Eating one dish at a time

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After a support group meeting some of us went out to dinner and this topic came up. During the dinner I was served a hamburger and mashed potatoes. I ate the entire dish of mashed potatoes before touching the hamburger. The person next to me ate his entire dish of vegetables before touching his grilled chicken sandwich. He said this is aspie behavior. I was surprised because I had never seen this discussed as a aspie trait, It is just something I do without thinking. But it is a ritualized repetitive behavior.

Sometimes I find myself doing that too. I do it pretty often actually. I never knew why though.

I had always done this and now when I have tons of food now, I make sure to not eat all of each food first before moving to the next or I will get too full and get sick from eating it all.

It's not necessarily an Aspie thing.

Some people who went to a military school where everything was done a certain way might have adopted eating habits from that.

I personally thought I was prone to do it because by eating each item by itself, you appreciate the flavors and textures more. If you toss a plate of food into a blender and puree it, it tastes like vomit. Why put so many different things in your mouth at one time that you can't appreciate each item?

I have rather few food issues, when it comes to separate certain foods, but I cant stand it, if too many intense flavors get mixed up. It simply becomes then a gigantic ball of unrecognizable "everything of all and too much of it".

Maybe its because of us being more sensitive to sensory inputs or whatever, but I simply dont like it. So that english famous young cook, once cooked some pieces of grilled meat with an parmesan-crumbling, added with grilled ham, in an tomatoe sauce that was intensed spiced with different herbs and as well spiced polenta. And then he arranged that in a way, that the stuff was touching it other, so that the flavors got crossed.

Even looking at that gave me the puke. O_o I even need to eat Lasagne in layers and like to separate my vegetables, when they are mixed (that typical carrots, peas, green beans mix). XD

I find myself doing that sometimes. Never really thought of it as an aspie thing though, just something I tend to do. Whenever I'm eating at someone else's house I'll sometimes try to sample different things on my plate to make my eating look less "odd", but left undeterred I'll eat my salad, then afterwards my steak, or whatever.

Depending on what exactly I'm eating though, often times I won't be deterred to mix things up at all. Like with tex-mex for instance, somehow I can put nearly every vaguely Mexican thing I can think of on a burrito, and have it taste amazing. Or when I'm at Subway, I'll order something with like three different kinds of meat, most of the different vegetables on offer, and at least two different sauces. As well, I'll load up on things like jalapenos, hot sauce, and banana peppers. I love spicy food, which is strange because in many ways I have a sensitive palate.

I used to do that. Now I can eat protein and spagetti/rice on the same mouthfull, but I still don't like stuff where everything is mixed, like meat soup or fish soup

I do this; if I didn't, I would probably just alternate between each component on rotation. As for this being an Aspie thing - one of the doctors I met for my diagnosis noted this as a trait.

I don't exactly watch people eat so I'm not sure how widespread this is. It seems sensible when you're eating nice food, though. Avoid mixing up the flavors too much so that you can properly taste each item.

At formal dinners, each course is a different dish, and they are served separately; so it is established that eating one dish at a time is not necessarily an "Aspie thing".

I always do that. I always eat the fries first, then the hamburger. Same with whatever else I'm eating. I'll usually eat the starches first, then the proteins. I also always finish what's on my plate before I get seconds. The only time I eat something together is when I eat something that goes together like spaghetti.

Many times I've had a home cooked meal such as steak, spinach, corn or sweet potatoes. I'll take a bite or two of the steak, then eat everything else and save the steak for last. Delicious all the way through.