I just remembered another one tonight--white asparagus. I really don't know what it is, something about the appearance just gives me the squicks. I think it's based on those Bunnicula books that were popular when I was younger--I prefer my vegetables not sucked dry by creepy vampiric rabbits. Call me crazy.

I actually kind of wish I could get past this hang-up, because I know it's supposed to be great...

Lemon- I can handle a squeeze on fish, but hate lemonade, lemon bars, etc.
Soda- (or sorry "Pop" as they call it here) I hate the fizz, the taste and everything about it.
Mint

Abject hatreds and other problems:

1. Turkey Sandwich (unless it's white meat from a whole turkey cooked at my house or a trusted friend or relative).

2. Ranch Dressing (just smells spoiled to me).

3. Cantaloupe

4. Non-Fat Mayo (grosser by far than Miracle Whip).

5. Chicken (if it's even close to being underdone).

6. Whole Wheat Bread

7. Packaged Cold Cuts

8. Risotto (no matter how well prepared, every bite is exactly the same--one big bowl of boring, IMHO).

9. Salmon (love lox and nova, can't the fish as an entree).

10. Seasoned French Fries (and all other versions with washes or other unnatural crap on them).

11. "Artisanal"/Upscale Bread (when used for buns for hot dogs and hamburgers).

12. Pepsi (regular or diet)

13. Almost anything at Denny's.

14. Banana Cream Pie (or any cream pie).

15. Asparagus Soup

16. Chicken Salad Sandwiches (made with any dark meat and/or gristly cubes).

17. I'm just not too crazy about Cream Cheese.

18. Boiled chicken

19. Pineapple Juice

20. Flavored waters

Licorice, fennel, anise...

Celery seed

This thread has been enlightening, expansive, amelioratively challenging to prejudice and expectation at every turn. Yes, if any thread here at LTHForum has exemplified better the principle of de gustibus non est disputandum, I should like to know about it. That said, the time for fine and polite talk is ended. The gloves are now OFF. And in reference to the inexplicable hatred and disgust expressed toward Miracle Whip, I won't fume and rant, I won't pit my opinion or taste against those of others (as cracked and perverse as those may be), but please indulge this long-term imbiber of the stuff -- just a simple, country lawyer -- to post the following, extensive and unsolicited evidence and testimony by way of rebuttal to this vicious defamation:

I Love Miracle Whip

Miracle Whip Restored my Youth and Made Me Beautiful

Somebody is Eating the Stuff, If Not You

It is the Smallest and Lightest FM Reception Antenna Available

Takes Twice the Dose to Kill You

The Terrorists Cannot and Shall Not Win While Miracle Whip Remains on America's Grocery Shelves

Was the Condiment of Choice of the Greatest Generation of Those Who Grew Up During the Depression and Sacrificed Everything to Ensure Your Freedom to Eat Hellman's Mayo, Despite It All (You Whining, Mush-Eating Pea-Picker)

What more can be said on Miracle Whip?

JiLS: "What more can be said on Miracle Whip?"

Geo: "Eeewwwwwwuuuuhhhh!!!"


Geo

Beverages my brother hates:

juice (any kind)
non-juice "fruit" drinks (Kool-Ade, et al.)
sport beverages (e.g. Gatorade, Propel)
cider
pop
beer
wine
liquor
tea
coffee
any other carbonated liquid

Yes, that leaves water, milk, chocolate milk (important!), hot chocolate, and milkshakes (vanilla or chocolate). And if he gets water with a slice of lemon in it, he'll quickly fish it out, but he's too nice to just send it back. I'll have to ask him what he thinks of the cucumber water at Orange.

He also hasn't eaten fruit since he was about a year old. Makes him gag. Likes cooked vegetables, but no raw that I know of. I know there's a lot more, but he's honestly come a long way and I wouldn't want to sell him short by excluding all condiments or something like that.

Geo wrote:JiLS: "What more can be said on Miracle Whip?"

Geo: "Eeewwwwwwuuuuhhhh!!!"


Geo

Geo: Excellent work on the propounding of the de gustibus non est disputandum, and stuff. Loser.

JiLS--well you DID ask 'what more could be said?' and so I said what more could be said. Probably there's no more to be said at this juncture. Finally.

Geo

Geo wrote:JiLS--well you DID ask 'what more could be said?' and so I said what more could be said. Probably there's no more to be said at this juncture. Finally.

Geo

I'm going to turn off my computer before I type something I regret.

JimInLoganSquare wrote:

Geo wrote:JiLS--well you DID ask 'what more could be said?' and so I said what more could be said. Probably there's no more to be said at this juncture. Finally.

Geo

I'm going to turn off my computer before I type something I regret.

Jim,

Many should follow your lead!

Regards,

JimInLoganSquare wrote:This thread has been enlightening, expansive, amelioratively challenging to prejudice and expectation at every turn. Yes, if any thread here at LTHForum has exemplified better the principle of de gustibus non est disputandum, I should like to know about it. That said, the time for fine and polite talk is ended. The gloves are now OFF.

JiLS, I admire your passion. That makes up for your defense of Miracle Whip. (I count myself among its detractors.) But this prompts me to post a question which has been on my mind since I began to read this thread and the one on anti-foodies. In that thread,

MikeG wrote:. . . what do you do about anti-foodies? Can you be friends with them for very long? Is a clash inevitable? Is a relationship doomed when something so central to it as food has no common ground?

I find myself wondering whether Mike might be a bit too high-minded in his approach to this question. An otherwise harmonious friendship might indeed be disrupted by radically different food philosophies and choices. However, to take this question one step further in the spirit of the "mainstream aversions" thread, I suspect that there are some people out there who have specific food preferences and aversions that function as admission criteria or deal-breakers in relationships. Just curious.

Josephine,

That's a really interesting question, from at least two personally direct points of view. I'm an academic philosopher (? there ARE other kinds, methinks! :^), so, first, there are philosophical ramifications to your question; and, secondly, because of the milieu that I am immersed in, I run into the problem of diversity in food preferences a whole bunch.

Let me cut to the chase: there are lots and lots and even a growning number of vegetarians (of all stripes) in my academic culture. That's a pretty definite type of food preference (or "aversion" if you want to do the mirror image), and people can be quite diverse in the way they hold their preference, especially during interactions with others of us during food 'contexts.'

Some vegetarian philosophers hold their food view religiously, and are out to crusade it, like a sword, at every possible encounter over the menu. That's a deal-breaker. I just flat out avoid those folks. While I can respect their philosophy, I don't respect their behavior.

On the other hand, I have a colleague who is quite low-key about the whole thing. His vegetarianism is held philosophically, but he realizes that it's his choice, and doesn't in the least way try to impose it on the rest of us. Thus, for example, when I have a bbq party over at my place, all I need do is take a bit of care to keep the beans--or one type of beans, let's say--and the potato salad vegetarian. Nothing is ever said or done, beyond that.

To use another example, I have a dear friend who hates cilantro, and can be quite voiciferous about it. He's a genuine PITA about it, so I have to be awfully careful about what I serve, or what we order, when we eat together.

Food preferences CAN be a deal breaker, even as MikeG suggested. But it doesn't HAVE to be that way.

Geo

Beets - I try, I try but just can't

Green Peppers - Just gross

Raw broccoli and cauliflower - LOVE them cooked

White chocolate - why is the word "chocolate" in there???

Jello of any kind

Count me as a lover of Miracle Whip...

I guess we should ask Hammond's eldest daughter if it's a deal-breaker for her, but Hammond seems pretty clear on the matter of Catsup on Italian Beef. I can just imagine an LTH version of "Meet the Parents" with food-related tests for the affianced. What with his cicada eating, Hammond cuts a figure just as fearsome as Robert DeNiro's ex-CIA agent character, Ben Stiller's/Greg Fokker's father-in-law to be.

Capers. I hate those lil' bastards.

Olives too, but I love olive oil.

Strawberries
anything banana-flavored, but I dig bananas
meat sauce, as in italian
papaya
passion fruit
cauliflower
bussell sprouts
anchovies

oh yeah and durian. I try and I try, it's difficult at best.

that's about it, everything else is pretty much cool with me.

This is a hilarious thread which proves one man's meat is another's poison.

My dislikes include most meats which present themselves as slabs, such as prime rib or thick steaks. I find them overwhelming based on site alone.

Both A-1 steak sauce and green skittles taste like cleanser to me.
(but I love that sourdough bread, or any great bread with strong cheese and fig spread or jam!)

Two things that I always refuse, for no really good reason:

1) Sour cream. I eat yogurt, mayo, creme fraiche and other tangy things (even the dreaded Miracle Whip), but I find straight sour cream noxious and always reject tacos, burritos and other items where it's an ingredient.

2) Cheesecake. I like all the ingredients, but not what happens they're cooked together -- even if it's a triple-chocolate version. (And again, I eat blue cheese and other stinky cheeses.)

>>Brent

1. I don't remember what Miracle Whip tastes like.
2. Olde School, you're nuts. Except in the cases of canteloupe, boiled chicken (the point of which is...?) and Denny's. Does everything there taste the same, like toast, or what? Is it just me? The place feels like a nursing home.
3. Does anybody remember Wags? I'll never forgive my mother and grandmother. Denny's is the asschild of Wags.
4. My list of wretched things:
olives, although I like olive oil too.
shredded wheat
beets of all forms, especially those pickled bright purple ones
pressed meat
skim milk
tomato juice/V8
Jell-O, unless it's red and cut up in little cubes
orange popsicles
root beer flavored anything except root beer
licorice
fresh bananas I have a hard time swallowing, but I LOVE banana flavored things
the texture of blackberries, but again, the flavor is supoib
smoked turkey
steamed cauliflower
celery
white chocolate unless it's an added ingredient, like white chocolate cake, mousse, etc, then it's okay. Dark chocolate is your money chocolate.
peppers of any kind unless they're well-cooked, cut small, and mixed in with other stuff. They really do taste like metal!
puffed rice or wheat
undercooked watery custard
anything coated in aspic
smoked herring
oysters, the kind you suck off the shell
plain black beans or black bean soup (mixed with rice or in dishes it's great)
oatmeal made with water
painfully spicy foods
cold mashed potatoes, pasta, or pizza
grape nuts
melon of any kind
beer
the baconcello at Osteria di Stato
even though it's not a food, the "butter-flavor" pan spray is so totally nasty.
I'm sure I'm missing a lot of things, so I'll be back.

Eating shredded wheat gives me a hint of the colorful culinary life of a cow chewing its cud. It is food for animals, not people.

Regards,

BethO wrote:Lemon- I can handle a squeeze on fish, but hate lemonade, lemon bars, etc.
Soda- (or sorry "Pop" as they call it here) I hate the fizz, the taste and everything about it.
Mint

If you mix those together it would make a tasty drink. Mmmm Lemon Mint Fizz.

nr706 wrote:

gleam wrote:Hard liquor. I haven't had enough to grow accustomed to the taste, and I don't really see any reason to.

Describes me, too. It comes off to me as harsh, unless it's well-diluted with other things ... then what's the point?

I'd rather have a great wine or beer any day.

I generally agree, hard stuff is icky, but Amaretto on the rocks is fab. It tastes like Almond Crescent cookies, but you don't have to be bothered with all that chewing business.

G Wiv wrote:Speaking of odd reactions to soda, here is Peter D at the now shuttered Shiraz with a bottle of Doogh (yogurt soda). Funny thing is he liked it more, much more, than I did.

Awesome! Where do you get that now that Shiraz is gone? It looks like it might have a bottlecap for my collection.

I hate mushrooms.

All kinds. I have tried them. Cooked, grilled, sauteed, raw. Wood, shitaake, portabello, button, enoki.

I cannot abide the texture. The taste. The sliminess.

I used to pick out the little shroomy nibs from mom's tuna casserole made with cream of mushroom soup.

My husband and I discovered this common dislike on our first date and I think we both knoew we'd found "the one." LOL

Can't stand the texture of bananas. Love the flavor (banana bread, etc.).
Yeah, don't like kiwi either.

I'll side with JiLS on the Miracle Whip question. Miracle Whip is not mayonnaise; it has its own flavor and functions.

Whether you love it or hate seems to depend on whether you grew up eating it or not. My mother and grandmother never used anything else, and it was only after I first had an opportunity to try homemade mayonnaise that I considered mayo to be anything but a bland substitute.

Now I keep both Miracle Whip and mayonnaise on hand for different uses. I still like the tanginess of Miracle Whip best for most cold sandwiches and many salads, but mayonnaise (even commercial mayo) is better for anything served warm.

LAZ wrote:I'll side with JiLS on the Miracle Whip question. Miracle Whip is not mayonnaise; it has its own flavor and functions.

Whether you love it or hate seems to depend on whether you grew up eating it or not. My mother and grandmother never used anything else, and it was only after I first had an opportunity to try homemade mayonnaise that I considered mayo to be anything but a bland substitute.

My experience is the exact opposite. My parents were Miracle Whip "users," and when in high school, I got my first memorable taste of Hellman's after swapping sammiches with a friend. From then on, I have never ever turned back to that insipidly sweet, sugar laden goop, and it honestly gives me the heebie jeebies just thinking about it. I honestly come to the verge of heaving thinking about things like tuna salad made with Miracle Whip. It's tantamount to tuna ice cream in my head. Why would anyone want to add gobs of sugar to tuna, and onions? Orval Kent salads? Vile, sugary garbage. If someone thinks the best way to top off a well made sammich is to douse it with white, goopy sugar, then so be it. I just don't want to be in the same room.

the dreaded "Whips": Miracle and Cool
Microwave and movie theatre popcorn - that fake butter flavor induces a wicked migraine for me. I'm convinced that stuff is toxic.
Raw alliums, especially raw garlic - another migraine inducer.
Creamy salads and slaws - I prefer vinegar-based, which must owe to my pennsylvania dutch upbringing.
I can tolerate only limited amounts of organ meats, even if they are delicious. "Ooh, sweetbreads, yum!"... one half-bite later: "Ok, I'm done. Do you want the rest?"
Bologna and other unnaturally-circular, sponge-y and pink deli meats. (though I make an exception for the bologna particular to central pennsylvania known as "lebanon bologna". it's really more of a garlicky, smoky, sweet beef summer sausage.)
Mussels, though I love other shellfish, and clams are a particular favorite. Mussels are weirdly "thumb-like" to me and have no flavor and a gross sponge-like texture.
Not a big fan of brie and brie-like cheeses. They taste like a creamy ashtray. Though I make an exception if separated from the rind and melted or toasted on crusty bread.
Beets. such an intense appearance, paired with such an insipid flavor and texture. no thanks. but i love beet greens.
I must agree I've never been served decent biscuits & gravy or risotto. I'm convinced they can be done well, I've just yet to experience it.
Celery when it's in chinese food. Or maybe I should say chinese food that has celery in it. bleh.
Not a big fan of pears.
Cream soda other than Spechers, which really tastes more like honey soda. On the rootbeer question, I love those complex, high-end rootbeers, like Virgil's.
I've yet to be served a martini that wasn't spit-worthy.
Fake maple flavor. Commonly found in breakfast cereals.

sarcon wrote:Celery when it's in chinese food. Or maybe I should say chinese food that has celery in it. bleh.

I'm with you - this is my first criterion when judging a Chinese takeout place (that is, the u-shaped bits of invariably overcooked American celery - Chinese celery is another thing entirely)

MHays wrote:I'm with you - this is my first criterion when judging a Chinese takeout place (that is, the u-shaped bits of invariably overcooked American celery - Chinese celery is another thing entirely)

I know, right? It's a major strike against the otherwise-pretty-good Mei Shung. Most of their entrees have the dreaded celery. I don't think I've ever encountered chinese celery - what's it like?