Foods you inexplicably hate

[emmapeel]

Milk, it's slimy, and makes me gag. But i will add a drop to coffee but if there is too much, I dump it.

[Swisskaese]

Also, I don't like tapioca pudding. It tastes like vanilla custard with eyeballs.

Custard in general is vile. My mother used to make it and I couldn't handle the skin that used to form on it. I'll spare you with the visual of what it reminded me of....

I can't eat any type of Offal. It looks and smells funky to me.

Edited May 31, 2005 by Swisskaese (log)

[Darcie B]

Apple pie. I don't like apples much anyway but apple pie just sucks.

Cold sandwiches. Any kind of deli meat with or without cheese, lettuce, mayo, etc. just makes me want to gag. I'm fine with all of the ingredients separately, it's just when you put them together that it turns me off.

I do like hot/toasted sandwiches, though, and love a BLT in the summer with juicy raw tomatoes fresh from the garden.

[Badiane]

Eggs, in any kind of recognizable form. I've never eaten one in my life...even as a small child I would turn away and try to squeeze out of my highchair. They look good, they even smell good, and I want to like them, but I just can't get them in my mouth...slap them in a chocolate cake and I'm all over it, but give me a beautiful omelet or a slice of quiche and try as I might, I just can't get my mouth to open.

[canucklehead]

Mexican food. I don't intensely dislike it, but everyone seems to be completely insane over it --

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I am with on this one... I don't know what it is - but I find tortillas really hard to digest and most authentic Mexican food gives me a horrible stomach ache. I suspect it is the masa harina - but the illness I feel afterwards offputs me from most 'real' Mexican food.

Now - when it is the bastardized deep fried w/ sour cream and fluffy gaucamole American version - then I could scarf it down all day.

[Brad Ballinger]

I hate peanut butter.  Really hate it.  I'll eat spicy Asian peanut sauces, as long as there's enough heat.

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Awww, and here I thought I was going to be the first one to mention peanut butter. My aversion also goes to peanut butter cookies, Reese's products, Butterfinger bars, etc.

Other things I'm also the second to list here include mustard, pickles, and mayonnaise.

[judiu]

Melons, green peppers, hot spiced foods, most beers, raw oysters, Miracle Whip and yellow mustard. YUCK!(Picture little green barfy guy here) On the other hand, I love honey mustard or a nice Dijon as a base for dipping sauces or basting sauces...

[Luckylies]

coldcut style turkey and ham

cilantro

penut butter sweets

shrimp except raw. I just don't care for them, really

lemongrass in anything

[abramer]

For me it's onions. Raw, cooked, it doesn't matter. I'm generally a very adventurous eater, but it can be difficult when onions are such a vital part of many cuisines. The only way I can deal with them is if they're cooked down, and become an unrecognizable background element. Like others have mentioned before in this tread, I continually try to enjoy them, but it hasn't happened yet.

[Tough Cookie]

Mango and papaya. I don't like their texture and there is this weird aftertaste that is soooo strong, especially the mango. And the papaya is too sweet for my tastebuds.

[Fritz Brenner]

One thing that's funny is that I like mint in leaf form only. That means, no mint-flavored sweets, jelly, nothing, but mint tea and leaves are pleasant to me.

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me too. it makes me kind of nauseous. it's weird. but i also like mint tea and leaves...

[chow guy]

Cilantro is the only food I can think of that I just can't stand. I'm surprised not to see more cilantro aversions in this thread.

[cakewalk]

How can I forget to mention to two things that get everyone's heads shaking in disbelief? Pancakes and maple syrup. Together and/or separately. With pancakes it's a texture thing. I have tried again and again to like them, because I absolutely love the idea of pancakes. But it never works. I start to chew and I think, yuk, what is this stuff. And maple syrup, well, I just don't like the maple flavor. How unAmerican of me this whole thing sounds.

And now that I look at that word, what would you capitalize in Unamerican? UnAmerican?

[Pan]

How can I forget to mention to two things that get everyone's heads shaking in disbelief? Pancakes and maple syrup. Together and/or separately. With pancakes it's a texture thing. I have tried again and again to like them, because I absolutely love the idea of pancakes. But it never works. I start to chew and I think, yuk, what is this stuff. And maple syrup, well, I just don't like the maple flavor. How unAmerican of me this whole thing sounds. 

And now that I look at that word, what would you capitalize in Unamerican? UnAmerican?

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un-American. But you're not un-American; you're just weird.

[Verjuice]

Cookie dough. What gives?

Whipped cream. Or anything with a similarly mousse-like texture.

Noodle soups, such as minestrone or chicken noodle. Hate the mushy noodles.

Chocolate-dipped strawberries.

Any strong-tasting honey. I can barely tolerate acacia or orange blossom. But I'm a maple syrup junkie, the darker the better.

Croutons. You know, the kind that make your mouth bleed.

Scones. They're like bombs of sawdust. Meringues, for the same reason.

Beef stews. I hate beef that's browned throughout. BBQ brisket is an exception.

Milkshakes or any ice cream once it's half melted. I hate the viscous, soupy texture.

Papaya, which I enjoy -- and only with a squeeze of lime-- does smell to me like a cross between ashtrays and feet. But I'm over it. Custard apples give me the creeps, though. Purulent fruit.

Pasta salad in general. It's the corpse-like texture of cold, overcooked pasta.

Waffles. They smell great, like warm paper and pipe tobacco and toasted sugar but I've never gotten excited about eating one. They're like a harmless, tender cardboard pastry.

Hard-boiled egg yolks. Whole raw egg yolks. I adore eggs prepared any other way.

Cooked bananas (as in banana cream pie, which sounds utterly revolting to me) or fresh bananas with the merest speckle of brown. I don't mind a bite or two if they're still green and firm. I'm lukewarm about banana bread.

Maraschino cherries in mixed drinks or as a garnish on fresh juices or whatever. The color alone makes my skin crawl.

Lager beers.

Vegetable juice. Bloody Marys look appealing, but they don't do it for me.

Ditto any sort of jarred salsa or queso dip.

Sweetened condensed milk. I don't understand how folks can eat the stuff straight.

Blondies, brownies and most bar-type desserts: I find them to be pretty dense and uninteresting most of the time. I prefer something self-actualized, like penuche fudge. Or pie.

Lastly, I'm not convinced by the mild-mannered, clumsy, anaemic nursery snacks that my sisters and friends swoon over. Macaroni and cheese. Grilled cheese sandwiches. Mashed potatoes. Rice pudding. Whatever. These so-called comfort foods don't do it for me either.

ETA:

Disclaimer: I eat most of these foods every now and then, anyway; I can always eat most of a dish, provided it's safe to eat, even if it's not something I particularly like. For instance, I won't lick cookie dough off a spoon, but my little sister likes it in ice cream and we like to share sundaes once in a while. That sort of thing. I just push the maraschino cherries over to her side, of course.

Edited June 3, 2005 by Verjuice (log)

[Chris Amirault]

Wow.... That's quite a list! You clearly don't like mushy textures.

But I wonder if some of those things -- e.g.,

Noodle soups. Hate the mushy noodles.

Croutons. You know, the kind that make your mouth bleed.

Scones. They're like bombs of sawdust. Meringues, for the same reason.

Waffles. They smell great, like warm paper and pipe tobacco and toasted sugar but I've never gotten excited about eating one. They're like a harmless, tender cardboard pastry.

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-- are the product of lousy examples of otherwise wonderful things. Having eaten too many dusty scones in my day, I can tell you that there are revelatory ones out there that are moist and redolent of cream and butter.

[Pan]

Noodle soups don't have to have mushy noodles, either.

[browniebaker]

Lobster. Can you believe it? I just don't like it, okay? People always give me grief about this, as if I were insane. I think it's tasteless and rubbery.

Perhaps it's because lobster is so often overcooked to the point where it is rubbery in texture.

Perhaps it's because I grew up in a stridently pro-crab family; we would all sit at the table and praise crab while criticising lobster as vastly inferior in texture, fragrance, and taste. When I take a bite of lobster, I think: crab is so much better.

I did have delicious lobster once -- once! -- and it was at a wedding at the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel in Dana Point, California. Unfortunately, I married into a lobster family, so I am always having to defend myself. Mother-in-law insists that the lobster I had at the Ritz-Carlton must not have been Maine lobster, must have been "langoustino." Nope, I tell her, the menu clearly stated Maine lobster. The implication behind her accusation is that I just don't appreciate real (i.e., Maine) lobster. I wish I could tell her, no, I do like lobster when it's cooked well, but you simply overcook your lobster.

[jodicalhoun]

Shellfish of any type. May be from growing up in the "stinking desert" and the seafood was always frozen but, even with moving to the land of Dungeness Crab I really don't like the feel of shrimp. scallops, lobster...Bwa! makes me all crawly. I mean.

[Kris]

Chinese Food

Shrimp, lobster, oysters and the like

[Pan]

Chinese Food

Shrimp, lobster, oysters and the like

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I'm wondering if you've had good Chinese food. It's pretty tough to hate an entire nation's food, especially since there are so many regional variations.

[Chris Amirault]

Lobster. Can you believe it? I just don't like it, okay? People always give me grief about this, as if I were insane. I think it's tasteless and rubbery.

Perhaps it's because lobster is so often overcooked to the point where it is rubbery in texture.

Perhaps it's because I grew up in a stridently pro-crab family; we would all sit at the table and praise crab while criticising lobster as vastly inferior in texture, fragrance, and taste. When I take a bite of lobster, I think: crab is so much better.

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Growing up in a quintessentially New England household (Mainers on one side, a Gloucesterman fishing cod in Georges Bank on the other), I had precisely the opposite experience, and many a time ate crab and thought: lobster is so much better.

That is, until I had a real dungeness crab in Oregon in the 1990s. Then I shut up about that.

[jennahan]

Rice Pudding (sweet mushy milky rice) - yuck. Cold rice pudding - bletch

Mashed potato - mushy milky creamy but dry squidge

Lobster - over-rated rubbery blah crustacean

Braised beef = taste of death

Doughnuts - cloyingly sweet, sometimes greasy, definitely stodgy masses of simple carbs

Flan - sweet eggy mush

Creme brulee - more custardy flan with a crunch

Cookie dough - why would anyone want to eat uncooked flour and eggs?

[canucklehead]

Mashed potato - mushy milky creamy but dry squidge

Braised beef = taste of death

Cookie dough - why would anyone want to eat uncooked flour and eggs?

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Mashed potato and braised beef!? - that, sister, is food of the Gods.

But I hear you on the cookie dough though - or any raw batter or dough. Yech - the taste or raw flour and eggs is absolutely disgusting - there is a reason that it needs to be cooked. I had a friend whose fond childhood memories included eating raw pasta dough as his mother made homemade pasta. Sounds quaint but I had a tough time trying to keep a straight face and not wretch.

[divalasvegas]

Rice Pudding (sweet mushy milky rice) - yuck.  Cold rice pudding - bletch

Mashed potato - mushy milky creamy but dry squidge

Lobster - over-rated rubbery blah crustacean

Braised beef = taste of death

Doughnuts - cloyingly sweet, sometimes greasy, definitely stodgy masses of simple carbs

Flan - sweet eggy mush

Creme brulee - more custardy flan with a crunch

Cookie dough - why would anyone want to eat uncooked flour and eggs?

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Jennahan, I think it's hilarious that I either love or really like ALL OF THE ABOVE

Rice Pudding -- Smooth, creamy, sweet nostalgia

Mashed Potatoes -- The plain, old fashioned kind with a puddle of butter or gravy on it

Lobster -- Any style: steamed, fra diavolo, baked and stuffed, or perfection itself--the lobster roll

Braised beef -- As in beef stew? Wonderful

Doughnuts -- Can anyone say Krispy Kreme? Yum

Flan -- While in Miami last year, I can honestly say that I was fortunate enough to never having been served bad flan, loved them all

Creme brulee -- Delicious flan with a crunchy payoff

In addition to whole wheat bread, I loathe: cilantro (as I've said before elsewhere on eGullet, I really don't get it), white grapefruit (so awful it doesn't even deserve to be called a fruit), brussel sprouts (vile stinky little cabbages), chocolate combined with citrus or coconut (the combination does neither justice), and orange marmalade -- a waste of fruit, sugar and the time it takes to make it.