Continuing with guilty (non) pleasures... What are the things everyone else loves and you know you SHOULD love, but just can't stand?

Now that I think about it, for me that list of bads is all about texture - eggplant, marshmallows, tofu, meringue but nothing is worse than liver.

Your post made me laugh out loud. I love oysters. No condiments necessary. They taste like the ocean smells..not how the ocean tastes. Lol

"Cream of yuck soup" Ha!

Susanm, truffle oil does not count as food - it's a chemical :) other than that I cannot agree more, it is totaly repulsive.

Me too. I prefer cinnamon in savory dishes

LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT!!

ME TOO,ME TOO,ME TOO!!!

Makes me Itch. Slight allergy maybe.

Interesting article in the New York Times on this topic the other day: http://tinyurl.com/7y6ltyt . ;o)

AJ, I read that article and that stuff is just incendiary to me. You want to have guests for dinner and they bring their own diet food with them?? People used to pretend that this was just a silly LA thing when now it's much bigger than that.

I found quite apt the terms "narcissism" and "infantilism" used by one of the people interviewed. And alas, that seems to be a trend that goes beyond food preferences. ;o)

Pierino,

One of the things I absolutely respect and admire about the Food52 community is that there is a lack of the snarky comments that are so widespread on the Internet. While members of the Food52 community all have their strongly held opinions about food, their comments lack the peremptory tone of your declarative statement that “veganism is just plain stupid” or your sweeping assumption that adults who choose a vegan or gluten free diet without a medical reason are basing their decision on something they “read in a lifestyle magazine or something”. I was a vegan for many years and my decision to move to more of a vegetarian diet was a purely personal decision that was in no way based on any lack in the flavor, texture, or satisfaction based in vegan preparations of food. Nor was it based on anything I read about in a pop culture magazine. While I would characterize my cooking and eating as mostly vegetarian, I have no disdain for those choose to do otherwise. This is why I felt drawn to Food52 in the first place; a feeling of mutual respect for the preferences of others, ignoring our differences in favor for the tie that binds us, good food in whatever preparation it may take.

Matt

I had people who would bring their own GF bread to my restaurant on which I was supposed to make a sandwich of items not on on the menu. #imnotkidding

Now Boulangere, that is funny. Did you charge them a corkage fee for using their bread? Maybe $10?

About the "all those stuff - free" thing,pierino:in Brazil even bottled water comes with the gluten free sign...WHY?Don't ask me...I just think that if you're so stupid to think water may contain gluten and make you sick,maybe that's natural selection working at it's best.Right?

Pierino, they were surprised when they were charged for a standard sandwich (with salad or soup) - thought they should have been given a discount for bringing their own bread.

I only like raisins when they're covered in dark chocolate.

Nutella is chocolate-hazelnut flavored margarine. Read the label. Eew!

Even though I gave up drinking scotch three years ago---we were becoming too friendly with each other---I feel I must stand up for it. I miss that smell of opening a bottle of maybe Lagavulin and capturing that burnt tire fragrance. Better or worse, those days are over.

Yes, that smokiness is incomparable.

I was very disappointed that I didn't like the whisky. I fully expected that when I had the good stuff that I would finally appreciate it. didn't happen for me, though my husband and son loved some that we tried.

Benny those "people" should be subject to some form of corporal punishment like having a Hawaiian pizza shoved in their face. Okay, I'm a bad man...

I became allergic to chocolate a few years ago, which I lament to this day. Nothing, however, could improve on tetra-packed coconut water. Nothing.

I'm with you on that never could get into wheatgrass juice.

Hla, weren't you a finalist in the mushroom contest? Didn't you win?

I was a finalist, but did not win. I created the recipe for my sister, who loves mushrooms! I do like other types of mushrooms - chanterelles, hedgehogs, and bear's head are probably my favorite.

Okay, Peter I'll take your truffles and your foie gras while you are not looking. No tournedos rossini for you my friend. When I was taking cooking classes I was pretty nimble at snagging ingredients from other cooks that they didn't even want to touch. Toe jam? Well the best runny cheeses smell like the feet of God.

That's pretty awesome that you make it even though you don't like it. I wonder, do your kids know you dislike ice cream? My mom used to make cous-cous all the time for me and my sister when we were little, and only recently did we find out that she actually hates cous-cous with a fiery passion.

Just want to point out that FRESH king crab is amazing. Like eating it in Dutch Harbor, AK not 6 hrs out of the water fresh. Of course, as I was eating it in a harborside restaurant there, I saw the biggest damned rat EVER scuttling along the breakwater.

That is very sad.

My mother simply despises even the scent of truffle, if someone at the other side of a restaurant has truffle it smells overpowering.

I'll have to see if that makes a difference for me, thanks. I'm on the fence about the herb, a little is okay sometimes, overpowering at others.

Sam, this is so interesting! My dad thinks that he hates cilantro, but he eats food and enjoys them where it is clearly present. Maybe now I can put it in foods for him...

Ugh, I so agree. And I am a major, life long coconut fanatic - fresh, anything cooked with coconut milk, coconut pie, cake, cookies, ice cream - love it all. I'm sure the road to heaven is paved in Almond Joys. But coconut water? Vile.

Yes, amysarah, also give me coconut in any form other than that vile water.

I wonder if you'd like it straight from the coconut like they serve in Puerto Rico as "coco frio"? I find it perfectly refreshing.

Coconut water is okay. Coconut oil, OTOH, is gross to me. The packaging told me to just add salt if I wanted to lessen the coconut flavor when using it to cook something in. Just made it taste like salty coconut oil. Gack.

One of the few cocktails I permit myself these days especially in the summer is pastis (Pernod, Ricard et. al.). Heavy on the anise flavor and alcohol content so I'll average maybe one per month. You can smell it across the room. Served simply with no ice, and just chilled water to make it cloudy.

As far as "gelatinous" sfmiller your missing out on some of the cool molecular gastronomy chefs are doing with ingredients like olive oil. They turn into this little olive bomb in your mouth.

Cilantro is interesting. I used to think that people who didn't like cilantro were just plain sissies (sometimes I still feel that way) but I've come to realize that some people are simply, genetically tuned to not taste anything but soap and miss the lovely herb flavor completely.Which is unfortunate. I'm willing to put it on my Cheerios in the morning.

You can add me to the list of people who do not care for Cilantro.
When a recipe calls for it I always subsitute parsley.

...and apparently it's a genetic thing. I keep trying cilantro, and if it's been added "sparingly" I can sometimes tolerate it, but mostly it ruins for me whatever dish it has flavored. :-(

That is SUCH a genetic thing. I personally like it.

I'm like this with cloves. Has to be VERY subtle for me to like it.

But.... I'm a marine biologist. Anything out of the water, I'll eat. Sea cucumbers, eel, limpets, clams, oysters, fish, urchins, etc.... I'm for it.

Beets! Can't stand them.

I used to hate beets. I would try them every year in every form but I could only taste perfumed dirt. I even swallowed chunks whole once at a party where they were placed in front of me already plated. I had to swallow gulps of wine to rid the taste. Then somehow, miraculously, last year I had my very first hint of maybe, sort of, liking a beet at a restaurant. So I tried making them at home- roasted and toasty with a walnut vinaigrette, crumbly cheese and bitter greens (hiding them as much as I could) and found that I actually liked them. Not enough to eat the whole platter or have them again any time soon- but I started to see the light. I still felt gaggy smelling them roasting in the oven though- so I hear you.

"delicious when properly prepared" is the operative phrase here. Personally I'm totally down with offal; sweetbreads, tripes etc. It's the pop fad of the moment foods that I find disappointing. I should add Texas Toast to my list.

Yeah, Pierino, they are the bee's knees these days. I just don't eat them because they tend to be where toxins concentrate, and our food supply has enough of those in it already.

me too beyondcelery!

This is wonderful.

Oh my goodness, how I wish I had an older sister like that. I had liver WEEKLY for iron deficiency as a child. My sister and I learned to swallow those pieces whole. We chewed once and never again. Now, we can swallow any pill~no matter the size.

Thank god we had a dog, who always knew to park himself under the table so we could slip him the liver chunks when Mom wasn't looking. But now that I'm anemic I find myself trying to find a palatable way to eat the stuff because I need the iron and boy, let me tell you, it's a struggle.

I never liked liver until I tried two kinds: lamb liver and venison liver. Both cooked briefly in butter so they weren't tough. YUM.

When I was a child my aunt would tell me if I didn't eat liver, I'd get liver spots! No amount if catsup could cover that taste and the texture was so icky! I remember sitting at the table crying like crazy until my mom caved and said I only had to take one small bite. I lived through it.

Would lima beans be in there too??

OMG, sdb, I swore off lima beans so long ago, I'd actually forgotten how much I absolutely despise them! Thanks!

I never liked brussels sprouts growing up, but then my husband made them for me and I was a convert. He halved them, browned the cut sides in olive oil, added slivered garlic and a splash of broth then covered them until they were crisp tender. Loved them. David Chang's dish with the sweet/sour fish sauce and puffed rice is also a regular at our house and you can't go wrong cooking shredded brussels with bacon and caramelized onions with balsamic drizzle. Well, maybe you can if you still don't like them....but I learned to!

Have you tried red quinoa or the rainbow kind? I am not crazy about the pale variety, but the red quinoa is nutty tasting when we do an asiany grilled salmon, I will reduce the marinade for a sauce and it's quite good.

Scallops are definitely expensive and I hear you. But just in case, let me share a buying note with you I only recently learned from my favorite fishmonger. Many scallopes have been dipped in a chemical solution that both extends shelf life and causes the scallop to retain water. That means we pay a high price for less concentrated flavor. "Dry" scallops are those scallops that are not dipped.

Fresh scallops make a big difference, as in those ones sometimes called diver scallops that are delivered to the restaurant or the fishmonger while still in the shell like clams or mussels. But yes, most scallops in the supermarket have already been shelled and frozen on board the boat. I've busted more than one restaurant for putting "diver scallops" on their menu when they clearly weren't.