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I do this. I also do other weird things like eat all around the "nest" of gravy in mashed potatoes and only eat the center when everything else on my plate is gone so there isn't any "contamination" of gravy on other things.
That is, unless I'm eating turkey. Then, mixing it with Mashed Potatoes is a must.
Man, I dunno, I'm autistic, and I feel like this is one of those "quirky, relatable things that I'm going to baselessly ascribe to autism" posts.
I reckon this all goes to intensity of the experience. There's a chasm between having a playful quirk and being painfully unable to decide what to eat first, every time unless it's a meal familiar to you on a molecular level.
Hence the "not autism" in the title.
Huh, you know what, I totally skipped over the title mentally, but implying that makes it better is, uh...
Like 80% of the memes in this community...
People these days will post anything and call it an autism meme. The other day I saw a meme about having a meltdown in public because the lights in a restaurant are too bright with a #autism tag, and no, that's something everyone goes through. Every neurotypical does that and has to be calmed down by their partner reminding them to think about models of diesel locomotive. I know because I have autism, which makes me an expert on what's normal to experience
Buddy, it's picking the food you eat last so the flavor lingers, just dressed up in le quirky Tumblr speak. There's no evidence this is an experience unique to, significantly more prevalent in, or meaningfully changed by autism.
Calm down.
Edit: Like there's literally an extremely common English expression "saving the best for last" that's near-universally understood to apply to things like food, media, performances, etc. I can't even believe I need to explain this.
This read has been an emotional rollercoaster
I get where you’re coming from, but I also think some general traits that people can have are more common in people with autism.
Not everything is either definitively autistic or definitively just a trait.
I frequently find myself evaluating what parts of myself I can ascribe to autism versus just a facet of my personality. On the off chance that you have a manual that helps with this delineation, please send it my way!
Thats an autism thing? 🤯🤯
No.
Saving the best for last is pretty common.
I once had a meltdown when I was suuuuper young after my dad threw away my bowl of salad, which at that point was just the cucumbers I was saving as they were my favorite part. He yelled at me for crying and thought I left them because I didn't like them, my mom comforted me and yelled back at him explaining why I ate that way. One of the many moments that I'm sure compounded until their eventual divorce. Yay traumatic memories! So going to buy some cucumbers when I go to the store next 🤤
I have some cucumbers in the fridge right now, guess who's making salad later
Cucumbers were always my favorite part too. I was embarrassingly old before I realized you can just chop up a bowl of cucumbers and call it a salad
I had an ex who would eat faster than me, then go for things on my plate, where I'd carefully saved the best for last.
Until I told him if he tried that again, my fork's going into his hand next.
The white people call that "dessert"
When i was younger, i optimized it and chose the order based on how much i can tolerate said food. The hardest to eat parts first, as at the beginning of a meal I'm hungriest and that can more easily overide some unsuitability and the easiest to eat parts last when the hunger is no longer pushing to eat.
Nowadays, if it wouldn't be that annoying to wash the blender, I'd just blend everything and drink it. Daily eating is annoying enough already.
Wow. Very much the same. I always ate in order of texture, from worst to best. Now my favorite meals are things I generously call "burrito bowls", when they're just a bunch of stuff that tastes good together, mixed together.
The Jetsons promised me single pills that were full meals. Where are my meal pills?
Yeah, still waiting those meal pills or at least all in one superfood.
I know there's Huel, but it does seem to get some pushback and I can't figure out is it legitimate or not. Like whatever it's just based on emotional relationships to food and most people unable to eat the same thing more than few times in row or is it actually legitimately missing some crucial nutrients and would cause issues in the long term.
Who are you and get out of my mind now. I don't like when others type what I'm thinking.
But before you do, don't forget to talk about those unbearable flavors/textures that can't absolutely be in the plate because if you find them in your mouth by mistake, they feel like a personal attack against your tastebuds.
Also, it's not always flavour AND texture. There are forbidden textures with pleasant taste (onions) and pleasant textures with forbidden taste (broccoli).
Primarily it was fatty parts or ligaments of meat. Basically everything besides lean meat. It did create somewhat of retching reaction. It did reduce over the years and as i can choose what type of meat i eat myself nowadays, it's not as big of an issue.
Biggest issue is generally efficiency. Any food that requires way too much effort to eat isn't really worth it. Like chicken wings, that stuff is primarily bones and ligaments, minimal edible tissue. Completely pointless food. Chicken breast, much better, it's primarily lean meat.
Not only limited to meats. Like oranges, the peeling of those makes those worthless to eat.
So relatable. I eventually went vegan, but as a kid this was me. The only kind of meat I'd tolerate was chicken. When my parents make some kind of steak, I'd cut all the fatty parts off the meat and end up only eating a few tiny bits. Then they would get upset because I didn't eat enough of it.
I never could tolerate the chewy fat. Which makes it all the weirder when meat-eaters eat beef and go, "You don't know what you're missing." Yeah I do, I'm missing a texture I can't stand, and that's a win in my book.
Curious, how do you feel about mushrooms? I find the texture similarly revolting, but with a rubbery texture added in. Then the smell when they are cooking... it's like somebody's cooking up dirt.
I have thought about veganism, but then i go to the store and see the price and meager choice with vegan replacements and give up.
It seems to be easier to just take the cheaper and more abundant base ingredients to cover the bodies base needs.
Luckily unflavored chicken breast and lean cuts of pork(heavily depends on the quality) are amongst the cheapest meats and can be bought in bulk during a sale. Adding in some carb source(potatoes, rice, buckwheat, pasta, quick oats), some greens(paprika, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, garlic), some dairy products and the basic nutritional needs seem to be covered well enough and cheaply.
As for mushrooms, honestly i can't recall when i ate those last time. I remember from childhood that I really didn't like those, yeah those were kinda odd to eat. But as an adult i seem to have been subconsciously avoiding those.
As a kid, I used to leave the best (the meat) for last, so I first ate all potatoes on the plate.
Then my mom thought I didn't like the meat, so she gave more to my brother and less to me, and I was too timid to complain.
As a parent I really don't get this. Me and my daughter do the same and I ask her if she's leaving the best for last.
Really strange not to see this.
slytherin
🤮🤮🤮
Oh I've got a variant! When I eat a dish with meat and a side, I have to eat the meat first. If I inadvertently finish the side before the meat, I am overwhelmed by a terrible sense of failure.
I’m not super bothered about what I eat last (although I definitely do that), but when I was a kid I had severe The Food Must Not Touch or it is Ruined issues. Thank Christ school lunch trays segregated all the food or I’d have starved. I didn’t have it as bad as my friend though, he’d literally puke if forced to eat one of his food aversions.
I still don’t like it, but I can get over it unless it’s a truly vile combo or texture.
I used divided plates at home up to my teenage years, because I was the same way. I can tolerate more foods touching now, but there are some things I just don't get. Like when one of the things on the plate is liquidy, like apple sauce, and it eventually ends up touching everything around it - rice, meat, veggies, all end up tinged with apple sauce. I still don't understand how people tolerate that.
I can never forget the terrible line, "bUt iT aLL miXeS iN yOUr sTomAcH." Bruh, I don't taste with my stomach, what kind of argument is that? It's like people completely miss the point of making foods with different flavors.
Does anyone else feel like the first one of something they enjoy is the best, and then near-literally can’t taste the rest of things after that?
Happens with me and pretty much everything. First bite of pizza is the best, every single bite after that? Might as well be air.