rickster wrote:

but much of the racism I experienced as a hispanic child in a nearly all-white community was couched in how "gross" our food was (e.g. calamari, avocado, paella, spaghetti bolognese..I would never have told my friends that we ate tongue on special occasions.)

A lot of this depends on perspective. I grew up in largely Italian American and some Portuguese communities in the Northeast and none of these foods mentioned would raise an eyebrow. But I have a lot of friends from there that would never eat Indian food or Chinese beyond the basic Chinese-American. So are they close minded or open minded?

My point was that, in my hometown, the reaction of "gross" to the foods we ate had deeper connotations, which expressed themselves in other subtle ways. I can't speak to the general open/closed mindedness, but the implication that someone else's foods (and, by extension, culture) are disgusting or unclean is pretty clear.

For the record, I consider this attitude completely different from being a cautious eater.

My ex-husband was pretty much opposed to trying anything new, and this showed itself clearly in his food choices. His diet consisted of:

-Fried chicken
-Bologna or hot dog sandwiches on wheat, plain
-Hamburgers plain

and that was about it. In his case, I would say his fierce opposition to trying new foods was a manifestation of his cramped and crabbed outlook on life.

I made sure to pick more intelligently the second time around

Mhays wrote:the reaction of "gross" to the foods we ate had deeper connotations, which expressed themselves in other subtle ways. I can't speak to the general open/closed mindedness, but the implication that someone else's foods (and, by extension, culture) are disgusting or unclean is pretty clear.

For the record, I consider this attitude completely different from being a cautious eater.

Right; apart from the fact that the variety of edible things that can sustain life is much broader than what most people are willing to consume, food is a part of culture, and reacting to one's culture with a visible display of disgust is pretty insulting.

I almost forgot about this discussion, still seeing the picky eater PITA.... Only good thing is discovering the skirt steak, eggs and hash browns with Onions at Sally's Pancake House which for 12.95 seems a very robust cheap dinner, oh yeah, you get two pancakes too. Just gotta eat breakfast for dinner.....

All in all, I'd say this particular person is more closed minded about food than most of life. But there are so many things he steadfastly refuses to even try - various things in life - I guess it's what made me think of this.

But all in all, maybe foodies should stick with foodies for relationships. Sure would be more fun.

I go back and forth on this. On the one hand, I have a friend-of-a-friend who literally refuses to eat anything other than french fries, bread and pizza (I have no idea how she's even alive, at this point), and absolutely will not TOUCH anything green, and I can't help but think, this isnt' a sensitive palate, this is just obnoxious behavior. On the other hand, I know there are people with genuinely sensitive palates who just can't handle much more flavor than the most basic foods (isn't there a name for it? supertasters?)

I also think there's a difference between, "No thank you, I don't like that/don't care to try that," and "Oh my god WHAT are you EATING, that STINKS/is DISGUSTING/etc."

There's also just the factor of personal bias- when people refuse to eat anything except four things, I just find them tiresome, whether I should or not.

sweetsalty wrote:There's also just the factor of personal bias- when people refuse to eat anything except four things, I just find them tiresome, whether I should or not.

I feel the same way, even though I feel bad about it. I don't get it, why is that? When you're a baby and graduate from milk to solids, that's new, and these picky folks came to realize they like 4 things (for example) ... so what makes them refuse to find a 5th? What made them say, okay, I got 4 - that's enough.?

Unlike Pie Dude's father, who is the polar opposite. There is NOTHING he doesn't like. And he's a pretty open-minded cat. He said he'd even try balut, without even blinking. Now I just need to find a source...

Pie Lady wrote:He said he'd even try balut, without even blinking.

Oh man, I consider myself pretty open minded, but to that, I'd have to politely decline.

BTW, there's a Honk Kong movie called Dumplings that features Balut, as well as some other folk-medicinal foods. With top-notch cinematography, this intriguing film spends a lot of its time in the kitchen, depicting the quirky but upbeat Bai Ling making dumplings from scratch. It's a feast for the eyes, if you can get past the shock factor... Definitely not for the faint of heart.

phredbull wrote:

Pie Lady wrote:He said he'd even try balut, without even blinking.

Oh man, I consider myself pretty open minded, but to that, I'd have to politely decline.

Me too.

BTW, there's a Honk Kong movie called Dumplings that features Balut...

Sadly this is not on Netflix, or I would've ordered it next. All they have is The Apple Dumpling Gang.
I'll look for it though.

The title of the movie is actually "Three... Extremes: Dumplings"

It was 1 of 3 on a collection of short Asian horror films, and the bonus disk is "Dumplings" in its entirety. As I said before, visually beautiful, but not for the squeamish.

Why it is on Netflix! And onto my queue. Turns out I am squeamish but what the hell. Valentine's Day is upon us.

phredbull wrote:

Pie Lady wrote:He said he'd even try balut, without even blinking.

Oh man, I consider myself pretty open minded, but to that, I'd have to politely decline.

BTW, there's a Honk Kong movie called Dumplings that features Balut, as well as some other folk-medicinal foods. With top-notch cinematography, this intriguing film spends a lot of its time in the kitchen, depicting the quirky but upbeat Bai Ling making dumplings from scratch. It's a feast for the eyes, if you can get past the shock factor... Definitely not for the faint of heart.

Thanks for the heads-up, just enjoyed Three Extremes via Blockbuster-by-mail today (we've had it for a while, but waited to watch until Sparky was in school - good thing; even if we waited until he was asleep and even with subtitles I think he'd have been disturbed.) However, just my sort of thing - we'd recently watched Re-Cycle which has similar themes (if not food-related.) I did appreciate the (somewhat gory) cooking scenes.

Mhays wrote:

phredbull wrote:

Pie Lady wrote:He said he'd even try balut, without even blinking.

Oh man, I consider myself pretty open minded, but to that, I'd have to politely decline.

BTW, there's a Honk Kong movie called Dumplings that features Balut, as well as some other folk-medicinal foods. With top-notch cinematography, this intriguing film spends a lot of its time in the kitchen, depicting the quirky but upbeat Bai Ling making dumplings from scratch. It's a feast for the eyes, if you can get past the shock factor... Definitely not for the faint of heart.

Thanks for the heads-up, just enjoyed Three Extremes via Blockbuster-by-mail today (we've had it for a while, but waited to watch until Sparky was in school - good thing; even if we waited until he was asleep and even with subtitles I think he'd have been disturbed.) However, just my sort of thing - we'd recently watched Re-Cycle which has similar themes (if not food-related.) I did appreciate the (somewhat gory) cooking scenes.

I also watched 3 Extremes and loved it; I forgot to post it nearly a month ago! We also rented the full-length Dumplings and will watch it sometime this week, although we're not sure how it will improve upon the short.

Pie Lady wrote:I also watched 3 Extremes and loved it; I forgot to post it nearly a month ago! We also rented the full-length Dumplings and will watch it sometime this week, although we're not sure how it will improve upon the short.

The full length feature shows more of the husband/Tony Leung character and delves a little deeper into their relationship issues, and there is a very interesting monologue by Bai Ling where she lectures about the history of the usage of the "featured medicinal consumable". Watching the full length version didn't leave me feeling that the film needed to be edited down to 30 minutes, (even though the short didn't feel incomplete, to me), but perhaps my visually-oriented sensibilities were just engrossed by the beautiful camera work.

Mhays wrote:However, just my sort of thing - we'd recently watched Re-Cycle which has similar themes (if not food-related.)

Added Re-Cycle to my queue. Netflix rocks!

It's interesting that you posted this yesterday, because yesterday I watched the full-length version! I also didn't feel the short was incomplete, but thought the full-length was also good. I think I still like the short better, but I did enjoy the monologue. This version was more gruesome but I enjoyed the husband's role too. It's a toss-up, I guess. The second balut scene was disturbing, though.

Pie Lady wrote:The second balut scene was disturbing, though.

Poor li'l chickies!