But they’re not revolting to us…
And its ok to be picky to a point…its when you make it our burden that it gets tiresome.
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As in my case, the revulsion is usually a question of conditioning. When I asked the proprietress of my favorite Sichuan restaurant which item on the extensive menu was her favorite, she said the intestines.
As I was raised to be revolted by seafood, I would see commercials on TV for Red Lobster. In the commercial people were swooning over a seafood platter. A lemon was squeezed, and an arc of lemon juice sprayed in slow motion, lovingly showering the platter.
My first thought was : who are these people? What planet did they come from?
In my world, seafood was smelly, had a strange texture, a foul taste, and looked like the Creature from a horror movie.
I realized at a very young age that it was conditioning, so I very slowly tried to see if I could change. What put my over the top was having a girlfriend from Maryland who loved crabs and took me to a crab feast a friend was making. Once you can eat crabs, and pick through the guts, you can probably get used to just about anything.
The next milestone thing was my kids. I took them to every kind of hole-in-the-wall, never hounded them to try anything they didn’t want to try, and they started being more adventurous than I was. If they saw brains on the menu, they wanted to try it, though I never had. So I ‘screwed my courage to the sticking place’ and ordered the brains.
Made me feel smarter…
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This brings to mind a classic Simpsons moment. At a fancy Italian restaurant, Bart is informed that calamari is actually squid, and his order is immediate. “Extra tentacles, please!”
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Interesting. Growing up in the middle of the country, fish was dinner fare about once a week. Almost always caught by uncles and cousins. Perch, crappie, catfish, bluegill and the like.
Fried shrimp when we went out to eat.
Crab if we went down to Texas.
Vegetables that stink were my particular aversion.
And they still are 
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That’s sort of like asking how do you say you will read anything when so many books should be censored.
Fresher=better. Love them fresh roasted. I liked the boiled ones I’ve had. Spicy boiled peanuts.
I can’t do carraway. I adore rye breads, bud can’t stand carraway, even ground in the flour. My culinary Achilles heel.
To agree with Steve, I feel conditioning has mucho impact. I know so many kids who hunt and show me their big kills. I just think back to eating that slop. “Sweet buck!”
I hated eating wild game frequently. Rabbits are so-so from the wild, pheasant and squirrels are do-able. Venison needs pork fat. Silver skin is blah. Had enough duck, goose (uff!). Elk is good, as are wild sows. Antelope, not so good. Not many elk, here. Bison is good. None here. Not much I can shoot here that tastes good. That’s why I fish. Good fish here.
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Well, I was speaking partly tongue-in-cheek…I’m really just surprised that anyone can find ALL foods palatable. It seems a lot like enjoying all movies or all genres of music. It’s an excellent trait, though.
I agree, conditioning plays a huge role. I love garlic but, if I had grown up without it, the unfamiliar pungency might make me reluctant to try it out.
For me there are foods I just don’t care for, and some that I have trouble choking down.
If I just don’t care for a food, I try it periodically over the years to see if I’ll learn to like it. (That worked with avocado.) And I’ll also be sure to try a really good version of it. (That worked with olive oil; the cheap “extra light” stuff just tasted bitter, but the high-quality stuff had actual body to round out the bitterness.)
On the other hand, after a year of trying to learn to like cilantro - eating it every day - I finally gave up when I realized I was still forcing myself not to gag every time I ate it. I decided life was too short.
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But yet we exist.
There are things that I prefer to not eat…hot dogs, foams, and a fairly long list of fast foods…but because I find them a waste of calories. If I were at someones home I’d eat it to be polite with no chance of gagging or slipping it to the dog.
I cant think of any food that I just wont eat under any circumstance (I even like dairy, even though my body rejects it so violently that I avoid it for my own wellbeing)
I was kind of forced to deal with it. Like yucca root, which I don’t love. If it’
s part of your regular diet, you can acclimate. You tend to bite the bullet to be polite. I did and now I need cilantro.
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I wish I liked (ETA: beef) liver, but I don’t.
I don’t enjoy truffles either, which is weird. I have a small collection in the back of my cupbaord of abandoned truffle-flavored food gifts I’ve received… should really just throw them away.
Have you tried breaded chicken livers?? I made them last night…
Really good with a dash of hot sauce!!
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I should’ve specified “beef/calf” liver.
I love chicken livers.
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My main grocery store used to carry fresh “beef” liver which my girlfriend and I liked. I think the brand was Rumba.
Then all of a sudden I stopped seeing it, so I asked the head butcher/meat cutter and he said the store wouldn’t let him stock it, as it wasn’t selling quickly enough.
Now all I can get is frozen “beef” liver, which is overpriced and not nearly as good. So beef liver has been deleted from my cooking rotation.
This is a great/funny/weird thread. There is not much I don’t like. My parents exposed me to a wide array of vegetables and different kinds of cuisine when I was a kid.
I will eat almost any vegetable, however, I have a disdain for cucumbers. Don’t like the smell or taste (and they repeat on me for hours). Same with green bell peppers, though I’ll eat red bell or any other color under the sun. While I don’t mind the taste of escarole, seeing my mom wash it in a bowl as a child and the amount of dirt that came off kind of scarred me and I will not eat it.
Zero meat apprehensions. I’ve had almost everything, from nose to tail though I have not yet tried brain (but would like to). Several years ago, some friends and I had an Anthony Bourdain memorial BBQ of which the theme was “Nose to Tail”. There was heart, lungs, liver (I made my special “Not Your Grandma’s Liver and Onions”) and while plenty I would not rush to eat again, it is not out of distaste.
And now for a very oddly specific “I don’t like”: something called natto which are fermented soybeans. My BF LOVES them-- gets it at the Asian market. They come in little packs frozen and need to be thawed. The slimy texture does not bother me as much as the taste/smell. My god. It smells like a rotting corpse. Probably worse than Durian. I did take a spoonful (or chopstickful I should say) and I literally gagged as I was chewing. I legitimately thought I was going to throw up. I like soybeans and I’ve eaten many kinds of fermented products, but pardon my language, HOLY SHIT it was terrible. I won’t be in the same room when he eats it.
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Yes. I used to dislike cilantro because it tasted to me like soap, but after spending a couple of months in Thailand I learned not only to tolerate it but to seek it out.
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If you know you don’t like truffles, why don’t you accept the gift graciously then later on give it to someone who does like them, or donate them (unopened)?
My girlfriend wanted to chime in this morning… She hates tofu and really hates scrapple.
I love scrapple and will buy it when its on sale. I will have to make her something else while I enjoy it, though.
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I agree, natto is truly disgusting. I once inadvertently had a mouthful in a maki roll and, I’m sure I offended my (Japanese) hosts by reflexively gagging and spitting it out.
The other thing I can’t bear to even be close to is bananas.
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So, do you have the ‘cilantro tastes like soap’ gene / does your experience show that people with the gene can still change their tastes?
Or do you not have the gene and so the exposure could change you from dislike to like?
It’s great that you could go from dislike to tolerate to like.
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