We can always have more friends. But some friends (and friends of friends) consider tripe a delicacy to be shared. Far be it for me to cast that off to follow a common interest. All favorites and no diversity make Kaleo a dull boy.
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The first time I went to Houston I ordered eggs over easy. They brought me a plate with barely cooked whites. I told the waiter they weren’t cooked at all and they said that was how I ordered them: over easy. I had never, ever had that experience but it shook me enough that I’ve ordered eggs over medium ever since.
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When my daughter was a “Brownie” I made cookies with coconut, and still remember how nicely one of the little girls handled her “aversion”. She managed to put it into a napkin more discretely than I could to this day! She will always have my respect. Her mother raised her “right”.
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A nice ratatouille is a favorite for most of my family. But to your other questions, there is one of us who cannot stand the (to her) soapy flavor of cilantro. So I guess it’s genetic?
Other than that, we have no ingredients or flavors we have to avoid.
I actually like the dirt taste in beets. To me it’s an earthy contrast to their sweetness. For me, contrast is essential to enjoying food.
I’ve found that beets that are other colors than red don’t have the earthy taste.
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Greg that’s a good point, though. Many food prep folks don’t know, really, what is “vegetarian” and what is “vegan”. And there are a lot of variations, so people should ask. My daughter for example avoids animal collagen so when I make (e.g.) marshmallows we do it free, but a lot of people don’t know that something as usual as gelatin (making marshmallow) uses animal products.
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I personally rather enjoy tripe.
Perhaps Wahine might enjoy a dull boy?
I’d never heard that, but it seems that if you want set whites, you order Sunny Side Up. “…a sunny side up egg actually has a fully cooked white, whereas an over-easy egg still may still have some runny whites.”
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That’s correct. There’s a gene cluster that makes those of us who have that cluster think cilantro is soapy in both the smell, but more often, the taste.
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Would you be willing to share your recipe for gelatin free marshmallows?
By the way, my name is Ellen, not Greg.
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I’m sure folks know this, but keep in mind that being genetic does not always mean it runs in families. I thought this was interesting from the " 23andMe study".
“But the 23andMe study also tested whether the soap-tasting gene is passed down through generations and found that it wasn’t, so it’s unclear why regions with cilantro-heavy cuisines show less cilantro loathing.”
My son hates cilantro. And my daughter hates mayonnaise!
For the record, I’m not sure how I feel about “consumer genetics” but this trait has been described elsewhere.
This one describes a twin study.
And also references 23andMe!
And yet, some people with that gene have no problems overcoming this aversion, and starting to love cilantro 
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This is interesting to me. And exactly why I don’t care for beets. 
Most people I know do love beets, so for them I can roast the gorgeous beets from our farm share and not have to eat them myself. Everybody wins.
ETA: Beet greens are another matter. I could eat those all the time.
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I get nausea from cooking pretty much all seafood and fish with the exception of dover sole and turbot, and these two I only make because of their delicate fine taste, since cooking them also makes me sick to my stomach.
There’s something in the scent of even very fresh seafood and fish, which makes me gag when cooking/frying them.
I have the exact same feeling about most cheese, the scent makes me gag.
I only use certain particular cheeses in cooking for that very reason.
If I don’t like the scent of what I’m cooking, my brain tells me I’m not eating it.
This is why I try to avoid boiled cale/cabbage too, but I enjoy all kinds of cale/cabbage, when it’s roasted or fried.
My wife sometimes make a dish with red curry paste, that has fermented shrimps in it. I’m close to vomiting, when I smell this red curry paste in our condo.
Also I’m not a huge cilantro fan, but I can eat it used in moderation. I’m not crazy about the scent of it.
I seem to be eating with my nose 
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That was my experience. The first time I had cilantro it was used as the green in a sandwich. I thought it tasted like a bar of soap and disliked it.
I gave it another chance and now I love it.
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Oh shoot! I’m sorry, Ellen. I don’t know how I managed to mess that up! Apologies.
I’ll ask my daughter about the marshmallows when she gets home from work tonight; it was something she either found or made up, probably by mashing together several recipes.
I remember she boiled some chickpeas and used the liquid from that with agar (I think) and some other stuff, maybe a mix of tapioca flour and xanthan gum, but I’m not sure and there could have been some nut flour of one sort or another as well. We’ve got a lot of components on hand for wheat flour substitution because she’s gluten-free as much as possible[1].
And she works in the bakery of an Italian Deli - the only person there still wearing a mask! I don’t know if a cloth mask filters out viruses, but it seems to work for flour. When she wears a dark colored one, you can see the flour on the outside of it around where it sits against her mouth/nose.
[1] And for years after she stopped eating meat, but before a GI doc suggested she cut gluten, her poor old dad (me) was feeding her seitan meat look-and-taste-alikes packed with gluten, so that she could eat “chicken” or “bratwurst” or whatever the family was having.
I also disliked cilantro, until I was around 22, and now I like it.
I grow it.
Tastebuds and tastes can change. I hated caraway growing up, and now it doesn’t bother me.
I didn’t like eggs until I was 18, and I think I’m not adverse to French Toast as I was 10 years ago.
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I definitely know that large difference in smells as between roasted v. boiled cabbage, and I also don’t like the smell of boiled, but I can still eat it (esp. with corned beef, but maybe that’s just tradition talking).
It’s weird that someone who’s such a gourmand (not in the negative connotation sense) as yourself has so many food aversions. One hears of people who are “super tasters” - maybe you’re a “super smeller”?
Thinking of foods that can fill a home for a day or more with very strong odors - do heavy curries or American style bacon turn you off, too?
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I have tried. I’ve ordered stuff that had it, and ate it as best I could. But after a couple of times, I just figured why buy something I’m going to dislike?
Maybe it takes trying it 20x. But there’s always so much other goodness out there that I’m cool with just being one of the haters.
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Agree! Liver of any kind repulses me. I used to have to chop it up for the cats, barely holding down whatever was in my my stomach at the time. Yech!
