AIBU- hot food v cold food..

[BertrandRussell]

I was reading a thread earlier where people seemed to be dismissing a very substantial picnic as a snack, and that people would need something hot later, which I thought was a bit odd. And then tonight, we weren’t having a sit down dinner because of the foot ball, so I made myself an amazing sandwich with good bread, lots of salad and some left over steak with left over roasted vegetables on the side. I offered to make the same for teenage ds, but he said he’d make himself a “proper meal” later. What he did was make some mashed potato, and heat up the steak and the vegetables and eat it with a side salad. He insists that his meal was much more substantial than mine, and mine was more of a snack. Despite the fact that the quantities and ingredients were the same, and the only difference was that his was hot, and he had mash instead of bread. I think he’s bonkers. You all agree with me, surely?

Maybe your DS thinks if a meal contains potatoes in some form then it's a meal, and without them it's a snack.

My dad couldn't understand dinner without potatoes.

I am German, cold food in the evenings is how I grew up and lots of people still eat.

I hate cold food which is supposed to be eaten hot originally. So the idea of leftover pasta made into a pasta salad or quiche etc is awful for me. Give me a nice bread with ham, salami, thinly sliced meat etc.

Hmm-not enough people on my side for my likeing. I was hoping to send ds off to school with the knowledge that everyone thinks he's wierd!
Leftover steak because we had a couple of guests who couldn't come last minute and it was defrosted already so had to be cooked. Oh and salad goes on a separate plate. We have salad with practically every meal-it's one of the ways my foreign genes show......

But I do have to defend him from accusations of being unimaginative, boring and so on. He's incredibky creative and super-cool. Just wrong.

Yanbu.

Meals are as filling or nutritious as it's components. Temperature has nothing to do with it.

Yanbu, but I just don't feel like I've had a proper meal if I have something cold for dinner 🤷 I can't explain it.

Shatnersbassoon, I have the same "thing"

Cannot eat cold sausage rolls for example, and hate cold supermarket sandwiches

Don't like leftover salad as it'll be cold (straight from the fridge)

Calling it a "picky tea" makes me

Ugh should have known someone would have mentioned "picky tea" not envy!

I'm with you OP. I don't know if for me it comes from having been poor though as I'm still always just ggrateful I can afford a meal! Or any food!

Last week our pub did a leftover curry, ie the remains of the Sunday carvery in a lovely curry sauce, as the pub quiz snack, lovely and cooling! Spicy food is far more cooling than a salad, where do most hot foods originate!

Of course you're right. In this heat who wants a cooked meal anyway? It's psychological isn't it? A meal is still a meal, hot or cold.

I prefer cold food to hot.

YANBU. I didn’t know this was a thing! People really don’t consider a cold meal to be a meal? So I’m guessing they wouldn’t accept a large hearty salad as a meal?

I feel like this is one of the reasons we’re so overweight as a society, we have these weird ideas around food that are so rigid, a lot of them involving eating more than we actually need. I know people who would cook and eat a large hot meal for dinner just because it’s dinner time even when they’re not hungry. We have this thing about ‘not skipping meals’, when surely it’s fine not to force yourself to eat if you’re not hungry?

I have friends too who can’t finish a savoury meal without finishing with something sweet as a dessert. My ex was physically restless looking around hunting through the cupboards until he found a biscuit or something as he couldn’t just eat his evening meal and be done, he felt uneasy until he’d eaten something sweet tasting and would even drive to the shops for something if nothing suitable was in.

Food is such a weird topic as it’s massively social and cultural as well as being nutrition for our bodies. But yes, it would be very odd for someone to feel like a meal of a certain temperature isn’t enough just because of its temperature 😂

I thought the phrase ‘picky tea’ was universally repulsive to MN? I’m always surprised to see someone use it outside of a ‘phrase you hate’ list 😂

I made a chicken and rice dish last Thursday, served hot with veg. There was some left over so I put it in the fridge and ate it cold on Saturday night with some chicken wings (chicken overload I know but I hate waste). So did I have a proper meal on Thursday when it was hot and not on Saturday when cold?

Madness, I just don't get this you have to have a hot meal even if it's crap food from the freezer ie nuggets and waffles with a side of beans. Mine was cold but was cooked from scratch so to me it's equally as nutritious whether hot or cold, it still had the same onions, peppers etc in it

No, I'm with you OP. In a similar vein, it annoys me no end because I very often will have something hot for lunch. Not necessary a bigger portion, but because of its temperature people feel the need to comment on what I'm eating. Stir fry maybe, or I'll do a pasta bake or something similar and its like I've emptied all the vats at an eat all you can restaurant.

I agree, when it's very hot, I mean the summer in Vietnam, especially when there is no electricity, eating a bowl of noodle soup is really difficult. I like the cold noodle dishes like Bun thit nuong or One of the salad dishes, or vegetarian food. But other things are meant for colder weather.

In Italy during the summer, I remember having a lot of orders so type salads, please, lentils,, peas, things like that. But nothing heavy.

I must be in the minority here but I don't consider having cold food as having a proper meal and we often argue about this with DP.

In my mind, having a cold sandwich is linked to scoffing down my food at my desk at work because I have no time for a proper sit-down meal. Also, as a vegetarian, I am often not even given the option of a hot dish in restaurants (because all vegetarians need is a cold salad, right? ) so it's even more of a big deal to be able to have something hot whenever possible.

Cold food isn’t dinner to me. Fine for lunch but not dinner

Mirrivan you have pretty much described DH and I

However; both of us think pitta bread and hummus or a big sandwich is a meal. I often order chicken salad as a dinner out, and DH likes fish finger sandwiches as an easy dinner. We are both originally from hot countries though!

A fish finger sandwich is dinner because they are hot :)

I never understand people who say they want less/lighter/cold food at lunchtime. I'm starving then and eat far more, whether it is hot or cold.

I hate it when work dictates that I don't have time for a decent lunch and have to make do with a nasty fridge cold sandwich.

This is a very British thing. I Australia one can go weeks without eating hot food. Lunch is normally cold food, even in winter.

To my mind, the dividing line is not the temperature of the food, but whether a meal contains bread. Bread = light meal, otherwise we'd all end up eating bread 2-3 times a day, and where would we be then, eh? Eh?

A couple of my previously favourite cafes have started serving some kind of bread with every meal, and I don't care if it's home made flatbread, if I've had bread for lunch, and possibly for breakfast, because it's easy, I'd rather, if I'm paying somebody else to go to the effort of cooking for me, have some other kind of carb, because I am All. Floured. Out.

(Obviously, pizza leaves me massively conflicted )