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It drives many people in my life crazy that I rarely heat up food. I mean, I like a hot meal as much as the next person. Once I'm done cooking, it's time to eat, but I NEVER reheat leftovers. I'm one of those people that gets hungry in the middle of the night and will literally take the leftovers out of the fridge and take bites out of the pot as it's freezing cold. It doesn't matter if its leftover spaghetti, a casserole, or fried chicken (and everything in between), I'm not heating it up and I'm eating it ice cold. This really, really grosses out my boyfriend. He's really into those Campbell's Chunky soups and the fact that I can open one up- even if it's clam chowder- and just take a bite of it as is without heating it up makes him sick to his stomach. I guess I'm just weird like that.

I want my hot food hot, to the point where I heat my dishes before plating to keep it that way longer.

I'm not a big fan of cold for things like salads and fruit, and prefer them either just slightly chilled or room temp.

My Mom had a thing about hot - she was pathologicial about it and everyone one of her five kids grew up insisting on hot food - nowadays, it is harder because our extended family is huge. Mom is 83 and she still insists on two things at holidays - everyone to be seated together and the food, hot!! I have an L-shaped dining-living and it is set up with tables and matching tablecloths, appropriate decorations and flowers. I have just bought a new range with a plate warming oven and a feature that allows food to "hold" in the oven. It will be much easier now to serve the food piping hot, even to our large crowd. I used to be fearful when hosting, not that the food wouldn't taste good, but that it wouldn't be hot enough!

I annoy a lot of people around me because I have to have everything extremely hot and because of this I tend to reheat my food during a meal (as long as it doesn't change the quality of the food) at home or warm my plate in the oven before hand. I prefer most salads and fruit at room temperature as well. I wonder if there is any meaning behind that or if it is just a preference? I was told by a nutritionist/dietitian once that it was a sign of disordered eating. I don't know if I buy that, but maybe it is!

I tend to eat my food more on the warm side or room temperature...except soup...that has to be hot.
I have a handicapped daughter who can feed herself, but often needs assistance. As I was raising her, I always took care of her first, so by the time I got to my food, it was often warm or room temp...so I got used to eating it that way. Even now, when we're entertaining, I often am up & down making sure everyone has everything they need, so I sit last....lukewarm food again....lol. I do enjoy a hot meal when we go out to eat though!
I like my fruit & salad room temp too....the only thing I like ice cold are my drinks & ice cream.

I like my food hot...not burning-my-tongue, but hot. I am learning a lesson in patience and understanding with my new husband: he has a poor sense of time (5 minutes has no meaning to him), and he also eats one thing at a time. So the veg (that could be fine room temp) gets eaten hot and the meat/sauce/gravy that would taste best hot gets eaten last.
He loves everything I make, though and compliments, and has seconds, so I am trying to let it go....but it's just wrong!
When I say " I will serve dinner in 10 minutes", I don't mean "come downstairs in 10 minutes, then play with the dog, go to the bathroom, decide what you want to drink, change the TV channel, and then dinner will be ready"!

I think that with me a lot of it is psychological. If I'm expecting something to be hot and it turns out to be lukewarm, I'm a very unhappy camper. My poor dinner companions have probably been driven mad by the number of times I've reheated things mid- or pre-meal. But most leftovers I don't mind straight from the fridge; I know what I'm getting.

And a lot of it also depends on context: if I'm having leftovers for a repeat meal, I'll usually heat them up, although I am more likely to do so for dinner than for lunch (not because of time constraints--again, psychological. Lunch is allowed to be more cold than dinner). For snacking, I will almost never reheat, because if I did the snack would feel like a meal and then my whole system would be thrown.

Cold food does need to be cold in my world. I like condiments to be cold, even on hot food; I like fruit to be cold; I will not drink room-temperature beverages that are meant to be chilled.

This (admittedly neurotic) system does also depend on the weather; the one constant is that no matter how cold it is outside, the cold beverages still have to be cold beverages.

@annatr: that describes me to a T! Makes perfect sense

@Cary - me, too. My sweetie gets 10- and 5- minute warnings, and STILL, just as I'm plating dinner, that's when he gets up to feed the bunny. Not a good sense of time.
I'm pretty picky about heat, so it's not an ideal combination of things. I usually just reheat my plate, but if we're having eggs, I have to eat them hot and not reheated, since their texture changes so drastically.

Lol! This is the first time I've ever posted to Talk and I'm so surprised that I'm not the only one thinking of this!

For example, last night I made peanut satay chicken over rice and my boyfriend was playing Resident Evil 5 and picked at it during the cut scenes, but said it was awesome.

@chardonnay: I agree about eggs! Yicky on the cold eggs. I wait for no one when it comes to eggs.

@lambowner: Yes, soup must be hot. I reheat soup if it gets even a little cool. And lukewarm soup at a restaurant? Totally wrong.

@radley24: Hmmm...I've done my share of disordered eating (all good now!) and I can't see how hot food would fall into that category. Weird.

Idealy, things that are supposed to be served hot (soup, fried eggs, coffee, etc) I like piping hot. Things that are supposed to be cold, I like really cold (I prefer ice water over just cold water).
But I also like to combine hot and cold things (hot pizza with cold salad on top, hot topping on cold ice cream).
Sushi to me is best room temp (as it is supposed to be).

If food is intended to be eaten hot (stew, soup, roast meat), I want it delivered to me screaming hot by a waitperson. If I am cooking, I summon family or guests to the table and God help them if they don't drop what they're doing. (This is for a seated dinner. Buffets offerings are kept hot with buffet servers, chafing dishes, etc.)

I don't like my food to sit in the dish with steam rolling off it and an empty chair in front of it. I came to the table as soon as I was called by my mother and I expect the same.

If food is to be served cold, it has to be really cold. Just think "warm sushi." Tepid food doesn't appeal to me at all.

i'm with most everyone here. if its supposed to be hot then thats how it should be. my pet peeve is after working for an hour, chopping sauteing, cooking, stirring, whatever, i call DINNER and OH has to 'finish' what he's doing cause it's only gonna be a minute, well 15 minutes later my nice hot dinner is ruined. so what's a girl to do? eat without him? nag him to come to the table? (he hates that). let him eat it cold? then why did i bother making something yummy? i coulda just opened a can. or heated up some leftovers.

I'm cracking up over the accounts of trying to get sig. others and kids to the table to eat. When someone is feeding me, I'm already at the table, waiting to be served, or helping get the food on so I can dig in as quickly as possible.

In other words, I don't tawdle when it comes to eating!