I like my bacon in the restaurant to be almost medium-rare to medium. The way they make it usually is good for me. Still slightly pinkish but hot and greasy. Other pork products should be medium-well to well done.

I loved that movie ! Right up there with The Last Polka

Darn, I missed that, and those two together were comic geniuses!! :D

Another food rule:

One sauce per meal. Two or more sauces are for lazy cooks and people who don't want to try too hard.

Nothing in my tuna fish. And it has to be with mayo. And my mother has to make it.

You and my husband eat soup the same way. That mess smells only of crackers -- I am sure neither of you could tell what kind of soup you are eating if you were blind folded. Why, oh why don't you just eat the crackers and not waste the perfectly good soup? This is a mystery I failed to unravel in 38 years of marriage!

No, no, no. White tuna packed in olive oil (drained) with a lot of freshly ground pepper, a few capers and a little of the lovely, lemony, homemade-tasting Maille mayonnaise that French supermarkets sell in the dairy case.

Soup is not a meal, it's a liquid, and should be made with as little water as possible.
Sandwiches made on square bread are to be cut diagonally. Those on round bread are to be cut in half such that the items between slices are cut diagonally. All sandwiches/ burgers are to be cut in such a manner prior to consumpsion.
Most BBQ and steak sauces are terrible. Only one or two are worth eating.
Fat-free and low-fat cookies are generally frowned upon.
As someone else mentioned, I don't like watching people eat ice cream, especially in a cone.
No food is so good that people need to have physiologic reactions to it and burst into fits of mmmms, ahhs, and oh my gods while having convulsions.
I don't eat bacon at home. This is the most effective way I can think of to limit the amount of it I eat.
I stay away from fresh fruits, and some vegetables completely, cellery for example, because they make my mouth, lips, and throat itch.
Skim milk only. No carbonate beverages (except beer), unless mixed with liquor.
Doughnuts aren't food. Neither is McDonalds. Arby's, Rax, etc, are.
All visible must be cut or scraped off of meat.
Fries are lightly salted, heavily peppered, and seldom eaten.
No mayo or other spreadable white colloids.
Fat content doesn't matter as long as there is more protein in whatever it is I'm eating.
That's all I can think of right now.

Dude, are you like 600 lbs or something?

A related note :D

Do they really have these were you are from?
How many places have you been refused to given rare hamburger?
Thank you very much. I am cutting that steak hot for a reason.

Interesting thread but I must state that many of you are exhibiting some rather bizarre tendencies and habits.
As opposed to yours truly, who is normal. :p
I'll provide my list in a moment but let me set the stage:

I do all the cooking in our household. I threw Mrs. Cholula out of the kitchen a few weeks after we were married when I discovered she thought a recipe was a law. If the recipe "calls for it", it MUST be included. And in exact proportions. And if the recipe "doesn't call for it", it can NEVER be included. The final straw was when she had me look up a recipe to see if it "called for" an 1/8th tsp. or a 1/4 tsp. of some seasoning. :mad: She got the boot that day although I'm still waiting for her to complain 30+ years later.
I'm a pretty good cook. If Wolfgang Puck is a 10 and jfe's sister-in-law is a 0, I'd rate myself a 7-8.
Here's my list:

1. I don't own any measuring spoons or measuring cups. And I don't use recipe books. I eyeball everything as I go and most times we've been very happy with the results. But there has been the occasional meal where we both take our first bite, our eyes meet simultaneously and a scream of "CALL PIZZA HUT!!!!" fills the air.

2. I'll order fish and chicken in a restaurant on a regular basis but I won't cook them at home. No gross, smelly or yucky-looking food in my kitchen. If it disgusts me before it's cooked, I won't have an appetite after it's cooked. And that's how I feel about chicken and fish in it's raw state.

3. I'm a bit better with beef but I have a rule here too. If the piece of meat performs a vital function in the steer rather than just keeping it upright, it doesn't come into the kitchen. No beef livers, kidneys, hearts, brains, etc. need ever darken my doorstep.

4. Eggs must be THOROUGHLY cooked. I don't want anything squirting on my plate when I eat them. Certainly not runny yolks and DEFINITELY not runny whites. :eek: :eek:

5. I don't like any sweet foods, including desserts, and still have the first pound of sugar I bought 30 years ago, unopened. It's a brick now.
That's the main reason "Miracle" Whip is banned from my house. It's nothing but mayo with two tons of sugar thrown into the mix. Gross!!!

That's pretty much my list.
I look forward to hearing from the other normal people out here in OMNI-land. ;)

No, 165. It'd be a couple lbs less if I didn't eat a box of those big chewy chips ahoy every couple days.
from cholula:
4. Eggs must be THOROUGHLY cooked. I don't want anything squirting on my plate when I eat them. Certainly not runny yolks and DEFINITELY not runny whites.
I used to agree with this wholeheartedly, but for some reason I know like my yolks just runny enough to give me something to soak the biscuit in.

indu - there are no Rax where I currently live, but I used to go to one frequently the last place I lived.

AFAIK, there are only 1 or 2 left of what was a pretty big chain at one time around where I live.

Added: I guess there are about 50 left.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rax_Restaurants

Been pondering this thread more, acknowledging to myself that I do have a few more domestic preferences and "rules" than I initially realized.

International travel rules were pretty well covered in http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showp...5&postcount=35

Domestic Rules:
1) I don't eat turmeric, or anything colored/spiced with turmeric. People say it is only for color, and has little/no taste. Bullpucky. Tastes awful.
2) I won't eat yellow ballpark mustard, as a result of #1. Brown mustard, dijon, etc. are fine.
3) Better little or none of the real thing than a lot of the ersatz stuff (ice cream, cookies, butter, etc.)
4) Fruit should be served ripe or not at all.
5) Tomatoes (a fruit, btw) should be vine ripened and NEVER refrigerated.

Domestic preferences:
a) Beef should be cooked no more than medium.
b) Bacon and breakfast potatoes (hash browns/home fries) should be nicely browned and crisp, via pan frying or roasting, never deep frying.
c) American and American-style beer pretty much sucks. German, Czech, Belgian beers are quite tasty. But I'm willing to try them all.
d) The best turkey sandwich is always made from leftover Thanksgiving turkey, on plain white bread (think Wonder) with Miracle Whip.
e) A great non-Thanksgiving turkey sandwich is made from slices of whole roasted turkey on good whole grain bread, with mayo or miracle whip, stuffing/dressing, and cranberry sauce.
f) Regular deli turkey, although a good reasonably healthy choice, pretty much sucks.
g) Condiments should never be placed on the cheese side of the sandwich. Makes the cheese mushy.
h) Butter is better than margarine.
i) Chicago-style hot dogs, with all the trimmings, are preferable.

That's funny... there's a semi-famous psych experiement where 1/2 the people got steaks that were dyed blue (no taste change, etc), and 1/2 got the normal red steaks (also an additive added by the butcher). A good number of the people with blue steaks threw up.

My rules:

1) There's not much that mayonnaise can't make better.
1a) Hot dogs must have mayo (and onion).
1b) French fries should be dipped in mayo.

2) Bread is to be toasted at most VERY lightly.

3) The perfect burger: grilled to medium, with lettuce, onion, mayo, sauteed mushrooms, and cheese.

4) Steak must be medium-rare.

5) Soup must be heated until hot, then allowed to cool to eating temperature.

6) No beans. Anywhere.

7) Egg whites must not be runny.

8) No fake sugar.

That's just my partial list :)