Can Your Food Touch?

Jules

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Can your food on your plate touch? Or do you eat just one thing and then another? Any special layout for how it’s on the plate. An anything goes plan where you’ll mix things? Any quirks or rules?

I noticed two GKids won’t let anything touch, maybe an inch or two in between. Their dad’s plate is more full, but no mixing. He won’t let anyone have a taste of his food, yet he’d finish off anything his ex or the kids left.

I remember a girl in high school who totally finished one item before she’d eat another.
 

Can your food on your plate touch? Or do you eat just one thing and then another? Any special layout for how it’s on the plate. An anything goes plan where you’ll mix things? Any quirks or rules?

I noticed two GKids won’t let anything touch, maybe an inch or two in between. Their dad’s plate is more full, but no mixing. He won’t let anyone have a taste of his food, yet he’d finish off anything his ex or the kids left.

I remember a girl in high school who totally finished one item before she’d eat another.
No, I have none of those quirks. Thank goodness.
 
I think when I was young I did suffer from that. Only thing now, if something is meant to be crunchy or fried I don't like a wet item next to it to take to make it soggy. Mind you that statement does not hold true for chicken fried steak that should be smothered in cream gravy. OOOPs what about biscuits and gravy.... guess I should stop talking.

I will say I like mashed potatoes and corn mixed together so may be I am not so strange???
 
When you first went to the Chow Hall for a meal and saw the metal trays,
you figured the food would be separated.

tray.jpg

Walking down the line, tray held out, the mess personel were very careful
where they placed the food. NOT

Got used to enjoying some strange mixtures.

Still mix-up some interesting food groups to this day.
 

Can Your Food Touch?​

Seems to have that ability
I remember a girl in high school who totally finished one item before she’d eat another.
Heh, when I was single, I just ate one thing...period
It was usually a chunk of meat
over the sink

Later in life, my woman taught me the fine art of 'meals'
....and tables.....and plates.....and silverware...and glasses (not jugs)
 
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When you first went to the Chow Hall for a meal and saw the metal trays,
you figured the food would be separated.

View attachment 264448

Walking down the line, tray held out, the mess personel were very careful
where they placed the food. NOT

Got used to enjoying some strange mixtures.

Still mix-up some interesting food groups to this day.

We all have seen the movies and shows where the cooks just slopped the stuff on those trays but I have to say I have always loved trays. We had those back in elementary school. I was not one of the kids that got to partake of school lunches. We took our brown bag lunch from home. It was a treat to be able to go thru the lunch line on special days. They were also common in some of the old diners and cafeterias back in the day. You can still find some that are made for children as so many kids are picky, I wish I had a stash of those in my kitchen.

I could only guess in the military, where rules had to be followed, they were just another sign of discipline, that everything should be kept in order at all times. If people did not stay in line and do their jobs others would suffer or die. Makes sense to me, sublimnial messaging of a sort.
 
I noticed two GKids won’t let anything touch, maybe an inch or two in between. Their dad’s plate is more full, but no mixing. He won’t let anyone have a taste of his food, yet he’d finish off anything his ex or the kids left.
I knew a little girl years ago, who would start to cry if anything touched on her plate. I think it may not be all that rare. Kids have their own problems.
 
I like to eat home made Indian curry.

I serve it in a bowl, rice layer first, then the curry on top. The next layer is a mixture of chopped tomato, white onion and lebanese cucumber. The final layers are shredded coconut, then mango chutney and finally chopped peanuts.

It is absolutely delicious and a visual delight as well.

So no, I have no problem with my food items touching each other.
 
That seems to be a child thing. My son drove us crazy with this when he was little. Heaven forbid that one item touched another on his plate. I'd have to use 2 or 3 different plates at times. Once he got settled it school, that disappeared. Today, at 56, he couldn't care less if all his food was piled one on top of the other.
 
Do you mean in a Brumotactillophobia kind of way? (I’m having some difficulty pronouncing it too, and I typed it!)

I suppose it depends on what kind of meal I’ve prepared. Sometimes it’s touching, sometimes it’s deliberately not; it might look better that way. Depends on who I might be cooking for, and what kind or type of meal it is. The occasion also plays a part.

Over the years I’ve found it really challenging to prepare a plate with separated foodstuff after say, making a stir-fry. And as for Indian curry meals, well it just takes too long to separate it all after cooking it! It causes me to lose interest. I then just scrape it all off the plate and into the bin outside.

Depending on what mood I’m in, I might just dump it on a plate & let the food items kind of arrange themselves. And especially the food items that are still alive. The level of preperation might depend on how hungry I am. Sometimes I just can't wait!

Anyway, it's usualy advisable not to analyse my words too much. :unsure:
 
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I don't have a problem with food touching... or with having to eat just one thing at a time. My only "quirk" if it could be called that, is if there's a food I don't particularly like on my plate, I want to get it out of the way first so I can enjoy the good stuff.
 
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I don't have a problem with food touching... or with having to eat just one thing at a time. My only "quirk" if it could be called that, is if there's a food I don't particularly like on my plate, I want to get it out the way first so I can enjoy the good stuff.
I’m the same regarding this; food I don’t like on the plate. I find it moves around the plate a lot during the meal. I never know where it’s going to end up on the plate next.

I really have to keep myself in check, as it’s so tempting to stab it with a fork. Then with the handle of the fork in one hand, and the fingers of the other hand pulling back on the end of the tines. I usually find an open window works best. The satisfaction of watching it being launched out through a window is absolutely amaaaazing!

I like to think I’ve become quite proficient at it, even if I do say so myself. I’ve notice though that some highly polished windows look as though they are actually open, or have no glass in them. The way in which the food then rebounds off the glass and onto the plate of someone else is quite startling. Not startling to me, I hasten to add. I just find the whole thing fascinating. As I just sit there, trying to figure out how the physics behind the trajectory worked that I'd witnessed.
 
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I really have to keep myself in check, as it’s so tempting to stab it with a fork. Then with the handle of the fork in one hand, and the fingers of the other hand pulling back on the end of the tines. I usually find an open window works best. The satisfaction of watching it being launched out through a window is absolutely amaaaazing!
Can't say I ever tried that. It would be easier if I had a dog... just slip the undesirable fare under the table... but I don't have one. 🤭
 
I don't like my food touching. God forbid gravy touches my vegetables. Food gets put on a plate in a neat circle and I eat a little from each pile until it's gone. I don't like eating just one thing until it's gone because then everything else gets cold. (Just my OCD reasoning.)
My daughter is worse. She only puts one thing on her plate at a time, eats it, then puts something else on her plate. How she survived in the military for 30 years like that I'll never understand.
 
My main food hangup is about ambiguity.

I dislike soup (except for Habitant pea soup), because it's an uneasy compromise between solid and liquid. Please give me one or the other. In Mexico they had "aguas" -- fruit drinks with pieces of fruit. Same problem. Ugh.

Similarly, I don't like muffins, because they're neither bread nor cake.
 
I'm not as picky, as an adult, about such things as I was as a child. Those sectioned plates that were used in elementary school though seem a lot more logical now, as to why they were used for children. If it's really a problem for someone though, sectioned plates can be easily found in a restaurant supply store. I don't like my bread to get soggy from sitting next to my peas but some gravy on it is no problem for me. It all touches once it's swallowed and if it didn't taste good, I'd not swallow it.

And a little lightheartedness here but in some cultures, some types of sea-foods are eaten alive. It can be dangerous to do so but as the video shows, sometimes food actually can "touch". Not for me really. I'm not quite that adventurous.

 


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