Sampling someone else’s homemade food

TastyReuben

TastyReuben

Nosh 'n' Splosh
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Here’s a topic ripped from today’s headlines, by which I mean, something I encountered over my lunch break. :laugh:

I went into town to grab a few things, and I happened to be walking behind the row of checkout lanes, near Customer Service, and there was a small gathering of employees, maybe four or five, and one had a tin of homemade chocolatey treats of some sort, offering them to her coworkers.

“Here, have some, I made these last night.”
“Wow, thanks!”
“These look delicious!”
“I’m a germaphobe, so no.”

That last one got me thinking, how do you feel about sampling someone else’s homemade food?

There’s a larger question at play, too, as I’ve read a few articles over the last several years that say, whatever the reason, homemade treats are no longer considered extra-thoughtful - it could be because of allergies, of being suspicious of ingredients or of the maker’s cleanliness/ability, or of seeing something homemade as inferior to a store-bought product.

How do you all feel about it? If a coworker brought in some homemade treats, would you dive right in, or would you hesitate?
 
exposure to lots of dirt and germs and virusi boosts the immune system....
as I understand from Dear Doctor, slight/small/minor exposure to thing like that seldom results in a full blown infection/illness of whatever source.
just like the covid panic, somebody sneezes in the store, you're not likely to pick it up. if they sneeze in your face . . . .

if it the stuff looks good, I'm up for it!
 
Well, call me old, but when I was working, we would have Pot Lucks at the lunch hour many, many times.
Granted, I had known these people for years and years and I had no issues with their foods, unless I was allergic or didn't care for that particular dish.
We almost always had some sort of goodie sitting in the lunch room for the taking.
There's was one gal who was part-time and going to culinary school at UoH, her baked goods where so beautiful, no one wanted to be the first to dig in :laugh:
 
"I'm a germaphobe"???
that sounds pretty woke to me. If you cook, then you eat and, supposedly, you should try everything. If you think you're an aspiring foodie or ( God forbid! ) chef, then you absolutely have to try everything. Trying new things is the best way to acquire a discerning palate.
 
karadekoolaid said:
that sounds pretty woke to me.
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I don't think it's 'woke'. (I hate that term). Its more 'fussy'. There are plenty of people from all walks of life who worry about germs. This often manifests itself in obsessive cleaning or obsessive personal care and of course, to food itself. There are people who won't eat in restaurants for fear the food can be contaminated.

Most foods people offer to others to sample tend to be quite safe - cakes, pickles, jams etc. Of course for a serious germophobe, the fact the cake had been touched by another person's hands might be enough to put them off!
 
As a coeliac I find it horrendous! Generally a cringey embarrassing thing that couldn't leave the cook feeling further away from their kind intentions!

I don't want to have to quiz the cook for a detailed list of ingredients only to say no sorry and I don't want to get a gluten poisoning!

So I just stick with ah thanks that's really nice of you but I'm a coeliac and I'm sure your stuff's absolutely fine, I've just been on the receiving end of so many well intentioned gluten poisonings it makes me too nervous.

If they really persist and they're confident in giving me a list of ingredients and I believe it then I will likely try it.
If they're not (and generally they're not) I'll say I really appreciate it, such a lovely thing but honestly I wouldn't enjoy eating it due to all the other times it's gone wrong.

And that is as good as it gets for not upsetting someone.

As for the germaphobe thing, sometimes I think it's justified and other times I think "find yourself an accredited therapist"!!

After all the person offering the food is still alive 😆
 
medtran49 said:
I think Covid made the entire world much more aware and afraid of germs.
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True, though I think it started well before that.

When I first started working my current job (2006), it was common for people to have bowls of loose candies (like M&M’s) or home-baked treats sitting on their desk. Now that I think of it, we had a dedicated “Candy Cubicle” that people used to stock with store-bought and homemade treats.

Maybe around 2010…all but disappeared, and I’d hear people whispering that it was “unsanitary” to have a big bowl of candies out, even with a provided utensil to scoop them out untouched, or having a coworker touch a food item while cutting a piece.

Potlucks disappeared as well before Covid. That used to be fun, as far as being able to sample food. We used to have a half-day chili cookoff, and with decent prizes. All gone, sadly, though there were some varying reasons, I’m sure, not just, “Ohhhh, cooties!”
 
Yeah, I guess. Thinking about it, when youngest DGD was in elementary school and parents brought cupcakes for birthdays, my DD made cupcakes and ordered decorations so she could make them really special, the teacher told her that going forward she needed to get cupcakes from a bakery and not bring homemade. Reasons given were that ingredients might be old and out of date, plus there was no way of knowing sanitary conditions. That would have been around 12 years ago.
 
Yeah I wouldn't admit that I'm a germophobe but honestly I know some people are negligent about handwashing and if there are cats (cats often jump on counters) and/or children in their house I'm extra wary. I'd politely decline without giving a reason. I became very aware of pathogens while attending massage therapy school 30+ years ago and I've been an avid handwasher ever since. I see people in public restrooms who don't adequately wash their hands, if they don't do it properly in public, how well are they washing up at home? The first thing I do before handling food is to thoroughly wash my hands and I often use food prep gloves.

I also have a weird phobia where I won't eat chips/crisps if someone else had their hand in the bag. When my kids were little I had my own loaf of bread and my own box of cereal, my own bag of chips, etc. I won't eat salads at a restaurant usually (hot foods only in general) and prefer restaurants with open kitchens where I can see how food is being handled. Also, I keep sanitizer in my purse and after looking at the menu or touching condiment bottles, salt shakes, etc. I sanitize.

Sorry, that was long-winded!
 
None of the above would bother me at all!
I suppose thats why I can happily live where I am.
And yes, I have had food poisoning, but that was many years ago, working in India. My staff bought me some snacks , probably to the value of 1 or 2 day salaries for an individual. No ways I was going to insult them and refuse!
I was always going to take the consequenses and I would do it again.
I was sick like a dog, but never ever thereafter, no matter what I eat
 
badjak said:
None of the above would bother me at all!
I suppose thats why I can happily live where I am.
And yes, I have had food poisoning, but that was many years ago, working in India. My staff bought me some snacks , probably to the value of 1 or 2 day salaries for an individual. No ways I was going to insult them and refuse!
I was always going to take the consequenses and I would do it again.
I was sick like a dog, but never ever thereafter, no matter what I eat
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I guess I won't be going to India! My sister invited me when she was living in New Delhi while working for the State Department but she told me I likely would be disgusted, lol. She said it was very dirty. She's not put off by a little dirt after working and living abroad for so many years.
 
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