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Well done steak is one of mine too. I just tell myself that it's okay, because the people that order well done steak are going to get the toughest, most gristly piece of meat. One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone, who normally has no objection to eating meat in general, refuses to eat meat with a bone or vein because it reminds them that the thing their dinner used to be part of an living animal. In other words, they don't care that something died for their dinner, as long as nothing reminds them of it.

I'm right with you on the steak. I don't like bloody steak but I love steak that is slightly raw in the middle then pink and then seared with a nice crust on the outside and yet not bleeding...tricky to do but that's my favorite way to eat steak.

My other peeve is over-cooked fish. Pretty much along the same lines as steak in the sense that having the center slightly raw and yet still cooked is culinary heaven when it's done just right. I'd always rather get my food a little more raw rather than overly cooked. I'll eat mine on the more raw side and still enjoy it and not even send it back whereas if I get an overcooked steak or piece of fish I just HAVE to send it back which I feel guilty about since I always hate wasting food. :( That's why I always order medium rare but my medium rare is not always the chef's medium rare and god love us all...we are ALL only human. lol

Another thing (speaking of over/under cooking) is rice... Undercooked rice is not even PALATABLE and overcooked rice? EGADS! GLUE!

My apologies if my spelling is atrocious. I have so much on my mind right now with the holidays coming up.

i'd have to say being served anything with canned chicken broth as an ingredient. BLEEEEEECH!!!

damosel -- my best friend had her wedding in a very nice restaurant in new jersey. the rice pilaf they served was almost completely raw -- i mean you couldn't get your teeth through the grains of rice! glad for the sake of the chef it wasn't my wedding -- i would have served his head on a plate for such an outrageous gaffe.

-under-salted food (especially vegetables and fish)
-espresso spelled or pronounced expresso
-when people who only drink caramel macchiatos (and their ilk) act like they love coffee and couldn't live without it. there's nothing wrong with liking caramel macchiatos, it's just not real coffee
-vegetarian sandwiches that are just raw vegetables (like shriveled cucumber and refrigerated tomato) and bread (sometimes with american cheese too...blech)
-when the only vegetarian option is a limp salad

1. Aspic
2. Continental breakfast
3. Pineapple on pizza
4. Gravy, especially a white gravy slopped over something
5. Tasteless and uninspired gluten-free baked goods
6. Salad dressing "mix"

Meat for stewing that is not properly trimmed. There is nothing more disgusting than a chunk of meat with a blob of fat attached.

Ham sandwiches w/mayo. It's just plain wrong.

Over/under cooked pasta

Finding a shell in my eggs. It'll put me off them for months at a time.

Finding a tomato even in the same room with tuna salad. There's something about the combination of those tastes/smells that actually makes me gag.

people that "forget" to salt their food while cooking. overcooked meat of anykind! I agree with dmosel, i'd rather have it undercooked than overcooked! I also HATE those phony mexican resteraunts that serve everything texmex and nothing that is truly mexican food! I also cant stand when someone serves a beautiful cut of meat coated with grease soaked flour! I had a beautiful cut of tuna, deep fat fried. I ordered it grilled lightly!

Well-done steak (although I love a very well-done burger).
Salting without tasting and almost everything else Jerzee said except for decaf coffee. Coffee tastes delicious to me but the caffeine makes me nuts so decaf for a good reason!

I made this beautiful butternut squash bisque and gave some leftovers to a friend of mine (who never cooks btw). The next day she emailed me to tell me how much she loved it and how she had added a can of chicken and a can of green beans to it. I told her she'd get no more food from me again if she intended to add canned food to it. I also hate the over cooked meat/salmon thing as well as people salting before tasting. People who refuse to taste something because they are sure they don't like it also drives me nuts.

There are so many good ones already listed here! I especially agree that there should never, ever be pineapple on pizza.

My biggest pet peeves have to do with pasta. I hate when it is overcooked. Or rinsed with water after draining. Especially COLD water. It bugs me when people cut their pasta. And I really start getting hives when I spend time to cook a pasta dish with a delicate sauce and certain family members dump mountains of grocery store variety "parmesean" cheese on top.

God, it feels good to get that off my chest.

I guess this might not be a food pet peeve. BUT I absolute HATE it when you ask someone to pass you a fork (or some other utensil that's going to touch the food that's going in your mouth) and they grab it by the part that touches your food! Ewww.. I don't want to be reminded of your hands when I eat my food. Thank you.

Hillary
Chew on That

complaining about and negatively commenting on other people's food choices

@JerzeeTomato - oh, good, I thought the mustard issue was something I had missed! And I gave up caffeine in '97 after finishing an internship at a theatre company during which the ends of the pot of coffee always went into my cup so I could make a new one - I was constantly wired; after ten years I can barely drink a cup of green tea. I had a huge mug at an old job which was always full of Tazo's Calm blend (mostly chamomile); I was so hyper in the mornings my boss thought it was coffee and was shocked - and possibly frightened - when he found out. I just really liked my job.

Extra pet peeve so I'm not entirely off topic, and a very personal one: my husband likes all food. This is a plus sometimes but I get kind of frustrated; I'd like him to show preferences, or at least agree with me when I think something is gross once in awhile.

Hmmm, let me think...
Sauerkraut..Gawd, it just stinks up the furniture!!!
And the abomination that is...(excuse me while I wretch)...canned asparagus...Just about any canned veg for that matter.
Personally, I enjoy a bit o' mayo on my ham sandwich, also don't want my steak incinerated, but don't want it to walk off my plate either....
I take issue with my kids who, when I ask for dinner suggestions, say "I dunno"..then have the audacity to complain about what I've chosen to prepare...Hmpf!!!

Host who won't cook w/salt, provide a salt shaker, and only butter is sweet.

Non-butter butters - yuk! One Thanksgiving, the choice was a squeeze bottle of super yellow fake margarine. I love butter, and salt makes everything more flavorful. I only use sweet butter for baking.

Raw fish or meat. I hear ya, but it scares me.

Offal sounds awful.

I like; mayo with ham (and spicy brown mustard), tomatoes with tuna, a bit of pickle in potato salad and tuna, sauerkraut, parm regg on pasta even if dish includes seafood, a few convenience foods when time is a factor.

@thebasilqueen: AMEN

@SSMom- preach on, sister! That was going to be my EXACT post! I ordered shrimp fajitas at a local restaurant and was pissed when I discovered the tails were still on! How long does it take to remove a tail? Seriously! I don't mind building a fajita but by the time I pull off the tails and put it all together everything is cold!

Also echoing those who mentioned people who salt their food before eating it. I see this as an insult and the loving husband does it frequently. Taste it first, for crying out pete. One bite of lightly salted food won't kill you.

Ketchup on any processed meat makes me want to gag- hot dogs, bologna, etc. The thought is making my stomach churn right now.

On a related one from before, I hate it when people make fun of my food or give me funny looks when I eat. I eat very healthy, even when going out, and others may not, but they don't have to pick on me for it, just because I don't crave something loaded with calories and fat.

Also, mayonaisse...That's it. I just don't get it, and never have. Even in tuna sandwiches, I use greek yoghurt instead (really tasty, by the way if you haven
t tried it).

People who say that they dont' like a food, when they have never tried it.

Pinneaple or anything really sweet on a pizza. What is that?

Overdone meat or fish of any kind.

Butter as automatic on all restuarants foods. Some of us are lactose-intolerant!

and I know that this is slightly off, but waiters who ask if they can take away my food...multiple times...even when I have told them that I will indeed eat the whole thing. Really, i take my time, and I can eat *a lot*, so let me eat, already. Geez!

Sorry for that rant. Its been a long say already and I am only half-way through.

Ooooh, I have so many:

* overcooked meat (my father in law throws a tantrum if he thinks his meat is "bloody". "Bloody" being anything that was not cooked to death. I once made a mistake of letting him grill my beautifully marinated chicken kabobs...I was eating salad for dinner that night since I don't quite fancy skewered charcoal. And no, it wasn't a mistake on his part, he "grilled" the poor chicken to his liking).
* overcooked vegetables (don't even get me started on this)
* purposely un- or under-seasoned food ("everybody can use a salt shaker for their own plates" - um, yeah, we can, but it won't help at this point)
* people who are proud of being bad cooks - "I don't care how it tastes, it's about how quickly I put it on the table". Why don't you save even more time and not even bother "cooking"?
* overcooked pasta. Also, large "blobs" of pasta or rice stuck together.
* eXspresso
* seasoning packets
* people who think that dolphin fish (a.k.a. mahi mahi) used to play with a big ball in Orlando before it ended up at the restaurant. Dolphin fish is a fish, not a mammal.
* apropos fish - overcooked seafood (especially, shellfish...grrrr!)
* instant coffee
* tinned/boxed stock
* cheese on everything. Don't get me wrong, I love cheese. But it doesn't necessarily belong in every dish.
* same with lemon - not EVERY dish benefits from lemon juice
* refrigerated tomatoes (here is an idea - don't buy 10 pounds of ripe tomatoes at once if you don't want them to "go bad")
* SSMom, I'm with you: shrimp tails-on in anything other than a shrimp cocktail - why?

I better get off my soapbox...but I am feeling so much better now :-)

Cheesesteaks served with lettuce and tomato. (Argh!)
Well done tuna steaks.
Condiment abuse. And, the reverse, the holding of all sauces at all times at restaurants.
Irrational fear of using any fat at all while cooking.
People proud that they don't cook... or eat for that matter.
Scary looking snack cakes in plastic... especially the vending machine kind.
Bland pizza crust.

Until yesterday, I would have logged on here and said "well done steak" along with many others. Now, (and I'm not arguing it shouldn't be a peeve) I've learned something quite significant that changed my thinking on it. Medical realities in my life have necessitated investigating the possibility of a lung transplant. Post transplant, one has to have meat cooked thoroughly. (Also, skip the raw sushi items, oysters, etc...) I eat my steak and burgers rare and prefer my pork a bit pink and my chicken just past pink.

Granted, there just aren't that many people versus the total population who are post transplant so it doesn't explain the large number of well-done steaks people order. But it certainly explains some of it.

@intheyearofthepig, VerasTastyFreeze and kjgibson:

I think you took this talk item the wrong way. I didn't intend for this to be a judgy/snooty thread where we could talk about how stupid and dirty the plebes are for not having our superior culinary tastes. On the contrary, I believe that if you look at the majority of the comments you'll find that most peoples' pet peeves have to do with food they don't like to eat, as opposed to bashing the choices of others. Well, except for my original comment about well-done steaks, that is. :)

In a nutshell, lighten up.

Sheeats, I would have to disagree with you on that. Maybe it's all due to the unfortunate ambiguity of the internet, but I read very many of the replies here to be veiled disses of other people's food habits.

On that note, i have an acquaintance who is oddly proud of the fact that her family eats only fast food, and never all together (ie., not even like the KFC commercials) because they are "too busy." It bugs me, almost saddens me.

Ok, my pet peeves =
- eating while standing over the sink (or counter)
- salsa that tastes like spaghetti sauce
- glass cutting boards
- glass dining tables
- food snobs (of any variety)
- my inability to cook eggplant
- fresh ginger (try as I might, I just can't learn to like it)

And I don't call this a pet peeve, because in my mind it reflects some sort of pathological mental upset (perhaps that is the textbook definition of a pet peeve, but I like to think they just can't help it so I try not to judge): I am utterly mystified by people who cannot allow their food to touch.

Canned vegetables (especially mushrooms) on pizza! It should be illegal. Mushrooms are easy to get, easy to cut, easy to work with. Do people actually like canned mushrooms! They are disgusting, rubbery, and slimy. Gross!!!!!!!

And I also really get upset if I order something with vegetables and I bite into it and find out that the vegetables are pickled. It should be stated on the menu.

Another pet-peeve is chain seafood and pizza restaurants. I'm talking about the Red Lobsters of the world, and the Pizza Huts. I live in New England. How can anyone in this region actually choose to eat at either of these places???