Don’t Yuck My Yum: A Revelation
Jul 24th, 2007 by msdanielle
I was driving home from work last week, stuck in LA traffic as usual, and listening to a commentary by Trey Ellis on KCRW entitled “A Single Dad Doles Out — and Learns — Lessons.” There’s something musically whimsical about Trey’s voice that soothes my ears and seduces me to listen to his commentaries at full length each and every time I hear him. This particular day his story struck a cord within me. First, listen to (or read) the commentary yourself here.
Don’t Yuck My Yum.
What a simply profound and powerful statement. “Don’t yuck my yum,” says his child. What the…? Where did he pick this up, and more importantly, how come I haven’t heard this, and why don’t more people instill this sentiment into their brains?
Don’t yuck my yum. Let’s ponder this for a minute. How many times can you recall blurting out, “Ew, gross!” or “Yuck, that looks nasty” when your friend or little brother eats something that makes you nearly gag? Why did you say it? Trey’s son’s yum is broccoli with ketchup. If you watched your kindergarten-aged son innocently consume this particular food combination with enjoyment, would you hold back from displaying disgust? I had to think twice about it after I listened to the report. Obviously his son reveled in this simple delight…his “yum.”
Someone I know used to eat ranch dressing on his rice. Yes, you read that correctly. Ranch dressing on rice. It looked and smelled like the most foul combination I ever could have paired. Witnessing my horror, he insisted I taste it.
Me: No.
Him: Come on, try it!
Me: No!
Him: Come on, it’s really good, I swear. Try it!
Me: Fine!
Although braving the toxic combination made me almost vomit immediately, my friend also reveled in this strange and simple treat. Yu-uck! Was that mean of me to display my disgust? At the time, I didn’t think so — I mean, hey, I ate it. But after hearing Trey’s report, maybe it was. What do I gain from showing disapproval of someone else’s pleasure? I’m sure there are plenty of things I enjoy that others find either revolting or offensive.
For instance, I eat my broccoli with a mixture of soy sauce and mayonnaise (not ketchup). I can hear the yucks now. But this is a Japanese thing, so it’s normal to me. It’s how my grandmother and mother and cousins eat broccoli, and so it’s how I eat it. I also love to eat seaweed, raw fish (sushi), and fish eggs. But hey, don’t yuck my yum. I’m sure there are things you guys like that you’d want to share with the rest of us? And we’ll see if we can resist blurting out, “Yuck”? 
The statement goes beyond food, though. It’s about respecting others’ choices, and checking yourself as to why you feel the urge to disapprove. I bet the next time someone squeals at the sight of your dinner, and you look them in the eye and say, “Don’t yuck my yum,” they’ll probably stop for a second to ponder, as Trey did, and take your advice. As a result of listening to the commentary, I’m now a firm believer in another popular saying, “Everything I ever needed to know in life, I learned in kindergarten.”
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I love brocoli and mayo. great mix.
haha very interesting post, but at the same time makes me wonder, why i used to blueberry jam and cheese
you can pair any fruit with any cheese and it will probably work amazingly well every time!
i saw this show on the Food Network where this guy set up a little raffle station in a specialty food store. a stranger walks in, spins the little wheel and pulls out two pieces of paper: one cheese and one fruit jam — any combination, they have to eat. everyone who did it, loved it! so i’m also a firm believer of the strength of the fruit and cheese combo. bravo 
@prija - is that a laos thing too?
Cheese goes with everything - I think cheese is my favorite food.
“Cheese goes with everything - I think cheese is my favorite food.”
Ditto…maybe a close second anyway.
i know but just the thought is bad but it is a good combination i agree!
I don’t have any particularly weird food that I really like a lot but I do eat a lot of weird things that gross people out. I like chicken hearts, for example…and every time we go out for Dot Com Dim Sum on Saturday, I always gross out some of the other guys with chicken feet or some other weird dim sum delicacy.
i had a roomie on college who would buy the “chicken gizzards and hearts” package at the grocery store and simmer them up with spaghetti sauce. i never tried it, but i guess it smelled good
can’t do chicken feet either…yet. have you posted pics of your particular yums? i’ve seen some of the other pics.
@chee - thanks! if you do end up trying them, please let us know!
Nope. I usually can’t cook stuff like that. I cook more…normal dishes.
Nice post Ms Danielle
Sometimes I yuck at my pal if they invite me to join them to enjoy their yum. :p
When I think of it again, maybe they would understand that, it’s just my way of saying no.
But, nope, I won’t do it to a stranger, especially if they’re having some exotic delicacies.
With a 4-year old little girl I can relate to the little boy’s dad. As my little girl finds new ‘exciting’ combos I will be sure to share.
Amen to that. Maybe our 4-year-olds should start a cookbook. Don’t Yuck My Yums might even be a good title.
This is so simple yet really makes sense. I think the most bizarre “yum” in our house has been our youngest son putting mustard on his pizza.
Mustard is greatness, I could eat mustard with anything save dessert.
I love mustard as well but putting it on pizza was a little too much for me. Something that I do put on just about every single thing that I eat is hot sauce.
Actually, mustard on pepperoni pizza is really good. It sounds strange, I guess, and I was highly skeptical at first but it turned out to be super awesome. And it does make some sense. If you’ll get mustard on a cheeseburger, why not on a cheesey, hot pizza, too? It’s basically the same. Bread, cheese, and meat. Come to think of it, I bet the kind of sauce used for pizza would be pretty good on a burger. (Which in turn wouldn’t be much different from a meatball sub!)
I, myself, can’t stand bleu cheese. I’ve tried it time and time again and every time it ends up being a yuck for me. My mom loves it, and my beau does too. I guess the bleu cheese thing was my first experience with learning to tolerate other’s enjoyment of something I found gross. (I still made faces for a long time though!) Thinking about that in context of “Don’t Yuck my Yum” though, I guess figuring out that everybody likes different things at an early age like that helped me apply that lesson elsewhere in life too.
Great post.
Blue/bleu, feta, gorgonzola, muenster - I love just about every cheese out there. Now I’m hungry!
my friend used to also put the ranch dressing on his pizza. i think he was just a big fan of ranch. lol
@tyson - my weakness is garlic. and to the contrary of mustard, you can find garlic ice cream
I am making an ‘exotic’ ice cream at an upcoming homemade ice cream festival. I will not disclose it here, due to the numerous homemade ice cream spies. The contest I am entering has a category called ‘You made what!?!’, that is what my ice cream will be entered into.
hahahahaahah!!!!! omg
hahahaehehhehehehhheheheheeeeee
hahahhahaha…. ahem… hmm… ahhahehe
hahhahaha!!
Hold on, Danielle. Ranch dressing on pizza is just Yum. Nothing yuck about it.
For some reason my husband thinks it’s “yucky” that I like mayonnaise, sushi, and heaping spoonfuls of sugar in my hot tea. No, I don’t put the mayonnaise and sushi in my tea, just the sugar.
i think those are normal yums. if you mixed them, that would be a different story…
Hmm … kids sometimes have the keenest insights. I’ll have to remember this when the time comes for me to explain to my kids that having baked tuna and rice with cheese and a hint of garlic isn’t that bad
i think they serve something like that at this chinese restaurant in alhambra
i’d eat it, as long as there’s no ranch nearby…
You’re not a big fan of Ranch are you?
I have put Ranch on pizza before and that is pretty tasty. Last night I had an odd “yum” as I tried some diced ham, a little shredded cheese with a splash of Ranch and a bunch of hot sauce.
whoa. bake that on top of some bread, and you and giana could split a ham/cheese/ranch pizza. if you have some mustard for her…
Awesome post! I thought I was the only one in this world who likes broccoli!
Thanks for the phrase “Don’t Yuck My Yum”…I will have to adopt that one as my own when some one does responds with an eewww or yuck.
BTW, Danielle…I like your MS Paint soy sauce and mayonnaise. I was fooled until I read the post.
that would be ketchup. and my skills were executed via photoshop on my macbook. i know, it does look very realistic, doesn’t it? thanks for recognizing my talent, derrich
@adam - thanks for reading and leaving your comments
i’ve received your facebook invite, but i don’t have a facebook account! hahaha…guess i’ll have to create one now that i’ve gotten my first invite
@chris - thanks! yes i’m one of the few strange people that really loves broccoli. it’s the perfect food
DOH! Well, that’s what I thought at first, but then I read soy sauce and mayo. Oh well. I think my eyes are tired from reading my computer screen. That’s all it seems I’ve been doing with all this rain we’ve been getting.
Love this phrase, but I think others maybe getting tired of me saying it. lol I also said it in referring to a movie I liked and Lizzie my wife did not.
[…] came across this post yesterday on Ms. Danielle’s blog in regard to weird foods that people enjoy. She mentions broccoli with ketchup and ranch dressing on rice (no, you read that correctly), which […]
That really is a Japanese thing… I love broccoli with mayo and soy sauce! It’s good with steamed artichoke too by the way!