I now buy it instead of American celery (truthfully, I don't know that I could recognize it cooked) at Marketplace on Oakton or H-Mart. It's much leafier and thinner, but has celery flavor without the bitter astringent notes, kind of like celery salt. Nice texture, too - less stringy.

-Peach 'flavored' anything. I love peaches, peach pie and I even eat canned peaches, but anything not derived from a real peach has a weird chemical aroma to me. My family regularly tortures me with artificial peach scented items like soda or candles.

-Avocados. Don't enjoy the texture and they just don't taste like anything to me.

-Olives. Another item I don't 'get'. They're just salty and um, olive-y. And for me, that's not a good thing.

-Tuna, as in StarKist (neither my brother or I would eat tuna as kids, which probably exasperated my very cost-conscious mother).

-Hot peppers. Because I am a wimp.

Things I used to HATE as a child that I now enjoy:

-Sauerkraut (although I always loved the smell of it cooking. Couldn't eat it, though)

-Brussel Sprouts

-Raw tomatoes

jersette wrote:-Peach 'flavored' anything

oh, I forgot about this one! I hate fake peach and fake melon! yeccchhh! and not just as a flavor, but also in scented items. it's another migraine-starter.

Many of the mainstream items I can't stand are connected to childhood, but try as I might as an adult, I still hate them:

Beets (except for potato croquettes with spicy beet filling)
Broccoli (even 1 sprig of of this infernal vegetable will "infect" a whole dish)
Salmon unless its cured
The pot roast my Mom/Dad/Grandpa/Other Irish relatives used to make (everything tasted like bland overcooked beef)
Blue Cheese (occasionally I can stomach gorganzola, but really this stuff smells like feet to me and I can't get past the smell. I do love other stinky cheeses though)
Peach flavoring as above (I have a special aversion to Peach brandy)
IPAs of any kind
Water chestnuts (what's the point?)
Innards/entrails
BOTTLED SALAD DRESSING.. BLECHHH

I'm ok with peach flavoring, but popcorn flavoring makes me nauseous. I love actual popcorn and the smell of actual popcorn, but fake popcorn flavor or smell grosses me out. Popcorn Jelly Bellies are the worst.

jersette wrote:-Peach 'flavored' anything. I love peaches, peach pie and I even eat canned peaches, but anything not derived from a real peach has a weird chemical aroma to me.

Ditto on this one. Mango "flavor" has the exact same chemical kinda aroma as peach flavor to me. Love mangos, love peaches tho. The flavoring, however, is just weird.

1. plain cooked eggs, scrambled, fried, boiled, etc. Yuck. Must be heavily disguised.
2. Cooked spinach - like unpleasant seaweed from the Sargasso sea
3. Organ Meats
4. Clams oysters mussels
5. Game meats

I dislike a few other things but those are my tops

Sauerkraut - My wife and mother don't like it either, but they like reuben sandwiches. I can't eat it in anything.

Diet Soda - When that's the only thing people have, I go without. I really hate it when they give it to me without telling me that it's diet. I always know.

Tea - Hot tea and Iced tea. It all tastes like a suit that's in need of a cleaning. My parents and sister also hate it. We always talked about how we wanted to like it, and how good iced tea looked when others were having it but we can't drink it at all. It really irritates me that when at business lunch banquets sometimes they will serve iced tea only and no water.

Grapefruit - Bitter, sour, I don't know how people can eat this stuff without sugar. My mother used to give this to us at breakfast and the only way I could eat it at all was if I buried it in sugar so that I would not be able to taste the grapefruit. I figured out later in my life that if you had to put that much sugar on it there was no point in eating it. It came as a shock to me that there were people who actually ate it without the sugar! Who were these crazy people!?

Cottage Cheese - too curdy. And it looks too much like bleached vomit.

Cantaloupe - Just a weird taste.

Beets - I'm not alone on this one. Somebody upthread said they taste like dirt. Somebody else said "not the pickled kind." I would agree with that, the pickled kind taste like pickled dirt.

Olives - My father and I are the only ones in our families who hate olives. I have never had an olive in anything that I didn't hate. If they are in a dish I can taste their presence and have to pick them out one by one. The info in this thread about how olives are inedible unless cured for months makes me feel that I've been vindicated. Apparently, God did not intend for olives to be eaten. Us crazy humans!

Ham Salad. - My mom started making this for my lunch one day after finding a recipe that was similar to what she used to have in her younger days. I tried to like it. The combination of fine ground hammy mush mixed with Miracle Whip was one of the vilest memories of my childhood. Even though she loved it, I had to tell her that I didn't want it ever again. She was hurt, but respected my wishes.

Cooked Oysters - love them raw or smoked and actually chew the raw ones, but just can't stand that burnt flavor when they are in soups, stews, stuffing, or fried.

Raw Clams - Love all cooked clams, but that snotty, smelly glop on the outside of a raw clam gets me gagging before I can even get close to swallowing it. I have never been able to get one down and then have to find some way to discreetly dispose of the partially chewed clam corpse.

Dried Tarragon - After ruining another dish with this overpowering bitter-tasting weed masquerading as an herb, I threw both bottles we had in the trash and informed my wife that never again was this ersatz herb to darken our spice rack again. One of these days I might give the fresh kind a try, as I'm sure I've had it in restaurants a number of times without tasting that taste that I hate.

The following are not mainstream, but as long as I'm here,

Irish Whiskey - People who hate scotch should try this and learn what
awful really is.

Brains - Had once in two tacos and never need to try them again. They taste exactly like one would expect them to taste, funky, mushy, awfulness. The taste stayed with me all day. I tried brushing my teeth and mouthwash and still couldn't get the taste out. The vivid memory of it still haunts me to this day.

imsscott wrote:Grapefruit - Bitter, sour, I don't know how people can eat this stuff without sugar. My mother used to give this to us at breakfast and the only way I could eat it at all was if I buried it in sugar so that I would not be able to taste the grapefruit. I figured out later in my life that if you had to put that much sugar on it there was no point in eating it. It came as a shock to me that there were people who actually ate it without the sugar! Who were these crazy people!?

Pink / red grapefruit are absolutely deelish, and sweet and juicy! The yellow ones are the bitter tinged ones. I suggest you try a pink one if you haven't already. Should be in season over winter with the rest of the citrus fruits.

Tea - Hot tea and Iced tea. It all tastes like a suit that's in need of a cleaning.

Perfect description. Hear hear.

Hot tea I can take, though it's not my choice, but iced tea is a mystery to me.

While in India several years back I drank tea and it was amazing. I thought to myself "If tea tasted like this I'd drink it more often". I have yet to find any cup of tea in the US even approach this level of quality.

I even brought some tea home from india with me. Having had a local help me in making my selection I was confident I was bringing home a winner. Yeah, it just didn't stand up to what i drank while there.

JLenart: could it have something to do with the water? Alton Brown had a show detailing the proper ways to brew tea. Of course, steep time and temperature are crucial, but he also advised using cold water fresh from the tap instead of from a filter pitcher, since the pitcher water would have lost enough oxygen to affect the final product. If your tap water is no good, maybe bottled spring water would be preferable.

Also, you might visit Todd & Holland in Forest Park - Bill Todd and the people who work there are extremely knowledgeable and will talk your ear off about tea. They make treks every year to the tea producing regions of the world, and if anyone could duplicate your experience, they could.

Todd & Holland Tea Merchants
7311 West Madison Street
Forest Park, IL 60130
www.todd-holland.com

Has anyone mentioned Miracle Whip yet? [/ducks]

spinach
oatmeal
beets
zuchini
squash
coffee
tea
skim or 2% milk
margerine
anything labeled "light" or "diet"
liver or other organs unless diced up and "hidden" in gravy
artichokes
salmon
mussels
sweet potatoes
cottage cheese

Mike G wrote:Hot tea I can take, though it's not my choice, but iced tea is a mystery to me.

I feel the same way . . . about people who drink hot or iced coffee. It's a mystery to me, and a bigger mystery is why someone would fork-over so much money for hot flavored water sold by Starbucks and such boutique purveyors of drinks.

Bill wrote:

Mike G wrote:Hot tea I can take, though it's not my choice, but iced tea is a mystery to me.

I feel the same way . . . about people who drink hot or iced coffee. It's a mystery to me, and a bigger mystery is why someone would fork-over so much money for hot flavored water sold by Starbucks and such boutique purveyors of drinks.

"Hot flavored water" = Caffine

Sorry for the messed up quote formatting! I haven't had enough coffee yet I think!

Flavors: artificial "grape" flavor and anything anise-y or fennel-y; just thinking about it just gives me the shivers.

Textures: large curd cottage cheese, Israeli couscous, Japanese fish cake reminds me of pencil erasers and always has.

sea squirts...very squirty and very bitter. Sometimes they (like my mom) sneaks it into the ahgoo chim (monkfish stew). The worst is when the sacs burst and pop during cooking spreading their juices throughout.

pickled ginger/gari...i like cooked fresh ginger in stirfrys, and baked ginger goods, but the pickled kind served up in every sushi place grosses me out. Its the worst when they serve you up a juicy pile and it start leaking its ginger bucket liquid all over your plate and is inevitably sucked up by the rice in your nigiri. i dont understand why this stuff is considered a palate cleanser, it lingers in your mouth forever, impervious to everything. i wanna die when i see ppl load some feathers on top of a piece of maki, soy it, and stuff it in their mouth.

evian water...it tastes slick. i dont know, everytime i have to drink it i think oily. oily water. Water's flavor shouldn't be messed with, i can never get it down if the flavor is wrong. my favorite flavor is nothing. As a side note, i hate warm water/room temp/ not cold water. I usually drink around 96 ounces a day, but only if that water is ice water or at least refridgerator water.

whipped cream/mornay/hollandaise/alfredo/ cream of whaterver soup....Really dairy and really rich foods make me sick. Which is sad because i like the taste. I can only have around two spoonfuls of these things before my stomach gets roller coastery and my head starts to throb. This might have something to do with weekly bakers square pies brought home by my dad and me being a greedy bitch.

instant ramen...i dont know...gross and im thirsty and bad-tempered all day afterwards


Theres probably some more...but these are a few things i really can't eat; most due to gross flavor, some due to my own inferior physiology. I also avoid bony fish and small crabs, because i am lazy eater, but if someone were to kindly pick the meat into small neat piles for me i would definetly be ok. Honestly, i can eat almost anything now, which is weird since i only lived on 4 foodstuffs as a child: pbjs, cheetos, kraft mac and cheese, sprite. I hated rice and almost all korean food (what was being served up in my house), espeeecially meats, omg hated galbi bulgogi whatever. something to do with the marinade i think...ginger garlic..onion..and kiwi (cause my mom's a meat tenderizing pioneer). Im better now, i can't stand any of those 4 anymore...sprite zero is actually pretty awesome though.

The only things that I absolutely will not ever eat are raisins and snails. Some other things are more borderline.

As a native Bay Arean, the sourdough bread here has been largely depressing. I always have high hopes, and they are always dashed.

Artificial fruit flavorings are revolting. Which excludes every sort of fruity candy.

While I generally like ice cream while actually eating it, it is not a food I seek out due to numerous nightmares about it. I keep dreaming that I am starving, and the only food available is flavorless, thick ice cream that I force down in my desperation. Why I can't have dreams about something pleasant, like, say, liver, I don't know.

kiplog wrote:Not to mention Nyquil and Jagermeister.

There is not emoticon strong enough to express my reaction to the foul taste of either one of the above. Perhaps an emoticon that was simultaneously vomiting, sobbing, and considering hari-kari might cover it.