Gross! Or is it?

Students in Sue Sprenkle’s freshman seminar class volunteered to try some of Seward County Community College Saints’ weirdest food combinations. 

The class took a survey writing down their food combos and where they got the idea from. After gathering up these 22 surveys, nine of the strangest ones were picked.

All the foods were bought and brought back to the classroom the following class day for other students to try. Some were absolutely grossed out but others were pleasantly surprised. 

Chicken noodle soup with cheez-its

The first food a student tried was chicken noodle soup with cheez-its. Alexis Rodrigues, a freshman from Perryton, Texas, had this idea.

“In Perryton, Texas where I went to school, they always put some sort of snack on the lunch tray. My freshman year, the first thing they had served was chicken noodle soup and cheez-its on the side. I thought this looked good, so I started putting the cheez-its in the noodle soup,” Rodrigues said. 

Alexander Corona, a freshman from Liberal, volunteered to try this combination. He eagerly raised his hand as soon as volunteers were asked. After tasting the food, Corona answered a few questions about what he thought. 

He said, “It’s pretty good. I would eat it again. If I was bored at school, I’d put it in my soup. It just tastes like what it is – chicken noodle soup and cheese.” 

Rating: 6/10 

Cheese curds with caramel sauce 

The second food that was presented was cheese curds with caramel. Ren Watt, a freshman from Liberal, submitted this combination. 

“It’s basically fried cheese with caramel. It tastes like fair food. Definitely not something you’d eat every day. I tried it at Buffalo Wild Wings. We had ordered cheese curds and the waitress asked if we wanted any sauce. I had said to give us the sauce that comes with it, and she asked if we had ever tried it with caramel. I thought I’m going to be brave and try it. It ended up being really good,” she said. 

After waiting for a minute, Sired Soto, a freshman from Liberal, volunteered slowly coming to the front. She sniffed the cheese curd hesitantly saying, “It smells weird.” 

Soto did eventually dip the curd into the sauce, putting the whole thing into her mouth. A few bites in, she was trying to spit it out. 

“It’s nasty. It was so salty. It tasted like caramel, but it was very salty. It was nasty.”

Rating: 0/10

Doritos with ketchup and cream cheese 

There were two mixes with Doritos – ketchup and cream cheese. Halle Payton, a freshman from Liberal, came up with the ketchup. 

“When I was little, I used to eat lays and ketchup. One time, I was eating a cheeseburger with ketchup and Doritos and decided to dip the Doritos in the ketchup.” 

No student wanted to try this mix; but KelliJo Brown, an accounting instructor, stood up to the challenge. 

“It’s actually not terrible.” She said after eating a Dorito. “It tastes like salty cheese. It’s really not bad. I would eat it again. It wasn’t bad at all.” 

Rating: 7/10 

The cream cheese was written by Madeline Pack, a freshman from Lexington, Oklahoma. She says, “At a tournament when I was 12, a teammate’s mom brought Doritos and cream cheese. She made all of us try it. It looked disgusting but it was so good.” 

Our volunteer for this was easier to get than the last one. Aubrey Schumacker, a freshman from Elkhart, ate it and liked it. 

“It’s good. It just tastes like Doritos. It’s not like sweet or anything, but it’s creamy. I would eat it again.” 

Rating: 8/10 

Spaghetti with syrup and hot sauce 

Next came two students who tried two different strange sauces on spaghetti. One was from

Brianna Estrada, a freshman from Harvesty Oklahoma, which was syrup. 

“I got this inspiration from the movie elf where he puts syrup and a bunch of other stuff on spaghetti. One time I was just bored eating spaghetti. I saw the maple syrup there and decided to try it. I liked it, not loved, but it’s alright.” 

No one wanted to try it, but a willing student stepped up again who had already tried something else, Alexander Corona. He took a huge bite of noodles. 

“It’s actually not that bad. It’s fine because the spaghetti has no flavor. So it just tastes like maple syrup. It’s not bad, but I wouldn’t eat it again.” 

Rating: 5/10 

The other sauce was hot sauce, an idea from Shatarrika Ross, a freshman from Liberal. “I put hot sauce on everything – mac and cheese and corn. I was eating spaghetti and just decided to put it on. It was good.” 

The student that tried this spicy combination was. He smelt it before he tasted it hesitating but took a big bite of noodles in the end. 

“Yeah, it’s good. Just tastes like noodles with hot sauce,” He said before taking another bite. “I’d eat it again.”

Rating: 9/10 

Peanut butter and jelly tortilla 

The last food the students got to try was a mixture volunteered by Brianna Rich, a freshman from Elkhart. She eats peanut butter and jelly but in a tortilla instead of traditional bread.

“When I was little, I use to ride the bus. I had a friend who rode with me, and her mom would always make her peanut butter and jelly put in a tortilla. She didn’t really want it and asked me if I wanted to try it. I did and ended up liking it. Now whenever I’m hungry but don’t want bread, I go and get a tortilla and put peanut butter and jelly on it.”

The item was tried by Brianna Estrada who was a little skeptical about the tortilla since it was store-bought instead of homemade. She did end up taking it with her to her seat to finish it off. 

“It was a lot of jelly, but it’s good. I would eat it again. I would’ve rated it a 10 if it wasn’t so much jelly.”

Rating: 9/10

Students said the whole experience was a fun time for the class. Everyone laughed at the reactions and origin stories of the “weird food” combinations, even though they were hesitant to go up themselves and try it. In the end, the winner was based on the rating system of 1 being the worst an 10 being the best. It was a tie between the peanut butter and jelly tortilla and the spaghetti with hot sauce.