It's amazing to me

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

We had a friend who thought she was a great cook But to me, she had strange flavor preferences. She put ground beef, seasoned simply with S&P on top of corn tortilla chips, and topped it with Cheese Whiz, and pork & beans. Her boyfriend opened a Mexican restaurant that quickly failed. He ha greasy tacos, poorly seasoned burritos, and what he called standard red sauce, and standard green sauce.

We had another friend who said that she made the best steaks ever. She coated the steaks with S&P, and then liberally coated them with baking soda. She then grilled them on her hibachi until well done. All I could taste was the baking soda.

What are some of the worst meals you've had, cooked by friends, that you choked down, and told the cook that you enjoyed them, to avoid hurt feelings?

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[AwesomeOpossum74]

Can't think of any really *bad* meals. I mean, I don't like certain foods, but I can't blame someone for cooking them.

As a younger lad, my mom had a friend who had emotional and medical problems, which lead her into financial distress. Very nice person, artsy old lady, a vivid imagination, but she couldn't afford much.

I went to her house to build her a sitting bench for her front porch. For my help, she offered to make my wife and I dinner, which we accepted. Dinner consisted of a can of red beans, previously made spaghetti, and topped with corn flakes. Pretty much anything she could find in her fridge and cabinets. The meal was not bad, just rather interesting and different.

As my older self, I think she would have been a really cool person to know better, and I would gladly sit at her table, eat her meal, and listen to her stories.

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

There are no bad meals, just bad cooks.

You can quote me on that!

 

[karadekoolaid]

We had a friend who thought she was a great cook But to me, she had strange flavor preferences. She put ground beef, seasoned simply with S&P on top of corn tortilla chips, and topped it with Cheese Whiz, and pork & beans. Her boyfriend opened a Mexican restaurant that quickly failed. He ha greasy tacos, poorly seasoned burritos, and what he called standard red sauce, and standard green sauce.

We had another friend who said that she made the best steaks ever. She coated the steaks with S&P, and then liberally coated them with baking soda. She then grilled them on her hibachi until well done. All I could taste was the baking soda.

What are some of the worst meals you've had, cooked by friends, that you choked down, and told the cook that you enjoyed them, to avoid hurt feelings?

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

Wow - that´s incredible. You´d think that, with the internet, folks would at least make an effort to find out what´s reasonably authentic before putting stuff on the plate?
I had an English friend here, whose wife was Italian. they invited us for dinner once - spaghetti with tuna and peas. Tinned tuna, tinned peas, just dumped on top of the pasta.
My kids love BBQ - they do it every weekend. If anyone put baking soda on their precious meat, they´d probably strangle that person
New Year´s Eve this year. We were invited to a friend´s house. Everyone took food, but the hostess made a " Melon Salad", which was cantaloupe melon in some sort of wishy-washy mayo, completely tasteless. The worst thing was I had to say it was " delicious" - which it wasn´t.

 

[pepperhead212]

Actually, I think a lot of those really bad recipes out there wouldn't be here, if it weren't for the internet! Granted, there were a lot of bad recipes out there, when books, magazines, and other paper was the main source of recipes, but now, literally anyone can post a recipe! I personally think that much of it is due to kids playing games, and posting some absolutely stupid and horrible sounding recipe, like that steak with the baking soda, to see who can get the most hits, and how many will reply that they tried it! We know that couldn't have tasted good to anyone!

Fortunately, I haven't really had to lie to people, about bad food tasting good. I personally won't taste something that doesn't seem like something I would like! And I would rarely get together with anyone that doesn't like food like I do. Usually, food at get-togethers aren't really bad, just nothing special, and it's easy to skip something that looks questionable. I get out of eating a lot of things because I won't eat anything made with mayonnaise!

 

[taxlady]

One of my parents' friends, when I was a kid. She would overcook just about everything. Dry poultry, mushy vegis, burnt store bought pie. That burnt pie was an obvious oops even to her. She tried to cover the burnt parts with some of that whipped topping that comes in a can. She put it on the pie, while the pie was still hot, so it melted. We didn't complain about the food, because the visit was more about the visit and seeing friends and their similarly aged kids. They lived a half hour drive away, so we didn't see them more than a few times a year.

 

[taxlady]

BTW, that baking soda on meat - a very small amount will help the meat brown by raising the pH and increasing the Maillard effect. DH puts in the ground beef for hamburgers and it works a treat. But, he only uses a quarter of a teaspoon per 500 grams (about a pound) of ground beef.

 

[cjmmytunes]

One year, I was really sick on Christmas morning. My ex-husband tried to help, he made French Toast for the kids. Put garlic salt in the egg mixture - the kids STILL talk about that.

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

Well, of course he put garlic in it. it was FRENCH toast after all.

 

[taxlady]

Well, of course he put garlic in it. it was FRENCH toast after all.

 

[Bitser]

Lived in a communal house where we took turns cooking.

One guy who hadn't done much cooking turned out a decent meal, 'til we got to dessert. His cheesecake was a weird pinkish-orange hue and the taste. . . no one could finish their serving.

Turned out that—in all innocence—he'd bought cream cheese with pimientos.

 

[cjmmytunes]

Well, of course he put garlic in it. it was FRENCH toast after all.