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ventaSo, tell me about foods you don't like.
What do you mean when you say "I don't like <food>"? Let's leave aside for the moment allergies, intolerances, things that bring on funny tummies, and so on, and think just about preferences.
If asked what I don't like, my standard answer is "mushy peas". I think that's the sum total of things I really dislike so much that I couldn't, if presented with them in someone else's house, eat them to be polite. As a child, I was only allowed to dislike foods if I disliked them consistently and had definitely tried them - my chosen thing to dislike (which I was then allowed to skip at meals) was peas. Yes, I know peas are supposed to be the child-friendly vegetable. I loved cabbage. I was a perverse child[*].
These days, I have more or less made my peace with garden peas. They belong in second-tier dislikes with parsnips and venison which I will eat if given, but would never choose.
I have a third tier of things which I don't eat but don't really dislike, for example carrots. I just don't really get carrots, and since I discovered that I was sufficiently grown up to pretty much avoid a vegetable if I don't like it, I've barely bothered with them. I mean, I'll chop them up in soup, or put them in recipes that call for them, but sliced and boiled with a roast? Bah. Forget it. Glazed and roasted? A bit better, but still rather... carroty. Why would you when you could have roasted sweet potato instead?
Of late I've been buying carrots a little more often, because they're useful for making bento side-dishes. Carrots keep a reasonably long time, are cheap, are colourful and - I've discovered - can often be made not to taste like carrots. Carrot kinpira tastes mostly of sesame, and I cook it quite often.
Yesterday, I improvised a salad of grated carrot, goji berries, pumpkin seeds, walnut pieces and lime juice which turned out surprisingly nice. I didn't really expect carrot and lime juice to get on with each other to the extent they did - I think the salad may also become a regular visitor to my lunchbox in the summer. (If it sounds glamorous, then you should bear in mind that all the non-carroty foods came out of a badly-past-its-use-by Graze box. I don't keep goji berries about as standard. And in the future, I'd advise against the walnuts because they made it a little bitter overall.)
In attempt to stop bombarding you with lunch pictures, I'm planning to keep most bento-stuff on my flickr dribble (it's not a stream yet). So if you like food or photos of food, look there.
But I digress. If you say "I don't like <food>", what do you mean? Do you really, violently detest it? Do you merely not care for it that much? Do you distinguish between things you dislike but could eat if politeness required, and things you dislike so much you don't feel you could? If someone is cooking for you, do you mention dislikes to them?
One of my friends persistently foxes me with the phrase "I have to be in the mood for <food>". I can kind of understand that, for example, on a freezing cold winter day you might not be in the mood for a light salad, but she says things like "I have to be in the mood for tomatoes". I've never really properly grasped what she means by this, and thus never have any idea whether it's ok to feed her tomatoes.
[*] I'm still perverse. Just bigger.
What do you mean when you say "I don't like <food>"? Let's leave aside for the moment allergies, intolerances, things that bring on funny tummies, and so on, and think just about preferences.
If asked what I don't like, my standard answer is "mushy peas". I think that's the sum total of things I really dislike so much that I couldn't, if presented with them in someone else's house, eat them to be polite. As a child, I was only allowed to dislike foods if I disliked them consistently and had definitely tried them - my chosen thing to dislike (which I was then allowed to skip at meals) was peas. Yes, I know peas are supposed to be the child-friendly vegetable. I loved cabbage. I was a perverse child[*].
These days, I have more or less made my peace with garden peas. They belong in second-tier dislikes with parsnips and venison which I will eat if given, but would never choose.
I have a third tier of things which I don't eat but don't really dislike, for example carrots. I just don't really get carrots, and since I discovered that I was sufficiently grown up to pretty much avoid a vegetable if I don't like it, I've barely bothered with them. I mean, I'll chop them up in soup, or put them in recipes that call for them, but sliced and boiled with a roast? Bah. Forget it. Glazed and roasted? A bit better, but still rather... carroty. Why would you when you could have roasted sweet potato instead?
Of late I've been buying carrots a little more often, because they're useful for making bento side-dishes. Carrots keep a reasonably long time, are cheap, are colourful and - I've discovered - can often be made not to taste like carrots. Carrot kinpira tastes mostly of sesame, and I cook it quite often.
Yesterday, I improvised a salad of grated carrot, goji berries, pumpkin seeds, walnut pieces and lime juice which turned out surprisingly nice. I didn't really expect carrot and lime juice to get on with each other to the extent they did - I think the salad may also become a regular visitor to my lunchbox in the summer. (If it sounds glamorous, then you should bear in mind that all the non-carroty foods came out of a badly-past-its-use-by Graze box. I don't keep goji berries about as standard. And in the future, I'd advise against the walnuts because they made it a little bitter overall.)
In attempt to stop bombarding you with lunch pictures, I'm planning to keep most bento-stuff on my flickr dribble (it's not a stream yet). So if you like food or photos of food, look there.
But I digress. If you say "I don't like <food>", what do you mean? Do you really, violently detest it? Do you merely not care for it that much? Do you distinguish between things you dislike but could eat if politeness required, and things you dislike so much you don't feel you could? If someone is cooking for you, do you mention dislikes to them?
One of my friends persistently foxes me with the phrase "I have to be in the mood for <food>". I can kind of understand that, for example, on a freezing cold winter day you might not be in the mood for a light salad, but she says things like "I have to be in the mood for tomatoes". I've never really properly grasped what she means by this, and thus never have any idea whether it's ok to feed her tomatoes.
[*] I'm still perverse. Just bigger.
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no subject
Date: 2012-05-30 11:14 am (UTC)I used to eat raw peas from the garden, right out of the pod, but that's the only time I have ever voluntarily eaten them. Cooked, they fall into the "yes, I can taste them even when heavily disguised" bracket for me (I do grit my teeth and bear it when they show up in pre-cooked food if I absolutely cannot pick them out, but mostly I will pick them out). I last ate half a forkful about 18m ago to demonstrate to
no subject
Date: 2012-05-30 11:20 am (UTC)I do firmly believe that I should re-try things every so often, and I don't even have a small child to set a good example for. The weird one is peanut butter, which I forgot in my list above. The logic goes like this: I like peanuts. I like peanut butter biscuits. I like the Thai chicken dish my mum makes with peanut butter in it. I like Reese's peanut butter cups.
I must like peanut butter, right?
About every 18months I convince myself that I must just have been mistaken, try some peanut butter and remember that no, it really is beyond vile.
The Reese's cups are the oddest one, because I don't even like Reese's chocolate. And the peanut butter in them is ridiculously over-sweetened, and I don't usually like very sweet things.
no subject
Date: 2012-05-30 11:57 am (UTC)I've just realised there are more *drinks* I don't like than foods - really not a big fan of baileys or peach schnapps. Whisk(e)y was another one I did manage to acquire a taste for.
no subject
Date: 2012-05-30 12:53 pm (UTC)As for disliking drinks - I dislike pretty much all spirits!
no subject
Date: 2012-05-30 01:49 pm (UTC)