Dipping grilled cheese in syrup, buttering pop-tarts, or devouring strawberries with stems still attached to them may sound utterly asinine, but for some people, it’s a perfectly fine mode of consuming food.
You see, no one is immune to bizarre eating quirks, but most of us are totally unaware that we have them. So when Twitter user @kyry5 asked people “What's a strange food habit you didn't realize was bizarre until way later than you should have?” the thread blew up with 11.7K likes, and the answers, each more baffling than the previous one, came flooding in.
So let's see some of the most entertaining and stomach-turning revelations about food shared in the thread. Do you have a quirky eating habit to share? Hit us in the comment section below!
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Does anyone else eat the muffin/cupcake and then chew on the wrapper cause it still has some on it? Just me?
Bored Panda reached out to the thread’s author Kyle who goes by the Twitter handle @kyry5. Kyle said he got the idea for a tweet while he was talking to friends about how insane his diet was when I was younger. “I used to be on the chunkier side and was talking about how much junk I would eat (hot pockets for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, toaster strudels for dessert) and how even the junk food was made junkier (enter, the buttered pop tarts!)”
“That got us talking about other weird things we all used to eat, and I figured I’d take to Twitter and hear some others,” Kyle recounted and added that he was totally surprised that his thread blew up so much.
This is known as a cheese taco. If you do it right, you can add toppings and roll it up before it hardens. Requires practice with your microwave, as it changes depending on wattage, type of cheese etc.
In India (and probably other places too) it's quite common to put salt on various fruits and in fruit juice.
Yeap and in Cyprus with haloumi cheese!! Both delicious!
Load More Replies...In italy we use to eat cantaloupe with Parma ham (prosciutto) ..the salty taste of ham is perfect with the sweetness of melon!!
Prosciutto and melon is great. Had it in Italian restaurants in the US.
Load More Replies...Salt makes sweet tings sweeter - tastebuds for salty and sweet are neighbors on your tongue./ It really makes sense. Also - chilli powder on watermelon <3
The tastebuds thing isn't true, we have been lied to
Load More Replies...Huh. I have eaten apple with brie for some reason. 100% will eat again.
Load More Replies...There's nothing strange about this. Salt brings out the sweetness and adds just the right touch of savory
it's delicious! i always put salt or a bit of pepper on my watermelon
normal. the salt taste receptors accentuate all other receptor responses, including sweet. it's why chocolate chip cookies taste like rock candy unless there is salt
I've done this my whole life, my whole family does it. Also salt on honey dew or mush Mellon.
If you put salt on grapefruit it takes away most of the bitterness. And it's actually delicious!
Oh, heck, I do that. And on pineapple. Learned to do that while on vacation in Hawaii.
Lots of people sprinkle a little salt on melons. That us not unusual.
Not watermelon but I do put salt on cantaloupe. Brings out the sweetness.
When I was a kid I thought this was the only way to eat watermelon. I still like it.
My very Mexican mom used to do this all the time with watermelon and cantaloupe! I was considered the odd one for eating both fruits all by themselves.
I do this, too, and catch endless grief for it until the person tries it themselves
Normal. I lived in Thailand for 15 years. It is common to dip fresh fruit into salt or a salt/sugar/chili mix.
I know people who do that with watermelon. Never heard of doing it with cantaloupe though.
My brother puts salt on Watermelon. It apparently enhances the flavor.
Not weird, totally normal in plenty of places. Add lime, chaat masala and a pinch of cayenne.
We did this when I was growing up in Ontario, Canada when I was a kid in the 50s and 60s. Not unusual at all.
Hot / tropical places do this. I've seen in in Malaysia, Singapore, India, etc. Probably because people sweat a lot and getting electrolytes (salt) back with your liquids is important.
Putting chilli on mango is delicious! I suspect salt on melon is the same!
Lol my friend used to put soy sauce on oranges
When asked about his own food habit which is the buttered Pop-Tarts, Kyle assured us that they’re totally delicious. “You toast the brown sugar cinnamon ones, take a knife and make a delicate slit down the middle (not enough to break it in half) so that the butter can soak in, and let a fat slab of butter melt on it,” he said. “I think I did it once in college and my friends thought it was wild and that’s when I realized the buttered pop tart was not a universal household staple,” Kyle added.
When it comes to odd food habits, Kyle said he loves these quirky little things. “I feel like they always arise so organically. Like I had no idea my food habit was bizarre, nor did my friend who dips hint of lime Tostitos into minced garlic in the jar”
“Once you share it with other folks and realize it’s a little odd, that’s when it gets fun! I think we should all be open to trying each other’s little food combos.”
Eating weird food combos is nothing new. After all, who said you can’t have fish sticks with peanut butter? But unusual eating habits often get much weirder than that. For example, brumotactillophoba is an impressive term that refers to fear of different foods touching each other, and surprisingly, many people have it. Interestingly, this food habit is viewed by food psychologists as a holdover from childhood fussy eating.
There are also people who can be called delayed gratifiers as they tend to separate everything on their plate and put pieces in their mouth in some sequence. Usually, the ones that taste the best are left for the very end. Another very common eating habit is known as fork stacking, which is essentially packing each mouthful with a bit of everything on it. As they eat, people prioritize a perfect final forkful.
I will get lots of hat for this, but mac and cheese is just disgusting.
In my family, crusts either gave you curly hair (girls) or put hair on your chest (boys)...
I'm confused as to how this tastes good. Too much salt and it tastes bitter and burns.
me too! i always thought crunchy cereal like americans do in tv shows and movies are hella weird
Salted lemons are good, and I've been known to eat the peel occasionally. My grandmother used to eat whole lemons while telling me to never, ever do it because it's terrible for your teeth. But sometimes I succumb.
Try bacon and jelly on bread it is good especially with jalapeño jelly.
When i was a kid we used to have strawberry or raspberry jam on freshly baked Yorkshire puddings. Loved it.
Cooked plain spaghetti noodles, parmesan cheese (in the shake bottle), onion salt and a pinch of Italian seasoning. Mix. Devour. You are welcome :)
Add a little bit of olive oil and you've got yourself a bonafide dish right there. (Garlic too :))
Load More Replies...Yes, some of these sound good, but some of these people need Jesus.
Load More Replies...that's not weird- at least I don't think so. I have those all the time!
Load More Replies...Id make peanut butter and banana with real syrup on raisin toast. or just brown sugar on bread
I like just peanut butter and banana on white bread. Grew up on that and kraft cheese slices with plain potato chips between white bread.
Load More Replies...I used chicken nugget honey sauce for fries as a kid. I cant fathom that now
Still love McDonald's fries with their sweet and sour nugget sauce.
Load More Replies...I eat cereal mixed with vanilla yogurt. It’s pretty quick to prepare and tastes good
I fry jalapeños & pickles in a flour breading & eat them like chips. They are amazing! Got the idea from working at a restaurant. We fried cherry peppers w/ our fried calamari. I hate calamari but love peppers & our breading so id just have him fry up the cherry peppers & plop them in a bowl for me
Try coating fresh sage leaves with tempura batter and frying them. I do these in a cast iron frying pan, top them with a little salt and smoked paprika. They're the best bar snacks ever.
Load More Replies...I have croissants with ham and cheese cooked and then put strawberry jam inside. best breakfast ever.
My dad likes to take Marshmallow Peeps and poke holes in the packaging and let them age for a couple of days. They get a little stale and chewy. He calls it “letting the cure”. He prefers this texture to the fresh soft peeps.
My family would take left over cornbread tear it up, put in a cup of milk and eat with a spoon.
My family too! Its best with buttermilk though!
Load More Replies...Pinto beans, cornbread, pickle juice and cottage cheese, all mixed together!!!!
I used to make this one particular open-faced sandwich for lunch every now and then when I was staying at home by myself during summer vacation or other breaks as a kid. You take two slices of bread (the kind I was brought up with was whole wheat bread), then pour a thin layer of honey over each slice until the surfaces are coated in honey. Leave the honey to harden over the bread. Then spead each slice of bread with a layer of peanut butter, and top each slice with sliced bananas. I used to have that with a glass of ice cold milk and it was such a treat for me. Another thing I loved to do was spend the day eating nothing but Grape Nuts for breakfast and lunch, but the thing is with Grape Nuts is that you have to leave them soaking in the milk for a few minutes until they soften up some, then consume ravenously. One time I was especially hungry and went through an entire box of Grape Nuts, oops.
When making the cheap powdered cheese mac and cheese substutue a dollop of mayonnaise of rall the milk and half the butter. It' the cheesiest!
For desert put an ounce or so of peanuts, two ounces of good chocolate chips, an ounce or two of granola and an ounce or two of the cereal of your choice. Mix together and add eight ounces of chocolate protein shake or milkshake.
Load More Replies...My personal favourites are peanut butter and Marmite (which I was doing in the '80s before it was cool.) I don't eat meat anymore, but any kind of sausage, veggie or otherwise, with marmalade in a sandwich is good. Tuna and pineapple cottage cheese. My Hungarian grandfather used to eat a chunk of bread slathered with pork/beef dripping (the fat left over from cooking meat when it's cooled down and solidified some) and would cover that in paprika. I could never stomach the dripping, but man, I love paprika more than sunshine.
Goose fat also Euro popular as bread spread, with onion slice.
Load More Replies...Peanut butter and cheese sandwiches. People will eat the pb&c crackers but think a sandwich is weird. It's not. Very good.
It's really good, specially with a sharp cheddar!
Load More Replies...Semi thawed sourdough bread. Only the store bought stuff, though. Home made is amazing, but no one freezes it, at least in our house. (It’s gone.) But if you’re thawing bread, there’s a sweet spot when it’s just thawed enough to not be a rock, but still chewy. I can eat four or five slices of that… unfortunately, it only lasts for about half an hour, and as soon as you take it off the loaf it thaws quicker.
Leftover rice fried with onions, bacon, a scrambled egg, sriracha and peanuts! For breakfast!
Not sure if it's weird but my parents used to rub some salt on sliced oranges if they were quite sour, to "neutralize" the sour taste. Tasted better after that though.
When I was a kid I ate fried bologna with peanut butter sandwiches. {{shudder}}
My mom taught my brother and I "nacho cheese Doritos dipped in strawberry yogurt". I forgot where she learned it but it was the best when I was a kid. Also, my s/o likes to put Pocky on pizza.
More like people feeling weird for no reason ❤️. Experiment with your food! How do you think chefs come up with new stuff?!
I ate spaghetti with meatballs and tomato sauce in a grilled sandwich a couple times... it was actually pretty good
So i have a few. 1. My mom ate s'mores black with mustard. 2. My friend ate pizza with cottage cheese all over it. 3. Baked chips dipped in Italian ice. 4. I eat like anything frozen as long as it says fully cooked on it.
And this isnt weird but a sliced potato with a piece of cheese pn each slice. Salt it a little amd microwave it for like thirty seconds amd it is freaking are We.
Load More Replies...I used to make a peanut butter jelly sandwich with goldfish in between. It added a nice crunch tbh!
Shame you can't add anything. My Mom used to male us pasta in Milk with sugar. Or a mix of flour and water cooked in milk and then add sugar. Both are a kind of sweet milk soup. Or raw egg yolk in a mug mixed with sugar and/ or cocoa. That's a desert. And now I wonder if you guys would like Kisiel... thats a desert... like very slimy jell-o. It's SO delicious and fun to play around with
Original pringles dipped in chocolate mousse. French fries dipped in strawberry milkshake. The combination of salty and sweet, 😋 On the other hand, I knew someone at school who ate kiwis with the skin on 😬
I love the big crunchy gerkins, so can slighty crush the inside of a gerkin to eat first and then eat the outside after
I’m the type of person who eats raw onions like apples - I also eat unsalted (salted is disgusting) butter by its self. Delicious.
A kid in my elementary school did this. I thought it was the weirdest thing ever until he brought a banana for lunch one day. Yep. He ate skin and all.
Load More Replies...1. I drink straight soy sauce. just drink it, i'm fine and it's delicious 2. i don't chew rice or pasta
My ex-husband used to eat peanut butter and mustard sandwiches and dip them in Chef Boyardee ravioli.
Try bacon and jelly on bread it is good especially with jalapeño jelly.
When i was a kid we used to have strawberry or raspberry jam on freshly baked Yorkshire puddings. Loved it.
Cooked plain spaghetti noodles, parmesan cheese (in the shake bottle), onion salt and a pinch of Italian seasoning. Mix. Devour. You are welcome :)
Add a little bit of olive oil and you've got yourself a bonafide dish right there. (Garlic too :))
Load More Replies...Yes, some of these sound good, but some of these people need Jesus.
Load More Replies...that's not weird- at least I don't think so. I have those all the time!
Load More Replies...Id make peanut butter and banana with real syrup on raisin toast. or just brown sugar on bread
I like just peanut butter and banana on white bread. Grew up on that and kraft cheese slices with plain potato chips between white bread.
Load More Replies...I used chicken nugget honey sauce for fries as a kid. I cant fathom that now
Still love McDonald's fries with their sweet and sour nugget sauce.
Load More Replies...I eat cereal mixed with vanilla yogurt. It’s pretty quick to prepare and tastes good
I fry jalapeños & pickles in a flour breading & eat them like chips. They are amazing! Got the idea from working at a restaurant. We fried cherry peppers w/ our fried calamari. I hate calamari but love peppers & our breading so id just have him fry up the cherry peppers & plop them in a bowl for me
Try coating fresh sage leaves with tempura batter and frying them. I do these in a cast iron frying pan, top them with a little salt and smoked paprika. They're the best bar snacks ever.
Load More Replies...I have croissants with ham and cheese cooked and then put strawberry jam inside. best breakfast ever.
My dad likes to take Marshmallow Peeps and poke holes in the packaging and let them age for a couple of days. They get a little stale and chewy. He calls it “letting the cure”. He prefers this texture to the fresh soft peeps.
My family would take left over cornbread tear it up, put in a cup of milk and eat with a spoon.
My family too! Its best with buttermilk though!
Load More Replies...Pinto beans, cornbread, pickle juice and cottage cheese, all mixed together!!!!
I used to make this one particular open-faced sandwich for lunch every now and then when I was staying at home by myself during summer vacation or other breaks as a kid. You take two slices of bread (the kind I was brought up with was whole wheat bread), then pour a thin layer of honey over each slice until the surfaces are coated in honey. Leave the honey to harden over the bread. Then spead each slice of bread with a layer of peanut butter, and top each slice with sliced bananas. I used to have that with a glass of ice cold milk and it was such a treat for me. Another thing I loved to do was spend the day eating nothing but Grape Nuts for breakfast and lunch, but the thing is with Grape Nuts is that you have to leave them soaking in the milk for a few minutes until they soften up some, then consume ravenously. One time I was especially hungry and went through an entire box of Grape Nuts, oops.
When making the cheap powdered cheese mac and cheese substutue a dollop of mayonnaise of rall the milk and half the butter. It' the cheesiest!
For desert put an ounce or so of peanuts, two ounces of good chocolate chips, an ounce or two of granola and an ounce or two of the cereal of your choice. Mix together and add eight ounces of chocolate protein shake or milkshake.
Load More Replies...My personal favourites are peanut butter and Marmite (which I was doing in the '80s before it was cool.) I don't eat meat anymore, but any kind of sausage, veggie or otherwise, with marmalade in a sandwich is good. Tuna and pineapple cottage cheese. My Hungarian grandfather used to eat a chunk of bread slathered with pork/beef dripping (the fat left over from cooking meat when it's cooled down and solidified some) and would cover that in paprika. I could never stomach the dripping, but man, I love paprika more than sunshine.
Goose fat also Euro popular as bread spread, with onion slice.
Load More Replies...Peanut butter and cheese sandwiches. People will eat the pb&c crackers but think a sandwich is weird. It's not. Very good.
It's really good, specially with a sharp cheddar!
Load More Replies...Semi thawed sourdough bread. Only the store bought stuff, though. Home made is amazing, but no one freezes it, at least in our house. (It’s gone.) But if you’re thawing bread, there’s a sweet spot when it’s just thawed enough to not be a rock, but still chewy. I can eat four or five slices of that… unfortunately, it only lasts for about half an hour, and as soon as you take it off the loaf it thaws quicker.
Leftover rice fried with onions, bacon, a scrambled egg, sriracha and peanuts! For breakfast!
Not sure if it's weird but my parents used to rub some salt on sliced oranges if they were quite sour, to "neutralize" the sour taste. Tasted better after that though.
When I was a kid I ate fried bologna with peanut butter sandwiches. {{shudder}}
My mom taught my brother and I "nacho cheese Doritos dipped in strawberry yogurt". I forgot where she learned it but it was the best when I was a kid. Also, my s/o likes to put Pocky on pizza.
More like people feeling weird for no reason ❤️. Experiment with your food! How do you think chefs come up with new stuff?!
I ate spaghetti with meatballs and tomato sauce in a grilled sandwich a couple times... it was actually pretty good
So i have a few. 1. My mom ate s'mores black with mustard. 2. My friend ate pizza with cottage cheese all over it. 3. Baked chips dipped in Italian ice. 4. I eat like anything frozen as long as it says fully cooked on it.
And this isnt weird but a sliced potato with a piece of cheese pn each slice. Salt it a little amd microwave it for like thirty seconds amd it is freaking are We.
Load More Replies...I used to make a peanut butter jelly sandwich with goldfish in between. It added a nice crunch tbh!
Shame you can't add anything. My Mom used to male us pasta in Milk with sugar. Or a mix of flour and water cooked in milk and then add sugar. Both are a kind of sweet milk soup. Or raw egg yolk in a mug mixed with sugar and/ or cocoa. That's a desert. And now I wonder if you guys would like Kisiel... thats a desert... like very slimy jell-o. It's SO delicious and fun to play around with
Original pringles dipped in chocolate mousse. French fries dipped in strawberry milkshake. The combination of salty and sweet, 😋 On the other hand, I knew someone at school who ate kiwis with the skin on 😬
I love the big crunchy gerkins, so can slighty crush the inside of a gerkin to eat first and then eat the outside after
I’m the type of person who eats raw onions like apples - I also eat unsalted (salted is disgusting) butter by its self. Delicious.
A kid in my elementary school did this. I thought it was the weirdest thing ever until he brought a banana for lunch one day. Yep. He ate skin and all.
Load More Replies...1. I drink straight soy sauce. just drink it, i'm fine and it's delicious 2. i don't chew rice or pasta
My ex-husband used to eat peanut butter and mustard sandwiches and dip them in Chef Boyardee ravioli.