Many people have very sophisticated and exciting palettes.
A lot of foodies will try just about anything they're offered.
However, not everything is always a great idea.
Redditor spacedoutsoapbox wanted to discuss their experience and get some feedback, so naturally, they came to the "Am I The A**hole" (AITA) subreddit.
They asked:
"AITA for refusing to eat my wife’s spaghetti after I found out what she put in it?"
The Original Poster (OP) explained:
"Last night, my wife made spaghetti, and it smelled amazing."
"She said she tried something new and wanted me to just eat it before asking questions."
"I had a few bites, and it tasted kind of off but not terrible, just weirdly sweet and earthy."
"I asked what she changed, and she told me she blended up leftover spaghetti from SIX days ago and mixed it into the sauce to thicken it."
"I immediately stopped eating."
"I know it is technically the same ingredients, but the idea of blended old noodles mixed into fresh sauce made me feel sick."
"She got offended and said I already ate half a plate, so clearly it was fine and I was just being dramatic now that I knew."
"I told her that is exactly the point, I did not know."
"If I had known beforehand, I would not have eaten it."
"She said I was being wasteful and disrespectful and acting as if she served me garbage."
"I ended up making a sandwich because I could not finish it, and she got really upset and barely talked to me the rest of the night."
"Now she told her family, and they think I embarrassed her, but my mom thinks it is gross and I should not have been tricked into eating it."
"I feel bad for hurting her feelings, but also I feel like I should get a say in what I am eating."
The OP was left to wonder:
"Well, Reddit, AITA?"
Redditors shared their thoughts on this matter and weighed in on some options to the question, AITA:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You're The A**hole
- NAH – No A**holes Here
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
Many Redditors declared that OP was NOT the A**hole.
"NTA. 'It tasted kind of off but not terrible, just weirdly sweet and earthy.'”
"You wanna know what that 'earthy' taste probably was? Mold." ~ Swordofsatan666
"This is the one."
"You get an earthy taste in something that shouldn’t taste earthy; you are tasting mould/fungus."
"I don’t know if you were acting as if she served you up garbage, but if it tasted earthy due to unseen mould, she was serving you garbage."
"You weren’t being wasteful, mould food goes in the compost or the garbage. "
"What does a plate of spaghetti and sauce cost in ingredients? $2.00ish."
"So wasteful."
“Leftover spaghetti and sauce are generally safe to eat for 3 to 5 days when stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator."
"For the best quality and safety, especially with meat sauces, it is recommended to consume them within 3 to 4 days.“
"Also, not the A."
"You didn’t embarrass her. "
"You stopped eating."
"Did you go and tell her family to garner ridicule?"
"No, she told her family."
"If she is embarrassed, it is because she has embarrassed herself; you did not do that." ~ Army7547
"A few months ago, I ate a bagel, and a couple of hours later, I went to make one for my son. "
"I had just bought them 2 days prior."
"When I opened the bag and pulled one out, there it was, the tiniest of specks of mould."
"I pull another and even more mould."
"At 2 am, it hit me. "
"One minute, I was fine, the next I was puking my guts out."
"It was so forceful I almost passed out."
"My husband called the ambulance around 4 am because I was so sick I started seeing blood in the vomit."
"They came and monitored me for about an hour, gave me 2 shots of IM zofran, and literally put me back to bed and tucked me in."
"They left just as I was finally drifting off to sleep."
"10/10 do not recommend eating mouldy foods." ~ fierydoxy
"NTA, leftover pasta can actually make you very sick, and you don’t mess around with food safety."
"And I think your wife knew you wouldn’t be ok with it, otherwise she would have disclosed from the get-go."
"Does your wife come from a country/culture with lax food safety standards?"
"My ex comes from a place/family like that, and I had some hair-raising incidents during our marriage with foods being left out all day in the heat of summer, etc." ~ CapitalAd4933
"NTA - spaghetti keeps at a maximum of 5 days before it starts turning."
"She was feeding you spoiled food essentially."
"If it were fine and had the same ingredients, it wouldn’t have tasted earthy or off."
"She did, in fact, feed you something that should have already been in the garbage."
"That is something people would do in the Great Depression bc they had no other options - you had a sandwich, so there was no need for her to feed you week-old pasta." ~ OutlandishnessNo9868
"The fact that people simply do not know that when you mix something old with something new, you make the entire thing old is mind-boggling."
"I was constantly stopping other people from doing that in the restaurant business."
"I mean, come on! It's food safety 101." ~ Mrs925
"Cooked pasta should be thrown away after about 3 days."
"High moisture means it’s a petri dish of mold, bacteria, and decomposed protein."
"And that’s the sweet part you tasted."
"At 6 days, it’s a freaking health hazard."
"She knew it was gross, she wouldn’t have told you to taste it before knowing what it was."
"She basically asked you to trust her, and broke that trust knowingly."
"Damn right she’s embarrassed."
"She deserved it." ~ pimpampoumz
"NTA - No one should expect you to eat anything you don’t want to."
"Do you appreciate the effort put into a meal? Sure."
"Can you still choose what you put into your own body?"
"Absolutely. With no explanation needed. "
"You can say no just because." ~ Mammoth-Incident4121
"NTA, I thought she maybe put freshly cooked veggies into the sauce to make it more nutritious, and you were being picky and unreasonable, but no, that's so gross."
"It should not taste Earthy 🤢🤢. "
"It should've just tasted like spaghetti, like you should've only felt a slight texture difference and no taste difference."
"My stomach actually hurts from thinking about this."
"Also, who the heck blends up spaghetti to put in sauce for fresh spaghetti??"
"That's pretty absurd behavior on its own, but it was a week-old spaghetti, which is so unsafe."
"Earthy is a wild descriptor for the pot of spaghetti and sauce she crafted." ~ PlantParticular7705
"NTA. You're allowed to make informed decisions about what you eat."
"Week-old pasta is probably safe (in my amateur opinion), but not certainly: there are a lot of variables."
"If it contained raw or undercooked garlic, for instance, then NO."
"How careful is this woman about food storage?"
" You certainly ought to have been told what you were being served."
"At best, she was playing a childish game."
"The idea that she thinks symptoms of food poisoning would have shown up so quickly suggests her ignorance."
"Frankly, I'd be wary of anything she served me after this." ~ ReadMeDrMemory
"NTA, she intentionally deceived, manipulated, and coerced you into eating it."
"You, in good faith and a trusting partner, ate it; had she given you all the info beforehand, you wouldn’t have, which is why she did what she did."
"That’s f**ked up, and she knew it and now wants to play the victim." ~ numyanbiz
"NTA, but I’m laughing and scratching my head at everyone’s overreaction."
"Back in the day (think: farmer’s wives, good old-fashioned frugal housewives, everyone from the silent generation, the Amish, etc), leftovers were considered good for a week."
"I personally dump them after three days because 1) I have picky eaters and..."
"2) I never really store them perfectly in air-tight containers, and they truly taste less yummy after 3 days. "
"I’m sure People have died from 1 week old leftovers on occasion, just like people have died from stepping outside to get a breath of fresh air on a sunny day after eating kale and meditating."
"Crap happens."
"You’re not the ahole for not wanting to eat gross leftovers, but no need to be dramatic about it." ~ anonymousnun
"NTA, I will eat food of questionable age, but I will not be resentful if my partner does not participate."
"In fact, I did feed my partner something very aged once."
"He loved it."
"Then he hated it when I told him the where/what/whens. "
"3 years later, he tells everyone he got sick."
"He did not."
"But I don't think he was in the wrong for being upset with me because I knew he was weird about food." ~ Delicious_Rub3404
"You can die from eating six-day-old noodles. NTA."
"What she did was foolish and dangerous."
"If she knew you wouldn’t want to eat it if you were aware of what it was, she had no business serving it to you."
"I would have a hard time trusting her again and wouldn’t want to try if she won’t take responsibility." ~ SylvarGrl
"Oh hell no!!!"
"Assuming that spaghetti has sat in the fridge for those 6 days and not been frozen within a day or two, that is a food poisoning risk."
"I wouldn’t knowingly eat something that puts me at that high a risk of food poisoning either. NTA." ~ NecessaryBunch6587
"NTA. My mother has always done that."
"Tell your wife she might have an iron stomach, but you do not."
"My mother became offended recently, saying she's lived this long and is fine."
"And I said, well, you do have to rush to the toilet a lot."
"And I'd rather not."
"Your wife might be from a household like mine, where it was considered normal."
"Where she was told it's fine."
"I had to learn food safety after moving out." ~ SaltBedroom2733
Reddit is with you, OP.
Your mouth, your stomach, your body, your choice.
Six-day-old pasta isn't everybody's first choice for dinner.
She should have told you.
