minoanmiss (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
minoanmiss) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
agonyaunt2017-08-30 02:17 am
minoanmiss) wrote in agonyaunt2017-08-30 02:17 am
Manner Matters: A Spicy Food Lover's Conundrum
This column is a gold mine. This entry is icky, beware.
Dear Molly,
Help! Whenever I eat foods seasoned with chili peppers, my nose starts to run. Yet I love chili peppers and can't resist good curries or Mexican food, but then I have a nonstop runny nose until I finish the dish. I always take antihistamines and I'm not sure what else can be done pharmacologically to remedy the problem. I'm left with three choices:
Leave the table several times to blow my nose
Blot my nose with a tissue left on my lap, or
Blot my ever-running nose with the napkin
This is an embarrassing problem and I'm wondering what other people do to deal with it. For now, I discreetly wipe my nose with my napkin but I'm not sure that's correct since my mom told us to leave the table whenever we needed to wipe our noses but that was almost 50 years ago...and her food was always bland! What do you say?
Yours,
Intense Gustatory Rhinitis
I have a dear friend who breaks into a flop sweat at the very sight of peppers. And yet, to the peppers he goes. Red faced and sopping wet. Like a sweaty moth to a spicy flame.
Your mom was absolutely right, and it's something people today often overlook: Any personal grooming—any touching of your own person, be it to apply lipstick or blow your nose—should take place away from the table, in the restroom.
I am going to posit, however, that there is a fundamental difference between blowing one's cold-stuffed nose and wiping away the more watery effects of hot peppers. Bring tissue with you (no one wants to touch a snot-soaked napkin), keep it in your lap, and use it to discreetly dab away the results of chili-eating. Anything more, if you find yourself in need a good blow, for example, and you'll need to excuse yourself and address it in the bathroom.
And please, on behalf of servers everywhere, take your snotty tissues and throw them away in the bathroom, don't leave them on the table with the napkins when you're done—no one else should have to touch that mess.
Dear Molly,
Help! Whenever I eat foods seasoned with chili peppers, my nose starts to run. Yet I love chili peppers and can't resist good curries or Mexican food, but then I have a nonstop runny nose until I finish the dish. I always take antihistamines and I'm not sure what else can be done pharmacologically to remedy the problem. I'm left with three choices:
Leave the table several times to blow my nose
Blot my nose with a tissue left on my lap, or
Blot my ever-running nose with the napkin
This is an embarrassing problem and I'm wondering what other people do to deal with it. For now, I discreetly wipe my nose with my napkin but I'm not sure that's correct since my mom told us to leave the table whenever we needed to wipe our noses but that was almost 50 years ago...and her food was always bland! What do you say?
Yours,
Intense Gustatory Rhinitis
I have a dear friend who breaks into a flop sweat at the very sight of peppers. And yet, to the peppers he goes. Red faced and sopping wet. Like a sweaty moth to a spicy flame.
Your mom was absolutely right, and it's something people today often overlook: Any personal grooming—any touching of your own person, be it to apply lipstick or blow your nose—should take place away from the table, in the restroom.
I am going to posit, however, that there is a fundamental difference between blowing one's cold-stuffed nose and wiping away the more watery effects of hot peppers. Bring tissue with you (no one wants to touch a snot-soaked napkin), keep it in your lap, and use it to discreetly dab away the results of chili-eating. Anything more, if you find yourself in need a good blow, for example, and you'll need to excuse yourself and address it in the bathroom.
And please, on behalf of servers everywhere, take your snotty tissues and throw them away in the bathroom, don't leave them on the table with the napkins when you're done—no one else should have to touch that mess.
no subject
My tuppence: I am going to assume there's a reason this person can't restrict their enjoyment of spicy food to home. For example, I would rather never eat a lobster in public again, as there are so many nooks and crannies and legs I want to delve into that I just... can't bring myself to do in a nice restaurant where I don't want to get my food all over my face. BUT my roommates keep kosher-style, so no lobsters at home for me, and in restaraunts I eat the tails and claws and a few nuggets but wistfully pass up sucking noisily on any appendages.
That said, I really think this person should make a little effort to not gorss out the people around them. Request a secluded table if at all possible, bring their own tissues and a receptacle for them, and take the used ones with them, and only dine with people who know about and understand their reaction to spicy food. I would put up with this for a close friend but I really wouldn't want to sit next table over from a stranger going through this while trying to eat my own dinner.
But honestly, if the LW were my friend, if at all possible I'd try to regularly cook spicy food for thm at their home or mine, because, ew.
tangentially
Re: tangentially
no subject
no subject
... I don't think I could deal well with a constant stream of mucus unless I knew ahead of time it would happen. But "not deal well" I mean of course gritting my teeth and leaving most of my dinner uneaten, not yelling at someone or anything like that. And which is different than the occasional blown nose; that's just life.
(At work I've been listening to a trach patient for the last month, so mucus has been a subject on my mind.)
I guess everyone has their squick points and that's one of mine?
no subject
And yeah, everyone has their squicks. Mine in saliva, although I had to at least partially get over that when I had a baby.
no subject
This reminds me of a funny story from when E was toddling. I was at a party with a bunch of parents and children, and one of the women I was sitting beside had her kid toddle up, wipe face on her shoulder, and toddle off. I joked that she was definitely anointed as a mom, and then E toddled up, wiped her face on my arm, and toddled off. I felt both slimed and loved. :)
no subject
As noted in the other entry, in my family we make an exception for colds/allergies during at-home dinners. If you're blowing your nose every minute, excusing yourself from the table to do so is impractical. It's a little gross, but part of being family means putting up with a little grossness. (I cannot wait for my youngest to be out of diapers!)
no subject
Nope! At my favourite local cafe, in order to get me and my power wheelchair to the restroom, I have to ask people to hold THREE separate doors open for me, and ask a tonne of other people to move out of my way...
(and then I have to ask people to hold THREE separate doors open for me and ask a tonne of other people to move out of my way on the way back)
you bet I am skipping that nonsense and just blowing my nose at the table instead!
no subject
When I took injections for diabetes they thought it better me do that in a toilet than discretely under the table where no one would know unless they were being a creep and starting at me already? Naaaah.
no subject
Well, within reason? Asking you to undergo a pilgrimage like that to blow your nose wouldn't be at all reasonable. OTOH, one person in the comments described a guy who kept snorking phlegm back into his throat, coughing it up, and spitting it into an empty beer bottle, all meal. That sounds... unfun to sit next to.
no subject