fried mushrooms with a breakfast though.

Tomatoes: I can't imagine a chilli without chopped tomatoes. Yet, sliced tomato on a pizza puts me off. Not enough not to eat it though.

I love EGG.

Here is Egg

Mimi Egg, but not eggs.

I like eggy bread, but nothing else eggy. Except maybe omelettes.

Does anybody dislike crisps?

Chop them small, rather than into whole slices. Pat them well dry, season them, and fry in butter. They will be anything but sloppy and gross. Lovely on toast, fantastic with steak.

It may do! Give it a try.

I know 2 people who suffer from Chrones, and a further 4 people who "merely" have IBS. I would like to take them all out boweling but I fear this would be fall on deaf ears. Is it just me or does this seem a high proprortion of people (I know you don't know how many people I know..... or do I?) to suffer from these conditions.

Please, no all your friends are shit jokes.

Comical's like a button mushroom? No wonder he's always so angry, he must be over-compensating something rotten.

My sister has just been told she has IBS, which is a problem as she is a chef. I am not really sure of the condition. I believe it is said that about 15% of people in the UK will suffer from IBS. In south American countries the percentage s supposed to be closer to 50%. i have been trying to read about it this evening after the email from my sister. it sounds liek she may be in a lot of pain, but i was wondering if certain medications can bring the condition on (my sister is, for want of a better word, a hyperchondriac. I remember meeting her coming back from the chemist once and she had three carrier bags having a useless doctor who would medicate her for anything never helped, but she has two special shelves just for medicines, and I wonder if that could be a factor. If it really is IBS, anyway.

Mimi: I am sorry to say not really. My mum was diagnosed with IBS, then Chrones, 15 years ago. The doctors said there was nothing they could do about it apart from recommend diet. In a massive stroke of luck she went for a routine X-Ray and they noticed part of her intestine was infected with TB. They removed about 6cm of it 2 months later. Talk about a dramatic recovery. I have never seen someone look better from surgery literally 3 days after it took place. My mums case was a misdiagnosis. I think that IBS and Chrones are problems you have to manage.

Shin may know more.

Oh dear that really could be damaging to her career then. I hope it turns out to be something else - something temporary or manageable - her doctor seems to think it IS IBS but it is not yet confirmed. He seemed to suggest a good diet among a few other things. I don't know the usual treatment, but there seemed to be nothing drastic that he has suggested - maybe it is waiting on confirmation, or maybe IBS can come in more than one level of severity.

Mimi: To put your mind at ease a little, IBS certainly nothing life threatening. All it is is a change in diet and more than half of any problems are solved. It is more of a lifestyle change than anything.

I think that is probably what she needs. She is very fat around the tummy - not 'big' in that way that most women get when they put on weight (around the hips and bum) but all on her belly, like a man with a beer belly.

I think maybe a change in diet will definitely be of some benefit to her. As I say, i don't know the severity of it yet, it was sent in a very long rambling email of so much news

Can I just interject (ooer) here and ask how many of you lot, when you sit down to eat your meals, have to eat each food item separately, one at a time? (For example, if you sat down to sausages, beans and chips, you'd have to eat all the sausages, followed by all the beans and then all the chips; no mixing of anything and no alternating bites of different food).

It's an odd little foible I've noticed in a couple of family members, and I also have a couple of workmates who can't bear to mix their food together either. In fact, one of my workmates is very weird - if she cooks food together (eg, a chicken, vegetables and noodle stir-fry) she can eat it no problem. However, if she cooked the chicken, vegetables and noodles separately and put them on her plate in different little piles, not only is she unable to mix them, she can't even bear to have them touching one another.

So, erm, yes. Anyone else craz(Erm, "idiosyncratic". Ed.) like that?

As you well know, I'm of the opinion that anyone who likes sprouts is a deviant.

There's very little I can't eat*, but there's certainly things I'd certainly choose not to**.

Having said that, I have an... interesting relationship with food. I probably have some kind of eating disorder. I certainly don't feel a compulsion to eat anything more than one meal a day, and often not even that. The only real way round that is having food I really like lying around, but not to cure hunger, as it were.

* - Milk, Pate and Sprouts are the only things that come to mind.

** - Hot Drinks, Soups, Tinned Fish, Cooked Vegetables (Most I'd prefer raw, I'll eat them if they're reasonably crunchy, but most people know to reserve raw vegetables for me when cooking veg***.) Most things that have a consistency of mash or less solid.

*** - The reason behind this is my mother cooks vegetables until they're liquid. Liquid cabbage is horrible

Feyonce works with someone who does this with store-bought sandwiches, dismantling them completely so he can eat them bit by bit. He even picks the sweetcorn out of tuna mayo.

I'm allergic to milk protein, which means I can't eat any cheese, yoghurt, milk, etc. Apart from that, I'll pretty much eat anything.

I quite like tea and coffee, but I don't drink it very much at all because I'm not too keen on pumping myself full of caffeine on a habitual basis. I drink an inordinate amount of water and drink herbal tea when I want something hot.

I absolutely adore fish, and could eat it for every meal if I was allowed.