I just finished reading and laughing over this surprisingly sassy (for Bon Appetit) Bon Appetit article ranting about the ubiquity of mayonnaise. Many people hate mayo, which makes it all the more surprising that the world is not configured to accommodate the mayo-haters.
The stuff is everywhere, and half the time when you ask to have something without the mayo, you get attitude. The other half the time, you just get mayo. And Drew Magary is right: you can't "just scrape it off," no matter what mayo-lovers will have you believe.
Personally, I love mayo. But I accept that not everyone does, and I honor their decisions. If someone tells me they don't like mayo, I don't urge them to "just try a little bit." I don't argue with them. I don't get belligerent in a way that will force them to claim they are allergic to mayo.
"I'm allergic" is the ultimate fall-back in America, because if you say you don't like something, people will not leave you alone about it. But if you say you're allergic, they drop the subject. "I'm allergic" is a magic phrase which we should not have to use.
You can't just say "I don't like X," regardless of what kind of food X is. People don't understand it and they don't respect it. How ridiculous and infuriating is that? VERY.
I personally have a thing about eating homemade food made by strangers or people I don't know very well. Most people have only the vaguest understanding of the basic concepts of food safety. And for all you know, their kitchen is straight out of an episode of Hoarders. But you can't just say that, not when you're standing there at the potluck.
Food preferences are complicated, is what I'm saying. If someone says they don't want a particular food, we all need to learn to just LET IT GO.
Image courtesy Flickr/HatM
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