I wonder if those who say they like everything eat lutefisk.
There are many foods I just can’t bring myself to like, beets, for instance. Like Greg K, I shun ammoniated cheese.
Most canned vegetables I will leave on the plate, or better yet, in the can. Miracle whip is disgusting.
I’ll stop there, but that is not the end of my DNPIM list.
Well, the question was about food items encountered in the course of normal life or most travels, not “odd challenge food from far flung places.”
As to canned vegetables, I also said good quality. And as to Miracle Whip, I said “real food.”
My husband comes close, but he doesn’t like orange squash or sweet potatoes, except in Japan. Don’t ask.
They are sweeter in Japan. When I lived there I loved the Imo (sweet potato) man who had a cart with roasted sweet potatoes. Better than the ice cream man.
I eat anything. Enjoy Durian, insects, offal including brains. Even enjoyed dog, never had cat. My parents said I was enormously picky when young, but those days are past.
Funny, he says he likes them only in Japan because they are far LESS sweet there.
Not surprised you haven’t had cat - people do not in general eat land animal carnivores.
By Sarah’s criteria, there really isn’t much that I won’t eat. I’m not a huge fan of brains & oysters do NOTHING for me. And I was an extremely picky eater as a kid.
When my wife and I traveled to Vietnam, we did a street food tour our first night in Saigon. The food was spectacular every place we ate. We were at our last stop (it was probably 11pm) & I was VERY tired & already feeling a bit queasy from sleep deprivation, etc. The last dish we were offered was Balut. Couldn’t do it. Even the thought of it was making me gag.
Tonight’s Home cured pickled tongue
as do I. And a few other things that I don’t like: squash, asparagus, okra, for example. But I do clear my plate almost every night, so in that sense, I eat everything.
J-Nine’s fave, huh? Love me some tongue. Due to ‘incidents’ with enoki mushrooms and buttercream frosting, those are off my list. Not a fan of tripe, and canned vegetables are to be consumed only in dire planetary emergencies. Pretty sure I will try anything else.
I eat everything. I subscribe to the whole Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall and Fergus Henderson philosophy. Only place I hit resistance is innards and offals. I try, and try, but it doesn’t come easy.
Have not had many of the more exotic foods listed above, but of the things I’ve tried I don’t care for beef liver (as in liver and onions) and vegemite.
I’m with you Sarah, and it’s a running joke amongst my wife and kids…because of me, we have a ‘you have to try everything at least once’ rule in our house, and ‘if you haven’t had it in more than a year, you need to try it again’. That’s regardless of your age as well. I didn’t like brussel sprouts or sardines as a kid, but things change.
When I was a kid the first freezing morning we killed and butchered a hog and a steer, breakfast was fresh brains and eggs scrambled together.
I do not eat olives. I just don’t like them. I do not eat sea cucumber. I do not eat Philippino Krill Eggs (98% salt). I refused an offer to go to an underground restaurant to eat monkey brains in Hong Kong. I will not eat bear meat per the advice of the FDA that virtually all trichinosis in the United States comes from bear meat. I would probably pass on dog and cat meat but I have never been offered it, so I can’t tell. I would pass on live Ortolan and would probably pass on Durian because it sounds awful. I would probably draw the line at insects.
That just about covers it. I have eaten rattle snake, cow’s medulla, horse meat, ostrich, kangaroo, alligator. My mother reported than I once ate a caterpillar.
You probably already know this, but yeah, everything. I find food exclusions annoying but do enjoy modifying things in a way that suits palates. I once fed an entire party beef tongue, without telling them, and they loved it.
How anyone could ever say beets are useless is beyond me. A sweet, earthy, nutritional powerhouse of anti-ox and nitrites.
No, I don’t eat everything. I have a strong negative reaction to cilantro and that can affect many dishes. I also had 2 rules when dining with my team in Beijing: first, don’t tell me what we’re having until I’ve eaten it, and second, nothing with a face. I know it wasn’t uncommon to be served a whole head of something for the table, but … I guess that makes me a picky eater
I’m with you, Kenny. I absolutely love beets.
Yeah, I did make that assumption. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
I’m in the eat everything camp. There are things I don’t buy because they aren’t my preference, but I’ll happily eat them. I also love certain foods that crop up on many “won’t eat” lists (Brussels sprouts, tongue, beets, turnips, tripe). I was not a picky eater as a kid. I disliked beef liver, but ate it when served. I’m fine with liver now, have even bought it on occasion. Didn’t care for turnips as a kid, but love them now.
-Al
I can’t eat tripe. Growing up in Los Angeles, I ate a lot of menudo and loved it. On our first trip to France in 1975, my then girlfriend and now wife and I ate Tripes à la Niçoise in Nice and both of us became violently ill. To this day, the taste of tripe brings back that memory as if it happened yesterday and I gag at the taste. Funny how taste memory is so ingrained.
I can now enjoy raw or roasted brussels sprouts, but it took me decades to be able to enjoy them following the winter I spent living with a family while a college student in Edinburgh. Every Sunday boiled brussels were served as a part of family lunch, followed by a family outing by car. Imagine being hotboxed in a small car during winter on the winding roads on the east coast of Scotland (too cold and wet to roll down the windows) by a car full of pre-teen children farting boiled brussels sprouts.
I’m not a fan of andouillette, whale sperm, durian, carnivorous mammals, old garlic, raw scallions and raw onions, and can’t imagine enjoying balut.
And Kenny is right; beets are great.
I’m mostly against mayonnaise except when visiting French speaking countries.