To tell DH I don’t like his signature dish?

[Notsympatheticenough]

He makes beef burgers. It’s his thing, bbq with beef burgers. He’s a good cook, cooks other stuff really well. But he’s convinced his dry, stodgy, unseasoned beef burgers are the best thing he does. I’ve avoided eating them pretty much for the last 10 years of our relationship, there’s usually other stuff, people round, it’s a bbq…you know? . Tonight he said ‘as a treat, I’ll just do the burgers’.

my heart sank. And the little hungry bit of me died a bit.

😂😂😂

I love banana in plain yoghurt as a side with a hot curry - very Cape Malay cuisine.

How can you scramble eggs in the microwave? Don't you just get an omelette?

I cant believe you've kept this information to yourself for the whole time! Just tell him. Perhaps not with such critical detail but it's fine to say you're not a massive fan of his burgers. He's a grown man, it won't kill him to know you don't worship his "signature dish".

@Danni675 Reminds me of my friend's chicken dish which she said was a 'family secret'. It was basically a chicken breast smothered in warmed-up ketchup. 😊

It works really well actually - the trick is to microwave in short bursts, stirring frequently. Then stop when it's still a bit too liquid. We only ever do them in the microwave now.

Haha I save myself from this by being direct. Just tell him, amazed he hasn’t guessed from your body language before now.

but I can’t now ever eat a burger out can I?

Of course you can because they are different/you prefer them?

I'm sure this is supposed to be lighthearted, but I find it really hard to believe that you haven't told him that you'd prefer more seasoning or for them to not be cooked as long so that they're not as dry.

Has he really not noticed that you don't eat them though?

The idea that he thinks burgers are a treat!

I can't describe the utter relief when my DH moved on from his home-made Parmesan ice cream phase.....

Have you had covid this year? Just say you can't taste them since having virus

i am imagining hordes of wives/girlfriends/families/labradors sitting there looking disappointed/enraged as the signature slop is once again presented with a flourish,

This is why it is great to be single though I cannot protect myself from my own cooking! I am too impatient to cook anything for very long, so it is normally microwaved first.

😂 sounds vile

“My husbands are delicious”
How many do you have and what do you serve them with?

Is he Heston?

I have nipped things in the bud before. Pasta with meatballs in tomato sauce with broccoli in the sauce ‘for added veg’. There was a phase of trying to add broccoli to every tomatoey pasta sauce. I suggested spinach instead….I like broccoli but not cooked to a grey sludge in pasta sauce.

@Deathraystare the Labradors will never be disappointed. That’s the great thing about labs and food. It’s all good.

You know it's really bad when the labs sniff it, look more sad than normal, and walk away to gnaw his slippers.

DH is a good cook, but his nemesis is omelettes - he adds onion and then cooks flat in the special omelette pan for five minutes until it resembles a rubbery frisbee, then flips it over and cooks it some more. Then adds cheese and folds it over until the cheese melts. Served with pale floppy half-baked oven chips.

I pretend to be too busy to eat, and do mine later - takes 30 seconds!

Can’t believe how nice people are!

I tell my OH when his food is grim (very very rare to be fair) and he does the same with me!

just make the burgers yourself
and the hummus

when I have said I wasnt keen on something he gets a little deflated/huffy & I feel like I shot Bambi

Yes - reason 4327 that I feel relief every day that I'm no longer with ex! You weren't allowed to say you didn't like his cooking - or you were, but it wasn't worth the huffing and fuss and sad eyes and wanging on about how he thought I loved it - usually something involving way too much chilli and some part of it undercooked. (Not to mention the 3 hours spent cooking, having splurged an entire week's food budget on the ingredients, trashing the kitchen and acting like he deserved a michelin star...)

At least he didn't actually use the words ‘signature dish’ 🤦🏻‍♀️

Whereas if he didn't like something I made he'd just say in a dismissive tone that he was "not a fan" and didn't give a shit how I felt. Gah.

Tricky when it’s their “thing”. Their show-off, razzle-dazzle, signature showstopper. He puts on his apron.

I do blame myself because I make great hummus which is what inspired DP in the first place. He also stole pulled pork from me and makes a worse version.

It took 19 years for DH to tell me he didn't really like cauliflower, only if it was au gratin.

We have a friend who posts his cooking on a social media page for all to see it all looks the same with that Brown burnt food look.
We play guess the meal.
We couldn't tell fish from onions the other day.
It was fine till I had to eat a meal he cooked, yuck.

I had this conversation decades ago - "if you don't like something I cook say it now or you will get it again." It saves an awful lot of angst further down the line.

My husband had a dish that he cooked at uni. He cooked it for me once early on and it was pure bland stodge. He's never cooked it for me again.

I think it's not too late for a bit of honesty op. Maybe suggest a few tweaks rather than condemning his whole dish.

Yes this. I feel like I'm living in an alternative reality where nobody is able to be honest with their spouse. I would have told my DH that they tasted shite the first time he made them ten bloody years ago and nipped it in the bud right away.

Although nobody in my reality has a 'signature dish' either, so maybe I'm the strange one.