What's the BEST thing you DON'T eat?

[cabrales]

cabrales, if they are not tasty in the first place how do they taste to you so that you dislike them very much?

Jinmyo -- Water chestnuts have a weird crunchiness to them. An ugly sensation that I sometimes feel I can sense through my teeth as well -- I know that sounds unusual.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Two things, both about Cabrales. That ostrich egg was disgusting. It smelled more spermlike than sperm itself. Just the aroma itself could probably have impregnated an entire flock of ostrich. Blech. And the best thing that Cabrales doesn't eat is Pierre Gagnaire's food.  

[Jinmyo]

But cabrales, that's their charm.

What of the flavour?

Compared to bamboo shoots they're dancing and singing.

[La Niña]

Water chestnuts have almost no flavor.  They are a big waste of weird crunchiness.  I remove them when faced with no other option.  They just seem so...foolish.

I ate a sheep's eyeball on Sunday.  It was actually quite good.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Nina - I actually dislike fennel as well, although have come to ignore it if it isn't a dominant flavor. My wife despises it. One of the problems I had with the restaurant Bid is that so many dishes were fennelized.

Wilfrid - Tomatoes are an odd one. They are so damn good! How could you not like them? Texture? Acidity? Sweetness? Seeds? What is it? Because during the summer a Saturday's lunch doesn't go by where I don't eat fresh beefsteak tomatoes with fresh goat cheese doused with olive oil. Aliziari brand of course, The world's best olive oil.

[Wilfrid]

Tomatoes?  Don't ask.  I have no idea why.

Fiddleheads: very cute indeed, great name, hardly worth eating.  In my view.

[Suvir Saran]

Wilfrid,

My lover had the same problem with Tomatoes.  His ex-lover was Italian and eating fresh mozzarella with basil, olive oil and aged balsamic changed him.  

Today, he loves tomatoes and also avocados, another thing he could not eat.  And he loves guacamole.  I make mine with onions, tomatoes, green chiles, cilantro, toasted cumin, and cayenne and lemon juice.

Maybe as you try getting used to tomatoes, you can remove their seeds.  Chuck says having been given tomatoes that had been cored that way, made him slowly get used to them, and now we grow them and buy heirloom ones and have them as described above.

There are many Hindus that do not eat Tomatoes.  They think of them as fleshy and also a reminder of blood and tragedies past.

[LaurieStrock]

bamboo shoots.. maybe because the only ones I've ever tried were canned... anybody ever eaten them fresh?

[Suvir Saran]

Bamboo Shoots - Just had them last month in Singapore.  They were fresh and very good.  While the texture was much the same, they were even more neutral in taste than I had expected.  Also they have this very subtle aroma that reminded me of bruised bamboo leaves.  

I love bamboo shoots and water chestnuts.

[cakewalk]

I still don't get it. If you don't like the taste of something, why do you think you're missing out? You don't like it! You'd be missing out if you liked it and couldn't eat it for whatever reason (like chocolate when you're on a diet). I don't like rap music, but I see no reason to subject myself to Eminem. (Okay, maybe that's a bad analogy.)

I used to hate olives. Bitter, ugly things they were. I ignored them. Gave them the cold shoulder, completely, with no guilt feelings whatsover. At some point I was out somewhere and there were a lot of olives hanging about (this sort of thing happens when one lives in the middle east) and I ate one because it was there. Zounds! I ate another. I have not stopped to this very day. But I never TRIED to like the things. I just don't see how it's possible. I guess I just don't get it. Perhaps as I delve further into this stuff (I just ordered "Gourmet Cooking for Dummies") I will get it. But I must admit I have my doubts.

It's fun to read about all your varying tastes. I think it's wonderful that the same foods are perceived so differently by different people with unique tastebuds. The crunch in water chestnuts is precisely what I love about them. I like the taste, but the crunch is what does it for me, I can think of no other food like it. I had to laugh when I read others describe it as "weird."

[La Niña]

For me, vis-a-vis fennel anyway, I feel like I must be missing something, and I don't like the idea that I'm somehow not experiencing some pleasure that so many others manage to experience.  Once upon a time I didn't like lima beans, and now I love them.  Same with certain bleu cheeses (which I can't get enough of now).  I want to be able to enjoy all things edible, and not allow anything to spoil any part a meal for me.  So I keep trying.

[tommy]

I still don't get it. If you don't like the taste of something, why do you think you're missing out? You don't like it! You'd be missing out if you liked it and couldn't eat it for whatever reason (like chocolate when you're on a diet). I don't like rap music, but I see no reason to subject myself to Eminem. (Okay, maybe that's a bad analogy.)

some feel that it's better to see the good in everything.  apparently there is good in all of the things we as individuals don't like (or else no one would like them), and it can be a personal challenge to figure out what that good is.  you see, once you've figured it out, then you too can enjoy the good.  more good = good in my book.  

personally, i am happier when i like things as opposed to when i hate them.  but like wilfrid, i hate raw tomato.  i'm not even sure i want to see the good in raw tomato.  there goes my theory.

[Suvir Saran]

Cakewalk, I had your reaction to Olives.  And now I am changed as well.  Love them.

[Liza]

I prefer to think of it as an allergy, and that helps me when I need to explain why I don't eat cilantro. Others look at me as if I had just said something ...untoward...if I say I don't like the taste of it. So now I just tell them, when asked, that I am allergic, and that eliminates the often persistent pestering. (Is that redundant?)

[=Mark]

I prefer to think of it as an allergy, and that helps me when I need to explain why I don't eat cilantro. Others look at me as if I had just said something ...untoward...if I say I don't like the taste of it. So now I just tell them, when asked, that I am allergic, and that eliminates the often persistent pestering. (Is that redundant?)

a Long time ago on another food forum in a galaxy far far away (Rosie ought to remember this...)  we had what was politely referred to as the Great Cilantro Wars.  It was not unlike the Neo Nazi France thread here, only it centered on the flavor and edibility of cilantro.

One memorable exchange was started when members of the "Pro-Cilantro" forces suggested that maybe if they started with "just a little bit" that eventually they might grow to like it.  An insensed member of the "Anti-Cilantro Underground" minced no words...  

"If I tell you I don't like the flavor of cat piss in my food, DON'T tell me to try JUST A LITTLE BIT!"

[tommy]

a Long time ago on another food forum in a galaxy far far away (Rosie ought to remember this...)  we had what was politely referred to as the Great Cilantro Wars.  It was not unlike the Neo Nazi France thread here, only it centered on the flavor and edibility of cilantro.

oddly enough, i was called a misogynist and vulgar then too.  hmm.  i can take a hint. :wow:

[cakewalk]

Nina: about that sheep's eyeball. I did read that correctly, didn't I? Can you elaborate? (But not too much.) I mean, did it look like an eyeball? Was it looking at you? Was it cooked? How? Was it whole? Chopped up? How was it served? What did it taste like? Is this a delicacy from a particular country or culture? Did you have to force yourself to try it (like fennel)? This is one of my fascinated/repulsed at the same time reactions.

[Peter B Wolf]

Bamboo Shoots - Just had them last month in Singapore.  They were fresh and very good.  While the texture was much the same, they were even more neutral in taste than I had expected.  Also they have this very subtle aroma that reminded me of bruised bamboo leaves.  

I love bamboo shoots and water chestnuts.

Shame on you Suvir.

All these cute Kaola Bears deprived of their food.Maybe that's why they are on the endangered spcies list

[bigbear]

Peter... I thought Koalas ate tree leaves, not grasses.

[coolranch]

Over the years I've learned to like most foods that I once hated: cilantro (I am a cilantro convert--love it now--used to think it tasted like soap), fennel, cumin (overcame that by simply living in Texas for several years)--but, the one thing I cannot stand (though I try it every year or so) is PAPAYA.

I actually tried it recently--yep, still blechy.

I don't get it, mangos are my favorite fruit and I love most all tropical flavors--can't do papaya.

[VMBrasseur]

Actually, koalas only eat eucalyptus leaves.

As for why I try to eat things I've historically never liked, it's because I feel so darn limited.  I go to restaurants and can't order most of the menu because the dishes include either seafood or mushrooms or both.  Does that mean I won't like them?  Odds are I probably would.  I actually enjoy the mahi mahi I order now, and I've had many a pleasant accidental run-in with a dish which includes mushrooms (but wasn't listed as such on the menu).  Now that I'm older and my tastes are more refined than when I originally decided I didn't like seafood and mushrooms, I think I'm open to the possibility of actually liking them.

At least that's my working theory.

--V

[Pitter]

I love to eat, or at least try, absolutely everything except WATERMELON, CANTALOPE and all other melons.  I cannot stress this enough when I am at buffets or restaurants that offer fruit as a side dish or even a garnish.  If anything else has ever touched them, I know it and have to send the meal back, period.  I wretch at the mere thin odor of them.

[Suvir Saran]

Pitter, I feel about fruits like you do.  I prefer them to be freshly cut when they are served raw or alone.  Deli's, buffets etc. frighten me any ways.  But the fruit idea just does nothing for me.  It frightens me even more.

[Pitter]

Saran, why do you think this is -- about fruit (not about delis and buffets -- that is self evident).  I have never been wild about any fruit except for tomatoes and other berries.

[La Niña]

Nina: about that sheep's eyeball. I did read that correctly, didn't I? Can you elaborate? (But not too much.) I mean, did it look like an eyeball? Was it looking at you? Was it cooked? How? Was it whole? Chopped up? How was it served? What did it taste like? Is this a delicacy from a particular country or culture? Did you have to force yourself to try it (like fennel)? This is one of my fascinated/repulsed at the same time reactions.

Ali of Kebab Cafe made me this unusual dish called Abou Malouf (I had asked him to make something he enjoys making but doesn't get to cook often), which consists of the mead of the head of sheep (it can also be veal), including the cheeks, but minus the tongue and brains (served separately).  The dish is reminiscent of Ropa Vieja - kind of shredded looking, except the cheeks.   Meat was sauteed, spiced, with lots of vegetables mixed in, on top of rice.  The eyeball, which was whole, was on top, as were the cheeks.  Only a tiny bit of it looked like an eyeball - this blackish part, but it was for the most part surrounded by light-ish meat, I suppose muscle or membrane of some kind.  I was freaked out, as was my companion, but Ali talked us through it beautifully.  He suggested that we first try a little of the "surround" part and not the pupil-looking part, which we did.  It was good.  Not at all slimy, a little chewy, sort of like a very well cooked piece of chicken gizzard in texture.  After that, I was no longer scared, and I ate the rest in one bite.  My companion did the same.  No trauma.  We were extremely proud of ourselves.  By the way, Ali calls this meal his "tongue in cheek" meal.