Foods you just don't like

[radtek]

I stated my reasons for not wanting to try insects and believe them to be completely reasonable. By no means am I a picky eater or boring. Implying that I or others would be is an oblique criticism. Of course it is a matter of opinion...

I'm pretty sure I'd hate eating feces but would you say that I'm limited or deficient in some way for not trying it at least once?

[patrickamory]

Oddly I will say that as a child, I liked both of the things I now can't stand.

[Trev]

Of course. I realized, thinking about it, that I'm also completely adverse to eating feet. Of any kind - no pork hocks, no caldo de patas, and I'm grossed right out when I find chicken feet in my soup. Ick.

ETA - although, oddly, I have no problem buying big bags of chicken feet when I want to make stock. I think it's their physical presence in something I'm eating that gets me.

I'll see your chicken feet and raise you a black olive and some squash. Those are the only two things I even remotely dislike. It has also become a game with me to conquer any dislikes when it comes to food. Learning to like squash has been easy and I'm diggin' it now, but black olives not so much. I've had chickens feet a couple of times at this dim sum place and they were just meh. Not much for taste and very little meat. I think you're right about them being good for stock.

[slkinsey]

bananas

bananas

Yes! I have another name for them but it's probably not suitable for mixed company. For me this may be an allergy thing. According to family lore, I could never eat them. And bad things have resulted when I have had them in adult life.

Generally speaking, there are three things I cannot abide: (1) any form of squash; (2) eggplant; (3) any food that can be described as "mucilaginous."

[teagal]

Ditto the rice pudding, guess growing up eating rice all the time as a side dish makes me shudder to try and eat it as a milky sweet thing. Canned spinach also.

[C. sapidus]

I have very few dislikes, and I will try just about anything. Cicadas, for example, have a lovely nutty taste. That said . . .

I have never taken to cantaloupe or honeydew. I can eat them, but find their sickly-sweet taste unappealing. I try honeydew and cantaloupe again every few years. Nope, still not my favorite.

I once had kitfo (Ethiopian steak tartare). It tasted delicious, but every few bites I got the “raw meat” willies. Very odd.

[phatj]

Hm... pretty much any cruciferous vegetable when cooked (though lightly steamed they can be OK). And don't tell me they're great when roasted or whatever - they still have that stench. I call sauerkraut "Satan's snot".

Come to think of it, there's no vegetable other than onions that I especially like cooked. Mushrooms I guess, if you count them as veggies.

Bananas.

Liver, though I enjoy pates. I'd like to try foie gras but it's out of my range financially and I don't know if I could even get it anywhere locally if I wanted to splurge.

I think I would try bugs if prepared by someone who knew what they were doing but it would be really hard for me. The aforementioned cicadas creep me the hell out when I see them and spiders are just beyond the pale.

Most whole legumes. I like young green beans and peas, and I but that's pretty much it. It's a texture thing.

I've only had oysters once or twice, but, no. I pretty much love all other seafood.

Not a fan of peanut butter, but I use it sometimes in Asian dishes.

And squash. This may be my least favorite thing of all. I'll choke it down at Thanksgiving because people insist on bringing it, but at no other time will it appear on my table.

Edited December 3, 2012 by phatj (log)

[Hassouni]

foie gras is NOTHING like other liver (which I dislike) and is one of the greatest things I've eaten - it's not even in the same ballpark.

[Alex]

Natto. Wait, that's rational.

Aspic and its (un)savory relatives.

[Emily_R]

Condiments. Almost all condiments. Ketchup and mustard actively make me gag. Mayo is enough to completely ruin a sandwich. Sigh. It is an affliction. Parents, get your kids started on condiments early in life!

Agreed with those above on rice pudding. Its a texture issue.

Oh, and lastly -- sour dairy. Sour cream, cream cheese, yogurt, creme fraiche, etc etc. Gak.

Edited December 3, 2012 by Emily_R (log)

[jrshaul]

Cornstarch. It's the worst thing in the world. You can taste it everywhere. It works in flan because it's supposed to taste like cornstarch, but placing it in gravy is heresy.

Out of any dish, I have such a hatred for angel hair pasta with plain red sauce, it is so boring, it screams crappy Italian food.

I'm not sure how you define "plain red sauce" - there's a wide margin between a really fresh homemade tomato sauce and the thin ketchup you get at Ruby Tuesdays. Agreed, however, that angel hair is flavorless rubbish that serves no purpose but to replace a worthy pasta with some sort of texture.

bananas (but not plantains), white button mushrooms (most other kinds I like), and much offal (esp liver - HATE the texture) are things i cannot eat without gagging.

I like offal. I just have to keep reminding myself that it's food. I'm not sure if this makes me a white privileged male, or just weird. The exception, curiously, is liver - outside of pates, at least.

For me it's eggs in all of their myriad presentations - scrambled, fried, poached, omlettes, over easy, sunny runny, you get the point. I can't do it, I vomit. Explosively.

Is it the flavor or the texture? I have no qualm with a nice Bearnaise and flat-out adore meringue, but the weird sulfurous flavor you get when you heat them above 190 is awful.

Of course, I'm a student, so I eat a lot of them anyway.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

For me it's eggs in all of their myriad presentations - scrambled, fried, poached, omlettes, over easy, sunny runny, you get the point. I can't do it, I vomit. Explosively.

Is it the flavor or the texture? I have no qualm with a nice Bearnaise and flat-out adore meringue, but the weird sulfurous flavor you get when you heat them above 190 is awful.

Of course, I'm a student, so I eat a lot of them anyway.

It's a specific allergy to egg albumin - I could probably just eat the yolks, but the smell of egg preparations is so off-putting, and I've had so many bad experiences, that I'm kind of reluctant to try. I've always wondered what I'm missing.

[SylviaLovegren]

It's a specific allergy to egg albumin - I could probably just eat the yolks, but the smell of egg preparations is so off-putting, and I've had so many bad experiences, that I'm kind of reluctant to try. I've always wondered what I'm missing.

Allergies or at least sensitivity could play a part in many food dislikes. Don't know if that's ever been studied. A friend of mine is gluten intolerant and one smell that she can't stand -- to the point of nausea -- is freshly baked bread. My husband, who has a problem with lactose, gets nauseated by the smell of fresh milk. Your nose is trying to tell you what the rest of your body thinks of ingesting that particular food.

[Baselerd]

I try and force myself to eat them every time I get a chance, just hoping I can learn to like them. But I can't stand portabella mushrooms... the texture is just off for me.

[lancastermike]

Like many folks, offal can be a challenge for me.

But the one sort of commonly liked item thta I don't care for is olives.

I don't like hard cooked eggs either

[radtek]

I went and had Turkish food today for the first time. I gobbled down a whole plate of baba ghanoush before I got my doner kebab and it was smokily delicious despite there being eggplant in the dish. So maybe it just has to be hidden well enough and the eater hungry.

[gfweb]

I forgot olives. Hate them.

Truffle oil...yecch.

[Charcuterer]

Mushing things up and adding a boat load of garlic can increase the palatability of many things. I am not a huge fan of Garbanzo beans (chickpeas) but when turned into Hummus (I call it Hummification) are one of my favorite things.

[Porthos]

Hummification

I love that term.

[christine007]

Offal here too. shellfish, but that's an allergy, so... and game. I know, I'm a cheap date.

[lindag]

I've tried hard my whole life to like oatmeal. Mom used to make us eat it for breakfast in winter, also Cream of Wheat.

I just don't like the texture; I could get past the taste if it didn't have the weird texture.

I have tried again many times using different kinds/brands of oats and different cooking methods. I have actually come close.

I can now eat it, I just don't really enjoy it. It's a bit of a challenge for me as I try to like most everything.

[Martin Fisher]

I love everything, with the exception of one fairly common flavor combination.

While I love the flavors of black pepper and lemon and use them all the time, there's something about the combination of the two, showcased in something like lemon pepper chicken, for example, that sends me running!!!!!

~Martin

[patrickamory]

Wow, that's fascinating. I always grind fresh pepper and squeeze fresh lemon juice into my white rice.

[Hassouni]

Hopefully not your Persian rice!

[tsp.]

Macaron, all puffed up with vanity and no substance.