Food & Drink

Do you bring smelly (most of the time ethnic?) food to work for lunch ?

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  • Feb 8th, 2007 5:00 pm
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Deal Guru
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Jun 28, 2003
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Do you bring smelly (most of the time ethnic?) food to work for lunch ?

Got a question here folks:

Do you guys brown-bag potentially *smelly* food to work for lunch ? Usually things like squid, strong fish, curry, anything with fish sauce etc...most of the time this also happens to be ethnic food as well.

If you do, how do you handle the strong smell (could be when you are microwaving the container to when you are sitting down with colleagues in a confined space)

If you don't, what's your take on this ? After all, they sure taste good but I reckon maybe public spaces aren't the best places to enjoy them!
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Jun 22, 2006
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Latkes at Hannukah time ya!

My school's cafeteria smells bad enough without having people bring smelly food. :D
If you drive dangerously I hope you get caught and lose your license/car/dignity! :twisted: :twisted:
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Apr 6, 2005
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Its a diverse country we live in so anything can happen. If people are offended by the smell, then that is their problem and that they should get educated on all the kinds of ethnic food around us. Heck, I told my east-asian friend I made Vegetable Korma and he was shocked that I was making something that is out of my ethnic race (not that it matters). Going to attempt to make Gyros and possibly Seolleong-tang which is an Ox Bone and stew meat stock soup. Personally, I don't bring my ethnic food to public places with the exeption of things like Vietnamese Subs (I am half Cantonese and half Vietnamese). As for the smell, nothing smells worse than going into a public bathroom at the TTC so seafood don't bother me. The smell of the I guess rotten meat at Asian Supermarkets bother me abit though. Smells like old socks and skunk.
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Apr 30, 2003
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Ha! I could care less what people thought my food smells like at work. Love it or leave it.

And most of them are no good bunch of smokers anyways. Their clothes reeks of smoke.
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Aug 30, 2006
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I try and avoid bringing smelly foods to work. I respect other people, and they do the same. Besides, I find it embarrassing hen I have something smelly, and have other people turn up their noses or scrunch up their faces, etc.
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You bring something to have some revenge if you have smelly co-workers who do not use deodorant. :razz:
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Mar 7, 2005
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I hate people that eat overly stinky food in public, it's obnoxious
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Oct 11, 2005
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can you say: STINKY TOFU!!! imagine you bring one of those....or DURIAN!! :P
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x95zsk wrote: can you say: STINKY TOFU!!! imagine you bring one of those....or DURIAN!! :P
Well no doubt DURIAN should be enjoyed in your own comfort zone. If you bring it to work/public, you run the risk of having everybody evacuated LOL

It's one of those things that doesn't have any fine line, either you like it or you hate it.
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Mar 8, 2006
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The even ban durian in some parts of SE Asia, especially in buses.

I bring my highly garlic-ed Korean food and fried Cantonese noodles for lunch in my office, some people compliment the smell, others don't say anything.

I never bring Kim-Chee, I do have my limits. :lol:
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Nov 29, 2005
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Everytime a co-worker brings some of indian or paki-stani kind of food, the lunchroom always tends to clear out and whom ever is having lunch leaves and binder is left to enjoy it all by his self. When Ever I pop in some home made Italian food into the microwave and nuke it and take my lunch break, There is always a gathering of co-workers getting up from their work space areas following their noses and walking up to the lunch room table always saying to me "mmm, that smells good, what cha got there?" my food smells good even to non-italians.
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Jul 18, 2003
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My food never smells. It's the other ppl's food that smell.

I hate the reek of butter or beef strokin-off, or lasagna (which you get by re-arranging the letters of "anal gas") in the microwave when I open the door.

But some curry or fermented tofu never bothers me.
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Sep 30, 2001
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can't stand when people bring smelly food period to their desk. go take it to the cafeteria or food court.
Be kind and civil with one another
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Nov 18, 2005
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Microwave popcorn is one of the worst
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Sep 8, 2005
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I don't take curry or fish (especially Chinese salted fish) to lunch 'cos the smell may upset others when I microwave and take back to my desk.

But ... someone took a salmon Lean Cuisine TV dinner the other day, and it smelled fishier than squid!

I keep to pastas and bbq pork and mild chop sueys ... similar to what others would buy in the food court.
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Aug 22, 2006
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I fail to see how "ethnic" food really factors into this at all, as every culture has smelly food of its own. Some example from the British side of things are hard boiled eggs, egg salad sandwiches, tuna sandwiches, and food loaded with cheese like a Philly cheese steak sandwich. Just because a particular smell is familiar to you does not mean it is offensive to other, so stop acting like its those "other" people who are the only ones who eat food with a bit of smell to it.
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Nov 29, 2005
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its not the food that stinks, its their clothes. Try sitting next to your co-worker who's clothes smells like curry for 2 days. I dont know if him or his wife knows but his clothes do not smell clean especially if they absorbing all that smell. Come on, that ***** relly stinks when the smell fallows someone
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Jul 4, 2005
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It's all respect for others! I can't stand when people stink up the place with reheated fish and/or curry. On the other hand, I would never nuke some leftover bacala or even get an order of fries in a pool of red wine vinegar ... I would just find my little corner and enjoy.
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Paolo wrote: Everytime a co-worker brings some of indian or paki-stani kind of food, the lunchroom always tends to clear out and whom ever is having lunch leaves and binder is left to enjoy it all by his self. When Ever I pop in some home made Italian food into the microwave and nuke it and take my lunch break, There is always a gathering of co-workers getting up from their work space areas following their noses and walking up to the lunch room table always saying to me "mmm, that smells good, what cha got there?" my food smells good even to non-italians.
really? always?

apparently some italians get upset when their food gets called "smelly". . .

source: http://news.scotsman.com/education.cfm?id=876162004

Webbster wrote: I fail to see how "ethnic" food really factors into this at all, as every culture has smelly food of its own. Some example from the British side of things are hard boiled eggs, egg salad sandwiches, tuna sandwiches, and food loaded with cheese like a Philly cheese steak sandwich. Just because a particular smell is familiar to you does not mean it is offensive to other, so stop acting like its those "other" people who are the only ones who eat food with a bit of smell to it.
exactly. every culture has food that may be deemed offensive. i'm sure the smell of smoked oysters or dried anchovies, or liver and onions is offensive to some.

frankly, this thread is nothing more than ignorance and thinly veiled insensitivity to cultural differences. . .

"respect for others" should mean respecting diversity, not enforcing assimilation, imho.

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