Is it asking too much for an adult not to be irrationally picky about food? Apparently so. I don't like seeing a little pile something(onions, peas, etc.) that has been carefully picked out of a salad or whatever on the side of somebody's otherwise clean plate. They probably think that they are being polite because they haven't said anything, and I suppose they are. I have a friend who has several things he will not eat for a variety of reasons--salmon,cheesecake, mushrooms and dishes with eggs as an obvious primary ingredient(such as egg salad--he will eat baked goods, puddings, etc. with eggs) He calls mushrooms "fungi". Not only that whenever that food comes up in conversation, he always reminds people he doesn't like it. For example, I might say I'm going to Fred Meyer to buy a salmon on sale and he will again mention that he doesn't like it, even though he knows I wasn't planning to serve it to him. I was just letting him know I was going to Fred Meyer. Unbeknownst to me, spinach must have been on his list of hates. Once he was eating salad at my house, and remarked how good the lettuce was. I said, "That lettuce was spinach." The mushroom thing really bothers me, though. I really like them, and just can't give them up. Often when he comes over, salad mushrooms are in a little bowl on the side, and of course he announces to all present why these mushrooms are being served on the side. Beef Bourgonione and Coq au Vin? He just never gets asked over when I make those. He would probably like them, but I'm too stubborn to make them without mushrooms.