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Things I love that other people don't get


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So, here's the antithesis of a currently popular thread. Which foods or food combinations do you absolutely love that other people either hate or can't understand?

Stemming from the Asian tendency to balance sweet and savoury flavours in order to enhance their taste, my husband gives me the hairy eyeball when I scoop myself some ice cream and pair it with a side plate of thinly sliced corned beef and extra garlic mini dill pickles. Or else substitute the meat and pickle plate for some kind of salty crunchy snack like Japanese or Filipino chips. I know, I know. Bizarre. And I wasn't even pregnant. Go figure that my food cravings actually evened out somewhat while I was with child...

:rolleyes:

Joie Alvaro Kent

"I like rice. Rice is great if you're hungry and want 2,000 of something." ~ Mitch Hedberg

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Beets. :wub: I love beets. They are my comfort food, they make me think of my grandmother (she made great borscht), and they're just plain great, any which way you cook 'em.

But I know that there are others on this board who very strongly disagree with me (to say the least). :rolleyes:

But you're wrong. You really are.

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Am not.

Liver and onions. Liver and anything. Chicken liver. Calf's liver. Beef liver. Chopped liver.

:blink:

Oh, dear God in heaven.

As Bill the Cat would say, "Ack!"

That is all.

(well, except for cognac pate...)

Edited by Mooshmouse (log)

Joie Alvaro Kent

"I like rice. Rice is great if you're hungry and want 2,000 of something." ~ Mitch Hedberg

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Balmagowry, I'm with you. Ahhh, chicken liver pate. Hot damn.

Among my other passions:

lima beans ("Greek-style"--with olive oil, lots of garlic, chopped flat-leaf parsley, salt, and crusty bread for sopping up the juices :wub: ),

Brussels sprouts (roasted, hashed, braised, steamed--you name it),

cabbage (red, green, stewed, braised, steamed),

beets...

And a few years back, I got really addicted to hot brown basmati rice with a little cottage cheese (preferably Alta Dena) stirred in...it got all melty and comfort-foody. Sounds weird, but try it.

She blogs: Orangette

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Potted Meat

Vienna Sausage

Sardines in Mustard (not good ones-cheap ones in cheap mustard)

I think that it must be genetic. My Dad and both of my Grandfathers eat/ate this stuff all of the time.

Brooks Hamaker, aka "Mayhaw Man"

There's a train everyday, leaving either way...

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Stemming from the Asian tendency to balance sweet and savoury flavours in order to enhance their taste, my husband gives me the hairy eyeball when I scoop myself some ice cream and pair it with a side plate of thinly sliced corned beef and extra garlic mini dill pickles. Or else substitute the meat and pickle plate for some kind of salty crunchy snack like Japanese or Filipino chips. I know, I know. Bizarre. And I wasn't even pregnant. Go figure that my food cravings actually evened out somewhat while I was with child...

:rolleyes:

I do that too....sweet & sour for me. Can't have a PB&J sandwich without a sour pickle alongside.

I don't understand why rappers have to hunch over while they stomp around the stage hollering.  It hurts my back to watch them. On the other hand, I've been thinking that perhaps I should start a rap group here at the Old Folks' Home.  Most of us already walk like that.

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i love spam

Oh, I'm SO glad someone said it first! I was afraid I was going to have to let my dirty laundry hang out alone...

In fact, one of my current favorite meals is to fry up cubes of spam, stuff them in an omelet with cheese, and topped with some of Jaymes' salsa and a dollop of sour cream. It's remarkably tasty.

I also love kale. When I mention this, the reaction most of the time is "ewwwwwww". (Not here, though!)

Peanut butter and lettuce sandwiches. The lettuce adds crunch, and just enough moisture to keep the peanut butter from sticking to the roof of your mouth.

Marcia.

Don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he wanted...he lived happily ever after. -- Willy Wonka

eGullet foodblog

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i love spam

I like luncheon "meat" from China and there is only one good brand (I usually can't tell because there are so many fake ones out there.....)

They are good for

-Sichuan hot pot, slice them around 0.5cm thick and drop it in

-Sliced really thin and pan fried until crispy, fry up an easy over egg on the side, put the "meat" and egg on toast

-good topping for traditional Hong Kong cafe instant noodles.

-chopped up into little cubes and mix in with scrambled eggs

I think this is enough for now.....

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I just don't understand the aversion thing. In my travels I've been faced with some situations where I was presented with foodstuffs falling outside my food spectrum, and all those times I said to myself, if someone else eats this stuff and likes it, it's worth a try. I try and put myself in their shoes and understand their paradigm. There is rarely any quality that is so unpleasant about a foreign food experience that it traumatizes me. I might not drool for a second serving, but that's ok.

There are a lot of things I have come to see as just normal food, it's all around me here where I live. Tete de veau is at all the butchers, I just cooked that for the first time about 10 days ago, andouille and andouiette, tripes, tendon, and all that included. But it has to be cooked right. It would be a shame if I just cut out a whole range of really well prepared foods from my choices.

Beets are GREAT and great for you when boiled fresh. My sister put a ban on beets from entering her home, clinging to a childhood memory of being served canned beets. Her husband, was crazy about them and it was a constant point of contention between them. I didn't know about her aversion to them, and served up some diced ones from the market freshly boiled while they were visiting. She followed the rule of tasting - and exclaimed "Are these beets? They're delicious - they don't taste like - dirt!" :smile:

You read about people who say they can't eat this or that because the texture, flavor, etc. reminds them of something else. Maybe I have a warped sense of taste but I rarely ever associate food with anything other than it is. Nourishing, fortifying, food.

Some processed foods reach the limit for me, simply because I don't like the chemical taste. But in all, I always make a point to try something I'm offered. I'll never refuse to try something on principle.

Edited by bleudauvergne (log)
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Oh, tons! I have regular problems with my adoration of "stinky" foods (my beloved A. says "Eat that when I'm at work!"). Smelly cheeses. Sauerkraut. Kimchi.

Other things I love: apple and stinky-cheese omelettes, crisp apples or pears spread with a thin layer of Marmite. Cottage cheese and almost anything, savoury or sweet. Lima beans (mmmmm!). Beets, oh yeah! Raw rolled oats muesli'd up with lemon juice, fruit and nuts. Japanese soft squishy sticky rice and red bean treats -- I'm sure there are lots of people who love those, but I don't know any. Natto. I like it (goes with my Stinky Rotted adoration I suppose). Tofu. I really like tofu, naked and cold and adorned only with a dash of tamari.

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"I like luncheon "meat" from China and there is only one good brand (I usually can't tell because there are so many fake ones out there.....)"

YUKI, I'd love to try it, if you would post the name whenever you locate it. :raz:

Carpe Carp: Seize that fish!

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As much as I love good olives, from time to time, I succumb to an almost overwhelming urge for cheap, pre-sliced canned black olives. Last night, they found their way onto my pizza.

My husband throws a mortified look my way everytime he sees the dreaded can emerge from the cupboard.

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Oh, tons! I have regular problems with my adoration of "stinky" foods (my beloved A. says "Eat that when I'm at work!"). Smelly cheeses. Sauerkraut. Kimchi.

Other things I love: apple and stinky-cheese omelettes,

Stinky cheeses. Yes!! There was another thread about stinky cheeses.

I order brick cheese from Wisconsin because it doesn't seem to be available outside the state and it is soooooooo good.

Sliced thinly and wrapped around a slice of apple or pear...... yum.

I also like it with apricots, especially my dried and glacéed apricots. (the apricots on my tree are ripening three weeks earlier than usual because of the extereme heat we had last week and the week before. Now the "June Gloom" is with us and it is much cooler.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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I am not ashamed to say I eat Little Debbie swiss rolls, vienna sausages, onion & butter sandwiches on white bread. I love braunschwaeger. Liver in any form is yummy. Beets are good fresh, from a can, roasted with olive oil or pickled beyond recognition. My palate is an equal opportunity employer.

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cilantro.

Me too!! I grow a lot because I use it in a lot of things.

I also grow the Asian Rau Ram which tastes like cilantro but is a perennial and does not "bolt" when the weather is very hot.

It is so easy to grow, I bought some at an Asian market, put in in a jar of water on the window sill and within three or four days there were rootlets at every segment. I broke the stems into segments, planted then and every piece sprouted a new plant. Great stuff.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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Kraut on damn near anything savory. Hot dogs (natch), pot roast, mashed potatoes, or the holy grail---kraut on pintos with sweet onions. Also kraut eaten straight, out of the jar, over the sink.

I have a strong belief that certain vegetables need the hell boiled out of them before they're edible, most notably collards and green beans.

Raw cabbage cores sprinkled with salt

Brussels Sprouts

Ghastly, stinky cheese

Penrose hot sausages on saltines

Fried baloney (NOT bologna, never bologna) on white bread with mustard

Gourmet Anarchy

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cilantro.

Oh yeah, me too. It doesn't taste soapy to me (or to my husband, thank God), but I have to check myself if I'm cooking Mexican or some sort of Asian dish for others. I forget that so many people hate it (or are just eating it to be trendy, you know).l

Gourmet Anarchy

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I just don't understand the aversion thing. 

[snip]

I'll never refuse to try something on principle.

Neither will I. But there are a few things I... well... just don't LIKE. There are also one or two things that give me that scary tingly feeling in the back of the throat that warns me that if it goes down it will soon come back up and I'll be sorry - or dead. I freely admit that my dislike of beets is based on early experience with canned ones; as per your post I hereby open wide my mind (and my gullet) for the fresh thing... but I have never liked borscht, not ever, no matter how it was made.

And I gotta admit I have some conceptual trouble with some of the cultural-leap-of-faith stuff: insects; dogs; cats. I know these prejudices are not logical and I know all the arguments that prove it. I'm sure I'd eat those things if I had to; I might well enjoy them; I'm just as glad not to be confronted with them, though.

Generally, though, I'll try anything. Once was enough for lutefisk and haggis - but I et 'em, by cracky.

As a rule, though, I'd rather stick to the things I love. Seems like a better way to spend one's life.

Oysters. Mussels. Clams. Raw or otherwise.

The pope's nose.

Jerusalem artichokes.

Broccoli rabe. Broccoli.

I'm with whoever it was that declared for brussels sprouts, lima beans and cabbage; kale, chard, all them brassicas; not a spam-lover, but an eager eater of hash. Don't generally care for okra or tofu (but in each case must make an exception for specific experience of small pieces delicately fried); not a cilantro fan (has anyone ever figured out how to make subtle use of it?) but will happily eat just about any other culinary herb, except maybe rue or too much lovage; love boiled chicken skin and boiled onions; love fat and groozly bits and unidentified offal; am happiest when without offending anyone I can not only have the beautifully presented meal on my plate but also discreetly pick at the fascinating crumbs and scrapings and glop in the roasting pan (that dark dark thing... is it an onion? is it a piece of skin? which would be better? either! let's find out!)....

Oh, and suet puddings.

EDIT to add: liverwurst sandwiches, with or without onion - YES! Canned black olives - YES! (They're especially good in my quickie tomato sauce - I posted about this somewhere a few weeks back - made from last year's frozen tomatoes.) Hot dogs, baloney, stinky cheese, sauerkraut - YES!

Edited by balmagowry (log)
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As much as I love good olives, from time to time, I succumb to an almost overwhelming urge for cheap, pre-sliced canned black olives.  Last night, they found their way onto my pizza. 

They're even better on quesadillas - just a tortilla, jack or mozzarella, and tons of big, bland canned black olive slices.

Another favorite of mine: sardines in Louisiana hot sauce over ramen (no "broth", just prepared noodles) with a good, cold beer.

BB

Food is all about history and geography.

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