Opposites attract (sometimes), right? You are the yin to your partner’s yang. But what happens when your yin is a vegan diet and your partner’s yang is a love for baby back ribs?

Munch on this from The Washington Post:

Disagreements about food probably wouldn’t make a counselor’s top-10 list of couples issues. But in today’s food-conscious culture, what and how a significant other eats is becoming one more proxy for couples’ deeper conflicts about control and respect. Food obsessives divide the world into two kinds of people: those who seek out truffles, sea urchin and single-estate chocolate, and those who don’t. And when an avid food lover falls for one of the others, it can get complicated. Unlike fly-fishing or knitting, what to eat is a question that comes up three times a day. The result: Romantic dinners are ruined. Tempers flare. And though some couples find ways to make compromises, in extreme cases, relationships fall apart.

Has your picky palate ever come between you and the person you are/were dating?

Breakup Girl is very busy right now, what with the giddy whirlwind of festivities and shopping expeditions and her Herculean efforts to get you all to say to each other, “Can’t we drop it? It’s Christmas!” But it’s tough. The level of love and cuteness and romance and pressure and, like, red felt everywhere right now is, if anything, a warmup for February, when BG gets really busy. You know, with President’s Day.

Anyway, BG has been going to so many fiestas that she’s had no time to remember that she hasn’t sent a single card. But there’s always time for advice, so here are a couple of BG Holiday Party Tips:

> The holiday party hookup. Bound to happen. Why? Because eggnog doesn’t taste spiked.

• Breakup Girl’s Tip: Make sure you know what you’re doing. Alternate eggnogs with a beverage that does taste spiked.

> The holiday party breakup. Now that’s a deadly combination. Doubles your chances of making poor food choices.

• Breakup Girl’s Tip: never go to the party hungry. I usually accomplish this by attending another party first.

For Shakespeare, music is the food of love. For me, food is the food of love. It not just about eating as sustenance, of course; I can do that over my own sink. It’s about enjoying eating as sustenance. Enjoying eating together. Here, taste this. No, this piece is yours. I toasted the pine nuts, just the way you like. (Someone once invited me out for Thai food. What would you like? he asked. “Spicy eggplant?” I suggested. “No,” he said, “I don’t like sauce.” Waiter!) It’s about appetite, in all senses. If you’re like me, you may (perhaps unfairly) border on lactose-intolerant-intolerance. If you’re like me, if you’re without someone to love food with, you get very, very peckish.

So what if you’re an omnivore dating a plainwhitepastavore? A cheesehead crushing on a vegan? Can this marriage of flavors be saved? The New York Times explores that question in today’s “Dining In” section. The answer? Sometimes.

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