Foods that are Divisive Because of their Taste/Aftertaste

[elyse]

Well, fresco, the oil I have is completely new. And sometimes, ya just need oil.

[mongo_jones]

goats cheese. to me, instead of being wonderfully earthy, it is like licking an old goat. I regularly try to overcome this, as I really would like to be able to eat it, but every time - feeeccccccch.

when you say you regularly try to overcome this do i understand correctly that your regimen consists of a lot of old-goat licking? if so, where do you live? i'm trying to locate goat-farmers in an attempt to source fresh goat-meat.

[curlywurlyfi]

when you say you regularly try to overcome this do i understand correctly that your regimen consists of a lot of old-goat licking?

Mongo, I have a rich and varied social life.

[jo-mel]

Ginger. I love the stuff, but when it is in a chunk -- like pea size, it tastes like soap. My DH brought this to my attention, so I tried it, and he was right. I've heard others draw the same conclusion, when the ginger was in a chunk. However, when the ginger was minced or finely shredded, it didn't bother him, or others.

Fermented black beans. To me, a single bean tastes like unsweetened chocolate. People laughed at me. But one time I was doing a class for a pile of Middle School kids, and I gave them each one to eat. and asked them what it tasted like to them. Aside from the 'yucks'. 'eeuuus' and other kid comments, one boy said it tasted like unsweetened chocolate!! I was vindicated!

Cilantro is not my favorite flavor. As others have found, it seems to be an acquired taste. One tiime in the Yucatan, a Mayan chef made a wonderful, memorable Tortilla Soup. I got his recipe, and tried it at home. It contained cilantro, so I put in just a hint of the stuff. The soup, while OK, was nothing special!! The cilantro was the difference! I was sold on it from then on. The cilantro flavor did not dominate, but its addition added to the depth of flavor.

[mongo_jones]

jo-mel, how did you (and other cilantro-haters) deal with indian restaurants? cilantro (or coriander as we call it in english in india) is everywhere.

[jo-mel]

I don't understand the thrill of sichuan peppercorns.  I don't enjoy that numb, tingling sensation at all.  It doesn't make my top ten list of foods I loathe, but I avoid it.

About the Sichuan peppercorns, ---- In Dunlop's "Land of Plenty", she said that the numbing effect of fagara allows people to eat more chilis than they normally would. I had never thought of them in that way.

I like them for their fragrance. The aroma of a dish with them in it is, to me, wonderful. Simoond's "Food in China" has a smallbit on another quality about their use with other spices: "This may derive from its oft-noted ability to enhance flavors, as in peanuts cooked with salt and fagara which are said to open the eyes of persons who have not had them prepared in this manner."

I can take or leave them when it comes to the numbing, but ground as a dip, I love their aroma. Pork Ribs with a salt/fagara dip are wonderful - if just for the scent.

[howard88]

I truly enjoy most if not all salt water fish. As for trout or bass from fresh water, I have tried them in diners, restaurants, caught them myself and they just all taste like mud to me.

[fresco]

I've certainly noticed the muddy taste in some freshwater fish, and it's not pleasant. But it doesn't seem to be universal. Anyone know what causes it? Water temperature? Diet?

[jo-mel]

jo-mel, how did you (and other cilantro-haters) deal with indian restaurants? cilantro (or coriander as we call it in english in india) is everywhere.

I can't remember when I've last been to an Indian restaurant. {{{{{{hiding face in shame}}}}} I've been to a couple of Indian weddings, but the cilantro wasn't that apparent.

Also, it's not as tho I 'hate' it ------ I just don't go ga-ga over it. I do use it in Chinese cooking, and when I do, the dish is lifted --- as compared to substituting plain flat leaf parsley. It's that little "Je Ne Sais Quoi" thing, as in the Tortilla Soup.

[bloviatrix]

Ginger. I love the stuff, but when it is in a chunk -- like pea size, it tastes like soap. My DH brought this to my attention, so I tried it, and he was right. I've heard others draw the same conclusion, when the ginger was in a chunk. However, when the ginger was minced or finely shredded, it didn't bother him, or others.

I totally know what you're talking about. I make a curry which calls for a lot of fresh ginger. I find I have to carefully calibrate the amount of ginger I use because after a certain point it tastes soapy.

[tejon]

Back in my college days, I learned that not everyone can detect caffeine by taste - about 1/3 of the population can detect the flavor (which is very bitter). I thought everyone could taste the bitterness and I was one of the only ones who actually minded that taste.

The asparagus/urine thing is a bit different - the asparagine in asparagus will come out in the, erm, end for everyone, but some people can't smell it.

[elyse]

I never knew caffeine had a taste.

[bloviatrix]

The asparagus/urine thing is a bit different - the asparagine in asparagus will come out in the, erm, end for everyone, but some people can't smell it.

I wish I was so blessed -- Blovie loves his 'sparagus. Unfortunately, I have the nose of the scent hound.

[rxrfrx]

I never knew caffeine had a taste.

Caffiene has an astringent flavor; I've heard companies explain that they caffeinate their beverages for flavor purposes, because they would never try to addict their customers.

Anyway:

1. I definitely find that canola oil has an unpleasant fishy flavor... I avoid using it, for this reason.

2. I love smoked meats, but I find that smoked cheeses have a strong fishy flavor... they remind me of a really fishy smoked salmon. I was served some sort of gratin potatoes with smoked cheese and I couldn't finish more than a couple bites.

[jhlurie]

"Fish(y)" seems to be a big complaint.

[Kenk]

I don't like the taste of goat cheese. I also always say goat cheese tastes like licking a goat.

I also don't like canola oil I find it has a chemical flavour. I now use corn oil as a neuteral oil. Sometimes it has a taste of corn, at least it is not a chemical taste.

I like using flax seed. Flax certainly has a fishy taste but it dosn't bug me.

Then there is Thrills chewing gum. Gum that tastes like soap. This stuff I like but it is kind of wierd.

[jat]

Sunflower seeds. My mouth feels like a birdcage afterwards. Okay guys, don't

ask if I've licked a birdcage..No.

[kjohn]

Supposedly some people can't eat mangoes because they taste like turpentine, but I've never met anybody who didn't like a mango. They taste somewhat piney to me, but I kind of appreciate the taste.

Anybody can't eat mangoes?

[Anna N]

Supposedly some people can't eat mangoes because they taste like turpentine, but I've never met anybody who didn't like a mango. They taste somewhat piney to me, but I kind of appreciate the taste.

Anybody can't eat mangoes?

I understood (and I'm no expert) that when mangoes become overripe they do indeed taste and smell like turpentine. Perhaps you had one past its prime. Anyone else, more expert than me, like to chime in here?

[FistFullaRoux]

I have a couple. Nutrasweet, as mentioned elsewhere here, has an aftertaste that lasts literally for hours. Diet drinks, candy made with it, anything gives me that sort of unpleasantly bitter/cloyingly sweet aftertaste that won't go away. Usually ends up giving me a headache.

I also pick up fryer oil just before it starts to go bad, or if it has been heated too much. I don't think it's the type of oil so much, but if it gets overheated or has been used a couple of times too many, I can taste it.

But then again, I am the guy who, if I hold a penny in my hand for more than a few seconds, I get a metallic taste in my mouth. A nickel or other coinage takes longer, but copper happens immediately. Yes, I have experimented with it. It works on the bottom of the foot too, but it takes a few minutes more.

I can tell when something has been cooked in an unclad reactive pot as well.

[Mudpuppie]

When I first tried it, ginger didn't taste soapy to me -- it tasted like Lemon Pledge. Now I'm okay with it.

Carrots often taste soapy to me, especially if they're homegrown.

[slkinsey]

I think there are several issues here:

1. Some peopls just don't care for certain tastes or certain foods. There are many reasons a person can "learn" to dislike, say, canned tuna or black pepper.

2. Some things are clearly cultural, where the phenomenon described in 1 above is perpetuated on a huge scale. This can have to do with either cultural taboos, availability of certain ingredients or even just culinary aesthetics. A good example of this would be cheese, which many people from Asian countries find disgusting and characterise as "rotten milk" (which, I suppose, it what it is -- delicious, delicious rotten milk).

3. I think the case can be made that some people simply taste things differently from other people. Perhaps a certain chemical activates the taste receptors in one way in one group of people and a slightly different range in another group. Cilantro would seem a prime example. I don't know too many people who think it tastes soapy, but a number of friends think it tastes like dirt. Now, to my palate, cilantro has a fresh, green, "bright" flavor that is entirely unrelated to the murky, dark, old flavors I would associate with "dirt." This makes me think that these friends and I are experiencing a fundamentally different physiological stimulation upon eating cilantro, and therefore our psychological interpretations of that stimulation are also fundamentally different.

[howard88]

I find cilantro to be a fresh, airy, invigorating taste sensation. My mother on the other hand, feels like she is eating ivory soap. As to my problem with sensing a mud flavor when I eat fresh water fish, I wonder If I fried it in canola oil...?

[FistFullaRoux]

And regarding cilantro, my mom, the wonderful Cajun cook that she is, came to Austin to visit my brother and I one Christmas. She went to the store to get the material needed for an honest to goodness real meal for her boys, and she accidentally picked up cilantro instead of parsley.

She said it smelled like feet. She also says Pepsi tastes like dirt. I think black eye peas have a distinctivley putrid flavor.

I smelled someone in the breakroom here at work warming up what smelled like a big plate of cabbage and ass today. To each his own, I guess.

[Toliver]

I wonder, too, how many of those who find cilantro to be "soapy" are supertasters? Imagine all those extra tastebuds screwing up their palates. Perhaps they should take up smoking to kill off a couple hundred or so of the little buggers.