Most disgusting taste (of normal foodstuffs)

[Peg]

The taste of cooked root vegetables (carrots, turnips etc) makes me retch. (raw is yummy).
The very smell of honey is repulsive to me, let alone the taste which is indescribably disgusting.
I'm wondering whether this is because they taste different to me than to others, or because my brain (taste receptor thingies?) just don't like the taste?
(These are 'dislikes' I have not grown out of - as opposed to childhood dislikes like sweet peppers and wine).

What do YOU find repulsive that others seem to enjoy?

[willdupre]

Rootbeer, even the smell revolts me.
Licorice or anything flavored with anise.
Sweet Potatoes, except as fries.
that stuff they call roast beef at Arby's.
marshmellows, though I do have a secret penchant for fluffernuters, which I indulge in once every few years, go figure.
Sweet Iced Tea, or sweet Coffee drinks.
Maraschino cherries.
White chocolate, really I avoid anything but dark, even most milk chocolate is mildly disgusting to me.

[psycho_fluff]

I was the pickiest child & have grown out of most if it but a few remain. Raw peppers (have taught myself to eat them cooked), tarragon, dill, honey (but I like it in things, just not on its own), mussels, salmon (will only eat smoked) & eggs not cooked properly. Fried eggs have to be runny but no snot. Any snotty bits & Im heaving my splean up! Mould ripened cheeses & olives. Im sure rthere are others but they are the main ones!

[Passadumkeg]

Why do so many people know what dirty feet taste like? I'm very curious!

[hill food]

oh PDK, I always thought you'd been around the block at least once. (heh).

[Passadumkeg]

Nope, straight missionary.

[hill food]

I know - compare it to old cheese, lutefisk, something cured in a leather sack in a cave for 3 years sure, why feet?

[Passadumkeg]

Not to get too personal, but my feet don't stink, so the metaphor is meaningless to me.
Old farts, BO, dirty urinal, I understand, but dirty feet. Does feta smell like feet?

[hill food]

usu no, but stands on the feta. (sorry were we doing bad puns? guess I was)

[JasFoodie]

I can't believe that brussel sprouts came up only twice here. I've tried to like them, I really have. They're so cute, they look like they should be tasty. I even try them once every few years incase my tastes have changed. But nope, I just can NOT handle them. They taste incredibly bitter to me.

MIlk is another no way, no how for me. I can not drink it at all. However I love almost every milk product out there. Ice cream, yogurt, cheese (the stronger or stinkier the better), sour cream, etc. Bring them on. But I'd die of thirst before drinking a glass of milk.

These are the only two 'every day' sorts of foods I can think of that I simply can not choke down. Not even to be polite in someone elses home. When it comes to dislikes I really don't care for bean sprouts, cranberries (in any form), or green beans.

Then there's foods where I like one form but not others. I absoutely adore fresh cherries but I can not stand anything that is made with them, be it real cherries cooked in any way (such as pie) or cherry flavored anything (like candy) Almonds are simlar, though at times I like them in baked goods as long as the flavor doesn't overwhelm the item. Coconut is an iffy one for me. There is nothing quite as good as a fresh green coconut with the top hacked off and a straw inserted in it followed by using a spoon to scrape out and eat the coconut meat. But most of the time I hate coconut added into baked goods. I love coconut milk in curries though, and even go as far as adding a little bit of it to rice when I'm making it to go with south east asian dishes.

[Passadumkeg]

Try oven roasting B.S.
Don't give me canned green beans.

[JasFoodie]

My favorite recipe for brussel sprouts goes along the lines of:

Heat a little olive oil in a skillet. Add sliced garlic. Add halved brussel sprouts and saute till everyting is burned to crisp and blackened. Throw it all away including the now contaminated pan.

That, as far as I'm concerned is the only acceptable recipe for those smelly little buggers that taste like feet. ;)

[GraceW]

Yeasty: anything that you can explicitly and greatly taste the yeast. It disgusts me.

[nkeane]

yikes. really? so, perfect pizza, well made bread, craft beer.... none of it?

I have always said, "I can never full trust a person that doesn't drink or eat meat" I may have to add something about aversion to yeast to that......

[GraceW]

I really really really cannot stand beers because it tastes so much like bread. It is kind of an age-old disliking; when I was young I did not even like the taste of bread--either I would have cheese and crackers for lunch or just deli meat in a bag.

I do not like the taste of yeast, do not drink, or eat meat...so I guess you really wouldn't trust me. Sorries!

[alkapal]

a beer that really tastes like bread to me is "blue moon."

[GraceW]

Yes, my friends really REALLY loved that one back and college. They also loved Red Stripe. And my family loves German beers.. which tastes like a liquid loaf to me.

[hill food]

that's how one justifies having one at breakfast before hitting the fields.

[adcarter1]

Peaches. The small of peaches nauseates me. Anything flavored like peaches- candy, yogurt, etc. makes me want to vomit. Even peach shower gel or face wash or perfume makes me sick. Peach pie is the worst.

[noodlepoodle]

You can add chickpeas to my list. I like hummus and things made with pureed chickpeas with lemon and seasonings, but the actual pea tastes a bit grainy and bland for me.

[hypomyces]

Hot dogs and bologne! The last time I was actually able to get a hot dog down, I was 7 (I am now 40). There's something the the otherworldly red color and impossible texture that has nothing to do with real meat.....but I am not judging.

[dinnerwithfox]

Potatos! Cream cheese
Peanut butter (I still cant understand why people love it so much)
Processed food, mainly because it just tastes like salt and chemicals to me, even chocolate
chip biscuits or sweet things, I can taste the sodium.
Most milk products, including milk. Something very off putting about the after taste. But I am fine with things made with milk no problem, just not straight.

[thew]

all "processed food"??

(isnt all cooked food processed?)

[dinnerwithfox]

sorry, I meant more..packaged foods, 'man made' I suppose. Things like oreo cookies or packet chips, perseratives/additives etc. I have nothing against them, just taste funny to me.

[goodhealthgourmet]

Peanut butter (I still cant understand why people love it so much)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
well, there's a wide variety of styles and flavors out there, and a HUGE difference between the highly processed products that are loaded with sugar, preservatives and added oils, and the natural ones that are little more than ground nuts and a touch of salt. have you tried & hated *all* types of PB, or just the standard mass market Jif/Skippy variation? i personally don't get the appeal of the more processed ones, but i adore high-quality natural PB.

BTW, not trying to convince you of anything or give you a hard time, i'm just curious.

[nkeane]

avacados: remind me again why something that tastes of grass and motor oil is supposed to be food?

[Peg]

I remember the first time I tried avocadoes as a child and I thought they tasted of grass clippings!
I love them now - I don't know when my tastes changed though.

[SeandSki]

I've got a few:

1. Beets = Taste like what I imagine peat moss would taste like. Earthy and decayed.
2. Popcorn = I've never understood the attraction. Butter and Salt perhaps? Gross and flavorless otherwise.
3. "Posole" = a southwestern dish I have always LOATHED. Made with Hominy which is a form of corn soaked in oven cleaner I think.. Repulsive.
4. Canned Tomato Soup = Tastes like blood and aluminum
5. Cilantro = Tastes like soap.

[hill food]

hominy is NOT soaked in oven cleaner, it's only lye. ok that IS really close so don't get it in your eyes, but if you cut lye from your intake then you may want to reconsider many cured olives and variations of lutefisk...

[GraceW]

EW:
Condensed Milk--thick and yuck!

I refuse to bake anything with it.

[alliegator]

Wow, old but funny stuff!
My hated thing is corn. People look at me like I've lost my mind when I say that I don't like corn. The funny thing is that I ate it happily growing up, but now take a daily migraine prevention med that had a warning about tastes of things being altered. The only thing that it changed for me is that I can not stand to eat, smell or even watch someone else eat corn.

[tatamagouche]

That's interesting...what does it taste like for you?

[alliegator]

Honestly it's terribly weird and I guess metal-y tasting. You think of corn as sweet, but it's bitter, dirty and the texture of kernels is just not a good thing. I don't eat popcorn now either, thought chips and tortillas are ok.
I mentioned it to the doctor who prescribed the medicine and he laughed his ass off. Apparently the medication (Topamax) turns people off to beer and soda, but those things are as tasty as ever to me!

[hill food]

interesting, I used to hate corn and now I love it EXCEPT in tortillas or popcorn unless drenched in that fake butter junk (ok another secret shame).

[noodlepoodle]

Canned corn with sugar added tastes bad to me and metaly. Del Monte makes canned corn without sugar and I can eat that. Fresh sweet corn on the cob I love in summer.

As a kid I hated cocoa made with warm milk or just plain warm milk--still makes me gag.

I do not like:
hot dogs with catchup (what's up with ruining a good frank with thick red syrup?)
pretend fried onion rings you get at Burger King--not the real stuff
anything at KFC (lots of grease and salt)
most white cake frosting made with powdered sugar

The only thing at McD's worth eating is the Egg McMuffin with ham. Coffee is good too.

[Passadumkeg]

A regular McDonald's hamburger. Millions may love 'em, but they do not taste like a real hamburger. And the fillet of fish does not taste like a real fish sandwich, either.
Plastic food like their plastic golden arch.

[alkapal]

LOL, stop the presses. mickeyD's burgers don't taste like real hamburgers -- nor their filet-o-fish like real fish.

oh, passa, you crack me up!

(you sure you don't have the burger king creeping -- and i do mean creeping -- around your house?).
http://foodbeast.com/content/2010/10/...

eeeuw! the creepy king is even worse than mickeyD's plastic food!
does anyone know if the creepy king has to register as a sex offender?

[Passadumkeg]

I do confess Alkie, I do have a soft spot for a Blake's Green chile & cheese Lotaburger; a chain here in New Mexico. Haven't had a Big Mac in 20 + years, maybe 30+. I remember when they first appeared in the 70's, my bro would have Big Mac Attacks, bring them back from Albuquerque and freeze them! I just didn't get it.

[hill food]

yeah McD's filet o' fish does have a sort of green banana after taste, but I still like it. (turning in any creds I may have held)

[NicoleFriedman]

Cheese. BLECH:} I know I am unusual in this, but at least I don't have a cheese phobia like my dad! And I love pizza- just without the cheese:}

[alkapal]

your dad is irrationally afraid of cheese? that must be embarassing.

[Cachetes]

There are a few things that I don't really like, but I can eat them in a pinch. But two things I just can't choke down without getting a gagging feeling:

1. Liver.

2. Reheated chicken - I love cold leftover chicken, but during the reheating process, it seems to pick up an off smell/flavor that is just gross.

3. Oh - tilapia is close to being on this list. I can eat it, but it is like eating river bottom for me.

[hill food]

your #2 yeah re-heated anything is gross, I'd rather eat it cold unless it wasn't cooked through in the first place.

[alkapal]

cachetes, you are onto me! reheated chicken does taste funky. and tilapia IS like eating river bottom.

MIND-MELD!

[hill food]

I kinda like tilapia (rather have catfish, but...)

[PotatoPuff]

fi$h. I can't even say the word. I usually have to just call it the yucky "f word", which always raises a few eyebrows. seriously though, i have nightmares about it. my future MIL makes it all the time, and im too afraid to tell her i dont like it. i think she already thinks im nuts/spoiled/complaining b/c i make chicken without the skin, and cut the fat off meat. nothing goes to waste with her. especially fi$h parts.

[Divamac]

I despise canola oil and things cooked in it. It tastes and smells fishy to me. I also cannot abide baby corn. They taste musty to me.

I am sure there are more things, but nothing considered "normal". i am open to most anything at least once.

[alkapal]

yep, i'm with you on canola AND (canned) baby corn. i've never had fresh baby corn, to be honest.

is there "fresh" baby corn readily available in the u.s.? is it a different variety than our regular sweet corn? some answers from wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_corn

i need to make a trip to the asian market again, and look for it.

[ColoradoBoy]

I can also not STAND sweet foods. breakfast makes me sick and cake with sugar frosting . Nasty,! I feel sick just typing this!

[linguafood]

You have cake with sugar frosting for breakfast? That would make me sick, too.

[ColoradoBoy]

I agree with you 100% on the root vegetables, carrots raw are good. but when cooked they are repulsive.

[Breadcrumbs]

As a young child, I was served consomme with pastel-coloured croutons (floating in the broth). Of course I had no idea what I was about to eat. Looking back, I imagine I was anticipating a "sweet" taste experience given the colour of the cubes in the liquid. Perhaps it was the sheer shock of the luke-warm, spongy, savoury mouth-full when I was expecting something sweet, or perhaps the dish was just ill-conceived and really did taste horrible, but whatever the reason, I simply couldn't keep it down. To this day, even as I type right now, I still feel ill thinking about it.

[tatamagouche]

Ironic username, then...

[weewah]

You so FUNNY!

[Chef Kit Fox]

I can't stand the taste of canned soda, greasy things like fries, burgers, chinese take-out, and pizza. Rich things such as frosting, mayonnaise, whipped cream, ranch, potatoes (sweet potatoes/yams are fine), and pretty much all pre-packaged things that kinda-sorta resemble food.

[linguafood]

You find potatoes to be rich? That's a first for me.

[Michelle_3kds]

I'm with many others, absolutely detest fish, cold creepy things living in water, ugh. Also hate hardboiled eggs, mushrooms, blueberries, raw tomatoes (unless in very small amounts and no seeds), raw oysters and beef liver.

[tatamagouche]

Wow, that's a lot of great stuff you're missing out on.

[ColoradoBoy]

Seafood Is A BIGGG no no for me.

[KiltedCook]

Durian Fruit
Stinky Tofu

[willow67]

Any jello
Pears, they taste good, hate the gritty texture.
Anything peach flavored, love fresh peaches though. The peach thing could have something to do with an experience years ago with a bottle of Peach Schnapps.....

[mariacarmen]

2nd durian, but i think that's a mostly normal reaction.

[Bittersweet_bigarade]

i hate:
Eggs
afrtificially coloured food (looks to played aroun with)
Icing (excessive amounts on cupcakes..urgh)
soggy salad
overly greasy food
food that is over powering in flavour
other than that i eat anything!

[mamachef]

I absolutely despise, detest and cannot abide anything that is a fish, was a fish, comes or came from the ocean or a lake, seafood and nori included, or pretends to be fish or seafood (like Krab w/ a K)

[alkapal]

oh good, more for me!

[mariacarmen]

Mama! i had no idea!

[Passadumkeg]

McDonald's & Wendy's burgers, KFC chicken & mashed potato bowls and erzatz Mexican at Taco Bell. I feel that the food at most chain restaurants is considered "normal", but is pretty disgusting to moi.

[Bada Bing]

Pineapple on pizza.

[linguafood]

Yeah, but CORN on pizza. That rocks!

[Panini Guy]

Can't disagree. Was on assignment in Bulgaria and lunch on the first day in the office was delivery pizza - ham, corn and pickles. At first I was like. =:0 and then I was like :-)

But haven't had it since. Nor seen it offered.

Also had brains on a pizza over there. That's right. A zombie pie.

[linguafood]

Zombie pie sounds excellent!

[tatamagouche]

You see corn on pizza in Italy a lot, usually with tuna and red onion.

[Passadumkeg]

In Norway, reindeer meat on pizza. Hold the Marachino, please.

[kizatt]

Hominy and okra EWWWW!

[VenusCafe]

This is hard to understand b/c it is liver and offal that i detest, but since i was small, the smell of a cooking pork roast always made me nauseous. It's one of the many reasons I haven't eaten any meat in 33 years. To this very day, when i walk into Campos burritos and smell the pork cooking, my stomach pitches wildly. Also with the liver, when I was pregnant and unfortunately confined to bed at my MIL's house, she cooked liver and onions one night and I believe I went anorexic that very day. Seriously.

[linguafood]

Hmm. Pregnancy and anorexia.... not a good combo.

[karmarat]

Until a few years ago, I thought my only hated item was grape flavor. Purple grape juice, grape candies, grape jelly- ugh. Yet I adore red wine and grapes themselves.
Then I realized the list is a bit longer than I thought-
Tomato soup with milk or cream
Sea urchin
Sun dried tomato
Raisins
Cantaloupe, honeydew- any melon but watermelon
Large amounts of pesto
Fried oysters
Milk chocolate
Kombucha

[ItaliAnna]

Wow, after reading all these comments, I discovered there are tons of foods I can't stand. And yet, I love to cook and eat. Weird. However, this list includes only the WORST, things I could not/would not eat, EVEN if served directly to me personally and I was dying to be polite.

Beer
Sweet pickles, bread and butter pickles
blackeyed peas or lima beans (with or without ham hocks, vegs, etc.)
V-8 juice
shellfish (love regular fish)
wasabi (but like horseradish in sauces. And ginger with sushi.)
organ meats (but Love turkey gravy with giblets minced and lots of pepper like KFC)
chicken wings (little bony, annoying nonfactors!)
cottage cheese
sardines
straw, oyster, and enoki mushrooms
kimchee (but I like saurkraut, usually on hotdogs)
baked beans
French dressing
Adobo (childhood overdose)
penuche (sickly sweet, gritty, brown, "fumes"--ugh)
guava (lived in Hawaii and discovered that real guava fruit off the tree is full of tiny worms that jump! how's that for appetizing?)

some others I avoid: red licorice, ribs, ham, artificial fruit and butter flavors, bacon bits (not actually food, i guess, same as Miracle Whip), spaghetti squash, sundried tomatoes, bleu cheese, cooked spinach, okra, pork chops, ketchup (ok on burgers and hot dogs only, Not on fries! although as a kid, I ate it on scrambled eggs and on rice-huh?), popcorn.
As I list these foods I don't like, they seem so harmless and normal by others' standards and I seem to like most of what others here don't: cilantro, cumin, potatoes, melon, eggs-all kinds-yum!, cauliflower, cucumbers, yogurt, basil, mint, nuts, red bell pepper, feta, goat cheese, water...
Perhaps I need a therapist? Anyway, this has been fun!

[Emme]

i share a lot of your dislikes, but i'll bite -- what are your foods that you think are sublime?

[alkapal]

not all guavas are worm-ridden. guavas are great -- esp. as jelly!

[firemyars]

The smell of cabbage boiling hurts me. I hate sour cream almost as much as celery.

[SusanaTheConqueress]

I don;t like the smell or idea of eating the "special red chili sauce" made with live "Humiles" / Stink Beetles in Guerrero, Mexican cooking.
This is a highly regarded and sought after delight over both scrambled eggs & in a bowl with tail of iguana.
I was duped into sampling the red broth my hostess, to everyone's later delight, INSISTED was _NOT_ made with humiles and, truth be told, it was STELLAR!
Still, I've never let the stuff cross my lips, again.
There's something about going to the open air market where the little old humile lady sits cross-legged on the floor, a bushel bag between her legs crawling with the beetles, picking random ones from among those crawling over her layers of clothing - and munching them, to request and purchase a quantity of live beings only to drop them all into a blender with hot boiling broth and the tomatoes & red chilis contained in it that puts me off ANY dish containing Humiles/Stink Beetles.
The taste is, however, truly stellar.

NOTE THIS:
The Mexican comestible bugs are called jumil or chinche de monte (mount bug). They belong to the Pentatomidae family and the most appreciated species are Atizies taxcoensis and Edessa mexicana (called chumil). These bugs are small (less than 1 cm/0.4 inch; females are bigger than males) and they are eaten especially in the states of Morelos and Guerrero. The consumers say they have a specific cinnamon flavor coming from the stems and leaves they feed upon, others say they have a bitter medicinal flavor, probably due to their high iodine content. They are also rich in vitamin B2 and B3. Jumiles are used for making a specific sauce or as taco filling. As taco filling, in Taxco and other regions of Mexico they are eaten alive, as jumiles can live up to one week after the cooking process, including beheading and toasting. Scientific research showed that jumil has analgesic and tranquilizing qualities.

Jumil was discarded by the Mexican "high cuisine", following European standards, being falsely regarded as having "stinky bug scent" and representing the last resort in case of food shortage.

FROM HERE:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-to...

[aynrandgirl]

I assume by this you really mean disgusting and not merely "I don't like it". I don't like cauliflower, but it isn't disgusting.

To the list:

Organ meats

All kinds of seafood, not just fish (except, oddly, tuna sandwiches), but especially shrimp and prawns. Not only do shrimp and their kin taste horrible, their texture is disgusting as well.

[linguafood]

Well, one could argue that tuna sandwiches are as far removed from the 'real deal' as possible -- covered up in mayo, celery salt, etc.

Shrimp have a disgusting texture? Wow.

[aynrandgirl]

Because I like tuna sandwiches, I've foolishly ordered tuna steaks. It turns out tuna steaks are just as bad as any other fish. Tuna in steak form is very strongly flavored, so I don't understand why mayo and celery salt are so good at covering up the flavor. I haven't found anything that covers up "shrimpiness", not even spicy sauces.

Finding shrimp disgusting doesn't seem any stranger than weirdos who can't stand the texture of peanut butter.

[Passadumkeg]

Green eggs and ham. I do not like them Sam I am!

[ike04]

My ex dislikes fish of all kind and I love it. I decided to test the theory and took him to the best sushi restaurant in Vancouver (A city which has some of the best Sushi outside of Japan) He did not like it. He just does not like fish, cooked or raw.

[Phoenix56]

I am so with him..I totally get it

[SpudPal]

Cilantro. And parsnips. Serve them to me together and it's the perfect SpudPal-bane.

[LeslieB]

My short list:

Canned tuna (or any kind if tinned fish for that matter, yech)

Hard-Boilied Eggs - I love fried eggs and omelettes but hard boiled eggs turn my stomach, the smell alone is nauseating. My boyfriend makes these devilled eggs that are universally adored and coveted by friends and family, but I won't touch them.

Cold Chicken - There is just something nasty about the way chicken tastes when it's not hot. I'm getting grossed out just thinking about it. You pull that out of a picnic basket and I'm gone.

Clams - so obnoxiously fishy-tasting

[Phoenix56]

You are soooooright Leslie! LOL

[foiegras]

I am horrified by certain things like cauliflower and tofu that others find almost tasteless. Part of my issue with tofu is the texture ... Perhaps I should admit that I'm a supertaster? There is nothing that I've been told by others 'has no taste' that doesn't have some taste for me.

Maybe Miss Needle worked in a pickle factory in a previous life ;)

[Emme]

Who says cauliflower has no flavor? Personally I love it, but it definitely has a flavor... I can understand not liking it, as I certainly have my list!

[puddin head]

As I just described in the thread on childhood food, I am have been completely ruined for pork due to some childhood food traumas. I recoil from any dish that has even a hint of porkiness to it. This includes ribs and pulled pork. (except for bacon. love bacon).

Any cheese stronger than a toddler would eat. This includes asiago and feta. Forget about blue cheese!

Chicken wings. I have no idea what the appeal is. All that bone and skin, not to mention the blue cheese dressing!

Dark meat poultry. Reminds me of pork.

[Cinemaverite1]

Ketchup. Can't even stand the smell of it!

[adamshoe]

Olives...The Horror!!! They just make me gag and yes, I've tried "artisanal" ones. Bitter and nasty, not unlike myself....Haven't read anything about one of my biggest food yecchs: The Hazelnut (cue scary music....) A friend who shares my aversion summed it up best by saying they tasted like eating an old library book that had been handled by many sweaty hands for many years. Having never eaten a library book (Old or new), I still knew exactly what he meant. They are just so wrong on every level. Fresh, roasted, or worst of all, in CHOCOLATE!!!! Don't f*ck up my chocolate by trying to sneak those nasty, papery, weird nuts in there!!! Also can't stand cucumbers. I WANT to like them, they smell good, etc.,but they make me hiccup, burp and worse. Yes, I've tried the English "burpless" ones and they are NOT!!! Don't get me started on squash...ewww. Ditto eggplant, oysters, okra. Not liking water?! or worse, BACON?! That's just weird. LOL

[grayelf]

I don't know if the OP would consider this a "normal foodstuff" but I cannot eat smoked oysters. They are one of my SO's favourite snacks, so I do keep them in the house, but he has to open and plate them. It's the smell, the taste and the texture combined -- all heinous! And God forbid I should forget myself, pick up the empty dish afterward and get some of that oil on my hands... ACK!

[Bill Hunt]

Cooked spinach. I love it fresh and raw, but if it's cooked, it tastes like... well, let me paint a picture. In the South, when one cuts their lawn, they gather up their clippings and put them into a black plastic bag. Then, when you take them up to the curb for pickup, there is always a tear in one, or more of the bags. These bags have held grass-clippings, in the sun and Southern heat, for a couple of days. Things have happened inside these bags - chemical things - bad things. The smell of those moldering grass-clippings is what all cooked spinach tastes like to me. Considering my advanced age, I cannot possibly imagine that I will "grow out of" this dislike.

Hope no one was sitting down to dinner, with their laptops, as it is not a pretty picture.

Hunt

[greedygirl]

MARMITE! It is vile beyond belief. Just the smell of it on someone's breath makes me want to vomit.

I also hate avocado. It's a texture thing.

[NYJewboy]

Anything Russian or Polish

[dwilde]

Does anyone else hate Hot Dogs? I think I'm the only one.

[danna]

I will not eat a Hot Dog, and would not eat one as a child, either. nasty things, but I wouldn't say I hate them, they are too far beneath contempt for hate ;-)

Now I HATE blue cheese. (and rancid shellfish...about equally)

[misnatalie]

I like just about everything. There are only 2 things that I have never acquired a taste for. First is LIVER. I have tried and tried again. Pate, foie gras, chopped liver, liverwurst, liver and onions. I just can't stand it. Second is raw tomatoes. I like them cooked in anything, made into soups, sauces, roasted, sun dried anything but raw. It can ruin a whole meal if I get raw tomato juice on anything (burger bun, salad leaves, etc.)

[Smileelisa]

Hands down that would be mushrooms. I tried them as a kid, no go. I tried them as an adult. same thing. I see so many recipes that look so tasty but when I see a mushroom peeking out at me I wanna hurl. I can't stand the sight nor the smell or the taste. It is too bad really since alot of dishes call for mushrooms. Maybe it was because I was forced to eat them as a kid, the rubbery kind that came in a can. ack

Organ meats
okra
lima beans
duck
pigs feet

These are foods that I won't touch even if I am starving and that is all that is available to eat. Just thinking about them makes me shudder!

[TexasToast]

Have youj tried fresh, wild mushrooms?

TT had the same aversion to Tuna, but has since discovered that REAL tuna bears no resemblance to that cat food in a can stuff.

TT

[blakta2]

I am repulsed by American Cheese. It disgusts me. Strangely enough though, as a child I really dug the stuff. I remember being four years old folding tons of slices into a big tower of perfect little squares and chowing down! (eeegad!) Another creepy american cheese thing I did was this; I would take a Nalley Banquet Dill pickle, wrap it with a slice of american cheese and fill the concoction with a ton of mustard. I thought it was damn good at the time and I remember enjoying it quite a lot. The very thought of American cheese in my mouth sends shivers down my spine now. I don't know when I aquired the aversion to the stuff but THANK GOD!

[Phoenix56]

The thing is...American is cheddar but with more milk added at the end to stretch it out,make it easier to melt etc....not sure where I got this info but I've had it for a long time..Ever had a burger with melted cheddar? You can't even taste it. At least American adds to the texture!

[linguafood]

Sharp cheddar is the perfect cheese for burgers. Not sure why you wouldn't be able to taste it.

[pigtails]

this whole post is hilarious!
i hate cilantro. walking past it in the supermarket used to make me ill. i have trained myself not to spit it out when i eat it in salsa - i have overcome my gag reflex. it took years.

i also hate hate hate roasted red peppers that come out of a jar and sundried tomatoes. they taste acidic and sweet, JUST LIKE VOMIT. how gross. however i love fresh tomatoes and fresh red peppers.

[JasFoodie]

Sun dried tomatoes were an odd thing for me. There was an element of them that I absolutely LOVED but at the same time something about them was just disgusting. I found that using them in strongly flavored dishes could cover up the disgusting and let just the flavors I loved come through. Then I read a blog where someone else said the same thing and blamed it on whatever is it that's used to preserve them. I tried drying my own and freezing them instead of storing in oil. They are PERFECT. Taste like tomato candy almost!

[hill food]

they ARE sort of like candied tomatoes, never heard it put that way.

[JasFoodie]

I have 5 lbs of roma's in the oven right now to make another batch. They smell absolutely amazing and I can't wait till they're done to sink my teeth into them. Making them in the oven is what makes them like candy. Dehydrate and they're just dried out tomatoes. But in a very low oven (180 degrees) and the sugars in the tomato caramalize perfectly to turn what could be a leathery dried out tomato into an absolute treat. If it wasn't so hot I'd spend all summer making them so I could eat them every day year round.

[alkapal]

how long in the 180 degree oven… and what do they look like?

[JasFoodie]

I've never actually timed it, but I start with a hot oven 400 degrees for 15 - 20 minutes (ok to let them just start to brown, but watch that they don't burn) and then turn the oven off and let them stay in there till the oven is cool while they continue to dry out. After that I pop the oven on for 180 degrees for 20 minutes, let it cool down, and turn it back on again. I tend to forget to come back and check on them when the oven is off as often as I should so this takes the better part of a day for me. I usually start them in the morning and end up using half the batch for dinner that night. Total time will depend on how watery the tomatoes are too. I've had some batches take much longer than others.

The original 'recipe' I got them from stops after the initial 20 minutes at 400 and the 2-3 hour cool down, but at that point they're not dry enough for me yet (atleast not to store, they're absolutely delicious though). I prefer to get them dryer - to the point where they're not 'wet' but still pliable. Give them a try sometime. Just cut roma's in half, sprinkle them with a little salt, give them just the very slightest drizzle of olive oil (this is a case of less is more, don't over do it or they just end up oily once dried) and if you want, toss some herbs onto the cookie sheet. I like them with a couple of cloves of crushed garlic and some thyme, though I've also used the remnents of a dying basil plant before.

[jhopp217]

I posed this question to 15 kindergarteners today.
2 - onion
2 - mushrooms
1 - lamb
3 - lettuce
1 - said all vegetables
6 - steak

[Emme]

what a great idea! maybe tomorrow you can add those same kids' favorite foods, to see what the extremes are!

[cgfan]

...there's nothing quite as disgusting as a poorly constructed espresso (most)

...there's nothing quite as heavenly as a well-crafted espresso (few)

The former can elicit a gag reflex, the latter, a sense of nirvana. Could there be any other food item that is so "bi-polar", so mercurial?

[revsharkie]

I can't stand the smell of ground turkey cooking.

I don't eat guts--beef liver, chicken livers, tongue, whatever...Mike of course loves them, so he gets to cook them when I'm not home. (Last year I had to be gone on our anniversary, so I bought him a thing of beef liver, wrapped it festively and put it in the refrigerator, for him to open on that day.)

Walnuts

Zucchini

Raisin Bran (this is rooted in a traumatic childhood experience)

Eggs with runny yolks, and hard-boiled eggs crumbled in or on any hot food. One Christmas eve my mom made us ham gravy with crumbled hard-boiled eggs in it. It looked, smelled and tasted like something someone had already eaten. Interestingly enough, I have no problem with just plain hard-boiled eggs, deviled eggs, even hard-boiled eggs soaked in the juice in a jar of pickled beets. And my aunt Edna's escalloped asparagus, which I insist upon at Thanksgiving each year, has sliced hard-boiled eggs in it, and that doesn't seem to bother me.

[dingey]

This is a great thread. I do tend to think that our taste aversions are either: 1)genetic/neurological (i.e. how we're wired) ; 2) secret allergy; or 3) related to early traumatic experience.

I have hated mayonnaise and Miracle Whip (same thing to me) ever since I ate half of my brother's boloney/mayo sandwich as a squirt and got violently ill(which could have been related to an egg allergy that wasn't diagnosed yet at the time). I hate that white devil to the point that a housemate once won a fight by chasing my down and physically opening a jar of mayo in my FACE. The horror! I would never put it willingly on a sandwich, in a salad, NOTHIN'. At the same time, in recent years I have tried fresh aioli and not been completely horrified. I still couldn't look at it, though.

Maybe we need to create a chart and see if there are relationships between food dislikes among the various posters. I'm intrigued to see that so many people describe cantaloupe as smelling like turpentine. it's got to be a wiring/genetic thing! i hated cantaloupe as a kid, but never thought it smelled like turpentine. i think I hated it because my grampa referred to it as "mush melon" and the visual that the term conjured was horrific to me.

[Passadumkeg]

You forgot the relationship of food dislikes to money?

[dingey]

Hmmmmmm. More details, please! How do food dislikes relate to money? Class-related food-stuff? I love grits and greens, but know people who look askance at collards. I also remember reading a funny bit in some anthology of food writing where some hoity toity woman was relating a story of getting lost in the city and smelling a horrible, horrible smell. Her husband told her that they were surely in the SLUMS because that smell was COOKING CABBAGE! Gasp! My husband's from an extremely suburban, thoroughly anglo-saxon household and was thrown by some of the things I cooked when we first moved in together since I come from a combo of hillbillies and relatively recent Eastern European immigrants. Like, say, leafy greens or cabbage rolls. I don't think he'd ever smelled that smell. Once he tasted it, though, it was all good....

[revsharkie]

That's funny...my grandparents always called it mushmelon, too, and that didn't turn me off even a little. But, then, I always loved fried mush, too.

[OCEllen]

Hmmm...my parents called it muskmelon.

[revsharkie]

Most folks here in Iowa do, too. But I grew up a bit further south, and there it was mushmelon.

[weewah]

Me too on muskmelon. Ozarks : )

[lattelover]

Nobody has mentionned the food I find most disgusting - cooked oatmeal. I like oatmeal cookies, oatmeal bread etc but hot oatmeal looks like vomit and tastes equally nausiating.

[FoodieKat]

I have to back up lattelover. As a child, my school always served plain, instant oatmeal, with absolutely nothing added to it, and made with too much water, so it was more like a thin gruel. It looked, smelled and tasted disgusting. I hated oatmeal - until I tried the Irish, steel-cut variety as an adult, made very thick and served with cinnamon. I would recommend giving oatmeal another try - especially made on the stove with milk instead of water, and add some butter and cinnamon (if you like this). I think you'll be pleasantly surprised, especially since you already like the cookies and bread (and probably granola too I'm guessing?)

[foiegras]

I too hated the childhood oatmeal (made with rolled oats--it was the slime factor), and today I make steel cut for myself--had some for breakfast in fact.

[weewah]

Wow - was waiting til I read to the bottom of this thread before I submitted oatmeal! When I was a kid I was allowed to eat oats dry with sugar rather than cooked, and I loved them like that. But yes, the slime with little slimey lumps texture is unbearable.
15 years ago when I had a bleeding ulcer my husband made me some oatmeal to sooth my stomach and I vomited at the first bite. I cannot take it and I am ok with that.

[Bat Guano]

I've read through these, trying to think of something that I have as strong a negative reaction to as some of y'all... the only thing I can think of that comes close is natto. And that's mostly a texture thing - can't handle the slime.

[Passadumkeg]

Frozen oven baked French fries. Mushy cardboard. Why ketchup was invented!

[MplsM ary]

I guess with this food I should probably hang my head in shame or at the very least people will just think I don’t have a very sophisticated palate, but for my seemingly slow-witted tastebuds it’s truffles. To me they taste like the stuff used to disinfect bathrooms smells. Or maybe more like feet. Or maybe feet treated with athlete’s foot stuff. Anyway, ick.

And I’m with all y’all who hate Miracle Whip.

Also, I totally get the vomit-y smell thing when it comes to ranch dressing.

[Eric in NJ]

You know I've never eaten truffles but did taste some olive oil with it in it at a very good shop and didn't care for it.

[Phoenix56]

What DO truffles taste like??

[linguafood]

Just like truffles.

[weewah]

OK, this may sound crazy, but to me truffles taste like sex feels. It is more than a just flavor - it is almost a wave of feeling that moves across your face ( I almost wrote comes across your face, lol!) and I think that has a lot to do with the aroma and how it is percieved by your sinuses. Truffles are rich and earthy and sublime.

[alkapal]

...um...apparently weewah needs a moment here......

~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~
ok,... now back to truffles!

[Passadumkeg]

In the year of the rabbit, get me black truffles!!!!

[hill food]

wouldn't the years of pig or dog be more productive? rabbits don't share, heck they eat their own if scared.

[Passadumkeg]

It's all about connotative sensuality!

[sebetti]

Scrambled eggs do something weird to the interior of my mouth. I want to scrap the whole interior surface of my cheeks and my tongue as well after I eat them. I also don't care for omelets but the reaction isn't as bad. Strangely, I love poached, fried, and hard-boiled eggs.
After all of these years, I still just don't like green beans very much...or at all. I can tolerate some recipes but just boil them up? Oh. So. Nasty. (I might be able to legitimately blame my parents for this - forcing a child to eat things and making them stay at the table until they do isn't really a good idea.)
And about ten years ago I had a beer epiphany. I really don't like it and I never have. There was a reason I always wanted it ice-cold - no flavor!

[Catskillgirl]

"I want to scrap the whole interior surface of my cheeks and my tongue as well after I eat them." Now that's exactly the reaction I had recently after indulging in some McDonald's french fries. I hadn't had them in maybe a year, and my mouth felt absolutely coated with cheap oil and salt - that lasted for a couple of hours after eating. Yuck. And I used to love them! Now they turn my stomach. Thank you for putting that nasty feeling into words for me!

[KevinB]

I totally agree with you about forcing kids to eat stuff. I remember one night my mother had prepared a really awful dish of brussel sprouts, and after she and my dad had finished, my sister, brother, and I were ordered to stay at the table until we had cleaned our plates. A few minutes after they had left the table, my sister announced "I have to go to the bathroom" and quickly left the table, carrying her plate, which she immediately dumped in the kitchen garbage. My brother and I started giggling like maniacs, which kept up for about 10 minutes, while my parents kept giving us quizzical glances from the living room. But to this day, if I'm surprised by sprouts at a dinner, I don't mind them, but I never buy them or order them by choice.

[dorilou]

does anyone else get the "soap" taste from mango?
whenever I read people saying they taste soap when they eat cilantro, I wonder if anyone else but me gets that from mango.
Other than mango, baby corn tastes just like dirt, I can't deal with the taste or texture of avocado, and bread and butter pickles go against everything a pickle should taste like.

[phofiend]

To me, mango and papaya taste of turpentine.

[SiksElement]

raw oysters. less of a taste thing, more of a texture thing

[watercress]

Artificial butter flavor. Yuck.

[Vetter]

Green peppers.
Black licorice.
Rutabagas, Turnips and Beets all tasty like sicky sweet dirt.
Baby corn.
Bamboo.
Water chestnuts.
Fig Newtons (I'm so glad I'm not alone!!!)
Ripe bananas (it's the smell).
Some particularly ripe cantaloupes smell turpentiney to me.
Plain chicken (teriyakied, korma'd, etc are edible)-- there is just something about chicken that usually makes me take a shower after I eat it. That horrid chicken fat smell.

[Catskillgirl]

"there is just something about chicken that usually makes me take a shower after I eat it." ???? This is one of the funniest quotes I've read today. But I totally disagree - love chicken any way at all, as long as it's cooked!

[KevinB]

Just curious - have you ever tried chicken fat ripple ice cream?

[Catskillgirl]

Oh no. No no no no. Some things are just wrong.

[alkapal]

is that "chicken fat ripple ice cream" made with ripple? ;-D
this will make you laugh: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripple_(wine)
http://boles.com/called/07/wm2.jpg

[Eric in NJ]

LOL I wouldn't go that far with chicken but I did get sick on it once about 40 years ago and I still walk around it and give it a good look and smell before I eat it.

[weewah]

"Artificial butter flavor. Yuck."

I KNOW!
And whatever they put in the microwave popcorn bag smells like vomit. There is no microwave popcorn allowed in my house. Cannot understand how people overlook that smell.

[hill food]

well like it or hate it, you just can't overlook it. microwave popcorn was outright banned in one office I worked in, as either way it just distracted people from their work.

[GoalieJeff]

Olives.Green or black , doesn't matter , but black ones are somehow worse than the horror of the little green things . My mouth rejects them like one reflexively gags on bad chemicals . Flavor-( to me ) Oily , similar to bad tequila , but with a horrid chemical burn , like turpentine or gasoline ( yes , I've tasted it , don't ask ) with powdered burnt hair and rotten dry wood powder mixed in . Perhaps a back flavor of bad fish taste , I really haven't gotten farther than that , around that time I have to spit them out and let the flavor and the numbness in my mouth fade . It's sad really , they smell interesting and this obviously rules out a good number of dishes I think I would enjoy . Other than that , I'm not fond of blue cheese. Not nearly as strong as the olive thing , I get blue cheese and what it brings flavorwise , I don't care for it . Not crazy about strongly fishy things ( think mackerel liver ) , but its not as bad as blue cheese . Theres lots of other things I'd prefer not to eat , but none of them qualify as disgusting so thats my list . And , sorry , not liking water !?! Thats weird .

[tatertotsrock]

GoalieJeff

"Olives.Green or black , doesn't matter , but black ones are somehow worse than the horror of the little green things . My mouth rejects them like one reflexively gags on bad chemicals . Flavor-( to me ) Oily , similar to bad tequila , but with a horrid chemical burn , like turpentine or gasoline ( yes , I've tasted it , don't ask ) with powdered burnt hair and rotten dry wood powder mixed in . Perhaps a back flavor of bad fish taste "

That is the best description ever for the way I feel about the way olives taste...nothing is worse than when you bite into a artsy-fartsy panini and get that unexpected "flavor" because they didn't mention the "delightful house made tepanade"...when I mention that you don't care for olives, they look at me like I'm a loon...ugg...the flavor just can't be avoided when they suggest "just scrape it off, there's not much in there" I want to kill 'em.
Anyway, "the turpentine or gasoline" description is dead on and it's actually how I describe most of the sh!tty tequilas being poured now a days...eeek!

[BostonCookieMonster]

Ooh, I forgot about that one. Yeah, that is just the way I feel about olives--turpentine.

There are a lot of things on other people's lists that I'm not fond of--beets, raisins, that gross Crisco-based frosting on cheap bakery cakes. But I am capable of eating them. Olives, cumin, cauliflower, bananas--no, not one bite. Honestly, I have a lot of trouble believing it's even physically possible to feel that way about WATER.

I do also find both commercial mayo and Miracle Whip pretty revolting, but homemade mayonnaise is a completely different food. I still wouldn't seek it out, much less make it myself, but I don't mind eating it if served.

The gross "pretty" frosting makes me more angry than physically repulsed, I think. It's cake! Its whole purpose in life is to taste good! Why do people not get this!

[GoalieJeff]

Blue Dye #3 . Found in toxically repulsive Blue Raspberry anything , and many Slushie type frozen drinks . Tastes like dried ground lime pith mixed with chalk and a little Portland cement ( again , don't ask ) . Bitter as all get out , and gives me a headache like brain freeze , except it doesn't go away for two or three hours . Yuck . Beware the fake blue drinks . Also found in cake frosting , where it tastes absolutely the worst . Blue frosting , yeah , if a cement factory took a poo , it would taste like blue frosting . Don't get me going on Ace of Cakes . Dead on , cakes should taste good , not look fancy . Whats next ? We already have Mickey Mouse pancakes and Hello Kitty toasters . How about NFL logo burger shapers ? NASCAR hams ? Arrgh ! Sorry . Hellmans doesn't bother me too much . It is what it is . Homemade is better , it'll do otherwise . Never actually intentionally tried Miracle Whip . Cumin , sorry , love it . Put it on my popcorn . Cauliflower , eh . It tastes of nothing , stinky air maybe , It doesn't bother me . Bananas , they are distinctive . But I really like them . I don't get the beet thing , to me , fresh beets taste just like fresh sweet corn . And some of us sickos like that dirt of the earth taste .

[hill food]

love the descriptive text. not too surprising your analogy of olives to turpentine, given that most commercial ones are cured in lye.

it's probably too late but if you care, an artisanal olive is way different from what you'll find most places. (my thing is cucumber - can't stand to even smell it, SO uses English seedless which doesn't cause the gastro problems, but the damage has been done)

Hello Kitty? next time you're in a city with a Sanrio store check out the entire array of appliances.

[Catskillgirl]

You hate cucumbers? I'm aghast. They are the single thing I look most forward to about summertime - fresh home-grown cucumbers. I adore them, and eat at least one whole one a day in season. They taste so fresh and when they're home-grown, they do have a wonderful flavor that the store-bought waxy ones lack.

I couldn't live in a world without cucumbers. Love pickles too, but cucumbers make my salads and sandwiches worth eating!

[Bat Guano]

Blue dye - you're right! I had a bottle of some BLUE gatorade-type thing at a race last year and had a terrible headache that lasted for hours. Well into the next day, actually.

[KevinB]

Turpentine taste - that perfectly describes retsina to me. We tried a bottle once in a Greek restaurant, and no one could finish a single glass.

[corgette]

Oh no! I've had some fantastic retisna that, while unconventional, was crisp and refreshing. But then again, I also really like the distilled liquour (from the Netherlands?) that tastes like essence of pine in a great, stomach-warming way.

[smartie]

I wonder if some of these dislikes are actually slight allergies so the body tells us not to eat these foods. I know that all melons and most nuts make my throat itch but I also do not like them. Some years back I had an allergy test on my arm and the doc found I was allergic to these things (only slightly). He said it was common for people with pollen allergies to also to be allergic to certain fruits and nuts - plums fall into this category too and I cannot eat them raw.

[mlgb]

Maybe. I know I don't like the flavor of really strong blue cheeses and I have allergies to a lot of molds.

Most of the other things I don't like are more about texture than flavor.

[Passadumkeg]

Beer. As a teen, I knew that drinking beer was supposed to be cool and adult, but I couldn't get past the smell, much less the taste. Then my buddies took me out and I got wasted. After that I liked beer. Is there a lesson in this? The power of peer pressure?

[KevinB]

I was ten at our summer cottage, and my dad had left half a beer on the picnic table. It was about 90 degrees that day, and it had been sitting there for at least half an hour. I decided to try a drink, and the taste of the hot, sour beer has remained with me for 40 years. I like red wine, brandy, and bourbon, but I can never stomach beer. I don't even like fish fried in beer batter.

[Emme]

I have a fair list...

Avocadoes!!!
Bananas!!!
Oranges!!!
Ginger!!!
Bell Peppers!!!
Strawberries
Potatoes (White)
Salmon
Blue, Feta, Goat Cheeses
Nuts (all except pistachios and caramelized cashews)
I don't eat red meats or game, so I'm not faced w/ the issue of organ meats...

[jhopp217]

I'm guessing from your list that texture is a big issue for you. acadoes and Bananas have some mush issues, but how can you resist guacamole?. Oranges and bell peppers at times can be more work than people are willing to put forth. Ginger - even I'm up in the air on this one. Strawberries - if not fresh can be terrible, but I can't think of anything better than fresh strawberries. Potato - my favorite food probably, so I'll leave it alone Salmon - i hate the smell an I'm not crazy about the taste. To me tastes like metal, but I love Lox - go figure. Blue Cheese & Goat Cheese - my two favorites. Nuts I'm with you on, although I do like them, I can do without them. No red meat? The honeymoon is over!

[Athena]

Undercooked omelettes - I had one in Paris that put me off eggs for six years.

Aspic and jelllied meat stuff in general

Borscht, noodle kugel, gelfite fish – can't do it

[Emme]

Not texture at all... I love most textures, but it's taste... the taste of bananas, avocadoes (guacamole), etc. All on my list are taste issues. I even forgot mangoes and papayas, which taste like dirt to me.

[pikawicca]

Kidney -- who wants to eat something that smells like urine?
Tongue -- the slithery texture is quite gross.

[weewah]

Oooh, I like tongue - such a fine texture - but have never tasted kidney. They smell like urine, really? No thanks.
I dislike liver. All liver. I don't care how much bacon you wrap around it or teriyaki you soak it in. That flavor comes through.

[morrigan]

Uni. As in raw sea urchin. I can't believe I'm only the second person on the board to mention this one. You put uni sushi in your mouth, chew...it sort of explodes and coats your tastebuds like less sticky peanut butter...no taste yet... Then you take a breath...still nothing...then you exhale... And suddenly it hits you...my mouth tastes like the smell of raw sewage... That "hmmmm...there must be a water filtration plant nearby" smell...and it's in your mouth. And then the taste just lasts and lasts...

Pure evil if you ask me...

(The texture of soft tofu is pretty repulsive too.)

[weewah]

HATE UNI.
It's the only sushi ingredient I don't like and I REALLY don't like it. Nasty nasty stuff. And it looks like hell too, though that's never stopped me eating anything. I love raw oysters, steak tartare, raw egg yolk, whatever.

[hill food]

my first experience with Uni left me that way, but then I tried it again years later and actually loved it. texture is still a little odd, but the first time was nigiri and after that (at a much better place) a maki, and now I can do the nigiri. although granted that could turn into an expensive experiment.

[misohungrychewlow]

Mayonnaise! Hate it, it's terrible! Why spoil the taste of meat or fresh vegetables with something so vile? Somehow, though, a freshly made garlic aoili is pretty good -- go figure ... don't like beets but baby beets can be tasty. Certain things in tiny doses are good but awful in larger amounts, like cloves, blue cheeses, and then there's ... feta!!! This stuff is just terrrible but these days people are just heaping it on, and it's worse than dirty feet, or stale, stinking sweaty nylons.

[roxhills]

I have a few but raw Cilantro tastes like aluminum to me. Ick.

[alkapal]

that made chills go up my spine. thinking of biting on aluminum! eek!

[madgreek]

Ginger. When used as an ingredient in anything, I usually just omit it. I've found it just doesn't really add anything to the recipe. Oddly enough, though, I will eat pickled ginger as a palate cleanser when eating sushi. Go figure.

[Emme]

so interesting... ginger tastes like soap to me, and i can identify it, even hints, in any dish, so eating it during sushi time is just horrific to me... the first time i ate it was the first time i had sushi w/ my friend and her mom as a kid--my friend said i had to eat it to cleanse my palate, and i literally thought they had coated some normal food/root w/ soap... apparently, that's just the taste of ginger (and subsequently blue sweettarts :)

[jcattles]

I just can't bring myself to eat raw oysters. I want to but as soon as they get near my mouth I gag. Being land-locked most of my life, I'm trying to taste different fish, but haven't found any I really like.
Cooked carrots are nasty, beets, sweet pickles, miracle whip (unless it's in mac salad), raw meat-again I try, but i just cant seem to swallow it.
I always considered myself very open to trying anything, (because that's what real food lovers do-yeah right!), but you know as I get older, I realize it's ok if I don't like or don't want to try something. I can still be a "foodie" w/o all the "gourmet" foods!

[jcattles]

Oh and animal organs. Just can't do it.

[hsk]

"I just can't bring myself to eat raw oysters. I want to but as soon as they get near my mouth I gag."
Maybe you should try them again. I have a very good friend who was just like you but hadn't tried them in 20 years, we went for dinner with another friend who also loves oysters (like me!) and we convinced her to try one. After several more she actually quite liked them. Try little ones (we had Beausoleils from New Brunswick), they're a lot easier for neophytes to handle.

[linguafood]

Yea, same here. Oysters used to make me gag before I could get them down. Fast forward to the year 2007, where I was at a seafood buffet with plenty of oysters. Thinking what the hey I plunged right in, and now I *really* like them... just had half a dozen of Blue Points in Bawlmer and they were delicious. Humongous and delicious. But I can totally understand how people who hate them could call them snot. It's both an acquired taste and texture thing, me thinks.

I am not fond of bamboo shoots. I will not eat them on the occasion that I go out for Chinese food. I can't even describe the flavor, but I don't like it.

Cauliflower I like (it is best deep-fried in a pita w/garlic sauce), but my mom used to nuke whole heads of it, and it stunk up the apartment like nothing else. It smells like sewage, but I'll eat it.

I absolutely loathe potato dumplings. They taste like nothing, really, and the texture is fetid. You take a bit, and it immediately velcroes itself to the roof of your mouth, like glue. Dis. Gus. Ting.

[monalisawoman]

Waldorf Salad
Raisins (especially all bloated from being cooked in things)
Beef Tongue
Poultry
Black Berries
Sea Urchin
Hawaiian Punch
Hazelnut Coffee

[Passadumkeg]

SPAM, in the jungle of Viet Nam.
I ain't no wienie, I'm a man,
Give me cans of limas and ham,
Brek. of beans and dogs,
creamed chicken in the can
But, oh God!
Never again give me Spam instead of ham.
I used to leave cans of spam for the V C
In the hope they'd eat them and be gone
permanently.
Think about it.
There is precious little I will not eat and enjoy of real food.
God Bless us and forgive our silly weaknesses.
There but for fortune go you or I....

[Gio]

Oh dear - poor boy. But I can't tell you how happy I am that you're with us!
I had Spam just once. Simply because I wanted to know what all the shouting was about. It was very salty, and had no discernable taste to me. "Never give me Spam instead of ham."

[Passadumkeg]

You know it's true and I never really thought about it. Pre-Viet Nam I was a fussy eater, no doubt about. After Nam I guess I associated new foods with being alive and I still can't get enough. Forty years ago, on Thanksgiving, I was wrapped in my poncho in monsoon rains, on patrol in North Viet Nam, eating cold creamed chicken from a a C-rat. can and I swore that if I got out of there I'd never whine about food again. What new foods will I find in Costa Rica next month? Can't wait.

[KevinB]

My advice is try out the local restaurants, but also visit the local groceries; they have versions of sauces and vegetables we just don't get in North America. I remember buying some soup cubes with a hot flavour that made a terrific difference to our regular sauces.

[raytamsgv]

Shrimp. I will eat just about any other type of seafood, but I just can't stand shrimp.

[weewah]

Shrimp. You mean what is called in some circles "The Cockroach of The Sea"?

[Leucadian]

Can you imagine going to a dinner party with this crew, or worse, catering that dinner? It can't all be genetic, given the admittedly few examples of gag-to-crave changes. Fortunately, no one appears to have all these aversions.

Challenge: come up with the dish (or a menu) that would gross out the maximum number of guests. My favorite fish head curry with cilantro might be a good candidate (fish, cumin, identifiable bosy parts, cilantro). Bon apetit.

[Passadumkeg]

Live Korean baby octopus, dog, Norwegian whale steaks, Jap. whale bergers, Bolivian iguana, llama steaks, guinea pig, Rocky Mountain Oysters and yes, hot dogs!
But the very worst of all............... sucessive weeks of c-rations in the Vietnamease jungle.

[corgette]

This "please everyone" theory of catering is why so many weddings I've been to have been so...bland.

Between my beloved's odd aversions, and my sisters' nitpickiness, I can't even imagine trying to please two families' worth of picky eaters, which is why eloping sounds better every day.

[Passadumkeg]

Pop Tarts are Orc food, not fit for humans! Twinkies too! Na nu, Na Nu!
Morc

[jhopp217]

Borscht - how the heck could I forget Borscht. Probably one of the worst tastes I've ever had in my mouth

[Passadumkeg]

Borscht is pantheistic manna from heaven, you heathen infidel! Repent before the Judeo Christian Slavic Gods punish you w/ a second bris! (Oh mighty mystic, moderators, please let this slide. It is called humor.)
Organic Garden Borscht Man

[jhopp217]

Sadly I had a second bris. Apparently the first doc wasn't a moil and two weeks later it was utter tur-moil! Sorry! But the second one was the truth

[Passadumkeg]

God works in mysterious ways, you know.

[FoodieKat]

I tried borscht once. Awful stuff. How the heck do they get it that bizarre magenta color too (maybe it was just the restaurant I ate it at :-0)?

[miss_bennet]

That's BEET borsch(t). And that's how they get the colour. But borsch is really like spaghetti. Every time you make it, it's different. And from person to person, it's different. I don't think anyone discount borsch because of a bad beet borsch experience. Ideally, it's just a fantastic vegetable soup. See if you can find it without beets. It's totally different and amazing. Then again, if you don't like cabbage, don't even bother.

[Passadumkeg]

The magenta is from sour cream. Great cold summer borscht is called holodnik. Better than gaspacho!

[FoodieKat]

I love cabbage, and beets too, so I'd definitely be willing to give it another try. Maybe it was just the restaurant.

[hill food]

I've swung Borscht off into a pot of jalapenos and cilantro and made it into an aspic. with a dollop of sour cream and roe.

[corgette]

Fantasic question. I have liked or loved almost everything people have mentioned as vile.

The only foodstuff I have ever eaten that still causes a gag-induced fit is bleu cheese. Everytime. It tastes like soap and earwax to me. The smell alone make me feel queazy.

I have done a complete 180 on cilantro though to where it once induced a throat-closing gag response, I now crave it, and the crisp smell as I chop it makes me feel springtime-like joy. So that's interesting.

[jhopp217]

Corqette I cannot resist. As bleu cheese is one my favorite things in the world I have to ask... where and when did you taste ear wax?

[corgette]

I knew my comment would bring both these points.

1) The Undying Love for Bleu Cheese. I really like that so many people LOVE bleu cheese, to such a passionate extent. I feel like that sort of passion legitimizes the strong taste and the sort of instinctive love/hate reaction.

2) My Vile Analogy. I used to wear earplugs almost daily when I first moved to NY for grad school, and also tend to bite my nails when stressed, which I often am, so the unfortunate collison of those two worlds was inevitable, providing a most unpleasant taste experience. On the upswing, it trained me out of biting my nails REAL fast.

Gross, I know, but it also seems to evoke the vile ickiness I feel when I eat bleu cheese.

[FoodieKat]

I used to feel that way about bleu cheese (except for the dressing, which strangely I've always loved). I hated it until I tried blue stilton. For some reason, that totally turned me on to it. I love bleu cheese now.

[corgette]

I do feel like there's something I'm missing about it that may one day click. I do love lots of different powerful cheeses, so every few years, I give some bleu another go, and find it just isn't my thing. But I do believe tastes change, so I keep giving it another shot.

That's how I came to adore lobster, and get a good taste for beets lately too. It's kind of a game, "what do I no longer find revolting?" Good times.

[FoodieKat]

That is very true. Ha, and I like your way of putting it. What can I no longer find revolting? There are a lot of things I hated as a child that I now love. I guess once I got over the 'ick' factor I discovered there are some great foods out there. It's a gradual process though. Baby steps!

[Phoenix56]

FoodieKat...I f you have to have bleu cheese...Stilton is the one without a doubt..it has a sirt of musty taste, but try it with pears...not bad!

[smartie]

can't bear peanut butter but I like peanuts.

can't stand salt and vinegar crisps (chips), in fact all flavoured crisps and chips.

I find blueberries taste of plastic.

[FoodieKat]

With you on the salt and vinegar crisps. Hate the way they smell and taste. I like almost every other kind of crisp/chip though.

Also hate mincemeat in anything - pies, baked apples, anything at all. Blech! It takes like it has vinegar in it. Just wrong.
Hate the look of, taste of, and consistency of both custard and creamed corn. Also hate french cut canned green beans, because of all the years I was forced to eat the nasty things. Love fresh green beans though.

Oh, and I also hate lima beans. And black licorice. But I don't mind anise flavour, and like Ouzo (with lemonade though). And I stopped eating red meat or poultry 15 years ago and never looked back. I hate the taste of beef, makes me feel sick, to be honest.

[smartie]

foodie cat I also hate mincemeat, eww it's just too sweet and cloying.

[FoodieKat]

I think that's the thing about mincemeat for me, smartie. You think it should just be sweet, but then it hits you with a really NASTY sour aftertaste. I don't mind most dried fruits, especially raisins, and I love most spices. And I'm weird - I actually like fruitcake, especially if it's got cherries in it. But it's something about mincemeat. I just can't handle it.

[fara]

-green peppers
-carrots cooked by themselves, (in soup is ok)
-pb& very sweet things like cookies or jam
-chopped celery in a mayo-based salad like tuna or chicken, why destroy the texture with these foreign objects?
-bbq spare ribs, or anything from the grill.
-smoked turkey or smoked ham cold cuts
-plain sliced jarlsberg on a sandwhich, though I like all kinds of other strong swiss cheeses like gruyere

[ElsieB]

I know I am a tiny minority but how can meat taste or smell good? Hot seared body parts from unhappy and probably unhealthy creatures. Grosses me out beyond disgusting.

[marmite]

I'm with you, ElsieB...

[FoodieKat]

I don't like red meat. Never really have. Don't eat poultry either.

[marmite]

Cream cheese, cream cheese, cream cheese, cream cheese. Even typing it/ thinking about it makes me gag.

[cor]

Milk to drink
Cilantro
Cottage Cheese
Bleu Cheese
Pickles
Mushrooms (texture)
Sushi (I just dont get it)
Watermelon
Mango

[jhopp217]

You had me at "Mango." But the rest of your list is like a list of my favorites. Milk, take it or leave it, Cilantro - the greates smell and fresh flavor. Cottage Cheese - i love it. Bleu Cheese - my favorite cheese. Pickles, any variety, I love em all. Mushrooms - hated them until about 3 years ago. Now I like them alot. Sushi - I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you haven't had sashimi grade tuna right off a boat. You'd change your mind. it's like the best filet mignon you've ever had, uncooked. Watermelon - is there a better summer dessert?

[thenurse]

Egg yolks - can't stand them, even cooked (although mixed in like scrambled eggs is fine).
UNripe bananas. Any hint of green and I'm gagging. There HAS to be a few spots on 'em.

[OCEllen]

Anything with even the hint of the taste or smell of mint makes me gag. And it is sort of a ubiquitous flavoring. Even my chart at the dentist's office has 'no mint' on it in big red letters!

[foiegras]

And my chart has 'no orange flavor' ... hate it!!

[litchick]

Beets. They taste like dirt. And green peppers.

[Sean]

Dirt is EXACTLY how I describe the taste of beets...

[corgette]

I used to retch at beet for that same reason. I now find a small amount of roasted beet with soome goat cheese to be really tasty. That kind of change is pretty amazing.

[dwilde]

I love roasted beets (esp w/goat cheese in a salad) -- I guess they do taste like dirt - I just prefer to think of them as EARTHY.

[weewah]

Funny..

They're good sweet-pickled too!

[CDouglas]

I love refried beans unless I am the one who opens the can - whoa, who did that? Others:
Lima beans
Black-eyed peas
Squash of any variety
Liver
Sweet pickles/relish
Trout
Tofu
Carrot cake
Grape-Nuts

[jhopp217]

Your refired beans thing is hilarious. Opening a can, you think you've bought Alpo by mistake. I'm somehwat the same way with Gifelte fish. I lvoe it with a little horseradish, but if I have to see that jelly it comes in, I lose my appetite.

Tofu is pretty nasty also, no matter how it's prepared, but it's basically bland, not vile.

I don't like sicky sweet things, but not liking Carrot Cake? It's delicious if it's made fresh

[cookiehound]

Gefilte Fish! That makes me laugh! I married into a Jewish family and every Passover....gack. However, I have learned to love that little oval patty as long as it comes from a Jewish deli and NOT from a jar, which looks like a high school science experiment. I also despise cottage cheese. Texture problems, I have no problem cooking with it.

[jhopp217]

cookiehound, your hs science experimetn comment made me spit my coffee onto my keyboard! Great one!

Maybe I'm naive, but what do you cook that has cottage cheese in it?

[cookiehound]

Noodle Kugel! So wonderful, quick and easy. Good for breakfast or brunch. If you would like a recipe I would be happy to comply, jhopp217. This is a savory kugel, not a sweet one.

[CDouglas]

I would have added gefilte fish if I had ever screwed up the courage to have tried it. It could definitely share shelf space with various other embalmed goodies.

I will give you that and raise you Charoset. Truly a "one and nevermore" culinary delight.

[hill food]

jhopp:

agreed, Gefilte has to be home/hand made

no tofu fan here, but we came up with what we call tofu tots, cube, toss in cornstarch (will give the surface a nice crunch) and pan-fry in veg. oil with a dash of preferred flavor. serve like tater tots or toss in peanut sauce.

[jmckee]

Black licorice. Ick.

[BostonCookieMonster]

Bananas. I don't care if they're ripe or not, they completely gross me out--the smell, the taste, the texture, [shudder]. I like green plantains in the form of mofongo, tostones, etc., but NO BANANAS. Nor sweet ripe plantains either.

I am also one of the army of cilantro-haters. But a thousand times worse than cilantro is cumin, even in the teeniest quantity. Tastes like armpit. Ugh.

And peppers, any color, raw or cooked, as a vegetable (that is, hot peppers as a source of spiciness are fine). This is particularly irksome because they're colorful and pretty, so people scatter them all through their food willy-nilly as if they're a harmless decoration, and they dominate the taste of the whole dish.

Cauliflower is vile, and people who feel that it can substitute for mashed potatoes are surely smoking crack.

Also, I hate beer. Though I'll cook with it happily.

[Reene902]

Ditto on the cilantro. I think it tastes like soap. and I have always said that cumin smells like BO. I am SO glad i'm not the only one!

On another note, I won't eat ground meat. I can't get past the texture.

[BostonCookieMonster]

You'd think the "soap" taste would cancel out the "BO" taste, but sadly, no ...

[Blush]

LOL! That's the funniest thing I've read all day.

[alkapal]

quite funny, indeed.

(i was wondering how an armpit tastes.....so sad i will have to put that inquiry at the end of a very long line of things to try.)

[chowdawggy]

it all depends on what flavor antiperspirant has been used on the armpit

[Phoenix56]

Speaking of disgusting....how about "Escargot?" Let me dig something out of the yard, add some garlic..and tell you its not a bug!..Its a delicacy!..Yes it has the texture of an eraser.....I say its a delicacy because I'm wierd..so just go with it...OMG..we can be talked into anything!

[alkapal]

are you for real? you sound like a stand-up comic. i mean eggs are "liquid chickem"....mold from your fridge.....eraser-textured bugs.....

[EWSflash]

You really hate food, don't you? It's okay, you have the right.

[mkmccp]

I completely agree with the cumin/b.o. thing. Can't stand it in large applications, but a VERY subtle cumin taste I can handle. Forget anything "cumin dusted"

[jhopp217]

Cilantro is one of the cleanest most resfreshing smells and tastes there is in the culinary world. How can you not like cilantro?

I know many people who hate cumin. I put it in almost everything I can. I think it adds the most wondeful flavor to everything. A little cumin and tumeric in a burger, and you've created and entirely new meal.

I don't like cauliflower when it's whle, but creamed, as a substitue for mashed potatoes is decent. There is no sbstitute for real mashed potatoes though!

Beer - oooooh! How can you be from Boston and not love a pint. You may be the only person from Boston that doesn't!

[BostonCookieMonster]

Jhopp, I'm afraid I cannot eat at your house! I live in fear of people who put cumin into everything to make it "tastier." But I would be happy to join you at a cozy pub where I can drink cider while you drink beer.

[livetocook]

I was thinking how I couldn't eat at yours becuase everything you listed I eat throughout the week...LOL

(AND i was thinking hmmmm califlower to replace mashed potatoes...great idea!!)

[alkapal]

slow roast cauliflower rubbed with olive oil and kosher salt --- it is a whole new animal!

[dwilde]

'Cauliflower is vile, and people who feel that it can substitute for mashed potatoes are surely smoking crack.' That is funny and true.

[lanersg]

Mushrooms and Cilantro. Blech!

[abs294]

I hate mushrooms. I won't eat them and I pick them out of everything. I think it's a taste and texture thing - they're rubbery little blobs. Ugh.

[goodhealthgourmet]

i love how reading these threads always reminds us of things we wouldn't have listed right away:)

v-8 juice
raw oysters [though i'll gladly eat them cooked]

[Eric in NJ]

The one thing I have hated the taste of all my life is Tomato Juice. I love tomatos in every way, raw,stewed,sauced,ketchup sun-dried whatever. But as juice Yech!! Goes for V8 too.

[Sean]

I just cannot develop a taste for beets, shrimp, lobster, mussels, oysters or 99% of seafood. However, I love clams and Fish and Chip's...

Also, I hate cashews, canned veggiies other than kidney, white or garbonzo beans. I cannot stand cinnamin or nutmeg. I despise ham. I was born without a sweet tooth...

[poptart]

And along those lines..I also love tomatoes (including straight tomato juice with lemon and salt in it. However, Campbell's tomato soup makes me gag. Something about the sweetness of it...even the smell makes me sick.

[Eric in NJ]

And Campbell's tomato soup is comfort food for me..weird isn't it.

[Eric in NJ]

I left out Skate, a definite texture thing.

[meatn3]

Oh! Yes, I do not care for skate at all. The texture is the problem. If it were made into a mousse I'd probably be fine with it.

[Eric in NJ]

I should add Okra and Mangos...Slime factor.

[Gio]

Amazing what some food can do to some people. I never met a food I didn't like in some form, so far at least, although I'm not in a terrible hurry to run out and try fish eyes.

[moh]

You know, fish eyes aren't bad. They don't taste like much, there are no strong flavours. And the texture, well it's kind of like eating the soft bones you sometimes find in canned salmon and sardines. It's more the concept that is the problem. But give them a try if you happen to see them (no pun intended)

[Phoenix56]

Passed out in a coma..............

[jhopp217]

I'm trying hard to think of things I just can't eat. I don't like ccoked carrots, but I can eat them. I have a problem with walnuts, but that's because they make my tongue split. Don't ask! I'm drawing a blank on things I just can't eat. One thing I really can't stand is cherries. I just hate the taste and they d make me gag a little, but can't think of anything if a gun was put to my head, it would cause me trauma to eat.

Dishes I hate that people think I'm strange
Corned Beef and Cabbage - hate the smell of cooked cabbage.
Pot Roast - I love tender beef, but hate Pot Roast, go figure.
Squid or Octopus that whole - tentacles and all - texture issue.
Portabella mushrooms - too soggy for me, but I have had them ways I've liked.
Yogurt - never liked it. Why eat something that tastes like nothing?
I love shellfish - but not a big fan of oyster.
Squash - it's a textrue issue.
Liver - I guess that's common.

I actually only started eating Pork recently (aside from bacon and sausage). Honeydew Melons and cantelope are another thing I only recently started appreciating. Swordfish is something for some reason I hated, but the last two times I tried it, I really liked it.

[nliedel]

Fish. I try to like it, but I don't. I want to like it. I love food and I'm ashamed that I don't like fish. It's silly.

[FoodieKat]

I hate raw walnuts too. So bland and kind of greasy-tasting to me. Yuck! I don't mind chopped walnuts in things though - like chocolate chip cookies. But plain walnuts? Gross!

[jayaymeye]

Raw walnuts taste like dirt to me!

[Phoenix56]

wALNUTS i LOVE!!! i LOVE THIS STRING!!!

[jhopp217]

to this day I dislike cooked carrots

[miss_bennet]

I keep thinking of more!

Canned baby corn and sometimes bamboo. They smell like urine to me.

[FoodieKat]

Lol, what brand are you buying?!?

[miss_bennet]

I don't even buy them. But I've gotten them in Asian food, and I think they're unpalatable. Extremely good panaeng can redeem bamboo, but baby corn? Yuck.

[JiyoHappy]

I love yogurt, raw cucumbers and carrots . But I ***** up when these three are combined into a "raita'. If the raita has raw onions..that is even worse
Why?

[miss_bennet]

Oooh! Water! Plain, still, average tap water! Drives me nuts! I hate drinking it!

But that's because it doesn't have a flavour to be repulsed by, and thus I am repulsed by the lack of flavour.

[Melanie]

I hate water too! Granted on a hot day, I am willing to chug an ice cold water. other than that, I need my liquids to be flavored. I know, it's awful.

[miss_bennet]

That's also why I hate mashed potatoes! They're just so bland and usually mealy. (I don't know how to write the sound that emanates the digust I make when thinking of mashed potatoes.) And it doesn't matter if they're instant, homemade, fine dining "roasted garlic mashed"...

I'm fine with other potato preps, though. But that's cause they're usually falvoured wih something.

[jhopp217]

This thread scares me. First someone says they don't like Bacon and now this. What is the world coming to?>

[miss_bennet]

That's me! I don't like bacon OR mashed potatoes! What do you LIKE about mashed potatoes? Or do you just like gravy?

[jhopp217]

Mashed potatoes - I love the velvety texture. I love the the fact that you can add stuff like garlic, herbs, butter, sour cream, cheese, bacon, etc and it becomes something totally different. It's truly a blank canvas. I love potatoes any way.

And it's funny you mention the gravy - unless it's KFC's gravy (has a little kick to it) I freak out when gravy touches my mashed potatoes

[miss_bennet]

See, you didn't mention anything about the TASTE of mashed potatoes that makes them good, except perhaps that they're a blank canvas i.e. flavourless. I mean, if you add butter, garlic, herbs, cheese etc then the potatoes taste like those things. That's essentially my problem with mashed potatoes. They're nothing alone.

Then again, I've tried making roasted garlic, herb, cheese and even caramalized onion mashed potatoes, and I still don't like them. I just want to eat the cheese, roasted garlic etc. without the potato. The potato means that I have to eat so much more just to get the (good) flavour.

[jhopp217]

I thought I said I love potatoes any way. My favorite food probably, aside from a good steak!

[linguafood]

Really good potatoes DO have a flavor -- buttery, sometimes a little flowery... all you have to add in my book is butter and salt.

New potatoes with drawn butter, maybe some parsley and a pinch of salt is one of the best things in the world.

I've been reading this thread and I have yet to think of a food that truly repulses me. But I'm only half way through '-)

[miss_bennet]

I had a bad dairy allergy as a child, and I wasn't allowed butter. And I never used salt. That was one of my childhood dislikes. So I just ate smashed, white potatoes. And hated them. Now, I love boiled new potatoes with butter and salt. And even then, the potatoes are merely a vehicle for the delicious combination of melted butter and salt. But mashed potatoes are still boring to me. They are flavorless, therefore "empty" calories.

[foiegras]

Not flavorless to me ... every potato has a flavor, some better than others (my preference is for yellow and purple potatoes--yellow banana fingerlings have the best flavor of all).

I also can test every variety of water I've ever had ... presumably I'm tasting the minerals, etc. I once saw an article where a sommelier tasted bottled waters and wrote them up.

It's not the potatoes or water--it's your sense of taste that has nothing to say about them ;)

[weewah]

Right : ) I love Yukon Gold's the best. And I am w/ you on water too.
I have a well at home and am not on city water. I do not know how people who have to drink that chlorine reeking nightmare can stand it. I carry well water with me in bottles to town when I go, and can't drink water in a restaurant unless it is well masked w/ lemon.

[FoodieKat]

OMG, say it ain't so. Mashed potatoes and gravy are my favorite comfort foods.

[chef chicklet]

oh and mine too. or when I'm sick, mmm.. well not REAL sick. Maybe a light case of the cocktail flu sick.

[hill food]

I have only heard a handful of people mention "I feel a touch of the cocktail flu" love it, but sounds a bit fey coming from a guy (and def. doesn't garner much sympathy from work)

many ordinary things repulse in that condition...

[Catskillgirl]

Umm, if that's the new parlance for a hangover, I could never eat anything other than pizza rolls. For some reason they settled my stomach. Pepperoni flavor, of course. *G*

[Passadumkeg]

Saffire and the Uppity Blues Women have a song about it: "Cold Pizza & Warm Beer; the Morning After..."

[sailrox]

Me too! I can't stand the taste of water.

Or blood sausage. Or hard-boiled eggs. Or cottage cheese.

[dwilde]

Blood sausage is revolting. My dad had me try some when I was in HS and I couldn't get the taste out of my mouth for 3 days - completely nauseating. And I'll eat almost anything else - except Miracle Whip, Hot Dogs, and Bologna.

[chowdawggy]

water here in western Arkansas DEFINITELY has a flavor . . . all the chemicals that are put into it to "purify" it. Back in the 50's, our town had some of the best-tasting water I ever knew . . . I was finicky about water even then; on vacations, I'd never taste water until Daddy had tasted it and pronounced it to taste like "home".

Needless to say, as our small town grew and started putting more and more chemicals into the water supply, I drank less and less of it. Now I go months at a time without drinking ANY plain water. I just tell people "it rusts my pipes".

[BarmyFotheringayPhipps]

The tapwater in my parents' hometown of San Angelo, Texas is positively disgusting: the hardest water I have ever seen, with so much dissolved calcium that a glass drawn from the tap looks milky white. You do eventually get used to it, but...blech.

Tap water here in Boston is delicious, though.

[EWSflash]

I'm told by my son's orthodontist that Texas water contains a ton of fluoride. What he said was that fluoride stains, and Texans have brown teeth but you could hit them with a bat in the mouth and their teeth wouldn't break.
No idea if he was bringin' it or not. I know that the water here is naturally fluoridated but now we're on a mix of groundwater and imported and the fluoride level has plummeted.

[Phoenix56]

LOL

[hotteacher1976]

I cannot stand the smell nor the taste of white milk (if I drink it it must have some kind of syrup in it - chocolate or strawberry).

Also, I can't eat pineapple. I'll drink the juice, but that's about it.

[meatn3]

Milk to drink (fine with it cooked in things), peanut butter (but plain roasted peanuts & an occasional reeces cup I like) and peas. As an adult I have grown to like eggs, strawberries & bananas - which all repulsed me when I was young.

[cimui]

What a fascinating thread to read! There were foods that I didn't even realize I vaguely disliked until I read these posts.

I'm also not very into coconut milk or coconut flavoring (definitely not genetic, there; my mother, who grew up on a tropical island, loves the stuff).

I hated egg yolks when I was a kid (I like them now).

And one thing no one else has mentioned: I really don't like pineapple. I see people go nuts for it and I like the way it smells ripe, but the tongue numbing astringency makes it completely inedible to me. I guess I've generalized the discomfort it to a general dislike of the flavor, even in non-astringent canned stuff.

On the other hand, I really do kinda like durian, so go figure. :)

[KevinB]

I'm amazed that no one else has mentioned durian. I think it's the most vile thing in the world. My wife loves it, but I have to leave the room when she eats it.

[Kelli2006]

My daughter and I also love Durian, but I have to beg a green grocer to order it for me. She spent the month of January in Laos and Thailand on a college interim, and she was the only person of the group who would eat it.

[moh]

I hate green onions. As a Korean, this is very difficult, because they put it in everything. I am not a fussy person, and there are many things I eat. But when I feel a green onion in my mouth, I have to spit it out or swallow it whole. It is a combination of the taste and mouthfeel. My mother is about to disown me. I have tried, but I just can't get past green onions...

[Sam Fujisaka]

moh, mgod, I'm mshocked!

[moh]

Yes. You should be shocked. My mother thinks I'm an alien...

[Miss Needle]

Yeah, I'm with Sam on this one. Do you pick all the scallions out of your banchan (like the spinach or soy bean sprouts?) I used to do that as a kid.

[moh]

I still pick out the green onions to this day. Chopsticks are such a perfect tool for this! I am a very patient person, and very thorough. I rarely miss any.

But a breakthrough has occurred. I don't mind some green onion in Pa jon. I am hoping this will lead to increased tolerance. I'm working on it! I'm still trying!

[Blueicus]

I have a number of relatives (Chinese) who also don't like green onions... so we've ended up asking them to remove it from the dish... or my dad and I get first dibs and we eat the green onions. Mmmm... I love green onions. For me it's raw mushrooms. Think it developed one day when I was waiting for some people and I was a bit peckish. So I dug into a bunch of raw enokis and just ate them. From that time forward eating raw mushrooms (especially just by themselves) makes me almost want to gag.

[dani_k]

my husband hates them too! its unfortunate because i love them.

he also has trouble with raw tomatoes, cukes, and green bell peppers.

strangely enough, his fave salad is greek salad!

[linguafood]

wow. that doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

greek salad: tomatoes, cukes, green bell peppers (yes, and feta, red onion, lemon and olive oil). strange '-)

[BarmyFotheringayPhipps]

I wouldn't go so far as to say I find it "disgusting," but I'm slowly approaching 40 and I still have serious problems with grapefruit. It's nothing but pure, undiluted bitterness to me.

[foiegras]

Are you a supertaster, and have you ever tried Ruby Red grapefruit? I remember being amazed as a child that anyone could actually drink grapefruit juice!! Instant ack!!

[silkenpaw]

Second on the grapefruit. Never tasted one that wasn't bitter to me.

[weewah]

Someone else hates grapefruit!!! Oh I hate it, so bitter that I could never keep from choking on it.
When I was a kid I used to regularly stay w/ a family whose mom served grapefruit juice, or grapefruit mixed w/ Tang every day at breakfast. Never just plain Tang. We were not allowed to decline this drink (I'm sure she thought she was giving us our vitamins).
It was an ordeal for me my whole childhood.

[tatamagouche]

Interesting. There's definitely bitterness in the pith, but the pulp is for me delicious; even when I was little I preferred grapefruit to all other citrus. (Then I met pomelos.)

[maria lorraine]

My story: I've traveled all over the world and seriously sampled cuisines. Tasted lots and lots of things. Grew up in a very adventurous food-eating family. I established likes and only a few dislikes, but that's all. No food really bothered me terribly. Or so I thought.

One day I go to visit my parents in our family house -- this was about fifteen years ago -- and my mother was making this Alsatian pork and fried apples dish. I smelled the cooking and was immediately nauseated, to the point I was quickly going to vomit. I said to my parents, I'm so sorry -- I know I just got here -- but the smell of those fried apples is so bad I'm going to be sick -- I have to leave. My mother says, But you love apples. My father was silent -- I guess dumbfounded all this time -- looked at me and said, My father, your grandfather, loved all foods, but the ONLY thing he COULD NOT STAND was the smell of fried apples -- it made him sick.

Wow. I realized then there has to be some sort of genetic hard-wiring that can cause us to be revolted by certain smells and tastes. This isn't general dislike -- in the sense of I've tried this food and I don't care for it. This is the body being revolted by something.

Has anyone found this same wacky thing -- that other members of your family are revolted by the same foodstuff as you are? (BTW, thanks for listening.)

[Leucadian]

This is a remarkable thread. It gives me an appreciation for the depth of dislike of those who really can't stand certain foods. There was a similar discussion about cilantro as being a 'hard-wired' nauseous taste for some people (I was told that Indonesians generally dislike it as a 'dirty' taste). Fortunately I don't have any such aversions, but from now on I'll be more tolerant of those who do.

[Phoenix56]

maria lorraine...My whole family loves fish and I'm the only one who can't abide it..seafood is fine..but not fish..It even looks good to me..but one whiff, one taste, and I'm done for! I think it is genetic hard wiring....

[Blush]

I can't stand cucumbers, though I love pickles.
Fish--actually anything that used to reside underwater.
Mayonnaise.
Any sort of melon.

[Veggo]

I balk at blood sausages and marshmallows. But for you to be intolerant of honey is sad. What does it leave one to look forward to, the land of Milk and Sauerkraut?

[Peg]

...mmmmmm.... sauerkraut.. YUM!

[FoodieKat]

Yum indeed! I make my own sauerkraut too. Love it!

[Passadumkeg]

We grow the cabbages and make the kraut (kapusta) almost 20 gal! I grew up making it w/ grand parents , parents & aunts & uncles. My rite of passage was when I was invited to the cellar to grate 350 lbs. of cabbage on a mandolin and drink beer w/ the men at about 16.
With a son teaching in Korea, I've learned to make kim chee too. Now that's an aquired taste!

[wontonfm]

cucumbers. i hate the smell. i hate the taste. i hate the texture.

WON
http://whatsonmyplate.wordpress.com

[Sam Fujisaka]

Marmite, vegemite, Hittites, Luddites.... (kidding about the last two).

[Uncle Ira]

Coconut... Just can’t stand it. It’s the texture... I’m not wild about the taste either, but I can live with it. If a dish is made with coconut milk, it won’t bother me too much, but... THAT TEXTURE! ! ! There’s just something about the way the stuff feels in my mouth and against my teeth... It’s like fingernails on a blackboard for me. It doesn’t matter if it’s a curry or a Mounds Bar. I’m giving myself the creeps just writing about it....

Uncle Ira

[miss_bennet]

Oh man! I didn't even go into textures I can't stand! That should be a whole other thread!

[goodhealthgourmet]

i'm so there with you - it's the first thing that came to mind when i saw this thread. eating dessicated coconut is like chewing on straw that was soaked in sour milk & left out to dry...or something equally vile. just thinking about the way it squeaks between your teeth when you chew it makes me shudder. i still don't understand why people insist on ruining carrot cake by adding that stuff to it.

on the positive side, i was never tempted to eat girl scout samoa cookies :)

[mrsbuffer]

Refried beans - whenever mrbuffer and I go to Taco Bell (it's a craving, nothing more) he KNOWS to order my nachos bel grande without the vile things that look and smell like turds.
Corned beef and cabbage
Bleu cheese tastes like soap
Bread and butter pickles
split pea soup
giblet gravy

[jhopp217]

MrsBuffer, I love your list. I love gravy, I love bread and butter pickles, I love bleu cheese probably more than any other cheese, but I will agree with you on the corned beef and cabbage and split pea soup.

But here's why I am responding. One drunken day, years ago, we took our leftovers from a mexican restaurant home with us. On the rirde home, we saw an ice cream shop, that said "we will make any flavor." So we asked the two fine ladies in the back if they would make refriend bean ice cream. They said they would but we had to promise to eat it, because they said cleaning the machine would be tough and they weren't going through the trouble for nothing. In the machine it went and out it came. Out into four cones for the four idiots standing in front of them. It's amazing what you'll eat after spending the day drinking margaritas, and other tropical drinks. So probably the craziest thing I've ever eaten was refried bean ice cream. And Mrsbuffer - it tastes as good as it sounds!

[irishnyc]

I agree with mrsbuffer on the corned beef and cabbage and the b&b pickles. Last weekend we went to a St. Patrick's day party and as soon as we walked in the smell of corned beef and cabbage was overwhelming. I couldn't wait to leave.

When a friend of mine was pregnant with her first, she craved bread and butter pickles, despite her hatred of them. One day she went grocery shopping, bought a jar, and had to pull over to eat some pickles. She ended up eating the entire jar in her car before she got home.

[KevinB]

I'm not surprised this happened. My mother told me that during her 3rd trimester on all three kids, she craved sweet pickles and ice cream. I wonder if this is a subconscious need for certain nutrients, like acetic acid and full fats to help complete the baby's development. Still, pickles and ice cream sounds like a pretty weird combo!

[gordeaux]

LOL! If bleu cheese tastes like your soap, I could probably save money by eating your soap.

I LOVE a good bleu!

[Veggo]

And the Maytag variety is not for the laundry!

[Phoenix56]

gordeaux....I worked in a cheese shop for 10 years..I know the mold on blue cheese is a cultivated mold, but it didn't start out that way..a little shepard boy left his lunch in a cave and when he came back some time later (the story goes) he found it molded ate it and liked it. If such is the case once a month I could send you some lovely things from my fridge with mold. Bon Appetite!!!

[southernitalian]

Wow Mrs. Buffer, you're the un-southernitalian. I'm indifferent to the gravy and corned beef and cabbage, but blue cheese is definitely my desert island food, and I eat B&B pickles all the time, right out of the jar. I also love split pea soup, with or without ham.

[KevinB]

One of my favourite sandwiches is just bread, butter, and B&B pickles. Of course, I also often add a piece of ham or turkey, but the plain sandwich is just fine. And a favourite snack is an apple, cheddar cheese, and B&B pickles. I really enjoy the contrasts in texture and taste when you slice off a piece of cheddar, put a B&B on it, and then munch away - sweet, salty, crunchy, yielding, and melting all at once. Yum!

[miss_bennet]

Cooked eggs - scrambled, poached, hard boiled, fried... Sometimes I'll try to eat eggs benedict, but I just hate egg. No amount of salt or hollandaise or ketchup can make me like them. On Christmas morning, I had eggs benedict without the egg and it was delicious. I don't like bacon, either. I think the common eggs, bacon and dry toast (I was allergic to milk so couldn't have buttered toast) turned me off breakfast for the rest of my life.

I just don't understand the egg thing. I thnk they're horrid. Even some ice creams are unpalatable to me because they have too much egg in them. Creme brulee? Yuck. I have to stop talking about eggs now before I make myself ill.

[Miss Needle]

When you say cooked eggs, are you implying that you like them raw? Can you have them in a cake or cookie?

[miss_bennet]

I'm never eaten them raw except in salad dressing. When they're mixed into cakes, salad dressings and other things, I'm ok UNLESS I CAN TASTE THEM. (That's right, the taste of eggs scares me.) I've definitely bought things (cakes, ice creams) and said that they taste eggy but most other people think I'm crazy.

Oddly, though, I love angel food cake and hard meringues. Do those taste eggy? Maybe I should try scrambled egg whites... No. Probably not.

And I was just thinking... I had quail's eggs once in "across the bridge noodles" while in China. They were put into hot borth raw, and they were absolutely delicious. So maybe it's just chicken eggs.

[Miss Needle]

You may have a problem with just the yolks. My sister and I both weren't crazy about the yolks as kids (probably not to the same extent as you hate them). We would only eat the hard-boiled whites. When we put an egg in our ramen and noodles dishes, it was only the egg whites. Never a fan of eggnog. But we loved our ice cream and loved eating Korean sushi rolls with egg omelette in them. If the yolks were mixed with other stuff, we were able to eat them.

As a person who freaks out at the sight of pickles, I understand your pain.

[miss_bennet]

Sorry, but that makes me laugh! I'm not quite at the point that ia freak out at the sight of them. In fact, I can't truly imagine freaking out at the sight of any food readily available in Canada.

Now all I can picture is a woman panicking at a painting that vaguely resembles pickles..I'm sorry to laugh at your pain...It's just a little funny! Sorry!

[karykat]

Like someone else further upstream on this thread, I can't stand hard boiled eggs, and that includes the whites.

Also don't like fried eggs, both yolk and white.

I do like omelettes, souffles, scrambled eggs if there's tomato and things in it.

But not hardboiled eggs.

[atheorist]

Right with you on the eggs, miss bennet. Except hard meringue which I find not worth eating but not repulsive. I adore pancakes, cakes, waffles, etc. as long as they do not taste eggy. One egg per cup of flour is enough.

Plain milk is undrinkable yet it seems fine when soaked up by cereal.

Liver: disgusting.

[Phoenix56]

miss_bennet...Eggs are tricky...runny yolks eeewww, liquid chicken! Omelettes are better, but if you want eggs in your diet try a nice quiche...you won't know its eggs!

[alkapal]

miss phoenix, you sure have lots of food "hates."

[six dower]

Hard boiled yolks, lima beans, raw celery and carrots, beets, fruitcake, pork rinds, custard, cottage cheese, rice pudding, refried beans...just to name a few.

[TexasToast]

Cottage cheese looks like, well, I can't say on this board, but it's just not right.

TT

[jmckee]

I like it -- well, I'll eat it. But an old girlfriend hated it; when she heard me say that's what I'd brought for lunch, she exclaimed, "Lumpy milk? You eat LUMPY MILK?"

[Phoenix56]

JMCKEE I love it! Its something about the curds (cheese) and the coldness of the liquid...I like large curds the best..how about you?

[jmckee]

I like the smaller curds. I always add a dash of hot sauce.

[ms. clicquot]

The common foods I disliked as a kid (and still do, unfortunately) were: plain milk (to drink), watermelon and peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. Lunches at my friends' houses were often a nightmare! I was always polite and ate everything but it was an effort to force myself.

[jhopp217]

I"m joking so don't get offended. Milk, Watermelon, and Peanut Butter - are you sure you just didn't hate being a kid?

[ms. clicquot]

I know, it's so weird! I was the only person I knew that didn't like those things. Although for the record, I do like peanut butter and I love jam, just not the two together! (Actually, I don't care for any 'peanut butter & ___' sandwiches, such as pb & bananas or pb & Fluff)

[jhopp217]

I'm with you on that one Ms.C I hate peanut butter and jelly. I do love peanut butter with bananas and raisins though, and honestly, I don't like raisins that much. PB & Fluff is nasty!

When I was growing up, my father, who loves PB, bought the natural kid, so we had to stir the oils up into it. Much different taste than the store bought kind, a much more peanut-y taste. Some were good some were bad.

Another great combination is peanut and apple butter.

[fara]

i also hate pb&j sandwiches, and remember forcing them down in some instances because people assume that all children love them.
peanut butter cookies are another one,so maybe it has something to do with pb and intense sugar.

[Phoenix56]

Reply to Fara...I love peanut butter....but I won't even buy it beacuse I'll devour a jar in 2 sittings!! Bot jelly on top? For gods sake WHY?

[FoodieKat]

I love pb & j, but don't care at all for 'the Fluff'. It's just sickly sweet. Why on earth would you want to eat it with something that's already sweet?

[fromagina]

That marshmallow "fluff" reminds me of another "gag me".. those big Easter egg-shaped candies with a sugary shell and some kind of sickly sweet fluff inside.. makes my teeth hurt just thinking about them!
I don't like the sweetened hydrogenated "creamy" peanut butter.. it tastes like candy, not food. Real freshly ground peanut butter (as from that grinder in Whole Foods) is Food of the Gods. Bacon and Peanut butter sandwich with red onions.. heaven!

[miss_bennet]

I wrote about those eggs on the "most digustign candy" board. (Shudder)

[mrsjenpeters]

i never understood bacon and peanut butter sandwiches... but now that you put red onion in there... i think i can hang with that. got my lunch plans for saturday now, thanks! :)

[fromagina]

A nice little trick is to grill the peanut butter a few moments.. warm peanut butter is very good! A few slices of avocado do absolutely NO harm to this sandwich. For those of us who DON'T find peanut butter a disgusting food, I'm beginning to believe that it is a much under-utilized food!

[HarryFromMarydelDE]

I'm not sure if it's true, but a food show I saw said that peanut butter was originally considered one of those foods that only adults could like and that no child would eat even if forced. Also, it always contained other things like for example you would buy a jar of peanut butter with bits of bacon in it. Then somebody came up with the idea of selling plain peanut butter, and everybody thought they were crazy because no one ate plain peanut butter. And they were right, no one bought it. Then they decided to market it to children, and everybody thought they were extra crazy, because not only did no one eat plain peanut butter, but everyone knew you couldn't get a kid to touch peanut butter. Only this time they were wrong, plain peanut butter was so popular with kids that it outsold the old peanut butter-with-stuff in it so much that eventually plain became just about the only way to buy it. It turned out kids didn't hate peanut butter, they hate the meats and pickles and other stuff that were in it.

[alkapal]

see this: http://inventors.about.com/library/in...

also read about a truly genius american hero, george washington carver.

[EWSflash]

He was The Man.

[nofunlatte]

Funny--I disliked milk as a kid (not too crazy about it now), still despise watermelon, but peanut butter, which I hated as a little kid, has grown on me (figuratively and literally--low-calorie it ain't!) My brother and sister would eat peanut butter sandwiches, but I prefered cheese (didn't like the PB). By teendom, though, I'd eat it. And now I think it's food of the gods (the natural kind, that is!)

[jhopp217]

My favorite sandwich as a kid was Tomato and Provolone with mayo. I had that pakced for me almost every day for lunch. On the other days it was usually PB with banana and/or raisins. As A kid i hated Ham and Cheese more than anything. To this day Ham is not my favorite.

[monalisawoman]

Hey, i was the same way about Peanut Butter until i turned 30! Then 2 things happened:
1) it suddenly dawned on me that the sesame noodles i loved so much were made with peanut butter.
2) Someone brought a chocolate peanut butter pie into the office & i devoured it.
Weird, but true.

[almccasland]

I always get strange looks when I say I can't stand chicken, ranch dressing or mayonnaise (or miracle whip). And no, I won't even eat it mixed into things such as tuna salad, egg salad, etc. It's not a texture thing because I love sour cream, yogurt, and other foods of similar texture. It has a peculiar smell to me and tastes just like the smell. Also, I like tomatoes in every form (raw, soup, juice, etc.) except for ketchup. I think it's something about it being sugary...sugar and tomatoes don't go well to me. Other than that, I would eat just about anything.

[foodhypnosis]

I can't stand ranch dressing either - It smells like vomit to me and tastes the same (I do love mayo and micracle whip though!) Any ranch flavored thing, like cool ranch doritos just seems vile to me. Only other thing I can think of is Uni - tried it once and found it very bitter and acrid and haven't tried it since.

[poptart]

I agree on the ranch dressing. GROSS!
Add to that Thousand Island, tartar sauce and miracle whip. I do like Hellman's mayo, and canola mayo. The miracle whip just turns me off.
Also can't stand ripe bananas, sweet pickle relish, raw green bell peppers,
And I never ever liked cow's milk.
Those jello "salads" with stuff in it...GAG! Carrot and raisin salad with miracle whip is one of the most disgusting things I have ever tasted.

[foodhypnosis]

Seems most people who like (love) mayonaisse HATE Miracle Whip. Not many people like them both equally! I keep 'em both in the fridge seem to have very specific preferences - turkey gets mayo, ham gets miracle whip, add swiss to the ham and it has to be brown mustard, while cheese with the turkey would get honey mustard...
Just remembered how much I dislike that white frosting that's on bakery cakes - the kind I think made from crisco. Always looked good and then I'd bite into it and blegh. Almost never eat cake because of that frosting.
And reading further down the page - I agree on Fluff - nasty stuff.
And somehow cooked cherries make me queasy - I can eat a pound of fresh cherries in a sitting, but put them in a pie - or worse a black forest cake - or even worse a chocolate covered cherry -and i can't stomach it. Slimy.

[morrigan]

Crisco? That's what's in that stuff? God that's revolting...and it's kinda' gritty too...

Nasty.

[goodhealthgourmet]

actually, the grittiness in frosting is usually undissolved sugar.

[Phoenix56]

FOODHYPNOSIS- I am exactly the opposite...cherry pie? Yum!! Fresh cheries? No thanks...

[EWSflash]

OY! Okay, more for me. I will trade you cherry pie for fresh cherries.

[JasFoodie]

I'm the same way with cherry. LOVE fresh cherries and will sit there eating them till I make myself sick. But cherry flavored anything, not a chance in hell. It's not just the cooked cherries themselves but even anything cherry flavored. I all but gagged on some cherry flavored tums or rolaids my roommate handed me once.

I also can't stand plain yellow mustard. I'll barely tolerate it if it's the only option but just barely, and only if I don't have anything else to add to the sandwich at all.

[hill food]

agreed, candied, syruped, whatever cherries - no thanks. as a duck glaze maybe.

[FoodieKat]

Oh I completely forgot about jello salad. Another 'wonderful' invention which always appeared at picnics when I was a kid. I always thought the stuff was just vile. Plain jello, fine. But why ruin it with pieces of canned fruit and Cool Whip? Nasty.

[JasFoodie]

The first time I was served carrot and raisin salad I just looked at it horrified and wanted to ask 'you're kidding me right?' It was served buffet style at a dinner for about 50 international students where we all shuffed through the line and had volunteers glop a serving of each item onto our plates for us. I noticed after dinner was over that almost everyone still had a mound of orange goop on their plate.

[Smileelisa]

I agree with you on the ranch dressing. it is vile tasting.

[cimui]

I'm with you on the ranch dressing. I'm not sure it smells like vomit to me, but the smell does make me queasy. And I, too, love yogurt, sour cream, etc... Did you eat the Kraft brand when you were a kid?

[hotteacher1976]

I hate the smell and taste of mayo; however, I can eat it when mixed with salads of some kind. Crazy I know.

[tatertotsrock]

Yep,
Ranch dressing smells like kindergarten vomit...YUK!

[corgette]

"Kindergarten vomit" evokes the taste and smell of ranch dressing like no other phrase I've come across. Nicely done.

[mrsjenpeters]

can't stand ketchup either. disgusting. i much prefer my fries with mayo, which i love!

[EWSflash]

I like A-1 steak sauce on my fries. Not on a good steak, though.

[southernitalian]

I'd like A-1 steak sauce on a flip flop.

[hill food]

see I hate flip flops and just on principal (and for their sonic value)

[Passadumkeg]

I had to explain to a friend in Oslo, a Jimmy Buffet fan, what "stepped on a pop top, blew out a flip flop" means and why he couldn't find Margaritaville on a map; it's located between the ears.

[alkapal]

i go nuts getting stuck following flip-floppin' folks in the grocery aisles -- and it's esp. maddening when the person semi-shuffles. i have to move to another section of the store.

[southernitalian]

Oh alka, you'd have a tough time at the grocery store behind me. My manager said to me the other day, "Why are all your shoes so audible?". I wear "fancy" flip flops to work!

[alkapal]

you are correct madam! i would have to move to a different place in the store -- or kill you -- but i think it is better to move, huh?

(and not to be nosy, but don't you think it could affect your career growth to have audible shoes -- esp.with a manager commenting on it!).

[hill food]

the sound of flip-flops freaks me and makes me nervous (sorry)

[Jay F]

I hate footwear you can hear. Flipflops are pretty bad, but thick heels on an uncarpeted floor are much worse. I agree with you on "affect your career growth," Alkapal. A footnoise-producing employee automatically gets points off when compared to s/he who wears sneakers.

And gum clickers are another group of people who have no right to live. And bracelet bangers.

[linguafood]

so much hate, so little time '-P

[thew]

seriously. makes one wonder how one deals with actual problems

[alliegator]

Dear friends,
I am a flip-flopper. Not in a restaurant or any place decent, but still... I am. Please accept my apologies.
Allie

[hill food]

allie despite what I posted I really don't hate them on principal. I just get nervous when followed closely by anyone in loud footwear (SF's Financial District with type A's stomping up Montgomery in spikes, art school with creative types in stacked creative shoes shuffling along because it's the only way to not fall over.)

so if you're at the next table I really don't care what you're wearing. or if even nothting, my only reaction to that would be "who the hell leaves the house in a city without anything on? have they heard of broken glass?" but I wouldn't say it out loud. just don't closely follow me around.

[alkapal]

alliegator's confession made me think: why isn't there a "flip-floppers anonymous"?
of course i knew the answer immediately. they can't be anonymous.

[Passadumkeg]

Name that Tune: "Stepped on a pop -top, blew out a flip-flop." I had to explicate this to an Oslovian.

[thew]

let me have a margarita and consider it

[Snackish]

Ripe bananas. Hard boiled eggs. Ugh.

[emerilcantcook]

Ripe bananas for me too. I prefer my bananas when they have the consistency of a potato, I know I have no taste ha ha. If there is a little brown freckle, I will start getting a fermented taste. I could eat it if there is nothing to eat at home; but usually it goes into banana bread or something that would hide the smell and texture.

Eggs. Undercooked egg whites are one of the other (very few) things that I will refuse to eat; but it is more of a texture than a taste thing. Undercooked yolks on the other hand are perhaps the most delicious thing ever.

[dani_k]

undercooked egg whites! ugh! cooking scrambles and omelettes can be a problem for me because i cannot cannot cannot handle raw egg whites so trying to get the eggs done but not overcooked is a challenge.

[abs294]

I hate ripe bananas! They have to be green and pre-ripe for me to eat them. I think you have taste!

I can't deal with any sort of fake lemon taste. I had some awful medicine that tasted like that as a kid and ever since, if I get a whiff or taste of it, the gag reflex kicks in and I have to remove myself from the situation.

[goodhealthgourmet]

i'm okay with just-ripe bananas, but i can't stand them when they're overripe or mushy.

btw, abs294, i have the same problem with fake orange flavoring - reminds me of baby aspirin. i gag just thinking about it.

[Snackish]

Ripe bananas - eeech. They make me gag every time.

[Phoenix56]

I have a hard time with as The Cone Heads say..Raw Chicken Embryos.........oh, I'm going to pass out.........

[Catskillgirl]

Hard boiled eggs scare me. Oh, they are awful. Their only use is for coloring at Eastertime! They do make lovely decorations. But eating them??? Nope. Not gonna happen! For me it's very much a smell and texture antipathy. The rubbery glop of the white, and the chalky dryness of the yolk, along with that smell... ugh.

[cassis]

Wow! amazing that there are other people who hate hard boiled eggs and ripe bananas. Ripe bananas smell like nail polish remover. But I like them when they still have a bit of green on the tips, and eggs other ways are fine. I never eat processed food with artificial ingredients and MSG makes me break out in a cold sweat.

I like liver, tripe a few bites, and I LOVE (looking for a pattern here) artichokes, spinach, licorice, yogourt, rioja, sauerkraut and miso--I spread it on toast. These things have something in common, but WHAT IS IT?

[tatertotsrock]

"nail polish remover"
Holy cow! I've never quite put my finger on that smell, and I think that's pretty close.
I am a ripe-banana dis-like-er....yuk! Smelly, smushy, and pukey.

[Catskillgirl]

Hmmm. Hate liver, never tried tripe, love artichokes and spinach and licorice and yogurt, intensely dislike sauerkraut, love miso.. I don't know what the common thread is.

[southernitalian]

Umm....except for licorice they're all delicious? Can't believe no one on this entire thread has mentioned the most vile taste of all: BASIL! Disgusting soapy rotten food ruiner.

[linguafood]

Whoa. Your name is southernitalian and you HATE basil? Talk about a disconnect... :-D

[southernitalian]

I know it lingua. It's a problem. I can take it in small doses but if it's the main ingredient, like pesto, I'm out. It just doesn't taste like something people should eat.

[linguafood]

Ha. I used to feel that way about cilantro (let's not get into that, there's been a million&1 threads about that). Soapy. But if you like Thai or Mexican food, it is inevitable. Slowly 'got over it', and now genuinely enjoy it. Although, a cilantro pesto would be pushing my limits, too ----

[hill food]

"Although, a cilantro pesto would be pushing my limits, too ----"

and jam the blade on your food processor as well (voice of experience/cilantro lover)

[foiegras]

Are they all bitter? I too love artichokes, but hate licorice and miso. Spinach and yogurt are fine.

[silkenpaw]

Add me to the ripe banana and hard-boiled egg hating crowd. I also dislike licorice, tripe and tofu (the last 2 are a texture more than a flavor issue).

[Phoenix56]

AMEN

[Pampatz]

Oh, you hit my big two. I got sick on both as a child and can't stand the smell of either as an adult. DH loves both, unfortunately.
My other ughs are olives,organ meats, rare anything, crunchy "cooked" veggies and brussel sprouts.

[burlgurl]

bacon...can't stand it or the smell!

[miss_bennet]

OHMIGOD! I thought I was alone in the world! I've never met anyone else who hates bacon! I keep trying it, but I just don't like it!

[jhopp217]

You're both crazy! Unless you have a religious obligation not to eat it, how can you not like bacon. I never in a million years thought I would see one person, let alone two people who didn't like bacon.

[odkaty]

three people :D

Just the smell makes me nauseous.

[alkapal]

look at it this way: more bacon for you and me!

[dwilde]

Bacon is my favorite food group!

[smartie]

can't stand the smell of bacon, it makes me feel sick

[tatertotsrock]

Canteloupe, Honeydew, Eggplant, Reb Bell Peppers, especially roasted...uggg.

Blech!!!! I think these things are like ear wax or something...nasty.
I'll eat/try anything...give me a pig's ass and I'll be happy to try it, I am no squeemish, I jsut can't stand those melons or peppers...I have no idea why. They just taste rancid/acrid.
Hhhhmmmm....

[nofunlatte]

Watermelons and canteloupe. I cannot understand how people speak so rapturously about these. I find them vile.

[Miss Needle]

I don't find them vile, but I don't necessarily seek them out (except I like refreshing watermelon on a hot, hot day). I find it interesting that you hate both of them because I find that they both share a similar component. I can't quite put it in words, but to me it seems that there's an aromatic component to them (kind of like menthol) in my mouth whenever I eat them.

[nofunlatte]

Intellectually, I understand the "watermelon on a hot day" appeal, but only intellectually. I wonder if it's genetic--my father can't stand these either.

Miss Needle, if we are ever at the same picnic on the same hot day, I'll let you have my watermelon. Just let me have your cold beer :)

[Miss Needle]

No problem. I'm not the biggest fan of beer. Perfect! : )

[danna]

Interesting. I LOVE both watermelon and canteloupe, but they have weird reactions with me. Up until about my 30's, watermelon made my voice hoarse and canteloupe would make my lips swell a bit. These reactions have gone away (btw, it never stopped me from eating either) but still I cannot eat either and then exercise hard. They will come back up undigested.(sorry)

So...i wonder if your body is protecting you from an allergic reaction or difficulty of digestion.

I myself find blue cheese unspeakable.

[Phoenix56]

I have to agree...seriously...when did we decide moldy food was a delicacy? Blue cheese....ugg, and I worked in a cheese shop for 10 years!

[Passadumkeg]

About a thousand years ago. Are you a Valley Girl?

[EWSflash]

Dude I love you for saying that

[thew]

all cheese is spoiled milk

[chef chicklet]

me an cantelope and some other melons too, I try so hard to like them, but I get the gag reflex almost every single time. I so want to love it, and I envy people that eat it. The other is mango, sometimes the same thing. Not when its mixed into a smoothie, its the flesh and the smell when it hits my nose....eek!

[Emme]

mango and papaya taste like dirt to me!

[linguafood]

if that is so, i'd like to try that sweet, juicy tangy dirt you've been eating. alphonso mangoes are the epitome of what a fruit should taste like.

[Manybears]

Papaya tastes like eggs and pepper to me, I don't understand why. I can still eat it but I don't enjoy it.

[weewah]

Papaya seeds are dried and ground to use as a filler in ground pepper in India, because of their peppery flavor. An unethical practice, but it i