What do you do if someone gives you food you don't like?

[nurseangel]

Pretty sure we've all faced it. What if you are at someone's house and they serve you something you don't like?

I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Ever. But I absolutely can't stand sausage. And everything has to be well done. My friend at work brought me some steak left over from a cookout. He couldn't figure out why I kept putting it in the microwave, since it was already hot. Finally, he realized I was trying to cook it. Fortunately, he was not offended.

 

[Margot Lane]

With you there. Someone once served me tongue…who does that? I hid it in the napkin. Similarly to this, I am also struggling bout what to do w/ an xmas present someone gave me I don’t like. I THINK I may boldly do the honest thing when next he visits and say: “Lookit, I really appreciate the thought behind this, but it’s just not me.” I think he is humorous enough to get it, and it actually might let us get to know each other more….have you done this?

 

[MoochNNoodles]

I can usually eat anything set before me. I can’t think of a time that’s happened actually. Sometimes at home I just try not to think about what I’m eating. Like weed-wacker salads that are good for you; but not as tasty. (Spring mix and spinach basically. Although I’ve got a new dressing recipe making those much better! No more retching! )

If i can’t eat something there is usually a good reason. Like an allergy or intolerance. One time I sent my eggs back at a restaurant because I was pregnant and the whites were still uncooked on top! So that’s probably the only kind of thing that might make me say something. Politely decline I guess.

DH would be doing the same thing with steak. I don’t know how long we were married before he stopped sticking his nose 2” from his cut meat to decide it was thoroughly cooked. But over 10 years. Maybe 15. We’re going on 19 years here and I’ve not given him food poisoning yet!

 

[Tik cat's mum]

I do try to eat what's been cooked for me but I would of done the same in your situation. I can't eat rare steak I even tell the waiters in restaurants when they ask how I would like it done, over cooked is good for me. I'm the same with eggs I don't do snotty eggs. If it's just a case of not liking the food as long as it's cooked I'll suck it up and eat it.

 

[game misconduct]

add it to the significant others plate so she can eat it everyone who knows me knows i like bbq meat refuse veggies and am not shy about refusing what i dont like or wanna try eating. any of that attempting to peer pressure me into eating stuff i dont want to will just annoy me to where i will just tell them what part of i dont want to eat that do you not understand? still easiest thing is flat out refuse it

 

[Maria Bayote]

Like my cats, I am also very very picky on foods, so when friends give me this and that, I just accept them so they would not be offended, but give the food to another just not to waste it.

 

[Norachan]

I tell people I'm a vegetarian first chance I get, so as to avoid this kind of situation. I have been offered food I really don't like before, things like fermented soy beans. I usually (pretend) to taste it and then politely decline

 

[denice]

It depends on whether it is something I just dislike or something I just really cannot eat. If I just dislike something than I will eat it to be polite. There are a few things that I just cannot eat. Usually when I am at someone's home it is a buffet or family style so I just don't take any of something that I just cannot eat.

 

[Neko-chan's mama]

I really love food and trying new things, so this is rarely an issue. But if I don't like something, I'll usually eat a little bit to be polite and thank them. The only things I'll flat out refuse are raw onions, bell peppers and offal.

 

[Katie M]

If it's something I haven't had before, I'll at least try it. Otherwise, I'll pick around it.

 

[Willowy]

I can choke down most things as long as it's not too much. Eat fast, disguise the flavors. Otherwise mix it around your plate so it looks like you ate more, the old kid's trick.

At a midwest potluck, the polite thing to do is to put your paper plate face-down in the garbage can so nobody can tell what you didn't like!

 

[Margret]

Something like 47 years ago, my (then) future husband took me to dinner at his paternal grandmother's house. Grandma R. was a horrible cook! The only thing she served that I could stand to eat was French bread, so I filled up on bread and butter.

Until her death, Grandma R. approved of me. She'd concluded that I was a cheap person to feed, and she thought that was important in a wife.

On the other hand, my mother-in-law regularly served me food that was too spicy for me to eat. I always left her house feeling hungry. After years of this I finally confronted her - she went to great lengths to accomodate my husband's food preferences and taboos, so why did she seem to be unwilling to prepare something, anything, that I could bear to eat? It turned out that she'd never realized I had a problem with her food. I'd been too polite about it. She thought that I was on a different meal schedule so I was never hungry when we visited.

Depending on the person who serves you the inedible food, sometimes it's best to just be honest about it.

Margret

 

[misty8723]

add it to the significant others plate so she can eat it everyone who knows me knows i like bbq meat refuse veggies and am not shy about refusing what i dont like or wanna try eating. any of that attempting to peer pressure me into eating stuff i dont want to will just annoy me to where i will just tell them what part of i dont want to eat that do you not understand? still easiest thing is flat out refuse it

That works for me as well. He will eat anything, me hardly anything. I usually just say no thank you. If they pressure me I tell them I don't like food.

 

[Elphaba09]

People who do not know me have never offered any. The people who know me also know that I have a list of allergies on top of cibophobia, which is a fear of (some) food. They tend to ask before they offer. My mother-in-law usually asks my husband before we go to her house if something would affect me one way or the other. The one time she forgot was this past Christmas. She had a ham that had some sort of mango sauce on it. I am both allergic and disgusted by mangos. Thankfully, I am weary of ham because people like to put pineapple on it (also allergic to and disgusted by), so I asked. She knew about the pineapple but it had slipped her mind to ask about mango. She felt horrible. I reminded her that I am the weird one and that she cannot possibly remember all of my allergies or trigger foods. I said, "As long as you remember the worst of the worst, there should be no issues. There is plenty of other food to eat." Some food will kill me unless I act fast with my EpiPen. Other foods are so distressing that I have full-blown panic attacks if they touch me or are too near me. I do not even want to be in the same house knowing that they are there. (She does purge her house of those things before I visit. She is so sweet!)

 

[betsygee]

I tell people I'm a vegetarian first chance I get, so as to avoid this kind of situation.

Ditto.

I'm pretty honest with people. I've been known to say 'Oh, no, I can't, I'm sorry, I HATE raisins' or whatever. It isn't an insult to the person who made it, they didn't invent raisins.

But I suppose mostly I'm not eating around people who don't already know me so that kind of situation hardly ever comes up for me.

 

[vince]

For the sake of politeness, I can usually force a little down, even Brussels sprouts. I probably won't eat the whole serving or look like I'm enjoying it, but I'll take a mouthful. Don't offer me any more, though.

 

[susanm9006]

Thankfully 99% of the time you serve yourself so I just pick out what I will eat and leave the rest. I don’t respond well to anyone questioning what is or isn’t on my plate.

 

[MonaLyssa33]

I'm not very picky and I'll try anything, so if I'm served something I know I don't like, I just won't take any. I have no qualms about telling someone I don't like a certain food.

 

[Jem]

Thankfully, usually wherever we go it's pot luck or there are several options of different dishes so I'll just avoid taking what I don't like. So far, I have never had to flat out refuse anything offered to me, but I think it would depend on where I was.

 

[debbila]

I've recently had a friend tell me the dessert I made for her wasn't " her cup of tea " but she appreciated that I made it for her. I am going to use this when I'm in this situation. It lets the person know you don't care for that kind of food so they don't give you anything like it again, and there's no hurt feelings.