Fresh pears? (I was walking around the neighborhood last night and spotted a pear a tree studded with literally at least a hundred fruits. I picked up one, assuming the neighbor wouldn't mind, and ... ambrosia. I haven't had a pear that good in years.)

The only foods I actively avoid include Taco Bell, Dominos, and almost all grocery store tomatoes.

Mike G wrote:Fresh cherries?

Oh yes.

http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f= ... es#p202230
http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f= ... es#p211599

Binko wrote:Fresh pears?

I've been psychologically damaged by pears. Plus I've just never liked the taste unless they're covered in sugar and baked.

Nothing a little child slave labor can't cure.

I'm done with the today's the day I'm done with........... blog

Pie Lady wrote:

jimswside wrote:1) Fresh pears and anything non-desserty that contains pears. Except for one mistake a few years ago, I haven't eaten one since the 80s.

I hate pears. Fruit shouldn't be astringent.

I am done with whipped topping and anything with "creme" in the name.

I am done with "bagels" from places that don't know the difference between an actual bagel and donut-shaped bread.

well, no. I'll eat the occasional Einstein Bros, not as a bagel, but because it's good as its own entity (bread-type food, and oh how I love bread), but I am done with pretty much any Chicagoland bagel that does not come from New York Bagel and Bialy*.


*I can be convinced there are other decent bagel producers in the Chicagoland area, however, this is the only one I'm aware of.

sweetsalty wrote:I am done with pretty much any Chicagoland bagel that does not come from New York Bagel and Bialy*.


*I can be convinced there are other decent bagel producers in the Chicagoland area, however, this is the only one I'm aware of.

Bringing in the Bagels

Suzy Creamcheese wrote:

Pie Lady wrote:

jimswside wrote:1) Fresh pears and anything non-desserty that contains pears. Except for one mistake a few years ago, I haven't eaten one since the 80s.

I hate pears. Fruit shouldn't be astringent.

Pears are astringent? Are you eating particularly astringent varieties of pears? The pears I like are sweet pears and taste less astringent to me than the typical apple, for instance, and they melt in your mouth with the texture of a melon.

Ah! Thanks to you, I remembered another one.

Every year I try melon. I go out to breakfast at some point and it comes with the "fresh fruit" - a little monkey dish of canteloupe, watermelon and what I assume is honeydew. I always try each one with great hopes - I really want to like them - but each time they make me cringe. I'll take the ridicule, but no more melon.

Thanks, LAZ!

Pie Lady, I am SO with you on melon. Uch. Never met a melon I didn't hate. Especially canteloupe (which, here in the US is usually musk melon, right?), which tastes just like kitchen garbage to me.

Last year, I swore off yellow peaches from the grocery stores/fruit markets forever.
White flesh peaches are far more reliable. I almost bought a few yellow ones this year, but every time I pick one up, I tell myself, "self, if they turn out to be mealy and mushy, you will be pissed yet again. How many more times before youn learn?" Then, I go get the white ones, and I have yet to be disappointed.

Does tilapia count? I honestly did have it once or twice and liked it OK. Then I cooked up a batch that tasted like absolute... yuck. I think I threw away the pan it was cooked in, because it would make anything else I cooked in it icky by association. Now I'm afraid to order any unspecified fish (fish tacos; fish and chips) because I am afraid they will contain the dreaded tilapia.

bibi rose wrote:Now I'm afraid to order any unspecified fish (fish tacos; fish and chips) because I am afraid they will contain the dreaded tilapia.

Blame it on this man, Elliot 'Mr. Tilapia' Marks, friend of Jazzfood, lover of all things tilapia.

Mr. Tilapia

Photoshop by Steve Z

ab wrote:It's taken years of back-and-forth, but I'm seriously done with all processed sandwich meats.

Ditto. Additionally:

1) Fried rice: Grew up eating it and lying to myself about liking it, thinking it should be a comfort food for me as an adult, but about a year ago I decided to be honest with myself. I like rice. I like egg. I like the other bits of things that can go into fried rice so long as they're not in fried rice-sized bits and not tossed together and fried with rice.

2) Non-Kellogg's Pop Tarts: Crave a Pop Tart about once every other year, have tried all manner of fancy Pop Tarts from Whole Foods and Trader Joe's with less scary, more intelligible ingredient lists. Decided, also about a year ago, that when I need a Pop Tart, I need a Kellogg's frosted strawberry Pop Tart--enough with trying to make this kind of yucky craving better by buying more expensive, chichi kinds. (Of course, I know I could also make my own Pop Tarts, but I'm not there yet in my personal development.)

3) Fresh raspberries: Love berries, want to love raspberries. They're pretty, don't have seeds. Lots of people love fresh raspberries. I decided this summer that I'm just not a raspberry person, and I've got to stop trying to be one. I've eaten them off the bush, bought beautiful ones at farmers' markets. I'll eat raspberries on tarts, raspberry jam (especially in Bridgestone's Hallongrottor)... I just don't like soft berries by their lonesome.

sweetsalty wrote:Thanks, LAZ!

Pie Lady, I am SO with you on melon. Uch. Never met a melon I didn't hate. Especially canteloupe (which, here in the US is usually musk melon, right?), which tastes just like kitchen garbage to me.

As far as I know, canteloupe is canteloupe, as long as we're talking about that light peach melon. Wish it tasted as pretty as it looked. Muskmelon is green, isn't it? Either way, it tastes like feet to me. Very pretty peach feet.

2) A Philly Cheese steak in Chicago, or anywhere else beside Philadelphia - the ones I have had have been crap outside of Philadelphia.

Ok, Atlantic City is sort of a suburb of Philadelphia (sort of), but the cheese steak at White House Subs is great. Grilled onions, cheese of your choice (usually provolone), great roll. There's always a wait, but it's worth it. Not too close to the casinos, though.

I'm generally not too fussy, but there are a few things that won't touch my lips:
Office Coffee
I'm talking about the pot that is made first thing in the morning and left to sit on the burner until the "aroma" of burnt coffee wafts through the building - that cup of joe that has a lingering bitterness and gives you acid heartburn. No thanks! Instead, I have for nineteen years kept a four-cup coffee pot in my office and use it to brew my own freshly ground dark-roasted coffee. It has certainly made my work day more palatable.

Processed Meats
Enough said!

Bad Bread
Thankfully, there are many excellent bread options available and one no longer has to be stuck with grocery store pseudo-artisanal bread which is nothing more than foamy bread in a crusty exterior.

Jyoti

seebee wrote:Last year, I swore off yellow peaches from the grocery stores/fruit markets forever.
White flesh peaches are far more reliable. I almost bought a few yellow ones this year, but every time I pick one up, I tell myself, "self, if they turn out to be mealy and mushy, you will be pissed yet again. How many more times before youn learn?" Then, I go get the white ones, and I have yet to be disappointed.

All other things being equal, I find that white peaches have less peach flavor than yellow ones. To me, they taste sweet without tasting particularly peachy. But because white peaches are a more expensive delicacy, you are more likely to see them picked riper and more carefully sent to market. Also, white-fleshed peaches are lower acid than yellow peaches, so they're more edible in an unripened state. Yellow peaches need to be ripe for the sweetness to balance the acidity.

If -- and it's a big if -- you can find yellow peaches that smell like peaches and have a little give to them, they're usually very good, if you give them a day or two on the counter to get fully ripe. If you buy peaches that are hard and scentless, white or yellow, they will never ripen -- they'll only get soft and mealy without becoming flavorful.

But a ripe peach is supposed to be a little mushy and messy and juicy. That's what T.S. Eliot was talking about when he wrote, "Do I dare to eat a peach?" Crispness is for apples.

I have bought good peaches at grocery stores, but they are definitely hard to find. Every time I see a bin full of hard fruit with no scent, I wonder, "Who buys these?" Somebody must, or they wouldn't sell them. Are there people out there who think that those cottony-tasting fruits are the way peaches are supposed to be?

Cool Whip...done

Last year, I swore off yellow peaches from the grocery stores/fruit markets forever.

I did this myself some years back (not so much from the markets but certainly from the chain groceries.) Shame.
I've had much better luck with nectarines, however, particularly earlier in the year. You might want to give those a try along with the white fleshed peaches (altho I've gotten some awful ones of those, too; nothing like mushy or dry-like-cardboard fruit to send you right back to chocolates and chips for those late nite munchies).

I am firmly convinced that the quality of fruit has to do with whether "they" have discovered them. (Who do I mean by "they?" I don't know, maybe some secret government agency bent on the eventual introduction of soylent green - but I've noticed that as soon as a fruit or food gets "discovered," quality is shot.) Saturn peaches are a case in point - when I first tried one, it was one of those juice dripping down your chin, surrender to the sweet softness of fur vs ripe flesh fruit experiences - every time (and they were only available VERY seasonally.) This year, they're ubiquitous and bleah - even at the farmer's market. Somebody told "them" that saturn peaches are the new black, and with very few exceptions, they became the mealy flavorless things that the rest of the US knows as a peach.

In my memory this has happened to many, many of my favorites: tomatoes, strawberries, chicken, beef, melons (except for watermelon, which in season is still good) and I'm even finding my grocery-store onions to lack flavor. I suppose Iceberg lettuce was the first example - though I don't really remember when it had a flavor. I shudder to think what will happen when "they" start discovering Asian foods, usually a good source of food that tastes like food (God bless the Asia for hiding all that good flavor under spiky shells, strange smells, and parts like feet "they"'re never going to find it there.)

have bought good peaches at grocery stores, but they are definitely hard to find. Every time I see a bin full of hard fruit with no scent, I wonder, "Who buys these?" Somebody must, or they wouldn't sell them. Are there people out there who think that those cottony-tasting fruits are the way peaches are supposed to be?

It's the incurable optimist in me I do buy grocery store peaches and nectarines because, occasionally, they can sit on the counter for a few days, soften, and taste relatively good. My experience with them isn't nearly as universally bad as my experience with Driscoll's strawberries. Those I have entirely written off.

sweetsalty wrote:

have bought good peaches at grocery stores, but they are definitely hard to find. Every time I see a bin full of hard fruit with no scent, I wonder, "Who buys these?" Somebody must, or they wouldn't sell them. Are there people out there who think that those cottony-tasting fruits are the way peaches are supposed to be?

It's the incurable optimist in me I do buy grocery store peaches and nectarines because, occasionally, they can sit on the counter for a few days, soften, and taste relatively good. My experience with them isn't nearly as universally bad as my experience with Driscoll's strawberries. Those I have entirely written off.

I just bought peaches Saturday at a produce market in Niles (way up in Niles, you know where I mean) that looked fine and gave a bit. By this morning they were mushy, brown, and the skin was broken. I had some from a farmer's market that lasted a week. Perhaps I, too, am done with store peaches. The white ones I bought seemed harder than when I picked them up. Hopefully I'm wrong. Most strawberries I've had have been disappointing lately, but I keep trying. I loves me some fresh berries.

That's what T.S. Eliot was talking about when he wrote, "Do I dare to eat a peach?"

Or it could have been his pining for oral sex.


/Thanks, University of Chicago Common Core

Santander wrote:

That's what T.S. Eliot was talking about when he wrote, "Do I dare to eat a peach?"

Or it could have been his pining for oral sex.


/Thanks, University of Chicago Common Core

Indeed, that would be the literary interpretation.

Jyoti

Santander wrote:

That's what T.S. Eliot was talking about when he wrote, "Do I dare to eat a peach?"

Or it could have been his pining for oral sex.

That's sure not how my English teacher explained it back in junior high.

I can't access the article you linked to, but I have a lit degree, so I'm familiar with the school of literary criticism that attributes every allusion to sex. In this instance, though, I don't agree. There are sexual references elsewhere in the poem, but juxtaposed with parting his hair to cover his bald spot and dressing youthfully in white flannel trousers, this line seems entirely concerned with keeping up appearances. In any case, I prefer the image of juices dribbling from a succulent, ripe peach to the cruder interpretation.

LAZ wrote:

Santander wrote:

That's what T.S. Eliot was talking about when he wrote, "Do I dare to eat a peach?"

In any case, I prefer the image of juices dribbling from a succulent, ripe peach to the cruder interpretation.[/size]

No disagreement there

Jyoti

food

Original Barbcue Chicken Salad from California Pizza Kitchen. I realize that most of you never ate this in the first place, but I've always liked it. Until today. Mushy black beans, tomatoes of the cold, cardboard variety, somewhat soggy tortilla strips, minimal corn and jicama. Scratch another off the lunch options around Water Tower. <sigh>

MBK wrote:food

I say that every night, but each morning I find my commitment to this goal has diminished greatly. One can only keep trying!

Jyoti