16 minutes ago, KennethT said:Oddly enough, my wife REALLY dislikes ripe papaya - she says that the smell reminds her of vomit, slightly, and finds it just completely off-putting.
I feel the same way and I have wondered if it's one of those things where there's a genetic variability in being able to smell a particular aroma compound, or at least in how intensely it's perceived. Papaya never did anything to hurt me but I couldn't stand it as a kid, found it rather nauseating. It wasn't something I was routinely exposed to growing up in New York but we went to the Bahamas once when I was around 11 years old. Every morning at breakfast I would say No papaya, please--I'll just have the second course (no memory of what came after the fruit) and every morning they served me the papaya anyway and I had to sit there and smell it until it was removed. Ick!
Green papaya is fine in SE Asian food but I guess those Bahamian ones were nice and ripe....
