Chew On This: What’s the most embarrassing thing we’d find in your fridge, freezer or kitchen cupboards?

Opinion # 1 By Chris Garbutt

It would be easy to talk about the small nub of goat cheese that is slowly transforming into a science experiment in the back, or the yogurt container of something, but I can’t remember what, that I’ll deal with sooner or later. But what I’m most embarrassed about in my fridge is the two-year-old cranberry sauce.

I’m not embarrassed because it’s two years old, though perhaps I should be. I’m not embarrassed because it’s cranberry sauce. I’m embarrassed because it was a gift from my mother, and I should be finished with it by now.

But. What exactly does one do with cranberry sauce when one does not have turkey in the house? Seriously. Help me here. I mean how often do we really roast a turkey at home anyway? Even if you host every holiday at your house, I’m guessing two or three times tops.

And then a turkey dinner rolls around, and are you going to serve year-old cranberry sauce to your loved ones? No, but are you going to throw away the product of your own mother’s hard work? (Okay, I know, cranberry sauce is not that hard, but it’s my mom!)

So it sits there, quite happily. It’s a big Mason jar about three-quarters full. There’s no mould, no signs of spoilage, so not even that excuse to throw it away. I have a feeling it’s going to be there forever.

Opinion # 2 By Stephanie Dickison

Of course this is completely personal and subjective, yet totally revealing because I may think that something is great, while you wouldn’t allow it entry into your home and vice versa.

I am a food lover, so there is not much that I’m embarrassed by.  There are certainly things like the copious amounts of things that are housed in my cupboards like flavoured cane sugars (espresso, lemon, vanilla bean) that would lead someone to think I have a sweet tooth, but I’m writing about it so 3 have one of every flavour.  Or the 6 assorted containers of pestos and tapenades in the fridge.  But again, I’m writing about it.

I do however, have an intense soft spot for retro diner food like hot turkey sandwiches with peas, iceberg lettuce with thousand island dressing and westerns.

On a recent trip to New York, I was outside Barney’s Department Store when I realized that I was starving.  Instead of going to the many swank restos in the area, whose food and service I had read about in glossy food magazines, I ducked into a narrow galley kitchen diner where I ate chicken salad (complete with chopped celery) on top of iceberg lettuce and garnished with a half avocado, tomatoes, pickles and olives .  A a stainless steel holder of oil and vinegar bottles and 2 packages of melba toast accompanied it.  I was in heaven and didn’t regret not having tuna tatare or stuffed quail at the restaurants on either side.

And this love of hokey things carries over to home sometimes.  But they disappear as quickly as they come in. So depending on the season or the month, you may see fish sticks, sausage rolls, sauce for sloppy joes and towering columns of canned creamed corn.  I also like hamburgers, frozen vegetables and Shake ‘n Bake’s Southern Coating Mix.

However, you will never see candy, Kraft Dinner, Wonder Bread, Aunt Jamima Syrup or those kind of fake products at my place, so it all evens out, I think.