Growing up, I was never a picky eater, but rather, particular. I would eat just about anything you put in front of me, but I’ve always liked things cooked just so and served how I liked them. As an toddler, I woudn’t allow any ice cream of lesser quality than Häagen-Dazs to pass my lips. When I finally grew out of that (and now will happily consume any form of ice cream at any given time, no questions asked) I developed an aversion to any ketchup brand except for Heinz.* No-name brand on the table in a restaurant? No ketchup for me. Mom tried to sneak Hunt’s into the shopping cart because it was on sale? Uh-uh, I wasn’t having that.

While I no longer throw tantrums at the grocery store if they don’t have my favorite condiment brands, I never did grow out of my particular eating habits – and I say particular, not picky, because I’m fairly open to trying new foods and experimenting with new ingredients, tastes and flavors. If I know something is high in quality, I’m all for it.

As my palate has become less shy, I find myself develpoing certain boundaries with food. I like sour cream on chili, but god help the waiter who puts it near my quesadilla. I’ll eat mayo in tuna salad and certain dips but if its so much as touches my ham-and-swiss on seven-grain, I’m sending that sandwich back to the kitchen so fast the plate won’t even know what hit it.

I love cheese, but I don’t like mexican food. I love sweet potato fries (especially oven-baked with kosher salt OMG) but when I’m out to dinner, the smell of potatoey goodness in a deep fryer does absolutely nothing for me. If you sit me in a corner with a bag of M&Ms, you can bet that they won’t be seeing the light of day again, but I can easily pass on a piece of store-bought chocolate birthday cake.

Part of the reason I like to cook is because I can take a recipe, tweak and finesse it, fine tuning the spices, flavors and components to suit my liking. The applesauce isn’t sweet enough? I’ll add more brown sugar. I don’t like a lot of icing on a cupcake? Easy breezy – I only coat the cupcake with a thin layer (which for the record, is not true, since we all know the best part of a cupcake is the icing….but I digress). When cooking, you can season vegetables just so and taste sauces as-you-stir. If you despise cilantro, you don’t have to dress your taco with it, but if you really love basil, no pesto can be too green. You don’t have to politely eat around the red onion the way you would at a neighbor’s cook-out and if you have a violent tree nut allergy, you needn’t worry that the same waiter who served you your vegan curry was moments ago, using those very same hands to style a plate of almond-crusted tilapia.

On the other hand, as much as I love to cook, if it weren’t for dining out or eating with friends or family, I wouldn’t learn to expand my horizons and try new things that I might not venture to sample on my own. I’ve learned great tips from talented cooks and sampled restaurant food that I know I couldn’t recreate in my own home without buying pricey appliances or expensive ingredients that I would wind up only using once before the expiration date landed it headfirst in the trash. Now, I’m not someone who thinks that the truffles you can eat in pasta are the same ones sold in fancy gold boxes of chocolate, but exotic spices don’t find their way onto my shelves with their own two legs.

For me, this is the greatest advantage to dining out and for that reason, I’m not attracted to chain restaurants that make food that I could easily eat at home – and better, because I could make it my way with my own personal touch. And that way, no one looks at you funny when you order a cobb-salad-dressing-on-the-side-no-cheese-no-scallions-extra-tomatoes-and-chicken-instead-of-shrimp-grilled-not-blackened.

I drive waiters and waitresses absolutely insane.

What are some of your food quirks? Do you have any eating habits that people laugh at you for? Do you consider yourself a picky eater, or will you eat just about anything you’re served?

*Full Disclosure: Heinz is a client of my agency. I do not work on the business (nor did I know when I was four that I shouldn’t be so damn choosy because someday I might be a publicist and I might have a blog…hindsight is always 20/20, ain’t it?)