I know I could never work in a restaurant kitchen because certain foods really bother me … the smell of lamb nauseates me (hate gamy) and I don’t want anything to do with squid, sea urchin, mussels, raw fish, most duck preps, dark poultry meat, kale. Overcooked cruciferous vegetables are not for me. But, I feel I like enough stuff (love fresh vegetables, salads) that I don’t have to like everything.
My daughter won’t go near any bell peppers but loves poblanos, serranos, etc. She used to love mangoes but we went to Mexico (Copper Canyon area) when she was about 12. We were in Tijuana before we drove home to SF and we ate the best ever mangoes … sold on the street, on sticks, easy eating. On the 5 - 6 hour drive, we had to stop twice for her to be sick and change clothes. I don’t think the mangoes were to blame but since it was the last thing she ate, forever more she won’t go near them. (I didn’t get sick at all!)
Ina Garten hates cilantro so you won’t find it in her recipes. (I used to hate it too but found I like it as long it’s well mixed in with other stuff.)
Deb Perelman on Smitten Kitchen hates all salmon (even smoked!) so she posts no salmon recipes. She has 2 children and her young girl is very picky … she has one entry
about picky eaters … there are a lot of comments and I found them hilarious.
My best friend has 4 children, oldest boy is 24 and has always refused to eat fruits and vegetables. He likes hamburgers, potatoes, pizza, sweets but zero salads and fruits. What a way to live …
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot, cooking and eating in northwest England)
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As with this and previous similar discussions, I find the foods folk dislike are often my favourite foods.
There’s nothing I won’t try for a first time and, in the overwhelming number of examples, I’m happy to keep eating them. Except Andouillete de Cambrai - once was enough.
In my youth, I worked for a Concession Company on the weekends during “State Fair” season. I don’t know if that counts as being a “Carny” but I’m OK with it (if it does). It was “honest work”.
I worked a Cotton Candy machine for a woman named “Barbie” (you can’t make this stuff up). Any who, I spun so much cotton candy over 4 summers that to this day, I’ll gag at the smell of it.
I wonder how you’d have been with the maple cotton candy at the Fryeburg Fair in Maine that I was at last weekend. I got little scent of cotton candy but more mapley. Then again, it was being spun in a walk-through wooden shack where they were also boiling down sap for making syrup, so EVERYTHING smelled of maple!
I have gotten over my aversion to mustard recently.
I don’t like orange peel, orange juice, or orange added to cranberry sauce, salad dressing, muffins, or cake.
I don’t like chicken breast or turkey breast very much. I can eat it, but I never would choose it over dark. At the local fried chicken chain, I only order thighs.
Last year, I give away all the turkey breast to our neighbors the day after Thanksgiving.
I’m with Harters. I don’t like Andouillette.
I also don’t like lamb kidneys.
I like the taste of Foie Gras, but I can’t tolerate it. The last time I ate it I became sick.
I have to avoid a lot of cured meats, restaurant salads, and frozen convenience foods, because their preservatives give me hives. I keep a running list of what I ate and where I ate it anytime I break out in hives.
I just hate caraway seeds. I love rye bread. Hate caraway. I can tolerate them steamed on shrimp; but I ain’t eating a one. other than that, aside from foods based on a dare, I can tolerate most things edible.
Many restaurants seem to use a preservative dip or wash on their greens or vegetables to make them last longer, or they aren’t washing their raw fruits and vegetables carefully before serving.
The water misters in spme.chain grocery stores have a small amount of some type of sulfite to the water.
Bagged lettuce and pre shredded coleslaw is sprayed or dipped in the same type of preservative.. Maybe the same compound small h mentions above is in the spray.
In Toronto, Montreal and NYC, i have had developed hives after eating restaurant salads or takeout salads several dozen times. Every time I order one popular salad that involves arugula, Parm, cooked mushrooms, olive oil and vinegar.
I have had allergy tests by an allergist. I don’t have allergies. There are no tests for people who develop hives after exposure to salts and other minerals.
Allergies require a protein . (You probably know this, I am sharing it for other people).
What I have is a sensitivity to sulfites.
When I was eating out more often, 10 years ago, hives happened once or twice a week.
I have only developed hives once in Europe, over 25 trips over 35 years, and I didn’t experience hives after 13 days of restaurant meals in Japan. It’s possible whichever preservative is causing me problems is not used widely outside North America.
I grew up in a family with profound food aversions. It’s a long list. I call them food fears.
My father would not eat meat on the bone. No cheese. Hence no pizza. No seafood or fish whatsoever. To this day I have an older brother who jokes that he doesn’t eat vegetables with more than one syllable.
But even as a kid I noticed Red Lobster commercials on TV with folks salivating over all kinds of seafood. The commercial had squeezes of lemon arcing in slow motion showering the seafood. Lots of oohs and aahs from the appreciative onlookers.
I thought: what planet are these people from? For me, seafood was foul smelling with a weird texture and it looked horrifying. How could anyone actually like this stuff?
Now, I eat it all and more. I once asked the proprietress at my local Sichuan joint about her favorite dish on the extensive menu, and she said the intestines. How many Americans would say that?
Everyone has their preferences. For seafood, I find scallops to be too sweet. But I have eaten them and will try them some more in the future. But if it’s an aversion I think it’s a matter of conditioning or other psychological manifestation.
The croissant aversion is a result of not liking the idea or smell of croissants after becoming sick after eating one. I buy them for my dining companions at home.
My Black Sambuca version also came after a bad experience.
Also, a life lesson, don’t drink Sambuca after eating sushi and proceed to get into a taxi.
Another aversion: gin.
With the grapefruit, orange and mustard, it’s a turn-off when I detect the taste in something when I’m not expecting it
My 16 yo cousin asked my mom to serve chicken while she, and 6 other family members (aged 16-60) were visiting during the Xmas holidays. My mom made our usual family recipe for lemon oregano chicken, which is typically chicken leg quarters.
The same cousin wasn’t touching any of the chicken, and my mom asked why.
Because she only would eat chicken without bones. Plain skinless boneless chicken breast.
Plain skinless boneless chicken breast is not something I ever encountered at home. Chicken breast was a novelty for me when I was a teenager and started dining out with friends. My favourite meal at 17 was a bacon, spinach and Swiss cheese stuffed chicken breast at a restaurant at a big mall in Toronto.
In my 20s, I bought chicken breast to cook occasionally, especially since various health and weightloss magazines pushed it.
These days I mostly buy thighs or whole chickens.
It’s funny how differently I was raised than my uncle’s kids. I even deviated from 18 months of pescatarian diet when my 80 yo aunt served beef meatballs for lunch. A week later, my 50 yo cousin served moose sausage without asking about restrictions, and I ate that, not to rock the boat. If I had a belief system reason, an allergy, or religious reason for not eating meat I would have spoken up. If it’s just what the host is serving, I’m generally going to eat whatever it is, unless there’s a good chance of food poisoning.
Thank you… I had a full time (local) job at that time and just did the “State Fair” circuit (for Barbie) part time (weekends) during the Spring/Summer/Early Fall months.
Sulfites are prohibited to use on raw vegetables in the US, Canada and Europe by the health agencies. HOCl is sometimes add in the US and Chlorine in Europe.
Bagged lettuces in Europe and the US are pre-washed with disinfectant like chlorine and packed with modified atmosphere.
Potassium Sorbate is the mineral / salt used as a preservative in bagged lettuce in Canada. I must be sensitive to that in addition to suflites. There is no lab test so it’s all trial and error.
By avoiding most restaurant salads and raw vegetable garnishes like tomato slices and lettuce, I currently only break out in hives once every 6 to 8 weeks.
I also break out in hives after some Korean and Thai restaurant food, so it is probably various salts not in my regular mostly Mediterranean diet that trigger me.
I also am sensitive to nickel in jewelery, even the small amount that’s found in 10 K and 14 K gold creates a topical skin burn these days.
