'AITA for declaring to a foodie that my favorite food is raw celery, causing him make a scene?'
"AITA for declaring to a foodie that my favorite food is raw celery, causing him make a scene?"
So I was at dinner the other night with 5 co-workers and every time we got an interesting chat going this one guy, who declared himself "the office Foodie," would interrupt to denounce or praise some of the food, in eloquent terminology, or by asking us detailed question after question about our own favorite food "experiences."
Like to this one fellow he was like "Tell me about your favorite food experience", and he talked about going to this steak place in Florence, to which Foodie guy made a tsk noise and said "overrated a touch," then asked the poor guy like 10 questions about this meal. He kept doing this. Now he's an alright guy I guess, but come on.
So finally he interrupted again, a nice chat we were having about that Dune show on the HBO, and he asks ME my favorite food "experience". And I decided to mess with him a bit. I told him I don't have a favorite singular experience but that my favorite food in all the world is plain raw celery, and every time I eat it, which is every day, is a tie for the best experience.
He looked like the operating system in his brain had the spinny wheel and he just locked up for a few seconds, then he did a fake laugh, and was like "no but seriously?" Well, I'll have you know I took an acting class for one semester in college 20 years ago, so I dusted off the old skills and I acted the hell out of being a guy whose favorite food is celery.
I went on and on about how the flavor of plain raw celery is the purest flavor there is, the platonic ideal of crispiness, the "notes of green, hints of water," I went on about it. He started to get annoyed and kept grilling me, listing food after food and saying if I really liked raw celery better, and I committed to the bit.
I said in my old job they called me Mr. Celery. Finally he said "This is outRAGEOUS" and he slammed his fist on the table. Then it was quiet. Then he had a face expression where I could tell he was kind of thinking "well s--t that was an overreaction" but instead of saying it he just kind of went "uh...." and then he got up and left.
Now everyone is saying I took it too far, and then I don't know why but I also pretended to the rest of them that I wasn't doing a bit, and now I am kind of in a situation where for the rest of the time I work here I'm going to have to pretend that celery is my favorite food. I didn't mean to make him so upset or irritate my colleagues and I guess I should apologize but AITA?
The internet had a lot to say in response.
Curtintrovert wrote:
NTA hilarious though. I have similarly messed with a foodie. Mine is plain toast with butter. The absolute best meal of my life I cannot tell you how satisfyingly delicious it was I basically licked the crumbs up on the plate. They claim it must be a special type of bread or butter. Regular white sandwich bread and spreadable butter maybe even margarine. (That one really 🤯 the foodie).
The part I leave out as it was true it’s after giving birth and having repair surgery at 9pm so by the time I got out it was the only option as the kitchen was closed and spare meals eaten and I hadn’t eaten in about a dozen hours and I was starving. I still remember the toast and that baby was born mid 2004.
DamnitGravy wrote:
First:
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That was brilliant!
Second:
"This one guy, who declared himself 'the office Foodie,' would interrupt to denounce or praise some of the food."
He's not a foodie, he's a gatekeeper, and a one-upper.
"Like to this one fellow he was like 'Tell me about your favorite food experience,' and he talked about going to this steak place in Florence, to which Foodie guy made a tsk noise and said 'overrated a touch.'"
He had to tear down that one guy who mentioned being in Florence. How would the 'Foodie' know if that wasn't the best steak in the world? Has he been to that restaurant? And even if he had, how does he know it wasn't the best steak ever to that guy?
Maybe That Guy had never had a properly cooked steak before. Not everyone knows how to cook a good steak. 'Foodie' Guy is no better than anyone who says "oh, you're wearing a Star Wars t-shirt? Name all the Rebel Pilots who blew up the Death Star AND their call signs. Oh, you can't? Well, you're not a real fan then, are you?"
Lay-ZFair wrote:
NTA it was worth it to shut the guy down BUT in the future you might want to elaborate if anyone is dumb enough to bring it up that, of course, from time to time when you're in the mood for dessert you add peanut butter to your celery!
Hadesorrow3 wrote:
YOU took it too far??? 😂 Good lord. People who say that kind of enabling bs are the reason there are so many AHs in the world. “Notes of green, Hints of water” is inspired. NTA you’re a goddamned hero. I mean this is so weird that I’m tempted to believe it’s fake, but on the other hand, it’s so weird that I kind of think it’s real.