Horrible Food

[hordak]

Good food thread got me thinking of a bad food experience.

A friend i was stationed with in Texas invited me out with his family for the weekend. When i walked into the kitchen for dinner i thought they were joking but nope. The pulled a cooked cows head out of the oven and began stripping the meat off to eat. Don't get me wrong i love a good steak but i couldn't stop looking over my shoulder waiting for a guy in a mask with a chain saw to burst in the room.

[Dravin]

If we don't included burnt foods or other mistakes (substituting sugar with salt on accident*) then the worst I've eaten was probably when somebody made some soup but I swear they replaced the broth with water, twas horrible. And as a missionary I was forced to eat it and allowed myself to be manuvered into eating seconds.

* I've ruined more than one batch of cookies that way, now I always taste the salt or sugar before I put it in.

[Guest Godless]

Good food thread got me thinking of a bad food experience.

A friend i was stationed with in Texas invited me out with his family for the weekend. When i walked into the kitchen for dinner i thought they were joking but nope. The pulled a cooked cows head out of the oven and began stripping the meat off to eat. Don't get me wrong i love a good steak but i couldn't stop looking over my shoulder waiting for a guy in a mask with a chain saw to burst in the room.

That's called barbacoa. It's reeeally good. I've never heard of people preparing it at home though. That's kinda disturbing.

[Guest Alana]

I once horribly botched a dinner that I made while the missionaries were over. I made pot stickers were badly burned. I made a second batch, which also got somewhat burned. One of the Elders went back for seconds and thirds and fourths. Bless his soul and his stomach...

Right now I can NOT eat maple breakfast. I think the last batch I ate had something wrong with them.

[Dravin]

Bless his soul and his stomach...

Something often overlooked when speaking about how the Lord looks after missionaries.

2. And verily the Lord shall bless thee with the stomach of a gier eagle.

Edited October 16, 2009 by Dravin

[hordak]

If we don't included burnt foods or other mistakes (substituting sugar with salt on accident*) then the worst I've eaten was probably when somebody made some soup but I swear they replaced the broth with water, twas horrible. And as a missionary I was forced to eat it and allowed myself to be manuvered into eating seconds.

* I've ruined more than one batch of cookies that way, now I always taste the salt or sugar before I put it in.

Best thing about feeding the missionaries. They will eat anything:D

[beefche]

Let's see: worst restaurant experience was in Miama at Gloria Estefan's restaurant. I asked the waiter to bring me a traditional Cuban meal. No idea what it was called, but it was pork--it tasted horrible. Had a sour meat taste (and I'm not talking sauerbraten--I'm talking left it in the sun for a a few hours rotten taste).

Worst home cooked meal--my mom worked with a Vietnamese lady who made us traditional Vietnamese meals. Don't know if this lady just couldn't cook or if Vietnamese food just tasted bad, but everything was nasty--only the rice tasted ok. And I'm so not a picky eater.

Grossest food experience: on my mission. It's a toss up with 3 things--the maggot filled soup, the huge hairball in my cake, or the raw egg/yogurt concoction someone made me.

[sixpacktr]

My worst food experience happened on my mission. Had 'natto', which is rotten soybeans. They look like they are covered in snot and smell like dirty socks from a high school men's locker room, with some jock thrown in. I mean, truly nasty stuff (and yet, my wife and kids love it. I make them eat it at the other end of the town when we eat!).

Anyway, I had stopped on the way to an English class (we were visiting the other Elders) to pick up some sushi. Thought I'd try it. I gagged it out. Literally. Not good in Japan, but they looked kindly on this awkward American trying it out.

And then there was the time I made chili, and we were making cornbread to eat with it. Didn't have any buttermilk to make the CB, so I put some vinegar in milk to 'curdify' it and use. Except instead of a little bit I put a lotta bit. Worst cornbread ever.

[beefche]

If we don't included burnt foods

I say this and mean it literally: because of my mom, I love burned food. scorched (ok, little more than scorched) pork chops, popcorn, etc. We had a company picnic and I asked the guys grilling to please make my hotdog black. Slap some mustard on it---Heaven!

[will227457]

bad food....thats easy...most any chain horrible stuff olive garden, johonny carinos, etc....now I realize that sometimes they are all there is but id rather eat at home

[will227457]

That's called barbacoa. It's reeeally good. I've never heard of people preparing it at home though. That's kinda disturbing.

sorry its cabeza.....very tender and good meat fromthe head...not sure why they would serve it like that... barbacoa is totally diffrent..

barbacoa is traditionally mexican...sheep, goat or pork...traditionally sheep...cooked in a hole in the ground....also very very good if prepared correctly.

[Dravin]

I say this and mean it literally: because of my mom, I love burned food. scorched (ok, little more than scorched) pork chops, popcorn, etc. We had a company picnic and I asked the guys grilling to please make my hotdog black. Slap some mustard on it---Heaven!

Depends what you mean by black. If my sausage looks like it was cooked in the microwave that is bad, a little color on the skin is a good thing. For example:

That is good, it could even be more than it is including actual black spots and still be deliciousness. Some people would (wrongly) call that burnt but I call it (forgive me Alton), good eats. However, if you mean something like this:

Then that's just wrong.

[sixpacktr]

sorry its cabeza.....very tender and good meat fromthe head.

Again, from Japan. Took this French guy out for 'real' Japanese food when he visited our company. We got a half tuna head. And it was flippin' HUGE! Really good meat. Gave the eyeball (it was about halfway between a golf ball and baseball in size) to the French guy, who, of course, ate it!

[will227457]

good stuff in the eyeball...i'd have eatin that all day long...

[Guest Godless]

sorry its cabeza.....very tender and good meat fromthe head...not sure why they would serve it like that... barbacoa is totally diffrent..

barbacoa is traditionally mexican...sheep, goat or pork...traditionally sheep...cooked in a hole in the ground....also very very good if prepared correctly.

I wasn't aware of that. I live in Texas, so a lot of our food is more Tex-Mex than authentic Mexican. From what I understand, the barbacoa here comes from cow cheeks. The meat is taken from a cow head that's been stewed overnight. You're right though, traditional barbacoa is whole sheep cooked in a hole in the ground. I've never had that version.

[Bini]

Can't say that I've eaten meat right off the head of a cow but I have on pig and it's delicious!

OK and as far as horrible food.. I really don't like chicken-fried steak. There's just something about it. But if I had to pinpoint something, I'd say it's the texture of the dish itself. Blergh. I'm also not a fan of herring.

[beefche]

LOL! Not quite that burned, Dravin. More like your first photo, just with more black on it.

[Mahone]

* I've ruined more than one batch of cookies that way, now I always taste the salt or sugar before I put it in.

I made a similar mistake once during school cookery classes. The great thing about this though, is that they look perfectly innocent, but taste disgusting. I lost a few friends that day.

[Jenamarie]

As a teen I once made chocolate chip cookies, and forgot the flour! (it was just the white and brown sugars holding the "dough" together). I didn't realize my mistake until they came out of the oven flat as pancakes (except for the chips, of course). They had to be peeled off the tray. My older brother said the resulting mess looked like something Cookie Monster would throw up.

(but they tasted really good!!!!)

[Jenamarie]

My dad had Cabesa when he was serving his mission in Bolivia. He said he got nervous when he saw the children of the family who was feeding him that night walking down the town street in the morning, each holding onto one of the cow's horns, with the head dangling between them.

He said you quickly learned two rules about dinner appointments when you're on your mission in a foreign country:

1. Don't ask what it is.

2. Don't turn it over.

[john doe]

Right now I can NOT eat maple breakfast. I think the last batch I ate had something wrong with them.

Okay, I'm stumped. What's maple breakfast?

[talisyn]

Let's see: worst restaurant experience was in Miama at Gloria Estefan's restaurant. I asked the waiter to bring me a traditional Cuban meal. No idea what it was called, but it was pork--it tasted horrible. Had a sour meat taste (and I'm not talking sauerbraten--I'm talking left it in the sun for a a few hours rotten taste).

Worst home cooked meal--my mom worked with a Vietnamese lady who made us traditional Vietnamese meals. Don't know if this lady just couldn't cook or if Vietnamese food just tasted bad, but everything was nasty--only the rice tasted ok. And I'm so not a picky eater.

Grossest food experience: on my mission. It's a toss up with 3 things--the maggot filled soup, the huge hairball in my cake, or the raw egg/yogurt concoction someone made me.

Oh. Wow. And you lived? It's the 5 stomachs isn't it? And I agree with the darkish hot dogs, yum! But then again when toasting marshmallows I let mine catch on fire, eat what was burned, then do the same with the middle

My worst food experience was when my ex husband made chili. It was not any chili I had ever experienced and thanks to morning sickness never had to experience again

Edited October 17, 2009 by talisyn

[Traveler]

The worse thing I have tried to eat are grasshoppers common to the western desert.

The Traveler

[Dravin]

I made a similar mistake once during school cookery classes. The great thing about this though, is that they look perfectly innocent, but taste disgusting. I lost a few friends that day.

Oh, I know that temptation well. I had a lot of fun on my mission with an innocent looking bar of extremely dark chocolate, we're talking 70% Cocoa plus, I want to say it was 80% but I can't be completely sure. Offer some poor unsuspecting missionary on exchange a piece of chocolate, who turns down chocolate? The look on their faces was priceless.

[ploomf]

The worst food I ever ate was at a relatives house. Picture freezer burned chicken legs that had been coated in flour and fried. Somehow the skin never crisped up the way it should so the chicken was coated in this slimy, greasy, floury breading. No salt or other seasoning had been put on it. It sat on my plate in it's own little lake of oil grinning up on me, knowing that the good manners drummed into my head since birth demanded that I take at least one bite of it. Awful awful awful.

I’ve made a few horrible mistakes myself. I was making chili once and I opened the spice cabinet over my stove to get something. The cinnamon evidently decided that it had had enough of life because it jumped to it’s death as soon as I had opened the cabinet. Or maybe one of the other spices pushed it out of the cabinet and it was murder instead. Either way as soon as I opened the door the bottle of cinnamon fell out and it landed in my chili and somebody (ok it was probably me) hadn’t fastened the lid properly so my chili got coated with cinnamon. I didn’t want the entire pot to go to waste so I tried to just spoon the cinnamon out and hope nobody noticed it. Chili with cinnamon in it is not very good. Evidently I didn’t get all of it out.

Baking is hit or miss with me too. I still remember the cookies that were as flat as pancakes, hard as rocks, and had edges sharp enough that I swear they could cut diamonds.