You read the title, and probably thought I was being melodramatic over a condiment. Afterall, within the college environment, there are other issues many students face on a daily basis ranging from grades to getting laundry done. Yet, an invisible rule is recognised amongst many college students not just in my campus, but worldwide; never mess with someoneâs food or food preferences.Â
Itâs a common phenomena both online and in personal life, where some people wonât hesitate to end friendships over the slightest disagreement with food or cuisine. Food is simultaneously a way to build and destroy entire communities. You can find this thought from Buzzfeed articles, to entire subreddits and blogs dedicated to experimentation and heated debates on the ills and bad luck food crimes. Comedically, these conversations touch upon even simply eating food âthe wrong wayâ as a personality trait. I should know from experience, when I pour the milk first before the cereal, I usually am given a few weird looks from friends during breakfast (Glad they donât know that I usually microwave it afterward).Â
Other times, when I give food opinions on popular local foods like Biryani or dosa, itâs often a speedrun to get banned from an online group, or have my close friends not talk to me for a week. Ironically though, I find myself willing to try new food combinations considered blasphemous to the food loversâ eyes. Simultaneously, I find myself clutching my pearls whenever I hear a nasty food combination like mangoes with ketchup. Long story short, food is something so personal to us, yet itâs also something that can determine entire friendships. Why do I bring this long passage up? Well, letâs just say I have a long standing disdain for a certain condiment.Â
Seemingly, no matter where you go whether on campus or outside of campus, mayonnaise will always be offered to you or hidden within the simplest of foods. Sandwiches? Confirmed. Pasta? Youâre becoming zesty. Needless to say, this one condiment has made me pretty suspicious of what I buy from eateries both within campus and outside campus and has earned my close friends raising their eyebrows at me. Though to be fair, in comparison to the bottled blob you get next to your fried chicken, I prefer a good, home made mayonnaise better with fresh eggs. Perhaps I just see the condiment too often in street food and in restaurants, that it becomes personally bland rather than once seemingly peculiar condiment.Â
Maybe I just have a weak stomach towards the condiment, which is outright laughable since I myself have tried foods that my friends arenât willing or outright hesitant to try. I suppose I could just leave it as it is and ignore it, or just ask the vendor to not put mayonnaise next to whatever I order. I could do that, and earn a little confusion, but perhaps the better alternative is to learn to provide options to everyone. Like ice cream flavours, and choosing between Harry Styles music and Kardashian shows for some people, condiments are also a preference. Even if I dislike mayonnaise on varying levels depending on the day, I do know and I do respect people who love mayonnaise overflowing in their sandwiches.Â
Perhaps like friendships and online laments on the sanctity of food, condiments are a personal preference that should be nuanced and not be in everything nowadays. Having the ability to choose is a dream. Being able to have a preference, and to not be continuously surrounded by overused condiments, is ideal. Having variety makes the world around you more colourful and gives you new flavours to explore. Rather than Mayonnaise, tamarind sauces, ketchups, fruit sauces, and even salsas that could pair well with your 3am sandwich.Â
Hopefully in the future I will come to terms and ditch my medium disdain for mayonnaise and make it creative with my own recipes when I get my own kitchen. But only time will tell how my preferences and array of choices will change in different aspects of my life both within and outside food and relationships.