ND 'quirky' 'food rules'

[TyneTeas]

What are yours?

Are any of these ones you aren't bothered by? And are any of these at odds with yours?

(We are all different!)

Thought this might be potentially an interesting thread both for ND MNers to compare their 'food rules' and also may even be helpful to parents of ND kids to have some insight if their kids can't articulate why

And also when does a preference become a food rule… why is it okay to specify how you want your steak cooked but not other things…? (I remember being quite confused and actually distressed as a child that I was thought to be unreasonably fussy by expressing a preference for how toasted my toast was or about how cooked or soft for scrambled eggs in comparison to preferences steak)

As the person in our house who does most of the food prep and cooking, I just automatically do things to my preferences without thinking about that they may be 'quirky' so interested to see any that I maybe do but haven't noticed or are different to mine…

Sliced tomatoes (wrong) taste different to wedged tomatoes (right). They do. (And if tomatoes are too ripe they are inedible as the texture is wrong.)

Hot and cold things don't go together until the last minute. So eg a cold filling for a baked potato can't sit in a hot baked potato getting hot, you just take a scoop of the separate filling and the baked potato when you eat it. So I will have eg tuna mayonnaise or prawn cocktail on the side of a baked potato but ideally not in it.

Also. Don't put salad in a burger. Lettuce and tomato is best eaten cold, not burger-wilted!

Sauces and juices should not usually soak into carbs. So rice at one side of the bowl, curry/chilli/whatever at the other. Then eat down the border if rice. Or maybe deploy a few sacrificial chips as a barrier to stop the rest of the chips getting sogged.

Chips (British chips) should be rectangular. DH and the DC have never noticed that the ratio of curved chips they have is disproportionate.) I don't know why curved chips are wrong. They just are.

Custard, cream and ice cream should be served separately to cake, pudding cheesecake etc. It cools it down and changes the texture and makes it soggy. No.

Gravy is brilliant (I could eat gravy like soup) but not over everything. Roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings and stuffing need to take shelter on the rim of the plate or on top of the meat and veg like they are playing tiggy on high until you are ready to dip them in the gravy (or even have a side bowl for the gravy)

I am sure I have loads more but can't think of any more off hand...

Chips must be eaten in size order (smallest to largest).

It's not a good/drink preference as such, but there are some glasses/mugs/forks/spoons that I simply can't use, because of the way they feel.

Oh I have a lot of food peculiarities! I’m very particular about toast though.

I like my toast with just the slightest hint of brownedness. Anything else just tastes burnt and dried out.

I also like just the lightest spread of jam/dairylea/other topping whereas my husband likes about 4x as much!

Lastly it should never be cut in half or quarters! It tastes so much better whole for some reason!

I'm NT and do a lot of these things. As a teen I would eat the same food for months and then never eat it again (I had to fend for myself so it wasn't a problem). There are also certain types of food I couldn't eat - egg on its own makes me gag. I can eat it with bread/toast but even then sometimes it's a bit dodgy and I have to not think about it.

I cannot enjoy soup without a soup spoon. A desert spoon is very wrong.

My quirks re food are fairly minimal if there are any.

I don't think I have any /many quirks. NT but with a ND DH and son. DH can really only eat raw food and eats the same thing for days on end. Actually for years now I think about it. He only eats watermelon for breakfast. No lunch and then a green salad with tomatoes and peppers for dinner. Nothing else. He is not too thin though as he drinks Guiness and eats a oack of cashews every day. On the very odd occasion I can get him to eat a cooked vegetarian meal but then it gives him stomach problems for days afterwards. Ds has a whole range of food issues. Also only raw fruit and veg for him, and no sauces of any sort including gravy.

I bought myself a set of Le Creuset mugs which are lovely to look at but they make the coffee taste funny so i never use them. I prefer my mugs from Waitrose which I bought for £5 each compared to nearly £20 each for Le Creuset!

Plus if I have peas on the plate I eat them last. That might just be because I do not like peas that much and get tired of chasing them around the plate though.

I'd never expect others to eat as I do but I get no taste from food eaten at the temperature others prefer, for me to get any taste from it I need it hot, it's just tasteless otherwise, even the texture feels wrong.

Me too! 😀

Actually reading these made me think, "You're all nutters!" but I do have a lot of compassion for people with difficult sensory things going on. It must make eating quite a stressful endeavor, especially if you're having to cater for/to other people.

I'm not sure it's possible to answer which are ND and which are NT as there is not a clear line between who has food preferences and horrors - i.e. loads of NT people do. I'm NT but very sensorily sensitive and super sensitive to taste. Lettuce on burger should ONLY be the type which will not wilt. Steak other than well done is slimy and stomach turning. Strawberry jam, indeed strawberry flavoured things are abhorrent though strawberries are fine. Goats cheeses, smoked cheese, rictotta cheese is horrid. Hershey's tastes like vomit. Green peppers are overwhelming. Red, green and yellow ones are nice but only if well cooked. A banana is lovely for one day only and on other days turns my stomach. I love braeburn and coxes apples but loathe sweeter types etc. etc. I'm fussy. I own it. I will push myself to eat horrible things when absolutely needed but am not interested in having friends who expect me to endure meals with them in the name of 'politeness'. I can politely say I will bring my own things if needed though usually there is enough I do eat for it not to be too much of a problem. That said, there was a fish soup once which I was served at a dinner party and I just could not force down and I've done a lot of hiding of things under spoons or putting on my OH's plate (e.g. salted caramel, or strong chocolate desserts - just why??)

With naan bread and curry there needs to be the perfect ration of chicken to bread. If I’m at home I can break it into pieces and cut up the chicken to the exact number of pieces. In a restaurant I have to deploy maths and it stresses me out.

I don't think it's weird but others seem to for some reason. I eat each different type of food separately, no mixing. I cut everything up on my plate at the start in preparation for eating it and then don't use my knife again.

I have to eat my food in a specific order. Least favourite bit to most favourite.
This is very stupid because it results in overeating since I don't want to leave the best bit. 🤦

I also have to cut toast a specific way and eat it in a particular order. Also sandwiches.

I also have to have a specific bowl. If it's served onto a different bowl I can't eat it. I have to transfer it.

Cutlery is another one. We've got a few different styles that are slightly differently shaped in the handles and very slightly different weights.
There's only one that I can use and if I try to use others they feel so wrong in my hand I can't bear it.

Mine has to be least to most favourite too!

I've tried so hard to change it but I always revert back.

I'm embarrassed to admit it but when I tried to force myself to use a different spoon I got really upset and had to stop myself from crying. I couldn't eat. It felt so wrong in my hand I wanted to throw it at the wall!

I'm nearly 50 years old. Things like this make me feel so pathetic.

@IncompleteSenten please don't feel pathetic about this. I hope this thread shows you you are in good company

I also usually eat least favourite to favourite (unless my favourites are things that will be worse if left sitting)

my baths are also hotter than average I've been told but I've stopped them because I read that it not good for you.

Why are hot baths not good for you? ☹️

PPs saying about ND children or themselves not able to take any spice, and about gin etc being too strong: some ND people are supertasters. They have more tastebuds per square cm on their tongue. This leads to the massive aversion to certain tastes, mugs tasting wrong and so on.

For me, tomato sauce has to be Heinz and has to be in a puddle so it stays cold. I used to eat it with everything. Have been through phases, specially with ND ex when we would eat the same meal at night for literally months on end (pasta with some sort of tomato and vegetable sauce. The protein would vary.).
Never struck either of us as odd.

I always had same lunch at work, (a specific flavour of instant noodle with hummus on top. Don't judge!) and went through months of eating a large veg stir-fry with no oil, low fat mayo and sriracha for every main meal when I was losing weight. Never ever got bored with it.

My friend, who ticks all the boxes for being ADHD eats food because of the texture, specifically crunchy textures with soft inside, like well cooked chips or elderly jelly babies.

Or armadillos. And if you got that reference, you're as old as me!

Yes! Totally agree