Foods you inexplicably hate

[WHT]

I was just thinking of foods I didn’t like and still in some cases don’t like to this day. For me it’s Muller’s (or any brand.) Macaroni with butter. Too plain and my mom served it too often. The funny thing is other plain pastas don’t bother me for some reason. Though I consider baked ziti to be Satan’s own work, but for other reasons.

What is it for you?

[Jason Perlow]

Well, I hated brussel sprouts in my childhood, but they were steamed and overcooked and stinky the way my mother made them.

In my adult life of course, I LOVE brussel sprouts, but we cut them up and saute them with lots of olive oil and butter. And almost as much garlic as sprouts.

Baked Ziti is Satan's work? Then call me a Satanic! I've had some horrible examples, but when its good, oh man, is it good.

[Gifted Gourmet]

What is it for you?

Okra then and okra today ... worse luck I live in a southern place in which okra is stewed (gummy!), or fried (dry and chewy!), or done in a myriad of ways... all of which I find nauseating ... and I have heard that this vegetable is either a love or hate type of thing ... and you have heard my side of it ...

Time for a "group ewwww"??

[mongo_jones]

eggplant. cauliflower. i eat the latter now, still don't eat eggplant.

[tejon]

Liver and onions. The worst part was the smell, wafting up the stairs before dinner had even started, alerting us that tonight was going to be very unpleasant. It was always cooked until dry but still somehow strangely pasty, with that horrible taste that just lingered no matter how much water thrown down the throat. Still can't stand it, the texture or the taste.

[cakewalk]

Liver and onions. The worst part was the smell, wafting up the stairs before dinner had even started, alerting us that tonight was going to be very unpleasant. It was always cooked until dry but still somehow strangely pasty, with that horrible taste that just lingered no matter how much water thrown down the throat. Still can't stand it, the texture or the taste.

You took the words right outta my mouth!

I was borderline anemic as a child (and as an adult, come to think of it). Liver was the remedy. Tejon, you described liver's awfulness just perfectly. I remember I'd be outside playing and my mother would call us up for supper, and if I smelled liver when I got out of the elevator I just turned around and went back downstairs. Disgusting stuff.

[thegreatdane]

Lima beans, eggplant, liver, and okra. Also, dry cooked chicken breasts. They sucked the fluids out of my body, they were so dry. Pepper; I couldn't understand why anyone would want to hurt their mouth.

Let's ask an expert. My ten year old daughter says, "Escargot; horrible, ugh, makes me want to throw up. Over done stuff like brussel sprouts. Chicken liver. After I got, like a bloody one, forget about it. I thought it was a bloody tooth. Pepper, really, duh... it explodes like a bomb with hot stuff... When you're ten you have plenty of things you don't like and regret eating. Sometimes parents say it's good for you. Nuh-uh."

[chow guy]

Liver and onions. The worst part was the smell, wafting up the stairs before dinner had even started, alerting us that tonight was going to be very unpleasant. It was always cooked until dry but still somehow strangely pasty, with that horrible taste that just lingered no matter how much water thrown down the throat.

Ditto.. And to add insult to injury It was my fathers favorite meal and we were required to eat every last scap of it. I would hide small bits in my napkin and dispose of them properly. I still don't like it or eat it often... but I can eat it now only when it's cooked rare and not dried out.

[Pickles]

Liver and onions. The worst part was the smell, wafting up the stairs before dinner had even started, alerting us that tonight was going to be very unpleasant. It was always cooked until dry but still somehow strangely pasty,

What kind of liver? Beef or Calves? Chicken? To me, the smell of my Mom's calves liver and bacon with onions and sherry is ambrosia. The liver is tender and sweet. And when she makes her chopped chicken livers, that smell is also divine..wafting up the stairs as you say. Sounds like you've just experienced some overcooked, nasty beef liver that tastes and smells like luggage cooking. Even I hate that stuff! I'd urge you to come over next time my Mom makes her liver and onions and you may change your mind!

[WHT]

Baked Ziti is Satan's work? Then call me a Satanic! I've had some horrible examples, but when its good, oh man, is it good.

Is there such a thing as good ziti? My experiences with the dish are sadly limited to school cafeterias, banquets and fundraisers. The few times I have ordered it out have not been a lot better. Not as dry but bland and uneventful.

I was fooled once here in Chicago as they call it Mostaccioli instead of Ziti. I avoid it at all costs. I would love to have someone prove me wrong but I guess it will not happen soon.

[ErinM]

Baked beans. Being force-fed by a nun in Catholic School, throwing them up, and then still being forced to eat them has turned me off to them FOREVER...

I like other beans just about any other way. Just not baked.

[Jason Perlow]

Baked Ziti is Satan's work? Then call me a Satanic! I've had some horrible examples, but when its good, oh man, is it good.

Is there such a thing as good ziti? My experiences with the dish are sadly limited to school cafeterias, banquets and fundraisers. The few times I have ordered it out have not been a lot better. Not as dry but bland and uneventful.

I was fooled once here in Chicago as they call it Mostaccioli instead of Ziti. I avoid it at all costs. I would love to have someone prove me wrong but I guess it will not happen soon.

Good lord -- yes, there is good Ziti. If its made by an Italian-American grandmother with love, and the best possible ingredients, heck yes.

[22tango]

fishsticks -- to this day I can't eat anything with breading because it reminds me of the awfulness of fishsticks and how sick to my stomach I'd get afterwards if forced to eat them!!

And beef tongue -- mistakenly served to me for my birthday -- yuck-O!! (with 4 of us, Mom sometimes couldn't remember who liked what!?!?)

[Suzanne F]

What amazes me is that I DIDN'T hate anything: not the chicken roasted for 3 hours until nary a drop of moisture remained; not the veal shoulder chops fried to leatherette.

Well, I didn't much like the canned peas or canned asparagus or beets left over from making borscht. But I ate them then without complaining. Now I don't have to, thank god.

[Randi]

A pickled eggplant concoction my grandmother would make. I couldn't imagine how anyone could eat that.

My mother's brisket. Tasteless with watery juice (I can't call it gravy). (I was shocked to find out later in life that I didn't hate brisket! Just my MOM's brisket!)

Also, my grandmother made a black walnut fudge that I couldn't understand either. I haven't tried black walnuts since but the memory is so negative I am not feeling an urge to do so :)

And under the category of "I didn't know any better" I would have to put canned asparagus. At the time I liked it, but now...keep that away from me!! I know...that's the opposite of what this thread asks...

Maybe we need a thread "what did you eat and like as a kid cos you didn't know better and now wouldn't touch!"

Randi

[Jensen]

Tuna casserole made with elbow macaroni and tinned mushroom soup.

[Verjuice]

Gelatinous foods, slimy foods, foods that quivered on the spoon or in the mouth. Including but not limited to Jell-o, yogurt, pudding, cold cuts, bananas, milkshakes, preserves and jams, most condiments, particularly mayonnaise (which always appeared to tremble) and anything bathed in it; potato salad, coleslaw etc...

Also, milk, which I still can't drink very much of without gagging, though I now love the taste.

Tuna, which I swore I'd never like. That conviction lasted about seven years.

Tomatoes, which I absolutely knew I would eventually begin liking. They always tasted to me like something only adults should enjoy.

Blue cheese. Every fibre of my infantile to juvenile self would shudder in revolt at the merest whiff of the stuff. Mouth sweats and all.

However, I couldn't get enough eel and sweetbreads and wakame and capers and brussels sprouts and anchovies and bittersweet chocolate. Go figure.

[andiesenji]

I have to second the motion about okra. I have never been able to consume it except when it was deep fried with a tempura-like crust and I couldn't tell what it was.

I can't stand rubbery omelets and absolutely refuse to eat eggs that have been abused in that manner. I always give specific instructions when I order an omelet and if it is served overcooked I will send it back or change my order. My test is to drop my fork on the omelet from a couple of inches and if the tines bounce off then, in my opinion, it has been vulcanized and is not edible.

I like spicy foods but refuse to eat anything that has been overspiced to the point that the flavor of the food itself cannot be determined. One of the food crimes I most deplore is the serving of "blackened" stuff - chicken, fish, whatever. -- Spices should enhance the flavor, not destroy it.

[NulloModo]

Anytime my father would try to grill chicken it would be a disaster... BBQ sauce carmelized to black ash coating pieces of chicken breast so tough and dry that I'm convinced you burned more calories trying to eat them than you gained in nourishment. Thankfully, everything else he grilled or smoked was wonderful.....

I also couldn't stand beef stew topped with biscuits. Unfortunately it was, and still is, my younger sister's favorite dish, oh how I loathed that concoction of bland dinty moore supporting a half-cooked doughy pillsbury biscuit....

[balmagowry]

Beets.

Then and now, beets.

I learned to love zucchini and I learned to love string beans (though "love" seems in both cases a pretty feeble term for the way I feel about them now).

But not beets.

I also hated halvah.

Then one day when I was in high school a dear friend persuaded me to try it again... and you know, it wasn't bad, and I ate a good-sized hunk of it. Unfortunately this was less than an hour before my rent-a-brother gave us the great treat of taking us up in his small airplane.

... ...

And so much for my short-lived tolerance of halvah.

[SobaAddict70]

oh man! the list is long:

garlic

spicy food of any stripe

peanut butter, especially Skippy

ginger

stinky cheese

anchovies

wine

now I'll eat any of the above, except for stinky cheese and wine (although even the wine is changing). garlic and ginger are my favorites.

Soba

[Toasted]

Lamb. Poor little lamb. Read me ten hundred books about cute little lambs and expect me to eat that? God no!

[Pickles]

Another vote for milk. Watching someone drink a glass of milk is revolting to me. When I was a kid, we HAD to drink the milk or we couldn't leave the table. I hated it. And in hindsight, I seriously don't think the refrigerator(s) we had back then kept foods as cold as the ones used now. The milk was always warm. And to quote a line from Mary Richards (to Mr. Grant) "Do you know what warm milk tastes like?? (pause).....WARM...MILK!! "

[saltylicious]

Mexican Soft Tacos a la 1970's Betty Crocker...

My dear mother would brown ground beef, mix in mayonaise and shredded iceberg lettuce, roll this nastiness in a cold white flour tortilla...voila barf in a blanket.

My family loved this and scarfed it down.

I would "share" mine with kittykat.

The memory of Soft Tacos always gives me the heebie-jeebies queesy shudders.

To this day, I still can't stand mayo in/on anything or cold tortillas.

[Toasted]

Mexican Soft Tacos a la 1970's Betty Crocker...

My dear mother would brown ground beef, mix in mayonaise and shredded iceberg lettuce, roll this nastiness in a cold white flour tortilla...voila barf in a blanket.

My family loved this and scarfed it down.

I would "share" mine with kittykat.

The memory of Soft Tacos always gives me the heebie-jeebies queesy shudders.

To this day, I still can't stand mayo in/on anything or cold tortillas.

Ick, dry heave here! I don't blame you for never eating mayo again after that. Welcome to egullet by the way!