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

[psychobombshell]

3 Bean Salad

[rxrfrx]

Another vote for salmon. But just the cooked kind. Raw or smoked is pretty alright.

[puhorst]

In my very first post ever on eGullet, I'd like to take a stand.

I will absolutely, positively, REFUSE to eat tripe (aka cow, or sheep stomach)

My mother made it at least once a year in our Italian-American household... and serving it was always a battle of wills ending in me not eating for at least a day - as she would bluff that if I couldn't have ANY other food until I at least tried one bite.

Never will I eat it. The appearance, texture, and smell all remind me of a sweat-soaked wool sock.

[Daniel]

Buttered popcorn jelly beans

[tonkichi]

Anything with cinnamon. If I can taste it, I will not finish the cake , doughnut , waffle etc.

[chappie]

I eat everything and would even try the partially formed duck embryos or a recipe for garden slugs. I have researched (though not followed through) cooking wasp larvae. I believe insects are the next great food revolution, especially when pureed and formed into a maleable protein product, like surimi is to fish. But...... I absolutely detest calf's liver.

Chicken livers? Fine. Paté? Delcious. Fois gras? Even better. But no matter how much bacon you serve with it, calf's liver makes me retch. Every couple years I try it again and still the same result.

But get this: my girlfriend doesn't eat red meat of any kind — EXCEPT liver. She wrinkles her nose at my teriyaki glazed venizon tenderloin, a heaping plate of sticky spareribs, sausages, melting lamb shanks — but will slurp down liver without a blink. She also eats scrapple.

[mags]

I believe insects are the next great food revolution, especially when pureed and formed into a maleable protein product,

I gotta tell ya, I think that revolution is going to be a long time coming. But by all means, take it to the streets.

[chromedome]

I remember years ago seeing a magazine interview with an anthropologist and his wife. They'd met in the Amazon...he went there to study her tribe, and wound up studying one of them (her) in significantly more detail.

The interviewer asked the wife what kind of adjustments she'd had to make, changing from the Brazilian rainforest to (I think) Iowa.

"The tarantulas you get in the pet stores here," she replied. "They just don't taste like the ones back home."

[jabolster]

I like to think that I'm open minded when it comes to eating but I dont know that I could eat balut or any living insect. I would at least like the opportunity to try though. I did have something recently that I think it will take me a while to try again-Baby octopus. I loved the flavor (I love octopus normally), but the head popping as I bit into them just got to me. My wife couldn't even look at them. Other than that BRING IT ON!

[FYYFF]

Eggs. I'll eat them mixed up in a batter such as cake, custard, sweet souffle or bread pudding. I'll even eat french toast if the batter isn't too eggy. I've tried caviar and I don't have a problem with that. But eggs alone--scrambled, omelet, poached--no way. Hard boiled or egg salad---SHUDDER....

[Susan G]

Sea urchin. I've tried it twice in sushi form, and each time as I put it into my mouth, I break out in a cold sweat and the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. I suspect I'm working on an allergic reaction here.......I've never had this instinctual aversion response to anything else.

[Jinmyo]

There are a great many things that I won't eat but that has to do with the preparation rather than the ingredient.

Even skinless/boneless chicken breasts can be all right if one leaves the skin on and bone in.

edit:

Susan G, that does sound like it might be a visceral reaction to an allergin. Too bad, though. Uni is great stuff.

Edited March 7, 2004 by Jinmyo (log)

[AzRaeL]

Lizards,

Durian,

Roquefort

[AzRaeL]

Sea urchin. I've tried it twice in sushi form, and each time as I put it into my mouth, I break out in a cold sweat and the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. I suspect I'm working on an allergic reaction here.......I've never had this instinctual aversion response to anything else.

how does one develop an allergy to food one hasn't eaten yet?

[Ling]

I think I could eat brains and bugs, if they looked appetizing on the plate. Don't think I could eat prairie oysters though.

[Milt]

For the life of me, I can't think of anything to list that I wouldn't eat. If other people eat it, it must be okay. If there is something on the menu that I have never had, I probably will order it. At a potluck dinner, I fell compelled to try everything. I have never been exposed to some of the most exotic offerings, so perhaps I would feel differently when they are on my plate.

There certainly are foods that I prefer over others, but to absolutely refuse to eat something. I don't think so.

[geekdoc]

My take on "weird foods" is somewhere in the world there is a group that has been hungry long enough to eat it and make it palatable, so that being said, I will eat anything prepared well by someone who knows what they're doing.

In the South if you ask anyone of African-anerican descent if they eat chitlins, they will invariably reply, "Yes, but not just anybody's". They will then go on to say that they will eat their grandmothers, etc, but you gotta make sure they're cleaned properly. So basically it is a trust issue.

I would eat tarantulas cooked on a fire by an Amazonian, if he/she had a reputation as a good cook!

I do cringe a bit when watching the later Star Trek series when the Vulcans slurp down live critters. Prefer my meat dead. But just barely in the case of beef!

[sml311]

My take on "weird foods" is somewhere in the world there is a group that has been hungry long enough to eat it and make it palatable, so that being said, I will eat anything prepared well by someone who knows what they're doing.

In the South if you ask anyone of African-anerican descent if they eat chitlins, they will invariably reply, "Yes, but not just anybody's". They will then go on to say that they will eat their grandmothers, etc, but you gotta make sure they're cleaned properly. So basically it is a trust issue.

I would eat tarantulas cooked on a fire by an Amazonian, if he/she had a reputation as a good cook!

I do cringe a bit when watching the later Star Trek series when the Vulcans slurp down live critters. Prefer my meat dead. But just barely in the case of beef!

I thought it was the Klingons who ate live food...gagh I believe it was called. Live worms. (Good to see another geek here )

Also, sometimes when my dog gets hungry he eats his own excrement...(I usually catch him before he finishes) I don't care how well prepared that is....NO!

SML

[mags]

I think that Gross Stuff That Pets Eat is probably its own thread.

[geekdoc]

I thought it was the Klingons who ate live food...

Doh!

[JennotJenn]

My take on "weird foods" is somewhere in the world there is a group that has been hungry long enough to eat it and make it palatable, so that being said, I will eat anything prepared well by someone who knows what they're doing.

In the South if you ask anyone of African-anerican descent if they eat chitlins, they will invariably reply, "Yes, but not just anybody's". They will then go on to say that they will eat their grandmothers, etc, but you gotta make sure they're cleaned properly. So basically it is a trust issue.

I would eat tarantulas cooked on a fire by an Amazonian, if he/she had a reputation as a good cook!

I do cringe a bit when watching the later Star Trek series when the Vulcans slurp down live critters. Prefer my meat dead. But just barely in the case of beef!

Vulcans, Klingons, it doesn't matter. I think live anything is on my list of things that I will not try. Ok, maybe I'd try live bugs. Anything smaller than my pinky finger would be fair game, I think. I am a little sqeamish about fetuses in an egg shell (I don't like unfertilized eggs!) clotted blood or eyeballs, but I might try them. I would need some reassurance about the eyeballs (are they crunchy???). I used to be squamish about the thought of monkey, but my uncle unknowingly ate that and dog in Thailand and said it was good (even after he found out)...said monkey was prepared very well and delicious (a colleague said it was stringy, but uncle disagrees). I draw the line at primate brains, though. But free range rat, fried bugs, fermented shark, bring it on. Oh, I'd eat human flesh too, if I was starving to death, no problem. I think any flesh for me is fair game...it's the offal that gets questionable.

For instance, I'm pretty sure I don't like tripe. I had some in pho recently, and it was like eating plastic netting. I'm not saying I wouldn't try it in a different preparation, though.

Poor husband. He turned green and left the room...I'm watching a National Geographic special on taboo food. It was the goat fetus that made him leave.

[AzRaeL]

when i watched the movie "ALIVE" i was both squealing and roaring with laughter at the expressions on the faces of the suvivors when they had to eat the dead for food.

My only question would have been: Breast or Thigh

[auntdot]

Brains, for personal reasons, could not eat, and probably live insects.

But of normal stuff, cannot eat bananas.

Cannot even stand the smell of bananas.

If a banana peel is in my waste can at work, will remove it immediately.

Have no idea why. Just something about them that affects me viscerally.

Probably am the only person on the planet with the aversion, but it is a real one.

Otherwise, am pretty normal foodwise.

[JennotJenn]

Brains, for personal reasons, could not eat, and probably live insects.

But of normal stuff, cannot eat bananas.

Cannot even stand the smell of bananas.

If a banana peel is in my waste can at work, will remove it immediately.

Have no idea why. Just something about them that affects me viscerally.

Probably am the only person on the planet with the aversion, but it is a real one.

Otherwise, am pretty normal foodwise.

Nope, my mom has the same aversion, but only to ripe bananas. She likes green (really green) ones. She is not otherwise normal food wise, though.

[ms. victoria]

Count another in the banana camp. I actually like them but they don't like me back. Raw bananas make me very ill, even the smallest bite. I can eat them cooked or dried but not raw. My son is the same way but won't even eat them cooked and the smell makes him turn visible green.