This story I identify with because I am also autistic and an Avoider when it comes to foods, I have the same ìssue as Mark - that cooked onions remind me of worms - I love crispy and crunchy foods, and everything sweet, I also find strong smells like tinned blue fish (tuna, sardines, and mackerel) and bell peppers REVOLTING... so finding a real-life story about a person who shares my Very Important Pet Peeve was life-changing...
People with sensation-avoiding patterns are more likely to have a routine menu for meals. You will like foods prepared in one way, and without additional sauces or spices. If you are an Avoider, you may also have some rituals related to your eating. For example, you may eat one thing at a time on your plate until it is gone, and then go to the next item rather than mixing the foods during the meal (LIKE I DO). You may prefer to have your food separated, i.e. not touching each other because the flavours or textures mixing is unpleasant for you. These rituals reduce stress during the meal. (I have no problem about spices, but sauces are my Waterloo, I like smooth sauces without chunks; Ketchup, mustard --but NOT mayo, the texture of egg in the mayo: EWWW--, tomate frito, pesto... NO CHUNKY SAUCES PLS!)
Identify your favorite foods and preparation strategies, and stick with them; this will enable you to participate in social and other aspects of dining without getting too overwhelmed. In your family, have spices and sauces served at the table so others can add them and you can eat the food without extra spicing. Identify what the important characteristics of food are for you, and explain them to your family so they can meet your needs.
Matt and his wife Sonia have been involved in a battle of wills for quite a while in the kitchen. Sonia enjoys cooking, and has certain “musts” in the kitchen. Sonia thinks that a dish is not worth cooking if she hasn’t sautéed onions (and garlic) to begin. “It just doesn’t have any flavor without this base,” she says.
At first, Matt was so in love with Sonia, he didn’t say anything, and choked the food down. He even tells the story of their first date. He went over to Sonia’s house for the first time, and she had made appetizers for them: braised onion tarts! Matt says the onions were snarled around each other and piled high on each tart like a nest of worms. And yet when he looked at Sonia’s glowing and proud face, he couldn’t do anything but eat one…and then another. He says that he never worked so hard not to gag.
When Matt first discussed the “I don’t like onions” idea (he wanted to say "I detest onions"), Sonia was shocked. She said that onions were in every dish she made (as if Matt didn’t already know). She reluctantly made a few dishes without any onions in them, and they both agreed that the flavoUr wasn’t right. So with further discussion, Matt was able to figure out that it was the texture of cooked onions, not the flavour that bothered him (THE SAME HAPPENS TO ME). They went through some of their typical family dishes, and talked about them; sometimes Sonia would have big chunks of onion and other times the onions were smaller. Matt said that he could see and work around the big chunks; the flavor was still in the food from the onions,but he didn’t have to contend with the texture of the onion in his mouth.
