Any Mainstream Foods You Can't Stand?

I've given in to the fact that there are just some foods that you should leave to other people's palates. I call these "foods that I just don't understand." I WANT to like these foods since I know other people whose palates I generally trust LOVE these foods. These foods SEEM like things I SHOULD like, but I just never understand why people go hog wild over:

1. Polish Sausage:
To me, this food substance is just plain wrong. Too salty, too greasy, just plain yuck. Don't even like talking about it.

2. Italian Sausage:
Less wrong than Polish sausage, rarely do I come across any worthy of eating on it's own. For the most part, this stuff belongs on the top of a pizza or, well, in the garbage.

3. "Deli" Turkey:
The mere fact that people purchase and consume yellow turkey flavored jello belittles my faith in mankind. They BUY that stuff in a grocery stores to feed their kids!!!!! And it costs damn near as much as real turkey!

4. Ham. Who invented this? I'd rather have plain old pork roast, thank you.

4. Biscuits and Gravy:
I REALLY want to like biscuits and gravy. I've had B&G from the places that were recommended by B&G officionados. I've had people bring me their homemade B&G. I'll NEVER understand it. It is just disgusting to me.

5. Miracle Whip:
This is hands down one of the most unpleasant things I have encountered in my life.

Funny thing is, if you saw me anywhere, the last thing you'd assume about me is that I hate polish / italian sausage, or biscuits and gravy, and ham, but honestly, I cannot STAND them - my father would disown me if he heard me say this.

I wonder if there are others who have the same feelings on other mainstream foods (no bugs, or oddities) that are possibly things that I (and others) absolutely LOVE.

seebee wrote:
4. Ham. Who invented this? I'd rather have plain old pork roast, thank you.

Cured and smoked pork leg is a gift from the gods. Is it possible you have real ham confused with supermarket hamoids that have been injected with salt water and chemicals and rushed through the curing and smoking process to maximize profit and minimize your eating pleasure? And I'm not even talking about the glorious Spanish serrano hams and Italian prosciutto hams.

Please reconsider.

Bill/SFNM

You and I have opposite views on Polish vs Italian sausage, but I am 100 percent with you on Miracle Whip.

For me it's brats. Other people seem to really love 'em.

I love all of the above mentioned things.

What I don't get:

Grits. Maybe it's because I'm not from the South. Maybe I've never had them prepared well or properly. I just can't do it. The flavor never works for me.

Risotto. I can appreciate the effort, the flavors, sure, but I've never really encountered a risotto that has wowed me. Maybe I'm put off by the texture, or from my own disastrous home-risotto experiences.

Polenta. I'd rather eat cornbread, thank you.

Is today backwards day or something? (Except for the Miracle Whip.) Excuse me, I think I must be in the wrong place.

Seriously, though, I think this list could be renamed: things that should be really good, but are often inferior or misprepared.

The simple starches, especially -- rice dishes, polenta, grits -- are tough to make right. My first experience with bibimbap involved sloppy, flavorless, wet rice and freezer-burned mixed veggies. For a while, I thought I didn't like bibimbap. How naive.

gmonkey wrote:What I don't get:

Grits. Maybe it's because I'm not from the South. Maybe I've never had them prepared well or properly. I just can't do it. The flavor never works for me.

Ditto for me. I can't stand grits. But then again, I'm a born-and-bred Yankee.

Bill/SFNM wrote:
Cured and smoked pork leg is a gift from the gods. Is it possible you have real ham confused with supermarket hamoids that have been injected with salt water and chemicals and rushed through the curing and smoking process to maximize profit and minimize your eating pleasure? And I'm not even talking about the glorious Spanish serrano hams and Italian prosciutto hams.

Please reconsider.

Bill/SFNM

Quite possible, actually. It's usually the "curing" that I equate with "destroying" since I am the first one in line for plain old smoked pig flesh. Ribs, chops, roasts - any parts, really. Smoked, I love. CURED and smoked, I generally try to avoid at all costs. The fancy cured hams you speak of, I will keep trying, but as of right now, I just don't get it. From the other foods that I eat and love, this sounds like a food I SHOULD love, but I just don't.

String beans and lamb. Both attributable to childhood eating traumas (though I still try both in the hopes that I have finally been cured).

aschie30 wrote:

gmonkey wrote:What I don't get:

Grits. Maybe it's because I'm not from the South. Maybe I've never had them prepared well or properly. I just can't do it. The flavor never works for me.

Ditto for me. I can't stand grits. But then again, I'm a born-and-bred Yankee.

LOL!!!
Not QUITE one of the foods I LOVE, but a response almost what I was thinking of. Reason for lol: I've been on kind of a grits kick lately - maybe had them 3 times in the last three weeks as compared to once in the last year. I'm not from the south, but a few big spoons of grits (made with far too much real butter of course) with a few over medium eggs on top is a damn good way to start the day. I think the real purpose of grits is just to be a vessel for butter, lard, salt and pepper. And what's not to like about that?

Ham (and by this I mean easter ham or cold cut ham, not prosciutto, serrano, etc)
As with above, basically any cold cuts. Ham, turkey, roast beef, whatever. Ick. As above, prosciutto, real salami, soppressata, are all fine. I'll eat a will special, but I won't eat a regular old turkey sandwich.
Canned tuna
Mayo-based salads (pasta, tuna, chicken, egg, etc)
Egg. Yes, egg. Fried, hard boiled, soft boiled, scrambled, in an omelet, a quiche, a frittata. Raw and liquid in the middle of a truffle raviolo at Schwa. I just don't like the taste of egg. It's fine in baked goods, it's fine in souffles usually. But otherwise..

Mac n' Cheese. Any type, but especially from the blue box. I have to leave the room when that processed powdered cheese sauce goes into the pan because it stinks something bad to me.

Canned tuna
Mayo-based salads (pasta, tuna, chicken, egg, etc)
Egg. Yes, egg. Fried, hard boiled, soft boiled, scrambled, in an omelet, a quiche, a frittata.

Weird, I am TOTALLY with you on all of these.
And Hot Dogs (I like other kinds of sausage, love Hot Dougs, but plain old hot dogs...blech).
And dill pickles....eh...

OK Gleam- there's one.
I think a good chicken salad (with real mayo, of course) is one of my favorite foods. Pecans, tart apples, celery, salt/pepper, mayo, chicken and dill.
Or, chicken, onions, salt/pepper and mayo.
I'll take that over any polish snausage any time.
And eggs? How can anyone not like eggs?? (I know, I know, you're absolutely entitled to not like eggs)

Milk, unless it has chocolate syrup in it, or at very least is served with chocolate cake. Fine in coffee. Plain and unaccompanied, I don't like it.

Lima beans.

Like others, Miracle Whip is not something I consider an option.

Liver, unless it's foie gras.

Actually I find most innards unpleaseant.

Raw oysters. (I don't know if that's mainstream for the planet, but it seems to be here.) Cooked are okay -- in fact, I've had some cooked oysters I love, and I love oyster stew, but I don't like the taste of them raw or even undercooked.

Fishy fish.

Seebee,
If you're talking about fast-food/hot dog stand Polish, that's one thing-But what about the stuff from the Polish delis on Milwaukee ave.-either fresh or the many varieties of smoked, nestled in with some kraut & boiled
potatoes, rye bread, sweet butter, and a bypass for dessert?
Also, if you've ever had the B&G from Zinfandel when they used to do brunch on Saturdays and you still don't like it, then you REALLY don't like it.
Anyway, for me: most Goat cheese, Cajeta made with goat milk, truffle oil(usually evokes kerosene), snails, rabbit.

Oh, geez, how could I forget:

Shrimp, lobster, crab, and other crustaceans. I don't like the texture of the meat. I do like deep fried shrimp heads, though. More lobster for everyone else, I suppose.

Uh...maybe some of my above responses are not very main stream-but I second the milk thing-I'd rather drink kangaroo bile.

Where do you get your kangaroo bile? Sounds yummy.

Also, I need to add:

Lamb. I made a leg for Easter. It looks beautiful. It smells wonderful. Then why can't I get past the flavor? Ever?

Ham -- or at least what Alton Brown calls "city" ham. Serrano, prosciutto, etc. are delightful, but salty, soft deli hams etc. are impossible to swallow.

Mayo on its own makes me gag. A ham on white with mayo to me is about the worst sandwich in the world.

Liver except for jewish-style chopped liver, with a lot of onions and salt, on rye.

Oysters. I don't like 'em cooked, I can't bring myself to eat them raw. Too much like snot.

Undercooked eggs, e.g. sunnyside up, 'french'-style scrambled, poached, soft-boiled. See Oysters.

I don't like:

Peanut butter, though I like peanuts.

Licorice, though I like anise.

Lemon bars or lemon meringue pie, though I like lemons and lemonade.

Regards,

Boneless, skinless, chicken breasts.

Any form of Salmon
Cilantro

I'm glad that Artie mentioned cilantro. I want to like cilantro, I really do. It tastes like soap to me and apparently this is not uncommon. I have tried and tried to like it since I've heard that if you try enough times, eventually you'll become more accustomed to it. I can now somewhat tolerate it cooked into sauces, etc. But raw... not so much. My husband and I were recently having dinner at the bar at Frontera. As usual, I was trying to find a somewhat cilantro-free entree. The bartender mentioned that he hates cilantro too and that Rick Bayless actually talks to his staff about how some people are genetically cilantro-averse. Besides uni (one very bad experience) it's the only thing I absolutely hate that I've tried. My intense aversion to cilantro makes my love of Indian, Thai, Mexican... foods very difficult at times.

Same here, ek (on the soapy taste issue). I can tolerate a very, very small amount of it.

Oh, one last one, for reals: raw onion.

I like garlic. Garlic is good for you. But for at least 48 hours after an intense aioli, my pores announce to everyone in a three block radius "This guy has eaten garlic."

So I like it, but I don't like what it does, so I don't like it. Clear?

gleam wrote:Oh, one last one, for reals: raw onion.

Wow, Ed. I could make a meal out of the stuff that you hate

How about a lobster salad sandwich with a fried egg, a slice of raw onion, and cilantro? I'm in!

I have a thing against bologna (or baloney, however you spell it). It is bland, has no redeeming nutritive values and God knows what goes into making the damn thing! It's frustrating that my boyfriend actually loves to snack on that stuff (along with good ol' American cheese). He says something about bologna is "comforting".

Ugh!!!

eatchicago wrote:

gleam wrote:Oh, one last one, for reals: raw onion.

Wow, Ed. I could make a meal out of the stuff that you hate

How about a lobster salad sandwich with a fried egg, a slice of raw onion, and cilantro? I'm in!

Seriously! I know!

I wish I liked a lot of these, but I've tried a lot of these things so many times, it just doesn't work.

Imagine how the cilantro/onion combination goes over when I eat mexican food...

Yogurt. It's healthy, comes in a zillion flavors, and would be such a convenient lunch thing. I wanted to like it, and I tried, but I just couldn't.

Sourdough bread. I love bread, and unwittingly biting into sourdough is the biggest disappointment.

Doritos. Smell like vomit.

Root beer. Another yucky smell.

Then there are the texture-related items. I only like onions if they're thinly sliced or finely chopped--big crunchy pieces are really unpleasant, and even big soft pieces in soup are not good either. Love the flavor of celery, but never will eat it, no matter how small you make it. I put big sticks in soup and throw them out or leave them for the others. Or just use celery seed.

Oh, I'm in with those who don't like cilantro, too.