'I turned the tables on her': Daughter-in-law gets back at her guilt-tripping MIL who forced her to eat her home-cooked meals by bringing polarizing dishes of her own to every family potluck

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Mar 24, 2025 2:00 PM EDT

Revenge is a dish best served cold—and u/coffeebeans2836 found the perfect dish to prove her point to her MIL.

Unlike a lot of people, I'm not picky and will eat just about anything that smells yummy. But I understand that not everyone has such a broad palette. My sister was always very particular when we grew up, picking the onions out of omelets and slathering ketchup on her otherwise dry cafeteria food plates. Bland and boring, I used to make fun of her dishes because it never occurred to me that she just liked food to be plain. Now, though, as an adult, it's clear that there's nothing wrong with having different tastes! So if a family member tries to tell you how to eat or what to eat, they're missing the point of what it means to have an opinion about what goes into your mouth. And when it comes to ethnic foods, not everyone's tolerance for spices or exotic unknowns is matched in the kitchen. 

But as a lover of both Chinese AND Indian food, I offer myself up as a tribute to take home the leftovers from the family meal in this next story…

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  • "MIL kept guilt tripping me for not eating her Indian cooking, so I started bringing my own dishes and giving her the same treatment. Now she's suddenly 'not hungry' too"

    My Indian mother-in-law thinks that she is the best cook in the world and that everyone, including her son and daughter-in-law, should beg for her cooking. Well, culturally, I'm not used to a lot of Indian food because of the spices,
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  • but I will try to eat the ones I can enjoy. A lot of times I'll politely tell her I am not hungry or I'll munch on some, but sometimes that's not a good enough response, and
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  • she'll start guilt-tripping me with "So you don't like my cooking?" Or "Everyone loves my food, why don't you?" My significant other usually will
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  • jump in to stop her, but it always puts me in a weird spot since on day one of meeting me, she told me point blank that she doesn't like Chinese food. I'm Chinese, and
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  • it kind of threw me off because there are so many varieties of Chinese food, and for her to just say she hates the entire category seems odd to me. So I recently started bringing food I
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  • made whenever visiting her and telling her how excited I am to cook for her and that I hope she likes my cooking. She usually brushes it off saying she's not hungry or that she'll eat it later. I turned the tables
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  • on her, looking sad and asking her why she doesn't like my cooking. It's very entertaining to watch her try to make excuses she knows are bs. She hasn't asked me to eat her stuff since, so I guess this petty revenge is working.
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  • fyr811. Seeing as I love both cuisines, I will gladly volunteer to eat both sets of leftovers for you. To keep the peace.
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  • CocoaAlmondsRo... What an excellent strategy! Since she has stopped, you can stop bringing her food. If she starts again, you start again. Clear, immediate consequences for both desired and undesired behavior.
    via CocoaAlmondsRo
  • Personal-Heart-1... All this talk of food... I could go for some hot, fresh naan, spicy curries, Indian sweets & loads of Chinese food right now!
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  • glenmarshall There are many varieties of Indian food, just as there are in Chinese. Perhaps each of you learning what sort of dishes are off-putting would help. It may be possible to create a dinner with both types of cuisine where the flavors blend well.
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  • Mrbiag I will never understand why adults try to force other adults to eat things they don't like. My FIL didn't believe that I don't like cheese with the exception of mozzarella. He
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  • made a turkey meatloaf and put cheese in it. After a few bites I didn't eat anymore because I could taste the cheese. The next few times he made turkey he also made ham for me. The last time we
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  • came to dinner he saw me eating turkey. He said I thought you don't like turkey. I told him no, I don't like cheese that you put in there. Sheepishly said oh, okay. I'm a grown man I'm pretty sure I can determine for myself what I like and don't like.
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  • Shawon770 Matching passive-aggression with passive-aggression? Chef's kiss. Literally
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  • freedomfreid Oh man if you could only unite and come together hakka (chinese-indian) food is my fav!!
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  • Kenzingtons55 I understand completely. My wife is Chinese and I never push her to eat Indian food because I know she doesn't like it even though I love it myself. She's always mentioned the hygiene and cultural differences when it comes to her dislike for the cuisine.
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  • No_Builder7010 I think you're helping her grow. It's hard for folks set in their ways to change lifelong habits. You can't have been the only person she's done this to. Very cool.
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  • I do like the suggestion to try creating some fusion dishes. Sounds like a potentially fun bonding experience. Btw, I don't like the Indian food I've tried either and I get so much sh for it.
    via No_Builder7010

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