Three Things I Eat Oddly

Peanut butter and tunafish sandwich

I despise mayonnaise. It's a terrible, evil substance. But as a boy, my mother still fed me tunafish sandwiches, despite my hatred for the mayonnaise typically used on such a sandwich. Without mayonnaise, the tunafish was dry and constantly fell from between the two slices of Wonder bread, making me crazy.

One day I decided to find an alternative for mayonnaise. Something to bind the tunafish to itself and the bread. In the process of experimentation, I heated peanut butter ever so slightly in the microwave and mixed it with the tuna. Not only did it work beautifully in terms of binding the tunafish to the sandwich, but it tasted good, too.

Think I'm crazy?  

A few years ago, one of the stations in my A-Mattzing Race (a race inspired by and designed like The Amazing Race) forced contestants to eat foods that only I enjoy. Peanut butter and tunafish sandwiches was one of these foods. 

Not everyone enjoyed this combination, but two guys liked it so much that they continued to eat these sandwiches well after the race.  

Try it. You might like it.  

Raw potatoes and raw potato skins

As a child, I ate raw potatoes like apples. My mother would wash and peel and send me on my way. 

I still love them to this day. 

I would also stand beside my mom as she peeled the potatoes and eat the raw skins as they came off the slicer. I still love these as well, and it turns out that the skin is the most nutritious part of the potato.

Raw hamburger

As a kid, I ate raw hamburger.

I have no idea why I would ever do this, but as a kid, I liked it.

I haven't tried raw hamburger since I was a boy, but I can't imagine that I would still like it today. Also, it will most assuredly make you sick. I'm apparently lucky not to be dead.

The peanut butter and tuna fish sandwich

For people like me who hate mayonnaise (and there are many of us), foods like egg, chicken and tuna salad sandwiches are not viable options for us.

When I was a kid, my mother didn’t especially care about my hatred for mayonnaise. When the canned tuna fish was on sale, we were eating it, damn it. Initially, this meant tuna fish straight out of the can and onto Wonder bread for me. The result was a dry, bland sandwich, but even worse, it was impossible to keep the tuna inside the bread without the mayonnaise adhesive. Invariably, I’d end up holding two slices of bread in my hands with a pile of tuna fish in my lap.

In an effort to solve this problem, I began experimenting with alternatives to mayonnaise.

Catsup was not good.

Butter was ineffective.

Honey was a disaster.

Then I stumbled upon the solution:

Peanut butter.

Heat up a few tablespoons of peanut butter in the microwave or a sauce pan on the stove until it is warm and thin, then mix it with tuna fish.

It’s a protein-packed alternative that holds the tuna together nicely and actually tastes good, too.

I know you probably think I’m crazy, but years ago, a task in one of my A-Mattzing Races was to eat a peanut butter and tuna fish sandwich (the race’s theme was me). While not every competitor extoled the virtues of this combination, a handful did, and at least one continued to eat it in his regular life.

Tuna fish and peanut butter. Try it. And let me know what you think.