Why ask you to pay attention when your brain can't stand the cost?

[venta]

So, 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.

Comments

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

When I tell someone 'I don't like x', I mean 'I can't eat it even to be polite, and trust me, I can taste it whatever you put it in'. Things that I just wouldn't choose to eat I keep quiet about, because catering to people's different food requirements is hard enough as it is.

One of the things about carrots, by the way, is that they taste completely different raw from the way they do cooked. I wouldn't choose to eat cooked carrots, although I will put them on my plate if they are presented to me. Raw carrots, however, I virtually lived on as a child, and regarded as delicious.

[marjory.livejournal.com]

The very idea of peas makes me heave. I will, hypocritically, eat wasabi peas, so I think it's a matter of texture. I think it may also be because of the grim thought association with those ghastly freezer bags of watery mixed vegetables that used to get trotted out when I was a child. As an adult, I have made my peace with carrots and have always liked sweetcorn, but I have a visceral loathing of peas down to wincing each time I type the word. The horrors get frigging everywhere.

See also baked beans. It's the too sweet sauce and the sloppiness and the gross way that the bean skins sometimes come separate which makes me shudder.

I've never quite worked out how to politely let someone know I don't like something. If I'm asked, I will mention my aversion to the p-word. If not, and they show up, I can make a good fist of appearing vaguely normal and appreciative whilst blanking the little green buggers. I'm generally the least fussy person ever when it comes to food and know how much effort it can take to plan and cook meals. Mitch's Dad, OTOH, only likes sweets, meat, fish and potatoes and feeding him is, yes, well, um. I recognise his look of virtuous concentration when he's trying to blank any of the exotic vegetables or pasta which we mercilessly serve alongside (but not touching) those meals!

[lnr]

There are one or two things I'm not a huge fan of and would pass up if given the choice, but very very few things I'd go so far as to say I don't like, and I don't think there's anything I can't eat. I'm such an unfussy eater I can't usually *remember* the things I'm not very fond of except when actually presented with them.

Mike doesn't eat bananas or mushrooms at all - to the extent it's worth mentioning when people are cooking for him. Even picking the mushrooms out isn't always enough, as they leave a mushroomy taste behind. He would much rather avoid strong cheeses (mostly blue ones) but they're usually much more optional. He isn't a big fan of courgette, aubergine or baby sweetcorn but can pick them out of things.

If someone is cooking for me I sometimes say "I eat anything" and sometimes "I eat everything" - which is similar but gives an idea of my enthusiasm :)

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

There's not much I don't eat. I have an aversion to 'gribbly things' - prawns, crab etc and I won't eat them - it's partly a textural thing and partly, well, they have exoskeletons and too many legs and that's just weird.

Taste-wise, I don't like cucumber or celery. I will use celery in cooking but absolutely cannot abide it raw as it smells and tastes terrible.

[the-alchemist.livejournal.com]

When I say I don't like tomato ketchup or overcooked rice, I mean that eating it is likely to make me throw up a little bit, and being near it or smelling it or thinking too hard about it might have the same effect.

I don't tend to say I don't like other things. There's a category of things which I have an immediate 'ick' reaction to, which I can control by telling myself very firmly that the flavour/texture is just new and interesting, not necessarily nasty. This includes natto, raw egg, and some kind of horseradish thing that got served to me as part of the same very expensive meal as the raw egg (as a rule I like horseradish). I think I originally had that reaction to, for example, blue cheese, but after eating it a few times the 'ick' reaction went away, so if I wanted to make a habit out of eating natto, I assume I would also get used to it quite quickly.

[erming.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of things I don't eat but that is mostly because of allergies - I used to eat most of them (and love them) they just don't love me (and since I cut them out of my diet my asthma and hayfever have virtually gone away and my skin looks a lot better than the chronically visible eczema I used to have).

I've recently made my peace with courgettes, which as a child I remember were always bitter.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

If I discount things I have an actual physical reaction/response to, I'm not half as picky as certain people think I am. ;-)

I just plain don't like peas (see comment above), raw carrots, olives [which is weird, given a) heritage and b) love of olive oil, and I did go through a phase of liking them in my 20s], and mushrooms. I have a revulsion to offal which turns out is probably based in a sensible response to what happens when I eat it (TMI), and have similarly avoided pork* for years. I'm allergic to pineapple, and reactive to a fair few other things, so on the face of it I just look like a very picky eater. :(

*Gammon, bacon, and sausages are all ok though. It turns out I like the taste of properly cooked roast pork after all, but I still can't actually eat it without side-effects.

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

See, this concept of food preferences is somewhat alien to me. If you have the choice between "eat X or go hungry", then you get used to all sorts of things. And if you are vegetarian and travel a lot, then you get used to eating when you can because it might not be available later!

So if it's not something that makes me ill, and is vegetarian, then you can feed me pretty much whatever experimental food you like and I'll say yum. It can be a disaster area, undercooked, overcooked or just a weird fusion dish or whatever. And chances are that I am not being insincere, I just have seem to have differently calibrated tastebuds so that anything above "this is passable" = "yum". Whereas AFAICT, "OMG MUST HAVE MORE OF THE NOMMY FOOD" is what other people would say yum for.

At least as far as savoury food goes. Desserts and alcoholic beverages don't tend to be the filling part of the meal, are often optional socially, and tend to be things that other people have much stronger attachments to and will eat/drink extra if made available. This means there is much less pressure to make your body like it; sometimes it is socially acceptable to demur (e.g. at a buffet), take a small portion claiming fullness or accept your full portion but then share it with other people (which will make them happy and make them believe you are doing them a favour).

So AFAICT, other people like desserts more than I do. Or possibly just the ones involving fruit.

I have on occasion discovered that I really really liked someone's version of a food that I would not normally like, and exclaimed that wow it was delicious, but I don't recommend actually explaining that you don't usually like X, but THIS X was really really good, as that is a social minefield :-).

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

Hello, Blackcurrant Man here again...

As discussed, can't eat blackcurrants. Won't eat veal.

Fervent dislike for prawns and seafood - they don't actually cause me to be ill, but I really dislike them. The texture is a big part of it, I think. And oysters. And tripe. Don't much like other offals, but can eat some of them at a pinch.

I don't like mushy peas, but garden peas (raw or cooked) are fine, as are carrots (raw or cooked), parsnips and venison. Mmmm, venison. Ahem.

Olives. Never liked them much. Bought a platter of stuff at Brussels Airport - €5 for beer, cheese, breads, olives, dips. Well, I've paid for it so I'll jolly well eat it. Turns out green olives aren't bad, but black olives are 'orrible.

Wasabi - not in any form, thanks. If I touch it, I need to go and wash my hands thoroughly. Once went to a place where the bar snacks were wasabi peas. Tried one - realised my mistake...

Lots of things I'd never choose, but will eat to be polite.

I like chocolate and I like biscuits but I don't like chocolate biscuits. And Nice biscuits, or anything with sugar on it like that, are not nice at all. Also: Maltesers - the honeycomb texture sets my teeth on edge. But not in a Crunchie. Go me!

At university I was poorly advised on curries so lived for years thinking I didn't like them, when all I needed was an education about what to eat and how and when to be cautious. Now I can eat Indian curries as well as any true Englishman. Goat curry ftw!

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Things I dislike = egg white. To eat it, I have to suppress a retch. So I give it to somebody else or leave it, because vomming in public is embarrassing.

Things I can't physically swallow = grapefruit solids. Even a grapefruit flavoured sweet. Gagging and spitting it out is a reflex just as strong as pulling my hand away when something is surprisingly hot. I don't even find the taste disgusting, it just results in that happening. I don't know why my body thinks this is a good idea but it probably knows something I don't so I just go along with it rather than push the point.

Things I don't like = ooh, let's see. Porridge, sourdough bread, mashed potato without stamps, peanut butter on toast, overcooked pasta, artichoke, some other stuff. I will eat them to be polite but I need to either have a conversation or read something interesting to take my mind off how unpleasurable the food is.

[rabbit1080.livejournal.com]

I really don't like bananas at all. The smell and texture are horrible. Not sure if it's because I ate Cape Lilac berries (in the garden) as a toddler. However, I live in a warm climate and like to get some exercise, so I've trained myself to tolerate bananas but I'm really picky about them being just ripe enough to eat but not so ripe that they smell awful. I usually miss the window.

There are some foods I refuse to eat, like black pudding and mushy peas. And I can't abide lager.

Incidentally, mushy peas remind me of Peter Mandelson. The story goes that, er, around a decade ago Mr Mandelson deigned to visit his then-constituents in North-East England to show how in-touch he was with them. This involved visiting a fish-and-chip shop to buy his lunch. He allegedly requested "some of that guacamole" with his fish-and-chips. Which was, of course, actually mushy peas. I guess he's a Southerner after all :)

[sammason.livejournal.com]

I avoid foods which burn my mouth or throat. Often when people cook with chilli or ginger they use enough for me to find the food painful. In small amounts though, I like those flavourings.

[pm215]

My standard phrase if somebody's cooking for me is "anything except spicy food". I've mellowed a bit on spiciness since I was younger, but still anything really spicy is pretty much inedible for me and moderately or mildly spicy food is annoying because it often falls into "this would taste really nice if you hadn't added chilli and made it actively painful to eat". It's a nice simple and not too awkward-sounding rule of thumb.

My second-tier dislikes are pretty wide ranging and include liver, squid, avocado and brussels sprouts. I'd probably claim to "dislike" or "not really like" those in random conversation. It also seems to include quite a lot of Chinese-food-as-served-in-China for reasons I can't quite pin down (a fact on my mind at the moment since I'm at a conference in Hong Kong).

[eniel]

When asked what I don't like, my only answer is tripe. There are various ways to prepare them, and some pieces are ok, but you're bound to get one of the more "fleshy" bits, and at that point, I just can chew it without gagging.
I don't really get mushy peas, since regular peas with mint taste better, and have actual consistency. I also don't get margarine (textures and flavors are wrong), repulsed ham (why is "water" an ingredient?) and American chocolate (except for Reeses products, for some reason). I also would rather "buy happy meat over any meat", but that's not something I'll impose on other people.

However, aardnebby is more picky than me. So trips to visit my family are occasions to see what he'll try (proper "foie gras" vs. pulsed leftover bits sold as "bloc de foie gras" which is revolting), what he might like* (asparagus have jumped onto the list of "I'll eat them at home if prepared properly) and what he'll taste but refuse to eat (beetroot has been added to that list).

*I had to convince him that there was no correlation whatsoever between the fact that you have three meals a day and that he is in love with Raclette, Fondue and Tartiflette. And that you don't serve any of those during a heatwave, even if you have the means to do so. He remains unconvinced.

[ar-boblad.livejournal.com]

I can't get black pudding past my brain, so I don't eat that even if that leaves me being a rude guest. Which is a bit rubbish of me frankly, the stuff might taste good for all I know.

The other big one is onions. I don't like onions, and if you serve me food with lumps of onion in I will pick it out. But I have trained myself to eat onion out of politeness where it's an ingredient, and onion can be disguised sufficiently to not ruin a sauce's flavour if it's cooked long enough and alongside enough other flavours.

On the other hand pickled onions are delicious, but then they don't taste of onion. And the texture is great.

[kauket.livejournal.com]

Although I dislike various things I'll eat almost anything if someone else has cooked it for me, because it seems rude not to. However the test of whether I really don't like something is if I'll refuse it even in those circumstances - crab, lobster, squid, eel, black pudding, offal. Pretty much anything else I'll eat if given it, including all other seafood, aniseed-flavoured stuff.

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

Peanuts. Not allergic, but the smell makes me nauseous

[beckyl.livejournal.com]

Anything I don't like is so far either actually mostly a texture issue - most beans, (although I'm mellowing on that - kidney and baked are still on the avoid list but green, runner are ok) mushy peas, avocado, hard boiled egg yolk; or is the bit of 'my tastebuds are wonky' that means for example, iceberg lettuce tastes really bitter and just wrong. I'm not keen on any food that has enough spices in it that my nose starts running and I get tears in my eyes when eating it. The only way to make something that spicy possible is by having something like youghurt available to alternate mouthfuls with.

I'm not allowed to eat grapefruit since it blocks the uptake of my beta blockers.

Red Bull and other drinks of that nature are such that the smell turns my stomach and therefor I have never tried drinking them.

I haven't run into much that I couldn't eat enough of to be polite if I had to, and I'm thankfully not allergic to anything I know about on the food front.