I don't think you want to be invited to my place for dinner. But I don't think I want to be to yours, either.
I think it's ridiculous for someone who chooses to represent food the way I do to have any food prejudices, but I do, and they're quite specific.
Here's how they shape up:
Foods I Haven't Tried, and Won't, But Do not Ask Me Why (I'll Tell You):
Artichokes. Reason: they look slimy and don't smell good.
Avocados. Reason: they look bland, seem to have no useful purpose and are too much effort to prepare, so I'm not going to go there.
Offal. Reason: No way I'm going to touch ANYONE's kidney, liver, entrails or brains. JUST WILL NEVER HAPPEN. They processed stuff so YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO.
Stuff I've tried a couple of times but won't make a habit of:
Asparagus. Reason: Nothing really distinguishes it from any other crispy vegetable but it looks like a skinny alien and I generally don't like thinking about "peeling off the outer husk".
Oysters. Reason: I guess I tried one a couple of times and they were inoffensive, but who needs inoffensive?
Any type of squash. Reason: Can I vomit now or later?
Mussels. Reason: Anything that you have to check whether they're living or discard was not meant for human consumption.
Cooked fish. Reason: It stinks everything it touches up, including the refrigerator, and is kind of the cosmic equivalent of Moose. You CAN eat it, but why on Earth would you want to?
Chickpeas. Reason: Anything with "chick" in it better be sashaying around topless.
Hmm. That's a somewhat impressive list of dislikes.
I don't know when we form these particular food prejudices, but I think I know where I got mine: inculcated from an early age by having to eat British boarding school food.
That being said, I do seem to like foods many others shun. Namely, dishes with a 1,000,000 Scoville Unit quotient, and stuff like broccoli. I know, "Why don't you like asparagus, but you like broccoli???"
I really don't know. But I'm getting better. I've recently been embracing blue cheeses, where I used to wrinkle my nose in disgust. I'll plough through a salmon steak, but let there even be one bone . . .
Well, at least I never tell my server I'm "allergic" to onions.
I used to not eat cauliflower because it resembled a vegetable brain, if vegetables had brains. But then I had it roasted, and I got over it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, lobsters look like big bugs.
Ah, the prejudices. That's quite an impressive list. I'm with you on the offal, the oysters, and the mussels, but that's it.
ReplyDeleteOK, I also have a prejudice against snails and meat tartars, and probably a couple of other things.
But asparagus? That stuff is awesome! Maybe you just haven't had them done right. They have to be super fresh (which is why I only eat them in spring; they have to be no more than two days from the field -- preferably less -- and should come from Quebec or Ontario). Very fresh, lightly steamed, and rolled in warm butter. Mmmmm!!!! Grilled is good too, but it's easy to over-do it.
Does your moratorium on avocados include guacamole? Mmmmmm, guacamole! I love it so much (my own, homemade) that it has let me overcome my previous prejudice against avocados slices and chunks.
Most food prejudices are in the mind and can be overcome with the right stimulus or jarring boot to the head. For example, I didn't used to like olives, capers, and anchovies. Then one day I found myself in a town on the coast of France, kinda drunk on duty-free whiskey, and desperate for some flavours after having passed the previous four weeks in small-town U.K.
The French restaurants were all full, so I ended up in an Italian joint. I ordered a pizza with olives, capers, and anchovies (it was called "la reine"). I have no idea why, when I could have gotten something more familiar. But I got it, and I devoured it. My eyes were watering for the first half, but by the time I was done (and a bit drunker from the wine), I felt like I had had an epiphany!
Ever since, I LOVE olives, am impartial to capers (they're ok on some things but I don't go out of my way for them) and I seek out anchovies on some things.
A good boot to the head shook me right out of it!
Let me remind you you had Avocado mousse at my place.
ReplyDeleteI happen to make a mean cooked fish, and also mean grilled asparagus, so we'll try them next time we bbq, and i shall convert you.
ha!
Dear Arlette,
ReplyDeleteI was apprehensive about the avocado, but it wasn't the green butter I expected. It wasn't my favourite, but I hesitate before plunging into gazpacho, or to echo Blork, anything tartare. But Blork (and you, and Jim) are right. I swear, I made pasta salad -- the way I like it -- and Brigitte put tuna into it and I liked it. I hate cooked fish! But my mouth argued with me.
It's so odd the way the mind rejects stuff just because it "decides" to.
That being said, I really will stay away from some stuff. I agree with Jim that lobsters look like bugs (in fact, they pretty much are) but once they're removed from their bugdom and don't have shells that I have to pick through and they're just meat, they're not horrible. I don't think of them as insects from the sea, although that's what they really are.
I got away from my aversion to shrimp when Brigitte shied away from peeling them, so I had to. But it's not that bad, and they're such plump and juicy morsels when they absorb the right ingredients, but I suppose a Laotian could say the same about a land grub.
More on this later . . .
I notice no one stuck up for artichokes.
ReplyDeleteOK, I will say this: I like the marinated artichoke hearts sliced on a pizza.
ReplyDeleteHmm . . . I'll have to go OVER THERE and try them. I'm sure that if I didn't know what they were I'd eat them with relish anyway . . .
ReplyDeleteI freaking hate artichokes....
ReplyDelete