Foods you're embarrassed to hate

[chile_peppa]

I don't like cake or doughnuts or coffee cake, actually most sweets. Most of the time, it's no trouble, but it becomes embarassing when someone at work takes a notion to bring a treat or celebrate a birthday or a guest brings a very sweet dessert. I enjoy the festivities but not the sweets. I feel very ungracious.

Edited to add: I'm not much of a wine or beer drinker either. The sulfites and yeast get to me. But scotch, well, that's another story.

Edited August 17, 2004 by chile_peppa (log)

[LaurieA-B]

I am glad that as an adult I have become very fond of beets, Brussels sprouts, mussels, fish, duck, and other foods that I either disliked or never tried as a child.

I am embarrassed, though, that I don't like sushi. This is a problem in Seattle where it seems that everyone, even three-year-olds, loves sushi. The last time I was at a Japanese restaurant with friends I ordered a noodle dish with chicken (it wasn't very good), and I felt like an annoying child who refuses to eat anything but macaroni and cheese. As said upthread, I appreciate the artistry of sushi. I enjoy watching Matthew eat it, but I don't want to eat it myself (actually, I kind of think I don't like Japanese food).

[cheeseandchocolate]

I love most of the iffy ones on this thread: beer, most sushi, sashimi, olives, caviar (I was started on this early ), liver (oooooh, chopped liver! on a spoon!), Brussels sprouts, eggplant, mayonnaise, bleu, etc. Currently learning to love radishes, getting braver with husky red wines.

I wouldn't go out of my way for truffles, but they're okay. Just okay.

I do struggle, though, with melons (I can sometimes do those little round striped cantaloupe-like melons in France, but they have to be reeeeally ripe), papaya, gelatinous things (bits of fat or connective tissue in meat, etc...I want to try oxtails but am a little afraid), snails (I can hardly even look at a live one, much less contemplate eating a dead one). I also hate hate hate those little yellow pickled radish things in Japanese restaurants...oshinko, I believe? What is that?

Oh, and re: embarrassment--I just want to feel capable of trying everything and being an at least somewhat fearless adventurer. Therefore, I find it annoying (and not so much embarrassing) that I have these hang-ups. Any advice on the oxtails? Should I try?

Edited August 17, 2004 by cheeseandchocolate (log)

[jgarner53]

I'm embarrassed to say I've never had a truffle. Or truffle oil. So I can't say whether I like it or not.

Most of my other things, I'm not really embarrassed by. Yeah, I don't like mustard. So what? I'll probably eat it if you make me a sandwich, and it's on it, but it's not my favorite. I'll choke down broccoli, too, if I have to.

I personally would consider it very rude to be at someone's home and leave a little pile of broccoli on my plate, or pick something else out of my food unless I had an allergy. To me, that's behavior worthy of a 10-year old, not an adult.

So you can imagine my reaction when my mother-in-law did just that at Christmas. She just said, "I don't like XXX."

I think pate tastes like cat food (not that I've eaten the latter ).

I'm probably more embarrassed that I could eat a whole box of Velveeta Shells & Cheese.

[petite tête de chou]

I don't like any olives that aren't black and come from a can that says California.

And boy, those olive bars look soooo tasty! Glistening orbs in various oils with bits of herbs and spices. Plus, I love finger food.

I like olive bread. I adore olive oils. Tapenade with lots of cream cheese is so-so. I figured that I would at least try a green olive every year in a martini to give it fighting chance...the magic still hasn't happened. -sigh- What a loss for me.

[hshiau]

Any advice on the oxtails? Should I try?

Omigod! Oxtails are SOOO good. But you have to be ok with things that FEEL a little funny. I go a local spanish place to have oxtail stew.

[Squeat Mungry]

I might as well admit it on this thread, since I think I've already outted myself elsewhere on eGullet, and haven't been kicked off yet:

I hate chocolate. Yuck. The only exception I know of is in savory preparations where it is not the main flavor, like mole. Chocolate alone or chocolate with sugar makes me gag.

Cheers,

Squeat the Chocolate-Hating Freak

[Kim WB]

I am embarrassed that I don't like plums. Even from my plum tree. Everyone else gets so excited about them, and I fake enthusiasm, but don't really ever eat any.

and scotch, single malt or otherwise. Not to souncd like a teenager, but among my "crowd", not drinking scotch is very "uncool"

Edited August 17, 2004 by Kim WB (log)

[Stigand]

I wish I liked hard-boiled eggs. For some reason they make me retch, even mixed into things. Every once in a while I buy a beautiful free range egg, boil it till the yolk just sets and try it. And it still tastes awful.

I did once manage a Portuguese dish of bacalao mixed with hard boiled egg, but that says more about the pungency of bacalao than my egg phobia.

If anyone has any suggestion for how I might wean myself onto eggs, I'd be very grateful - they seem like such a silly thing to dislike.

[eunny jang]

I might as well admit it on this thread, since I think I've already outted myself elsewhere on eGullet, and haven't been kicked off yet:

I hate chocolate. Yuck. The only exception I know of is in savory preparations where it is not the main flavor, like mole. Chocolate alone or chocolate with sugar makes me gag.

Cheers,

Squeat the Chocolate-Hating Freak

I think I love you.

[Chef Shogun]

Mussles, so far. Now, I haven't had many, and I suspect I've never had really good mussles, but so far, it's not happening. I'm trying really hard with gin, too. Need somebody to make me a proper Martini. I remember being none too terribly impressed by a canned fois gras product they passed around at some point on France (Puttering around Perigord, Bordeaux, and Aquitaine [then Switzerland] in the name of geology), but I'm definately willing to give it another shot, especially sauteed, which always makes me drool during cooking shows!

[NewYorkTexan]

Smoked Salmon.

Growing up, I was the only one who would not eat it, even now my wife buys it all the time and I can not touch the stuff.

[Oceangroveguy]

Brussell Sprouts - FEH!

[sarahoc]

I hate fennel, asparagus, and white chocolate!

And I don't get lobster. To me it's bland and a pain to eat. Not an eggplant fan either, which is a pain because it is often the only non-meat option at a lot of restaurants.

[girlmoxie]

I don't eat anything that lived in the water. It stems from my allergy to shellfish (not embarrassed about that) and a childhood trip to the emergency room. I just cannot bring myself to eat any kind of fish at all. I try now and then, but it just doesn't taste good to me.

Embarrassing to me is that I can't get over it, but not for lack of trying. I love the really simple preparations of a nice piece of fish, lemon and wine, etc. The beauty of scallops appeals to me so much.

Oh, and I'm embarrassed that organ meats disgust me. Again, not for lack of trying. However, I'm not embarrassed to think that cilantro tastes like soap, and not in a good way.

[andiesenji]

I do not like and won't eat sushi that contains raw fish of any kind.

I don't eat shrimp (allergy) can't stand the smell of shrimp cooking. Ditto clams. Ditto mussels.

Cheap caviar is gawdawful. The good stuff does not taste fishy or salty.

Can't eat doughnuts and haven't for over 45 years. After frying doughnuts in my mom's bakery I got to the point that I couldn't stand the smell and just seeing someone eating them makes me gag. I had a brief episode a few months ago when I caught a scent from a KrispKreme place next to where I was getting gas and the smell was nice. However it did not tempt me.

Some people have an affinity for truffles and others do not, many simply cannot sense the myriad elements of the flavor and aroma that emanate from the fresh truffle.

And they have to be very, very fresh. Most truffle oil is blech! I can't stand it either.

I buy fresh truffles sent overnight express, pay through the nose but I am one of the folks to whom they are as ambrosia. I can't even explain the flavor because it is not just the taste but a combination of aroma, flavor and sensation. A friend likens it to a reaction to pheremones.

It has an effect on my brain. As I open the sealed package and get the first whiff, I begin salivating, so much that it is almost embarassing. I have already had the eggs at room temp, the butter ditto, so it is a rapid process, melt the butter in the pan, beat the eggs and pour into the pan, as soon as they begin to set, slice the truffle directly over the eggs, stir and eat.

Sometimes, if I am alone, directly from the pan because the delay in putting it onto the plate takes too much time.

Oh yeah, can't stand to watch anyone eat raw oysters, have to look away even in a movie or on TV.

[Knicke]

petite tête de chou Posted: Aug 17 2004, 01:56 PM 

I don't like any olives that aren't black and come from a can that says California. 

....

I figured that I would at least try a green olive every year in a martini to give it fighting chance...the magic still hasn't happened. -sigh- What a loss for me.

I used to have this problem. Maybe instead of trying a green olive every year, you should try developing a taste for good BLACK olives instead - maybe you'd find them less objectionable, as they might be closer to what you already like. I started with Kalamatas, and now I can eat any olive you put in front of me! It did take me awhile to develop a taste for green 'uns...

I pretty much eat everything. I am a bit embarrassed to say that I hate squid in all forms, even calamari. My seafood-hating friends, who happen to love calamari, don't get it at all. I tell them that if I wanted fried rubber bands, I'd just go pick up a $.25 packet from the office supply store and throw them in the fryer - cheaper and less involved!

But I love octopus. And caviar is divine!

[JennyUptown]

I outed myself in my blog so I can say it again here: no fish. Ever. I'm getting comfortable with crab, but hate shrimp.

I also don't love other cold foods...salad, for example, I have to choke down. While my boyfriend was making me dinner the other night, he brought out beautiful yellow tomatoes with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper.

I'm fine with chopped tomatoes a la bruschetta and love sauces, etc. But I have such trouble with plain old sliced...I took a few bites, but when he was out of sight, I threw a slice off the balcony into the street.

[chefgy]

I'm a hard-core foodie and love experimenting with different tastes. Not squeamish a bit, have an adventurous palate. Like almost everything.

But every time I try truffled whatever (usually in the form of truffle oil used in a dish at an excellent restaurant) I literally almost throw up. Obviously, I've leaned not to order the stuff, but I continue to intermittently taste those dishes in the hopes of getting used to the taste.

I realize that it's kind of a vanity thing...given my culinary and gustatory proclivities I'm expected to like the royal fungus. But I don't. In fact, my reaction is so dramatically negative and so unlike my reaction to any other food, that I wonder whether I have some genetically hard-wired revulsion to the truffle taste.

I've rarely had fresh truffles and I seem to be significantly more accepting of black truffle oil than the white (even used the former in a celery root puree that turned out quite well). So maybe there's some hope for me.

Still can't believe people can not only stomach truffles, but actually place them on a vaunted pedestal of culinary experience.

Do I have any like-minded souls out there? If not for truffles, then for some other "foodie taste"?

I've heard that when people really really really hate certain kinds of food for no apparent reason, its because they are actually allergic to them. You've probably heard this also. Who knows? Maybe your allergic to truffles.

[adegiulio]

I love nearly everything. There are two things I find objectionable:

1) Tripe. As an Italian (/American), some people may find this hard to believe, but I just can't stomach (rim shot please) the stuff. Its like chewing on the most gristly piece of fat ever produced. Its not that I am organ meat averse, I love liver, sweetbreads, hearts, even tried brains. Its just something about tripe that I find offal (man am I funny tonight! )

2) While I love vegetables, I dislike the use of the word "veggies", especially by adults. And children.

Oh, and while its not a food, I HATE the word yummy.

[jbonne]

avocados.

it's a hard time living in a guacamole world.

[browniebaker]

My distaste for most alcoholic beverages is a bit embarrassing. At wineries in Burgundy, I got all sorts of questions when I declined to sample the wines. Beginning to feel like an alien from another planet, I let my husband tour the wineries while I stayed in the car and read.

I know I could order a glass and sip daintily from it or just have the glass sit in front of me as a prop, but I don't like to waste good money.

In short, I am fully capable of drinking alcohol to save my life, but I won't if I don't have to!

[curlywurlyfi]

Boris, your post made me think of a piece that ran in Granta several years ago. Sean French's excellent First, Catch Your Puffin is a hilarious meditation on the pleasures of rot and decay:

The problem is that we've all been taught that food should be fresh and wholesome, just as we've been taught that sex should be all about uncomplicated, rational pleasure. Some sex should be like that, of course, and there is no charm in a five-day-old sardine, but much of the pleasure of food is a flirtation with the processes of decay. The richness of fresh milk makes me gag, but when it rots, it becomes cheese, which I love. Beef should not be sold red and fresh but should be hung until it is grey. Some of the most wonderful food of all teeters on the boundary of what's edible.

Do follow the link for an entertaining and worthwhile read.

How extraordinary, GG, I was reading that issue in bed last night!

[chefgy]

ugh tomatoes especially fresh ones and cilantro I absolutely can not stand.

also those little white button mushrooms you buy at jewel. nasty

[fifi]

Jumping in late here...

Fresh tomatoes... they make me gag. I have tried and I wish I could get into them. I even went into "tomato training" one time when my sister was growing several varieties, including heirlooms. I actually threw up twice. I gave up. Cooked, fine. Raw, no way.

Truffles... Don't get it. I have tried truffle oil stuff (ghastly), fresh white sliced with scallops, black diced in eggs (all fresh truffles in France or the Netherlands) and many other preparations and they are all barely edible.

Cilantro... I am one of those that thinks it tastes like nasty soap. I think on another thread we decided it is a genetic thing.

Raw fish... Can't stand the texture and there isn't enough taste there to be worth it.

Caviar... Icky bad texture fishy nonsense.

Offal... I can't get past the ick factor. Liver is the exception, especially chicken livers.

Any shellfish where you eat their insides. (I know too much about what is in there.)

Anyway, I am not sure that this is valid for this thread since I am not embarrassed at all.