Stinky food

[JCD]

Redolent imported gorgonzola dolce with arugula and home grown tomatoes

Home made kimchi with lots of ginger

marinated herring and onions

kapusta

ground porcini just when added to a kickass homemade sauce

gruyere

esrom

curry paste when added to hot oil (or aesofedita, i.e., make your own curry paste)

nasturtium buds

matsutake

[_john]

I am one of those natto lovers mentioned above. My theory is that people either love natto or hate it. The reason they hate it is usually "the smell" or "the texture". No one has said they hate the taste of natto. The people who love it, like me, enjoy the taste, smell, and texture.

I have actually mixed coffee and natto before, and I liked the results. I mixed espresso and natto with raw egg yolk and put it over rice, I ate it with thick sliced slab bacon, in college I ate this for breakfast about once a week!

My motto is "I will try anything twice... no actually three times". I like most stinky foods, but I didn't like tellagio on my third try.

[jkonick]

I'm one of those people who thinks that natto tastes like coffee, and I stand by it! I'm convinced that it must be something with the natto available in the U.S. (or Seattle) because I've tried a few kinds, and even my Japanese friends say that it doesn't stink the same way their parents' natto does. Stinky or not, I like the stuff. It's just the texture that I had to get used to.

Durian too - I haven't tried the actual fruit yet, but I've been threatening to bring one back to my dorm room as punishment for my roommate (and reward for myself, I suppose) who hasn't cleaned his side of the room for a few weeks and it's starting to smell like... well, durian. I do like durian flavored things though. Durian ice cream is great.

[byron]

I am always amazed how regional/romatic raclette is in Switzerland and yet when I melt it in Florida it smells like old gym shoes. I've finally resigned myself to do it outside.

[Irishgirl]

Tete de Moine and Grilled Dried Squid. Smell awful...taste great. (Not together)

[avocado]

I love stinky cheese. Except raclette. A smear of raclette on a cracker is the ONLY thing I can ever remember spitting out. It triggered my gag reflex like nothing ever has. I had to go out for ice cream to get the sensory memory out of my head.

[EdS]

The way I deal with approaching new stinky foods is to do the opposite of what I do with say wine and avoid taking in their scent first. Once the taste registers on my tastebuds, the smell seems to be less, if any, of a problem. There are some cheeses that I wouldn't want to go around sniffing but once I get a bite into my mouth, I love them.

[Alchemist]

There is a Thai dish called Gang Som. Sour (or rotten) stew. The smell is like large black garbage bags full of peices of wise guy that have been festering on a hot, muggy Bangkok streetcorner for weeks. It is served with fishheads bobbing about, for breakfeast.

YUM!

[pansophia]

My husband and I finally made it to a local Asian grocery yesterday and he was thrilled to find Durian. He had heard that if you could get past the smell, then the taste was worth it. We ran home to drop off frozen foods before running on more errands and looked forward to coming home to our goodies.

Later that night I called him in to the kitchen in a slight panic...I smelled a distinct natural gas scent. All the burners were off but when we moved one of the food bags off the counter the smell seemed stronger. Finally I stuck my nose in the bag and hoooooooboy, did I regret it. Hubby smelled it and it all clicked.

Guess which food we forgot to put in the fridge? Yup, the durian. I would have sworn we had a gas leak!