Woman feeds 'exotic food' to dinner guests without warning them,; they're livid. AITA?
When this woman is weirded out by her dinner guests, she asks Reddit:
'AITA for not upsetting my dinner guests by feeding them 'exotic food?'
A couple weeks ago, my dad’s friend gave my dad some deer meat that he hunted last fall.
I guess he was wanting to get rid of it since it was getting a little old. My dad offered me some. It was vacuum sealed, stored in his friend’s deep freeze since November, and looked to be in good shape. I took some. I had some friends over this weekend, and I thought it’d be cool to make something with the deer.
I made a Mexican dish called salpicon from the deer shoulder, where you cook and shred the meat and marinate it in citrus juice, and serve it cold with chopped radishes, cilantro, onion, etc.
Everyone liked it, but I’ll admit there was no way to know it was deer because it was shredded and marinated. I mentioned in conversation that I was making deer, so most people knew but I didn’t make it a point to tell everyone. Someone mentioned that you would think it was beef. My friend’s wife asked what it was and I told her it was deer.
She freaked out. She made some disgust noises, stood over the sink like she might vomit (but didn’t). Then she came back so mad, saying, “Why are you serving us deer?! That’s disgusting. I don’t eat deer! You have to tell people before serving exotic ingredients.”
I apologized, and we had a little back and forth about it. Basically, her point is that if you’re serving out of the ordinary foods then you have to tell people ahead of time.
If someone doesn’t eat pork, for example, they know pork is a common food and are aware to make sure the host knows and will check if there is pork in something. But no one expects deer to be served, so wouldn’t even think about checking.
I didn’t think deer was that strange. I did mention to others that it was deer, just as conversation. Everyone just acted like that sounds good.
She started saying things like, “Just in case, here’s a list of animals I don’t eat: deer, rats, dogs, cats, possums, etc.” I was getting annoyed at this point, and I jokingly said, “Don’t worry, next time I’ll make a special plate of chicken nuggets and fries just for you.”
We eventually changed the subject. She was fuming the rest of dinner and they left pretty soon after.
I asked people after they left if I was wrong, and most said I should have announced at the table that there was deer in it, since it’s not a common ingredient. Everyone else did eat and enjoy the deer. AITA?
Let's find out. Reddit users are divided on this one.
tubesweaterguru writes:
NTA. But Depends where you live, honestly. Where I live, deer is not exotic at all. Maybe it is for people in like, Los Angeles or something, I dunno.
GCM15 writes:
YTA, bc there is wasting deer disease in your state. The jury is still out if it can be transmitted to humans yet. Prion diseases take years to show up. I don’t want to take the risk. I would be seriously pissed.
sunshine65 writes:
I don't even eat meat and I live in Los Angeles. I don't consider deer to be exotic meat and quite a few restaurants here serve Venison. I also see lots of hunters during open season out in Angeles National Forest.
If I am picky about food, I ask what's in it before I eat. My special diet isn't anybody responsibility but my own. NTA.