Reply
Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,180
Registered: ‎02-05-2011
Every year my friend (really just an acquaintance) invites everyone for a luncheon. Every year it is the same and I dread going because the food is just awful. I just have the salad and no one has ever questioned me, but I feel bad trying to disguise my avoidance. What do you do when you can't eat the food your hostess makes?
Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,861
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

I don't think I've ever been in this situation. Even my friends who don't like to cook know how to make something pretty well or they buy it prepared.

Maybe you can offer to bring a dish?

~ house cat ~
Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,326
Registered: ‎10-21-2011

We had a dear, clever friend years ago--wonderfully talented in many ways but a TERRIBLE cook. Terrible. I was going to a lunch there and my sister was going too. She was stuffing her face before we left. "Why are you eating? We're supposed to have lunch there." "You'll see, "she replied, darkly. She'd eaten there before.

It was AWFUL. She'd made a "loaf" for the Seventh Day Adventist missionaries she was hosting and it was this purple, gelatinous thing that was supposed to be "meat substitute." I couldn't restrain myself and asked "What IS it" and she just smiled and said it was a secret recipe. She even ruined tomato juice (sprinkled a tablespoon of dried herbs into each glass, because "that's what they do in Morocco." I'll bet they don't.

The next year, I was stuffing my face, like my sister, before we went over. And then we took a bit of everything and pushed it around creatively on the plate and cut it up a lot.

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,180
Registered: ‎02-05-2011
I do bring the desert. Every year she only serves jello with fruit in it and it tastes funky.
Respected Contributor
Posts: 3,570
Registered: ‎09-13-2012

This is why I don't cook. I'd eat as much as I could and thank her for inviting me. Great cooks are born, not made, IMO. At least I know what I cook isn't that good.

Trusted Contributor
Posts: 1,762
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

I won't eat at a home that is dirty.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,979
Registered: ‎07-28-2012

When I received the invitation I would regretfully decline.

"To each their own, in all things".
Respected Contributor
Posts: 3,635
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

It's sweet that she likes to have you all over for lunch. It's too bad that her food isn't good. Hopefully you all get to visit & enjoy that. Eat before. Have the salad & dessert & hope she doesn't notice or just tell her you weren't that hungry. Thank her & look forward to next year.

Regular Contributor
Posts: 225
Registered: ‎01-07-2011

I'm sitting here, laughing. A few years ago I went with a friend from Vienna to a small Austrian town where his friend had lunch ready for us. I am not able to smell a mushroom, much less put one in my mouth. Guess what lunch was! She grew and cooked 4 types of mushrooms and I was unable to eat. I didn't want to be rude, but I just couldn't do it. I managed to push my food around and when asked about it, lied and said I had a big breakfast.

My husband was on a business trip to Paris several years ago and his host ordered for him. Along comes a waiter with a tray with something shaking on it -- yup, it was brains. My husband ate anything served to him but this one was the exception. His host was very considerate and re-ordered.

We each have our likes and dislikes and absolutely cannot eats!

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,511
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Sadly, I've started to decline these invitations, too. I do have a couple of friends whom I would never hesitate to visit and dine in their homes. Others, well, not so much.

Can you politely decline and suggest you two go out for a drink or lunch at a restaurant, instead?