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A couple other current threads have set me to thinking: What foods are just plain "no can do, no way"?
Mine as a child were stewed prunes, certain kinds of fish, spam, fish heads, pig's feet, chicken feet, beef tongue, "tripe" (beef stomach lining). That's all I can remember right now. I know there was a lot more!
I remember telling my mom several times: Maybe when I'm TEN I'll like more things. There was never any response!
Go figure that I liked spinach (thanks to good ole Popeye!) and liver. But anything other than a patty on a hamburger bun - no way.
Yours?
Anything with tentacles. Organ meats. Cauliflower. Thousand-year eggs (had them once, never again), figs.
Bugs, and pets...meaning dogs or cats. You cannot make me eat that. I know some cultures do, but I'd be on my death bed before someone forced that down my parched throat.
It must have a lot to do with how you are raised, what your family had accepted. In the states, we don't eat bugs, and we don't eat our pets.
Deer, squirrel, wild North American animals, yes. Ate them as a kid. Anyone ever have Deer jerky? Awesome
I have eaten lizard/alligator. It's white meat (the tail) and quite tasty.
I ate BBQ'd fried ants once. It was similar to eating the crumbs at the bottom of the bag of chips. It wasn't bad. I'm not saying they were great...cause it WAS a little bit difficult to get past the idea of eating ants...but they were OK.
And I've had gator, and liked it. My husband doesn't care for it...he says he can taste the gaminess in it. To me, the gaminess kind of added to the richness of the dish I was eating.
Anything with tentacles. Organ meats. Cauliflower. Thousand-year eggs (had them once, never again), figs.
Right there with ya. I do eat figs, and will eat cauliflower, but it's got to be doctored up!
Quote:
Originally Posted by SnazzyB
I ate BBQ'd fried ants once. It was similar to eating the crumbs at the bottom of the bag of chips. It wasn't bad. I'm not saying they were great...cause it WAS a little bit difficult to get past the idea of eating ants...but they were OK.
And I've had gator, and liked it. My husband doesn't care for it...he says he can taste the gaminess in it. To me, the gaminess kind of added to the richness of the dish I was eating.
My former butcher in Phoenix sells exotic meats, including gator, snake, bison, etc. Dang expensive.
You are adventurous! No way I'm eating fried ants!!
I have pretty strong negative feelings about mustard, too, but I don't know if "fear" is quite the right word. Intense disgust, to the point I don't want it near me and prefer not to even smell it? Yeah. But I suspect I generally have issues with vinegar. I hate the smell of it. Because I feel that way about ketchup, too. Ketchup and mustard are pretty offensive to my sensibilities. Another aspect of that is likely how common it is that they are put on food I'd otherwise eat, and they cannot be removed like lettuce, or eaten around...it just ruins perfectly good food for me.
There's something of an overall theme to my distaste where condiments are concerned. I like quality, fresh food, and I can be pretty particular about brands. I am a "super taster." Subtle differences, hints of a particular spice, and definitely if something has begun to spoil, I can very readily detect. Condiments have always seemed to me, less about making food better and more about slopping something on to disguise the fact that it's just not very good to begin with.
Like, I only like a couple of specific brands of hot dogs, and there are several others (most others) that I can't stand...I'm pretty confident that at some point in my childhood, someone figured if they just covered it in ketchup and mustard, I wouldn't be able to tell... First of all, yes I can. Secondly, you've just made it worse.
Someone mentioned cilantro, and I don't rightly know how to feel about that one. I've recently decided that I like it a lot very finely minced up in rice. And yet, it actually DOES taste like soap to me. And I usually hate leafy green anything. How, why, do I like cilantro, then?? I don't have any kind of an impulse to eat soap! I have no idea. It's weird, but I'm not gonna fight it. I suspect, now that I know this, that if I had any kind of leafy vegetable matter and I could eliminate the texture...like small bits of softened, cooked plant stuff, or a puree, that was mixed into rice so all I'm detecting is "rice texture"...I could probably improve my diet like that.
You are lucky, IMO to be a super taster who can detect subtle differences. I can't stand mustard either, blech. I will use a tiny bit of Dijon occasionally, but even that is very low on my list of acceptable condiments. WHY it is always put on a lot of fast food hamburgers, I have no idea. (Not In-N-Out, my fave ) As for cilantro, I don't have a phobia but I'm one of those people who couldn't eat it because my biochemistry makes it taste like soap. I've trained myself in recent years to eat small amounts. I always ask the waiter how much cilantro they use and I'm working my way up because it adds a lot to a dish. As for ketchup, it has to be Red Gold brand or I don't want it. Walmart is often out of it.
I like your question of WHY do I like certain things, then? That's how I felt as a child. I was a terribly picky eater, but I liked things that other kids would absolutely refuse to eat.
Sonic, have you ever visited Hobe Meats on 16th Street at Bethany Home?? I adore that place and miss it terribly. Brett the owner is awesome. You might want to check it out!
Depends somewhat on brand. I find that Barilla cooks well. You can boil it enough so the center is cooked but the ends are not soggy. Love me some bowties!
You are lucky, IMO to be a super taster who can detect subtle differences. I can't stand mustard either, blech. I will use a tiny bit of Dijon occasionally, but even that is very low on my list of acceptable condiments. WHY it is always put on a lot of fast food hamburgers, I have no idea. (Not In-N-Out, my fave ) As for cilantro, I don't have a phobia but I'm one of those people who couldn't eat it because my biochemistry makes it taste like soap. I've trained myself in recent years to eat small amounts. I always ask the waiter how much cilantro they use and I'm working my way up because it adds a lot to a dish. As for ketchup, it has to be Red Gold brand or I don't want it. Walmart is often out of it.
I like your question of WHY do I like certain things, then? That's how I felt as a child. I was a terribly picky eater, but I liked things that other kids would absolutely refuse to eat.
Sonic, have you ever visited Hobe Meats on 16th Street at Bethany Home?? I adore that place and miss it terribly. Brett the owner is awesome. You might want to check it out!
I have not! I'll look into it. We've only been in Phoenix a little over a year and I am a work from home person on a fairly strict budget (because I keep spending all of my money helping my kid.../sigh...life, it's all...lifey like that...) so anyways, I haven't explored as much as I otherwise might.
And it's a little overwhelming! We are in Ahwatukee and there's just, every kind of business everywhere, it feels like.
But I like fresh meats from butcher shops, bison especially.
My thought about how I could possibly get around my pickiness with certain vegetables, had me thinking. I have a couple I'm close friends with, they are foodies and the husband loves to cook and is rightly proud of his skills. (One of those "acts of service" as a love language types...and cooking for others is a big deal to him!) My picky eating has always been some kind of a thing in that relationship. Once they tried to serve me "spaghetti & meatballs" that was in fact zucchini, not noodles, and shells of meat stuffed with spinach. This did not fly. Fortunately they had some pasta that they let me boil up and put plain sauce on. I'd brought bread to contribute to the meal just in case...because I always know, maybe that'll be the only thing I can eat...
Another time they tried to pass off pureed cauliflower as mashed potatoes. I knew before my first bite. The smell and consistency were off. I didn't get mad about any of this, but I did laugh at them. Like, "Come on you guys. I love you, but this is silly. I'm not a five year old...it's not gonna work."
But it's like...with most veggies it's more texture than taste that puts me off. So I could maybe add SOME pureed cauliflower to mashed potatoes and get away with that so long as the potatoes and gravy overwhelmed it, or if I had certain plants that go "crunch"...if I boil them to mushiness and find a way to hide them in something else that has a distinct texture, like rice... And I won't eat a raw carrot, but one that is very soft in a soup, I can ignore.
That's part of the problem in mentality between my friends and I, though, because for me to be OK with food trickery (given of course that my issues aren't medical but rather psychological aversions) I need to really be hiding the ingredient, making it undetectable as much as possible. They on the other hand, WANT to taste the thing and were thinking if they could just trick me into putting it in my mouth, I'd like it. Well, no. I will not. It's not likely for anyone to make me really "like" more things...but I might find ways to cope with their presence.
^^^ Definitely a thing! I know a guy who is terrified of mustard. Seriously.
The worst food ever: Swedish surströmming! Fermented herring in a can. The fish isn't ready to be served until the can bulges with gases. And when the gasses and fish are let out, it is the gaggiest, most nauseating smell in the entire world (outside of a serial killer's body parts trophy basement, I suppose). I was served the damn fish on a lovely summer's day in Sweden, and I just couldn't be gracious about it. No thanks, not in a million years...
Foods I cannot eat: Runny eggs, celery, cilantro, head cheese, tripe. Oh, and rotten food of any kind (including some cheeses)... Foods I will not eat: Pets, endangered animals, and baby animals. The baby animal food prohibition came to me one dinner where I was served lamb. All of a sudden I couldn't. The thought of the short life, and the trusting eyes of baby animals led to the slaughter. The thought still shakes me up. No lambs, no calves/veal, no baby pigs.
But sometimes I think we have to make compromises--when someone we care about has spent money and worked hard to cook up a special meal. Then we have to weigh our principles against hurting someone we love. My dad once served us a special dinner of kangaroo, imported by their local grocery store. I ate it, to please him. Poor roo.
I think kangaroos are often seen as pests in Australia. I know of a butcher shop that sells frozen kangaroo meat. I think I will pass.
But I hear you about the lamb. I love it, it is the best tasting meat EVER, and yet it was the one that bothered me the most to eat because they are babies and so cute. I was vegetarian for a few years, and that was the first thing I gave up. The next was pork because I had pork chops one night and then the next day stopped at a little farm market I knew of that had apples and pumpkins and whatnot in the fall, and they'd set up a little petting zoo out back. In one of the pens was the cutest baby pig, and I looked at him and thought, "I ate your cousin last night".
I went back to eating meat for a few reasons, but I still try to keep it to a minimum. I won't eat meat every day.
I have pretty strong negative feelings about mustard, too, but I don't know if "fear" is quite the right word. Intense disgust, to the point I don't want it near me and prefer not to even smell it? Yeah. But I suspect I generally have issues with vinegar. I hate the smell of it. Because I feel that way about ketchup, too. Ketchup and mustard are pretty offensive to my sensibilities. Another aspect of that is likely how common it is that they are put on food I'd otherwise eat, and they cannot be removed like lettuce, or eaten around...it just ruins perfectly good food for me.
There's something of an overall theme to my distaste where condiments are concerned. I like quality, fresh food, and I can be pretty particular about brands. I am a "super taster." Subtle differences, hints of a particular spice, and definitely if something has begun to spoil, I can very readily detect. Condiments have always seemed to me, less about making food better and more about slopping something on to disguise the fact that it's just not very good to begin with.
Like, I only like a couple of specific brands of hot dogs, and there are several others (most others) that I can't stand...I'm pretty confident that at some point in my childhood, someone figured if they just covered it in ketchup and mustard, I wouldn't be able to tell... First of all, yes I can. Secondly, you've just made it worse.
Someone mentioned cilantro, and I don't rightly know how to feel about that one. I've recently decided that I like it a lot very finely minced up in rice. And yet, it actually DOES taste like soap to me. And I usually hate leafy green anything. How, why, do I like cilantro, then?? I don't have any kind of an impulse to eat soap! I have no idea. It's weird, but I'm not gonna fight it. I suspect, now that I know this, that if I had any kind of leafy vegetable matter and I could eliminate the texture...like small bits of softened, cooked plant stuff, or a puree, that was mixed into rice so all I'm detecting is "rice texture"...I could probably improve my diet like that.
I like cilantro a LOT. I'm kind of "the more, the better". And it doesn't taste like soap to me, but I CAN see how it would taste that way to other people.
I have an aversion to "lime flavored xyz". I like limes, I LOVE limes, but all too often, "lime flavoring" tastes the same way lysol smells...to me. Lime jello? Nope. Lime popcycles? Nope. Lime syrup over shaved ice? Nope.
^^^ Definitely a thing! I know a guy who is terrified of mustard. Seriously.
The worst food ever: Swedish surströmming! Fermented herring in a can. The fish isn't ready to be served until the can bulges with gases. And when the gasses and fish are let out, it is the gaggiest, most nauseating smell in the entire world (outside of a serial killer's body parts trophy basement, I suppose). I was served the damn fish on a lovely summer's day in Sweden, and I just couldn't be gracious about it. No thanks, not in a million years...
Foods I cannot eat: Runny eggs, celery, cilantro, head cheese, tripe. Oh, and rotten food of any kind (including some cheeses)... Foods I will not eat: Pets, endangered animals, and baby animals. The baby animal food prohibition came to me one dinner where I was served lamb. All of a sudden I couldn't. The thought of the short life, and the trusting eyes of baby animals led to the slaughter. The thought still shakes me up. No lambs, no calves/veal, no baby pigs.
But sometimes I think we have to make compromises--when someone we care about has spent money and worked hard to cook up a special meal. Then we have to weigh our principles against hurting someone we love. My dad once served us a special dinner of kangaroo, imported by their local grocery store. I ate it, to please him. Poor roo.
Well, that’s another one I just can’t get myself to eat: lamb. Not because they are adorable, cute baby animals. I will eat veal, but won’t buy it because of the exorbitant price.
I decided to try lamb one time, because those little chops just looked so good! Brought em home, seasoned them, cooked them up, and blech. I could not make myself eat them. Maybe it’s buried deep in my brain that, “this is a piece of an adorable, cute baby animal”, but it sure wasn’t at the forefront. I love meat, I love rare steak.
Just something about lamb. Ick.
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) As for cilantro, I don't have a phobia but I'm one of those people who couldn't eat it because my biochemistry makes it taste like soap. I've trained myself in recent years to eat small amounts. I always ask the waiter how much cilantro they use and I'm working my way up because it adds a lot to a dish. As for ketchup, it has to be Red Gold brand or I don't want it. 
Walmart is often out of it.
