What Will You NEVER Eat Again?

[k43]

Eyes -- fish, lamb or anything else. I've eaten pork stomach, goose intestine and goat testicles with great relish, but each time I've tried eyes, they've tasted terrible.

Also, I've never been able to understand what people like about eel. I've tried it at restaurants where it's a specialty, and each time it's been like eating bony shoe leather.

[Kat Tanaka Okopnik]

Eyes -- fish, lamb or anything else. I've eaten pork stomach, goose intestine and goat testicles with great relish, but each time I've tried eyes, they've tasted terrible.

Also, I've never been able to understand what people like about eel. I've tried it at restaurants where it's a specialty, and each time it's been like eating bony shoe leather.

What sort of eel are you eating that it's bony shoe leather?! Every eel I've had has been an unctuous delight - tender and rich in flavor. (I've never had jellied eels, but I can't imagine they'd be very tough, either.)

For now, sea squirts (as encountered in Korean monkfish stew) are on my never-ever-again list, as are sea cucumbers. But a lot of my very favorite foods are on everyone else's never ever list. (And I've indoctrinated my children in the cult of natto.)

[Chufi]

I'll go out of my way to avoid anything with raw onions and raw garlic. I hate the way it makes my mouth feel and it gives me heartburn.

Other that that: tripe and pig's ears. Guess I don't like the really gelatinous / cartileginous (is that a word?) stuff.

[k43]

Dunno what kind of eels. They've have been in seaside seafood restaurants. Black skin, a little under 2" in diameter, chopped into 6" lengths, backbone running down the middle, need a hacksaw to cut.

[LizD518]

Those rice/gelatin cakes in the Korean grocery store. They looked so pretty and sounded good. No, they were colored tire rubber with a hint of flavor. Not disgusting, just pointless and not sweet.

I came here to post Mochi (spelling?) and I think that is what you are referring too. I've tried liking Asian sweets - I had my Korean SIL help me pick out "good" ones and they weren't horrible, or nasty, just...pointless and one-dimensional.

[ScoopKW]

I rarely drink milk. That is because I live in the United States, where milk tastes like a mixture of chalk and library paste dissolved in water.

First thing I do when I go to Europe is drink a tall glass of milk. (The last thing I drink is usually beer, waiting at the airport bar.) But I make sure I get plenty of milk. Because I won't drink it here.

[Kat Tanaka Okopnik]

I rarely drink milk. That is because I live in the United States, where milk tastes like a mixture of chalk and library paste dissolved in water.

First thing I do when I go to Europe is drink a tall glass of milk. (The last thing I drink is usually beer, waiting at the airport bar.) But I make sure I get plenty of milk. Because I won't drink it here.

Try getting it from small local dairies. They're better than the run of the mill white blandness at supermarkets. Occasionally, you will get very lucky, and have an experience similar to one I had outside of Seven Lakes, NY, where the glass bottled milk was a revelation to me and a nostalgic reminder to my Russian-born then-husband.

[Kat Tanaka Okopnik]

Dunno what kind of eels. They've have been in seaside seafood restaurants. Black skin, a little under 2" in diameter, chopped into 6" lengths, backbone running down the middle, need a hacksaw to cut.

What seaside, I wonder?

Not like any eel I've ever had, but mine have primarily been of East Asian concept if not origin.

Yours do sound discouraging!

[nikkib]

not sure of the spelling but aspinayi - a lebanese dish of raw liver will never ever ever pass my lips again. I detest cooked liver but was at a restaurant owned by relatives of my friends who i was dining with so thought i should at least try. oh my good lord it is bad....

[nonblonde007]

Canned peas.

[gfweb]

Also I don't tolerate much grape flavored food (candies, popsicles, juices, etc) due to a car sick episode from when I was 6!

Reeses Cups...for the same reason.

[Mjx]

Almost forgot, Reese's cups for me too, but for a completely different reason: Last time I got them, I stopped at a news stand to get some; I hadn't eaten all day, so I'd unwrapped them, and was starting in on one while waiting for my change, and I glanced down at the newspapers, one of which had a screaming headline about a man who'd been decapitated by a momentarily stalled lift while trying to help a woman inside. This was so shocking and depressing, I backed and wandered away without getting my change, and binned the remainerd of the candy. Can't look at the damn things without thinking about this. Ugh.

[Porthos]

Canned peas.

I find them truly repulsive.

[technogypsy]

Anything uncooked in India... the last time I violated that was not good.

Brussels Sprouts.... I can't cover them with enough cheese sauce to stop the gag reflex

I'd prefer to skip things like natto, bear gall, fish intestines, etc but with the business travel I do, it's impossible. I actually hate Brussels sprouts worse.

[Shelby]

I don't know the correct name for this, but I bought what I thought were hard boiled eggs from the Asian market. They were hard boiled....with little birds in them.

I was like

and then

and then never again.

[Moopheus]

I got served a slice of head cheese as an "amuse" at a restaurant once, though I'm still not sure or whose amusement this was for: the chef's? Not mine, anyway. I did taste it, and my impression was that it tasted like it was made from the stuff that didn't make the cut for Scrapple. Oh wait, that is what it's made from.

There's a lot of stuff--such as low-grade fast foods and frozen foods--that is unpleasant and not enjoyable and I hope to always be able to avoid but won't kill me if I do. In fact, there's really very little that strikes me as being so awful I just couldn't eat it under any circumstances, even though there are plenty of things I do not care for that much and can easily live without. Growing up, kidney beans would make me physically gag, though I have since made my peace with them.

Well, okay, I tell a lie, there was an encounter with a lemon jello-and-tomato concoction that I have tried to blot from memory. There's a special place in hell for a certain group of corporate food scientists.

[AaronM]

Truffles.

I know.

I just don't like them.

[Dakki]

I don't know the correct name for this, but I bought what I thought were hard boiled eggs from the Asian market. They were hard boiled....with little birds in them.

I was like

and then

and then never again.

Balut?

Never had it. I'd like to try it, Filipino friends tell me it's delicious.

[SylviaLovegren]

Andouillette.

As I described it elsewhere:

It smells like the after effects of a baby getting into a block of Roquefort and cutting into it produces something akin to Han Solo slicing into a tonton. The taste...well, it was better than the smell or appearance, but that isn't saying much.

Oh God, yes. Had it in a small not-too-clean restaurant out the boonies in France once with the proprietess watching us like a hawk because she was sure we wouldn't like it. Tasted like badly cleaned chitlins. Gah. She was right.

Also bitter melon, karella. Took a bite, spit it out, rinsed my mouth out. Never again.

And anything gelatinous in a Korean restaurant.

[Darienne]

I got served a slice of head cheese as an "amuse" at a restaurant once, though I'm still not sure or whose amusement this was for: the chef's? Not mine, anyway. I did taste it, and my impression was that it tasted like it was made from the stuff that didn't make the cut for Scrapple. Oh wait, that is what it's made from.

Headcheese has been off the table for me for decades now (DH has a very mixed background including French Canadian and his Mother used to make it)...but I had forgotten about Scrapple. Ah yes, Scrapple. It sounded so good when friends said they were bringing it to the Dog Weekend a few years ago. Apples thought I. And crispy stuff. Not. They're from Delaware.

Two huge oblong blocks of gray stuff. Fried. You never saw so many happy dogs as the horrible greasy stuff was surreptitiously slipped under the table by all but the folks from Delaware who devoured it. Is there something about Delaware? We haven't seen it since. (Maybe they did notice.)

[Shelby]

I don't know the correct name for this, but I bought what I thought were hard boiled eggs from the Asian market. They were hard boiled....with little birds in them.

I was like

and then

and then never again.

Balut?

Never had it. I'd like to try it, Filipino friends tell me it's delicious.

I just couldn't get past the baby bird thing inside....*shudder*

[Jenni]

Also bitter melon, karella. Took a bite, spit it out, rinsed my mouth out. Never again.

Not sure anyone likes karela on the first try. You eat it very grudgingly as part of the meal, pull a face when told how good it is for you, smoether it in rice, etc. Then one day you find yourself craving it! You learn to cook it, at first in ways that "hide" some of the bitterness, and then (with increasing glee) in ways that flaunt it to it's fullest. Then you realise, you love it! And then you force it upon your unwilling children, and the circle of life is complete.

[Nasi_Campur]

Easy answer... red meat... or, "the other white meat", pork.

P.S. what kind of a food forum would pass on a throwing up emoticon?