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Original poster

What’s the worst food someone ever gave you when you visited?

647 replies

LadyCampanulaTottington · 06/08/2022 18:48

This week I was invited to friends house. She’s just moved in and wanted me to see the place. She said she would provide lunch and not to bring anything.

So I rock up hungry as it’s already 1:30. We start with a couple of pieces of baguette with some sliced salame and prosciutto, liver pate and some cheese. There is also a small bowl of salad leaves.

I take a small portion of each thing except the pate and my friend has some too. After a while it becomes apparent that this was not the starter but the entire meal. I was debating taking more when my friend started to clean up. I was still hungry!!

So I had to sit there with my stomach rumbling for another half an hour before I could leave and go get something to eat!

I’ve had meals in her house before but this is the first time she’s served such a small meal, she’s usually generous with portions. Does she think I’m fat and is trying to help? 😂

OP posts:
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6
roarfeckingroarr · 08/08/2022 22:16

Sounds like a perfectly normal lunch

roarfeckingroarr · 08/08/2022 22:18

Pressed too quickly. I don't think I've ever had that had a meal at a friend's if I'm honest. I like most foods and have been very lucky!

Crankley · 08/08/2022 22:23

Years ago I lived in Germany and my friend and I visited her fiance's grandmother. My friend was called away and the grandmother offered to make me lunch. She proceeded to boil a big pan of pasta (which I loathe) fried blueberries with demerera sugar, drained the pasta and mixed it in the pan with blueberries and then into a bowl which she placed before me.

There was no way I could eat it so while she was busy cleaning up, I flicked the pasta into a handkerchief in my handbag on my lap and ate the blueberries. Dumped the pasta when I got home.

The handbag was never the same again.

AllAboutHarry · 08/08/2022 22:25

My worst was my MIL's boyfriend. He wasn't a bad cook as such but he didn't understand use by dates. Imagine olives two years out of date. I was advised to carefully pick what to eat Envy we took a nice bottle of wine and it was opened and the cork thrown under the armchair, along with a pile of tea towels and anything else he wanted to ignore. I hated going there

Corcory · 08/08/2022 22:55

I think my Mil's idea of roast dinner was the worst. The house was for from well kept, Fil liked to boil up the veg for the same length of time as the roast chicken so the house was all steamed up and stank of boiled veg. He wante4d to use the veg water to make the gravy with Bisto granules! Grey mush veg and inedible chicken which had been over cooked some how but hadn't got a crispy skin or any colour! His other talent was to pour you something like cherry brandy then think it was funny to add some other obscure liqueur he had got on his hols. yuk!!

Willowsodyssey · 08/08/2022 22:55

When I was a kid in the seventies, our parents were really strict and we had to eat everything on our plates! But on this occasion my Mum had made too much mashed potato so she said don’t worry if you can’t eat all the mash. She grew her own very dark cabbage and picked it late so it was stringy and I hated it so I hollowed out the mash like an igloo and stuffed it full of the vile cabbage and sealed it up with a door. Parents-none the wiser :)

IdasFlowers · 08/08/2022 23:11

I like the mash igloo veg hidey hole 😀

MarmiteCoriander · 08/08/2022 23:14

IdasFlowers · 08/08/2022 23:11

I like the mash igloo veg hidey hole 😀

Me too 😂

NotMushroomInEre · 08/08/2022 23:15

My nan gave me tripe once, it had been soaked in vinegar, that was horrific.

Same nan. We used to go to her house on Sundays for a roast dinner. She boiled all the veg until it was mush. I hated broccoli, sprouts and cauliflower until I was a young adult, when I realised you didn't have to cook it until it was mush. She did make the tastiest mashed potatoes though, and her meat and potato/cheese and onion pies were divine.

MayISuggestSomeThickCutSteakChipsToGoWithThat · 08/08/2022 23:39

Probably nigh on all of my ex in-laws meals. Think Grey mashed potatoes with a fuck ton of lumps in it, yellow cabbage and grey cauliflower that had been boiled to death. I used to take a few potatoes out before the rest were mashed and take a steam bag of veg with me. Just used to use the excuse of it was easier to track it in my my fitness pal app, and the gravy don't get me started on that. You could literally stand a spoon up in it. We also had cottage pie which was basically just mince floating around in water with lumpy mash over the top and some disgusting claggy seafood pasta that non of us could eat.

My other worst meals were when I was younger and had slept over at a friends house. She asked what I wanted for breakfast. First time I chose rice crispy's and purposely said not much milk I don't particularly like it. Comes back in with the bowl filled to the top and the soggy cereal floating inside the milk 🤢 second time I chose a boiled egg with toasted soldiers. Asked how I liked my egg so I said runny in the middle and that I usually cooked mine for 3-4 mins depending on the size. Off she goes to make me my boiled egg and very soon she's handing my a plate. Sat thinking to myself that was rather very quick but not to worry. That was until I cracked the top of the egg and the whole thing splattered all over the plate. She'd literally put a pan of cold water on the hob to boil. Put the egg straight in and timed 3 mins before fishing it out.

midlifecrash · 08/08/2022 23:47

@Lunaballoon there was a time when roasted marrow bones were a famous English dish, just not … recently… do you think they had an ancient cook book and were trying to be welcoming?

MayISuggestSomeThickCutSteakChipsToGoWithThat · 08/08/2022 23:49

DuesToTheDirt · 07/08/2022 20:03

"A lovely friend of ours thought any salt was very bad for you so wouldn’t salt pasta water."

One pancake day recently I asked a friend if she'd be making pancakes that evening. She said, "Oh no, that's too complicated." I said pancakes are pretty straightforward and only use a few ingredients, basically flour, eggs, milk. She said she wasn't much of a cook and didn't keep flour in the house, and until recently didn't keep salt either - and she's in her 60s. All those years without salt!

In all fairness I never used to cook with salt or added it to anything bar a tiny sprinkling on the odd chip shop supper. Wouldn't even eat ready salted crisps. Could eat salt and vinegar ones though. Then I was told to start adding a teaspoon of salt to water before I drank it in order to bring my blood pressure up. I quite like it on food now and a big indication for me that I'm going to have a bad migraine attack is that I literally crave salty stuff like there's no tomorrow. I still only put enough on to taste. I don't particularly like the tasting like it's been brimming at the bottom of the ocean for the last 50 years. Samphire being one of them. That stuff is rank

JesusSufferingFuck22 · 08/08/2022 23:58

When me and dh (then boyfriend) shared a flat with a friend. He announced he was going to cook for us. Wonderful we thought. He made a tomato and fish stew. I think he just completely overcooked the fish in a tin of plum tomatoes and slopped in bowls with some watery overcooked rice. It tasted of fishy tomatoes. The thought of it still makes me feel a bit ill. It would have looked the same coming back up again.😑

Lilbunnyfufu · 08/08/2022 23:59

DrMadelineMaxwell · 06/08/2022 18:53

My lovely Granddad - Boiled tripe and onions. Honestly the worst thing i've ever put in my mouth.

I agree it's the worst thing I've ever eaten I still remember the smell of it cooking it smelt rank.

Johnnysgirl · 09/08/2022 00:04

It would have looked the same coming back up again.😑
😂

Earthrocknroll · 09/08/2022 00:31

Yes, this is the same in Australia too. Love an all day breakfast for lunch.

Twofurrycats · 09/08/2022 01:11

My ex SIL served a trifle one boxing day that had to be cut with a sharp knife.
My ex MIL regularly served things vastly out of date and/or undercooked. A raw in the middle pig in a blanket was a delight. She also served a trifle that was sinking suspiciously. Turned out she'd made it 5 days earlier for friends but they didn't end up eating it. Pop a bit of cling film on and leave on the table neat a radiator: it'll be fine. Nope. I assiduously avoided going for Xmas dinner for 18 years.

Minesababycham · 09/08/2022 01:19

milkyaqua · 07/08/2022 12:46

My mum calls this chicken myers. It's made with chicken soup tho and leftover roast chicken. And she puts cheese on top and served it with boiled potatoes.

That actually sounds rather nice. Think I'll try your mother's recipe.

My MIL makes this - her recipe calls it chicken divan and her version is v yum (although ot is a very 70s recipe!)

user1471452428 · 09/08/2022 01:24

Ohtoberoavingagain · 06/08/2022 19:29

Not in this country, worst ever was macaroni sprinkled with icing sugar and poppy seeds. Now who on earth thought of that as a meal??? On the plus side it was veggie.

Was this in Eastern Europe? Because if so, that is legit. Apparently rice pudding is gross to many Japanese people. Similar concept- pasta or rice, but as a sweet instead of savory.

Darlingx · 09/08/2022 01:47

I too am one of a generation that at school would have to stay in break if I didn’t finish my lunch.Sitting there with skin on gravy. Think cabbage boiled to snot, mash get smash with the dry powery lumps wallpaper paste and soggy Toad in the hole which I put in my blazer pocket . I would hide the mash under the spoon put food stuck under the rim of the plate it was that grim. You would say just a small portion and then the dinnerlady in lightblue nylon would dump a haystack on your plate
looking back some salt or butter would have improved things as they all were flavourless and bland apart from the banana and custard but they left the black bits of the banana end in. Think boiled eggs with a blue ring . Makes me shiver . Anaemic tomatoes with no flavour. They bastardised every dish going.

Darlingx · 09/08/2022 03:56

When I was a student I rented a room in a family home. Another student rented the room next to mine and seemed to use a girlfriend as a hoover everynight.
To my surprise in the fridge was the family pet hamster stone cold dead wrapped in blooded loo roll on a margarine tub on the fridge shelf. In the oven was a chicken carcass from I don’t know when I think it had been shoved back in to deal with later and forgotten.
In the garden was a graveyard of varying degrees of greying dog shit . It was quite a culture shock having never lived away from home. I never prepared any food at that house and moved out as soon as I could.
To say I felt homesick was an understatement .

NanaNelly · 09/08/2022 03:58

Darlingx · 09/08/2022 03:56

When I was a student I rented a room in a family home. Another student rented the room next to mine and seemed to use a girlfriend as a hoover everynight.
To my surprise in the fridge was the family pet hamster stone cold dead wrapped in blooded loo roll on a margarine tub on the fridge shelf. In the oven was a chicken carcass from I don’t know when I think it had been shoved back in to deal with later and forgotten.
In the garden was a graveyard of varying degrees of greying dog shit . It was quite a culture shock having never lived away from home. I never prepared any food at that house and moved out as soon as I could.
To say I felt homesick was an understatement .

How do you use someone as a Hoover?

Emmasumm · 09/08/2022 04:01

Hopeandlove · 06/08/2022 18:59

I went to visit and got a courgette lasagne but it was more solid courgette I didn’t know what to say. Served with roasted and boiled courgettes. I still shudder.

Got to admit I did chuckle a bit at this one 🫣

summerin69 · 09/08/2022 06:13

Reading the comments just in case I'm in here - I'm a terrible cook 😂

Thinkingblonde · 09/08/2022 07:53

Half a poached beefbuger, boiled rice and tinned peas at my in laws house the first time I’d met them.
The burger was cooked in a shallow pan of water, the rice and peas weren’t drained, she used a straining spoon instead so a lot of the cooking water ended up on the plate.
Pack of six burgers: DH and brother got a whole burger each , his sister and me got half a burger each
His mum and dad got 1.5 each.
They had some strange combinations of food.