jesteinf wrote:

jimswside wrote:I know its not p.c., but I have about as much patience for folks who restrict their diet for other various reasons as I do for/with picky eaters.

eg.

"I dont eat pork because of xyz"

Well, you may not agree with it but I don't see why you shouldn't respect it. "xyz" is important for a lot of people. In the end, it's their loss...and more pork for the rest of us

Agreed. I've always wondered why others cared, especially at a restaurant, that I'm a vegetarian who doesn't drink alcohol. It's more animals & booze available for everyone else at the table.

I don't make faces at people who eat meat or drink alcohol. In fact, a few months ago when my husband's acquaintance (we were going out to eat for the 1st time & he knew I was a vegetarian) said we can go anywhere that wasn't vegetarian I raised the ante with Snout-to-Tail dining at Mado. Of course, he didn't want to try anything that wasn't recognizable to him & he made faces about the offerings. I let him know I chose Mado specifically because of his comment so there would be plenty of animal parts for him to choose from. I suspect he doesn't underestimate eating out with a vegetarian ever again.

nicinchic wrote:I also have issue with the " I hate mushrooms", but something made with mushroom soup, no problem....

I think for those folks it's a texture issue.

turkob wrote:I completely do not understand picky eaters. I understand it when someone says they don't like a food. I understand it when someone prefers one food to another. I don't understand why someone refuses to eat something they don't like. Do they think it will hurt them?

What I don't get are adults that refuse to try anything new with the excuse being "I might not like it." Every food was new to them at some point since they weaned off the teat, so what gave them the courage to go from milk to hot dogs to steak?

I have friends who will order burgers, then remove the buns, pick off toppings they don't like, and occasionally pick through the meat so see if it's red. These people, first, will order the meat WELL DONE. Of course, that's after I order mine medium rare and eat it with relish (sometimes both kinds), grease dripping down my arm. I should take them to a steakhouse and watch their reaction when I order prime rib. Will it be anything like in Mommie Dearest?

One of these friends will only eat "American" Italian and Mexican. Chipotle is always the place thought of first, and after I wipe away my tears, I tag along.

leek wrote:

nicinchic wrote:I also have issue with the " I hate mushrooms", but something made with mushroom soup, no problem....

I think for those folks it's a texture issue.

I know that in Mr. Maki's case, it is. He was raised with canned mushrooms (shudder) and now finds mushrooms repulsive. Luckily for me, he'll still eat something that contains mushrooms, he just picks them out. One of these days, I'm going to get some fresh morels, saute it in a little butter and garlic, and see if I can change his mind.

My wife is an adventurous eater but has an extreme aversion to onions. It makes cooking at home a bit tricky at times as I love onions and they are used in so many recipes. At times, I'll just leave the onions out of whatever I'm making but there are just some dishes where they are essential. I've tried to get her to love onions or even just tolerate them, but I've had no success. I don't push it any more because now it just pisses her off.

Seamus wrote:My wife is an adventurous eater but has an extreme aversion to onions. It makes cooking at home a bit tricky at times as I love onions and they are used in so many recipes. At times, I'll just leave the onions out of whatever I'm making but there are just some dishes where they are essential. I've tried to get her to love onions or even just tolerate them, but I've had no success. I don't push it any more because now it just pisses her off.

Sounds like a divorce may be your best bet.

Just kidding.

Sort of.

leek wrote:

nicinchic wrote:I also have issue with the " I hate mushrooms", but something made with mushroom soup, no problem....

I think for those folks it's a texture issue.

As a representative of the "I hate mushrooms" lobby I would agree with this sentiment. It's rarely taste that turns me off of a given food, it's almost always texture (I don't like whipped cream either).

jesteinf wrote: It's rarely taste that turns me off of a given food, it's almost always texture

im the same way, it took me almost 40 years to try a raw oyster because of their texture, tried some a couple weeks ago, and cant get how good they were out of my mind.

jimswside wrote:

jesteinf wrote: It's rarely taste that turns me off of a given food, it's almost always texture

im the same way, it took me almost 40 years to try a raw oyster because of their texture, tried some a couple weeks ago, and cant get how good they were out of my mind.

There's an interesting essay about eating your first oyster in this month's Garden & Gun.

jesteinf wrote:

leek wrote:

nicinchic wrote:I also have issue with the " I hate mushrooms", but something made with mushroom soup, no problem....

I think for those folks it's a texture issue.

As a representative of the "I hate mushrooms" lobby I would agree with this sentiment. It's rarely taste that turns me off of a given food, it's almost always texture (I don't like whipped cream either).

It's both for me. I don't like the texture of canned mushrooms, but since they barely taste like anything, I can stand to have some on a slice of pizza if necessary. However, once I was at a reception and ate a mushroom-filled ravioli without knowing it had mushrooms in it. It set off my gag reflexes really quickly. I threw the rest of my plate away, and then I had to move away from the trash can because of the smell. Mushrooms and licorice are about the only foods I react to in that way.

stevez wrote:
There's an interesting essay about eating your first oyster in this month's Garden & Gun.

great read Steve,

my first raw oyster(I believe from Washington State) was a life changer.

Ive been plotting a return to the scene of the crime(Shaws Schaumburg), and am going back next Monday for an oyster snack before we head up to Bob Chinns for dinner.

Pie Lady wrote:I have friends who will order burgers, then remove the buns, pick off toppings they don't like, and occasionally pick through the meat so see if it's red. These people, first, will order the meat WELL DONE. Of course, that's after I order mine medium rare and eat it with relish (sometimes both kinds), grease dripping down my arm. I should take them to a steakhouse and watch their reaction when I order prime rib. Will it be anything like in Mommie Dearest?

Which brings to mind one of my all-time favorite exchanges:

Friend: I'll have a cheeseburger.
Server: How would you like it done?
Friend: Well, well, well, WELL done. Charred. Burned to a crisp.
Server: Ooooookay.
Me: Don't know what you're missing.
Friend (lighting cigarette): Are you crazy? E coli can kill you!

Our friendship didn't last long.

My son has an aversion to onions. He might out grow it someday. However, his last go around at McDonalds he ordered a burger (ketchup/mustard only), and failed to check if they had followed his request. One bite into the burger he started gagging. I have to respect that there is something there that just does not agree with him!

Dmnkly wrote:...Our friendship didn't last long.

Understandable.

Could you hear the crunch from across the room?

I used to have an aversion to fresh tomatoes. I am not sure exactly where it came from, I think I inherited it from my dad - he didn't like them either. Which is weird, since his mom would eat tomatoes like apples But I also think it might have come from having just awful, slimy, tomatoes on hoagies as a small child.

Anyway, it was visceral. I couldn't even smell tomatoes without stomach-churning aversion reflexes.

And I knew that I must be missing something, and that tomatoes were good for me, and that I should just get over it! So I set out to try and fix this. I would first have them cut very thin on a burger, where I wouldn't really taste it, and then on to more obvious preparations, and so on. I'm not sure I can eat just a tomato and nothing else, like my mom-mom did, but now I like Caprese and Persian salads, and BLTs and such as. Heck, I even try to grow them!

Hi, my name is Lee, and I'm a recovering Tomato-phobic.

leek wrote:Hi, my name is Lee, and I'm a recovering Tomato-phobic.

Hi, Lee!

I had the same aversion. I seem to be coming out of my pear aversion...I tried an outstanding sample at Fresh Farms moments ago, and now I'm actually considering packing one in my lunch tomorrow!

leek wrote:Hi, my name is Lee, and I'm a recovering Tomato-phobic.

The first step is realizing you have a problem! Most of the fussy eaters are happy to be a P.I.T.A.

I wouldn't eat an egg of any kind until I was in college. Couldn't bring myself to eat a soft yolk until I was 42 years old. All of a sudden one day, I saw an order of eggs benedict crossing the room in a restaurant and decided I had to have one. Just thinking of all the lyonnaise salads I've missed over the years makes me very sad. A runny egg option on a menu is pretty much a guaranteed order for me now. Weird how that works.

Still fight the gag reflex on tomato seeds--but absolutely love tomatoes. Am finally able to handle a whole grape or small cherry tomato. For anything else, it's "tomato surgery."

We omnivores are a strange lot, that's for sure

Remember those delightful tomatoes that look grainy when you cut into them? Mmm tasty.

This probably isn't the place to bring this up, but what the hell: how are heirloom tomatoes different from any other? I like more "meat" than juice in my 'maters, for the same reason as beaudreaulicious.

Pie Lady wrote:

leek wrote:Hi, my name is Lee, and I'm a recovering Tomato-phobic.

Hi, Lee!

I had the same aversion. I seem to be coming out of my pear aversion...I tried an outstanding sample at Fresh Farms moments ago, and now I'm actually considering packing one in my lunch tomorrow!

My best friend is the same way with tomatoes, and until just a couple of minutes ago I assumed he was the only one. And much like the mushroom issues mentioned upthread, it is almost mostly a texture thing; he eats plenty of things with tomatoes as an ingredient, just not large chunks of it.

SSDD

I'm among the anti-onion crowd. When it comes to cooked onions in soup, sauce, or similar I'll just suck it up and eat. I avoid cooked onions as a topping on foods; that's just a bit too far. Raw onions, however, simply make me gag; it's an embarrassing and unconscious reaction, and if you slip them on me then I hope you're not offended when I make awful faces and noises - I simply can't help myself, no matter how fervently I repeat inside my head, "It's a relative of garlic! You love garlic! Just swallow it, don't choke!" I am an adult with a culinary degree and otherwise adventurous palate. Eating out, I'm fastidiously careful to order so as to avoid onions, and when I can't avoid them entirely I order something where they will at least be cooked. I am as embarrassed by my reaction as you are, I can assure you, not to mention frustrated that it prevents me from trying quite a lot of otherwise-awesome food.

I'm in the anti-mushroom crowd. And yes -- it's textural for the most part. I was at a barbecue with friends and agreed to try their grilled portabello mushrooms -- they were all very encouraging -- "Go ahead! It's just like steak!!". HA. Not even close to steak. And i did this in full view of most of my pals, including the chef, and I thoroughly embarassed myself as I spat out the offending chewy-ickiness. I have a pretty bad gag reflex. Although i would never in a million years take back a burger because it had touched a pickle slice.

Not steaky. Not even the least bit. But...at least I did try it. It will be many a year before I go near a raw oyster though. I know..it's revelatory -- but I can't get past the goober factor. I am going to New Orleans next week -- perhaps I'll get drunk enough to give it a go. Might go for the fried oyster though...just to see.

My favorite LTH conversation to date:

A discussion about eating eyeballs--there were representatives from all factions--at the Pi event. Some would eat the whole head but not the eyeballs. Some loved the crunch. Some were disturbed enough not to eat the item at all. As picky eater dialogues go, that takes the cake (or pie) for me

For those of you who weren't there, much of this discussion was between Pie Lady and Sparky. You do the math. (We really should bring her on our next trip to LTH, sort of like our version of Jack Sprat's Wife - though, if truth be told, Sparky goes hot and cold on the shrimp heads.)

I've been trying to post to this thread for some time, but my posts keep getting eaten by the new laptop. I'm hoping it and I are now on speaking terms so I can get this out:

As some of you know, this issue - especially as it pertains to children - interests me a great deal. Sparky has friends all over the food-aversion map, but two in particular stood out: between them, they only eat about 10 or so foods total. Both of these boys come from families where everybody else eats normally and their mothers are excellent and adventurous cooks - and neither is a pushover. Last year and this year, because I follow the issue with interest, I learned that both moms had found speech therapists and occupational therapists can help with this kind of problem, now dubbed a "feeding disorder." Now, these kids are entirely different from the chicken-nugget-mac-and-cheese set, they've been carefully exposed to all kinds of foods - I remember one Mom telling me with relief that she finally got her son to put butter on his noodles. While I do think parenting plays a role in feeding that can affect the way you eat as an adult, clearly there are some pieces to this puzzle that are innate to the individual.

If you think about it, when I was a kid, dyslexia was just starting to be recognized and treated. Other learning disabilities were relatively unknown - you were just 'bad at math' and that was considered acceptable. It's not surprising that adults coming from a background where you were just labeled a 'picky eater' never find strategies to overcome their food aversions, and it's not a leap to understand (without excusing) why so many of them are pompous asses about it (think about the stereotype "dumb jock" who beat up the "bookworms.")

So, these kinds of stories aren't too much of a leap for me. What I just don't get are the people who don't care about food at all - you know, the ones happily scarfing down tasteless health food du jour with a smile on their face because it wouldn't matter to them if they were, in fact, eating gravel. You know - the ones who could get by on "people chow" - skinny, healthy, bastards!

Mhays wrote:As some of you know, this issue - especially as it pertains to children - interests me a great deal. Sparky has friends all over the food-aversion map, but two in particular stood out: between them, they only eat about 10 or so foods total. Both of these boys come from families where everybody else eats normally and their mothers are excellent and adventurous cooks - and neither is a pushover. Last year and this year, because I follow the issue with interest, I learned that both moms had found speech therapists and occupational therapists can help with this kind of problem, now dubbed a "feeding disorder." Now, these kids are entirely different from the chicken-nugget-mac-and-cheese set, they've been carefully exposed to all kinds of foods - I remember one Mom telling me with relief that she finally got her son to put butter on his noodles. While I do think parenting plays a role in feeding that can affect the way you eat as an adult, clearly there are some pieces to this puzzle that are innate to the individual.

If you think about it, when I was a kid, dyslexia was just starting to be recognized and treated. Other learning disabilities were relatively unknown - you were just 'bad at math' and that was considered acceptable. It's not surprising that adults coming from a background where you were just labeled a 'picky eater' never find strategies to overcome their food aversions, and it's not a leap to understand (without excusing) why so many of them are pompous asses about it (think about the stereotype "dumb jock" who beat up the "bookworms.")

So, these kinds of stories aren't too much of a leap for me. What I just don't get are the people who don't care about food at all - you know, the ones happily scarfing down tasteless health food du jour with a smile on their face because it wouldn't matter to them if they were, in fact, eating gravel. You know - the ones who could get by on "people chow" - skinny, healthy, bastards!

Fascinating. I had generally thought it was for lack of good examples when growing up. I know someone who won't try lamb because she is certain she won't like it, so what's the point. I did an article a few years ago on how chefs got their kids to eat, and it seemed to come down to modeling enthusiasm, having the child participate in preparation (made them much more likely to try something new), dining as a family, and while requiring that each thing be tasted, not insisting it be eaten if disliked. I still think that's true for most children, but it's interesting to learn that there are "feeding disorders" in families that otherwise seem to get all those points right.

Who knew eating could be such a complex issue?

As for those skinny folks who don't care at all about food, the one's I know don't like much of anything else, either. And they have other issues.

Finding picky childen's eating stories is just too easy.

We always had a rule that everything had to be tasted.
Thing2 had this annoying habit of being too polite as a toddler. It took us several times of "I like this kind of chicken" (all meat was a kind of chicken) before we realized that was code for "Thank you, I'm never going to eat this again."

Working at a Boy Scout campground for a summer cured him of a lot of fussiness (and gave him preferences for things I don't like much: casseroles and meat loaf). Still won't eat many veggies unless they're part of soup but that's inherited from mom. Still won't touch anything made with fish sauce.

The best Thing1 story is about beans: nothing made from beans was in the least way edible. Until one day, he came into the kitchen while we were entertaining friends, and instead of just grabbing a wedge of pita, he dipped it into the hummos greedily and ate some, and kept coming back. "I thought you didn't like hummos -- it's beans!" said I.
"I've always liked hummos" quoth he.

"I've always liked X" is now the joke for anything that is suddenly delicious. He's got a pretty wide palate, especially for Asian foods, but still won't touch fish or most green veg (except broccoli, go figure).

A dear friend traveled through Europe with a friend of his who would only eat hamburgers, preferably McD's. A travesty.

As for children's food tastes--I don't know if anyone can confirm this, but a dietitian friend told me young children's tastebuds change rapidly, as often as every few days. So it is worthwhile to continue to offer foods that were rejected a few months or even weeks earlier. As they have matured, my children have enlarged their eating range, although they were never terribly picky. Perhaps developing wider tastes is developmental, and sometimes development in certain areas may be slower in certain children.

I know plenty of not-skinny folks who eat garbage, that tastes like well, what I imagine garbage tastes like.

I don't get it, but some folks are skinny because they eat smaller portions. Some folks are skinny because they have a crazy metabolism that wouldn't let them survive a long time ago. Some folks are like my mum-in-law ( I describe her as 1 who doesn't like food). That's not true, she just likes food that for the life of me I can't imagine why it's called food.

She prefers grocery store cookies over something from a real bakery. She stocks up on Lean Cuisines & declares them enjoyable. She won't drink brewed coffee (at home) preferring Maxwell House instant (folks, I'm now roasting my own beans for Goddess sake!). She won't drink real tea preferring Tetley. Her breakfast & lunch at home are always the same. Breakfast is a hodge-podge of dried cereals w/ skim milk. Lunch is a whole wheat roll (from the grocer) & some deli meat (think Budding) plus a plate covered w/ five fruits & vegetables (get it).

Alas, she's sharp as a tack. She's so healthy that my MD doesn't think she should be seen unless something hurts for 3-5 years. She's skinny & she's closing in on 84 without looking anywhere near what I think 84 should look like.

I don't think about why someone doesn't like something anymore. When eating out with others or hosting others I just ask if they have any strong likes or dislikes & carry on from there. What's the point of dining with others who are put off by what's on the plate? I generally choose to dine with others for the company first and foremost (that goes for LTH'ers as well).

I can always eat well on my own (broke the Fast this evening at Kuma's alone, not really the women & gent next to me struck up pleasant conversations).

pairs4life wrote:Some folks are like my mum-in-law ( I describe her as 1 who doesn't like food). That's not true, she just likes food that for the life of me I can't imagine why it's called food.

She sounds like mother-in-law--although mine would never have come to Sun Wah for the LTH holiday party as yours did, Ava, and eat anything at all. If there are no potatoes served, she's not interested in the dinner. She is wonderful and dear at almost 92, but her eating preferences have driven me nuts for over 25 years. She doesn't like much meat, likes the few veggies she eats mushy, and doesn't care for rice or noodles. There's a long list of things she claims to like, "but they don't like me." (A line my kids find endlessly amusing.) What she really likes, beyond potatoes, is sweets, whether candy, chocolate, or baked goods. Her birthday is coming up, and family are coming into town, and I am racking my brains where we can take her where she'll enjoy the food.

EvA wrote:What she really likes, beyond potatoes, is sweets, whether candy, chocolate, or baked goods. Her birthday is coming up, and family are coming into town, and I am racking my brains where we can take her where she'll enjoy the food.

Koi, apparently.

(Sorry, nsxtasy... the funny trumps all.)