12 People Share Stories About The Saddest Meal They've Ever Eaten

Meals tend to conjure images of sitting down with loved ones and enjoying each other's company, but not every meal is a happy one. For one reason or another, we tend to remember meals we've eaten that have struck a sad note, usually because they're eaten at a time when symbols of happiness seem out of place. Some sad meals are funny, like random assortments of ingredients thrown together after a night of drinking, but most are just... sad. AskReddit asked its readers to weigh in on the saddest meals that they've ever eaten, and, well, it's about to get pretty dusty in here.

"The only edible things in the house were condiments and a six month old box of bread crumbs. I mixed butter and jam with the bread crumbs to make these jam sandwich balls. They were sh*t. Then I thought, 'Frying makes everything better. I should fry these.' I put them all in a pan and put it on the stove. They all promptly melted. I ended up just adding more bread crumbs till it turned into this greasy, jam flavoured, bread crumb soup. I ate it." — VicMG

"In 2006, I made a bad decision to move with some friends to Virginia from Texas. After I was there for a couple of weeks, I realized the mistake I had made and decided to come home. The problem is, I had no money. Literally $0. Like I said, it was a bad idea. So I call up my family and convince my rich aunt to buy me a bus ticket. So then began my 2 days of bus travel back to Texas with no money, which means no food. A day into the trip, after changing buses in Mississippi, a man got on my bus who looked like he was probably on drugs. He was shaking and his hair was dirty and messed up and he had a backpack. An hour after getting on this bus, he changes seats to sit across from me. He leans over and says "want a pear?" I have no idea why this man offered me a pear. In hindsight, he could have put something in it or something to hurt me, but he didn't. Instead, I ate a delicious pear and cried sitting on a bus back home." — Kariodude

"The night my mother left my father he went out, bought a pineapple and sliced it (no peeling) and fried the slices until they were black, then put them on bread and that was dinner for the kids that night." — LifeIsBizarre

"My dad told me when he was super poor, he and his friends would go to a diner and just order hot water (free) and then mix it with ketchup and dip the free crackers into it to make tomato soup and crackers. I always feel so bad when he tells me that stuff but he always talks about it with a laugh." — marcythevampirequeen

"Cheap turkey TV dinner on thanksgiving alone." — Eyezog

"When I was in grade three I was one of only a handful of children that brought and ate lunch at school, all the other kids went home for lunch. I'd leave my lunch kit in the cloakroom during the day which was pretty much open to everyone. One day I had a bag of cheezies in my lunch that I was super pumped about, but at lunchtime I realized someone had stolen them, I was irate. Keep in mind, I grew up in an upper middle class neighborhood and although I knew on some level that some people were 'poor' I didn't actually believe I knew any. So word gets out about my cheezies and someone mentions that they saw Vincent eating some at recess. So I stomped on over to the teacher and ratted out Vincent for being a cheezie thief. She called him over and asked if he took them, he looked sad and said he did. The teacher told him that he had to bring me back an even better snack from his house during lunch. I was dreaming about fruit roll ups, cookies or granola bars...but when Vincent came back he had saltines with a very thin layer of Jam. He looked so embarrassed when he explained he used the last of his jam and he was sorry. To this day I remember the look of shame on his face and my own realization that he had taken the cheezies because he was hungry. I was going to go home to a house filled with food and boxes of cheezies...he had a house with saltines and no jam because he'd given the last of it to me. I felt so horrible. I ate the saltines with gusto and told him how great they were and thanked him repeatedly. He looked proud and pleased. Choking down those dry saltines while having my first realization that there were hungry people around me was easily the saddest meal I ever had." — NedleyNoodles

"Every weeknight before bed I would make a pbj and sit on my bed and share it with my dog. After she died I had to stop when i was left with 1/4 of a sandwich every time." — Tusccar

"I tried making my wife some egg / potato salad once, but we only had one egg, so...I put in some bananas. You can usually sub bananas for eggs in baking, so I figured I'd go for it. I'm never going to live down the banana salad." — UGHToastIU

"I microwaved a square cheese slice on a plate once and ate it" — trangquility

"While being a poor uni student I was used to eating plain toast and crackers or going without dinner in general, but one time while drunk I went all out and spent my last remaining $5 on a tasty looking microwave meal. It smelt so good as I was carrying it across the dorm at 3am, and then I stumbled and accidentally threw it at the wall. So that night I just licked the remaining sauce from its container and cry-laughed myself to sleep." — LintyPooCondensation

"Went to my parents house on my birthday and they had forgotten it was my birthday. Hung around for about 3 hours and then told them I had to go. I sat in the car in the driveway for a few minutes in kind of disbelief. I was already in a pretty low place so it kind of hit me a little harder. I stopped at the store on the way home and spent the only $2 I had on a cupcake. Ate it in the car in the parking lot. It had a princess on it. I'm a dude. I'm 36 today. That was 17 years ago." — mrwebguy

"Probably the time I was really craving for a Big Mac, bought a meal and took it on a 18 mile ride home only to find out that they forgot the meat patties. I tearfully sat down at my computer and ate the thing anyway, trying to imagine the taste of meat. You had one job, burger flipper." — kebnekajsa