Pretending to enjoy a food item more then you really do.

J

Jeni

Senior Member
The potluck thread reminded me of all through childhood when ever we ate at friends homes ....or had a potluck ..... mother and grandmother often had us tell the cook how we enjoyed it even if we could barely stand it....Being polite of course...

I did this Many times in my marriage as hubby will get some wild hair and decide to cook ......
some were fine but as time has gone by more and more is barely tolerable.
Thanks to his refusal to cut down recipes sizes he often make enough to last 3-4 meals.

It has been hard since he now has a dietary restriction and we are trying to make home versions of dishes that commercially are just loaded with sodium.
He keeps wanting to make items he enjoys and i smile politely and taste but usually throw away ...

Yesterday i gave him a list of foods That i simply do not care to ever ingest again ............. that he is free to enjoy but I will no longer wish to pretend to even stand them ...... I will make my own separate items.

Was my mistake being nice and pretending in the first place .... or telling him the truth now that some foods ONLY he enjoys?
do couples eat what the other person likes and deal with it ...........or do separate meals?
 

Jules said:
Since I make lunch and supper, my husband says he knows better than to complain; he doesn’t want to cook. A couple of times he’s told me that he really doesn’t care for something. He’s never ever said it when it was served.
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good example ... when did he inform you he did not care for an item and were you angry about it?

i do not say anything if it is served but will say up front in discussion of what to make with something
he says oh lets have this side .. I say go ahead i do not care for that.... he is mad as i simply pretended to eat it before.
I am just done with throwing items away and being hungry after a meal .
 
Jules said:
We do go to friends’ for dinner and have to pretend to like lots of things. I never knew vegetables could be so overcooked or meat so dry.
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yes he overcooks most things as well...... everything was done 20 minutes before he thinks they were.
he woke up a few days ago made 3 over hard eggs i have NEVER eaten like that............. i like sunny side up and he said you LOVE it this way and i remind him NO ... YOU love it that way i never eat it the dog does.
 
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Maybe it is just the fact he is home more lately .......
waking up to coffee that i could chew............. burnt toast and egg frisbee has me losing my mind...

He watches FOOD network non stop................................ then decides he will make something NEVER listens to me that it has too much sodium etc until he runs to store and reads labels .....................then comes home telling me for HOURS ... you wont believe this .... do you know how much salt is in this or that ??
Want to scream "YES i told you before you trekked off to store .....".

NOW i just pretend to be a mime in a box unable to get out or hear him...
 
Pretending to enjoy a food item more then you really do.
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Nathan said:
I do the majority of the cooking to insure a somewhat healthy diet. My wife sees eating as more 'recreational' than a nutritional necessity, I try to met her at the point where healthy and happy coincide.
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Looks like I didn't really answer the OP topic... :unsure: so here goes: the Thanksgiving green bean casserole that has the French's fried onions on top...that gets mushy, I just don't care for it, but I didn't pretend I liked it, I mentioned why I didn't like it and DW agreed that the mushy fried onions was a failure. We haven't had it since, although other green bean dishes like this one are welcome in it's place.
 
Jeni said:
Pretending to enjoy a food item more then you really do.
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I like and will eat most anything... not always a good trait. So this is rarely a problem for me, guess I have complemented a few cooks more than I really meant, but not a lot.

I do however recall once going for dinner at a colleague's home and was served a "fondue" consisting of Velveeta cheese with Vienna sausages right out of the can to dip...

I know it sounds a bit like something from Monty Python or Candid Camera, unfortunately it was real. I had trouble eating much of it, but assured the hostess that it was fine, I was just having a bit of stomach trouble. Had I eaten much I think that would have been true.

Never went back...
 
When I was married, I pretended whatever my wife cooked was great.
She was worried & always asked me, "How is it?"
I always said, "Oh, honey, this could heal the sick." When it could really cause the sick.
Just imagine the acting talent required......
Happy wife.....happy life. 😁
 
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I always try to be grateful that I have enough wholesome food to eat. At home, I'm doubly blessed to have a wife who is a good cook. I'm not a fussy eater and, after nearly 50 years of marriage, she and I share similar tastes.

It seems to me that hollow compliments are just that ... hollow. My wife knows that when I compliment a dish she's prepared the compliment is sincere. If I don't care for something, I'll politely tell her why. Often she agrees. Some of our favorite dishes have been the result of her experiments and she isn't hesitant to try something new.

When eating elsewhere, courtesy and kindness rule.

This thread reminds me of an experience during my time in the Navy. A good friend had visited Italy several times and had cultivated some Italian friends who, on this trip, invited him to visit them at their home in Rome. The menu that evening included chilled sheep brain which his hosts were proud to offer. I honestly don't remember whether my friend tried that dish or not, but I'm sure it made for a most memorable experience. :rolleyes:
 
IrisSenior said:
Oh man...I am a short order cook here. I serve everyone what they like and if I don't like it, I find something else for me.
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In my adult life i've always been the opposite-- if you don't like some part of meal i prepared you're free to skip it, or even make a replacement by foraging in my kitchen. I will not be offended but I'm not going to go the short order route.
 
I'm not a picky eater tho of course i have preferences. When i was a kid we had to clean our plates but we could express what we didn't like about something. While i am polite, i will not gush over things bearly edible.

First hubby was a pretty good cook tho had limited range. Loved his curries, but his Mom's were so over spiced you got no flavor, just heat. I was diplomatic with her, that i simply wasn't used to it, tho.
 
My piano teacher's husband considered himself a great chef & he'd try to make me eat whatever he made when I was around 12.
Once he told me he made "Sweet Bread" & he wanted me to try it.
I said, "Great, I love bread." But I was suspicious because the house didn't smell like bread; it smelled like something died.
When he opened the oven, I took one look at it & said, "I'm not eatin' that; I don't even know what it is."
He got mad & swore at me in Romanian. :ROFLMAO:
 
At seventeen, I was invited to my BF's house for Thanksgiving. He was so excited for the holiday and raved about his mother's turnips. When we were passing the serving plates, BF put a huge dollop of mashed turnips on my plate. I'd never before had turnips and after tasting them never wanted them again. The whole meal I felt like they were staring at me. Wanted to be polite but there was no way I could gag down that pile of turnips. His sweet mother obviously figured out what was going on, smiled warmly and gently said, "Turnips are an acquired taste, Honey. If you don't like them you don't have to eat them. You won't hurt my feelings."

I remained attached to that BF long after my affection for him was gone because I was so very fond of his parents and extended family.
 

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