Milk Mixed with Grape Juice? Reddit Reveals the Worst “Food Sins.”

We all have our strange(ish) pleasure foods that other people might raise their eyebrows at (mine is canned tuna; I just can’t get enough of it). But a recent Reddit thread revealed that for some people these treats aren’t just individual proclivities. Some are true “food sins” like eating cereal with water instead of milk — snacks bordering on unappetizing (going by the description alone), deeply rooted in family traditions that no one else would ever even imagine trying.

One commenter for instance, recalled that his grandmother used to serve him what he called “purple cow”: milk mixed with grape juice. Similarly, one bartender described a customer who drank beer mixed with milk. Food service workers were full of strange stories. In fact, a waiter outed one regular customer who dumps an entire salt shaker filled with crushed red pepper into her bowl of French onion soup, while another recalled a patron who finished a whole bread basket by dipping the slices into a glass of Coca-Cola.

Other commenters described short-lived food obsessions: One added A.1. to everything, including Jell-O, which put an abrupt end to that food-based love affair. This one is gross — be warned: One commenter’s younger sister used to eat “Ritz cracker sandwiches”: two Ritz cracker buns, with a filling of another Ritz cracker which she chewed and then spit out.

Little kids were some of the biggest offenders. One girl used to eat her pancakes with ranch dressing instead of syrup. Oh, but it gets worse, in terms of toppings. You’ve heard of weird pizza toppings, but this one I guarantee you’ve never encountered before: a dollop of peanut butter on cold pizza. Or what about this creative take on strawberries and cream — strawberries and ketchup.

The thread is very long, and very gross at points, but I recommend reading it all the way through. It reveals something interesting: Humans have an infinite capacity to experiment with food and flavors. Everybody’s palate is wildly different, apparently, and what some people consider a “food sin” is a beloved food memory for someone else. And who knows, maybe some of these are gateways to secretly delicious new obsessions. I know I’ll be trying Oreos dipped in orange juice.