# Why do people not like certain foods?



## Wereserpent (Jan 12, 2009)

Hehe, I know this is weird, but why do some people not like certain foods just on the basis of what it is?  Such as not liking octopus just because it is octopus, even if they have never tasted it.  I will even eat bugs provided they do not pose a hazard to my health(never had any, but I would try some), this goes for anything really though for me.


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## Relique du Madde (Jan 12, 2009)

It's probably a psychological conditioning thing, like Cthulhu not wanting many people to eat his Star Spawn babies.


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## megamania (Jan 12, 2009)

I'm no expert but I would think its a mixture of reasons-

1) psychology

2) ethicisity

3) open-mindedness

4) allergy fears

5) morality (veggie people)

6) past bad / good  experiences with said food / food types


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## Angel Tarragon (Jan 12, 2009)

Galeros said:


> Hehe, I know this is weird, but why do some people not like certain foods just on the basis of what it is?  Such as not liking octopus just because it is octopus, even if they have never tasted it.  I will even eat bugs provided they do not pose a hazard to my health(never had any, but I would try some), this goes for anything really though for me.




I'll eat anythiung once. If I don't like the flavor, I won't eat it again. There aren't many foods I don't like.

For example, unless its fresh from the Deli, I really don't like coleslaw.


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## Blackrat (Jan 12, 2009)

I am willing to try one bite. What's more important to me than taste is the texture. If it doesn't feel "right" between my teeth then I won't eat it.

But I guess to your question the guys have already answered. It's a psychology thing mostly. It seems nasty so it must be nasty.


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## Relique du Madde (Jan 12, 2009)

Smell also plays into it.  I refuse to eat papaya because of how it smells when sliced.


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## Relique du Madde (Jan 12, 2009)

Also..  morality isn't only a vegan thing because I won't eat any animal I had as a pet (unless if it was a bird, since I'm fine with eating poultry).


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jan 12, 2009)

Squeamishness can figure into it.  Sometimes, the full realization of what you're eating can be a barrier.

I'm pretty good at trying things out, but I balked at trying some roasted Columbian Big-Butt Ants (hormiga culona).  It was in a restaurant I frequent, and I know the family, including the chef...but I couldn't get past the look of the big critters.  My dad tried one...said it tasted like a peanut.

Atta laevigata - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Colombia's Big-Butt Ants Entice Gourmets

Similarly, I once passed on eating Giant Octopus that was served up to me suckers up- it simply wasn't appetizing.  Unlike ants, however, I currently eat Octopus quite happily.  I did recently find a dish of baby squid a bit off-putting though...I did eat most of them, but couldn't finish.

There are health issues (parisitism, allergies & sensitivity to certain ingredients, diseases like diabetes), religious issues (Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Catholicism all have dietary restrictions), and the like.

I know that texture has a great deal to do with it for some.  I have seven friends who refuse to eat many mushy foods- most notably bannannas and ice cream.

Smell is a powerful component in the enjoyment of food, and if you're repelled by a smell, you probably won't enjoy the food.  For instance, the smell of the Asian fruit, durian, is quite revolting to many Westerners, and many hotels in tourist resorts restrict or ban the fruit from their premises.

At least one person I know won't eat meats unless they have been thoroughly cooked...I mean nearly dried to being jerky.  She grew up on a farm, and often had to deal with slaughtering livestock, so she knew all about the mess that entailed.


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## Angel Tarragon (Jan 12, 2009)

Relique du Madde said:


> Also..  morality isn't only a vegan thing because I won't eat any animal I had as a pet (unless if it was a bird, since I'm fine with eating poultry).




I ate a quail once. I've also eaten cactus.


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## Blackrat (Jan 12, 2009)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> I know that texture has a great deal to do with it for some.  I have seven friends who refuse to eat many mushy foods- most notably bannannas and ice cream.




Interestingly weird. For me it's the chewyness. If food is too chewy then I get a gagging reflex and that pretty much finishes my meal right there. For that reason I tend to avoid most meats because it's too common for them to be done "badly".


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jan 12, 2009)

I have had quail soup- quite nice.  I know I've consumed cactus comestibles...like agave-based beverages. 

I've ordered off of a real Chinese menu a couple of times.  I have thus learned that when they say "Crispy-fried Soft-shell Crab," they mean the crab will be fried so much it will be like jerky.  I have also learned that sea-cucumber- a marine echinoderm (related to sea-stars and urchins) that looks like a turd has a texture like mush and gristle.  And since I know what they look like in life, that texture combined with my knowledge to give me a powerful revulsion.  However, since its flavor is very mild- it tastes like whatever its in, really- I was able to finish my soup.

I know someone who has eaten monkey-brains.  Were it offered to me, I think I'd pass.

However, as Anthony Bourdain once said something to the effect of "If you have someone offering you the best of their cuisine, its time to man up and eat it."


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jan 12, 2009)

Blackrat said:


> Interestingly weird. For me it's the chewyness. If food is too chewy then I get a gagging reflex and that pretty much finishes my meal right there. For that reason I tend to avoid most meats because it's too common for them to be done "badly".




I love seafood, and really like clams, oysters and all kinds of molluscs. However, they can be incredibly rubbery if overcooked.

It won't stop me from eating them, but it may stop me from eating them at a particular location again.


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## Aeolius (Jan 12, 2009)

I do not eat poultry. I cannot stand the smell, taste, or texture of chicken, turkey, and the like. I do, however, eat eggs and keep chickens as pets.

   On the other hand I love seafood, including sushi. Octopus, eel, urchin, conch... bring it on!


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## Angel Tarragon (Jan 12, 2009)

Aeolius said:


> On the other hand I love seafood, including sushi. Octopus, eel, urchin, conch... bring it on!




I adore seafood. Shrimp, octopus, deep sea bass, shark.....I love it all but some of it all doesn't agree with me (scallops).


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jan 13, 2009)

Aeolius said:


> I do not eat poultry. I cannot stand the smell, taste, or texture of chicken, turkey, and the like. I do, however, eat eggs and keep chickens as pets.
> 
> On the other hand I love seafood, including sushi. Octopus, eel, urchin, conch... bring it on!




Late last year, I actually got to say something I never thought I would- the phrase, "tastes like chicken."

I was in a nice Greek restaurant, and ordered the giant squid (or was it octopus?) appetizer.  I swear it looked and tasted like white-meat chicken.  The texture was clearly molluscian, though.


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## Umbran (Jan 13, 2009)

In some cases, what it is is enough.

Liver, for example.  It is, in essence, a huge chunk of cholesterol, used by the body to break down lots of nasty chemicals, so that said chemicals tend to build up in the organ.  No thanks.  

Kidneys, similar - it's a filter for stuff I wouldn't eat, so no thanks.


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## Aeolius (Jan 13, 2009)

Galeros said:


> Hehe, I know this is weird, but why do some people not like certain foods just on the basis of what it is?




   Imagine how much food we would have for the hungry, in this country, if only people were not squeamish about eating rendered meat from euthanized shelter animals.


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## Pbartender (Jan 13, 2009)

Blackrat said:


> I am willing to try one bite. What's more important to me than taste is the texture. If it doesn't feel "right" between my teeth then I won't eat it.




I sometimes have problems with certain textures of food...  Tapioca and caviar, for example, make me gag because of the slippery, slimey, beady texture.  I don't why it is, but I simply can't eat them.

I also have an especially sensitive nose, so strong smelling food can either make or break it for me.


Much of people's aversions, however, simply stem from perceptions trained into them when they were young.  Many people who avoid sushi, for example, do so simply because of a preconception that raw meat is somehow bad or gross or simply wrong.



Aeolius said:


> Imagine how much food we would have for the hungry, in this country, if only people were not squeamish about eating rendered meat from euthanized shelter animals.




Or rendered meat from the county morgue...


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## Relique du Madde (Jan 13, 2009)

Wow... I'm not touching Aeolius's comment with a 10 ft. pole (as it may fall into the realm of politics).


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## Aeolius (Jan 13, 2009)

More food for thought:

Food Color Made From Bugs
JELL-O Made from Bones and Hides


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## Relique du Madde (Jan 13, 2009)

Aeolius said:


> More food for thought:
> 
> Food Color Made From Bugs
> JELL-O Made from Bones and Hides




Not new news.   If you take pills, the capsules are made of gelatin (same ingredients as jello).  Most if not all processed foods contains bugs (and the government regulates the amount of insects that can accidentally be processed in the food item).  Bread, beer, yogurt, yine, cheese all contain living/non-living bacteria within it, same with the plants in your salad.  Like it or not, everything you eat may have living organisms on it.


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## Aeolius (Jan 13, 2009)

Relique du Madde said:


> Like it or not, everything you eat may have living organisms on it.




Doesn't bother me... though it does make me want to watch the cockroach segment of "Creepshow" again.  

One of these days, I would like to try haggis.


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## cignus_pfaccari (Jan 13, 2009)

Aeolius said:


> Imagine how much food we would have for the hungry, in this country, if only people were not squeamish about eating rendered meat from euthanized shelter animals.




Probably not as much as you'd think.  After a while, you'd pretty much run out.


For me, as far as I can tell, the main reason I'm suspicious of strange and new foods is that it's a learned behavior from growing up with a wheat allergy.

Wheat is in a surprising amount of things that you won't know about, and many that you do and don't think about, so I learned that it was good only to eat certain known foods.  

I've branched out some since, but not very far.  I pretty much refuse to knowingly eat fungus that isn't involved with blue cheese* or any animal that does not have at any point in its life a spine.  Those things might slip if it came to that or starvation, but I'd probably last a while.  

Brad

* - Wings get boring with just ranch all the time.  And I'm allowed inconsistencies, like my vegetarian friend who eats pepperoni pizza.


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## Baron Opal (Jan 13, 2009)

cignus_pfaccari said:


> And I'm allowed inconsistencies, like my vegetarian friend who eats pepperoni pizza.




Ha! I had a friend of mine who is a vegitarian tell me, quite seriously, that pepperoni is a vegeable.

My son has a lot of food allergies, so we cook and prepare practically all his food. It has been very illuminating how many things have wheat and corn in them that you wouldn't expect. The only places we go out to eat are asian places since they are the only places we can trust. 

I would have to be exceptionally hungry before I could eat an insect. I don't know if I could eat a spider, like I have seen on a Mexican travelog. And, yet, I love other crustaceans like crab and lobster.


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## Pbartender (Jan 13, 2009)

Baron Opal said:


> I don't know if I could eat a spider, like I have seen on a Mexican travelog. And, yet, I love other crustaceans like crab and lobster.




Psst...  Spiders aren't crustaceans.  They're chelicerates.


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## kibbitz (Jan 14, 2009)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> I've ordered off of a real Chinese menu a couple of times.  I have thus learned that when they say "Crispy-fried Soft-shell Crab," they mean the crab will be fried so much it will be like jerky.



Really?  My experience of Crispy-fried softshell crab is a crispy shell that you can eat if you want to, with proper crab meat inside... I cannot imagine how it got to be like jerky...



> I have also learned that sea-cucumber- a marine echinoderm (related to sea-stars and urchins) that looks like a turd has a texture like mush and gristle.  And since I know what they look like in life, that texture combined with my knowledge to give me a powerful revulsion.  However, since its flavor is very mild- it tastes like whatever its in, really- I was able to finish my soup.



It's been ages, but my memory of this is more like hard and gelatinous...



> I know someone who has eaten monkey-brains.  Were it offered to me, I think I'd pass.
> 
> However, as Anthony Bourdain once said something to the effect of "If you have someone offering you the best of their cuisine, its time to man up and eat it."



Still can't eat durians though. Amusing since I ate it when I was much younger, but I still didn't like it then. Oh, and corn  My parents love to steam corn on the cob, when they find good corn. Me, I can't stand the smell of it, and actually... I think I can't stand the taste of cream of corn soup either...


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jan 14, 2009)

kibbitz said:


> Really?  My experience of Crispy-fried softshell crab is a crispy shell that you can eat if you want to, with proper crab meat inside... I cannot imagine how it got to be like jerky...




Perhaps its a regional variant, like the way Tx BBQ differs from that out East or North.  China is pretty big, after all.



> It's been ages, but my memory of this is more like hard and gelatinous...




It was in an Udon dish, IOW, soup that had been cooked for a while.



> Oh, and corn  My parents love to steam corn on the cob, when they find good corn. Me, I can't stand the smell of it, and actually... I think I can't stand the taste of cream of corn soup either...




Corn is my favorite veggie...but I'm slightly allergic to it.  I don't eat it as often as I like, but I still eat it.  But only when I'm close to home, _IYKWIMAITTYD._


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## kibbitz (Jan 14, 2009)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Perhaps its a regional variant, like the way Tx BBQ differs from that out East or North.  China is pretty big, after all.



Did you eat it in China? My parents did complain that the food was quite inedible to them while they were there...



> It was in an Udon dish, IOW, soup that had been cooked for a while.



Ah, we had something like a stirfry in sauce, I think. That and some sort of stew.



> Corn is my favorite veggie...but I'm slightly allergic to it.  I don't eat it as often as I like, but I still eat it.  But only when I'm close to home, _IYKWIMAITTYD._



Mmm, sounds like me with milk. I like milk, but on top of being relatively expensive here, it looks like I'm mildly lactose intolerant.


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## Blackrat (Jan 14, 2009)

Baron Opal said:


> Ha! I had a friend of mine who is a vegitarian tell me, quite seriously, that pepperoni is a vegeable.



Well hey, milk is vegetable product too. Cows produce it by eating grass, so it is vegetable product!


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## kibbitz (Jan 14, 2009)

Blackrat said:


> Well hey, milk is vegetable product too. Cows produce it by eating grass, so it is vegetable product!




This just reminds me of my friend in secondary school... there was this discussion which led to her telling me that eating meat is bad, oh the poor animals, etc. So I asked her whether she was vegetarian, and she said "No, I eat chicken too.". Poor chickens... no love for them... or perhaps too much of another kind of love


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## MonkeyDragon (Jan 15, 2009)

I've told customers at work with an utterly straight face that they should purchase the chocolate covered espresso beans, because beans are a vegetable, and thus they are healthy!

Some people don't like some foods because of their tongues.  A certain percentage of people are "super-tasters," and are thus more sensetive to some flavors.  These folks tend not to like strong vegetables like broccoli, or brussel sprouts, because to them they are very bitter.

I am not one of these people, but I have seen it on television (it must be true!).  I heart brocolli.


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## Relique du Madde (Jan 15, 2009)

Baron Opal said:


> Ha! I had a friend of mine who is a vegitarian tell me, quite seriously, that pepperoni is a vegeable.




I think he is confusing pepperoni with a peperoncini pepper.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jan 15, 2009)

> Did you eat it in China? My parents did complain that the food was quite inedible to them while they were there...




Nope- I was in a Dallas area restaurant owned and operated by a chef who used to cook for diplomats & dignitaries.

I mean, it _tasted _all right, but _MAN_ did my jaw get a workout.

OTOH, its possible I ticked him off (how, I can't even guess) and this was just a joke on a "round-eye" American.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jan 15, 2009)

MonkeyDragon said:


> Some people don't like some foods because of their tongues.  A certain percentage of people are "super-tasters," and are thus more sensetive to some flavors.  These folks tend not to like strong vegetables like broccoli, or brussel sprouts, because to them they are very bitter.




I'm not one either, but I know one.  There are certain artificial sweeteners he cannot tolerate because of a horrible and long-lasting aftertaste.


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## ProfessorPain (Jan 17, 2009)

I think it makes sense that people eat things they are familiar with and avoid things they are not familiar with.  Seems like a good instinct for avoiding dangerous foods. That said, you eat what you are raised to eat.  Personally I am an adventurous eater, but I still have to work harder to bite down on the more exotic foods. Usually Asian cuisine is brought up as the ultimate in disgusting by western people (with their fish sauces, raw food, 100 year old eggs, etc).  But it is interesting to stop and consider something like cheese.  We love cheese, but its disgusting.  Its rotten dairy product.  And interestingly, Asian people find it revolting.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jan 17, 2009)

Every culture has their disgusting foods.

On his new show, _F Word_, Gordon Ramsay challenged James May to eat some Hakari, an Icelandic dish consisting of fermented shark, buried for up to 3 months, hung to dry for another 4.  I'm all over that- Gimme! Gimme!  Erm..._no._

F-Word - James May vs Gordon Ramsay • VideoSift: Online Video *Quality Control *
Recipe:
HOWTO make "rotten shark" - Boing Boing
Hákarl - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


* Warning- even though this aired on British TV, there is the typical European use of salty language.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jan 17, 2009)

ProfessorPain said:


> But it is interesting to stop and consider something like cheese.  We love cheese, but its disgusting.  Its rotten dairy product.  And interestingly, Asian people find it revolting.




And with good reason- most Asians are lactose intolerant.  Lacking the enzymes neccessary to properly digest the stuff, it makes them quite ill.


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## Aeolius (Jan 17, 2009)

ProfessorPain said:


> We love cheese, but its disgusting.  Its rotten dairy product.  And interestingly, Asian people find it revolting.




I have three children that were born in China, the older two share another trait I noticed with many of our guides. They hate cinnamon. 



Dannyalcatraz said:


> ...an Icelandic dish consisting of fermented shark...there is the typical European use of salty language.




Shark...salty... heh


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## Pbartender (Jan 17, 2009)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> ...Hakari, an Icelandic dish consisting of fermented shark, buried for up to 3 months, hung to dry for another 4.  I'm all over that- Gimme! Gimme!  Erm..._no._




That reminds of a traditional Norwegian dish...  Lutefisk.

I grew up in as a German-roots kid in a very Scandinavian town in Minnesota.  A lot of families would make homemade lutefisk around the holidays.  You could always tell who was cooking up a batch, becayse you could smell it a quarter mile away.



			
				Wikipedia said:
			
		

> Lutefisk is made from salted/dried whitefish (normally cod, but ling is also used), prepared with lye, in a sequence of particular treatments. The watering steps of these treatments differ slightly for salted/dried whitefish because of its high salt content. The first treatment is to soak the stockfish in cold water for five to six days (with the water changed daily). The saturated stockfish is then soaked in an unchanged solution of cold water and lye for an additional two days. The fish will swell during this soaking, attaining an even larger size than in its original (undried) state, while its protein content decreases by more than 50 percent, producing its famous jelly-like consistency. When this treatment is finished, the fish (saturated with lye) has a pH value of 11–12, and is therefore caustic. To make the fish edible, a final treatment of yet another four to six days of soaking in cold water (also changed daily) is needed. Eventually, the lutefisk is ready to be cooked.




Mmmm...  Dried fish that's been soaked in bathroom cleanser for days until it turn into an (almost) tasteless jelly.  

Sign. Me. Up.

The kicker is that you have to be careful to not soak it the lye for too long.  Otherwise, the fish turns into soap.


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## Merkuri (Jan 17, 2009)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> And with good reason- most Asians are lactose intolerant.  Lacking the enzymes neccessary to properly digest the stuff, it makes them quite ill.




Huh, maybe that's why I like Asian food so much.  It's one of the few cuisines I can partake in freely without ever having to worry about whether there's milk in what I'm eating.  I think crab rangoon is the only thing I've ever had to stay away from, and I get the idea that that's a very Americanized food.

Personally, I have a rule that I'll eat anything once as long as somebody else eats it first.  (That last part is an escape clause so my smart-mouthed friends *coughAwayfarercough* can't say "eat some of this dirt, then!")

Last summer my boyfriend and I went to go visit my sister in California.  She lives near San Francisco, and was extremely excited to bring us to all of the restaurants out there.  My parents had visited her a few months earlier and weren't very receptive to all of the strange cuisines she wanted to try on them.  She had called me up a week or two before we were heading over there and asked me what kind of food we were willing to try.  "Thai?"  "Sure!"  "Korean?"  "Sure!"  "Ethiopian?" "Sure!"  When she had gone through about half of her list and I'd responded positively to all of them she said, "Oh, you make me so happy!"


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jan 17, 2009)

Pbartender said:


> That reminds of a traditional Norwegian dish...  Lutefisk.
> 
> Mmmm...  Dried fish that's been soaked in bathroom cleanser for days until it turn into an (almost) tasteless jelly.
> 
> ...




My college roomate was from Vermillion, South Dakota, and he educated me as to the lovecraftian dish, Lutefisk.

Despite his norski roots, _HE _didn't eat it.  I followed his lead.


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## Aeolius (Jan 17, 2009)

Pbartender said:


> The kicker is that you have to be careful to not soak it the lye for too long.  Otherwise, the fish turns into soap.




"One more vulgar word, young man, and I'll wash your mouth out with lutefisk!"


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## Ginnel (Jan 18, 2009)

I don't think I've ever refused a type of food.

I know the psychological  associations with stuff that sounds horrid like Ox tongue and pigs trotters and Haggis once you know the ingredients but I make a point of going no stop being silly its not going to kill you give it a go.

I also fairly regularly try foods I know I don't like basically when someone offers it to me, so I'll eat brussel sprouts, cucumber, melon, pineapple and coconut whenever it turns up, and that list there is the some total of foods I'm not keen on, though I did have some really nice sprouts at the works do 

weirdist thing I've eaten hmmm Sea Urchin had it as sushi in December


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