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Cheese or squash? As It Happens listeners share their best food mix-ups

After we told you about a North Carolina man who mistook butternut squash for cheese, you sent us a feast of your own food mix-ups.
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After we told you about a customer who who mistook butternut squash for cheese, you wrote to us with your own food mix-ups. (Emmanuel Dunane/AFP/Getty Images, Matthew Mead/Canadian Press)

If you were listening to As It Happens this week, you may have heard our story about the drama at a North Carolina grocery store. 

It was the epic tale of a customer who who mistook butternut squash for cheese. Assuming he purchased cubed orange cheese, he later found out it was actually cubed orange squash. This confusion led to a long, heated argument with staff, which ended with the man leaving the store — squash in hand. 

After that story went to air, we asked you for your own food mix-up stories — and you delivered.



Edmonton's Steph Gazzola wrote to us with this, via email: 

"My most memorable food mistake happened when I was making perogies for my fiancé. In our family, we love a little paprika on our perogies. And by a little, I mean a lot. So I went to town covering our perogies in paprika as I fried them. Or at least, I thought I did. When we sat down to dinner, I soon realized that I had covered them in a different, more pungent red spice — nutmeg."

Red nutmeg? That does sound confusing. 

Is that paprika or nutmeg on your perogies? (Best Recipes Ever/CBC)


John in Manitoba wrote to us with this food mix-up that happened on a road trip. He writes:

"I was once riding my motorcycle north of Winnipeg. It was hot and I was hungry. There was a sign that read 'PEACHES AND CREAM,' so I pulled in and asked for some. I very quickly found out it is a variety of corn. It was super embarrassing."
Peaches n' cream corn not peaches and cream. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

And Craig Butler in Breckenridge sent this culinary mishap to our email:

"I was at my girlfriend's cottage making hamburgers. I was drunk, as usual, and wanted to add some soya sauce to the mix. Unbeknownst to me, her mother had put vanilla into a soya sauce bottle and the results were cake-like. I didn't smell a thing until they started to cook."

Soy sauce or vanilla extract? (Shizuo Kambayashi/AP)

This story also got people here at As It Happens talking about their own food mix-ups. 

Years ago, guest host Helen Mann's aunt made a cheesecake with onion-flavored cream cheese.  And, one of our producers, Imogen, told us about her high school friend who used to help himself to whatever he could find at her parent's house — including an organic dog biscuit, thinking it was a cookie. 

As It Happens guest host Helen Mann swears by her aunt's onion-flavoured cheese cake recipe. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

Thanks to everyone who wrote in with their stories.

If you've mistaken one piece of food for another let us know. You can find us on Twitter or Facebook @cbcasithappens. Our Talkback machine is at 416-205-5687 and our email is [email protected].

Bon appétit!

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