Things People Inexplicably Love

[Stone]

Steamed vegetable dumplings. I've never had one that was more enjoyable than eating a soft lump of mulch.

Uni. I just don't get it.

Coldplay. Why oh why does anyone want to listen to that guy whining over and over and over. It's like taking an elevator to a funeral.

I used to hate olives and raw tomatoes. Now I can eat olives by the dozens and, with a little salt, eat tomatoes like the love apples that they are.

What about you?

Edited June 9, 2004 by Stone (log)

[NeroW]

I don't like foie gras.

I think it smells bad.

I like other organ meats . . . just not the Mac Daddy.

[fresco]

Caviar. I've had good caviar several times, including one extremely excessive caviar tasting arranged by someone just back from Russia, during which several ounces of the stuff was scoffed back in various ways by a few people, but just can't warm up to it.

[johnnyd]

Uni. I just don't get it.

Ahem, I had to step in to provide a little inside perspective that might help all the UNI haters.

Indeed a challenging top-shelf sushi item, especially since it is highly perishable, and since people like Stone don't order it UNI doesn't move nearly as much as the usual suspects. So UNI gets on the gamey side as it sits in those little pine boxes all weekend, but owing to it's high perishability it probably got that way before it arrived at the restaurant.

As a commercial diver on the Maine coast, I harvested urchins by the quarter-ton or so on a seasonal basis for seven years. 90% were destined for Tsujiki Market in Japan while the other 10% went to Stateside sushi brokers. I became aware of many aspects of this fishery (another story, another time) including being witness to colossal blunders of organization that yielded much spoiled product.

There are few things more delicious than sea urchin roe right out of the shell, right off the rocks from a depth of three meters, where the sunlight still penetrates deep enough to allow forests of kelp, urchins' favourite food, to flourish. I made sure I had at least one every day I jumped in the water for good luck.

Did the urchins I harvested make it into the mouths of sushi-lovers in Manhatten during the mid '90s? I'd bet on it. But how long were they out of the water? Some shippers were better than others.

When I visited a pal in NYC and went out for sushi, we ordered UNI of course and my friend made a big deal about my occupation, but the staff didn't care much. The UNI was pretty awful, downright rank I thought. It occured to me that sushi fans might not ever really get the good fortune of knowing what fresh UNI tastes like. It's a challenging flavour, week-or-more-old uni! That explains the macho postering among diners who swear by it, and the common sense of those who don't: it's just not fresh, people!

Since I had to give up diving, I've settled for whatever uni that's available. My local sushi bar chef who knows my past sometimes gives me the most imperceptible nod when he catches me peering into the sushi case at his uni. If he looks away or ignores me, I know to get a quail egg on top if I order it that day, or avoid it all-together.

[Moopheus]

Steamed vegetable dumplings. I've never had one that was more enjoyable than eating a soft lump of mulch.

A couple of weeks ago I had some excellent steamed dumplings at a local vegetarian restaurant (one which doubles as a Buddhist shrine), but it is true that they are often gooey and tasteless.

[JPW]

Shellfish - namely oysters and clams. Anything that filters toxic sea floor sludge is not for me. Plus the inevitably rubbery texture of clams always makes me feel like I'm chewing on the ball from a set of kid's Jacks.

[Carolyn Tillie]

Uni. I just don't get it.

Ahem, I had to step in to provide a little inside perspective that might help all the UNI haters.

I wish I could like it as well -- but I'm in Stone's camp.

I had Uni at Matsuhisa's in Los Angeles so one would assume no one would get it fresher. However, having grown up on the beaches in Southern California, I couldn't get past the fact that Uni was too reminscent of wiping out on a gnarly wave while body surfing... You know, that taste one gets when being tumbled along the bottom floor of the ocean by a huge wave that almost knocks you out.

THAT is what Uni tastes like to me.

[flip6577]

I must add canned tuna. I don't get it. To me, this stuff tastes awful no matter how you prepare it. OTOH, fresh tuna is sublime.

Flip

[foodie52]

Oh dear.... I'll probably get some flak for this, but I just don't see what the big deal is about

Truffle Oil

I don't think that its musty flavor warrants the big bucks that it commands. Yeah, it tastes good , drizzled over stuff and the flavor is easily identifiable. But all it says to me is, this stuff is expensive. Should I be impressed?

[NeroW]

Also, I don't like gin.

[Marlene]

Oysters, foie gras, gin fish - any kind

[johnnyd]

You know, that taste one gets when being tumbled along the bottom floor of the ocean by a huge wave that almost knocks you out.

I am all too familiar with this feeling, but I was paid to do it!

[GordonCooks]

Krispy Kremes

[Anna N]

Donuts, avocado (just don't get it), raw oysters, lima beans, yellow wax beans, lentils (can't get past the look or the texture), fiddleheads (don't get those either), caviar, ....

Gosh and I thought I had so few dislikes.

[s'kat]

Tinned meats. My mother was a huge fan of Spam, as well as those tiny hot dog-like things (the name is escaping me)... the memory of that putrid scent wafting out of a freshly opened can makes my stomach tighten to this day.

We had a hurricane last year, and my husband tried to get me to eat dried beef. Disguisting.

[Moopheus]

Beer.

And, yeah, Krispy Kremes are way overrated.

[bleachboy]

Chickpeas a/k/a Garbanzo beans

[JAZ]

Goat cheese. Smells like a petting zoo.

Fava beans. I guess they're okay, but they're waaaay too much work. The ROI just isn't high enough. (Plus, there's that whole Silence of the Lambs thing.)

[fresco]

Goat cheese. Smells like a petting zoo.

Fava beans. I guess they're okay, but they're waaaay too much work. The ROI just isn't high enough. (Plus, there's that whole Silence of the Lambs thing.)

Fresh fava beans are great, but I agree they are a pain to shell. It's a real treat to buy them shelled in markets in Europe.

[cakewalk]

Also, I don't like gin.

I am shocked, shocked.

Cotton candy. Hate it. When I was a kid I would try to like it, I loved to watch them make it in those big vats, but I remember it always made me feel like I was being cheated somehow, putting this stuff in my mouth expecting something good and it just dissolved into nothingness.

Pancakes. It's a texture thing. I love the idea of pancakes, so Norman Rockwell-ish, but I just don't like them.

[herbacidal]

Caviar. I've had good caviar several times, including one extremely excessive caviar tasting arranged by someone just back from Russia, during which several ounces of the stuff was scoffed back in various ways by a few people, but just can't warm up to it.

I agree. I don't see the attraction.

QUOTE (NeroW @ Jun 9 2004, 10:43 AM)

Also, I don't like gin. 

I am shocked, shocked. 

I'm not. I've known some people who don't like that juniper berry smell.

Now if she said she didn't like alcohol, that'd be a shock.

Edited June 9, 2004 by herbacidal (log)

[Raynickben]

Mussels. Taste like sewage.

[Busboy]

Have I mentioned brined poultry?

[Jean Brislance]

I must add canned tuna. I don't get it. To me, this stuff tastes awful no matter how you prepare it. OTOH, fresh tuna is sublime.

Flip

I could not agree with this more, Flip. I can't stand the stuff.

But give me a rare, seared tuna steak any day of the week!

Jean

[Toasted]

Beets, nasty things, taste like dirt. Yuck! Also, Ice Wine- I know I probably just don't have the palate for it but it tastes like wicked expensive white grape juice to me. I just don't get it. Funny thing is, people keep offering this very pricey stuff to me even afterI've told them my opinion of it. Still, ok, I'll drink it, just don't understand the whole buzz about it.