Any embarrassing eating habits?
I'm sure I have many...but right now I am admitting to...I always need to have a napkin close by when I am eating anything, whether the napkin is in my lap, hand or tucked under my chin!
Are you willing to reveal one (or more) of your embarrassing eating habits?
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32 Comments:
I don't think having a napkin while eating is embarassing! You're just being neat. :)
Sometimes, if I really like the way that the different foods on my plate taste together, I've been known to shovel three or four bites of food in my mouth at a time to get all the different flavors in at once. I must look like madwoman. :D
sheeats at 8:22PM on 12/09/07
Chewing ice - more of a beverage habit I guess, but I love the big crunch and there's none bigger than ice!
SSMom at 8:58PM on 12/09/07
Two things, both slightly embarassing--
Growing up, I always had to use my family's "L Forks" as we called them. My mom had silverware from her childhood with an "L" engraved because her maiden name was Lighton. But as a child, I took to mean that the L stood for Lorie, my name. Whenever I go home now (and I'm in college) I still refuse to eat with anything other than my L Forks.
Also, I apparently have a habit of sticking out my tongue whenever I am taking a bite. It's habit, and completely subconscious, but my family chooses to make fun of me for it anyway! (I choose to argue that at least I do not chew with my mouth open, or make loud slurping noises--those are my biggest peeves!)
luswim06 at 10:40PM on 12/09/07
I get really riled up if anyone eats off my plate, but have been known to less than stealthily steal food from others. (ie: Yelling "Whoa is that a dinosaur over there?" while I steal some asparagus.)
lexophile at 10:47PM on 12/09/07
I eat pizza by eating the toppings off, then scraping the doughy part of the crust off and eating it, and then eating the crunchy bottom part of the crust. Time consuming, but I get to taste and enjoy the different flavours and textures to their fullest. I also hate sandwiches b/c they meld flavours so that individual flavours cannot be detected anymore. I used to eat pasta and sauce separately, but have grown out of that!
kerokaeru at 11:15PM on 12/09/07
Lex I hear that. When someone sticks a fork in my plate, I fork them. I say, "oh look what I did, see your hand was not supposed to be there." No one with any smarts puts a fork near my plate. Could be painful.
I think my annoying habit is I get up from the table often. I hear Hubby say where did you go. In the kitchen of course lol.
JerzeeTomato at 11:17PM on 12/09/07
I am sure I have many, but two really stand out...I HAVE to have hot food and hot beverages REALLY hot. Very annoying to even myself, since I get up so much to "zap" it for a few seconds. Not meat, because that would ruin it, but things like soup, sides, coffee, hot chocolate, etc.
I also stick out my tongue, but only when I am drinking, not eating. Very odd habit that I never knew I did. My tongue always hits the glass or bottle first. Drives some people crazy. I agree luswim06, I'd rather do that than slurping loudly!
radley24 at 11:19PM on 12/09/07
Potato chips with my occasional liversausage and yellow mustard sandwich. Not on the side--actually on the sandwich. (I understand this is much less weird than I fear, though.)
maered at 11:24PM on 12/09/07
I tend to eat very slowly. It's embarrassing when I realize people have started to watch and wait.
I'm also very ungraceful with salad, but not sure that's a habit. I blame lazy kitchen prep.
Should there be a subcategory for embarrassing drinking habits? I've been seen "drinking" out of empty wine glasses (ie., after I've had a few).
renzata at 11:30PM on 12/09/07
you'd be amazed at what i consider to be finger food!!!
cybercita at 12:48AM on 12/10/07
I also have to have napkins close by when I eat, but that's because I hate a mess, or what I may perceive as a mess...I'm a little bit OCD I guess:-)...if it's paper napkins, somehow I always end up using more of them by the end of the meal than anybody else at the table.
Another habit I have is more embarrassing though - apparently, when I really enjoy what I am eating, I hum quite a cheerful tune! I am saying "apparently" because I didn't realise I was doing this until a friend/co-worker pointed it out to me when we were eating lunch a couple of years ago (we've eaten hundreds of lunches together, so she must have seen/heard me do it enough times to figure out the connection :-)). It's totally subconscious, and although now that I am aware of this habit, I do catch myself humming when I enjoy my food from time to time, lucky for me, nobody else does...or at least they don't tell me. This, or even if people do hear me hum, they just don't make the connection:-).
brooke29 at 12:59AM on 12/10/07
I'm definitely a big napkin user.
What probably annoys other folks when we go out is that I ask people to describe their food to me if 1. it's something I cannot eat for allergy reasons, 2. they haven't offered me any. I also pester folks about what they're going to order -- like it makes any difference at all in what I'll order.
hereandthe at 8:18AM on 12/10/07
I pick apart pizza and sandwiches too. also i eat very slowly, usually finishing my salad when my so is starting on dessert:(
huney_bumper at 8:26AM on 12/10/07
I have a lot of them:
Cold food and hot food can't touch. At home this isn't a problem since they're on seperate dishes (see below), but at other people's homes, etc. I get pretty squicked out by it.
Hot foods need to be really hot, cold foods really cold. I heat hot food dishes and chill cold food dishes at home. Most decent restaurants do the same, and if they don't, I don't go back. Putting a salad on a dish hot from the dishwasher is inexcusable in a restaurant.
Please don't ask me if you can try something from my plate. If I wish to share, I'll offer. Because, really? You can't say no if someone asks. That's rude. No ruder than asking in the first place, but two rudes don't make a polite.
chisai at 8:33AM on 12/10/07
Oops-
We'd finish a meal in minutes - that took me hours to prepare. I consciously slowed down. Now, I'm always the last one done and people are waiting for me. It is embarrassing.
PerkyMac at 9:03AM on 12/10/07
I guess I eat pretty fast. Not as compared to my family, but as compared to most other dining companions. My dad is the worst. It is nearly impossible to share a dessert with him. I try to savor each bite, but it's like a race with him!
Also, like cybercita, I love to eat with my hands. I recognize that this is not the most polite thing in the world, but it does enhance my experience. And I try really hard to hold back when I'm eating out.
Kerosena at 9:19AM on 12/10/07
I thought of a third habit (yikes, I had to think that I have to add to my list of weird quirks!)--I, too, need beverages to be really really hot. I always burn my tongue, yet I actually prefer that over having some lukewarm stuff. I'm the same with food, too.
luswim06 at 9:58AM on 12/10/07
When spoon-feeding a baby, I unconsciously mimic the movement the baby is making with his or her mouth.
ajeys at 10:30AM on 12/10/07
Since my days of waitressing, when I would scarf down plates of food on a break I began using my finger to help scoop large bites onto my fork. I didn't even know I was doing it until my friend got a good laugh when we were eating together. It's the side of my pointy finger that I use, kind of like it's a knife. I think this tops the disgusting mannerless category. Yes? I can't believe I'm admitting it in pseudo-public. I'm pretty much recovered now. Pretty much.
Potluckcraft at 10:39AM on 12/10/07
I should also mentioned that I've been accused on many occasions of "painting" my food. That is, I can't eat a piece of toast or a biscuit or a Ritz cracker or whatever unless the surface is perfectly spread with jam or butter or crab dip...
The spreadable item has to be on every square inch of surface and all at the same thickness level. People generally stare at me while I'm going about my little OCD task, but I just have to do it. Now that's weird and embarassing. :)
sheeats at 10:45AM on 12/10/07
Ouch, sheeats, I do this too! No matter what it is - butter, caviar, deli meat, cheese, spread or marmalade, it has to completely and evenly cover my toast, cracker, roll or whatever it is on (am I slightly worse than you because this rule applies to both spreadable and non-spreadable items?:-))!Oh how I cringe when I ask my hubby for a toast with butter and marmalade and get it with a blob of marmalade in the centre - I can't eat it until I spread the "blob" all over my toast. The funny thing is, I never thought of it as an embarrassing habit, but I certainly thought that hubby's "non-spreading" was an annoying one:-)
brooke29 at 11:38AM on 12/10/07
Add me to the must-have-a-napkin crew. Doesn't matter whether I actually need to use it -- often I don't. But I just can't get comfortable eating until I have one.
The one that drove my ex-husband crazy? I smell my first bite of food before tasting it. Not when it's something I made myself, but anything that's new to me, and usually dishes in a restaurant. I didn't even realize I do it -- but I'm very sensory-oriented, and smell and taste go together. I've broken myself of this to a large degree, and I've gotten good at doing it unobtrusively, but it's an embarassing compulsion nonetheless.
Oh. And I'm famous for sending soup back in restaurants. I just don't understand why it's almost never VERY HOT. It's soup. It's supposed to be hot (well, unless it's a cold soup, of course). It's bad enough when it's just not as hot as I prefer, but so often it comes out downright tepid. (I'm not exaggerating -- I've gotten soup with shredded cheese on top where the cheese won't melt!) This happens about 70-80% of the time. What's up with THAT???
LoCo at 12:15PM on 12/10/07
When eating out at places that use paper napkins, I end up hoarding paper napkins under the sides of my legs. They just don't stay on the lap all that well, so I tend to tuck them under my leg and then I forget that I already have one...so sometimes there will be up to 6 napkins under both legs....
malenky at 1:04PM on 12/10/07
I agree with needing hot food to be hot. I'll stop in the middle of eating dinner at home to microwave my food. In particular, mashed potatoes and pasta seem to get cold the fastest! I do that with my hot beverages too. I had a hard time at my in-laws house for Thanksgiving because the hot food was put on the table before the salad was made, and so everything was pretty much cold by the time we ate. I restrained myself from taking my plate of food into the kitchen and microwaving it (plus, we were using plates with metal accents on them!).
As for other people's habits, I can't stand eating with people who chew with their mouths open. I had a guy friend who did that, and I thought, "Wow, I could never date this guy."
misseditor at 1:13PM on 12/10/07
I absolutely hate it when people talk with their mouth full. Often at parties, guess the food's too good but savor it in silence, please, and don't give us a view of it!
sugarstack at 1:21PM on 12/10/07
OMG----I share so many of your same habits.. very hot beverages & all other foods that are meant to be eaten HOT & in hot vessels! Very cold or icy beverages & frozen or chilled foods in very COLD vessels! Lots of finger foods & I'm with you on the spreading technique! I don't like foods touching each other on plates, either :)
JEP at 2:07PM on 12/10/07
Wow, I have few wierd ones:
I like to drink hot beverages ( tea/ hot chocolate) from a straw. If no straw is available, I'll drink it with a spoon, like soup.
I eat food by group, I'll eat all of my veggies first, then all of my starch, then my protein. But if its a sandwich, I'll enjoy it whole, go figure.
My boyfriend has horrible table manners and its his worst fault in my opinion. He chews with his mouth open, cuts all of his food before he begins eating, slurps hot beverages, and gargles to get food "dislodged" from his teeth. We've been together over a year, he's a wonderful person and I'm wondering how to teach him etiquette w/o hurting his feelings.
KtMc24 at 4:56PM on 12/10/07
I can't stand it when people make noises when they're eating. Chewing with their mouth wide open or crunching really loud or licking their fingers.. Eeeew! I also tend to eat really slow, so everyone has to wait for me. I pick my sandwiches apart, I eat my pizza without eating the crust and I love to eat everything with my hands.
jenneke at 2:00AM on 12/11/07
KtMc my ex did all of those things, I never could make him understand how distracting and downright gross it is. After a while I refused to go out to eat anywhere with him because it was so nasty. Good luck!
huney_bumper at 11:08AM on 12/11/07
When I eat filled dumplings (dim sum, perogi) i have to eat the filling and skin separately. Someone saw me scraping the filing out of a perogi once and asked me what I was doing.
Also, I don't stir my yogurt. Even fruit on the bottom yogurt I eat layer by layer.
ag3208 at 11:21AM on 12/11/07
YES! JEP I have the same exact problem. Not only do I NEED to have a napkin close by but I use an excessive amount of napkins every time I eat. I need to constantly wipe my mouth or hands. It gets pretty embarassing when all those crumpled napkins pile up! I'm sure I'm a pleasure to eat with.
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 12:53PM on 12/11/07
Wow! I can't believe how many non-sharers we have here! I assumed all foodies would be sharers because by sharing you get to try more things. I eat off everyones plate, and that is just how it is done in my family. Ordering at restaurants is a group decision, because everything is passed around. It took me a little while to train the current BF, but usually when they get up to speed they agree that this is the best way to do things.
But my personal weird habit is that I'm convinced everything tastes better when eaten with the fingers. Means that I love Ethiopian food (thegastrognome.wordpress.com) and sushi (its totally ok to eat that with your hands!) but I tend to get funny looks or a hand slap from the BF when it is pasta with pesto, or something like that...
dagoose at 1:31PM on 12/11/07