The best tomatoes in the world are New Jersey beefsteaks. Yep, New Jersey!

+1 ^

LOL. Some of you are crazy! :) Now go back and clean up your toys. :D:D

OK, I haven't read every reply in this thread, but this one may be an important one that was previously missed.

Whenever I go to a certain grocery store in town here, I pick up a random cheese from the cheese counter that I haven't tried before. My most recent acquisition was a cheddar from The Netherlands called Mimolette. I found it quite enjoyable.

Then I made the mistake of reading the Wikipedia article on it, which states that some of the flavor from the cheese is generated by cheese mites, which are INTENTIONALLY INTRODUCED while the cheese is curing! Worse, the rind of the cheese is partially made from their dander and excrement!

Now that I know that, the rest of the cheese is likely to end up in the toxic waste disposal section of the local dump, along with my refrigerator. You can't be too sure about these things.

So, in conclusion, an additional food rule for me: No foods that have bugs as one of their standard ingredients.

Spud slices
 

No "flavored" potato chips. Ever. Period.

If God had wanted us to eat barbecue/sour cream 'n' onion/vinegar/trout/whatever potato chips, then He would have created flavored potatoes.

A simple, thin-sliced crispy chip is a thing of beauty. No adulterants needed.

Thank you.

Oh, I so agree about flavored potato chips. They are an abomination. I also feel the same way about sweet potato fries.

Check the milk and the expiration date before you start chugging out of the carton.

(Just found this out the hard way the other day)

I saw this article today and it made me think of this thread

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...foodrules.html

I'll add a couple.

Everything else being equal, a hamburger will always be MUCH better with multiple thin (1/4 inch) patties than one thick one.

Cold cereal MUST be eaten with a large (soup) spoon. It is impossible to attain the correct milk-to-cereal ratio per bite with a teaspoon. For this reason, I rarely ever eat cereal anywhere but home. It must also be eaten in small "batches" so it stays crispier.

1. No shellfish other than fried clams and crab
2. No blue cheese
3. No capers
4. No sauce or salad dressing whose main ingredient is vinegar
(Because of rules 2-4, I rarely eat salads when I'm out.)
5. Thin crust pizza only, please, and with no foo-foo toppings like Thai chicken
6. Spices, YES! But I have to be able to taste something besides heat, and if my nose and eyes are running, it's too hot.
7. No sugar or fruit flavorings in my ice tea. In fact, no sweet drinks unless they're also alcoholic
8. I hesitate to eat Japanese food outside of Japan, because too many places think that the cuisine consists of sushi plus meat smothered in teriyaki sauce.
9. Real food only: no skim milk, no margarine, no cool whip, no artificial eggs, no Aspartame
10. Helmans/Best Foods mayonnaise instead of Miracle Whip
11. No strong-tasting fish
12. No smoked foods except pork products and the eggplants for baba ghanouj.
13. No lemon merengue pie
14. I'd rather have sparkling water with a dash of fruit juice or wine than any commercial soft drink
15. Eggs must be solid, with nothing runny, cooked in olive oil or butter
16. No gelatin in my yogurt, please
17. I like all vegetables, but few fruits: apples, berries, melons, mikan, and grapefruit (but only with honey). I can tolerate bananas mixed in a drink and pineapple in pina coladas, but I eat the rest only if someone serves them to me and it would be impolite to refuse.
18. Black, dark-roast coffee with chocolate overtones. No milk or sugar
19. Peanut butter must be crunchy
20. Sorry, Brits, but stewed tomatoes, baked beans, and mushrooms are not breakfast foods.
21. I'm fine with beer, wine, hard cider, and white distilled liquors. Can't stand whisky, bourbon, or anything of that type
22. I avoid strip mall "Chinese" restaurants where the lunch buffet consists of UFOs (unidentified fried objects) in duck sauce with fried rice.

+1

Tea and soup just taste better if you have to gingerly sip at first.

But can't stand tea, soup or coffee that has gone cold even if it was served piping hot.

Additionally:
1. No raw onions on anything, not even spring onions.
2. A beetroot slice does not belong on a burger (it's a wierd Australian/NZ burger-bar thing)
3. Toast should be allowed to cool so that the butter/jam does not melt into, rather stays on the surface of the slice. I too have stood in the kitchen, slice of toast in each hand, flapping it about rapidly to cool it more quickly.
4. Can't stand "lite" versions of salad dressings/mayo. Either have the full fat version, or don't have it at all.
5. Processed cheese slices have no business even existing. Frankenfood.
6. If you're going to add prawns to a dish shell removed, why not go the extra distance, save me messing about, and take off the tail as well?
7. Hot roasted chicken is fine, cold roasted chicken, yuck!
8. Can't stand honey, not even the smell of it. Yes really.

1) No soggy sandwiches. If a sandwich must be packed then pack the ingredients separately. Especially any mayo-d filling (tuna salad etc) and any condiments (mayo, mustard, butter etc).
2) Any sandwich filling that is made with mayo cannot have more mayo than actual ingredient. Egg Salad should feature egg, not mayo. Ditto for Tuna Salad.
3) No Frankenfood: no processed cheese, no margarine, esp no flavoured toppings.
4) Real toppings are okay on food, not "flavoured" toppings (pls ref. rule #3).
5) If noodle soup is packed, then the soup and noodles should be packed separately. No swollen soft soup-less noodles allowed.
6) Salad dressing should always be served on the side. Exception is caesar made tableside. No lettuce floating in dressing soup.
7) Steak shall only be ordered in a reputable steak house and shall always be served rare.

1. I typically eat healthfully but if I'm going to have a burger the only acceptable toppings are cheese and more meat.Same with pizza.

2.Prepared bottled salad dressing(both ff and full fat) is nasty. I make my own.

3.At a restaurant if a dish is offered that comes to the table on fire, I must order it.

Do you allow yourself any fun at all? :confused:

Leftovers (especially Asian) are best eaten the next day cold, especially for lunch.

Now that I'm trying to be healthy, anything I'd usually shake salt on to can have pepper shaken onto it for a similar taste.

As I like to say "for God sakes no tomatoes" as a topper.

Even though this thread is a few years old, it's been interesting reading. I think people are allowed a lot more leeway to be OCD about food, with a minimum of ridicule.

Exactly. Who invented that rule anyway?

1. Don't put celery in my tuna salad, egg salad, or potato salad. In fact, celery has no redeeming value that I can see.

2. Life was a lot easier before they discovered cholesterol, trans-fat, and all that other bad stuff.

Lots of fun reading these - for me, it's:

no tap water
no margarine, etc., only butter
no shellfish
no deli turkey or chicken, only roasted (hot or cold)
eat cold cereal quickly, after adding milk, while the flakes are still crisp
crunchy peanut butter
use a straw to drink coffee, tea, and most drinks (avoiding teeth staining)
cut up most foods into small pieces - just prefer to eat them that way

One of my pet peeves is when you order a salad that has chicken on it - such as a Chicken Ceasar Salad or something similar - and the chicken is big long strips or pieces. You've got to cut them up into more manageable pieces, and you've got to do it on an unstable platform (lettuce). Why not just present them in bite-size pieces anyway? For that matter, why is the lettuce in salads often still in huge pieces?

You'll find that celery has great value in a lot of soups and cajun food if you give it a try.

How do you ever eat at restaurants?

Celery, for me, is like onion - something with a very pleasant flavor contribution, but (unless you cook the it very, very thoroughly in onion's case) a negative texture contribution. So when I cook with either, I leave it in pieces big enough to eat around, and those who enjoy the texture of either can still eat 'em. :)

Oh, and I'm all for no sugar or flavorings (except an actual slice of lemon) in my iced tea. If I wanted a sweet drink, I'd have a soda.

Must not look at the menu before being seated (except when choosing a restaurant online, at which point perusing the menu is a must).

1) Eggs shall be fried over hard, yolk broken. If it ain't cooked solid, it's going back for the cook to do right. Runny eggs returned will be splattered as a warning to the NEXT customer.

2) Bacon is not meant to be served limp as a dishrag. It should go crunch.

3) Porkfat RULES! If the traditional recipe calls for lard, be it in tamales or fry bread, don't accept the substitution of vegetable shortening.

4) Don't offer me tasteless crap under the guise that it's healthy/organic/natural//good-for-me. I'd rather shave years off my life than eat plastic.

5) Just say "no" to cold cereal, which is an historical plot by John Harvey Kellogg to neuter the American public...since he believed that hot cereals "inflamed the passions" and meat eating at breakfast was worse.

6) Good steak is meant to be served rare.....medium rare if you are a sissy afraid of blood. Any more cooking turns good meat to shoe leather. And only barbarians douse their steak with sauces. Grill it or broil it with salt and pepper and get it on the plate.

7) With crab and lobster, simplicity is best. Steam, boil, or broil it and serve it with a little drawn butter. Mayonnaise is an abomination better served with baloney sandwiches or french fries.

8) Speaking of French Fries: crisp on the outside, mealy on the inside. One may debate the proper shape/size and whether it is peeled or with the sking left on... But a limp fry isn't worth eating. Dipping one's fries in ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, or even blue cheese dressing are all valid options... but hot chocolate through the whipped cream is beyond the pale. (...sigh Mom, that's just weird...)

My relatively straightforward handful:

(One or two of these rules have close relatives that have surfaced elsewhere in this thread.)

1. No goat cheese. Ever. Period.

2. Mayonnaise = bad, almost without exception. Good homemade mayonnaise is fine. Limited quantities of mayonnaise in something such as chicken salad are tolerable. That's about it. And don't even think about (1) slathering mayo on my sandwich or (2) adding it to mashed avocados and salsa and trying to pass it off as "guacamole," because then we are going to fight. (Side mini-rant: few things bother me more than a deli that doesn't understand what "no mayo" means.)

3. Pineapple does not belong anywhere near pizza. If you take a pizza and put pineapple on it, you no longer have pizza. You have an abomination.

4. Legitimate varieties of bagels are limited to the following: plain, sesame, poppy, onion, everything, raisin, pumpernickel, egg and salt. Anything else is not a bagel. And cream cheese, which every bagel should have, must not be whipped until fluffy.

No asiago with jalapeño? :)

1. No avocado
2. No uni
3. Avoid overcooked roast beef
4. Never, ever eat Ethiopian. 10 days there was a great diet opporunity. Awful awful food.
5. McDonalds/Burgerking/FKC et al only in extremis
6. Tap water only in the UK
7. no egg sandwiches

Afraid not. :) Though I can deal with savory varieties of flavored cream cheese (e.g., veggie, jalapeno, salmon spread), as long as they are matched with an appropriate type of bagel.

The bagel shop closest to where I live now has the maddening habit of making exactly the same amount of every kind of bagel on their menu. And, of course, the traditional flavors I mentioned sell out very quickly and tend not to be replenished until much later, leaving only full trays of asiago, chocolate chip, pesto and spicy marinara bagels for folks who show up in the meantime. :mad:

And I thought I was extreme....

1. No processed products will enter my home.
2. Minimize products with artificial flavors.
3. Nothing with HFCS.
4. No fresh milk. I use dry milk for all-Natural (Shredded wheat) cereals.
5. Nothing breaded or that required frying
6. A microwave does not exist in my world.

I think the world would be a better place with sesame, poppy and cinnamon raisin only. :)

I will not eat Mayonaise under any circumstances or in any form. No ranch dressing, no aioli, no mayo of any kind. I get physically ill with even the thought of mayo.

I generally never eat fried seafood outside of South Louisiana. The one exception would be fried catfish and, then, only in some parts of the South.

Japan? Tempura is amazing.

If I were to go to Japan (never have been), I would certainly try it. However, so far, tempura (U.S.-Japanese) doesn't do much for me.

If you've ever had good South Louisiana fried seafood, then you might understand my taste preferences. :D

If you can't leave it in the simmering oven of an Aga overnight it will taste pallid.

^^^ It's not even allowed in my house.

I had a friend stay with me for a short period of time and this person actually likes the stuff. I gave him special dispensation to keep a small jar in the refrigerator, well hidden in the back, and he was required to eat it out of my view:p.

I always read my food labels to make sure there are no sulfites. They give me major migraines. I also read them for calories, fiber and fat content. Foods that have like 68 grams of fat will never make it into my basket. The same thing with foods that really have no nutritional value. Maybe someday we’ll finally see an end to those misleading labels on processed foods. Until then I try to go lightly on them.

If you include London in that rule, you must be brave indeed.

1. Under no circumstance shall my meat be served to me anything less than the well end of medium rare (slightly pink). If it's still mooing or bleeding when I get it, I won't eat it and will request that it be cooked more.

2. Light mayo does not equal reduced fat mayo. It means a teensy...oh hell, give me the damn knife so I can determine the amount of mayo, okay? You won't give it up? Then no mayo whatsoever.

3. Sushi. I don't care if you covered it with the finest Swiss chocolate and told me that everything in it was sweet. I will not eat it. This rule also applies to the following: beets, insects, heart, liver & tongue.

Dang, you just cut out most of my food intake :D ...with the exception of "light" anything.

The more raw/rare to me, the better. I include in that category all steaks au bleu, all good fresh raw fish including sushi, raw veggies. Organ meats I like done au point, but not done to death...if overdone, why bother?

I'm proud to eat everything except for the overly past bon marché (=old fish and shellfish, especially old uni), the overly naturally rank (=durian, stale fish paste) and the overly just wrong (=balut). Otherwise, bring it on :D

My main rule: no invertebrates. That rule seems to just about cover everything.

That means only things with endoskeletons. If it has an exoskeleton or no skeleton, forget it. It's not natural. :p

Organ meats, too, are not attached to the endoskeleton in the same manner as proper endoskeletal muscular tissue (i.e. real meat), so they are inedible under my rule. :)