The environment where we spend our early years has a big impact on how we view food. Eating together as a family brings loads of benefits for kids and teens. It helps reduce the risk of health issues like obesity and prevents negative behaviors like substance abuse or depression. Plus, it boosts communication skills and self-esteem.
Our food environment also affects our taste buds, introducing us to different flavors and textures. Recently, Reddit users were asked to spill the beans on the strange food combos they grew up with that others found odd. It’s fascinating to see how our food experiences shape our tastes and traditions. So, let’s dive into some quirky culinary tales!
Scroll down below to enjoy!
My little old great-grandmother used to wake me up at 3:00 a.m. every morning and give me an ego, cheese and ham sandwich and a gigantic like 40 oz mug of hot cocoa and tell me that I hadn’t eaten anything all day and I had better eat.
She had mild dementia and I had moved in there with her to take care of her.
She was really sweet and my favorite human being on the planet until she d*ed like a year or so later.
RIP Granny, I love you and I miss you
She could also cook better than anybody I’ve ever met.. everything that came out of her kitchen was delicious.
I’m not sure how she made her lasagna taste like that I cannot replicate The taste she produced.Also her lentil chicken soup was delicious. And I’m really really hungry now thinking about my great grandma that’s weird
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Whenever my mom used an egg wash and breadcrumbs there would be leftover from the breading station. So she used to mix them together, add a little water if there was too little of the egg left, and let the breadcrumbs hydrate. Then the mixture went into a skillet with heated olive oil to be fried like a breadcrumb pancake. There was no way she was going to throw out those breadcrumbs.
Every so often I find myself craving a breadcrumb pancake. I make one with a beaten egg to hydrate seasoned breadcrumbs. But I add Locatelli Romano cheese and julienned sun dried tomatoes as well. Fried in olive oil with extra Locatelli cheese on top. So maybe not a weird food combination. But certainly a weird item to cook. Weird- but I love it!
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My ex made me scrambled eggs, and I had to immediately spit them out. There was CINNAMON in them.
I asked why the h*ll he had put cinnamon in my eggs, and he said he didn’t. Only salt and pepper. Um, no, taste them – there is cinnamon on these eggs. So he takes a scoop and tells me I’m imagining things. They taste fine!
[They did not]
Turns out he was NOT gaslighting me. His mother had given him his salt and pepper shakers. We were at his moms and I put some pepper on my meal and again, f*****g cinnamon.
“Oh yes!” His mother exclaimed, “He’s a Taurus, and they have weak throats. Cinnamon is good for the throat, so to make sure he gets enough and stays healthy, I mix it into the pepper!”
He thought that was just what pepper tasted like.Source:
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Scrambled eggs/omelets with ketchup. I always thought this was normal but as an adult the more I eat with others the more they keep pointing out to me that’s weird or gross???
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Our thanksgiving leftover meal was turkey with gravy over waffles. Delicious. But when I got to high school/college people told me it sounded gross and weird.
My mom used to put cut-up hot dogs in everything.
Cut up hot dogs in scrambled eggs, in box mac and cheese, in stir fries with vegetables to eat on top of rice, in fried potatoes to make some kind of hot dog hash.
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My grandmother always put grape jelly on her grilled cheese, so I like to also. Apparently that is not something people normally do.
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Pork chops and homemade applesauce. So d*mn good but everyone I mention it to thinks it’s repulsive
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Strawberry jelly on a sausage biscuit. Learned that working fast food at 15.
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When I was young and my Dad was a single parent, he’d try to have “fancy” dinners for my sister and me. His go-to appetizer for us was a slice of bologna, covered in peanut butter, then rolled up into a log. He’d then cut it into sections and each would have a toothpick in it. Voila! Appetizers.
Whenever I start missing my Dad, who passed away when I was 24, I make those appetizers.
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Kraft Mac n Cheese with a can of tuna in it. I was thirty before I realized this was not common.
I think its came about because my dad comes from a poor Catholic family and it was a cheap way to feed five kids during Lent.
Edit: Guys I get it. Please stop replying “It’s tuna casserole.” It is not the same thing as what I ate growing up.
Tuna casserole is pasta and tuna, yes, but it is not a box of Kraft Mac n Cheese with a can of tuna dumped in at the end. Tuna casserole has some variety of peas, onion, cream of mushroom/chicken soup, and often has bread crumbs or chips on top. I have had tuna casserole, tuna salad, and tuna helper at various times of my youth. They are different.
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Having milk to drink with spaghetti, super refreshing. It counters the acidity perfectly but my Italian American friends think I’m nuts.
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Noodles with butter, sugar, and walnuts. Apparently my dad used to eat it when he was growing up. It’s Hungarian. Diós tészta. I grew up in Canada and yeah it was considered weird by my friends.
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My grandpa used to make peanut butter toast (crispy bread, like almost burnt, and smooth PB — and he always buttered the bread before putting on the PB) and hot chocolate, and would dip the toast in the hot chocolate. Didn’t realize it was weird until I got to college, did it in the dining hall, and got some weird looks.
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Potato chips & cottage cheese.
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Honestly, these are some of the worst food combinations I have ever come across. I won’t say these are the worst combinations I have ever heard of because I haven’t tried any of them. I am a foodie and I like to experience new things so I might give these a go. They could turn out to be my new favorite meals, all of them.
Let’s go through more food combinations that the internet found really weird. Scroll down below to continue!
Grew up super poor. We ate flap jacks which in our house were just flour with salt and water pan cooked into flabby flavorless pancakes and then my mom would try to make syrup by cooking down sugar and water. Another regular was toast with ketchup and yet another was spaghetti noodles with canned beans. I don’t know that I can say I thought it was normal but I did know it was what there was to eat.
I always thought coleslaw on pulled pork was normal because every place near me served it like that. Then I find out the heathens in the rest of the country don’t like that.
Shepherds pie but instead of mashed potatoes, macaroni cheese on top!!!!!!!!!
Sliced pickle and Kraft singles sandwiches. Did not ask for and did not want these but got them in lunches regularly.
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We were kinda poor, and my mom used to take a package of uncooked hot dogs and grind them up and mix them with sweet relish and mayonnaise. That was our “ham salad”. My friends all loved the stuff!
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The weirdest thing I can think is my grandma taught me to eat Coffee and Crackers. Basically you take a plate and line it with saltines, then pour over coffee until they’re softened then spread some sugar to taste and eat with deli ham. It’s basically a poor man’s country ham biscuits and red eye gravy.
It’s not the most filling breakfast in the world but it hits the spot every once in a blue moon.
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When it was dad’s turn to cook…
S. O. S.
Ground beef browned with salt n pepper. Thickened and creamed. (Essentially just hamburger gravy) on toast.
Meh.
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Digestive biscuits spread with soft cheese like philadelphia and a bit of jam, usually two to make it a sandwich biscuit. I sometimes had this with peanut butter between the biscuits instead.
Growing up in the midwest, chili & cinnamon rolls were a common combination. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I learned this is pretty much only a midwestern thing.
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Tomato open-faced sandwiches as a snack in-between meals. Just a few pieces of bread with nice tomato slices on them, salt and pepper.
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I grew up with a lot of fruit in my savory dishes, mostly fruit and cheese combinations. Some are normal, but i think most of them aren’t. Still love it all so much, it adds just the right amount of sweetness.
Cheese and banana sandwiches are the best
Pineapple parts in lasagna
Apple or mango in dishes like wraps or curry
Raisins in couscous
Pasta of mango and blue cheese
Cheese fondue with pineapple, apple, banana, grapes, pear
Salads contained mostly normal fruits like apple or raisins, but for some reason also often bananas.
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As newcomers to Canada in the 90’s, ketchup wasn’t really a thing in my home country. So we became obsessed with it when we got here. As a kid I used to put ketchup on everything, but my favourite was ketchup sandwiches (ketchup + bread) and ketchup sandwich with bologna or sliced ham.
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Unsweetened shredded wheat (it was large size not spoon sized) toasted in the oven with sharp cheese and fried bacon and you’d serve it with a bit of maple syrup on the side. It was…I think a recipe on the cereal box but seriously good. I never see those big shredded wheat squares around any longer so I can’t make this.
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Cubed up baguette tossed in greek yogurt and chopped mint. Sometimes some honey to make it a sweet treat.
This was strictly an after dinner snack for some reason
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Eggo waffles with melted sharp cheddar cheese. It was such a regular breakfast in my family, I literally didn’t realize it wasn’t a thing until I had my first apartment and I told my roommate she was welcome to the eggos and cheese and she was like “I’m sorry, what?”
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I really hope you guys enjoyed this one. Don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Stay tuned for more weird food combinations!
Via veroconplatanos
Dog tax.
“Behold my dog Frida, who ate a whole stack of Kraft singles while I was in the shower.”