I hate ketchup.Disgusted, sickened. Yes these two words accurately describe how I feel about the red stuff.
Strong feelings, I know.
Yet, it is 100% true.
Let me give you some examples of how much I hate ketchup.
I always maneuver the food in the refrigerator so that the foods that I eat regularly are not touching the ketchup bottle. Don’t poison my beloved peanut butter.
I can’t eat near people who have ketchup on their food. The smell annoys and distracts me from my meal.
I mutter when it appears on the shopping list. Why waste my hard earned money on such a nasty product?
By the way, don’t try and analyze this hatred.
Yes, I like tomatoes. Yes, I like pasta sauce. Yes, I know this makes no sense.
What has caused this intense and weird (yes, I can readily admit it’s weird) hatred of ketchup?
Well, for starters I never liked it.
I didn’t want it on my fries, hamburgers, or eggs. No thanks – I’ll take ‘em straight up. I’m a real man.
A real man who is afraid of ketchup. Sorta, kinda. I’m getting over it. I can actually give my children ketchup (if they request it – I ain’t offering it) wash my children’s dishes if they have ketchup on it. Hey, a journey of thousand miles begins with a single step as Lao-tzu said.
Now, the story of how I came to hate ketchup as best as I can remember it.
I was in my freshman year of high school. My friends and I used to sit at the table that was closest to the doors where one entered. My back was to the door and I could see the rest of the students enjoying their 24 minutes (or some ridiculously small time) in the cafeteria.
My good friend at the time was sitting across from me was a prankster. I was the straight man and often the butt of the jokes.
Anyway, he started pointed behind me and said, “watch out.” I didn’t take his warning seriously and he repeated himself. Again, I did not take him seriously. He repeated himself again. Finally, I turned around and there was this girl coming at me. Unfortunately, she was mentally challenged and for some reason it looked like she was drawn to me or our table.
When I turned around, she was just a couple of feet away from me with her hands outstretched. Fortunately, her aide was able to assist her and lead the girl to where she needed to go. However, it was not before I jumped scared out of my mind.
Somehow I landed in ketchup (I don’t remember if she had or if someone at my table had it) which added to my embarrassment.
This completely embarrassing incident at a vulnerable age along with the fact that I already did not like ketchup made me have a passionate dislike for the red stuff. Since then, my disgust has only grown.
Ludicrous I know. However, at this point and maybe for the past 25 plus years, hatred for ketchup is in my head.
So, do keep the red stuff away from me. Please.
What about you – any foods that you hate?
The thing I can’t get is you put peanut butter in the fridge? I have a friend who hates eggs because his big sisters somehow tortured him with them as a child. How does one torture with eggs? I don’t know, but he does, and he’s too scarred to share how!
You like p.b. warm?
Wow, that is a serious egg issue.
I hate most soup and canned tomatoes. Oh, and canned meat with pickles. When my parents first separated we lived with my aunt and uncle. My aunt used to force me the aforementioned foods on a regular basis during our stay there. 30 years later I’ve learned to tolerate some soups but you can keep the Kam and pickles, thank you very much.
Nice.
Canned meat sounds nasty.
I have to admit I like pickles and soups.
You’ve never been subjected to Spam, or Flakes of Ham, or Kam or Klick? Lucky.
No!!! Sounds nasty.
It most certainly is.
I’m not a big mayo fan. I’ll eat it in stuff like egg salad but if it’s on my sandwich (by accident), I scrape it off. NOW I’m not a big mayo hater in the way you are, I just don’t care so much for the taste. And BTW – Jake would drive you insane — he takes ketchup packets at school and eats them like they’re candy. Some days he comes home with packets in his pockets 🙂
Ohh – that nasty Jake.
I don’t eat a ton of mayo either – more for health reasons.
you know I don’t like ketchup too much either, I don’t like it on my burgers or fries but I can’t say I hate it either! 🙂 hubby and Nate, they can eat ketchup with everything ah! not me! 🙂
what I really don’t like is ‘liver’, oh! do I hate it!
My parents used to eat liver sometimes when I was kid. It always smelled good. I would sometimes dare and take a piece – HATED it! Each of my brothers felt the same, so my parents would enjoy a meal on their own.
Why do you put PB in the fridge? That would make it hard to spread and it would tear up the bread.
I LOVE KETCHUP!!! My brother used to tease me that I could never live with his heart condition because I can’t give up my ketchup. I eat fries just so I can drown them in ketchup! It goes on burgers – heck, it even goes on my steak! (Of course, I only eat red meat a couple times a year, so I have to enjoy it!)
I hate tomatoes.
Funny someone else asked that. I take it out a couple of minutes before I will use it.
Just reading that made me quiver.
I am not partial to ketchup either. Also mayonnaise grosses me out. Dunno why. Just does.
No weird food issues here. I respect that everyone has their thing though. So, if you hate ketchup, I’ll do my best to keep it away from you. 😉
You are kind!
I don’t think I could survive motherhood with this much disgust for ketchup. At our house, it’s another food group. I do, however, make my own, which is much less nasty that the store bought stuff. I like ketchup, but I’m not much of a food “dipper” anyway. I am known to pour gravy over my entire plate, though.
I am not a food dipper either. I like my food straight up.
Your own ketchup – might be something I could consider or at least not be sickened by. Could we change the name?
Thanks for the comments.
Funny enough, I hate peanut butter. My reason is much simpler: it’s yucky.
Nooooooo! Peanut butter should be a seperate food group.
In all honesty, I have found that a number of people who are not American born that are not into peanut butter. Maybe, the governtment should do a study.
Peanut butter should be given at airport as part of the security screening.
Brilliant. Leave it to an Israeli to come with the idea.
P.S. Your post on Facebook this morning cracked me up – mommy blogger.
I love ketchup! Always have done. I love it even more when it is mixed with mayo, makes chips so much tastier (with chips I mean fries of course). There isn’t really any food I hate, although here in England some people put condensed milk on their apple pie, which is just horrible and doesn’t make any sense. Apart from that I will pretty much eat anything, apart from when I’m pregnant, when I don’t like anything, sigh.
Milk and pie is good but I don’t get why you put them on top of each other. Wouldn’t that mess up the pie?
I don’t get it either, I tend to have milk in a glass and eat my apple pie with custard 🙂
Now, that sounds great!
Hubby and I have to agree with you, we doesn’t see the point of its existence either!
Thank you!!! You are the first ones to do so.
I am VERY late to this blog comment, but I found it because I have had a week in which I felt somewhat assaulted by the evil that is ketchup. I have always despised it. I didn’t like sauces and/or dressings as a kid to begin with, but there was no child on the playground I feared more than the one with ketchup still in the corners of his/her mouth after lunch. My friend’s kids had a snack in my house the other day and asked to use some ketchup (which belongs to my boyfriend – otherwise, they would have been out of luck). I about had a heart attack watching the six-year-old dip some hamburger in a pile of it and then go to the couch and then come back for another ketchup-laden bite. But I stayed calm. I had to wipe off the plate with a paper towel, hand extended, and put it in the trash before even washing the plate. After they left, I used leather wipes on the couch out of nothing but irrational fear. At a diner-style breakfast this morning, just the sound of a ketchup bottle squirt made me want to bolt from the table. I hate the smell of it, the look of it, the thought of it. This afternoon in the grocery store, I overheard a young woman tell a young man in the condiment aisle he was weird for not liking ketchup. I had to turn around and support my kindred spirit – no, you are not alone! I am also weird! I shudder at the thought of absent-mindedly stepping upon a ketchup packet on the ground and having that nastiness somehow land upon me. Now, I do not like raw tomatoes in general BUT sundried or cooked are fine. I can make a lovely marinara with a can of peeled San Marzanos, and I will at least cut a tomato and cook with it. But ketchup is like kryptonite for me (along with mayo – ew!) ODDLY, I can handle a little Thousand Island style (with lots of relish) sauce on an In-N-Out burger. But I HATE EVERY ASPECT OF KETCHUP. Sorry for the long response, but I wanted to send my support!
Thank you for your support.
I think we may be related.
Nasty tale there – reading it made me a bit ill. I think you know just what I mean.
With all the groups on FB and LI, you would think there would be a group for people like us. Hmm. Is that my mission in life? Ha ha – hope not.
I know this is years later…BUT…im down under (in Australia) and am glad to find other *normal* people who detest this slight on humanity…..urgghhhh…
the smell, texture, taste utterly vile…and i’ve kids that love it….ive been turned off the best meals by simply being near it getting used…take my appetite right away….
we need an action group with UN funding to promote our minority rights!! Aussies have it on nearly everything…..especially on savoury pastry products and bacon and eggs….
Wow, I feel a kinship. That stuff really is nasty. I think you are on to something with that UN group.
Thanks for reading and good to hear from you.
We are the same. I hate kepchup with a passion. Reading your post made me cry in laughter.
Welcome to the club Dolly. Glad you liked the post – love to make people laugh.
I hope that you will find your way back to MMK often.
P.S. Good luck avoiding ketchup!