Ambiguous Name: I Ate What

There are two related issues with I Ate WHAT?!. The trope description says it's someone eats something that is "not intended to be food"/a substance that's "[not] supposed to be eaten by anyone", and "most of the time" they're not aware of what they're eating.

• Unclear whose point of view is important here. Does it have to be not food to the diner? Does everyone have to find it gross? Does the audience's opinion matter at all?
• The misuse includes examples of diners' horrified reactions to things that are food, like turkey and eggs. The trope does not require the diner's reaction, so the trope name is not indicative of what the trope is about.

Personally, I doubt the tropeworthiness of "someone eats something that isn't food" by itself. I believe the real trope is the reaction, not the "food"ness.

Troping tangent...

• I added * I Ate WHAT?!: Kingo compliments Gilgamesh's beer, and Gilgamesh says he chewed up the grains himself, causing Kingo to spit it out. Kingo later takes an absentminded sip before remembering what it's made from and spitting it out again.
• I reread the trope description and considered this misuse; moved entry to * Cordon Bleugh Chef: Kingo compliments Gilgamesh's beer, and Gilgamesh says he chewed up the grains himself, causing Kingo to spit it out. Kingo later takes an absentminded sip before remembering what it's made from and spitting it out again.
• Someone potholed "causing Kingo to spit it out" to I Ate WHAT?!.
• Someone added * I Ate WHAT?!: The Eternals were pleasantly surprised at how good Gilgamesh's home-brewed spirits was. Until he told them its secret...the booze was made with Gil's fermented spit.
• Someone moved the Cordon Bleugh Chef entry to the character sheet. I Ate WHAT?! entry remains.

Wick Check

Correct (thing is definitely not food)

1. ComicBook.Pink Chickens: Dolly, Mustard and Basil are starving on the alien spaceship they "borrowed" until they find a fridge full of strange multicolored goop. They gorge on it, but later the Space Police informs them that the spaceship was an illegal liposuction clinic. They drank liters of alien body fat, which also has hallucinogenic effects.
2. DiabloIII.Tropes F To J: Ghom's log notes that his human prisoners began acting up when they realized meat only came after one of their own was dragged away screaming.
3. ExplainExplainOhCrap.Western Animation: In "A Very Special Family Guy Freakin' Christmas", Joe, Cleveland, and Quagmire are going about drunken antics while Peter is the Designated Driver, and when Peter reminds himself that he has to go drop off a gift for charity, Quagmire suggests that they set him up with "another lemon snow cone":
   Peter: No thanks. The last one you gave me didn't taste like lemon at all. It tasted like— [beat] Oh, you guys are asses.
4. Fanfic.A Codette World Tour: After Cody catches a cold in the Yukon, Sierra makes chicken soup for him... with her own hair as an ingredient. Everyone is incredibly disturbed when she reveals this.
5. Film.Quest For Fire: Amoukar has this reaction when he learns that the leftover meat he's been chewing on is human.
6. Film.The War Wagon: Billy tricks Wild Horse into taking a swig from a whiskey bottle filled with nitroglycerine. When Wild Horse spits it out and angrily throws away the bottle, the resulting explosion gives the gang the distraction they need to fight back.
7. Film.Wrong Turn 2 Dead End: Jonesy and Amber steal some of the meat that hillbillies have roasting on a fire, and only after eating some of it find out that it was actually human flesh.
8. FinalFantasyXIV.Tropes S To U: Solid Gold Poop: At the end of the Halloween event, it was revealed that the cookies given by the Imps were actually Chocobo dung. The reporter that discovered this wasn't very happy.
9. Funny.American Dragon Jake Long: The entire flashback sequence, including such gems as young Lao Shi being so cocky to make his grandson appear humble, young Lao Shi and Chang exchanging cheesy lines (especially Chang's deadpan deliveries) and Fu appreciating the snack only to learn it was kitty litter.
10. Funny.Super Smash Adventures: Bowser's reaction to discovering that Fox filled the chili he had eaten with bombs.
11. HappyTreeFriends.Tropes A To F: In "Easy Comb, Easy Go", Cuddles unknowingly drinks hair growth formula and pukes out his hairy internal organs before his entire insides get replaced with hair.
12. Literature.Hank The Cowdog: In "The Case of the Measled Cowboy", Little Alfred fixes Slim a plate of hash when he's down with the measles. Later, Slim notices the can it came out of and states that it was dog food.
13. Manga.Plus Sized Elf: Elfuda faints upon Mero informing her the salmon eggs she ate are actually mermaid eggs. Specifically, Mero's mermaid eggs. They really were salmon eggs. Mero just wanted to yank Elfuda's chain.
14. NightmareFuel.Beelzebub: And as if that wasn't enough, after Lucifer cuts Furuichi's heart (the representation of his soul) into pieces, Takamiya delivers them to his underlings as "desserts"... and they EAT THEM.
15. PottyEmergency.Western Animation: The episode "Truth or Cosmoquences" sees Timmy - unusually relegated to a B-story - have to spend an extended amount of time in Fairy World, where he soon discovers that he cannot magically transport himself through the bathroom door (the only way to pass through one) and obtain the relief he needs. With Cosmo and Wanda distracted, Timmy must endure hour after hour of unrelenting Potty Emergency - while serving the drinks at a party that has a giant fountain for a centerpiece. That not the worst of it, the whole them of the reunion was a "celebration to water". So as you can imagine this didn't help matters. He eventually does relieve but tells his godparents "Not to drink the lemonade". Even worse was that Cosmo and Wanda were already drinking lemonade at that point.
16. Recap.Farscape S 04 E 10 Coup By Clam: The crew's first reaction when Tumii says he's given them fatal food poisoning. Their next reaction is to draw their guns.
17. Series.Get Krackin: In the episode where McCartney announces her pregnancy, she winds up eating a candle from one of the gift baskets.
18. Series.Just For Laughs Gags: In some of the pranks, victims are offered a free sample of food, and after they've eaten it, a demonstration is used to trick the victims into thinking that the food they ate was prepared using highly unsanitary, gory or otherwise taboo methods or ingredients.
19. Series.Will And Grace: In "Friends and Lover", Will and Grace eat some bread that turns out to be made with snake venom.
20. Unfortunate Item Swap: One The Far Side cartoon has a bug-eyed scientist holding a glass to his mouth as a coworker behind him is asking where his sample of dysentery's gone.
21. VideoGame.Vacation Story: A bit of a delayed example. Apples found on the island later prove to be rotten. Anyone who ate them will collapse dead on the spot.
22. WebAnimation.Neurotically Yours: Germaine gets a box of chocolates through the mail from her stalker, filled with an...interesting centre. She still eats it anyway, because she is that much of a chocolate addict. It turns out that the chocolates were never filled that way, they were just normal chocolates that had melted a little in the mail. it was just her delusion about Anchovy making her think they were contaminated.
23. WebAnimation.Puffin Forest:
    • In "D&D Story: PEE IN MY BUCKET! The Adventurer's League Game", Ben's Party tries rescuing the crew of an airship that crashed in the trees. This crew was exhausted, hungry, and dehydrated. To alleviate the last problem the party peed in a bucket, cast a purification spell on it, and gave it to the crew to drink. Hilariously, clerics like Ben and the one who had the pee-idea have the spells "Create or Destroy Water" and "Create Food and Water", meaning that if they took a long rest, they could prepare those spells.
    • This also happens when the Shenani-Guys find out that the dream pastries are made out of children.
24. Webcomic.Orange Marmalade: There was a day when Ma-ri forgot her lunch, a bag of pig's blood, and turned to Si-hoo for help. He gives her an extra blood bag that turns out to be human blood. Ma-ri is shocked and disgusted when she finds out, and leaves feeling more than a little sullied.
25. Webcomic.Two Lumps: Extreme Omnivore: Snooch, sometimes deliberately, sometimes by accident. Among the things he's consumed are (in alphabetical order):
26. Website.Brain POP: In the Fractions video, after eating a piece of Moby's cake:
    Tim: Three-quarters of a cup of...motor oil?
    Tim: I have to... go to the... bathroom.
    (Tim runs to the bathroom, then we hear spitting sounds)
27. WesternAnimation.Road Rovers: In "Storm from the Pacific", Shag cooks food for the rest of the Road Rovers. After asking him about his secret, Hunter informs the other dogs that Shag cooks his food with toilet water, grossing them out.

Misuse(?) (thing is food/intended to be food/food for some/etc.)

1. Creator.Anthony Bourdain: The Gadfly: Seemingly took it as a sacred obligation to push Anderson Cooper's culinary boundaries any time they met up.
   Cooper: "Tonight, a rare look at what happens when the world's most adventurous eater goes out to dinner with possibly the world's least adventurous eater. I'm talking about Anthony Bourdain and myself; guess which one is which."
2. Film.Borat: Borat feeds cheese made with his wife's breast milk to an unsuspecting person, only telling him this after he's eaten it.
3. Film.John Loves Mary: Fred is slamming down caviar like it was ice cream, to Mary's mortification. When he asks her what caviar is and she answers "fish eggs", he flinches in shock and the can flies out of his hand, spilling caviar all over the floor.
4. Funny.Harvest Town: Strawberry: Tastes like... pineapple-flavored blackberry?
5. LightNovel.Nyaruko Crawling With Love: In Luhy's seaside restaurant, the gang is enjoying her takoyaki. Mahiro was also about to reluctantly eat some... then he saw the restaurant's banner with an image of Cthulhu. Needless to say, he lost his appetite.
6. Manga.Azur Lane Comic Anthology: Volume 8, Chapter 12; Zuikaku enjoys Enterprise's hamburger only to discover that the latter had used turkey.
7. Manga.Silver Spoon: Hachiken is less than enthused about eating eggs after Keiji explains the concept of a cloaca.
8. PlayingWith.Haggis Is Horrible: Downplayed: Alice and Bob try haggis and have reactions of "I Ate WHAT?!" after finding out it's mostly sheep organs, but other than that they believe it tastes okay.
9. Recap.Big City Greens S 1 E 9: As seen above, Bill does not take Sea Fusïon's food rather well that it causes him to pass out. (Above: "Sea Fusïon has some rather bizarre seafood dishes, like sashimi made of bitter sea jellies, whole fish on a taco, and live octopus on a bun.")
10. Recap.Pete And Pete S 3 E 7 Last Laugh: Nona freaks out when she finds out Pete put atomic hot sauce in the tuna surprise, right before the heat takes over.
11. Recap.The Smurfs 2021 S 1 E 22 Kitchen Klutz: One Smurf runs into the outhouse to throw up after he eats Clumsy's cooking.
12. Theatre.Shirley Valentine: Janet is so freaked out when Shirley tells her that calamari is squid that she faints.
13. VideoGame.Eastshade: Ennio makes his brother Sergio eat a grape pastry.
14. VideoGame.Persona 3:
    • I Ate WHAT?!: The secret ingredient of Octopia's Weird Takoyaki, according to Theodore.
    • These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: Elizabeth/Theo's response if you ask what's in Octopia's takoyaki.
15. WebAnimation.Brewstew: Heh, the narrator lists a pairs of food that could cause stomach flu, such as pizza and cereal, pickles and hot chocolate, and popcorn and kitty litter. The one combination that did it for him? Fritos and Gummy Bears.
16. You're Drinking Breast Milk: Subtrope of I Ate WHAT?!.
17. YMMV.Beauty And The Beast: Memetic Mutation: "Try the grey stuff, it's delicious!"^Explanation A line in "Be Our Guest", which has led commenters (i.e. on YouTube) to question what exactly the grey stuff is. It's also available for purchase and eating at the Disney theme parks.

Can't be determined/ZCE/other

1. Nice to the Waiter: Those who foolishly antagonize food staff might get some Laser-Guided Karma causing them to ask, "I Ate WHAT?!" when The Dog Bites Back.
2. Pantheon.Heroic Achievements And Losses: Lucifer once challenged him to test his potential as a being capable of having great impact upon the pantheon with the power of his punches. Saitama accepted the battle in exchange for buying him some expensive exotic food. During the fight itself the force of a half-hearted punch from Saitama ended up hitting Lucifer's demon form so hard he turned into his Angel form, only to erupt in a shower of magnetite upon defeat. The beaten Morningstar muses that only Raidou Kuzunoha had displayed the same ability of bringing out his own light through battle. He kept his promise to offer him expensive exotic foods from the demon world, giving Saitama indigestion for a week.
3. Recap.Mickey Mouse S 1 E 15 Flipperboobootosis: Inverted. The bear that is Donald's doctor tells him that the Flipperboobootosis was delicious, to which a shocked Donald exclaims, "WHAT??"
4. TheFairlyOddParents.Tropes D To J: I Ate WHAT?!: In "This Is Your Wish":
   Billy Crystal Ball: [reveals himself] I'm not really a waiter. And that's not really pudding.
5. TruthInTelevision.G To I: Understanding what is actually in your food can lead to this - and to becoming a very picky raw vegan if you have the money to be.
6. VideoGame.Dragon Fable: Vomit Discretion Shot: In Yulgar's First Date part 2 where The Hero throws up the Time-Cake, and shortly afterwards Cysero stores the cake for the future.
7. Webcomic.Loading Artist: In “Roast Chicken”
8. YMMV.Creatures: Crosses the Line Twice: "Norn Bread" game mods resulting from a misspelt post on a Usenet thread, archived here, where there was a joking debate between laughably dog-kicking Norn-eaters and a just-for-fun Animal Wrongs Group. Shortly after the thread, a Breaded Hatchling Norn item was created, with a Norn Bread Vendor soon afterwards.

Possible actions definition-wise:

• Make I Ate WHAT?! the diner's negative reaction upon learning what they are eating. Clean up the examples, moving misuse to Alien Lunch, Cordon Bleugh Chef, No Party Like a Donner Party, The Secret of Long Pork Pies, etc. as applicable.
• Keep I Ate WHAT?! as-is and determine what makes something not food. Delete examples of diners eating food.
• Make I Ate WHAT?! the diner's negative reaction upon learning what they are eating. Transplant or sandbox the trope description to a new trope and determine what makes something not food. Clean up the examples, moving misuse to new trope, Alien Lunch, Cordon Bleugh Chef, No Party Like a Donner Party, The Secret of Long Pork Pies, etc. as applicable.

• The action?
  • Food is served.
  • Any case when the food is eaten.
• The food?
  • Literally inedible.
  • Dangerous in large amounts / actually poisoned.
  • Inedible to the POV character but is edible (Bizarre Alien Biology) for other seen characters.
  • Technically edible, but not normally considered as such (Alien Lunch / Eating Pet Food / I'm a Humanitarian).
  • Perfectly edible, but Foreign Queasine / Bizarre Taste in Food just creeps them out.
  • Stock "Yuck!" / Does Not Like Spam for the POV character.
  • Really nothing wrong with it.
• The intent?
  • Cordon Bleugh Chef / Lethal Chef didn't expect somebody wouldn't like it.
  • Revenge Is a Dish Best Served.
  • Eat That dare.
  • A prank.
  • Reduced to Ratburgers / No Party Like a Donner Party.
  • Doesn't matter.
• Foreknowledge of the POV character?
  • Knew exactly what the food was.
  • Assumed it's something they'd like, but it's just other regular food.
  • Assumed it's any of the abovementioned categories, but it's actually worse.
  • Assumed it's normal food and were correct, but later think/lied to that it was something else.
  • No prior assumptions.
• Foreknowledge of the audience?
  • Same as POV.
  • Internal Reveal.
  • Irrelevant.
• Timing of discovery?
  • Long before eating.
  • Right before the first bite.
  • On taste.
  • Realized on consideration.
  • Found out later somehow.
  • Was told about it.
  • Never.
  • Irrelevant.
• The reaction?
  • Death / unconscious from indigestion.
  • Faint in Shock / Spit Take / Vomit Discretion Shot or other physical response.
  • Immediate panic / anger or other emotional response.
  • Shrug Take.
  • None needed.

• The action?
  • Food is served.
  • Any case when the food is eaten.
• The food?
  • Literally inedible.
  • Dangerous in large amounts / actually poisoned.
  • Inedible to the POV character but is edible (Bizarre Alien Biology) for other seen characters.
  • Technically edible, but not normally considered as such (Alien Lunch / Eating Pet Food / I'm a Humanitarian).
  • Perfectly edible, but Foreign Queasine / Bizarre Taste in Food just creeps them out.
  • Stock "Yuck!" / Does Not Like Spam for the POV character.
  • Really nothing wrong with it.
• The intent?
  • Cordon Bleugh Chef / Lethal Chef didn't expect somebody wouldn't like it.
  • Revenge Is a Dish Best Served.
  • Eat That dare.
  • A prank.
  • Reduced to Ratburgers / No Party Like a Donner Party.
  • Doesn't matter.
• Foreknowledge of the POV character?
  • Assumed it's something they'd like, but it's just other regular food.
  • Assumed it's any of the abovementioned categories, but it's actually worse.
  • Assumed it's normal food and were correct, but later think/lied to that it was something else.
  • No prior assumptions.
• Foreknowledge of the audience?
  • Irrelevant.
• Timing of discovery?
  • On taste.
  • Realized on consideration.
  • Found out later somehow.
  • Was told about it.
• The reaction?
  • Death / unconscious from indigestion.
  • Faint in Shock / Spit Take / Vomit Discretion Shot or other physical response.
  • Immediate panic / anger or other emotional response.
  • Shrug Take would be a subversion.