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Nutritional Nomatophobia

liuzhou
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liuzhou

liuzhou

Posted
Posted (edited)

Not to make of fun of anyone who suffers from a real phobia, but out of genuine interest, is there any food (cuisine, dish or ingredient etc) that you really wouldn't eat solely because of an irrational reaction to the name, not the concept. The word; not the food.

 

I have to confess muskellunge doesn't sound like something I'd want with my chips for supper.

 

 

Edited by liuzhou (log)
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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

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Smithy

Smithy

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Posted

I have an unreasonable dislike of the word "smoothie". I'm fine with a "shake" or "blended drink" but for some reason "smoothie" sounds ridiculous, demeaning, childish and loathsome. Would I refuse one if offered? No, but I'd never ask for one. 

 

And yes, I know it's ridiculous of me but the very word turns me right off. Is that the sort of thing you mean?

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AlaMoi

AlaMoi

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Posted

methinks the phobia needs to be sub-divided into

- things you can recognize

- things aka mystery meat/foods/dishes one cannot recognize

 

example:

haggis - not many people when presented with tableside sliced haggis would not know what they are served.

otoh

sweet breads - very deceptious name - but one can recognize "pieces of meat" on the plate

and then . . .

"sausage" - an infinite variety of "stuff" made into ''''sausage''''

or

"scrapple" - every one who makes it has a different "recipe"

or

"head cheese" - which is to 99.9% delicious, but you really don't want to know . . .

or

chitlins - again, very tasty.  don't ask . . .

 

personally I have fed my (young) children sauted fresh calf's liver with onions.  they thought it wonderful stuff,,,,, until they found out . . . .

which, after years, suddenly upends itself:  "Hi Dad!  heh, remember the xxxx you used to make....?  How do I cook that?"

 

I think the only thing I would outright reject is a menu item described as " . . . puffer fish...."

I'm really selective about ordering (meat)tartars, sushi, carpaccio

-broaderly cited - "raw anything"

the need for ultra-uber-top-notch-quality&freshness . . . rules.

gas station sushi . . . no blinking way . . .

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blue_dolphin

blue_dolphin

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Posted
14 hours ago, liuzhou said:

I have to confess muskellunge doesn't sound like something I'd want with my chips for supper.

That might be why we called them muskies when I was a kid fishing for them in Lake Champlain. 

 

23 minutes ago, Smithy said:

I have an unreasonable dislike of the word "smoothie". I'm fine with a "shake" or "blended drink" but for some reason "smoothie" sounds ridiculous, demeaning, childish and loathsome.

I used to dislike that word as well.  Then I went through a period where I was dealing with some health issues and prescribed myself a nutrition-packed ...um...I'll call it a blended meal to avoid distressing you.  A couple of servings each of fruit and veg, protein, flax seeds, wheat or oat bran, wheat germ.  It was a pretty painless way to hit all the daily requirements. It was my weekday breakfast for years and somehow I got over my aversion to the word.  

I'd still never order one anywhere though 🙃

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SLB

SLB

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Posted (edited)

I have a love-hate relationship with the term "fatback". 

 

Honestly?  I have no idea whether this is even a term that is used outside of African-American dialect.  But I grew up with it, and was appalled at each and every utterance.  Which should not be confused with a rejection of its seasoning . . . .

 

Also?  "Poke" prompts terror.  This is not irrational though -- it's because, when poke became stylish in lower Manhattan, you would get served something perfectly described as "slop". 

 

**I have been to Hawaii, and had bona fide poke, which would never bring "slop" to mind.  I guess I am only terrorized by the term "poke" anywhere outside of Hawaii.  

Edited by SLB (log)
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lindag

lindag

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Posted
1 hour ago, Smithy said:

I have an unreasonable dislike of the word "smoothie". I'm fine with a "shake" or "blended drink" but for some reason "smoothie" sounds ridiculous, demeaning, childish and loathsome. Would I refuse one if offered? No, but I'd never ask for one. 

 

And yes, I know it's ridiculous of me but the very word turns me right off. Is that the sort of thing you mean?

Seems like it would be more appropriate to call it a 'roughie' since it translates into roughage.

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Alex

Alex

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, AlaMoi said:

head cheese

 

Yes, this one.

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"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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blue_dolphin

blue_dolphin

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, AlaMoi said:

head cheese

 

1 hour ago, Alex said:

Yes, this one

I agree. Presented as some sort of ‘variety meat’ terrine, I’d go for it but I still remember the time, as a very novice cook, I read the recipe for head cheese in my old edition of Joy of Cooking. Oh my!

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ElsieD

ElsieD

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Posted
4 hours ago, AlaMoi said:

 

 

 

sweet breads - very deceptious name - but one can recognize "pieces of meat" on the plate

or

"head cheese" - which is to 99.9% delicious, but you really don't want to know . . .

 

 

 

I for one, am very fond of headcheese, especially the pickled kind which I can't find anymore.  My mom used to make it, using a pig's head (but not the eyeballs).  Great stuff.

 

As for sweetbreads, I was doing consulting work and decided to have three of the client people I was working with for lunch.  I didn't tell them what we were having, which was sweet breads.  They ooed and ahed over the lunch and when we were all finished, I told them what it was.  That was the day I converted three people to sweetbreads.  😁

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liuzhou

liuzhou

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  • Topic Starter
Posted
6 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

And yes, I know it's ridiculous of me but the very word turns me right off. Is that the sort of thing you mean?

 

Absolutely. 'Smoothie' is almost up there with 'yummy' as the most childish, ugly word there is.

 

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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

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liuzhou

liuzhou

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  • Topic Starter
Posted (edited)
On 2/28/2024 at 1:54 AM, AlaMoi said:

methinks the phobia needs to be sub-divided into

- things you can recognize

- things aka mystery meat/foods/dishes one cannot recognize

 

example:

haggis - not many people when presented with tableside sliced haggis would not know what they are served.

otoh

sweet breads - very deceptious name - but one can recognize "pieces of meat" on the plate

and then . . .

"sausage" - an infinite variety of "stuff" made into ''''sausage''''

or

"scrapple" - every one who makes it has a different "recipe"

or

"head cheese" - which is to 99.9% delicious, but you really don't want to know . . .

or

chitlins - again, very tasty.  don't ask . . .

 

personally I have fed my (young) children sauted fresh calf's liver with onions.  they thought it wonderful stuff,,,,, until they found out . . . .

which, after years, suddenly upends itself:  "Hi Dad!  heh, remember the xxxx you used to make....?  How do I cook that?"

 

I think the only thing I would outright reject is a menu item described as " . . . puffer fish...."

I'm really selective about ordering (meat)tartars, sushi, carpaccio

-broaderly cited - "raw anything"

the need for ultra-uber-top-notch-quality&freshness . . . rules.

gas station sushi . . . no blinking way . . .

 

Most of these are about the food; not the word, which is what I was asking about.

 

 

Edited by liuzhou (log)

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

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liuzhou

liuzhou

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Posted (edited)
25 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

I believe this is a dish rather than an individual food, but I don't think I could make myself eat Spotted Dick. 

 

Haha. It's just a sponge with currants. 

 

Edited by liuzhou (log)
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Smithy

Smithy

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Posted

"Sloppy Joes". I know, everyone's supposed to love those, especially kids. I've never liked the name, even as a kid, and I've never liked the seasonings.

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Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
Host, eG Forums - nsmith@egstaff.org

Follow us on social media! Facebook; instagram.com/egulletx; twitter.com/egullet

"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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liuzhou

liuzhou

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15 hours ago, Smithy said:

"Sloppy Joes". I know, everyone's supposed to love those, especially kids. I've never liked the name, even as a kid, and I've never liked the seasonings.

 

When I first heard of Sloppy Joes (as a child), for some reason I formed the impression they were some sort of casual footwear popular in foreign parts of the American type.

 

70 years on, I'm still not convinced that I was wrong.

 

 

 

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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

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liuzhou

liuzhou

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Posted

I'm not usually bothered by unusual food names. China, my adopted home, has many bizarrely named dishes - "ants climbing trees", "dogs won't eat them buns", "Buddha jumps the wall" etc.

 

When I heard "stinky tofu" my reaction was "Great. Take me there and fill me up"

 

"Maternal grandmother's fragrant fluttering bones" had me mildly concerned but I soon got over that despite my maternal grandmother having died in the 1960s and her bones now far from fragrant or flutteration.

 

But mention the c-word in any food discussion and I'm out of there! Yellow grains of retch-inducing wretched negativity. Shouldn't ought to be allowed.

 

In China, I had to give up relationships with other people. In Mandarin, the seeds of despair are known as 玉米 (yù mǐ), pronounced "you (and) me"!

 

 

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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

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