Eating food prepared by others (restaurant, burgers, grilling, bbq)

[tet tea]

Ok, we've all been to a pot luck dinner or a bbq where everyone brings a side dish. Well, I recently saw the inside of a friends kitchen, and believe me it has me second guessing eating food prepared by others. Infact, I will not eat anything that she brings to a cook out anymore. I bet if the lab techies took a few samples from her kitchen it would have you reeling!
Does anyone else out there have this "phobia" or whatever you want to call it?

BTW ... ever seen the British program "How Clean is Your House"? Wonder if you'd like a dish prepared by one of those folks!

[Mooseketeer]

I will not eat food coming from my in-laws kitchen and haven't done so in over 15 years. I will drive to a petrol station and buy sandwiches to avoid it even at Christmas. Anything but to eat from that bacteria hell. "How clean is your house?" is only the tip of the iceberg sadly. If the kitchen and bathroom aren't clean I will not eat anything from the people who own it. Pure and simple. I have been to too many really disgusting houses that had not seen a duster and oven cleaner in years. I find it gross and repellent . It makes me heave just thinking about it. If people can't be bothered to clean they have no business inviting people over to stay or eat. I am constantly shocked at the level of housekeeping. Basic standards of hygiene and cleanliness seem to be completely foreign to so many. It makes me feel sick just thinking about the horrors I have encountered... BRRRRRRR. The worse thing is they don't even seem to notice.
I am a tidy and clean freak but untidiness is something I can accept , dirt however is a no-no. To me being dirty is lazy, dangerous and quite frankly unacceptable. I see it as a serious personality disorder and it really freaks me out.

[gardener34]

That is why potlucks are good, at least you can eat what YOU brought.

[birdrgal]

When I was young I never gave it a second thought, but now I do, and bigtime.

I usually get roped into a holiday gathering at the home of one particular family member, and after seeing the way she washes dishes (she has a dishwasher but it's always full and so she does all the glasses, cutlery and dishes by hand) I feel like I should wipe everything down with alcohol before using it. I'll never forget the first time I helped her with the cleanup by drying the dishes as she "washed" them, and almost everything I picked up was still covered with a film of grease (from the turkey and other food items). Ugh.

But that's not as bad as going to a picnic or barbecue during the summer. First, don't people either SEE or CARE that flies, yellowjackets or other insects are constantly landing on the food that's been set outside? Especially flies... think for a second about what other "things" flies usually land/feed on. Double ugh.

The worst is when they're grilling. Out come the burgers and steaks and chicken (raw) on platters, and the food is plopped onto the grill. After they're cooked (one hopes) the chicken or burgers or steaks usually get put right back onto the same platters on which they were brought out to the grill (yes the ones that just held the RAW meat or poultry). Would anyone in their right mind use the same cutting board they'd just used for raw chicken or beef, as the plate to eat the cooked product from? No, but too many of these backyard chefs are, in practice, doing that same thing. Triple ugh, praise the lord and pass the salmonella.

I stopped eating red meat earlier this year so the burger/steak thing isn't an issue for me anymore but as for chicken, if I'm going to have any at a picnic I hover right next to the grill and use my own (clean) fork to transfer it directly from the grill to my own (clean) plate. If it's already been put back onto its original plate, I won't eat it.

I don't have all that much confidence in restaurant kitchens either, to tell the truth, but I think too many home cooks are really lax in the food-safety department. But I may be unusually paranoid -- I buy disposable latex (exam) gloves by the caseload, to use anytime I handle raw meat or poultry; have separate polymer cutting boards for cooked and raw meat, poultry, and veggies, sterilize them after each use and dispose of them after a year or so when the surface gets too many cuts for my comfort.

[missymomof3]

I have never really thought about until now but I have survived my 33 years eating other's food be it cookout or restaurant so I guess I'll be ok

[tet tea]

Originally Posted by missymomof3

I have never really thought about until now but I have survived my 33 years eating other's food be it cookout or restaurant so I guess I'll be ok

I unfortunately didn't. Got sick as a dog within an hour of eating, I'm also a strict vegetarian, so I know it was one of the pasta side dishes.
People wonder why when there is a pot luck I usually bring three dishes. All of it is what I can eat and I know how it's been prepared.

[Prettygyrl777]

True story: Before I left for college, my co-workers threw a going away party for me. It was a potluck sort of thing. The day of the party (while at work), everyone started talking about which dish they would make etc. This one woman, I'll call her 'Lucy' raved about a banana pudding that she makes from scratch. I'm not exactly wild about pot luck (because of all the reasons mentioned earlier) but I decided, as the guest of honor, I had to eat a little of everything.

Well at the party, Lucy places her prize pudding out for everyone to have. As she uncovers it, she continued to go on and on about how delicious it was but then suddenly stops. She says what's this? Pulls out a dk brn hair and gets upset about it. "Someone put a hair in there- ugh" Then soon, she pulled out another. Lucy is a light brown haired woman- her long hairy cats, however, were dk brown.

Here's a woman who came to work covered in CAT HAIR and she seemed to be surprised that some of it wound up in her pudding. I was so disgusted. It didn't change how I felt about potlucks, it just reinforced it.

Also, everyone has their own definition of clean so I'm aware of that. Sometimes you just have to see for yourself.

[Ohiogirl81]

My dad used to tell stories about his grandmother and her housekeeping (or lack thereof). My mom would get all horrified, us kids would giggle. Dad said his grandmother was the happiest woman he ever knew, her house was always full of friends and relatives, and she had better things to do than clean the house. And he concluded every great-grandma story by saying:

"Well, the kitchen never smelled bad, and nobody died."

I take after my dad. I don't waste energy worrying about these things. When it's my time to go, if a bad potluck dish was meant to put me six feet under, so be it.

[birdrgal]

Here's a woman who came to work covered in CAT HAIR and she seemed to be surprised that some of it wound up in her pudding.

OMG, don't even get me started on my reaction when I'm at a house and see pets either allowed onto or deliberately placed onto kitchen counters or tables!

I was at a BBQ over the Memorial Day weekend. The hosts have a small condo (kitchen, living room/eating area, 1 bedroom, 1 bath). Inside the kitchen there are four cages: for their pet prairie dog, two ferrets, and a guinea pig. They also have two cats that have the run of the condo at all times. The prairie dog and ferrets are allowed out of their cages when guests aren't around. Thank goodness it was nice enough weather for me to stay outside on the patio, because the animal smell in the condo was (to me anyway) overwhelming. (insert gag reflex here)

I ate very little; lost my appetite quickly at the thought of how many of those little critters may been trotting around the kitchen while the food was being prepared, especially when I spotted animal hair on the furniture and other horizontal surfaces. The cages themselves looked clean, but the smell.... ugh.

[MotleyCrew]

I finally found my people! I have this phobia too. Only because we belonged to this pot luck club where we used to live. After attending many bbqs with this group, we find out that one of members had Hepitis C. Can you belive the fear we felt. Lucky for us this person was very, very careful. The thing is you not only know how clean everyone's kitchen might be and you do not know what kind of disease they might have. I would not want to discriminate by keeping them out of the club, but I would at least like the choice of eating the food or passing.