I won't eat... What are your food limits?

[Jason Perlow]

Sorry to differ with so many people, but I love brussels sprouts. Beautiful, miniature, green cabbages. Don't overcook.

I always THOUGHT I'd hate them (my mother never made them), until in college, when my roomate's mother (who was damned near a gourmet chef) made them for us slathered in garlic and olive oil.

There arent many veggies that don't taste good slathered in garlic aoli.

[jhlurie]

Sorry to differ with so many people, but I love brussels sprouts. Beautiful, miniature, green cabbages. Don't overcook.

I always THOUGHT I'd hate them (my mother never made them), until in college, when my roomate's mother (who was damned near a gourmet chef) made them for us slathered in garlic and olive oil.

There arent many veggies that don't taste good slathered in garlic aoli.

Yes, and who would have brussel sprouts without garlic and oil, I mean unless you try the alternate presentation (maybe even better) using tons of GARLIC BUTTER.

[KatieLoeb]

But I really don't like the taste of gin!

Amen. Or the smell.

Double Amen to that. Although I once smelled a very botanical type gin that sort of smelled like a men's aftershave. That wasn't too bad, but it still couldn't get me to taste it!

I'm actually not too crazy about scotch either. I like Oban (thanks, David!) because it doesn't smell like dirt or peat. But that's the only one. I'll stick to bourbon - much more my speed.

[maggiethecat]

I'm also suprised by the negative opinions about oysters and shellfish.

The only two edibles  that I have discovered that I absolutely HATE are Beets, and gin.

However, I dislike pepper, and think yhe pepper mill is greatly overused in most home cooking,and much dining. There are some hearty foods, such as a steak or tuna steak, that can stand up to the strength of pepper...but I hate it on a salad, or vegetables,  and if its added, it often dominates the entire dish, IMHO.

Kim:

Fascinating. Really.

Yes:"I'm also suprised by the negative opinions about oysters and shellfish." Me too. Heck. Whaaa?

Beets are marginal. Just Depends. But gin? Um, mother's milk to me. That serious scary herbal bouquet. I love it.

But I'm really interested in your aversion to pepper in many situations. IMHO, that fresh ground black kick improves almost anything. Is it the taste and aroma of pepper you dislike, or the way it affects a particular dish?

[snowangel]

Thinking really hard, the only foods I can come up with that I dislike are parsnips (has to do with a smell thing when I was pregnant with one of the kids) and potato chips. Yes, potato chips (if I want salt and grease, I want bacon).

[jeniac42]

If cockroaches taste anything like lobster, sign me up for a batch. Hell, they'd probably be really cheap, right?

I cannot STAND the combination of oregano and tomato paste. In fact, I'm pretty put off by oregano in general, though I have had it in preparations that don't taste and smell like vomit to me (which, sorry, is how I perceive pizza sauce).

Fennel/anise/licorice is also gross. I try to like it, and I can eat it, but I don't enjoy it. In the same category is rye bread, with or without caraway seeds, which I also dislike strongly.

I don't like coffee, but small amounts of it are pretty good in certain applications (like tiramisu).

Offal puts me off, though I really want to try it as prepared by someone who knows what they're doing. I hear there's a really good place in town to get sweetbreads so I plan to go there sometime.

I don't know that I could eat an eyeball unless I was absolutely starving. If I didn't know what it was... sure.

I do not like raw squid. It tastes and feels like plastic to me.

I am really sensitive to food textures so sometimes I gag on things I like the flavor of, but I try not to. I will eat anything, even stuff I hate, in the hopes that someday I will like everything. I mean, how could I possibly not like oregano?

Edited to add that I also think black pepper is muchly overdone in many dishes. I do think it goes well with a lot of things, and pepper on strawberries is really nice. But I think the nastiest thing in the world (and this, of course, is in addition to the inherent nastiness of such things) is the precooked chicken you can buy in the supermarket. They also use it at Toxic Hell and any restaurant too cheap to grill their own chicken. It inevitably tastes like black pepper in the worst possible way. I can't imagine how anyone could eat that.

Edited May 27, 2003 by jeniac42 (log)

[nicola]

My biggest hate is cloves. I always ask before ordering apple pie whether it has any cloves in but occasionally get caught out when I order ham and it turns out to have been studded with cloves. The taste permeates the whole of the meat - yuck!

[hjshorter]

I'm actually not too crazy about scotch either.  I like Oban (thanks, David!) because it doesn't smell like dirt or peat.  But that's the only one.  I'll stick to bourbon - much more my speed.

Have you tried Dalwhinnie (sp)? It's another that's very light on the peat. My least favorite is Laphroiag (again, sp?) It's like a big mouthful of bog. Yech.

And raw meat. Double yech.

I used to like my steaks very rare, but that wasn't allowed while pregnant and I've lost my taste for blood now.

[Elissa]

I love raw oysters (PEI) and caviar, the more expensive the better; also foie gras, fresh truffles and (umm) their oil.

Sauternes however I usually would rather not have tried. Also chicken, unless it's French or maybe Thai :nothanks:

Edited May 27, 2003 by lissome (log)

[Carlovski]

I'm with you on the Laphroiag, it's like chewing peat.

My personal hates are cucumber (I don't know why some people say it is fairly tasteless, I can detect the thinnest slice a mile away), although for some reason, I like Tzatziki just fine.

Raw celery is another (The only food to come with built in dental floss!).

Not liking either of these is a particulary 'foody' crime so here goes - Things I honestly don't like, but probably should.

- Most indian pickles and chutneys - I LOVE indian food, I love the homestyle simple cooking, Dal's, simple breads, sambhars etc, but I just can't get a taste for the pickles I am supposed to enjoy with them - maybe I just haven't found the one for me yet, I don't know. I keep trying though.

(I am thinking about Jeffery Steingarten and his kimchi 'problem' here)

-Black pudding. I am from Lancashire, I used to live a stones throw from Bury Market. My dad loves the things, but I just have never got the taste for the things (Especially the 'fatty' ones). Maybe If I try Paul Heathcote's (The ones with sweatbreads in!) I may be converted.

Gelatinous Fat - I understand the importance of fat in meat. I hate overly lean cuts, but I still cannot stomach eating the fattiest cuts, unless they have been rendered super crispy. I know I am probably missing out on some fantastic chinese dishes, and some great pork recipes, but I just can't keep it down!

Fennel - I just don't like it! (On saying that after hating fennel seeds for years, I have started to love them in all manner of veggie dishes, and a couple of pork ones, maybe I need to try again)

There,

my secret shame

[lizzie]

So is there any rhyme or reason to dislikes of food? Recurring themes on this thread seem to be raw fish/cooked fish, shellfish, offal, fennel/anise, beets, brussel sprouts, others. And it's probably a given that people posting here are willing to *try* these foods. What's up?

[Kim WB]

But I'm really interested in your aversion to pepper in many situations.  IMHO, that fresh ground black kick improves almost anything.  Is it the taste and aroma of pepper you dislike, or the way it affects a particular dish?

I'm not particularly fond of the taste and I've tried most styles, colors and types of pppercorns. I once had a very mild white pepper that I liked, but I suspect they were rather stale peppercorns..becausee the next batch I bought were too strong. The aroma is more bearable, and I usually use whole peppercorns in stocks and soups, but take them out after a while.

I find pepper cloying. And, used too often on foods in which the flavors are covered, rather than enhanced, by the pepper.

[Carlovski]

It seems like the dislikes fall into 3 main categories

- Textural - This probably is the thing with raw meat/fish and offal.

- Specific tastes - The Fennel/anise thing is obviously a contender.

- Smell - Sprouts, cabbage maybe liver as well.

What we need is a big experiment, double blind taste tests, with the offending textures and smells removed, see if people still don't like them. Don't know what can be done about the Aniseed thing, I guess some people just don't like aniseed.

BTW Anyone here have food shape problems? I have a friend who won't eat carrots cut into rounds (Not my favourite way, but I'm not THAT fussy!)

[Monica Bhide]

Olives..try and try, can't get to like em

Blue cheese, goats cheese, come to think of it lots of cheeses

I cannot stand Olives and most types of cheese as well. And raw fish

[reddevil]

Should I be ashamed in saying that I do not like tofu? Especially fried tofu - it's mainly the texture that gets to me.

There's also the usual:

blue cheese

caviar (along with most forms of seafood)

offal

[Chloe]

The only thing I really make an attempt to avoid is hot milk, hot chocolate (which I'd love to love) and coffee or tea with milk in it. Always drink churros con café in Spain!

I'm not very fond of fennel as a vegetable, although I love the smell, and I sometimes leave mussels for the mussel lovers in the family. I don't particularly like green pepper flavour in certain foods and I never liked my father's minestrone soup . But I'll eat them all.

I love offal, shellfish, parsnips, anything with fish roe, white truffle flavour, anchovies, cloves, black pudding ...

I didn't used to like parsley/basil/coriander - but no problem with them now.

Very boring - I'll eat almost everything!

Chloe

north Portugal

"bloody food" country

[sparrowgrass]

Spearmint

Cloves

Turnips

Green olives

Pickled anything, especially pickled pigs feet--sour AND gluey

I love brussel sprouts. And lima beans.

[Jinmyo]

especially pickled pigs feet

I've never really understood these.

[butterchik]

Jinmyo you are so right about fruit. I barely eat fruit anymore and I used to love it. the fruit we get here in Canada just has no taste. I buy it, but it just sits in the basket and rots. Heavy sigh...

So sad, so true - just got a box of honeydews off the plane from AZ - ever since I saw the fields of melons (IN THE DESERT!!!) and was told that they were irrigated with L.A. grey water I can't swallow a bite (no proof that the grey water thing is true but come on - MELONS FROM THE DESERT!!! )

Saffron and white pepper will stop me mid dive into a dish once I get that musty whiff.

Fleshy things, love em all, raw or cooked, organ or not. And brussel sprouts.

And much to the delight of my Japanese co-workers, I couldn't get past two bites of natto, despite repeated attempts. Did fine with the horse sashimi though.

[Allie D'Augustine]

This is something that I've been thinking about a lot in the past week... I've been really upset that I don't like the taste of almost any unmelted cheese. Why am I upset about this? Because I pride myself on all the weird things I DO eat, like tripe, raw meat, fatty meat, ANY "parts" of animals -- I was lucky enough to have a really special, decadent tasting menu over the weekend, and it consisted of wild asparagus with white truffles (the truffles themselves didn't taste like much to me, but I think the oil did add some kind of good essence to the dish), soft shell crab, quail and seared foie gras, sweetbreads with veal cheeks (my first time at veal cheeks and they were SO tender and delicious, I couldn't believe it)... Anyway, the special dessert at this place is a cheese course, and I just can't stomach it.

I did go to a wine tasting last week, and was dismayed to learn that it was actually a wine and cheese tasting. I took the opportunity to force myself to try at least a small bite of each cheese, and I didn't hate all of them. I didn't really LIKE any of them, either, but I could see that I could probably acquire a taste for some of them. Never blue cheese (and I really didn't get the point of the gouda I tried). I have no problem with ricotta or mozzarella, melted or un-, parmasan cheese, and melted cheddar and American and some other melted cheeses, usually when I don't know about their presence beforehand.

Like one of the previous posters, I'm wondering why some of us have certain aversions.... I suppose, in the case of cheese, I could say lack of exposure, but I wasn't really exposed to tripe and foie gras while I was growing up, either.

I also used to have a mushroom hatred which I've made myself grow out of. I really did manage to acquire a taste for them. Jeffrey Steingarten has an excellent essay that's the opening chapter of "The Man Who Ate Everything": when he was first employed as a food writer, he decided that he had to overcome all of his aversions. It's a funny account of his forays ... and it is actually sort of encouraging to someone like me who wants to be a food writer. Maybe one day I'll be able to rehabilitate myself from my cheese hatred, and become a proper foodie.

Allie

[aliwaks]

used to hate olives because they were hairy (can't really explain why hairy is the proper description but it is olives like most beans & legumes are hairy) needless to say I also did not like beans but I have gotten used to teh hairy food and now have a very definative list of food I will not eat.

okra

aubergine (though I think they are beautiful when raw and in a bowl)

tongue

sweetbreads

tripe

any liver other than duck, chicken or goose

brains

hearts

kidneys

indian pickles

chicken with melted cheese UGH!!!!

any meat other than a cheeseburger or a cheese steak with melted cheese

cheese on vegetables

creamy sauce on meat

tomatoes that are not perfect

blood

blood sausage

sashimi

sea urchin

roasted peppers on anythng other than pizza or pasta

pickled things other than cucumbers

however LOVE LOVE LOVE truffles, foie gras, caviar & veal/beef/pork cheeks & smelly cheese

[fifi]

So is there any rhyme or reason to dislikes of food? Recurring themes on this thread seem to be raw fish/cooked fish, shellfish, offal, fennel/anise, beets, brussel sprouts, others. And it's probably a given that people posting here are willing to *try* these foods. What's up?

Very good question. We seem to have a couple of themes: taste and texture. (I did see one question about shape! How wierd is that?) Within those themes are some very specific likes and dislikes. When this thread winds down, I might collect all of the replies and see if I can quantitate and categorize the data. I will see if I can do that BEFORE I get a life.

[margaret]

Bell peppers, of any color, cooked or raw. Sad, too, because they can be so purty.

Raw onions, especially diced.

Raw tomatoes in green salads. Love them any other way, hate them in green salad.

I also share the licorice/anise disgust. I keep trying it, convinced that something has changed and now I'll love it, but ugh. Every time ugh.

Feel the love, however, for brussel sprouts, natto, olives, and most everything else.

[KNorthrup]

This is getting interesting in that I know I really do like most foods, but the more people post, the more I remember I dislike. Yikes.

Oh and that's one more vote against licorice/anise/fennel and I have never ever liked potato chips but always seemed to be alone there so yay whomever that was.

Love cloves. And cucumbers.

Dislike all melons. I think that's a new one.

[torakris]

I don't know how I could have forgotten the one food I absolutely can not go near:

Cheesecake!

eeewwww!

I also don't really like (though will eat them if served) anything with chunks of fat, including most sausages.

I no longer order tonkatsu in restaurants because there is always a large strip of fat attatched. I remove every bit of fat and skin of meats that I eat.

I also don't really like deep fried foods, or butter. I can eat butter in baked goods, except things like butter cookies where all you taste is the butter. I eat bread plain or with EVOO.

I don't really like custards or creams either..............

Maybe these are why I have never had a weight problem?