Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Fun with Polls What do you eat?

While waiting to fall asleep last night, my thoughts turned to meat. Don't ask me why, but that's just the way my weird brain works. Anyway, I decided in my dozy state that I would run a poll on the boards to find out which meats people eat - I planned all the categories in my head and everything. Fortunately, I soon fell asleep (maybe we should all try planning meat polls as a cure for insomnia ).

This morning, however, I actually remembered my nutty plans the previous night and thought, what the heck, why not give it a try. So, ladies and gentlemen, without more ado, I give you The Grand Meat-Eating Poll Of 2004.

Interesting! Well, as Yvonne knows, I avoid most types of meat and fish. I'm not a vegetarian, but am married to one, and had been going off most types of meat even before I met my veggie, despite growing up in a very carniverous household, where a meal wasn't a meal unless there was meat somewhere in it. (I remember the first time I made my parents a broccoli and cheese bake; "Very nice," I was told. "But it would be better if you had some ham or bacon in it." YUCK!!!

These days, I eat chicken; I'll have turkey at Christmas, but that's the only other meat I eat. I enjoy tuna sanwiches, but never fresh tuna; I'll eat cod or plaice cooked in batter or breadcrumbs, but not otherwise, and no other fish. If I don't have meat at all in a week, I don't miss it.

It's true that I do quite like liver and kidney, but I can't remember having either of those even in the last year, so I couldn't pick them in the poll!


Wendy

In the Netherlands a traditional dinner has to be served with some kind of meat. That's also what I'm used to. My mom doesn't make dinner without meat.

With my difficult schedules I often don't eat home anymore and I have to say I don't miss meat all that much. Sure, I still like it, but a day without it is no big deal anymore.

The meat I eat is mostly pork. Sometimes it's beef, but I'm not a big fan of that. Chicken is something I like very much, especially since I can add herbs to my taste. I do eat fish, but not much. And occasionally turkey.

All I care about lately with food are the vitamins. So lots of fruit, salads and pasta are very welcome. And that's even far easier to prepare.

Saskia

I am so picky when it comes to meat (as with everything else -- some people know I don't eat anything red (unless it is hidden by some other color), mushy, stringy, or really salty. I grew up in a house that didn't use salt, so I've just never gotten used to it.

Anyway the part related to meat is "stringy". I grew up in a meaty house, too, and I will eat certain kinds of meat if they are cooked into things (like bacon in a casserole or occasionally meatballs if in some sort of spaghetti). I never eat turkey or chicken or pork, never eat big pieces of beef like roast or steak -- because they are "stringy" and hurt my lips as I eat them.

In college, I became almost a vegitarian -- because my college (and current) roommate is a vegitarian who keeps kosher. Her boyfriend is pretty close to a vegan. So if we cook things toghether, it doesn't have meat in it by default -- and if we go to restaurants, we usually just end up getting one thing and sharing it, and it is always something vegitarian. My roommate does it fish, though, so I eat fish. Sadly, my favorite seafood is shrimp, and that is forbidden from my apartment because it isn't kosher.

When I go home, my dad is the only one who makes and eat his 4 course meal "like his mom made it" with soup (his infamous soup which has been mentioned several times on IRC), vegetable, potatoes (oh I hate potatoes!), and some kind of large piece of meat. My mom, sister and I usually eat one thing -- usually some new recipe my mom found either on PBS cooks or the Food Network -- never involving big, stringy, chunks of meat.

At Thanksgiving and Christmas and all other stupid holidays like that, I REFUSE to eat turkey and potatoes and cranberry sause and stuffing. Ever since I was a little kid, I've hated poultry with a passion and everything associated with it. From an early age, I made my parents make me pierogis or else I would sit at the table and eat nothing except bread. Now my dad makes ham with I can somethimes eat if it isn't too stringy.

So to summarize -- no red, no mushy, no stringy. Oh and the one rule with no exceptions is NO MAPLE SYRUP. I hate the smell, hate how it is so gross and mushy and sticky . . . I even hate it when I smell it ON someone who just ate it.

- Laura (now you all know what a freak I am )

PS, Y, I didn't even know what some of the choices you had were! And, W, KIDNEY AND LIVER?????? All I can think of is red blood flowing through them -- the liver filters toxins out of the blood, and the kidneys produce urine! And people actually EAT them?

I guess I'm pretty typical of the poll so far -- chicken's our main meat these days, with beef (hamburger, pot roast) & pork & fish coming in somewhere afterwards. Mainly, I'm motivated by prices and go for the cheapest kind I can get. I love my crock pot -- makes everything so tender. My mother used to overcook things, I think...

I have been trying to cut back on the amount we eat in any one serving, though, and I have a few dinners I can make that are meatless. Mostly there, I'm hampered by a complete lack of imagination in the kitchen -- I know these 8 or 10 recipes, so I don't really need to learn more, do I? Though I do try new things sometimes if they look easy

PJ
who thinks cheese, broccoli & ham sound delicious

Well, it won't let me vote because it says I've already voted (which is a lie <G>) but I'll respond anyway.

I grew up in a meat and potatoes kind of family, but everything changed when I went to college and had a huge dining room full of options to choose from at each meal. (Unlike most people who complain about college dining halls, I went to a school with award-winning food service. It was actually very good quality and there were TONS of options.) I probably didn't eat meat for the entire two years I lived on campus. (Of course, the fact that my boyfriend for roughly a year of that was a vegetarian probably played into that too.) After that I lived in an apartment and had to cook for myself. Meat was expensive, messy and took a lot longer to prepare than most non-meat dishes, so I just never bothered. I eat chicken or fish whenever I go out and basically eat vegetarian at home. Recently I have started preparing some fish at home. (I made really great swordfish steaks the other day )

Fish is my favorite meat, but chicken is an easy fallback since it's so common/cheap. I could probably give up meat altogether and never miss it, but I try to eat it occassionally because I like to have a somewhat balanced diet. I would NEVER prepare red meat for myself because I think it's disgusting, but I will eat it if I'm at someone's house and that is what is offered.

My favorite foods in the whole world are bread, cheese and fresh fruit. I could live on those three categories for the rest of my life and be entirely happy. (Also, unfortunaly 600 pounds, so this is not a viable option. <G> But, hey, I can dream)

Annie

Beef, it's what's for dinner!

I was talking to a friend who's a partial vegetarian (she will eat chicken and fish, no red meat) and thought, "Hey, I could give up red meat." And then realized, "Silly Bethy, no, you couldn't!"

My family eats a lot of chicken (especially barbecued -- my dad loves to barbecue, even in below freezing weather...except for the slightly awkward fact that right now our barbecue is frozen shut ) and...beef. We have barbecued steak, meatloaf, meatballs (made with hamburger), spaghetti (made with hamburger in the sauce), vegetable soup (with, you guessed it, beef!), etc, etc. Oh, and pork chops and pork loin, too.

Also, since I'm now the officially designated dinner preparer, I've had to overcome my qualms about touching raw meat -- when I was little and doing those shake and bake pork chops, I made my mother let me wear the plastic gloves she bought for staining wood (a clean pair, of course) before I'd touch the meat! Now I have no problem with it. Meatballs are especially fun. Stick your hands in there and squish. O:-)

Add the fact that my parents are currently doing one of those no-carb diets. (No comment.) So our meal choices are limited to meats and vegetables. No more spaghetti. But I love making stir fry, which blends the meat and the veggies together.

Bethy, the carnivore

I'll eat almost any meat that's put on my plate. Hamburger, pork chops, steak (medium rare - nice and juicy, and leftovers turn out medium after reheating), chicken. I love shrimp, crab, and lobster, but it's so expensive, I don't get to eat it much. I also like liver, but never get to eat it since no one else likes it. However, I refuse to eat meatloaf. I hated it growing up, and I still don't like the taste. There's just something about 5 lbs of meat baked in a bread pan that just makes me squirm. Make it hamburger patties, and I'm fine. But no meatloaf. I do still need to figure out where the hamloaf mix is in the grocery store.

I'm slowly getting my husband used to fish. I don't get it much, because I'm usually going after the red meat. He used to only eat tuna fish, but now he'll eat salmon. I don't think I'll ever get him to eat bluegill or catfish, though.

Pam, you took the words right out of my mouth! And with four kids, price is everything!

Well, I'm glad I went with this batty idea, because it's actually turning out to be pretty interesting!

I'll eat pretty much anything, although I'm a bit squeamish when it comes to the insides of animals. Liver and kidney are all right, but don't ask me to attempt heart, pigs trotters or other unmentionable bits. I'd also have difficulty with the weirder things like snake, but I reckon I'd be able to give, say, ostrich a go. <g> I'm also not that keen on the scarier seafoods like squid and octopus.

On a regular basis, though, I stick to beef, lamb, chicken, ham, bacon, and fish - and non-meat meals are fine, too.

As I expected, chicken is taking the lead in the poll, but it's interesting to see that the other 'common' meats aren't that far behind. Also, I'm amazed that we don't have *any* vegetarians yet - maybe the way I phrased the question put those people off answering the poll. Also interesting is that pork is way out in front of lamb - since pork is excluded on religious grounds for some people, I'm surprised by that, too.

Yvonne

I have a vegetarian's heart but sadly, a carnivore's stomach. I can't tell you how many times I'd be sitting in rush hour traffic and see a cattle truck rumble by (a very common sight in Chicago), swear off beef for all eternity, then find myself eating a juicy hamburger within a week.

And I'm very squeamish when it comes to preparing or eating meat wherein I can see the entire animal - my husband has to prepare the Thanksgiving turkey, and I only buy chicken in parts, usually without bones. Heaven forbid someone serve me a cornish hen or squab, and a pile of bones left on the plate is enough to send me out of a room. I almost called off my wedding when I got a glimpse of my husband-from-Buffalo snarfing down buffalo wings like a pro piling wing after wing into a neat little pile, sans meat. Again, part of the vegetarian in me screaming to get out. On principle, I will not eat veal or lamb.

Thankfully, though, I'm not a big meat lover anyway. I'd just as soon have a great big bowl of pasta with roasted vegetables or a giant baked potato loaded with cheese and broccoli. I'd starve on the Atkins diet - carbs are my friends

But, boy, faced with a plate of crisply fried bacon or a perfectly grilled hamburger, I'm all over it. And although not a big fish eater, I love crab, lobster and scallops any day of the week. My all time favorite lunch food is chicken-salad sandwiches, so I just satisfy my indignant vegetarian by pretending it's soy cubes <g>.

Lynn

You said regularly, Yvonne, and I don't eat lamb often -- it's far too expensive. But I eat it a whole lot more often than pork!

Hold on a minute! I'm the only veggi on the boards? That can't be right... I was going to vote but not post, but I should really make a case for all the veggis in the world.

It just dawned on me that I have been vegetarian longer for than I ate meat. I like that

Don't ask me why... my reasons fluctuate with my moods, though it is partly ethical. But also it's been so long now I don't miss it, when I cook I don't even think about it (that's something meat eaters just *don't* understand... No, I don't think it would be nicer with a bit of chicken in it, I have no idea what it *would* be like with a bit of chicken in it, and I'm not interested in finding out. I like it just as it is thank you very much.)

My most commonly given reason is that I don't have to eat animals so why should I?

My second most common reason is that I really, really, really *don't* like vegetables....

It's ok, I'll wait, it usually takes a while for people to get it.

One thing I don't do is try to convert people. Yes, I belive the world would be a lot better place if we all stopped eating meat, but I'm not about to nag you all about it. You can go eat whatever you like... and please, stop trying to annoy me by making such a point of eating your burger, it really doesn't bother me that you're eating meat. I couldn't care less.

Second thing, top tip for meat eaters: Vegi Burgers by definition are *not* made from meat, so stop expecting them to *taste* like meat.

Helga

I eat what my parents get, basically. Which is usually just chicken, beef, and turkey. No ham or pork, on account of being Jewish. I remember once, though, before I started watching what's kosher and what's not compulsively, I tried shrimps. Bad idea. Now everytime I go to a restaurant and someone orders them I'm dying for some, but I can't have any. Oh, well.

I remember when I was in Newfoundland with my Cadet corps we had hamburgers, and one of the officers kept teasing me and my friend that it was moose. Then when I got upset and said that moose isn't kosher, she confessed and said it was only beef.

Julie

Well, after responding with chicken and turkey, I began to think I should have put vegetarian. I rarely eat meat. Part of it is religious reasons (that would be the no pork and no shellfish part). And part of it is simply that I don't really like meat. (That would be fish, game and most beef.) Chicken and turkey I have once in a great while. I have beef on very rare occasions, but since the mad cow scare nearby, I've figured I can do without beef. Never really liked it anyway. Except that I love philly cheese steak sandwiches. Go figure.

Jana

When I was at home, I ate pretty much whatever my parents put on the table, like beef, chicken, pork, fish, even offal. My doctor recommends pig's liver as a source of iron.

Since we don't have a religion, we don't avoid any particular meat, unless it's on economical grounds (game meat is expensive). In fact, my mother had a very effective way with picky eaters. Let's say I told her for instance, that I didn't like asparagus. I'd find asparagus served for dinner for the rest of the week.

I wouldn't mind going vegetarian one day (or two) a week, for the health benefits and maybe just for the heck of it. But I can't really fathom the idea of giving up meat entirely. I just can't. In particular, chicken and pork.

I am game to try any meat or offal that comes along my way. The only snag is really opportunity (or the lack of it). One thing I really want to try is pig's brain (cooked in soup) . My mother would never let me try it, because that particular organ is very high in cholesterol. However, the brain is really the only thing left in a pig that I haven't eaten before. I've tried everything else. Yes, even that (I know what you guys must be thinking ). I was tricked into that by my mother. For the record, it was pretty chewy.

Now that I'm in Toronto, I've been hoping to come across pig's brain soup in Chinatown (and try it without letting my mom know). So far, no luck.

--meclone2--

A loaf of bread and a cow.

That's my common response when the subject of what I like to eat comes up. I'm Scandanavian, I don't do stuff like spices, and exotic flavors.

Plain and simple.

Tank (who is typing this between bites of his hamburger)

Mostly I eat poultry and fish, with one or two meatless meals per week. Occassionally beef or pork. Lamb is too expensive. I don't care to eat the insides of any animal, just the "meat". Technically, pig's feet are "meat", but I can't bring myself to touch them. (My mother-in-law makes a sort of stew with pig's feet and chickpeas, served over rice, which my husband loves.)

I hear you there, Lynn. My daughter is a vegan, and she is always trying to get me to go vegetarian. Intellectually, I can agree with all her reasoning, but I still like meat!

And I, also, want my meat to look like "meat", not like "animal". (Maybe that's why I don't like pig's feet.) I won't eat anything with its head still on, either. I don't like my food looking back at me.

- Vicki

My problem is I pretty much like to eat everything..

Mostly I find that I prepare poultry almost every night of the week..chicken burgers, turkey meatballs, turkey sausage, turkey bacon..you get the picture. Tonight we had marinated chicken thighs roasted in the oven with this creole rice dish that I made from a mix..yum!

I do love to eat fish and since getting my indoor grill it's so easy to cook I have been buying it more often. Healthier too I guess!

~Liz

You took the words right out of my mouth, Laura. I'll eat meat *in* things, but if you just put a slab of steak in front of me, forget it. I'd rather be a vegetarian. And I was for about a year. Basically, there's no food with taste in my house because my family is always on some weird diet, and my dad can't have salt. Thus, I make a lot of pasta out of the bag when I visit. Anyway, getting back on track, you have to do something with meat to make me eat it. My mom makes a fabulous meatloaf.

Meanwhile, I clicked the 'other' option as well. I haven't had it in a long time, but alligator-on-a-stick in the beach restaurants is awesome. It sort of tastes like chicken.

Jen