Poor single people eat weird things

[Bakemaster]

Usually plain. I tried the white cheddar ones but it didn't really jive with the PB&J side. Which reminds me, cheese is cool on the lunchmeat side too, but no veggies. One needs to be able to at least pretend this thing fits in one's mouth.

[SecondTalon]

I've never had Moby Dick's. Not because it looks shoddy (because you are definitely right about that), but I just imagine that any food created inside that building must be absolutely dripping in grease. Should I actually try it?

Well, it's deep fried fish, so yeah, it is.. I find it less greasy than Captain Ds or Long John Silvers, at least. And it tastes better, so .. well, it's no seafood restaurant on the coast, or diner attached to a catfish farm or whatever, but it's not bad. And they have friggen Okra. A fast-food joint screwed up enough to have okra on the menu deserves a try. That's all I'm saying.

*edit* Of course, I've only hit the ones in J-town and Middletown. At any of the other locations... no idea of the quality, but I'd assume basically the same.

[Sandry]

I was hungry a little while ago. Upon looking into my section of the fridge, I found strawberry jam, salsa (hot, which is the only variety that I believe salsa should appear in) and swiss cheese. I also had a bit less than half a loaf of bread in the cupboard.

I then proceeded to invent the cheese and salsa sandwich, a historical event for which I expect a wikipedia entry for within the next 24 hours.

I've probably had weirder combinations from things in my fridge in the past, but then I thought "Hey, I bet there are people out there who've whipped up weirder shit than me while on a tighter budget than mine"

So what concoctions have the rest of you assembled under similar circumstances?

Funny... I went to a picnic this summer in which one of the attendees intentionally packed cheese and salsa sandwiches.

They weren't bad, per se... they weren't quite good, either (sorry Micah!). If I had to characterise them in one word, that word would be "why?"

[PatrickRsGhost]

(And you really cannot beat crab taken straight from the ocean.)

HFN. Same goes for any seafood, for that matter. Mom and I will be going down to Florida this October to visit relatives. We will be eating at one of the gulf-shore restaurants in Pensacola or elsewhere, and we will be coming back with a cooler, packed with dry ice, full of shrimp and red snapper. I don't think I've had snapper. I told her we need a huge load of shrimp. I also said if we do go to any of the gulf shore restaurants, I will make it a point to skip breakfast (and maybe lunch if we don't go until evening) in order to eat a huge load of shrimp.

She told me we have to stop at some particular restaurant in Pensacola. I said of course we will. I need to restock on fresh (and dammit I mean FRESH) seafood. Red Lobster ain't cutting it for me anymore. I want to see my dinner being reeled up on the net first, then making it to the boiler. Or in the case of fish, to the deep-fryer.

[gmalivuk]

Salsa and ramen doesn't count as strange. They're sold together, here (well, not salsa like you're used to in the States, but it's still a hot sauce).

I find many sweet things go very well with a bit of chili. I came to this conclusion after going to Albuquerque's hot foods festival last year, where I tried chili and chocolate covered almonds, chili-strawberry jam, chili hot fudge sauce (for ice cream), and numerous other concoctions. Admittedly, some of them seemed to be from people who just decided to throw chili in whatever they had on hand, which wasn't so good. But other stuff was really, really tasty.

[OCR]

The New Mexicans enjoy throwing some fruits into their ridiculously hot salsa. Granted my description of ridiculously hot and a New Mexican(New Mexiconian?) 's definition of ridiculously hot are quite different. I'm surprised you didn't get some pecans in there too.

[Traisenau]

Oh, when I went to the national Boy Scout Jamboree, I had no clue what we were eating ever. For instance, one night we were having a pasta and lobster dish... supposedly. Basically, we cooked all of our own meals, and the lobster and pasta they gave us came in a plastic container, and we had to steam it... Anyway, long story short, everywhere across all the camps, the plastic containers melted, so we ate already very plasticy pasta and lobster with a side dish of plastic. We basically just covered all of our meals in Texas Pete the entire week and we survived.

[djn]

Oh, when I went to the national Boy Scout Jamboree, I had no clue what we were eating ever. For instance, one night we were having a pasta and lobster dish... supposedly. Basically, we cooked all of our own meals, and the lobster and pasta they gave us came in a plastic container, and we had to steam it... Anyway, long story short, everywhere across all the camps, the plastic containers melted, so we ate already very plasticy pasta and lobster with a side dish of plastic. We basically just covered all of our meals in Texas Pete the entire week and we survived.

Sounds vaguely like dinner in the army. Everything (overboiled potatoes, overboiled pasta, overboiled carrots, overboiled fish, overboiled peas, stale bread) tasted the same, was eaten with generous amount of generic MSG/onion/paprika - spice, the same kind you'll get on french fries. They went through scary amounts of the stuff.

(I was in a separate branch and usually got real food.)

[Traisenau]

Oh, when I went to the national Boy Scout Jamboree, I had no clue what we were eating ever. For instance, one night we were having a pasta and lobster dish... supposedly. Basically, we cooked all of our own meals, and the lobster and pasta they gave us came in a plastic container, and we had to steam it... Anyway, long story short, everywhere across all the camps, the plastic containers melted, so we ate already very plasticy pasta and lobster with a side dish of plastic. We basically just covered all of our meals in Texas Pete the entire week and we survived.

Sounds vaguely like dinner in the army. Everything (overboiled potatoes, overboiled pasta, overboiled carrots, overboiled fish, overboiled peas, stale bread) tasted the same, was eaten with generous amount of generic MSG/onion/paprika - spice, the same kind you'll get on french fries. They went through scary amounts of the stuff.

(I was in a separate branch and usually got real food.)

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say thats because we were staying on an army base... I think it was something like Fort Bunker Hill... it was somewhere in Virginia is all I really remember.

[Tractor]

Side note: You don't hafta be poor to come up with random concoctions for dinner, just single.

Result of a few things:
1) No one else to cook for. Seems a waste to cook a decent meal only to put half in the fridge for later.
2) No one to help with the resulting dishes
3) No food in the house, since it's easier to put off grocery shopping when you're the only one. "I can eat cheese and crackers for dinner, why not? I'll just have a bigger lunch tomorrow."

[TheTankengine]

*edit* Of course, I've only hit the ones in J-town and Middletown. At any of the other locations... no idea of the quality, but I'd assume basically the same.

I'll have to try the one in Jtown, because I'm in Jtown, which makes it rather convenient.

Side note: You don't hafta be poor to come up with random concoctions for dinner, just single.

Result of a few things:
1) No one else to cook for. Seems a waste to cook a decent meal only to put half in the fridge for later.
2) No one to help with the resulting dishes
3) No food in the house, since it's easier to put off grocery shopping when you're the only one. "I can eat cheese and crackers for dinner, why not? I'll just have a bigger lunch tomorrow."

I'd agree with 2 and 3, but not one. I rather enjoy the whole process of cooking. Everything from coming up with new recipes to cutting up vegetables to the wonderful smells half way through and finally eating something that was made entirely from scratch. I guess its a "satisfaction of a job well done" thing.

Also, 1337 cooking skills impress the ladies time after time.

[djn]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say thats because we were staying on an army base... I think it was something like Fort Bunker Hill... it was somewhere in Virginia is all I really remember."

That would make sense, yes.
(I was among these guys. )

[OCR]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say thats because we were staying on an army base... I think it was something like Fort Bunker Hill... it was somewhere in Virginia is all I really remember.

Fort AP Hill I believe.

[Alpha Omicron]

The bachelor classic: buns with cheese and/or margarine, microwaved.

[Sprocket]

Oh GEEZ! At least put them in the toaster oven! Is it SO HARD to butter a pan and GRILL somethin' proper-like!?

I eat a lot of salad these days. Bag o' spinach, grape tomatoes, feta, mushrooms...various kinds of olive oil and balsamic vinegar based dressings that I make (one with cheddar, one with humus, most with garlic, red wine if I've got it) fresh basil sometimes, walnuts sometimes, cranberries sometimes, canned tuna sometimes, lochs sometimes, often fake chicken patties or nuggest cut into ittle bits. Sometimes a garden burger/morning star farms, a few times mahi mahi burger done the same way. I loves my salads. Nummmmy.

[Castaway]

I then proceeded to invent the cheese and salsa sandwich, a historical event for which I expect a wikipedia entry for within the next 24 hours.

YOU WIN! Sometimes if i don't have bread i just eat sliced meat with my fingers. Once my friend and I invented something that we christened "The Behemoth". It included:
1. Pita
2. Lo Mein (greasy american lo mein)
3. Chicken fingers (fried of course)
4. Sauce
5. Marshmallow
6. ????
7. PROFIT!

Also, ice cream on top of donuts. Win.

[xooll]

Side note: You don't hafta be poor to come up with random concoctions for dinner, just single.

Result of a few things:
1) No one else to cook for. Seems a waste to cook a decent meal only to put half in the fridge for later.
2) No one to help with the resulting dishes
3) No food in the house, since it's easier to put off grocery shopping when you're the only one. "I can eat cheese and crackers for dinner, why not? I'll just have a bigger lunch tomorrow."

You don't have to be single either. Just adventurous.

[Klye]

One morning me and some friends were making nachos, but ran out of time. We ended up making smoothies with those fruit ice stick things and some sobe energy drink things... They were the grossest color imaginable, but actually tasted pretty good.

I have a friend whose sister eats ramen noodles raw.
Oh! And anither guy puts ketchup on his masged potatoes, but that's kinda understandable. I guess?

[QuantumTroll]

The weirdest food I've eaten was probably when I was stoned making terrible concoctions in our huge kitchen. Sometimes we fed them to the sober people in the house. That never worked well.

One thing I remember is a peanut-butter "treat". The idea was sweet peanut butter popsicles. The problem was we didn't have popsicle sticks. So we tried making frozen peanut butter nuggets. I think we ended up mixing sugar and peanut butter, glopping it on a pan, dusting it with powdered sugar, and freezing it. Not enough sugar, not enough freezing, and cheap peanut butter made the whole mess pretty awful.

My crazy friend, though. His bachelor food was almost an art form, in the way that modern art can be considered art. His trusty jar of MSG crystals never left his side, black pepper was used to spice up coffee, uncooked rice was used in cookies, strange colors were added for no particular reason, shredded pepperoni was put in bread... The worst part was that he'd do this stuff sober, and it was 10 times crazier than the stuff I'd pull when I could barely think.

ETA: Ketchup on mashed potatoes is common in some parts of the world. Same with mayo on fries. Obviously, those parts of the world are superior on all counts.

And let's not forget BANANA CURRY PIZZA!!! Big yum!

[Dibley]

Raisins dipped in miso are surprisingly yummy.

I have also added everything imaginable to ramen. Chipotle sauce and beer are the current winners. for ramen enhancement.

[Akira]

I like to make instant Ramen like it's serious, too. I add eggs and baby corn and bamboo shoots and shit... it can get pretty elaborate.

I do this too XD My favorite combination so far involves corn, deli ham (gotta add right before you eat--if it's thinly enough sliced it will warm up, but if you add it when it's on the stove, it hardens unpleasantly), and thin strips of nori. If you arrange them just right, they curl up and look really cool until you start eating. *nod*

Never use Maruchan brand. Use anything else, but Maruchan=</3

[Mighty Jalapeno]

Oh, when I went to the national Boy Scout Jamboree, I had no clue what we were eating ever. For instance, one night we were having a pasta and lobster dish... supposedly. Basically, we cooked all of our own meals, and the lobster and pasta they gave us came in a plastic container, and we had to steam it... Anyway, long story short, everywhere across all the camps, the plastic containers melted, so we ate already very plasticy pasta and lobster with a side dish of plastic. We basically just covered all of our meals in Texas Pete the entire week and we survived.

We did that at the Canadian Jamboree, Kaninaskis. For a desert portion of Alberta, you wouldn't expect it to rain the entire time, would you? Nope.... most of our meals were squeezy cheese, donkey-dink (garlic sausage), crackers and ramen. All the good stuff we foraged from the various food kiosks set up by the other contingents. Apparently, people from BC, on the shores of the Pacific ocean, home to the Armstrong dairy farms and the Sun-Rype fruit industry, Money's mushrooms and Angus beef.... apparently, our contingent was the "squeezy-cheese and donkey-dink" contingent. Makes me proud.

Mayo on fries = win! Note, it has to be mayonaisse, not Miracle Whip.

[Alpha Omicron]

Mmmm. Poutine.

[Jauss]

Reading the first page of this thread is making me crave hush puppies, damn you!

I ate mashed spam and ketchup sandwiches as a kid. My housemates have tried deep-frying hummus and grapes and other random things. A friend used to make sandwiches with ham, pickles, mustard, cheese, potato chips, and ranch dressing. Sometimes with lettuce. I started making them too and adding roasted red pepper hummus.

I've tried pickled green beans dipped in vegan cream cheese. I like to mix all of the fountain sodas at fast food places, but haven't done that in a while. When I was young I'd mix mashed potatoes, ground beef, mixed vegetables, and barbecue sauce together and eat the resulting disgusting looking, but delicious slop. Note to self: Make slop sometime soon.

And let's not forget BANANA CURRY PIZZA!!! Big yum!

Intriguing.

[Toeofdoom]

Lets see, I havent made anything so interesting recently... But I did have the idea of a macaroni cheese pizza. high mozzerela content of course, and add some oregano and basil so its like a margerita pizza. Actually, really I just made that up on the spot then, but now that I think of it I have to cook tomorrow and that idea is pretty awesome...

Whats with "mac & cheese" being some really easy meal apparently anyway? At my house we made it from scratch and like you had to cook the pasta then make a cheese sauce then add more types of cheese and all that stuff then cook it for quite a while (okay, so not its *that* hard really), but people are talking about it in a packet...

[tarkadal]

This one time I started cooking some noodles, then realized I had no dressing appropriate for noodles. Not wanting to eat plain noodles, I used plain old tomato sauce. It wasn't bad.

The other day, all I ate the entire day was a pack of chocolate Tiny Teddies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_Teddy for those that don't know.

A few days before that, I had half a packet of dry crackers for dinner.

I'm just kind of lazy sometimes.

[Tractor]

MJ, it looks like someone puked on your fries. You may want to see if you can get a refund on that...

[PatrickRsGhost]

Whats with "mac & cheese" being some really easy meal apparently anyway? At my house we made it from scratch and like you had to cook the pasta then make a cheese sauce then add more types of cheese and all that stuff then cook it for quite a while (okay, so not its *that* hard really), but people are talking about it in a packet...

Check your shops, you might have the Kraft Macaroni & Cheese "dinner" that comes in the box:



You just boil the macaroni, drain it, add the cheese powder packet to it, along with a bit of milk and butter or margarine.

There's a Deluxe variety that has a cheese sauce in the packet, similar to the cheese spread for crackers.

The Kraft dinners (and store brands) usually cost very little, and can provide two to four servings, depending on how much you can eat. Some people just buy the regular elbow macaroni, and toss in some cheese dip meant for chips or crackers, or use the canned cheese (Cheez Whiz) if it's available. You can also do this with the Kraft mac & cheese, if you don't have milk and margarine or butter. It doesn't require a whole lot of either, though.

[Hammer]

*hangs head in shame* I love Kraft mac and cheese.

[Tractor]

Check your shops, you might have the Kraft Macaroni & Cheese "dinner" that comes in the box:

You just boil the macaroni, drain it, add the cheese powder packet to it, along with a bit of milk and butter or margarine.

mmm...good stuff. If only I could keep milk around with which to make it. That's the other problem with being single and attempting to cook stuff - all the perishables die before you can use them. Like the half box of strawberries and few-week-old milk in my fridge. Actually, I can't remember the last time I finished a carton of milk. I did find that if you leave it in there for over a month, it gets a layered look...completely nasty.

The Kraft dinners (and store brands) usually cost very little, and can provide two to four servings, depending on how much you can eat.

Actually, 1 standard box of kraft mac&cheese = 1 meal.

[PatrickRsGhost]

*hangs head in shame* I love Kraft mac and cheese.

Nothing to be ashamed of, unless you're referring to the dehydrated cheese-flavored food product that "magically" turns into liquidated cheese-flavored food product when milk and margarine are present. I love it too. I grew up on the stuff. My dad would make macaweenies whenever mom had to work late, or was away somewhere for several hours. She thought it was gross, but he and I loved it. The two of us would devour the whole pot, and destroy the evidence (read: wash the dishes really well).

I prefer the Deluxe variety myself, mainly the Sharp Cheddar flavor. Sometimes I like to mix in real cheddar cheese (win), along with milk and whatever else it says on the box, and bake it (double-win).

[rachel]

I eat rice and catsup mixed together on a regular basis. It is pretty delicious.

[stuck]

What in the name of all that is holy is "catsup"? It sounds like something a cat regurgitates. WHY WOULD YOU EAT THAT?!

[PatrickRsGhost]

What in the name of all that is holy is "catsup"? It sounds like something a cat regurgitates. WHY WOULD YOU EAT THAT?!

Also spelled (and pronounced) as "ketchup" (depends on where you live), it is a condiment consisting primarily of tomato puree, vinegar, salt, sugar, and other ingredients.

It goes great on almost everything, mainly meat, and to a lesser extent, vegetables. Especially potatoes.

[rachel]

Because it is tasty and delicious when combined with basically every food ever? Including foods that are usually not foods by themselves, like lettuce.

[TheTankengine]

lettuce + ketchup != food

Sorry rachel, but that is just plain weird.

[Phenriz]

Mayo on fries = win! Note, it has to be mayonaisse, not Miracle Whip.

[img]

Gee Willikers i love you Jalapeno! someone understands my plight!

Although i don't put the mayo directly on the fries, i put it on the side and dip my fries into it. Everyone down here doesn't understand why i do it.

Quite possibly it's the fattest thing a person can do, dipping potatoes, fried in oil, into an emulsion of fat, But god does it taste sooo good.

[Phenriz]

I eat rice and catsup mixed together on a regular basis. It is pretty delicious.

better combination is rice + , it's like a spicy sweet, and the best tasting all-purpose hotsauce on earth.

[Tractor]

RE: Ketchup/catsup - It sucks. 'Nuff said.


Alternate general food enhancers include cheese and barbeque sauce.

[TheTankengine]

best combination is anything + , it's like a spicy sweet nectar of life.

Fix-ed!