Ethnic foods I'm supposed to like - but don't.

[Shalmanese]

I've had many long debates about this with people but I've yet to be convinced that Red Bean Paste has ever improved any Chinese dessert.

[furzzy]

curry - all curries

[Tri2Cook]

curry - all curries

There has to be an aversion to the word going on. I'm not trying to convince you to like curries but there are so many different curries that have so many different flavor profiles and textures from different parts of the world that there is no possible way they could be lumped into one dislike category.

[SylviaLovegren]

I've had many long debates about this with people but I've yet to be convinced that Red Bean Paste has ever improved any Chinese dessert.

Yes! There is a wonderful bakery in the Japanese food market in Fort Lee, NJ, and they make the most wonderful donuts --- but they fill (some of) them with red bean paste. Blech.

[dcarch]

Love red bean ice cream, and red bean ice.

dcarch

[Anna N]

Bao - don't get the huge wad of steamed bread with a miniscule amount of dry filling. Perhaps I eat in all the wrong places.

[C. sapidus]

Falafel I can take or leave, but otherwise I see a lot of my absolute favorite foods listed in this thread.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Steak and Eggs, and its Latino friend Churrasco. It's taking a perfectly good cut of meat and ruining it by putting a sunny-runny on top.

Churrasco doesn't have eggs.

It does in Ecuador, Colombia, and Perú.....

[Syzygies]

Pretty much everything listed here, I suspect not the best version has graced the plate.

Fermented tofu I simply can't get down without gagging, and I'm sure I've had a stellar version. (Spicy & Tasty)

[furzzy]

curry - all curries

There has to be an aversion to the word going on. I'm not trying to convince you to like curries but there are so many different curries that have so many different flavor profiles and textures from different parts of the world that there is no possible way they could be lumped into one dislike category.

You're absolutely right. What I should have said is that though I've had many, many curries, I've never had one I liked. By now, I just "pass" on curry. There's an undercurrent I can't place that I just don't like.

I could add: cilantro. I tried & tried to learn to eat cilantro, and then finally heard about that gene that makes one either love or hate cilantro. Whether that's true or not, it relieved my guilt about hating cilantro. ;o)

[Keith_W]

Bao - don't get the huge wad of steamed bread with a miniscule amount of dry filling. Perhaps I eat in all the wrong places.

You're definitely eating the wrong baos if you don't like baos! The ones available here (Australia) are properly made. There's even a trend towards ultra-fresh baos where the dough is rolled and steamed minutes before you buy. These are even more killer than the standard baos, which are delicious enough already.

[ChrisTaylor]

Bao - don't get the huge wad of steamed bread with a miniscule amount of dry filling. Perhaps I eat in all the wrong places.

You're definitely eating the wrong baos if you don't like baos! The ones available here (Australia) are properly made. There's even a trend towards ultra-fresh baos where the dough is rolled and steamed minutes before you buy. These are even more killer than the standard baos, which are delicious enough already.

Indeed. Even an increasing number of food court places (that one in Chadstone, for instance) work on a small batch basis.

[Bill Klapp]

curry - all curries

There has to be an aversion to the word going on. I'm not trying to convince you to like curries but there are so many different curries that have so many different flavor profiles and textures from different parts of the world that there is no possible way they could be lumped into one dislike category.

Indeed. I am not here to convince anybody, either, but surely there are hundreds of Thai curries, or Thai dishes with a dollop of curry paste added primarily as a seasoning, that a majority of people familiar with the flavor of typical curry powder would not even recognize as curry. I can, however, understand an aversion to the taste and smell of common grocery-store curry powder and foods laced with it...

[Bill Klapp]

I thought about this topic all day and I really don't have anything to add. My dislikes are all related to specific ingredients, not cuisines or dishes. The things I don't like, I don't like no matter what dish or cuisine they're used in.

That is where I come out, too. Specific ingredients whose flavors and/or textures I simply do not like, in any incarnation. I love scrambled, fried and poached eggs, hate hard-boiled eggs (except chopped up and used as a condiment to add richness). Love calves' liver and chicken liver, hate rabbit liver (the flavor being far too intense). That sort of thing. The beauty of ingredient-based dislikes are that the ingredients are easy to avoid in most contexts...

[Bill Klapp]

curry - all curries

There has to be an aversion to the word going on. I'm not trying to convince you to like curries but there are so many different curries that have so many different flavor profiles and textures from different parts of the world that there is no possible way they could be lumped into one dislike category.

You're absolutely right. What I should have said is that though I've had many, many curries, I've never had one I liked. By now, I just "pass" on curry. There's an undercurrent I can't place that I just don't like.

I could add: cilantro. I tried & tried to learn to eat cilantro, and then finally heard about that gene that makes one either love or hate cilantro. Whether that's true or not, it relieved my guilt about hating cilantro. ;o)

I could believe the gene thing with cilantro. I have a few friends who love Mexican food and cannot abide even a touch of cilantro, which makes great guacamole and great authentic tacos a bit difficult for them. I have had more than a few people experience something similar with white truffles, maybe not so surprising when you consider the role that chemistry plays in the white truffle's flavor and aroma.

[annabelle]

There is a definite connection regarding ones genes and the soapy or lack thereof taste to cilantro. It is not unlike detecting a strange odor in one's urine after eating asparagus. Some have this gene and some do not.

I have to disagree about not having eaten the proper curry or X types of ethnic food. Like Furzzy, I have eaten curries at many, many places from hole in the wall to high end and I don't like them. 20+ years of trying to find one I like is enough to convince me that I just don't like curries.

[MelissaH]

All you curry-haters: if it's called something that doesn't include the word "curry," is it still bad?

[Beth Wilson]

I think it is good to try new things and if you don't like it, you don't like it, at least you tried it!

Being from Northern Ontario though, re-fried beans has always looked tasteless and pasty when I have seen it, and that is usually what it tastes like. I guess I will have to go somewhere that it is made properly in order to give it another try.

[Porthos]

My dislike of the curries I have eaten is simple. After having curried whatever for dinner I will wake up in the middle of the night in such gastric pain that being dead at that moment has appeal. So I pass on eating curry.

The world is full of foods I do enjoy so trying to find a curry that I don't react to is quite unnecessary.

[nibor]

My dislike of the curries I have eaten is simple. After having curried whatever for dinner I will wake up in the middle of the night in such gastric pain that being dead at that moment has appeal. So I pass on eating curry.

The world is full of foods I do enjoy so trying to find a curry that I don't react to is quite unnecessary.

This brings in another aspect of not liking something. Any ingredient from the red pepper family gives me serious problems digestively speaking. So of course over time I have come to hate Mexican food. Maybe I used to like it, before this problem arose. But I don't remember that time anymore. Now I can't even stand to look at it.

[annabelle]

All you curry-haters: if it's called something that doesn't include the word "curry," is it still bad?

Yes.

[Tri2Cook]

I have to disagree about not having eaten the proper curry or X types of ethnic food. Like Furzzy, I have eaten curries at many, many places from hole in the wall to high end and I don't like them. 20+ years of trying to find one I like is enough to convince me that I just don't like curries.

I'm not arguing against your dislike or trying to convince you otherwise. I'm just genuinely curious as to what the connection could be when there are things under the heading "curry" that have no resemblance to each other whatsoever. Completely different ingredients, spices, flavor profiles, textures, etc. from different parts of the world but just happen to be called curry in the place they come from. I'm not trying to make anyone defensive and not trying to convince anybody they're wrong. I find it interesting and would really like to know what it could be that ties everything under the name together into a collective dislike. There has to be some common thread with more than one person naming curry in general as a dislike.

[Jaymes]

I have to disagree about not having eaten the proper curry or X types of ethnic food. Like Furzzy, I have eaten curries at many, many places from hole in the wall to high end and I don't like them. 20+ years of trying to find one I like is enough to convince me that I just don't like curries.

I'm not arguing against your dislike or trying to convince you otherwise. I'm just genuinely curious as to what the connection could be when there are things under the heading "curry" that have no resemblance to each other whatsoever. Completely different ingredients, spices, flavor profiles, textures, etc. from different parts of the world but just happen to be called curry in the place they come from. I'm not trying to make anyone defensive and not trying to convince anybody they're wrong. I find it interesting and would really like to know what it could be that ties everything under the name together into a collective dislike. There has to be some common thread with more than one person naming curry in general as a dislike.

I'm not of Middle/Far Eastern extraction so could have this wrong, but I've been told that "curry" in those countries just means, basically, a sort of "mixture," including the typical wet sauce, but also a dry seasoning version - almost like, if you were commenting on US cuisine, and you referred to a "stew" - it could be comprised of many things. Actually, in Mexican cuisine, that's what "mole" means, too. A mixture of seasonings, etc., that form a blend, a sauce. Regarding mole, most folks in the US immediately think of the famous dark mole that includes chocolate, but many of the moles have no chocolate at all and wouldn't be recognizable to people that only think of the dark one.

And I think that's the same thing for the word "curry." Most of us immediately associate that term with the strongly-flavored curries of India. Although, again, they can be made many ways, and contain many different ingredients, turmeric is pretty typical.

It seems to me that the distinctive, strong aroma and flavor of that brightly-colored orangish-yellow turmeric is the main thing that is off-putting for so many Americans.

Although, did you know, it's supposed to be great for psoriasis?

Edited August 2, 2013 by Jaymes (log)

[Ashen]

the blanket statement against all curriy dishes interests me too. the differences between a keralan fish curry , ethiopian wat or eritrean tsebhi, a jamacianchicken curry roti, or a british style chicken tikka masala are pretty vast , not to mention that there are also dry style curries with little to no sauce and all levels of heat from spice . some of these dishes with maybe the exception of onions have no ingredients in common. Could it be that the spicing in most curries tends to overpower the other ingredients? Not so much a dislike of a certain flavour but a dislike of a style of food [complex highly flavoured spice laid over base ingredients]. For those that are willing to keep experimenting on finding one you might like I would highly suggest making this

Jenni's Rajma.

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/140303-masala-masala-masala/#entry1836798

[Jaymes]

the blanket statement against all curriy dishes interests me too. the differences between a keralan fish curry , ethiopian wat or eritrean tsebhi, a jamacianchicken curry roti, or a british style chicken tikka masala are pretty vast , not to mention that there are also dry style curries with little to no sauce and all levels of heat from spice . some of these dishes with maybe the exception of onions have no ingredients in common. Could it be that the spicing in most curries tends to overpower the other ingredients? Not so much a dislike of a certain flavour but a dislike of a style of food [complex highly flavoured spice laid over base ingredients]. For those that are willing to keep experimenting on finding one you might like I would highly suggest making this

Jenni's Rajma.

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/140303-masala-masala-masala/#entry1836798

And there's no turmeric, which I am convinced is the top culprit for the curry-haters.

I bet you're correct in your estimation that most "non-curry" folks would like it. It looks really good.

Thanks.

Edited August 2, 2013 by Jaymes (log)