I grew up in a mostly " Try it, you’ll like it household."
I was warned to stay away from meatloaf since that’s where old meat went to die in many restaurants back in the day. I haven’t eaten shark because the idea bothered my grandfather and the pattern was passed down.
I haven’t eaten Boston Bluefish. Another thing passed down to avoid. It’s hard to find in Canada anyways.
I haven’t eaten balut , fermented shark , or durian.
Since being a kid I was always a seafood guy, but I have never had octopus, sea urchin, sea cucumber, or caviar/roe due to a belief that the textures are not something I would appreciate.
Whale, horse, dog, cat, any rodents (including guinea pigs), natto, lutefisk, and a bunch of other things I likely also never will try - for a variety of reasons.
I would try Durian if I ever got a chance & will try most things that aren’t completely and entirely off-putting in odor, visuals, or texture to me.
As far as seafood, if it was on sale or clearance, I’d probably try to make it for dinner. It appears shark is very expensive, so that probably isn’t going to happen.
As far as rodents, I’ve had muskrat, nutria and squirrel. My grandmother used to make them when my Dad and I visited, as they were favorites of my Dad. If given to me, yes… I’d eat them again.
If they weren’t a protected species, I’d process the next javelina that wanders into my yard.
I don’t have the stomach to try a “ghost pepper”. Habanero peppers is as high on the scoville scale as I will go.
Humans
chicken feet
chitterlings
brains
Why?
Because sharks sometimes eat people. He was from Greece, and I think he had known someone who went overboard. The idea of eating a fish that would or could have eaten a human bothered him. I’m sure he also wouldn’t have eaten piranha for the same reason.
I’m the only person I know who admits I would eat human if given the chance, as long as it could be done without repercussions. Do we taste like pork? I want to find out for myself.
As for everything else mentioned thus far, not going to eat any rodents or animals kept as pets, generally speaking. I couldn’t even bring myself to eat our chickens after they stopped laying. I mean, yeah, they’re chickens, but we made the mistake of naming them. And the hottest pepper I’d willingly eat these days is a serrano. Most everything else is worth a go as long as somebody else is paying for it. Never had lutefisk, but I’m willing to try. I will not eat pig ass again, though.
Fondue. I guess it would help if it were still the 70’s. No opportunity I guess.
Huh. Well, the only kind of shark I know of that is regularly eaten is mako shark, and I don’t think they ever eat humans.
I love meat fondue but dislike cheese fondue. The thought of stale bread cubes dipped in melted cheese does nothing for me. I tried it once at a restaurant. My distaste and lack of enthusiasm for it showed; one of the people at our table was visibly annoyed……long story!
I’m originally from Uganda, where the dictator, Idi Amin, reportedly disposed of dead bodies in the lake. One of my cousins, while eating a fish, encountered a human eyeball.
Poutine, which is surprising, considering I’m surrounded by it, living in Ottawa, but I hate the texture of cheese curds, and the thought of it, combined with fries and gravy, is unappealing.
How awful. That reminds me of the pig farmer in BC who had been murdering dozens of women and feeding the remains to his poor pigs.
My Grade 5 birthday party was 3 kinds of fondue. Cheese fondue, peanut butter fondue and chocolate fondue.
It’s hard to assess a negative. In your case in your OP, you had reasons to avoid trying certain foods, but I don’t have anything like that going on. I guess I’ll try just about anything that is an actual food that people actually eat routinely.
I put that last string of qualifiers in there because my son and I liked to watch Andrew Zimmern’s travels, and it was not uncommon for him to try something hideous that his guide said hardly anyone really ate, and the guide herself absolutely would not try it.
Oh - scanning some of the other replies, I don’t think I’d enjoy dogs/cats (animals ordinarily kept as pets) even if I were somewhere that dog meat was a routine part of the cuisine. Just too big a hump to get over in my head, so to speak. Horse, I think I’d try if I were somewhere it was routinely eaten.
And someone mentioned endangered species - that would be a don’t-try for me (assuming any restaurants still offer up items like that).
What’s the question exactly?
Is it, “What foods do you want to try, but have not?”
Or is it, “What foods have you not tried because you do not want to?”
I think the responses to the two questions can and most likely be very different.
True.
I organized a group dinner at a Polish restaurant for 4 classmates and myself once, and I hadn’t appreciated how some people are turned off by the unknown. My friend had in her mind everything she hadn’t tried would be gross (we were in our early 30s), the menu was weird and foreign. (Hilarious, she is an Immigration lawyer in multi culturally diverse Toronto). This discussion happened inside the restaurant, at the table. It was a little embarrassing. I wish she had told me earlier that her food likes were limited to steak, fried chicken, grilled chicken, hamburgers and some Jamaican foods. I would have chosen a place for fussier eaters. I told her to try the chicken schnitzel because it was like a giant chicken McNugget. She eventually ordered grilled chicken, I think. A year or 2 later, I teased her about refusing to try a pierogi. She wasn’t budging.
For things I would like to try, that I haven’t tried:
Hummingbird cake
Dublin Lawyer (lobster in whiskey cream sauce, I am making it this month)
Entenmans Blackout cake
Tatertot casserole
Snickers Salad
Loose meat sandwich (talked about on Roseanne)
Katz’s sandwich of any kind (never got around to it)
Philly pork and rapini sandwich
Iowa pork sandwich
Chow Mein sandwixh
I’ll have to think some more.
For several years I went out for lunch Wednesdays with about 6 coworkers. After about 4 months I realized that one guy always ordered Huevos Rancheros at the Mexican places, even though it was lunch rather than breakfast. I got him aside back at work and he explained that he was a pretty much “meat-n-taters” guy but wanted to join for lunch, so he picked what looked like the “safest” thing.
So I paid attention at the other restaurants. A sushi joint? Always the chicken bento box (no raw fish for him). He had similar “safe” meals picked out at all of our frequent haunts.
My wife was a bit like this, but for a different reason, early on in our marriage. Once she’d tried something she liked at a (insert restaurant type), she didn’t want to try anything else for fear of being disappointed in the meal. She was a much more picky eater back then, as well. Now she eats everything except can’t do raw fish or raw beef. The kids all eat everything, or did - one has become quasi-vegetarian.
