“Are you SURE you don’t want any sauce?!” “NO dressing with your salad?!” “You want that plain?!” Whenever I order food, people look at me like I’m crazy.
I blame my mom for this one. She eats no sauce or seasoning on anything whatsoever. Mainly because she can’t for health reasons. So I grew up eating a plain diet. I like to think my palate has expanded since I was a kid, but I still don’t fit in with this society of sauce lovers!!
My boyfriend calls me picky, but I still argue that it’s not my fault so many dishes happen to include this one ingredient: sauce! Take out the sauce and I’ll be happy to eat all the things!!
You never realize how much sauce comes with food until you don’t eat it.
FIRST LET ME LIST THE "SAUCES" THAT I DO LOVE TO EAT:
-Gravy – I love gravy on my mashed potatoes, any kind of meat I am eating, corn, and even on my mac and cheese! A dark brown gravy is the best!
-Marinara sauce – I love pizza, and I usually like a pizza with less cheese, and a lot of sauce on it. I also like dunking my breadsticks in marinara sauce!
-Salsa - I never ate salsa as a kid, but now I love it! I could eat chips and salsa all day. The finer, and less chunky the salsa is, the more I like it!
-Ketchup – I’ve always loved ketchup. I don’t dunk my fries in it, but I love to dip the edges of my cheeseburger in it. Also tater tots! (I am getting hungry and maybe a bit too excited with this blog!) I will also make spaghetti and cover it in ketchup. It’s unhealthy but delicious! Also, when I was a kid, my brother and I used to squirt ketchup on lids, then place them on the floor and lap it up, pretending we were cats (weird I know).
-Guacamole is OK but I can’t eat too much avocado at one time or it makes me feel sick. I don’t know why.
-I will also eat a little bit of cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving.
-And yes I eat peanut butter and jelly. I can also do honey and syrup.
-I do use salt, pepper, and spices (usually if it’s a dry spice, I can do eet!)
HERE ARE THE SAUCES I WON'T EAT:
NO Mayonnaise – Mayo is my least favorite sauce of all time. Highly dislike. If you want me to take one bite and gag, go ahead and feed me mayonnaise. I’d rather go all day without eating than eat a sandwich with mayonnaise on it. This sauce comes with a story also, one that has me convinced I could never survive on England’s sandwiches.
One year, I spent a summer studying in England and at the University of Worcester. We were given lunch cards to use at a university café every day (which didn’t have much of a selection in the first place). Despite wanting to occasionally order something new for some variety, I ended up ordering a ham and cheese Panini every single day. My classmates would choose different pre-made sandwiches from a wide variety in the deli case, but EVERY SINGLE sandwich they offered had mayo in it. We were also served sandwich platters at a few events we attended, and again, EVERY kind of sandwich had mayo on it! Is it such a norm over there that they wouldn’t even think of making ONE kind of sandwich with no mayo on it?! I didn’t eat much while I was there.
NO Salad Dressings or Vinaigrettes – My second least favorite sauce is salad dressing. I don’t even like when someone sits near me eating a salad with dressing all over it because I can SMELL it so easily, and it puts off my appetite. I’d rather have a salad with all kinds of awesome food on top. Vinaigrettes are sneaky because the salad looks plain, but when I take a big bite of it, NOPE! Sometimes it requires me to inspect my salad for this sneaky sauce before I eat it, just in case.
NO Mustard. I think I actually used to eat mustard when I was really young, but not anymore. Again, the smell.
NO Sour Cream or Dips. Whenever there’s a veggie tray in town, I’ll eat all the veggies and leave the dip unopened on the tray. The veggies are better on their own! This also goes for soft pretzels, fries, wraps, chips, chicken nuggets, or any other dip-able food.
NO Tartar Sauce. I’ll take my fish crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, no sauce required!
NO Hot Sauce. I don’t like hot sauce, although I do love spicy chili!
NO Steak Sauce. I prefer to taste the juicy steak with no sauce required.
NO Soy Sauce or Worcestershire Sauce. Again, no need. Bleh.
NO Pico de Gallo. Like I said earlier, I love to eat salsa, but Pico is just too chunky for me.
NO Alfredo Sauce. I will actually eat Alfredo sauce if it’s put in front of me, but I wouldn’t order it for myself.
NO BBQ Sauce. This is such a common sauce, and another one I could probably eat some of, but would never choose to order it. Just like steak, I’d prefer to eat the meat without any sauce.
NO Nacho Cheese Sauce. I love shredded cheese, mac and cheese, and melted slices of cheese, but could never get into the piles of chips with goopy nacho cheese all over it. I’d choose shredded cheese over nacho cheese any day!
A lot of restaurants have their own versions of these sauces, but for me it’s always a no, thank you. Because I don’t eat sauce, this eliminates a bunch of Chinese and Asian food dishes that come mixed together, smothered in sauce. Again, if they took the sauce out, I’d eat them! I’ll eat my hot dog plain, or with chili and shredded cheese, and I’ll order my subs and pitas with no sauce.
Maybe my tongue is extra sensitive or something, because flavors that other people call bland are like a party in my mouth! Just like my aversion to coffee/pop/alcohol which I explained in a previous post, I feel a kinship with those rare individuals I meet who also dislike sauce!
All you really need in life is ketchup. Works with everything.
Pretty much!
Haha. You're constantly awkward!