(no subject)

[pen_grunt]

With a belly full of authentic New Orleans Seafood Gumbo, I started discussing unusual food loves/hates. Mostly because people either really love or really hate seafood--but it's not that unusual to be in either camp. Liver is common to hate, but rare to love (and gross to love rare). I have some pretty rare or strange food likes and dislikes. Where do you fall?

[Poll #1028265]

In the interest of full disclosure, I love mushrooms and peas, and really, really hate everything else on the list. Which is weird--because who can hate cilantro? I can, apparently.

Comments

[gloomchen.livejournal.com]

I have three vehement dislikes: raw tomatoes, mustard, and ranch dressing. I'll throw pretty much anything else down my throat.

I was raised eating liver and onions regularly :) And I'm a seafood nut... I'm way into squid and octopus.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

Liver and onions is one of those rare foods that I LOVE the smell of and don't like the taste of.

I second you on the ranch dressing. UGH! I can't understand how people slather it on their perfectly good veggies.

[liquid-siftings.livejournal.com]

my hates:
- cucumber (who hates cucumber? apparently me. But I like dill pickles)
- bell/sweet peppers (but I like Jalapenos/Serranos/etc.)
- Raw celery
- a fair bit of seafood

...there's more, but I can't remember all.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

*gasp*

Cucumbers!?

Say it isn't so. Well, more for me then.

[liquid-siftings.livejournal.com]

Glad to see you are maintaining the LoCC (Law of Cucumber Conservation). The last thing the world needs is a cucumber surfeit.

[lisa-e-is-me.livejournal.com]

Oh, do I ever detest peas. Wow, it's amazing how vehemently I dislike them. I also refuse to eat squash, brussell sprouts, or ham with any kind of sweet glaze or fruit on it. Blarf!

All seafood is delicious to me. Well, I haven't tried sea urchin because I've heard horror stories, but everything else, I love. Especially sushi.

I don't think hating cilantro is that uncommon - most of the people I've discussed it with don't like it at all. I find it absolutely repulsive, mostly because more than one teeny-tiny piece of it in a dish can be enough to overpower all the other flavors. A (cheap) Italian restaurant once served us red sauce to dip our breadsticks into, and inexplicably there was a ton of cilantro in the sauce, which killed my palate for the rest of the meal. Cilantro? At an Italian place? Is that even legal?

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

Strange--my husband HATES peas too--to the point where he won't even kiss me if I've eaten peas (in any form).

It's an example of how people's tastes can be SO different. I love peas. Love, love love.

Squash makes me gag too--and ham...and I'm glad I'm not the only Cilantro hater out there. My co-workers seem to think it's unnatural. And yes, Cilantro in Italian cooking is illegal. Totally. I mean, if you're eating Mexican food, you can at least BRACE yourself for it. But to be blindsided like that? Illegal.

[lisa-e-is-me.livejournal.com]

Hee! My husband loves peas, so one night I decided to be sweet and cook some just for him, but the smell of them in the pan made me run off dry-heaving, and I had to ask him to please get them out of the house, IMMIEDIATELY, and turn all the fans on. He suspected I was being over-dramatic, but I truly had wanted to fix peas for him as a gesture of love, I just couldn't because they are my Kryptonite, so I totally get where your husband is coming from.

Thank you for the cosign - I have always suspected that I should have pressed charges when I was suckerpunched with cilantro in my red sauce. And 'brace yourself' is the right term indeed, because cilantro is flavorful to the point of being almost violent.

[liquid-siftings.livejournal.com]

ack! I had forgotten brussels sprouts and squash. icky!

But I'm all for peas and cilantro and look forward to both with relish (well, not sweet relish -- I despise sweet pickles).

[gwangi.livejournal.com]

I've heard that there's a genetic component to cilantro preference, but I've been totally unable to find any research actually backing that up. I've looked on all of the biodork search engines I know of, and there's still nothing, although there are some articles in Spanish that I didn't feel like translating. But I'm beginning to suspect that the linkage story is nothing more than an internet fairy tale. Which makes this comment pretty useless, really.

[pasdeschiens.livejournal.com]

Hello, I wandered in off the street (via gloomchen, actually).

Anyway. I hateses the coriander (ie: cilantro, but I live in Australia so we don't use your funny names for things). And I'd read somewhere about that genetic component / predisposition thingie too. It seems viable, but then I wonder what actually determines a like or dislike of tastes of foods - could that all be genetic, too?

Poll-wise, I love mushrooms and my sister cannot stand them. We would sit opposite each other at the dining table and she'd give me mushrooms and I'd give her... what. Something. Maybe broccoli before I learned it was food of the Gods and wouldn't share it with anyone.