{stories and snapshots from my new york city life.}

10.12.2011

The Foods we HATE

Over dinner recently, my dad's wife Angie and I were talking about food. The subject was fun for me as I'm pretty much always talking about food. But Angie's not really into food as a topic of conversation. She eats it when she's hungry, but it's not something she spends an inordinate time thinking about like this ol' girl.


It is common knowledge that Angie hates onions. That's a hard one for me to wrap my head around, as onions simmered with garlic is one of my all-time favorite ways to begin any dish. Angie's always considered me an adventurous eater, and was pretty surprised when I mentioned that I have plenty of foods that I hate too. The list is long, and exposes a few of my neuroses.

They include:

* Olives
* Anchovies and sardines (swimming salt bombs)
* Cream cheese, cottage cheese and sour cream
* Black licorice (red is tolerable, but would never be chosen over chocolate anything)
* Anything mayo-based like potato salad, chicken salad (all I can picture is a big bowl of potato salad festering out in the sun at a summer bbq. Makes my stomach turn).
* Canned tuna (I've actually never even tried it because I'm so turned off by the smell. Also, the act of opening the can reminds me of opening cat food).
* Raisins (grape rejects)
* Capers (Dad calls them 'rat turds'. Not getting past that association).
* Scrambled or hard-boiled eggs (fried is the only way I like 'em)
* Any and all organ meats, pate, foie gras (blech)
* Pretty much any canned vegetable (the texture is just mush)
* Raw oysters (my Gulf Coast daddy used to basically force-feed me these as a child and I am forever scarred).
* Sauerkraut
* Most things that are pickled
* Cooked carrots (but love 'em raw)
* Raw tomatoes (but like 'em cooked)

When I connect the dots, it's easy to see that texture is a huge factor for me as most of the items on my most-hated list are soft and mushy. When it comes to flavor, anything too salty seems to turn me off.

What foods trigger your gag reflex?

14 comments:

  1. i aso forgot any type of fish or seafood, meat, licorice, mayo-based salads and anything pickled. we have very similar food phobias.it's nice to know that youre still a foodie with such pickiness.

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  2. I can't say that any come to mind that trigger the gag reflex, but I do have some slight aversions. I do not like salmon (so fishy, ick). I also hate HATE rosemary. It tastes like eating a Christmas tree, and not in a good way. The last thing that comes to mind is peas. Not so much.

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  3. I HATE cauliflower and olives. Yech.

    I used to hate broccoli, but I started eating it like 7 months ago and it has now climbed up to my 'dislike' list.

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  4. I despise black licorice! Pretty sure they'll take away my Swedish citizenship for that one...

    Jello "salads". Offal. Caviar.

    Gross, gross and gross.

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  5. All mushrooms.
    Steak.
    I only eat scrambled eggs, I cannot stomach eggs in any other form.
    Bananas. I can eat banana bread, but I cannot pick up a banana and eat it. I gag at the first bite.
    Corned beef. Hate, hate, hate corned beef.

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  6. I can't think of anything that makes me gag more than black licorice. I simply can not stand the smell of it. There are tons of other foods that annoy me and it kills my poor husband, because it is ALWAYS a texture issue.

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  7. There are very few foods I hate with a passion, but that small list includes: black licorice (this appears to be more common than I realized), drinking milk (or anything with that same texture -- including lattes, chai, coconut water, eggnog, or really watery yogurt...BARF), and raw celery.

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  8. Hi Jenn,
    You have quite the list there of dislikes, kind of reminds me of my kids, lol.
    Looks like you have been having lots of fun, those shooting pics are really cool. Hope the weather over there is good. I'm still hoping to get to NY someday. Hope you have a great week.
    -Gina-

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  9. TOTALLY with you on the texture. I hate raw tomatoes but love them in all other forms. But my main hatred is mushrooms. Grey. Slimey.

    Just no.

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  10. I'm with you on the canned veggies. Organ meats are tops on my list, too :)

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  11. Gosh, I loved capers before I read your post! Now all I can think of are rats!
    Lovely blog, came over from Monet's. Loved your guest post. Have a great weekend (well almost here!)

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  12. I don't like foods that have any sort of mushy texture - like meatloaf. I will eat it if it is pretty much firm, like a burger patty, with some peppers, onions, etc in it. Tons of bread crumbs in it = mush = make me ralph.

    CANNOT believe you don't like cream cheese, sour cream, (a lot of people don't like cottage b/c of the texture). I love all three, and look for excuses to include cream cheese and/or sour cream. Yummm! I'd be skinnier if I didn't! :)

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  13. Hmmm...I used to think that I could stomach many things even if I didn't necessarily enjoy them. And then I made the very unfortunate decision of tasting canned green beans. Just popped one from the can to my mouth. And then I nearly died...They completely massacre any of the redeeming, delicious qualities of a green bean in the canning process. So Sad.

    On my not quite gag reflex, but genuine dislike list, haha, is any offal. And the idea of blood sausage literally terrifies me. Needless to say, I've never tried it :(

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