ottawa foodies

Growing up, my unle would eat his PB&J with ketchup. My mother loves peanut butter, lettuce and olive sandwiches. When I was young, I was known to put bologna and jam on the same sandwich. Chalk it up to crazy tastebuds, right?

But, it doesn't extend just to sandwiches. I've heard of some weird pizza combinations, and just downright odd things mixed together (I made a stuffing that had cranberries, mushrooms and just a touch of dark chocolate once).

Anyway, there's no forum on this topic that I can find, and given that I just mixed mexican black-bean soup and mushroom barley soup together in the cafeteria, it seemed warranted. The soups work really well together.

So, foodies: Odd food combinations that you think we *have* to try, but no one in your family understands (or, maybe they do). Go!

Peanut butter and cheddar cheese! Really very nice, but no stranger than walnut-crusted chèvre when you think about it. Many strange-sounding combinations involve peanut butter because it's just nuts in disguise and nuts go with pretty much everything, savoury or sweet.

And bologna with jam is no more strange than roast turkey with cranberry relish. So I guess I'm saying that odd food combinations don't really exist! Vanilla cake with mustard frosting anyone? ;-)

i'm a sucker for raw seal heart topped with foie gras

ok, really...if i'm having a cold cut sandwich sometimes ill toss some potato chips inside the sandwich, the crispier the better. it's a texture thing. more of an odd ritual than a combination i guess?

I don't think mine's odd but most people seem grossed out when I mention it - white cheddar dipped in orange juice.

My sister used to dip potato chips in melted chocolate. (I can't get on board with that one!)

Fries dipped in chocolate frostys from Wendy's are another favourite.

My weirdest was probably at a birthday party when I was about nine: Carrot sticks dipped in hot chocolate powder. My best friend will never let me live it down (and frankly, I don't blame her)

Sourberry there is nothing wrong with dipping potato chips in melted chocolate - they are also known as Swoops made by Pringles-;) One of my former colleagues was addicted to those.

I can't really think of any odd food combination I have which is surprising because I will eat most things. The only thing I do that "might" be considered off beat is reversing meals. I will often have leftovers from last night's supper for breakfast and omelettes for supper although I'm sure there are alot of others that do that.

Monty - yep, me too but only if the seal heart is certified baby clubbed seal :P Potato chips in sandwiches - yes! Or on hot dogs!

LWB - I definitely also dip fries in Wendy's frostys! And I used to dip carrots / cheese in chocolate pudding when I was a kid.

Some people think it's weird that I put hot sauce (mayo also good) on pizza. I also love butter + peanut butter + cream cheese + banana + honey on toast (decadent!).

In high school we used to do poutine with mayo, vinegar, ketchup and hot sauce.

Pam, next time try BBQ sauce on pizza...and yeah, I do poutine with those things too :)

I love toasted strawberry jam and bacon sandwiches!

My 4 year old son hates any condiment except maple syrup, he dips cheese in it.

I also love hot sauce on pizza, it is also great sprinkled on a bowl of plain ruffled chips.

I agree with MONTY and LWB too! I tried them and LOVED them! My friends gave me strange looks. But not as strange when I ate Eggo waffles with mayo and hot chocolate powder.
PAM, I may try your butter+PB+cream cheese+banana+honey some time. It sounds GREAT!

Peanut butter on my oat meal.

How about the European classic - mayo on your french fries instead of ketchup?

I still get bugged about the sandwiches I made as a kid. Pretty much peanut butter with whatever condiment combinations I could think of. Special favorites included peanut butter with mayo and green relish. The other was peanut butter with ketchup and chili powder. I've realized the later is pretty close to the peanut satay sauce - I was eating thai and didn't even know it! I'd be known to throw whatever lunch meat we had in too - but it was rare we'd actually have any of that in the house.

Just after my last post in this thread my 7 year old son said for the first time ever that he wanted an olive and jam sandwich :-)

But, wait. Isn't that the same 7 year old son who likes olive brine? Just sayin.

And peanut butter and pickle is a huge favourite of mine. Pickle and anything, really.

Sunny eggs on pizza. Ok sunny eggs on pretty much anything savoury and doughy.

The last weird food combination i had was in grade 7-8: those fruit flavored potato chips. I guess i can thank those chips undoing my food sensibilities.

BUT: syrup + cheese ... ugh. Get that kid some help! (intoned in an admiring voice.)

Eggs on pizza is the bomb- In France I used to eat this pizza called a St Bart which had crab meat, onion, bechamel sauce, mushrooms and an egg in the centre.

Potato on pizza is good too. Also had an escargot, mushroom, garlic butter and onion one. Yum.

I like taking deli meat and rolling baby peeled carrots and cheese up in it and eating it. Some times I will dip these in BBQ sauce.

Also roll up pickles in lieu of carrots.

I like pickles in my grilled cheese.

I like eating potato chips with cottage cheese.

Peanut butter and sliced apples on toast is good when you don't have bananas.

I am a bit of a carb junkie and like to throw cooked potatoes into rice.

cooked potatoes in rice. i will have to try this.

I am in there with Zymurgist for mayo with fries, but then again I am 1/4 Belgian so that's my escuse. Even better when it is real, homemade mayo. Yummo!

My spouse was born in England. She likes Peanut Butter and Marmite sandwich on whole grain (homemade) bread. Sometimes shes goes all the way and adds grainy mustard in there also, and lettuce when available.

I can't stand Marmite!!

OT: I sent Andrew, my spouse, out for yeast one day for bread. He brought back Marmite, and put in the measured amount without asking. The bread was an epic failure.

Pan Bagnat: that snail pizza sounds lovely! And I've been dipping my grilled cheese sandwiches in dill pickle juice since childhood. Good taste!

To add to the list, I get some pretty weird looks sometimes when I ask for mustard on my salad.

The closest thing I get to a favourite "odd combination" is similar to the one Harrysmom mentioned above: crisp bacon married to toast with raspberry jam. I don't make it into a sandwich, though.

There are certain food perversions that run in my family:

- Peanut butter and relish sandwiches (as mentioned by Sourdough)
- BBQ chips and Wink (do they even sell that grapefruit-ed delight around here any more?)
- Sugar Crisp and tomato juice (not with the tomato juice *on* the Sugar Crisp; one handful of dry cereal chased with tomato juice)

I do not ascribe to any one of these, but I can appreciate the sweet/salty or sweet/savoury/sour theme that runs through them.

Wait, is ice wine and blue cheese an odd combination?

I guess some of these things aren't that odd at all considering all us foodies like them!!!

I love:
-Chips on hot dogs!
-Bacon and raspberry jam
-Old cheddar and raspberry jam
-fries and frosty (mmm!)
-Apple sauce and french fries/rice or mashed potatoes! sooooo good. It sounds gross but it is delicious. Especially with homemade apple sauce.

Well I love most of these things .. unfortunately you just cant eat them every day hahahahah

Sriracha on French Baker croissants. And warmed up double chocolate cookies from Bridgehead.

and uhm...actually, everything.

There's nothing I won't put sriracha on.

My old roommate and I used to make mustard sandwiches.
White hotdog bun + mustard (usually no name yellow) = dinner. I liked to 'jazz' mine up with sliced onions. Yum!

Lady Who Brunches - Fun topic!

As a kid I was big on SALTY & SOUR... Salt, Vinegar, Lemon and Pickles were my friends... still crave them all, although now much more in moderation.

A standby from my childhood that still holds true today, if I am having French Fries with Gray (say at St Hubert) then there still has to be a whole lot of vinegar involved as well. Many people see the Gravy-Vinegar combo as wierd.

Of course as a Quebecer, I'm used to that somewhat strange combo of Maple Taffy on the Snow (rolled up on a stick) followed by a pickle chaser.

Zym - Sounds like your boy and I have similar taste buds. LOL

Pasta Lover - Gosh yes, Supper for Breakfast and Breakfast for Dinner.

Pam - Hot sauce on Pizza, absolutely!

Harry's Mom - Maple Syrup and Cheese... that one isn't a big leap at all... I've been to many a Church Dinner that finished up with Apple Pie with Cheddar, add a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream, and a generous pour of Maple Syrup... Yum, Yum.

Pickles are definitely meant to go with Grilled Cheese, and it doesn't matter what kind of pickles (gherkins, dills, bread & butter, olives) the more the merrier.

Momomoto - Ice Wine & Blue Cheese is a classic... did a wine tasting recently and it was a featured pairing... turned a lot of people from Blue Cheese Haters to Blue Cheese Lovers.

Monty - I like my Foie Gras with Turtle Soup... especially if the Turtle falls apart after being pre-broiled ;-0

F&T: i had no idea that a turtle would disintegrate if boiled long enough. i will have to try that.

I like a fried egg and bacon in my burger. I also put vinegar on my pizza. I love fried escargot and blue cheese/garlic sauce or melted boursin on a thing crust pizza..YUMM

Poutine, that reminds me: I love Australian style burgers--with cheese, pinapple, beet and a fried egg. It's such an odd combination, but sooooo tasty!

I does sound odd, but I am sure it's great. I just noticed that I can't spell or multitask I should say.... I meant to say "Thin crust pizza"...Glad it's Friday :-)

As a kid, I enjoyed regular rippled potato chips soaked in cola for a few seconds.

I add a bit of milk to popcorn seasoning sauce to make it shrivel up more.

I add vinegar to many of my sandwiches to soften the bread.

Not really a weird combo, but I like to let my salads (even the delicate ones) sit for a while to soak up the dressing.

Yeah... I like my food soggy.

My ex used to eat potato chips (most often BBQ) with hot sauce and vinegar on them.

Candice - My friend and I used to sprinkle vinegar on regular potato chips and microwave them. Is it odd to make one's own salt and vinegar chips? I dunno.

Momo: not really! That seems like a good use of plain chips to me, if you like S&V chips. :D

My ex, however, used to take BBQ chips, toss them into a bowl, cover them with some vinegar (regular, white vinegar) and a bunch of hot sauce, and then eat them. He'd use the vinegar/hot sauce mixture as sort of a dip as he went along, and chips towards the bottom would usually be pretty soggy from the mixture.

I don't personally find this weird, but a few past boyfriends have thought I was crazy for putting maple syrup all over my breakfast sausage and/or bacon. Makes perfect sense to me.

I too am a sucker for potato chips on hotdogs - it reminds me of birthday parties!!!

A regular sandwich in my lunch growing up was creamcheese and jam. I don't find that weird either, but other people found it odd that it was not peaut butter instead.

I am a giant fan of pouring balsamic vinegar into cream soups to finish them- you wouldn't think it would be compatible with say, a creamy yam soup or cream of mushroom, but it really gives it the extra zing it's missing.

My best friends favourite sandwich was toasted peanut butter, mayonnaise, bacon, tomato and lettuce. And if you have an old copy of The Joy of Cooking, it is in there. Personally, I never warmed up to it. The oddest thing i did was put ketchup (not mustard) on bologna sandwiches--which I didn't like anyway but ate to keep the peace!

McDonald fries dipped in their soft serve ice cream. It was a delicious accidental discovery, so I totally relate to your fries & frosty, Lady Who Brunches.