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My Parents (the lovely lady whose comment is before me is in fact my mother) never weirded out my friends. Actually friends would often argue about who got to come and eat Sunday dinner at my house. And my Mom is famous at the high school I and my two sisters attended for her "Murray cookies". They are the best.

Ok so there's a pizza in Singapore. It doesn't have and weird toppings ( not to my knowledge) BUT it's shaped like old chinese currency which is round with a square hole in the middle. Yes there are square holes in the middle of the pizza. I think it was a chinese new year special, and I'm pretty sure it's pizza hut. I saw it advertised at a bus stop in singapore. I wish this had come up earlier, I would have taken a picture. If you guys really want to see something weird you should check out what Mcdonalds is serving over here. Fish head soup Micky D's style anyone?

Lovely--I especially love the way the colors stick together when they melt.

Throw them out--I have a pantry full of left-over bits and pieces like this. I always think I am going to use them but the holidays take over and six months later there they are.

Okay You can do a really nice high class stew--Boeuf Bourgeinon (and I can't spell it right) is a wonderful dish which can be done on the stovetop--add some really good noodles or wonderful bread and thats the core of a real meal. Then salad--salad with some fruit and nuts and goats cheese crotin melted on croutons in your toaster oven. And is mousse --chocolate?

The important thing is that good food is good and it doesn't have to be fancy or unusual, just good. And you might find that you have a better time and meal this way than you ever thought would be possible.

well, i'm korean so the answer is a resounding yes! kimchi, soybean paste, squid, anchovies... just to name a few. it's funny because many of my childhood friends eat asian and korean food now, but when you're a 5th grader living in nebraska, it wasn't the best of times. :P

My parents became vegetarians for ethical reasons when I was about two and a a half, and then proceeded down the health-food road. When we went back to the US for several years, and did not end up back in NYC as originally planned (and where it would have gone relatively unnoticed), but in a small town in one of the more conservative counties of western New York, they'd really hit their stride in this endeavour.

The whole-grain bread sandwiches in my lunch box really stand out in my mind as getting plenty of negative attention at school (the separating oil in the home-made peanut butter was rapidly absorbed by the bread, causing my sandwiches to stiffen as if with rigor mortis, so they weren't much fun to eat, either).
My mother served a lot of vegetables and pasta, while prepared and fast foods were strictly proscribed, which was also perceived as 'weird'. And, my brother was the last word in picky and demanding eaters, so for dinner every evening my mother would make my brother a stack of soy-flour crepes, each of which he would spread with orange marmalade, and roll up. I avoided inviting anyone over around meal times, it was just too much work to explain and defend things (e.g. 'no, we didn't not eat eat meat because we were on welfare...') :D

growing up in rural western pennsylvania as the only japanese girl in her elementary school was an extremely traumatic time, especially concerning food. i remember first day of class in 1st grade, my mom packing me an amazing double decker bento box with rice, nori, veggies, and lots of other weird stuff that kids in my school had never seen. they absolutely ripped on me for it, telling me that the food was disgusting and kept asking me to eat it as a dare. ever since then, i told my mom never to pack me a lunch ever again.

fast forward to college, i brought home my first serious boyfriend back from college. my father, the gourmand of the family, decided that he needed to test my new boyfriend on how much "weird" food he could take. the meal consisted of liver, cucumber with jyako, which are little dried fish with eyes still on them, rice and miso soup. luckily my boyfriend was jewish so he passed the liver part with flying colors, but didn't do so well with the jyako. i had no idea that my father was going to do that to him so i was extremely embarrassed, although he was a very good sport about the whole experience.

the lack of variety in the food that my friends' families ate for dinner always surprised me. at my home, it was always at least 3 courses with plenty of green vegetables and all kinds of seafood and meats. my friend is still getting over being served hot dogs and spaghetti every night. she's just beginning to discover that there's a whole world of amazing food out there!

These combos might sound very strange to a North American but so are some of the versions of "Asian" dishes that get served up here. Much of the take-out from our neighbourhood Chinese restaurant are American-Chinese takes on the real thing. Only recently, have we become more adventurous and eaten in 'authentic' Asian restaurants. Hey, what's wrong with a little intermingling of cultures?

My friend, Maria ate at my family's house on a night when my parents served artichokes -- it completely freaked her out. She also experienced acorn squash, stir fry and fondue at our house (this was during the 70's.)

In turn, I was always facinated with her mom's cooking. It usually involved a lot of canned soups and a crockpot. I remember the meat (whatever type it was) was always falling apart. She also used to make this cake that I loved, but now it freaks me out -- It was an angel food cake sliced into three layers and frosted with a CAN of vanilla pudding mixed with a container of cool whip. Can you imagine -- CANNED pudding!