To get a bit impatient with really fussy eaters (adults)

[atthewelles]

I'm not talking about people with medical conditions which preclude certain foods from their diet or people who have anxiety issues re certain types of food/ different foods touching each other on the plate etc

But adults who just turn their noses up at anything other than plain meat and potatoes and act as if vegetables, pasta, fish, anything containing spices or garlic or cooked in a sauces is on a par with serving up roasted worms are a bit irritating - difficult to cook for and impossible to please when trying to meet up in a restaurant.

AIBU to think grown ups should at least try a few different foodstuffs and be a little bit open minded about what they're prepared to eat?

[AngryBeaver]

Okay, hands up, I am a bit of a food pleb.

I don't know how it happened!

I met dh when we were 18 and at Uni and he was really fussy, didn't eat SALAD and hardly any veg.

Iturned that around when we got married, but somehow, the food we ate became limited.

We annoyed people in an Indian restaurant by ordering steak

And have made a concerted effort to try new things.

My friend was once agog to learn that I had never tried olives or feta, at the age of 28!

Yesterday, I tried SUSHI!! And I loved it!
Okay, not the raw fish type, but I have never liked salmon and now I like teryaki salmon..and seaweed and stuff!

I bought some for lunch today so dh could try, and he quite liked it too.

I am pathetically proud of myself!

I am growing up

[PuppyMonkey]

Sock - you LET your ex control the evening there a bit though didn't you? Most other large groups would not have put up with that.You did, and then call HIM the twat.

[piprabbit]

I'm a supertaster, which is great most of the time (not that I'm a greedy pig, oh no, not me).
Mouthwashes feel like they are burning me, so I have to avoid them.
And there are a few flavours that I am sensitive to which I also really don't like, for example mustard. Did you know that most shop bought coleslaw has mustard in? Sometimes there is so much and I find it so overpowering that I can't bear to smell or eat it but I don't make a big hoohah and ask for people to check the packaging or flap around, I just touch the tiniest amount to my tongue before tucking in and then I can choose to leave the rest.

MIL is picky about cream and oil. Whenever we go out to eat she asks me how much oil or cream each menu item has in it. How do I know? Why should I know? Then having discussed it with and decided that, yes, the Black Forest Gateaux will probably have cream in, she will repeat the conversation with the waitress and ask her opinion too. It takes sooooooo long for her to choose.

I can live with picky/fussy eaters, so long as they don't try to involve me in their choices.

[Dryjuice25]

I invite my ex for sunday dinners and everytime he leaves his carrots grates me as his eyesight is already failing due to lack of betacarotene bothers me as he has influence over dcs. He hates all veg

He hates all foreign foods too lives on bland english foods only whereas I like to try something once but will happily avoid horse, snails, frogs and snakes

[IneedAsockamnesty]

Limited to save you from yourself chocolate in plain brown packing PO box 1222

Only joking.

How it can impact on others an example. A few years ago I went out with my estranged husband and a group of about 30 of us for a meal ( he was not estranged then) it was mine and one of the other girls birthdays. We traipsed around the town for nearly 2 hours whilst he had hissy fits outside every restaurant we wanted to go in because he didnt fancy anything on the menu.

When his best mate finally told him to stop being a twat and accept that he was in a large group on an event that was not about him. He sat down and spent the entire meal muttering about not being fussy normally eating anything then proceeded to pick apart the menu loudly banging on about what he couldn't possibly eat. They had steak and chips on the menu he could have picked but he just refused to pick anything because he was being an arse.

He wanted to demand we all went to McDonalds. A few hours later after he got pissed enough to forget the entire exchange he tried to drag I'd all back into the same place for steak and fucking chips.

[limitedperiodonly]

So go to a general restaurant that serves grilled or roasted chicken along with other things, or a pizza restaurant. Or don't you like pizza?

As it happens, lots of places don't do chicken because people who don't really think about cooking automatically think it's bland, which is very blinkered of them.

To me, a decent piece of chicken casseroled, grilled or roasted is really good and I would order it if I saw it on the menu and I'd definitely cook it at home.

In fact, it's what I cooked tonight in a mustard sauce. If I was cooking for someone who didn't like mustard, I'd plainly roast it. It would still be really nice. What do you want your food to do for you?

[PuppyMonkey]

My analogy with beer shows how daft it is to be arsed what other people like and don't like.

[Shagmundfreud]

My rule for eating around other people's houses: unless something made me physically puke or I was allergic to it, I'd eat it, say it was lovely. If I didn't like it I wouldn't ask for seconds. But I'd eat it. Even if I didn't like it.

Was the way I was bought up.

Fussy guests who say they can't eat something when what they mean is they just don't like it are rude. That's the sort of behaviour you should grow out of.

[Boutdesouffle]

It has affected me in the past, when my companion will only eat pizza, or plain chicken. It means that one of us will be disappointed. I feel that adults should be able to experiment with unusual foods without fussing.

[limitedperiodonly]

But you can eat what you like while the person sitting opposite you can eat what she likes. So again, what is the problem?

[Boutdesouffle]

No maybe it isn't a problem, it is just so boring and unadventurous. I would hate to miss out on new experiences, especially when traveling and not being able to try local delicacies. I think a lot of food fussiness is avoidable.

[limitedperiodonly]

But in most restaurants the food is plain enough boutdesouffle.

I'm not talking about all the Indian restaurants that do omelettes but all the French restaurants where it's perfectly acceptable to eat steak and chips.

I've never had a problem eating out enjoyably with someone with the blandest palate. It's not a problem and I don't understand why people are claiming it is.

[Boutdesouffle]

I don't really see it as the same thing. This thread is about fussy eaters and I agree with the OP and get quite impatient with them as it does show small-mindedness to not even try foods. Beer isn't really ever going to be something that limits where you go though is it?

[PuppyMonkey]

So would you be "offended" if I came round yours and you offered me a beer and I said: "No thanks, I don't like beer"

Or would you just think "ah well" and move on?

[Boutdesouffle]

I doubt that beer is unavoidable though. (unless you come round mine!) but when people can't eat out because the food isn't plain enough, or offend their hosts by moaning about the food surely they can learn to tolerate different foods?

[noblegiraffe]

I find it utterly bizarre that someone would eat something that they know will give them stomach ache rather than simply saying 'no thanks'

[PuppyMonkey]

I don't want to expose myself to more beer. I'm perfectly content not liking beer at all.

[Boutdesouffle]

I think the point made up thread is a very good one, about exposure to food. If you are exposed to different foods you may come to like them, or at least tolerate them. I think that is why so many people say they don't like something, because they haven't tried them enough.

[discrete]

By your standards I'm an incredibly fussy eater. I can't do garlic and spices (you really have to be used to them or they will make you feel quite ill), or fish (unless I really, really have to and then only on sufferance) or most nuts, beans or pulses.

But frankly, I've worked bloody hard to get to where I am and able to eat a varied, healthy diet. It may not be particularly restaurant friendly in the UK where garlic seems to be a staple, but it doesn't stop me eating well and healthily.

I've also lived in 6 different countries (including Japan, land of the fish) and tried loads of different cuisines (and cook many of them too, I just leave out any garlic/spice and adapt them to my limitations).

So, in so far as you think that being a really fussy eater is the result of not trying 'a few different foodstuffs' YABU, if it annoys you then that's just one of those things, provided you don't make yourself a PITA then YANBU.

[limitedperiodonly]

Also I agree. If this was a world with beer only I'd have no problem being teetotal.

[limitedperiodonly]

puppy I have to give them away. I'll feel a bit better because I was also sent a mummy rabbit and four babies, two mini eggs and a big egg with truffles.

They may make me feel sick but hey, puking would be polite.

[PuppyMonkey]

Which reminds me, don't like coffee or coffee flavoured chocolates either. Or beer of any sort. I like all other types of alcohol though, phew.

[PuppyMonkey]

Honestly, limited, just eat the whole box of chocolates and put up with stomach cramps for a few hours, ya big attention seeker.

[CuriosityCola]

Talking about retching. I can't eat a couple of things due to being forced to as a child. It's definitely not a lack of control and I find it quite embarrassing.

[limitedperiodonly]

I was sent a box of Lindt Lindor Limited Edition coconut chocolates today. I will give them away because I find the taste of coconut unpleasant.

This will make me wildly popular with the person who receives them. It will help me live with the disapproval of those who think I should stomach it out of propriety .