Are there any ingredients that completely ruin a dish for you?

Yeah, they would think that’s sacrilege, haha.

Uh oh. One of my resolutions is to grow and use more tarragon. So far, that is compared to none, so it might still be okay.

This is interesting. Since I don’t eat meat, there are a bunch of herbs that never really show up in things I make or order at restaurants - tarragon, marjoram and sage come immediately to mind. So I kind of look forward to encountering tarragon.

I think it’s pretty funny how all of us are generally open minded about food, but quite picky about certain things. As for me, bring on the onions. I wouldn’t be a Russian Jew if I couldn’t deal with onions in cooking. Even on pizza. There was a great pizza place in Venice, CA that made a 5 onion pie, with olive tapenade instead of tomato sauce, and it was a best seller. I love me some crispy bacon. You keep the floppy bacon! I love smoked meat and fish, and not at all smoked cheese. But my favorite blue cheese is smoked (Rogue Creamery Smokey Blue) over hazelnut shells. Go figure. However, you all can have my cilantro. Please. Take it. :slight_smile:

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Reminds me of my father. Lithuanian.

God, I love that line!

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I remember going to my grandma’s house (polish jew).Her apartment was on the second floor, but at soon as you entered the lobby of the building you could smell the onions and garlic coming from her place!

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I hope I haven’t answered already-
Green bell peppers (they take over the whole dish)
Lemongrass - tastes like Lemon Pledge smells
Dill except in pickles
Dried garlic- always, always tastes rancid, so does the jarred stuff
And cinnamon is grossly overused, especially in savory dishes

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I love rhubarb. You can’t grow it here- too hot

With you on the bananas- if I’m not the one eating it it smells like a dumpster to me

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I adore young, nonwoody, fresh okra. I eat it raw, barely cook it in fresh tomatoes and basil, sauteed in bacon fat, whether breaded or not, just about every way that isn’t overcooked.

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I’m not sure where you’re from, but, yes, I do think rhubarb is an oddball item that really likes a hard freeze in the winter. I used to live in North Dakota. Rhubarb was very happy there.

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Southern AZ- lots of stuff doesn’t do well here, although you can grow a lot of things in the winter here.

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Also known as “grease chalices”. I’m in that camp myself.

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LOL: growing rhubarb in southern AZ sounds like a crazy scheme, like growing Key Limes in the north. That said, I am presently trying to grow a Kaffir Lime tree, potted indoors, in Indiana. We’ll see what happens.

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Sugar in savory dishes. A local Cantonese place has a dish (created there, I think) of deep-fried chicken, prawns or fish, coated in a sticky, sugary sauce. I don’t like most BBQ sauces, either. And I just happened to come across a recipe for turkey-leg confit, which struck me as a good idea until I saw the first ingredient: 1/2 cup sugar. I’d probably skip the sugar, but 2 quarts of duck fat is probably out of my budget anyhow.

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Yes. Bleah. There’s a Thai restaurant in Manhattan which I think makes most of their sauces out of melted lollipops. (I am plagiarizing myself - that’s from an old Chowhound thread.)

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Yes, that’s why Thai isn’t among my favorite East Asian cuisines. I mentioned this to some friends, who claimed that Thai food isn’t sweet. They took me to a restaurant to show me, and sure enough the first dish out, beef satay, tasted as if it were dipped in syrup before cooking.

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Manhattan has upped its Thai game somewhat. Not to the level of the Chinese, Japanese or Korean food. But better than it used to be.

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Keeps showing up in my “curated” stream of things I might have “missed”.