Taste buds

Do you wonder how anyone can NOT like the foods you find so yummy? My wife and I have had this discussion. Two of my favorite foods are tomatoes (especially beef steak) and peas. My wife won't touch either one. How is this possible I ask her? They're nasty is her reply. About the only food I'm skeptical on is cooked cabbage, unless it's called sauerkraut, of course.

What favorite foods do you have? Are there close family members who say I won't eat that, it's nasty.

Mush.  When I was a child it was all there was.  I did not like it when I was starving and now, I could eat it fried.  At least I was alive.
Pigs ears.  The good black folks who lived over the road took pity on us starving children and donated the head of the hog to us.  There was a bit of meat on the head, but the snout and the ears did not have much.
Cows lungs.
I have eaten many things to survive.  Some were good and some, not so, even for a starving kid. The best of things is bread, fried or baked.  The smell is nice.  It can be flat and cooked on a stone, made of corn or ground wheat, flour and water, or with rising stuff like soda or yeast. 
My daughter will not eat peas.  She was never hungry.  I remember the commodity pea soup concentrate that cooked up into a pale yellow paste.  It was food and filled the stomach. 
If you are hungry enough you will eat what you think you will not.  Food is life.
Love,
Betty

Taste is related to a variety of things from our sense of smell, our sight, our culture, our eating experiences and yes, whether we have experienced true hunger when anything would do.

I have never experienced desperate hunger.  It must be terrible.  I have been faced with eating some unusual foods and finding out later what they were just from travel in other countries or eating in the homes of people from different backgrounds.

I thought catfish were the ugly slimy things we caught in the saltwater and wore thick gloves to remove from the hooks saying bad words and throwing them back.  I went to Mississippi and my elderly aunt insisted on taking me out for catfish.  I had visions of those slimy things.  I also had a vision of the whole fish as served in the Philippines.

What a surprise.  The lightly cornmeal breaded fillets were delicate in taste in spite of my prejudice against the idea.

I will not eat snails.  I will not eat fish eggs. I will not eat snake, eel, frog legs or turtle soup.  That is because I have never been hungry.  Hungry, I would eat all of them.

I ate calamari because I didn't know what it was. 

McDonald's nuggets are disgusting.

I don't particularly like beef unless it's disguised after seeing movies about how it is raised and slaughtered for the mass market.  On the otherhand, farm raised fish and shrimp are as bad in how they are raised.

Oh, I remember in Germany the wonderful smell of the sausages in the meat market.  I bought something that was particularly wonderful smelling.  We had it for dinner. I said to my landlord what we had in German.  When I learned that we had eaten blood sausage I never bought sausages again without a translation, and never that sausage.

I don't like raw fish or any type sushi.  I don't think most people do.  They like the sauces that they dip it in, most so spicey they don't know the fish is raw.  It's like fish eggs and snails - an acquired taste indicates sophistication.  Thank you, I prefer being unsophisticated to eating that stuff.

Let's see...Lynn hates green beans, is allergic to wheat, and has stopped eating eggs and dairy. Doesn't care much for dark meat of chicken or turkey.  Her father-in-law won't eat cilantro, shrimp, or liver (including pate - learned that the hard way).  Won't eat white meat of chicken or turkey.  Chris's mom won't eat mushrooms, goat cheese, zucchini, brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, or blue cheese. So far as I know, Chris eats anything.  Lynn loves brussels sprouts, English peas, shrimp, goat cheese and blue cheee, grass fed beef, and sweet potatoes. Chris's dad loves pork, chicken and turkey wings, broccoli salad, roasted potatoes, and gravy.  His mom loves dark chicken and turkey, cauliflower, baked potatotoes with everything, and gucamole.

Thursday dinners take a bit of planning.  We eat a lot of whole rotisserie chickens, salads, and mixed vegetable dishes.

Suan and Jim are moving back to the area this summer.  Their house is nearly an hour's drive away, so they won't be coming every Thursday, but when they do come, I have to remember that Jim eats meat and potatoes - period, and Susan won't eat bell peppers, English peas, or rice, but loves chicken enchiladas, refried beans, and guacamole - with lots of cilantro.

I have eaten fish eggs. Mud carp have a lot of eggs.  Eat the fish the eggs and the sweetbreads (the male fish version of eggs)  Frog legs are good.  I have gone with a lantern and wacked frogs and put them in a gunny sack to be skinned and fried.  Crawdads. I have eaten rattlesnake, turtle, possums, coons and porcupines.  I do not do that anymore.  I respect the life of these animals who have given me food when I would have starved.  Today, I do not need to hurt them to live.  I give them honor in the stories of Wooffer's Woods.  It is the right thing to do.
Love,
Betty

I forgot.  I do love crawfish, any possible way: boiled, fried, etouffe, bisque, pie - if it has crawfish in it, I will devour it.  Since they are farmed, I don't catch them or eat them from crawdad holes, though.

I also love a dish called escargot bourguignonne.  Very large snails cooked in a garlic butter (heavily garlicked), and stuffed back into shells, served in special plates (got a set as a wedding gift) and snail shell clamps with cocktail forks.  Generally served with a crusty French bread to dip in the garlic sauce.  Totally and heavenly decadent.
(Is that an oxymoron?)

DK.  Blutwurst is on my "no eat" list.  Many love it; however it is just the idea of eating blood that turns me off. 
Liver was served once a week when I was a kid.  My mother said that it was good for us.  It was okay, but I won’t order it as a meal, however I do like chicken livers.
Smell is a big factor in eating.  I’ll never forget an incident while living and working in Greece.  My partner, George and I were working late and we were hungry.  He said that he knew of a place that had great soup.  “Are you hungry” he asked.  “Yes, very.” 
He drove to an out-of-the-way place.  As we parked the car, the smell was horrible.  I though perhaps it was due to uncovered garbage.  When we entered the restaurant, the smell was very strong and I lost my appetite.  A man was working at a large pot using a wooden ladle.  It looked like he was working with laundry.  He lifted the white stuff up and down in the pot with the ladle.  In the meanwhile, George asked me if I liked my soup think or thin.  I said thick.  He placed the order (in Greek).  When the soup arrived, the aroma told me what stunk.  Geroge took a large spoonful and was pleased at the taste. 
“What is this soup?” I asked.  “Intestine soup.”  That did it for me.  The smell was genuine.  I couldn’t eat anything.   
It is fortunate that we can choose what to eat.  When one is very hungry or starving, one will eat most anything.  As with DK. I have eaten things that I normally would not eat if I knew what it was.  In some cultures, to refuse what is offered is a big insult.  If one is conducting business in a foreign land, one must adjust.  In the M.E., getting to know one another precedes business discussion.  That most often includes drink and food.  Insulting your host is not going to land you the deal.

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Do you wonder how anyone can NOT like the foods you find so yummy?

Not really. If so, I would be compelled to like things other people like, such as perfumed products. I hate all artificial fragrances. I don't want to smell like a flower, coconuts, or Chanel No. 5, whatever that's supposed to smell like. I don't want my furniture smelling like Lemon Pledge. I would also be compelled to like the TV shows so many people like, instead of considering most of them just  sedatives for the low-IQ masses.

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I don't like raw fish or any type sushi.  I don't think most people do.  They like the sauces that they dip it in, most so spicey they don't know the fish is raw.  It's like fish eggs and snails - an acquired taste indicates sophistication.  Thank you, I prefer being unsophisticated to eating that stuff.

Sushi and sashimi are my favorite foods, and I don't dip them in anything. I've never even heard of dipping sauces for that, just soy or wahabi sauce. A great piece of salmon over rice, or tuna wrapped in seawood is good, healthy eating. Caviar is wonderful.

I do agree that many other foods are considered "improved" by most people by frying, larding, and dipping in sugar sauces.

I don't like raw food in general - even like my vegetables cooked a little.  I was exposed to a lot of sushi in Hawaii with Japanese friends and they had lots of little dishes with hot dips for the sushi and they had a drizzle of something on most of the sushi dishes, but I stand corrected.  We know what we experience and that's my main experience.  I tried it and did not like it at all!

In fact my favorite meal is a nice piece of cold water salmon grilled with a little garlic served with a baked sweet potato and sliced vegetables, roasted.  I don't use salt, salty or spices with salt in them.  I don't uses or like sauces.  I like to know what food I am eating.  I do like it seasoned with herbs, garlic, onions, peppers, etc.  I try to avoid sugar, but chocolate is my vice.

I only eat beef on occasion because I must have it for my anemia.  Nothing else seems to provide the something that keeps my blood in order by pill or by intravenous.  So, I pick up some piece of lean meat and cook it in the crock pot about every seven or eight days. 

I had a stint as a vegan and ate wonderful foods but ended up so badly anemic I was nearly hospitalized even taking supplements for the lack of meat.

The original question was obviously meant to be tongue in cheek. Here are some things I enjoy. In no particular order - eggs (any preparation, but cooked), chicken, olives (black or green), mushrooms, cornbread, celery, onions, carrots, bacon, ham, peaches, pears, bing cherries, strawberries, raspberries, chokecherries (any berries), I love good soup or stew, lettuce, potatoes (I am from Idaho), homemade bread (warm w/churned real butter and jam or honey), oatmeal, cream of wheat, pizza, lamb, jerky, oysters (love these) and the list goes on.

Things on my I'll eat it if I have to list are asparagus, Brussels sprouts, cooked cabbage and maraschino cherries. Something about those maraschino cherries (I just can't quite wrap my mouth around that taste and texture). And my wife loves them. Talk about a weird woman. JK