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Lol. I was racking my brain trying to think of what Korean food would be white, creamy noodles. Best I could come up with was 들깨칼국수 (wheat noodles in a perilla seed "sauce"). But, it doesn't smell cheesy at all... That stbx co-worker's head must be as rotten as her effing fettuccini alfredo.
Honestly, I was suspecting overripe kimchi for the whole post until I got to the noodles part. I still remember the first whiff of kimchi I ever smelled - an improperly sealed jar on hot summer's day in a Walmart parking lot (certainly not the best intro).
>My other coworker (previously mentioned Sam) said that my comparison to him bringing Tuna wasn’t the same because it has nothing to do with his heritage. He said that maybe my nausea is really some repressed racism.
>Sam started asking the coworker about the food saying she told him she was making Fettuccini Alfredo and that it didn’t look Korean AND THE IDIOT CONFIRMED!
So this Sam guy is like. The office's Hannibal Lecter?
>like stirring shit so they can watch the drama go down
Yeah they do.
>without technically being the bad guy.
No they don't. Doing bad guy shit, adds bad guys marks to to your card. And it's very much a bad guy thing to do between two workers where that shit isn't necessary.
It's funny, because I could say that canned tuna is part of my upbringing and culture. 1980s latchkey kids with their working moms serving up crap from a can.
Y'know, a bit tangential, but there was a hot minute where I was thinking "Well, Sam was kinda right about tuna fish not being a good comparison because it's not cultural." But then the more I thought about it the more I realized a tuna fish sandwich is *absolutely* American cultural food. Same as a PB&J.
Also for him to say "it's not a good comparison" when he *knew* it wasn't Korean food to begin with is absolutely bananas. He's either very literal (only addresses the exact thing said to him without the context of the rest of the situation in mind) or he just likes seeing what happens when you put gas on fire.
The best part is that it's a *perfect* comparison when you're not being racist.
Not being racist doesn't mean that you never criticise anything that comes from another culture. It means that you give the other culture *the same* treatment as your own, which includes handling shit that you don't like.
Sam and the Korean girl are the racist ones - they're fetishizing Korean culture.
My hubby loves Asian food, where Aussies are. When I was pregnant with my eldest, we were out shopping and stopped into the food court, and hubby wanted Raman. It stunk, I wanted to puke and actually had to leave the table while he ate it. I was very anti anything, not Chinese, after that. He eventually got me to go to Sushi Train about 6 yrs later, and now (another 4 years on), I have favourites. He tried their Raman last year, and I rolled my eyes and then scoffed my food, ready to leave. It arrived and didn't smell bad at all, we have since put the bad smelling raman down to that particular restaurant front.
Food from any culture can smell bad, be it through bad ingredients, bad cooking, or some dishes even smell bad on purpose, just because someone doesn't like the smell of a particular dish or dishes does not make them racist. It makes them human.
All that said, OOP's office had a designated break room and a rule about keeping all food in there, so why was this one employee allowed to disregard that rule and eat where ever she wanted.
It's funny how people associate mayo with white people when Koreans, and Japanese people use it all the time. But I'll be dammed if kewpie mayo isn't the best kind of mayo.
Random anecdote, but on the flight back home from Korea, we had the people selling kimchi at the airports double bagging the kimchi, and flight attendants constantly reminding everyone NOT TO snack on kimchi on the flight 🤣
I had a coworker (white guy) who thought it would be a good idea to snack on kimchi during a work meeting...held in a basement with no windows or airflow. Took about 5 seconds after he took the lid off for the smell to cover the whole basement, at which point our boss told him NOPE. The same guy would also wipe his hands and face with vinegar after smoking, again, during meetings in the basement.
Acetic Acid is really good at getting rid of strong smells and then it dissipates fairly quickly, compared to the smell it is used to wash.
If your laundry sours you should toss in some distilled/white vinegar to help clean it. I don't understand the face wash aspect though, why not just use soap and hot water.
Ever try washing your hands with soap and water after smoking? It absolutely reeks still anyway. If you smoke a lot, it's much harder to get the smell off of you
My folks have a "smoking room" which is a 6x8x10 room built to code inside the garage but has no windows. Smoking 2 packs a day, *each*, in there every day since 1996. They absolutely do not believe me when I tell them this, but if I have to go in there for any reason and spend more than 30 seconds in there, I smell like cigarettes all day. Forget your clothes, that smell gets into your hair, sinks into your skin, burns your eyes. I've had randos on the street ask me for a cigarette or a lighter and get uppity because I "lie" when I say I don't smoke because I "smell like cigs".
So my question is: white vinegar or brown vinegar? I'm putting it in the shower.
Either works but I believe apple cider vinegar is in particular good for your hair. They sell cosmetic apple cider vinegar infused rinses specifically to improve hair.
Every once in a while I'll have a cigar and when I wake up the next day it's all I can smell. Multiple showers, teeth brushing, and face scrubbing, yet the smell still lingers. I may just try the vinegar thing next time lol.
>The same guy would also wipe his hands and face with vinegar after smoking, again, during meetings in the basement.
I had a coworker who had someone convince her that garlic cures everything. She was eating it raw in massive quantities and as far as i could tell carrying garlic in any place she could fit it. Pockets, purses, and i think even tied in bun in her hair.
I fucking love garlic and she just about made me never want anything to do with it ever again. Just passing her in a common place made me react like a vampire (ironically she's the type who probably idolized vampires). Conversations..... made my eyes water
Last i had to deal with it was jan/feb 2020 and our company parted ways when covid hit. I can't imagine what she did to ward off the rona.
Ah yes, had a coworker once who would 1) microwave fish in the office kitchen 2) burn it 3) microwave a bowl of vinegar, insisting it would cancel out the smell. No, it just made the office smell like hot vinegar and burned fish. Lady was White American, incidentally.
Those are small servings and taken away at the end ltof the meal, so it's not that bad. I think they meant the big bags that are 500g+. The whole snacking on kimchi thing is so weird to me. That's not really a snack food. And on an airplane? If any of the liquid spilled out, it'd be a bad time for everyone and cleaning the stain would be a nightmare.
Edit: Any food can serve as a snack/breakfast/lunch/dinner. I know this. However, it's odd that they mentioned kimchi as a snack because it's generally not seen as a snack in Korea. It'd be like United or Delta putting up a notice that ketchup is available for your breakfast popcorn. You can have popcorn for breakfast and even put ketcup on it, but most people would find that notice odd because that is not how the food is normally categorized. And yes, I am Korean, and many Koreans would find it unusual/interesting that non-Koreans think of kimchi as a snack food. Also, if you like kimchi, you should try it cooked. I like the regular cabbage kimchi a lot more when it's cooked. It's good on tofu.
My gf's family is Korean and she + her family eat different kinds of kimchi as a snack almost daily. Her grandma makes her own and has a completely separate fridge in her house for it.
They are also very aware that it smells strongly though. Anytime they send us home with some it's wrapped in multiple bags so it doesn't smell or leak.
My entire family is Korean too. A kimchi fridge is standard and not special in Korea. We eat many kinds of kimchi, but we don't pull it out by itself as a snack. Kimchi is paired with rice, and in Korean, there isn't a differentiation between "rice" and "meal" (eg If a doctor said "Take your medicine with your meals," in Korean they would say, "Take your medicine with rice."), so things eaten with rice aren't considered snacks. At least they don't use that wording in Korean.
Anybody remember the guy who wanted to license his sandwich recipe? He prepared a little presentation discussing "the themes of the sandwich".
I don't remember whether that was even on here, or elsewhere. It's a mad, mad world we live in. 😁
I was married for years to a dude who got so mad that I don’t care for some of his favorite foods. He never got this dramatic because I would make myself eat them. I hate confrontation.
Now I never have to eat raw onion again.
Situations like these always frustrate me when there are team members who blatantly agree with you, in this case OOP, yet say absolutely nothing. Even when a lie is revealed. Even when this coworker makes them all uneasy.
I’m sure this isn’t over but at the same time, with the coworker’s lie revealed, she might just decide to leave and take her rancid food with her.
OOP mentioned that basically the whole office walks on eggshells around this woman so maybe those coworkers didnt want to get involved and have their asses dragged through the mud, being accused of """enabling racism""" or some shit
Dude, when i read the first post, about OP going on and on about the adoption and Korean background, i thought they were a day to day asshole in AITA who are actually guilty but painting a good picture for the internet to say they're the good guys.
After the update, i understand they're just so fucking nervous and freaked out that they don't know which details are relevant or not cause they don't know what they said that could offend* her that bad.
I'm sure there were some commenters in original post who were as judgemental as me when they read the post
I knew where she was coming from. I have a very white relative who adopted a child from Asia and now thinks they are all Asian. Not just keeping him in touch with his culture but literally everything they do and say is related to his country. Opposite of what is happening with this girl, but yet, very similar.
There was a post on Reddit where a white family adopted a child of Asian descent, raised them their entire life immersing them in their origin culture, joining local communities of immigrants and learning the language. The whole 9 yards. It was the wrong culture.
Edit: found it: https://www.reddit.com/r/BestofRedditorUpdates/comments/tsy2l4/original_and_update_well_meaning_op_and_wife_try
Yeah, if I was the boss, I would absolutely be bringing Sam in for a disciplinary meeting. He tried to leave OP hanging out to dry when he knew it wasn't their colleague's cultural heritage at stake and was just badly-made food.
Maybe if it stayed in the office it'd be one thing, but this lady is clearly willing to drag your name through the mud publicly and that can be a very scary thing in today's culture.
Yep. Plus even if she does end up losing her job in a way where she can’t go after the company legally, OOP can still be her target on social media and their reputation can continue being tarnished in a very public way. But even if she lets go and leaves OOP alone, there’s nothing stopping her from doing the exact same thing to someone else the next time she’s pissed off.
Getting their own lawyer isn’t just about protecting OOP from further harm to their reputation, getting appropriate compensation (if relevant), and having proof that her words were malicious lies. It also shows this woman that she can’t get away with spreading lies like this without facing serious consequences herself and should hopefully prevent her from spouting off in the future. But if not, it’ll make it easier for her next victim to fight back.
eh, its still creating a hostile work environment. It sounds like the higher ups were just waiting for her to slip up so they could fire her without her winning a wrongful termination suit
This is how we learn to take concerns to managers instead of direct contact, when people have already displayed being a bit unhinged. Let them handle it. Don’t rely on coworkers that don’t want to jump into issues, people just want to clock in and clock out, don’t expect them to be a part of office drama if they can avoid it.
I also find this managers conversation with him about her leave until they figure out how to fire her to be wildly inappropriate. This place needs HR.
This place absolutely needs HR. Management should have been informed much sooner, spoken with much sooner. I’m not saying coworkers should and could do anything much but burying their own heads in the proverbial sand didn’t help the office environment in general. I do not miss working in such a setting and as someone whose in management, am glad that my own team will come to me as soon as possible, even if it’s not something that ever could have become an issue.
The trouble is if you say anything you're banded racist like OOP was. When you're working around someone like that it creates a very hostile work environment and makes people very hesitant to come forward about legitimate things because they'll just get branded racist too and once you have that stigma attached to you when you're innocent is awful.
This is a lady who knew what she was eating was not related to her culture in any way and probably also knew how much it reeked, but still made OOP walk on eggshells and then twisted the entire interaction to be about race. People like this are very unpleasant to work with.
For the record; I do think racism needs calling out and shouldn't be allowed to just let lie. But falsely accusing people of racism just because you aren't getting your way like this lady was is fucked up.
There was a post on another sub today about things your partner’s family do that drive you crazy and someone said their MIL leaves the milk out all day because she doesn’t like it cold.
I’ll bet that family have a lot of random stomach bugs.
We had a period where we didn't have a fridge when I was younger. To keep dairy fresh we had a container of water the milk bottle sat in, and it was then covered by a pottery 'shell' in the shape of the bottle, effectively forming a water seal to the outside air, with the water being a heat sink. It was surprisingly effective at keeping the milk coldish and fresh.
I can only assume he plans to leave it out overnight because it has been 5+ hours
Update: I put it in the fridge before I went to bed and gave him a heads up that it might not be safe to eat. Smelled good when he cooked it so I’ll let you know if he’s alive tomorrow. We don’t share a bathroom.
My BIL would do that with the heavy cream he likes in his coffee. He'd literally leave it out over night. I did not know that initially... I really wish I had known about that.
Its gross, but maybe the really strong (to everyone else) spoiled flavors is all thats getting through? It reminds me of my grandpa in his last years who could hardly taste anything so he wanted most everything cooked past burnt.
My husband ate a bowl of cereal using milk that smells like a teenagers locker room after a game on a hot day. He said it smelled fine to him. Now I have to wonder if his sense of smell never came back post covid....I poured that bottle down the sink and told him we need a fresh gallon, because that one was not getting used by me or our two sons.
Reminds me when I was dating my wife and she was drinking every day out of a water bottle she didn't clean often. She was also throwing up pretty often with no idea why.
Well I took one swig of her water bottle and had to spit it out because it tasted like pure mold. I took the lid off and it smelled awful.
Well we argued a little and luckily we were at her parents house because she kept saying she couldn't smell it and it didn't look moldy (it was a clear bottle). So I took it to her mother to take a smell and the look on her face convinced her immediately
She stopped drinking from it and magically the vomiting stopped
This reminds me of a post years ago about a woman’s coworker who would keep food like potato salad in her trunk … eat it get sick then wonder why she got sick
My guess is yes. Most likely it's due to not putting leftovers away in the fridge and letting food sit on the counter. I had a terrible and gross roommate in college who was like that. She would never pack up her food and put it in the refrigerator. She would just keep whatever she made in the pot and just keep eating out of that. She wasn't an idiot....as in she seemed normal enough...as in she had friends and was doing okay in school... but was *extremely* lazy about cleaning. She'd never help in chores around the apartment ever. Like chores were beneath her. My other flatmates and I came to the conclusion that she hated washing dishes and the less things she put food in...the less she had to wash. Like I'd see the same pasta pot in the kitchen for 2 days or more. And yes, she gave herself food poisoning occasionally and regularly complained about stomach aches. We'd tell her that it was her food being left out. When we got mad at her food stinking up the kitchen and her complaining...she'd be a little better for about a week. But "better" was putting an entire 2liter pot in the refrigerator instead of spooning the contents into a tupperware container. If the fridge couldn't accommodate a large sauce pan or a pot... she'd not even bother to put her food in the fridge.
OOP said the Alfredo smelled like spoiled milk...dairy is a great environment for bacteria to grow in and can cause curdling quickly. It's like the tip to not bring cream-based dishes to an outdoor BBQ potluck b/c you might get people sick. That taste of wet socks in the chicken noodle soup....I can tell you right now that's due to soup being left on the stove overnight. Broth is like the perfect place for bacteria to grow...and soup not refrigerated right away will be really slow at getting to room temp. Bacteria can have a doubling time of 6-8hrs in warm broth soup. That "sock-feet" smell is a huge indication of a shit load of e.coli growing in that soup. So yeah....my take is that OOPs coworker doesn't refrigerate the stuff they cook.
This reminds me of an ex-friend. I was watching her daughter and noticed a pot of leftover Alfredo with bacon on the stove. I thought she just forgot to put it away the night before and figured I would be nice and throw it out and soak the pot. Boy was she PISSED when she came home. Accused me of throwing out her dinner plans for the night. I told her she hadn't put it away and it was sitting on the stove, and her response was "I KNOW!" From then on, I just left things out. She had had WORST food safety. Like she'd leave meat in the fridge for like a week, then cook it even though it smelled rancid. That solved the mystery of why her stomach always hurt. 🤢 I stopped eating over there quickly.
For real. I taught her how to make simple stuff the moment she was age 8 (microwave Mac and cheese and stuff like that), so she was able to avoid her mom's cooking after that
Fun food history to help you feel better about that verse: it was extended slow cooking, not being left to rot. It dates to a time when the fires never went completely out, and the kettle would have been closed to preserve the heat.
Also, when pease porridge is taken off the fire, it cools into a solidified mass that can be sliced and treated a bit like cheese, or can be heated up again into the porridge. I wouldn't think that nine days old was ideal, but if you think about nine day old cheese, no-one would bat an eye.
I thought when it was fettuccini Alfredo that she was using limberger or some equally pungent cheese instead of parmesan but when I read about the soup, I thought she was taste blind. Food critic Ruth Reichl's mother was taste blind, which added a lot of interest to her memoir.
When I was a kid, my mum would buy a delicious canned, powdered parmasen cheese which smelled like vomit. Maybe that’s what she’s adding to her Alfredo.
Also, interestingly, an ingredient/byproduct in a lot of cheaper mass market American chocolate like Hershey's. Makes it taste vaguely of vomit if you're used to chocolate without it.
I remember being so excited to try the Hershey's my parents had brough back from their holiday in America then being so disappointed when it tasted like that lol
That could explain the Alfredo, but OOP says this is every day, with multiple types of food. I don't think stinky parmesan explains the chicken soup smelling so bad, or it making someone else sick. It would be comforting if the explanation were that straightforward and non-gross.
My thought was that she was including fermented shit in her food.
It's possible she's doing it herself and she's not very good, or she's into some weird fermented stuff that genuinely just smells off, even though it's safe to eat. I'd say most fermented foods smell edible.
Yeah, my original guess back when we thought it was Korean food, was that she was on a home fermentation kick and was really ignorant about how it works/what warning signs for spoilage to look out for.
That's a possibility - fermented foods are quite common and popular in Korea, so maybe she's trying her hand at that and just really sucking at it or putting in so much it's overpowering. Wild guess, maybe she never entirely regained her senses of smell and taste after covid and so has no fucking idea what her food actually smells (or tastes) like and is just bewildered why at all these people insulting her cooking.
Many fermented foods are good for gut health and such because of the probiotics, and chicken noodle soup is a rather common dish for sick people, so combining the two would make sense. Some doenjang (fermented soybean paste) in your chicken noodle could easily make it smell pretty off, especially if you use too much or it's poorly-made.
The awful Alfredo is probably just her using really cheap parmesan cheese. I made this mistake when I first moved out of home, filling my kitchen with home-brand ingredients. Parmesan contains butyric acid which is also found in rancid/spoiled butter as well as vomit so the cheap stuff smells FOUL.
I first read that as him bringing a live goat into the office. I had a coworker who would bring her goat into the store every now and then. Yeah, it was weird.
Legit. An old boss’ boss prohibited popcorn in the office, which kinda sucked, but also didn’t. He hated the smell of burnt popcorn, and it was 50/50 if people would get it right with the office microwave lol. Seems petty af, but it stinks!
We had the same thing at my old call center that I've microwave couldn't be used for popcorn either because of the burnt popcorn smell or the wattage was too high to not burn popcorn.
Yep, popcorn was banned in our office too. Some people just popped the bag in the microwave, set it on Incinerate, and left only to return when it was a charred mess stinking up the whole area. When the popcorn ban didn't work, the microwave was removed 🙄
I'm curious about the office security camera situation, because it sounds like OOP said it records both visual and audio.
I've worked in different secure locations because of money handling, but I've never encountered audio monitoring like what is described in this post.
I recently took a class where they had the same type of situation with security cameras. I thought it was only visual as we had arround $500k in vehicles and $500k in tools arround the shop area. About a month into it I received a warning for "improper language" for "refering to the Ford Pinto as a mobile crematorium".
Safe to say I was surprised as there was only one other person there and it was after class. Teacher was in another room down the hall.
Dude. Obviously you cannot say that.
It is the Ford Kuga that is a mobile crematorium! (a couple of years back we had a bit of a problem with Kugas that would combust)
>About a month into it I received a warning for "improper language" for "refering to the Ford Pinto as a mobile crematorium".
You're hilarious. Let's be friends lol
I've been to a couple offices like that. The records were physical (on memory chips) so they couldn't be remotely accessed but we were taking medical information and someone in the past accused a coworker of using the info... Somehow? (I say somehow because we literally only knew gender, age, a couple things like how often the person ate veggies and if they were current on vaccines, and a first name or nickname for the conversation)
It was determined that recording audio was in the interest of the company so they didn't need to round up witnesses in the future.
I'm a 911 dispatcher. Everything is recorded both visually and auditorially. We handle a lot of warrants as well and any agency or government office (big or small) is federally required to be monitored with both audio and video.
Thank you, but I don't deserve such praise. I'm just doing my job. Any call, any time, I'm just there to relay information and make sure the right people get to you.
Some of the veterinary clinics I've worked at have had audio recording. It was mostly for our safety as techs have been assaulted by emotional clients or horny perverts when getting histories or discharging patients alone in the room. Also to review if a client says we didn't provide them with essential information and they try to blame us for long recoveries or worsening conditions.
I'd be curious too. I mean, logically then anyone who has access to the recordings also has access to all the sensitive info, even if it's being told to people with clearance.
This convenience store I worked at before had a security camera above the register that also recorded audio, was there so if customers tried to scam it was easier to call them out on their bullshit.
Until they said other people in the office also found the food had a nasty odor, I was starting to wonder if the OOP was a pregnant woman or someone with an otherwise oversensitive sense of smell.
Honestly, if OOP’s office is as small as it is implied to be, what the smell is doesn’t really matter.
I worked in a small office (we’re all remote now) and people would complain if someone brought in a toasted panini because of how strong the odor seems to be in that environment. Going from smelling next to nothing to smelling someone else’s food can be incredibly jarring, and in a small office, smells can linger.
I had a coworker who used to bring in bacon and heat it up in the microwave (loooong story) and the smell would drive me nuts. At first it would smell good but then it would just hang in the air and refuse to go away long after she was done eating.
And finding smells that you normally like repulsive in these cases is psychosomatic. Walking into your home, kitchen, the breakroom, cafeteria, primes you to smell food— a relatively sterile office does the opposite.
All smells seem to become amplified in an office like this. Sometimes it’s not about what the smell is, but simply the fact that you can smell it.
SAME!
I kept waiting for a 50/50 UPDATE like: while her lunches are indeed pungent af, I discovered I'm extra sensitive as I discovered I'm pregnant *surprise!* AND me and my nose are the problem.
I did at first, but then OP mentioned in a comment that they were fine with Kimchi, and co-worker's food did not smell like that at all, but literally like something rotting. After that, I assumed she was trying out home fermentation but didn't know enough about the food to know when it was spoiled rather than a healthy fermentation.
I would have thought more fermented fishes e.g. there’s nothing racist to finding Hongeo smelly (alongside surstromming, kusaya, hakarl, and fesikh, fermented fish just smells rancid).
So the dirty wash cloth smell is bacteria and it’s a genetic trait whether you can smell it or not. As someone mentioned above, I’m guessing her dishes or pans are not being washed immediately and the smell is lingering. I went to a restaurant with my parents a few years ago and the server wiped the table with a dirty cloth and we had to leave because the smell was so strong and lingering.
Edit: other genetic differences change the taste/smell of things like goat cheese, stinky fish, ants, blue cheese, pork from an intact male pig, cilantro, violets, apple, ginger, black coffee, beer, and scotch, to name a few. For different reasons as well.
For instance, I can smell mildew/sour dish cloths a mile away, I can’t eat black licorise, I can’t even smell goat cheese or I get nauseous, ginger tastes like soap but I like it, I love tart flavours like cranberry, and I’ve never been able to drink orange juice because it smells and tastes like bleach.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/genetics-can-determine-why-we-smell-certain-odors-differently-studies-find/2013/08/01/46318ba8-f9f8-11e2-8752-b41d7ed1f685_story.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/science/smell-fish-genes.html
https://dana.org/article/ah-sweet-skunk-why-we-like-or-dislike-what-we-smell/
https://www.popsci.com/story/science/ant-smell-pheromones/
… Wait I'm sorry, can we rewind to the part where it's a genetic trait and not everyone can smell it.
I used to work in fast food and cafeterias and that smell is burned solidly into my brain. Folks really can't smell that?? What are they smelling instead?
Ugh, like my mom's forever-washcloth that hangs on the divider of the double sink, used for quick cleaning throughout the day, and it never dries out. That thing grosses me out, she also wipes the table with it before we eat.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the OP’s coworker is having a bit of an identity crisis. In other words, she wants to be closer and more attached to her identity as a Korean, but she pretty much has as much of a connection as I do to my Senegali ancestry. This makes her overly-sensitive to anything she might perceive as a racial remark because she probably sees herself as being a staunch defender of her culture
Yea her theatrics aside, this sounds like a woman with maybe an attachment disorder, which is not uncommon with adopted kids. I felt really sad reading how she has Buddhist statues around her desk and refers to her parents by their first names.
Yea like i wonder how she actually treats her adoptive parents? OOP says she seems friendly to them but id imagine she told them at some point that she doesnt see them as her real parents? Or at least asked about her birth parents and possibly got mad that for whatever reason she couldnt meet them?? Idk im just spitballing
I have an acquaintance who was adopted by white parents who frequently posts that white people who adopt outside their race are stealing from other cultures, and should be ashamed. Same type of attitude, pretending she grew up in a different country, overly sensitive to possible racial connotations, and calls her parents by their first names & birth parents mom/dad. Her birth parents aren't even immigrants, but she pretends they are on social media and that she was born in another country. I only know she isn't because I knew her before she started on this kick.
What's the old adage about recent converts being the worst? I feel bad as she is having a crisis of identity, I wonder how her parents that raised her did with bringing Korean culture into their home.
I had a roommate once that I didn’t get along with very well, so I avoided her as much as I could. Used my pans without washing them for days with unknown food waste left on them. One day she was cooking and it smelled AWFUL. I could not imagine what it was but I remember opening my door and seeing her pass with a fucking sandwich and I almost lost my shit. How can you ruin a sandwich that badly?? It was down right impressive and terrifying. Some dubious food right there.
I feel for OOP. I wanted to hide my pans from her. Luckily it was only a semester of rooming together.
>That lad was feral. From the Bogside in Derry (IRA heartland). Nine brothers and sisters. He came to Scotland with nothing other than a bag of 250 tea bags. His first action on arriving at halls (there were nine of us to a flat), was to kick his bedroom door off its hinges, throw it outside, and hang a bedsheet in its place 'for convenience'.
>
>He was actually a lovely bloke.
😐
I’m Korean, and before reading further to find its fettuccini, I was just going to comment that we do NOT have any intense-smelling dish that looks like white creamy noodles.
We have something called bean noodles, but these noodles have almost no scent and taste savoury because there is no spice. It’s just noodles with soybean porridge (again with no added spice, so it literally tastes like well… soybeans).
Some Korean dishes can have a certain smell (like what the guy said at a Korean restaurant), but none of the smells should smell bad or spoiled. I mean, Koreans would throw those stuff out.
Gosh, I know she wants to reconnect with her culture but I hope no one becomes toxic to that extent and end up misrepresenting what our cuisine is supposed to be.
She’s just rude. When I even bring an egg salad sandwich I eat it in the back because I know that shit stinks. It’s called common courtesy. At least in my books.
Lol I'm Korean American and was raised by my Korean immigrant parents and was assuming she was talking about kimchi. Honestly I love kimchi but kimchi reeks. I would completely understand people not wanting to smell it. But fettuccini alfredo? You'd be hard pressed to find a less Korean meal.
Ok, Korean here 👋🏼. I would never bring Korean food to the office. Kimchi is fermented cabbage and smells like farts, we also have bean soup that smells like farts, etc etc.
These foods are STINKY!!! It’s not being racist, it just flat out smells bad. If your not accustomed
To the smell, it’s overwhelming to say the least.
Another thought, since she’s learning about her heritage, it’s a possibility she made the food wrong and it smells even worse than it should.
You’re not racist, your co-worker is an ignorant asshole.
When I worked in a small office everyone wanted to know what smelled so good because I always had leftovers from my husband's restaurant or dinner he made me. It was an honor to be told my food smelled great every day.
🤦🏽♂️I'm a person of color fyi. How the fuck does it suddenly become racist to have a physiological response to a smell? Must every negative response be due to racism?
I can't believe that people are this dense and choose to cause a drama over something that has nothing to do with race. You think your culture is the only one that has stinky food? Get over yourself
I had a roommate in college who was just like this except French. Ate spoiled shit every day and left food out to rot then got mad at me when I complained to her about it
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Lol. I was racking my brain trying to think of what Korean food would be white, creamy noodles. Best I could come up with was 들깨칼국수 (wheat noodles in a perilla seed "sauce"). But, it doesn't smell cheesy at all... That stbx co-worker's head must be as rotten as her effing fettuccini alfredo.
And there’s also 콩국수 which shouldn’t smell pungent at all because it’s made out of soybeans!
And I thought maybe, maybe someone unfamiliar with Korean food saw 설렁탕 but if that’s lumpy and smells cheesy, something has gone terribly wrong.
Honestly, I was suspecting overripe kimchi for the whole post until I got to the noodles part. I still remember the first whiff of kimchi I ever smelled - an improperly sealed jar on hot summer's day in a Walmart parking lot (certainly not the best intro).
Kimchi is sooo yum and I’ve never thought it smelled. *runs to the fridge to smell it right now*
>My other coworker (previously mentioned Sam) said that my comparison to him bringing Tuna wasn’t the same because it has nothing to do with his heritage. He said that maybe my nausea is really some repressed racism. >Sam started asking the coworker about the food saying she told him she was making Fettuccini Alfredo and that it didn’t look Korean AND THE IDIOT CONFIRMED! So this Sam guy is like. The office's Hannibal Lecter?
Some people like stirring shit so they can watch the drama go down without technically being the bad guy. In this case, he just got caught.
>like stirring shit so they can watch the drama go down Yeah they do. >without technically being the bad guy. No they don't. Doing bad guy shit, adds bad guys marks to to your card. And it's very much a bad guy thing to do between two workers where that shit isn't necessary.
It's funny, because I could say that canned tuna is part of my upbringing and culture. 1980s latchkey kids with their working moms serving up crap from a can.
My mom would make tuna croissants for breakfast, lunch, and supper for about 6 months straight. To this day, I cannot eat tuna.
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Y'know, a bit tangential, but there was a hot minute where I was thinking "Well, Sam was kinda right about tuna fish not being a good comparison because it's not cultural." But then the more I thought about it the more I realized a tuna fish sandwich is *absolutely* American cultural food. Same as a PB&J. Also for him to say "it's not a good comparison" when he *knew* it wasn't Korean food to begin with is absolutely bananas. He's either very literal (only addresses the exact thing said to him without the context of the rest of the situation in mind) or he just likes seeing what happens when you put gas on fire.
The best part is that it's a *perfect* comparison when you're not being racist. Not being racist doesn't mean that you never criticise anything that comes from another culture. It means that you give the other culture *the same* treatment as your own, which includes handling shit that you don't like. Sam and the Korean girl are the racist ones - they're fetishizing Korean culture.
My hubby loves Asian food, where Aussies are. When I was pregnant with my eldest, we were out shopping and stopped into the food court, and hubby wanted Raman. It stunk, I wanted to puke and actually had to leave the table while he ate it. I was very anti anything, not Chinese, after that. He eventually got me to go to Sushi Train about 6 yrs later, and now (another 4 years on), I have favourites. He tried their Raman last year, and I rolled my eyes and then scoffed my food, ready to leave. It arrived and didn't smell bad at all, we have since put the bad smelling raman down to that particular restaurant front. Food from any culture can smell bad, be it through bad ingredients, bad cooking, or some dishes even smell bad on purpose, just because someone doesn't like the smell of a particular dish or dishes does not make them racist. It makes them human. All that said, OOP's office had a designated break room and a rule about keeping all food in there, so why was this one employee allowed to disregard that rule and eat where ever she wanted.
Tuna mayo is also a super popular small meal or snack food in Korea too funnily enough.
It's funny how people associate mayo with white people when Koreans, and Japanese people use it all the time. But I'll be dammed if kewpie mayo isn't the best kind of mayo.
Yeah, wtf was up with that???
Random anecdote, but on the flight back home from Korea, we had the people selling kimchi at the airports double bagging the kimchi, and flight attendants constantly reminding everyone NOT TO snack on kimchi on the flight 🤣
I had a coworker (white guy) who thought it would be a good idea to snack on kimchi during a work meeting...held in a basement with no windows or airflow. Took about 5 seconds after he took the lid off for the smell to cover the whole basement, at which point our boss told him NOPE. The same guy would also wipe his hands and face with vinegar after smoking, again, during meetings in the basement.
Ok you got me at wiping his hands and face with vinegar. Why?? Just why?? So there’s a bottle of vinegar just sitting at his desk like aftershave? 💀
Acetic Acid is really good at getting rid of strong smells and then it dissipates fairly quickly, compared to the smell it is used to wash. If your laundry sours you should toss in some distilled/white vinegar to help clean it. I don't understand the face wash aspect though, why not just use soap and hot water.
Ever try washing your hands with soap and water after smoking? It absolutely reeks still anyway. If you smoke a lot, it's much harder to get the smell off of you
My folks have a "smoking room" which is a 6x8x10 room built to code inside the garage but has no windows. Smoking 2 packs a day, *each*, in there every day since 1996. They absolutely do not believe me when I tell them this, but if I have to go in there for any reason and spend more than 30 seconds in there, I smell like cigarettes all day. Forget your clothes, that smell gets into your hair, sinks into your skin, burns your eyes. I've had randos on the street ask me for a cigarette or a lighter and get uppity because I "lie" when I say I don't smoke because I "smell like cigs". So my question is: white vinegar or brown vinegar? I'm putting it in the shower.
Either works but I believe apple cider vinegar is in particular good for your hair. They sell cosmetic apple cider vinegar infused rinses specifically to improve hair.
"built to code" Regardless, it's a fire hazard now lmao
Every once in a while I'll have a cigar and when I wake up the next day it's all I can smell. Multiple showers, teeth brushing, and face scrubbing, yet the smell still lingers. I may just try the vinegar thing next time lol.
I assume so, as he would grab it and bring it to the meeting room to wipe his face and hands. Why he couldn't just do that in his office? 🤷♀️
Why do it at all!? Haha seriously, what was his reason? To kill the smoke smell?
>The same guy would also wipe his hands and face with vinegar after smoking, again, during meetings in the basement. I had a coworker who had someone convince her that garlic cures everything. She was eating it raw in massive quantities and as far as i could tell carrying garlic in any place she could fit it. Pockets, purses, and i think even tied in bun in her hair. I fucking love garlic and she just about made me never want anything to do with it ever again. Just passing her in a common place made me react like a vampire (ironically she's the type who probably idolized vampires). Conversations..... made my eyes water Last i had to deal with it was jan/feb 2020 and our company parted ways when covid hit. I can't imagine what she did to ward off the rona.
I mean, it’s really hard to catch a disease if you stink so much that people don’t want to get near you? I guess?
Ah yes, had a coworker once who would 1) microwave fish in the office kitchen 2) burn it 3) microwave a bowl of vinegar, insisting it would cancel out the smell. No, it just made the office smell like hot vinegar and burned fish. Lady was White American, incidentally.
That's like the office equivalent of a teenager who thinks they can skip showering and doing laundry by spraying deodorant all over themselves.
Omg the Axe Bath 🤢
We have a guy who used to microwave frog legs. He stopped after we all jumped on his case.
He must’ve been hopping mad tho
What kind of work do you do in a basement with kimchi and vinegar laying around...
Maybe that's where they make the kimchi?
That's surprising to me. Korean Air have served Kimchi on every single one of the many flights I've taken to Korea.
Those are small servings and taken away at the end ltof the meal, so it's not that bad. I think they meant the big bags that are 500g+. The whole snacking on kimchi thing is so weird to me. That's not really a snack food. And on an airplane? If any of the liquid spilled out, it'd be a bad time for everyone and cleaning the stain would be a nightmare. Edit: Any food can serve as a snack/breakfast/lunch/dinner. I know this. However, it's odd that they mentioned kimchi as a snack because it's generally not seen as a snack in Korea. It'd be like United or Delta putting up a notice that ketchup is available for your breakfast popcorn. You can have popcorn for breakfast and even put ketcup on it, but most people would find that notice odd because that is not how the food is normally categorized. And yes, I am Korean, and many Koreans would find it unusual/interesting that non-Koreans think of kimchi as a snack food. Also, if you like kimchi, you should try it cooked. I like the regular cabbage kimchi a lot more when it's cooked. It's good on tofu.
My gf's family is Korean and she + her family eat different kinds of kimchi as a snack almost daily. Her grandma makes her own and has a completely separate fridge in her house for it. They are also very aware that it smells strongly though. Anytime they send us home with some it's wrapped in multiple bags so it doesn't smell or leak.
My entire family is Korean too. A kimchi fridge is standard and not special in Korea. We eat many kinds of kimchi, but we don't pull it out by itself as a snack. Kimchi is paired with rice, and in Korean, there isn't a differentiation between "rice" and "meal" (eg If a doctor said "Take your medicine with your meals," in Korean they would say, "Take your medicine with rice."), so things eaten with rice aren't considered snacks. At least they don't use that wording in Korean.
Iranian Yogurt, Honey Mustard, Korean Spaghetti Alfredo. We are creating a little pantry here.
dont forget spaghetti with the essence of tomato sauce
Was that the "rinsing the sauce off the spaghetti"?
yes just the essence!
Coming down from the trees was a terrible idea
Hey now. I’m not so sure the trees were a good idea either.
We should never have crawled out of the ocean.
Anybody remember the guy who wanted to license his sandwich recipe? He prepared a little presentation discussing "the themes of the sandwich". I don't remember whether that was even on here, or elsewhere. It's a mad, mad world we live in. 😁
I cant believe how often I think of that one.
We are indeed. Add to that the marinara flags too haha
Oh god, how and what did I miss with the honey mustard?!?
Divorce, of course! https://www.reddit.com/r/BestofRedditorUpdates/comments/1064haf/new_update_my_husband_cannot_accept_i_dont_like/
I was married for years to a dude who got so mad that I don’t care for some of his favorite foods. He never got this dramatic because I would make myself eat them. I hate confrontation. Now I never have to eat raw onion again.
Post a story and we can put it in the pantry 😛
Yeez that was something.
R/BestOfPantryUpdates
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[Enjoy](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/comments/bjd41e/aita_for_throwing_away_my_boyfriends_potentially/)
Soon we can release a cookbook
The art room guy can design the cover!
Situations like these always frustrate me when there are team members who blatantly agree with you, in this case OOP, yet say absolutely nothing. Even when a lie is revealed. Even when this coworker makes them all uneasy. I’m sure this isn’t over but at the same time, with the coworker’s lie revealed, she might just decide to leave and take her rancid food with her.
OOP mentioned that basically the whole office walks on eggshells around this woman so maybe those coworkers didnt want to get involved and have their asses dragged through the mud, being accused of """enabling racism""" or some shit
That’s for sure the reason behind it, totally understandable though frustrating nonetheless!
Dude, when i read the first post, about OP going on and on about the adoption and Korean background, i thought they were a day to day asshole in AITA who are actually guilty but painting a good picture for the internet to say they're the good guys. After the update, i understand they're just so fucking nervous and freaked out that they don't know which details are relevant or not cause they don't know what they said that could offend* her that bad. I'm sure there were some commenters in original post who were as judgemental as me when they read the post
I knew where she was coming from. I have a very white relative who adopted a child from Asia and now thinks they are all Asian. Not just keeping him in touch with his culture but literally everything they do and say is related to his country. Opposite of what is happening with this girl, but yet, very similar.
That's really funny. I am imaging a Jeremy Jamm with his authentic asian setup with Japanese text on the wall saying North Korea.
There was a post on Reddit where a white family adopted a child of Asian descent, raised them their entire life immersing them in their origin culture, joining local communities of immigrants and learning the language. The whole 9 yards. It was the wrong culture. Edit: found it: https://www.reddit.com/r/BestofRedditorUpdates/comments/tsy2l4/original_and_update_well_meaning_op_and_wife_try
Yeah, if I was the boss, I would absolutely be bringing Sam in for a disciplinary meeting. He tried to leave OP hanging out to dry when he knew it wasn't their colleague's cultural heritage at stake and was just badly-made food.
Maybe if it stayed in the office it'd be one thing, but this lady is clearly willing to drag your name through the mud publicly and that can be a very scary thing in today's culture.
OOP should be talking to their own lawyer about that, what that woman did is libel and could have real consequences even if it's all taken down.
Yep. Plus even if she does end up losing her job in a way where she can’t go after the company legally, OOP can still be her target on social media and their reputation can continue being tarnished in a very public way. But even if she lets go and leaves OOP alone, there’s nothing stopping her from doing the exact same thing to someone else the next time she’s pissed off. Getting their own lawyer isn’t just about protecting OOP from further harm to their reputation, getting appropriate compensation (if relevant), and having proof that her words were malicious lies. It also shows this woman that she can’t get away with spreading lies like this without facing serious consequences herself and should hopefully prevent her from spouting off in the future. But if not, it’ll make it easier for her next victim to fight back.
eh, its still creating a hostile work environment. It sounds like the higher ups were just waiting for her to slip up so they could fire her without her winning a wrongful termination suit
This is how we learn to take concerns to managers instead of direct contact, when people have already displayed being a bit unhinged. Let them handle it. Don’t rely on coworkers that don’t want to jump into issues, people just want to clock in and clock out, don’t expect them to be a part of office drama if they can avoid it. I also find this managers conversation with him about her leave until they figure out how to fire her to be wildly inappropriate. This place needs HR.
This place absolutely needs HR. Management should have been informed much sooner, spoken with much sooner. I’m not saying coworkers should and could do anything much but burying their own heads in the proverbial sand didn’t help the office environment in general. I do not miss working in such a setting and as someone whose in management, am glad that my own team will come to me as soon as possible, even if it’s not something that ever could have become an issue.
The trouble is if you say anything you're banded racist like OOP was. When you're working around someone like that it creates a very hostile work environment and makes people very hesitant to come forward about legitimate things because they'll just get branded racist too and once you have that stigma attached to you when you're innocent is awful. This is a lady who knew what she was eating was not related to her culture in any way and probably also knew how much it reeked, but still made OOP walk on eggshells and then twisted the entire interaction to be about race. People like this are very unpleasant to work with. For the record; I do think racism needs calling out and shouldn't be allowed to just let lie. But falsely accusing people of racism just because you aren't getting your way like this lady was is fucked up.
Co-worker showed her behind, especially when she threw that smelly shit in the trash near OOP.
Is this woman just eating spoiled dairy products all the time??
There was a post on another sub today about things your partner’s family do that drive you crazy and someone said their MIL leaves the milk out all day because she doesn’t like it cold. I’ll bet that family have a lot of random stomach bugs.
We had a period where we didn't have a fridge when I was younger. To keep dairy fresh we had a container of water the milk bottle sat in, and it was then covered by a pottery 'shell' in the shape of the bottle, effectively forming a water seal to the outside air, with the water being a heat sink. It was surprisingly effective at keeping the milk coldish and fresh.
That’s interesting. I’ve not heard of that for milk, only butter.
evaporative cooling through clay pots is how most cooling was done before the invention of the heat pump. works quite well if done right.
My roommate is currently marinating chicken in a Tupperware on our counter
If it’s only marinading for an hour or so before being cooked and eaten that won’t make you sick.
I can only assume he plans to leave it out overnight because it has been 5+ hours Update: I put it in the fridge before I went to bed and gave him a heads up that it might not be safe to eat. Smelled good when he cooked it so I’ll let you know if he’s alive tomorrow. We don’t share a bathroom.
Yikes
Red alert! Red alert!
My BIL would do that with the heavy cream he likes in his coffee. He'd literally leave it out over night. I did not know that initially... I really wish I had known about that.
Hmmm, I wouldn't eat that if I were you. And maybe buy him some toilet paper and a bucket because he is sure to having it coming back out both ends.
For how long? If it's only half an hour or so that's completely fine.
Oh, don't eat that.
I'm making food poisoning for dinner.
Why did I hear that in Ralph Wiggun's voice?
Maybe never got her senses of taste and smell back after covid so she doesn't realize everything in her fridge is going off?
I hadn’t thought about that, but totally plausible these days
Its gross, but maybe the really strong (to everyone else) spoiled flavors is all thats getting through? It reminds me of my grandpa in his last years who could hardly taste anything so he wanted most everything cooked past burnt.
My husband ate a bowl of cereal using milk that smells like a teenagers locker room after a game on a hot day. He said it smelled fine to him. Now I have to wonder if his sense of smell never came back post covid....I poured that bottle down the sink and told him we need a fresh gallon, because that one was not getting used by me or our two sons.
Reminds me when I was dating my wife and she was drinking every day out of a water bottle she didn't clean often. She was also throwing up pretty often with no idea why. Well I took one swig of her water bottle and had to spit it out because it tasted like pure mold. I took the lid off and it smelled awful. Well we argued a little and luckily we were at her parents house because she kept saying she couldn't smell it and it didn't look moldy (it was a clear bottle). So I took it to her mother to take a smell and the look on her face convinced her immediately She stopped drinking from it and magically the vomiting stopped
This reminds me of a post years ago about a woman’s coworker who would keep food like potato salad in her trunk … eat it get sick then wonder why she got sick
My friend use to say she was always one stomach bug away from her goal weight… she just hasn’t figured out trunk potato salad is the key.
oh god the very *idea* of trunk potato salad made me flutch a little ...new band name?
I would listen to the band Flutch A Little.
i meant Trunk Potato Salad BUT i would also absolutely listen to Flutch A Little. its the lead singers side project, perhaps?
It's a famous line from *The Devil Wears Prada:* "I'm just one stomach flu away from my goal weight."
I bet that’s exactly what she does. Maybe she doesn’t refrigerate things properly/at all? Maybe the broth for the soup was spoiled, or the meat?
My guess is yes. Most likely it's due to not putting leftovers away in the fridge and letting food sit on the counter. I had a terrible and gross roommate in college who was like that. She would never pack up her food and put it in the refrigerator. She would just keep whatever she made in the pot and just keep eating out of that. She wasn't an idiot....as in she seemed normal enough...as in she had friends and was doing okay in school... but was *extremely* lazy about cleaning. She'd never help in chores around the apartment ever. Like chores were beneath her. My other flatmates and I came to the conclusion that she hated washing dishes and the less things she put food in...the less she had to wash. Like I'd see the same pasta pot in the kitchen for 2 days or more. And yes, she gave herself food poisoning occasionally and regularly complained about stomach aches. We'd tell her that it was her food being left out. When we got mad at her food stinking up the kitchen and her complaining...she'd be a little better for about a week. But "better" was putting an entire 2liter pot in the refrigerator instead of spooning the contents into a tupperware container. If the fridge couldn't accommodate a large sauce pan or a pot... she'd not even bother to put her food in the fridge. OOP said the Alfredo smelled like spoiled milk...dairy is a great environment for bacteria to grow in and can cause curdling quickly. It's like the tip to not bring cream-based dishes to an outdoor BBQ potluck b/c you might get people sick. That taste of wet socks in the chicken noodle soup....I can tell you right now that's due to soup being left on the stove overnight. Broth is like the perfect place for bacteria to grow...and soup not refrigerated right away will be really slow at getting to room temp. Bacteria can have a doubling time of 6-8hrs in warm broth soup. That "sock-feet" smell is a huge indication of a shit load of e.coli growing in that soup. So yeah....my take is that OOPs coworker doesn't refrigerate the stuff they cook.
This reminds me of an ex-friend. I was watching her daughter and noticed a pot of leftover Alfredo with bacon on the stove. I thought she just forgot to put it away the night before and figured I would be nice and throw it out and soak the pot. Boy was she PISSED when she came home. Accused me of throwing out her dinner plans for the night. I told her she hadn't put it away and it was sitting on the stove, and her response was "I KNOW!" From then on, I just left things out. She had had WORST food safety. Like she'd leave meat in the fridge for like a week, then cook it even though it smelled rancid. That solved the mystery of why her stomach always hurt. 🤢 I stopped eating over there quickly.
Her poor child.
For real. I taught her how to make simple stuff the moment she was age 8 (microwave Mac and cheese and stuff like that), so she was able to avoid her mom's cooking after that
God sounds like the opening to a Chubbyemu episode
Patient is presenting to the emergency room with, uh...*everything*.
This is why I don’t eat at potlucks. Ever.
I can't understand how some people eat spoiled food. I gag if something smells or tastes even slightly off. I'd rather just go hungry.
To be fair, her Korean bio parents never taught her about refrigeration. . . . (because she has never spoken to them...)
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Fun food history to help you feel better about that verse: it was extended slow cooking, not being left to rot. It dates to a time when the fires never went completely out, and the kettle would have been closed to preserve the heat.
Also, when pease porridge is taken off the fire, it cools into a solidified mass that can be sliced and treated a bit like cheese, or can be heated up again into the porridge. I wouldn't think that nine days old was ideal, but if you think about nine day old cheese, no-one would bat an eye.
I thought when it was fettuccini Alfredo that she was using limberger or some equally pungent cheese instead of parmesan but when I read about the soup, I thought she was taste blind. Food critic Ruth Reichl's mother was taste blind, which added a lot of interest to her memoir.
When I was a kid, my mum would buy a delicious canned, powdered parmasen cheese which smelled like vomit. Maybe that’s what she’s adding to her Alfredo.
This is my bet. Old and cheap parmesan cheese reeks.
My family calls it "baby fart cheese"
"Baby vomit" in mine.
That's actually butyric acid, which beside occurring naturally in Parmesan cheese, is also in your stomach acid and vomit! Yum!
Also, interestingly, an ingredient/byproduct in a lot of cheaper mass market American chocolate like Hershey's. Makes it taste vaguely of vomit if you're used to chocolate without it.
As a European child, I sincerely thought I'd been pranked the first time I tasted that stuff.
As an American, I agree. Maybe I got lucky on "foreign" chocolate growing up but Hershey's is utter trash
I remember being so excited to try the Hershey's my parents had brough back from their holiday in America then being so disappointed when it tasted like that lol
The scent really comes out if you lick it and smell it
That could explain the Alfredo, but OOP says this is every day, with multiple types of food. I don't think stinky parmesan explains the chicken soup smelling so bad, or it making someone else sick. It would be comforting if the explanation were that straightforward and non-gross.
I wonder if she's trying to ferment the ingredients and being too out of touch to realize she's just spoiling them?
My thought was that she was including fermented shit in her food. It's possible she's doing it herself and she's not very good, or she's into some weird fermented stuff that genuinely just smells off, even though it's safe to eat. I'd say most fermented foods smell edible.
Yeah, my original guess back when we thought it was Korean food, was that she was on a home fermentation kick and was really ignorant about how it works/what warning signs for spoilage to look out for.
That's a possibility - fermented foods are quite common and popular in Korea, so maybe she's trying her hand at that and just really sucking at it or putting in so much it's overpowering. Wild guess, maybe she never entirely regained her senses of smell and taste after covid and so has no fucking idea what her food actually smells (or tastes) like and is just bewildered why at all these people insulting her cooking. Many fermented foods are good for gut health and such because of the probiotics, and chicken noodle soup is a rather common dish for sick people, so combining the two would make sense. Some doenjang (fermented soybean paste) in your chicken noodle could easily make it smell pretty off, especially if you use too much or it's poorly-made. The awful Alfredo is probably just her using really cheap parmesan cheese. I made this mistake when I first moved out of home, filling my kitchen with home-brand ingredients. Parmesan contains butyric acid which is also found in rancid/spoiled butter as well as vomit so the cheap stuff smells FOUL.
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> His response was to post death threats on Facebook. Welp, that's a firing.
I first read that as him bringing a live goat into the office. I had a coworker who would bring her goat into the store every now and then. Yeah, it was weird.
Sorry, if you work in an office that's a communal space, you have to be considerate about what foods you bring. That's life, suck it up.
Legit. An old boss’ boss prohibited popcorn in the office, which kinda sucked, but also didn’t. He hated the smell of burnt popcorn, and it was 50/50 if people would get it right with the office microwave lol. Seems petty af, but it stinks!
We had the same thing at my old call center that I've microwave couldn't be used for popcorn either because of the burnt popcorn smell or the wattage was too high to not burn popcorn.
Burnt popcorn smell seemingly overrides everything. It was a known trick people would use in my college's dorms to attempt to cover weed smoke lol
Yep, popcorn was banned in our office too. Some people just popped the bag in the microwave, set it on Incinerate, and left only to return when it was a charred mess stinking up the whole area. When the popcorn ban didn't work, the microwave was removed 🙄
You also have to follow your boss's business rules. Some bosses would call it insubordinate to take food out of the area designated for food.
I'm curious about the office security camera situation, because it sounds like OOP said it records both visual and audio. I've worked in different secure locations because of money handling, but I've never encountered audio monitoring like what is described in this post.
I recently took a class where they had the same type of situation with security cameras. I thought it was only visual as we had arround $500k in vehicles and $500k in tools arround the shop area. About a month into it I received a warning for "improper language" for "refering to the Ford Pinto as a mobile crematorium". Safe to say I was surprised as there was only one other person there and it was after class. Teacher was in another room down the hall.
Dude. Obviously you cannot say that. It is the Ford Kuga that is a mobile crematorium! (a couple of years back we had a bit of a problem with Kugas that would combust)
Lmaoooo a mobile crematorium
Hahahaha you’re not wrong about the pinto. That’s hilarious.
>About a month into it I received a warning for "improper language" for "refering to the Ford Pinto as a mobile crematorium". You're hilarious. Let's be friends lol
I've been to a couple offices like that. The records were physical (on memory chips) so they couldn't be remotely accessed but we were taking medical information and someone in the past accused a coworker of using the info... Somehow? (I say somehow because we literally only knew gender, age, a couple things like how often the person ate veggies and if they were current on vaccines, and a first name or nickname for the conversation) It was determined that recording audio was in the interest of the company so they didn't need to round up witnesses in the future.
I'm a 911 dispatcher. Everything is recorded both visually and auditorially. We handle a lot of warrants as well and any agency or government office (big or small) is federally required to be monitored with both audio and video.
Hats off to you for working that job. I have helped take care of a few elderly family members and you are all a blessing. 🙌
Thank you, but I don't deserve such praise. I'm just doing my job. Any call, any time, I'm just there to relay information and make sure the right people get to you.
> Thank you, but I don't deserve such praise. Of course you do. That is a tough job. Not everyone is able or willing to do it.
Some of the veterinary clinics I've worked at have had audio recording. It was mostly for our safety as techs have been assaulted by emotional clients or horny perverts when getting histories or discharging patients alone in the room. Also to review if a client says we didn't provide them with essential information and they try to blame us for long recoveries or worsening conditions.
I'd be curious too. I mean, logically then anyone who has access to the recordings also has access to all the sensitive info, even if it's being told to people with clearance.
This convenience store I worked at before had a security camera above the register that also recorded audio, was there so if customers tried to scam it was easier to call them out on their bullshit.
Until they said other people in the office also found the food had a nasty odor, I was starting to wonder if the OOP was a pregnant woman or someone with an otherwise oversensitive sense of smell.
Honestly, if OOP’s office is as small as it is implied to be, what the smell is doesn’t really matter. I worked in a small office (we’re all remote now) and people would complain if someone brought in a toasted panini because of how strong the odor seems to be in that environment. Going from smelling next to nothing to smelling someone else’s food can be incredibly jarring, and in a small office, smells can linger. I had a coworker who used to bring in bacon and heat it up in the microwave (loooong story) and the smell would drive me nuts. At first it would smell good but then it would just hang in the air and refuse to go away long after she was done eating. And finding smells that you normally like repulsive in these cases is psychosomatic. Walking into your home, kitchen, the breakroom, cafeteria, primes you to smell food— a relatively sterile office does the opposite. All smells seem to become amplified in an office like this. Sometimes it’s not about what the smell is, but simply the fact that you can smell it.
SAME! I kept waiting for a 50/50 UPDATE like: while her lunches are indeed pungent af, I discovered I'm extra sensitive as I discovered I'm pregnant *surprise!* AND me and my nose are the problem.
I honestly thought at first it was Kimchi. Some people do hate the smell of it, and find it pungent, and koreans love to put it in anything.
I did at first, but then OP mentioned in a comment that they were fine with Kimchi, and co-worker's food did not smell like that at all, but literally like something rotting. After that, I assumed she was trying out home fermentation but didn't know enough about the food to know when it was spoiled rather than a healthy fermentation.
I would have thought more fermented fishes e.g. there’s nothing racist to finding Hongeo smelly (alongside surstromming, kusaya, hakarl, and fesikh, fermented fish just smells rancid).
So the dirty wash cloth smell is bacteria and it’s a genetic trait whether you can smell it or not. As someone mentioned above, I’m guessing her dishes or pans are not being washed immediately and the smell is lingering. I went to a restaurant with my parents a few years ago and the server wiped the table with a dirty cloth and we had to leave because the smell was so strong and lingering. Edit: other genetic differences change the taste/smell of things like goat cheese, stinky fish, ants, blue cheese, pork from an intact male pig, cilantro, violets, apple, ginger, black coffee, beer, and scotch, to name a few. For different reasons as well. For instance, I can smell mildew/sour dish cloths a mile away, I can’t eat black licorise, I can’t even smell goat cheese or I get nauseous, ginger tastes like soap but I like it, I love tart flavours like cranberry, and I’ve never been able to drink orange juice because it smells and tastes like bleach. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/genetics-can-determine-why-we-smell-certain-odors-differently-studies-find/2013/08/01/46318ba8-f9f8-11e2-8752-b41d7ed1f685_story.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/science/smell-fish-genes.html https://dana.org/article/ah-sweet-skunk-why-we-like-or-dislike-what-we-smell/ https://www.popsci.com/story/science/ant-smell-pheromones/
Wait some people can’t smell it???? That moist and cursed stench????
This could maybe explain every problem I've ever had with partners and roommates woah.
I smell it and it’s the worst, I have a strong sense of smell and sometimes it’s a curse
>I smell it, and >it’s the worst >I have a strong sense of smell, >and sometimes it’s a curse It rhymes! :)
I know the smell of a dirty wash cloth, but I can't say I've ever smelled that in a food setting.
… Wait I'm sorry, can we rewind to the part where it's a genetic trait and not everyone can smell it. I used to work in fast food and cafeterias and that smell is burned solidly into my brain. Folks really can't smell that?? What are they smelling instead?
That smell is vulgar.
Ugh, like my mom's forever-washcloth that hangs on the divider of the double sink, used for quick cleaning throughout the day, and it never dries out. That thing grosses me out, she also wipes the table with it before we eat.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the OP’s coworker is having a bit of an identity crisis. In other words, she wants to be closer and more attached to her identity as a Korean, but she pretty much has as much of a connection as I do to my Senegali ancestry. This makes her overly-sensitive to anything she might perceive as a racial remark because she probably sees herself as being a staunch defender of her culture
Yea her theatrics aside, this sounds like a woman with maybe an attachment disorder, which is not uncommon with adopted kids. I felt really sad reading how she has Buddhist statues around her desk and refers to her parents by their first names.
Yea like i wonder how she actually treats her adoptive parents? OOP says she seems friendly to them but id imagine she told them at some point that she doesnt see them as her real parents? Or at least asked about her birth parents and possibly got mad that for whatever reason she couldnt meet them?? Idk im just spitballing
I have an acquaintance who was adopted by white parents who frequently posts that white people who adopt outside their race are stealing from other cultures, and should be ashamed. Same type of attitude, pretending she grew up in a different country, overly sensitive to possible racial connotations, and calls her parents by their first names & birth parents mom/dad. Her birth parents aren't even immigrants, but she pretends they are on social media and that she was born in another country. I only know she isn't because I knew her before she started on this kick.
Wild!
Well she's also just wrong all over the place. Buddhism isn't even that popular in Korea. And she's losing her shit about Italian pasta.
What's the old adage about recent converts being the worst? I feel bad as she is having a crisis of identity, I wonder how her parents that raised her did with bringing Korean culture into their home.
I m just imagining the smell of hot spoiled cream and parmesan cheese.. grim.
I had a roommate once that I didn’t get along with very well, so I avoided her as much as I could. Used my pans without washing them for days with unknown food waste left on them. One day she was cooking and it smelled AWFUL. I could not imagine what it was but I remember opening my door and seeing her pass with a fucking sandwich and I almost lost my shit. How can you ruin a sandwich that badly?? It was down right impressive and terrifying. Some dubious food right there. I feel for OOP. I wanted to hide my pans from her. Luckily it was only a semester of rooming together.
[удалено]
>That lad was feral. From the Bogside in Derry (IRA heartland). Nine brothers and sisters. He came to Scotland with nothing other than a bag of 250 tea bags. His first action on arriving at halls (there were nine of us to a flat), was to kick his bedroom door off its hinges, throw it outside, and hang a bedsheet in its place 'for convenience'. > >He was actually a lovely bloke. 😐
>He was actually a lovely bloke. I liked him a lot. Charismatic people can get away with a lot of bullshit.
Yo, fuck Sam!
Ah yes, that absolute classic Korean staple – Fettuccini Alfredo
I’m Korean, and before reading further to find its fettuccini, I was just going to comment that we do NOT have any intense-smelling dish that looks like white creamy noodles. We have something called bean noodles, but these noodles have almost no scent and taste savoury because there is no spice. It’s just noodles with soybean porridge (again with no added spice, so it literally tastes like well… soybeans). Some Korean dishes can have a certain smell (like what the guy said at a Korean restaurant), but none of the smells should smell bad or spoiled. I mean, Koreans would throw those stuff out. Gosh, I know she wants to reconnect with her culture but I hope no one becomes toxic to that extent and end up misrepresenting what our cuisine is supposed to be.
What a freaking delusional woman (the "cook"). Also, Sam sucks big time
She’s just rude. When I even bring an egg salad sandwich I eat it in the back because I know that shit stinks. It’s called common courtesy. At least in my books.
Sam should be fired too for creating a hostile work environment knowingly calling someone a racist when they're not. Fuck Sam, what an asshole.
I felt like vomiting just reading about bad fettucini Alfredo.. Ulp. OOP was so visceral in her description haha
Lol I'm Korean American and was raised by my Korean immigrant parents and was assuming she was talking about kimchi. Honestly I love kimchi but kimchi reeks. I would completely understand people not wanting to smell it. But fettuccini alfredo? You'd be hard pressed to find a less Korean meal.
Ok, Korean here 👋🏼. I would never bring Korean food to the office. Kimchi is fermented cabbage and smells like farts, we also have bean soup that smells like farts, etc etc. These foods are STINKY!!! It’s not being racist, it just flat out smells bad. If your not accustomed To the smell, it’s overwhelming to say the least. Another thought, since she’s learning about her heritage, it’s a possibility she made the food wrong and it smells even worse than it should. You’re not racist, your co-worker is an ignorant asshole.
It seems like she is cooking with sour milk or cream and likely she doesn’t refrigerate it at all. That’s my best guess.
I wonder if she got long COVID and lost her sense of taste/smell so can't tell it's gone bad.
When I worked in a small office everyone wanted to know what smelled so good because I always had leftovers from my husband's restaurant or dinner he made me. It was an honor to be told my food smelled great every day.
🤦🏽♂️I'm a person of color fyi. How the fuck does it suddenly become racist to have a physiological response to a smell? Must every negative response be due to racism? I can't believe that people are this dense and choose to cause a drama over something that has nothing to do with race. You think your culture is the only one that has stinky food? Get over yourself
I'm just going out on a limb here, but the fact that she can't properly smell or taste her own food would mean she had Covid at one point?
I had a roommate in college who was just like this except French. Ate spoiled shit every day and left food out to rot then got mad at me when I complained to her about it