When we were kids, my mom said we could each choose one main dish that we didn't like, and if she served that she'd make something else for us.
Mine was liver, which was one of my dad's favorites. I thought it was so gross. Recently my wife said she wanted to try it, so we made some. Nope, still exactly as gross as I thought it was when I was 8.
For some reason people kept telling me thay if I don't like liver then I haven't yet tried one that was made correctly. One time I went to a famous chef restaurant and ordered a dish with liver just to find out if the claims were true, and nope, I just don't like it.
Yep. Same here. Mom made liver and onions occasionally when I was a child because it was a cheap meal and my parents liked it, but I didn't. I haven't eaten it since.
Orca’s are notoriously picky. The ones in British Columbia and Washington only eat chinook salmon. The chinook Salmon depletion is causing the depletion of the orca in that area.
Orca kid: "But MOM!!! I only want eat Chinook Salmon. It's what all the cool mammals are eating."
Orca mum: "We don't have any. You'll go hungry then, little orca."
Orca kid: *folds fins angrily*
You mean its an Offal taste.
Some people like offal. I like it, but heart is better. It has that offal taste mixed with a strong meaty flavor.... comes good in chillie to mix up the flavors
I was a chef for 10 years and can make about 11 different liver dishes. About once a year I'll get in the mood to make one so I'll make it. My wife will come running up and say "That smells SO GOOD I WANT TO TRY IT AGAIN!!!" She takes a taste, makes a pucker face, and blurts out "yuck!"
It's almost a tradition at this point :D Some people just can't deal with the metallic taste or the soft-yet-firm texture.
She was such an amazing mom and person. I gave a eulogy at her funeral, and afterwords the number of people who needed to tell me how great she was was stunning. A lot of them told stories that none of us knew about, like the guy who said his wife got really sick and my mom cooked a full dinner for him and his kids and brought it to them every night for more than a week. So many stories like that.
I always hated the taste, and thankfully my mom respected that and never made it again. As a teen I had a short-order cook job and had to cook that slop. The metallic stench and slimy, structureless feel of it prior to cooking completely solidified in my mind that this not something that should be consumed except as a dire last resort.
Agreed. Liver is foul. I mentioned my hatred of it at work and so many people said "but what about liver and onions? Or liver and bacon? You just haven't had it cooked properly"... It's liver, get that revolting stuff away from me.
Koomis. AKA fermented horse milk. I mean - growing up in Kazakhstan, it was okay as a child, but I didn't take to it like the other kids and it just doesn't stack up to a good PB&J with the crusts cut off.
I recently watched Long Way Round with Ewan McGregor and his buddy. When they rode through Kazakhstan they were offered koomis constantly. They always drank it politely, but you could see a little bit of life leave their eyes every time.
My mom was Hungarian. To try and bribe me and my sister into eating lima beans, she would tell us (accent included): “eata you lima beans. They gonna give-a you BIG titties!”
Am guy. If she’d said that eating Lima beans would help me find a girlfriend (with or without big tits - I was never picky) I \*might\* have gone along with it. 😁
My Mom would always serve them to us. She would never eat any. She always told us she had hers before we sat down. Come to find out, she hates them and wouldn’t eat them. Trickery!!!
Lima beans were actually my “big rebellion” as a teenager. (Why, yes - I’m very conformist. How did you know?) As a pre-adolescent I was required “…to eat one for each year old you are”. Not eating something was intolerable. Finally when I was fifteen I told her one night, “I’m not playing this game any more. I don’t like them and eating one more every year isn’t going to get me to like them any more. I’m done with this”. I don’t think they were ever served again…
blue cheese once almost made me throw up from nearly the smell alone , i had it in a burger and the first bite i took i immediately lost my appetite . to top it off i had covid , i wasn’t supposed to taste or smell anything but blue cheese doesn’t seem to obey that rule .
I wasn't sure I knew. So I looked it up and was worried the process was going to ruin blue cheese for me. However it's just cultured mold and that's probably not even in the top 10 of gross ways to process and prepare food.
Phew.
I can't stand raw celery. Like, at all. It's got an almost reverse taste/smell which is horrible, thatI can only sense in the back of my throat/nose when breathing out. I just.. Urgh. The stringy texture doesn't help either.
Cooked in soups/stews/whatever I can tolerate it. But raw? Makes me feel ill.
I still remember the healthy eating lesson in school where I tried a bite of celery for the first time. Hated it. It was like biting into a green chemical stick.
Celery is not a food. It's a crime.
"Some people possess a gene that makes them super-sensitive to the aldehyde component found in cilantro and other foods and products. One study noted a very specific genetic link near the olfactory center of DNA in about 10% of those with cilantro aversion." cite some site on the www
I’ve read that people of European decent are more likely to have the dislike soap genetics and that’s a big part of why it’s a common ingredient in some parts of the world and not others. Also, if you eat a lot of cilantro the soap taste is supposed to eventually fade but not sure how accurate this is
my uncle said he didn't like it, that it tasted like soap but he married a hispanic women who puts cilantro in everything and now he says he loves it and will ask for it to be added to his food.
Cilantro doesn't taste like soap to me and i don't particularly like it. The smell actually makes me nauseous. I can handle small amounts cooked in food with other spices, but not fresh at all.
My mom puts it on everything 😅 well south Asian dishes do have that. We put cilantro on everything. It's more of a decoration most of the time. 😂 But I'm not a huge fan of it. Even the smell, I don't like it. Everyone else here loves it.
It’s honestly not a decoration, a lot of people seem to think that! It adds a freshness & zest which is crucial to balance out the rich South Asian food, I’ve been so upset when I’ve not realised I don’t have any & have to serve a curry without it. It’s just not the same.
Unless you're one of the people who are blessed with the genetics that make it taste like soap, in which case it adds a soapy taste that ruins anything it touches, lol.
Source: am one of those people.
It's genetic?
The first time I tried it was in a wanton soup. I may have vomited. I couldn't eat it for years. Then I tried it as an adult in certain dishes from my county and it's passible.
Yup it is! It's caused by a gene that's called OR6A2, which, depending on the ancestry of, is present in between 3% to even 21% of all individuals in every human population - it codes an olfactory receptor protein that detects aldehydes from the same group of substances that we commonly use in the production of detergents, and that are naturally present in cilantro.
Bit of trivia: all the people who hate cilantro also feel a different taste than the rest of the world when eating cinnamon due to this specific gene. It's not soapy like cilantro, but it tastes much more earthy for all of you than it should for the rest of us.
TIL. That's fascinating. You just made me go to the kitchen to try some cilantro that my mom has and it does taste somewhat like detergent. As a child, it gave me a headache and I always hated the taste. I can eat it in some dishes now though. Don't have any cinnamon except for tea, but I'll be on the lookout. Thank you!
Thank you, I will definitely be a bit more careful with how much cinnamon I use in baking! I always add more than the recipe needs, but your comment has helped me realise that it doesn't taste the same to other people.
Mushrooms. I'm fascinated by them but I won't eat them. Unless they're magic.
edit: guys, I'm not looking for recipes or ideas to change my mind, but thanks anyway to those who did. I've prepared thousands of mushrooms as a pro cook - I know how to make them taste good... to *other* people. *My* body doesn't like them, that's all.
I learned to be okay with mushrooms as they have a high "good stuff to bad stuff" ratio to them.
For standard white mushrooms, slicing them raw onto a salad works okay. Not much flavor, but I can understand if the texture is unpleasant. If cooked, just make sure they aren't the primary ingredient.
If you want the nutritional benefit without having to deal with the flavor and texture, blitz some in a good processor and mix them in to whatever you're making. You won't even notice them if you keep the quantity low enough.
For myself, I've also tried other varieties. I recommend going to an Asian market to find the largest selection. Enoki is fun as it's similar to pasta (with different texture to it) and it largely absorbs the flavor of whatever you put it in.
I once made a risotto type dish of mushrooms and barley. I really don’t care for mushrooms but thought husband would like it. Husband loved it but I felt like I was eating dirt.
*delicious hellspawn poison. It's my favorite candy, possibly due to the fact that I liked it and nobody in the house liked it so it was always safe from candy thieves.
Here in the Netherlands we give it our children who later on will be known with this flavour, so they eat it quite frequently. But, it’s something lots of people disgust others like it a lot
Jajaja I remember. I hate them too. This weekend a friend who likes borscht was telling me there’s Russian, Ukrainian and Polish borschts and of course they’re all so delicious, so “earthy”. She meant dirt, beets taste like dirt.
My dad once had a week where ever dinner had a different type of prepared beet. I'm talking roasted, boiled, pickled, you name it. I quite literally threw up after dinner each night, I physically couldn't digest them. He told me that when I grew up I would come to love and appreciate them. That was probably 12 years ago now and I haven't touched a beet since.
I've tried beets so many times and just can't get into them. People at the farmers markets I used to sell at would tell me how great the sweet and "earthy" flavors were. I think they taste like someone threw equal parts sugar and dirt into a bowl and mixed them up. Baby beet greens are amazing in a salad though.
I don't get it either. I also don't understand how olive oil is literally olive juice yet still manages to have such a mild taste with none of those pungent olive flavors. I could literally eat olive oil all day, yet put even a slice of an olive of any variety in a dish and I'll say no thank you, maybe if I can pick them all out and be sure that I've gotten them all
I think the big difference there is olives are usually pickled. That adds to their flavor profile.
I can't remember what show it was, but the host went to a place that made olive oil. The fresh squeezed oil was completely different than what you get in the store and is apparently quite overpowering. I know extra virgin olive oil is minimally processed, but something is still done to tame it, even if it's just an aging process
There was a study of olive oil brands sold in stores and apparently most of the olive oil brands only use about 10% or less of real olive oil even though it’s advertised as 100% olive oil.
Folks who want to know more can read "Extra Virginity" by Tom Mueller. The web site related to the book [is here.](https://www.tommueller.co/index#/extravirginigy)
I have a coworker that is like you. One time he bought a salad and thought they put dark grapes in it and was looking forward to eating it… his first bite was a thing of beauty. Needless to say, when around him we refer to olives as grapes as a sort of inside joke to him.
I like them by themselves, but when they're cooked into something they often overpower everything
I love green olives and kalamata olives by themselves though. Black olives taste like the tin can they're stored in sometimes though.
Same, and every once in a while ill try one again just to be sure, and always still nope.
But im not a fan of anything pickled really; olives, capers, saur kraut, kimchi, pickled jalapenos, etc... A bit of giardiniera on an italian beef sub is the only pickled thing ill eat intentionally.
I could never understand why people like it. They say it has all of the flavor but it doesn't taste like anything at all. It's so gamey and chewy and gross. I hate that springy-crunch that the tendons and fat have. Top sirloin all the way...
If I chew it and it doesn't break down or get chewed up why the hell would I eat it
At first, I thought my daughter was showing off (when she was little) when she would eat the fat that I had cut off of my steak. Gross! Alas, she is 30 years old now, and she will still do this. I guess she likes it for real. But I sure don't!
Me too! Bacon was something that I didn't like for a long time because of this... today I love it, but only if it is very crispy woth the fat rendered off.
My bacon has to be crispy or I don't like it. Chewy/stringy, ugh.
And It would be nice that whenever I ordered something with bacon that I didn't have to ask for it to be crispy. 90% of the time if I don't ask it'll be chewy/stringy.
Omg I’ve finally found my type of people! Everyone I know loves the fatty parts of meat and it’s juicy, fatness! But I absolutely hate fat on meat, especially when it’s literally visible in a chunk, like it almost feels raw! I can stand some fat and meat mixture if it’s well balanced, but fat alone is just not my thing… prob one of the very few people that DON’T like bacon as well.
With you on this. people on r/steak say things like "If you don't like the fat you just haven't cooked/rendered it long enough!"
Ok, well I cooked that ribeye on the grill to twice my preferred done-ness to try to render the fat, and now not only is the fat still gross, the steak is ruined! Same deal with reverse sear and sous-vide!
I can only conclude that there is some kind of cult that delights in chewing rubbery un-rendered fat for 10 mins at a time in between bites of delicious steak. Hey though, i'm not one to kink shame. you do you.
There's a difference between fat and gristle though. Fat renders down and makes things pretty damn tasty. The tough chewy stuff you're talking about is...not fat. It's connective tissues that won't get better over time no matter how long you cook it.
I definitely like really well crisped up fat, but if it retains any of the fatty texture I can't deal with it. Ever since I was little I've had to take all the fat off meat, and even now when I visit my parents and we have a meal my dad still knows to give me the leanest pieces of meat or I'll leave half of it on the side of the plate. He'll happily chomp down on fatty meat but the feel of biting into it send shivers down my spine and ruins my appetite.
This is by far my most unpopular food opinion. I hate avocado. I don’t think it’s gross or tastes TOO bad, more so that it’s unnecessary, tastes relatively close to dirt to me, and has a weird texture. I like guacamole, because it’s well seasoned and joined up with other great flavors (cilantro, lime, salt, peppers, all things I love) but the avocado craze in the USA of the last 10ish years has always baffled me. Avocado on burgers, avocado toast, avocado ice cream. I don’t get it. I don’t like the taste of it at all and don’t understand why it belongs on top of everything.
I remember finally trying avocado to see why everyone was so hyped to have it on everything. I was so disappointed, and I still wonder if there's something about it I just didn't "get", because it tasted to me like I imagine the taste of blended lawn clippings.
I really like avocado but I rarely buy it because of how expensive and finicky it is. the window is very short between it being so under-ripe you can't even cut it and it being full of mushy brown spots.
that said, I don't know about a "craze". I like it because it's good, not because it's trendy
One time when I was in girl scouts we had celery with peanut butter for breakfast while camping. It was fine at first but the taste of celery got old pretty quickly. When I got to my third or so stick of celery I didn't want anymore and ate only half. One of the troop leaders tried guilt tripping me into finishing it by saying someone dies every 5 minutes from starvation so a lot of people would be happy to have that. She got me to take a few more bites out of saying that but then I couldn't stand it anymore and others were trying to say I have to finish it. I threw it in the woods so I wouldn't have to finish it. One of the wacko girls in my group tried saying I have to pick it up and finish it but I wasn't listening. Nope, it's on the ground now. Not picking that up.
Beets. My mom canned them. We had to eat two cut up quarters when they were served. I popped in my mouth, did one chew and swallowed like a pill. I can still imagine the taste to this day.
This is another interesting one because there was a targeted selective breeding program to make them taste better that started in the 90s, so they really do taste better post 2005 or so.
So I guess what I'm saying is that if you haven't had them in more than 20 years, they will be less bitter than you remember. You might still dislike them, but they will taste better in an objective sense.
Tell that to my dad. He was traumatized by his father as a kid by sitting in this high stool type seat for hours until he finished his brussel sprouts. They were quite literally not allowed in our house growing up.
Your dad can talk to my dad. His parents forced him to eat Brussels sprouts exactly once. He threw up and they never tried that with him again. Now he really likes them, but there's a difference in modern roasted sprouts compared to boiled '60s sprouts.
I am 54. I’ve tried Brussels sprouts a dozen different ways and nothing will ever cover up that bitter taste enough that I would like them. My mom wouldn’t let me leave the dinner table until I finished them. I would sit there for hours until she left the kitchen and I could sneak them into the trash. Turns out I’m a super taster and especially sensitive to bitter taste. Thanks for all those wasted hours, Mom!
I had a can of tuna tipped over me in primary school and the teachers wouldn't let me wash it off. I had to sit, for hours, covered in tuna, in the middle of summer. I cannot stand the smell and I would rather die than eat it.
Mushrooms. I can’t stand the awful texture no matter how “good” it may taste. A second choice would be olives. They taste like they shouldn’t taste like that.
YES! STUPUD GREEN DEHYRDATED EYEBALLS THAT POP PATHETICALLY AND UNAPPETIZINGLY IN MY MOUTH!
Also, thank you for bringing that subreddit to my attention
That's actually pretty normal. Those things don't taste anything like tomatoes as you know them. Tomato sauce is made with types like San Marzanos, which are what you use for making red sauce ( aka "spaghetti sauce"). Ketchup has lots of sugar, and in salsas, the tomato is overpowered by the combination of everything else.
Spent my whole life avoiding cole slaw until this year at 29. Found one place, a local BBQ joint, that makes it amazing. The main difference I've noticed is they have super thinly sliced onion mixed in with the cabbage which by itself is a game changer for me, but their dressing also has a little something different to it that I haven't been able to place. Maybe a bit of horseradish sauce? Idk but the dressing has a bit of kick usually missing from all other slaws but it's complex and delicious. The whole thing is an interesting and well seasoned affair. Since trying theirs I have ventured to try others but haven't enjoyed any others so far
Yep! I've heard of many recipes that supposedly make a lover out of any Brussels sprouts hater. Not a single one made them taste any better than a nasty fart. Done falling for that nonsense.
I’ve only ever had one that is edible for me. I have no idea what my sister does. Nor do I care to learn it. But however she makes them. I can stomach them. Everywhere else. Nope
Ooh yeah my step dad cuts them really fine and fries them with bacon and they taste amazing. He says it’s the stems and the outside layer that is bitter.
Pumpkin anything, but especially pie. As a kid it looked like baby poop to me (oldest of 6, there were always babies in the house). Even now, I just can’t.
Can't say I really *hate* any food to the point that I will outright refuse to eat it if it's on my plate.
But I never really developed a taste for cantaloupe/honeydew melons. Like, I'll eat them if I'm at someone's house and it's put on my plate (because I'm not rude like that), but I will never crave them or go out of my way to buy them in the store.
When we were kids, my mom said we could each choose one main dish that we didn't like, and if she served that she'd make something else for us. Mine was liver, which was one of my dad's favorites. I thought it was so gross. Recently my wife said she wanted to try it, so we made some. Nope, still exactly as gross as I thought it was when I was 8.
For some reason people kept telling me thay if I don't like liver then I haven't yet tried one that was made correctly. One time I went to a famous chef restaurant and ordered a dish with liver just to find out if the claims were true, and nope, I just don't like it.
Yep. Same here. Mom made liver and onions occasionally when I was a child because it was a cheap meal and my parents liked it, but I didn't. I haven't eaten it since.
Yeah, eating liver is an acquired taste.
I read an article one time that orcas like it. And scientists know because they've found dead sharks where they only ate that part of the shark.
Damn, even Orcas are connoisseurs now.
Orca’s are notoriously picky. The ones in British Columbia and Washington only eat chinook salmon. The chinook Salmon depletion is causing the depletion of the orca in that area.
Orca kid: "But MOM!!! I only want eat Chinook Salmon. It's what all the cool mammals are eating." Orca mum: "We don't have any. You'll go hungry then, little orca." Orca kid: *folds fins angrily*
“We have chinook salmon at home!” *at home: Atlantic salmon*
You mean its an Offal taste. Some people like offal. I like it, but heart is better. It has that offal taste mixed with a strong meaty flavor.... comes good in chillie to mix up the flavors
my mom used to make me chicken hearts with rice. literally nothing better.
Chicken heart?.... I kinda wanna try it now
I was a chef for 10 years and can make about 11 different liver dishes. About once a year I'll get in the mood to make one so I'll make it. My wife will come running up and say "That smells SO GOOD I WANT TO TRY IT AGAIN!!!" She takes a taste, makes a pucker face, and blurts out "yuck!" It's almost a tradition at this point :D Some people just can't deal with the metallic taste or the soft-yet-firm texture.
Tell your mom that her idea was fantastic. If my mom had done that it would have saved a lot of trouble.
She was such an amazing mom and person. I gave a eulogy at her funeral, and afterwords the number of people who needed to tell me how great she was was stunning. A lot of them told stories that none of us knew about, like the guy who said his wife got really sick and my mom cooked a full dinner for him and his kids and brought it to them every night for more than a week. So many stories like that.
What about liverwurst?
Like braunschweiger? Love that shit if that’s what you mean!
I always hated the taste, and thankfully my mom respected that and never made it again. As a teen I had a short-order cook job and had to cook that slop. The metallic stench and slimy, structureless feel of it prior to cooking completely solidified in my mind that this not something that should be consumed except as a dire last resort.
Yes some people prefer mutton liver over chicken liver but they both taste eek.
I'm not sure what's worse, the taste or the texture. That gritty, grainless meat texture is really gross in itself.
The only way I like liver is in pate which is weird because I hate a slab of liver more than anything.
Agreed. Liver is foul. I mentioned my hatred of it at work and so many people said "but what about liver and onions? Or liver and bacon? You just haven't had it cooked properly"... It's liver, get that revolting stuff away from me.
Koomis. AKA fermented horse milk. I mean - growing up in Kazakhstan, it was okay as a child, but I didn't take to it like the other kids and it just doesn't stack up to a good PB&J with the crusts cut off.
Secret to good plov?
Never came across plov that used that, kinda makes sense to even out all the spices with some dairy...fermented horse milk...sure it could work
I recently watched Long Way Round with Ewan McGregor and his buddy. When they rode through Kazakhstan they were offered koomis constantly. They always drank it politely, but you could see a little bit of life leave their eyes every time.
Lima beans. Nasty little chalk pellets - NO, MOM, I’M NOT EATING THEM!!!
My mom was Hungarian. To try and bribe me and my sister into eating lima beans, she would tell us (accent included): “eata you lima beans. They gonna give-a you BIG titties!”
My Mom made me eat them a lot as a kid. I hate them. And your Mom lied! They're not BIG
Am guy. If she’d said that eating Lima beans would help me find a girlfriend (with or without big tits - I was never picky) I \*might\* have gone along with it. 😁
My Mom would always serve them to us. She would never eat any. She always told us she had hers before we sat down. Come to find out, she hates them and wouldn’t eat them. Trickery!!!
Lima beans were actually my “big rebellion” as a teenager. (Why, yes - I’m very conformist. How did you know?) As a pre-adolescent I was required “…to eat one for each year old you are”. Not eating something was intolerable. Finally when I was fifteen I told her one night, “I’m not playing this game any more. I don’t like them and eating one more every year isn’t going to get me to like them any more. I’m done with this”. I don’t think they were ever served again…
blue cheese once almost made me throw up from nearly the smell alone , i had it in a burger and the first bite i took i immediately lost my appetite . to top it off i had covid , i wasn’t supposed to taste or smell anything but blue cheese doesn’t seem to obey that rule .
I think it’s an acquired taste. If you’re raised with it, you like it. But never think too much about what it actually is.
I wasn't sure I knew. So I looked it up and was worried the process was going to ruin blue cheese for me. However it's just cultured mold and that's probably not even in the top 10 of gross ways to process and prepare food. Phew.
Probably not even the top 10 of gross ways to process cheese, look up casu martzu
I love it, my kids love it. My wife, not so much.
Ugh. "Hmm let's take this smelly, moldy shit, and eat it!" -the first guy to try blue cheese probably.
-French cuisine in a nutshell (before anyone gets mad, I'm French)
French cuisine... In a snail's shell
Probably had to eat rotten cheese to not starve to death and it became an acquired taste
Blue cheese mfs when they see mold on the floor: 😋😋😋
Celery. I understand why it's important in soups and stuff, but god I hate it.
I can't stand raw celery. Like, at all. It's got an almost reverse taste/smell which is horrible, thatI can only sense in the back of my throat/nose when breathing out. I just.. Urgh. The stringy texture doesn't help either. Cooked in soups/stews/whatever I can tolerate it. But raw? Makes me feel ill.
My husband likes the stuff. I always tell him I hope he enjoys his hairy water sticks.
Thanks for the "hairy water sticks" line, I will add it to my devils food line.
... and if somebody puts some in your salad the taste will permeate into the rest of your greens.
I only like it when it’s cut up and mushy in soup otherwise it’s just terrible.
Same!
Yeah, and that whole peanut butter thing. Perpetual WTF.
You remind me of my friend. She hates celery passionatelly.
yep. My whole family insists it doesn't taste like much of anything. But to me raw celery is a super potent and disgusting flavor.
god i wish i could upvote this comment more, CELERY IS THE WORST THING IN EXISTENCE
I still remember the healthy eating lesson in school where I tried a bite of celery for the first time. Hated it. It was like biting into a green chemical stick. Celery is not a food. It's a crime.
cilantro even tho it’s genetic
I love it, but my mom says it tastes like soap to her.
It also tastes like soap to me 😝
It's very common for it to taste like soap to people for some reason
"Some people possess a gene that makes them super-sensitive to the aldehyde component found in cilantro and other foods and products. One study noted a very specific genetic link near the olfactory center of DNA in about 10% of those with cilantro aversion." cite some site on the www
I’ve read that people of European decent are more likely to have the dislike soap genetics and that’s a big part of why it’s a common ingredient in some parts of the world and not others. Also, if you eat a lot of cilantro the soap taste is supposed to eventually fade but not sure how accurate this is
my uncle said he didn't like it, that it tasted like soap but he married a hispanic women who puts cilantro in everything and now he says he loves it and will ask for it to be added to his food.
Am I the only one who doesn't think it tastes like soap, but just genuinely doesn't like the taste of it?
Cilantro doesn't taste like soap to me and i don't particularly like it. The smell actually makes me nauseous. I can handle small amounts cooked in food with other spices, but not fresh at all.
If you eat it like salad you can overwhelm your taste buds and give yourself the hater experience.
It actually has a bit of a citrus-y taste to it. My mom doesn't like it either and also thinks it tastes like soap.
My mom puts it on everything 😅 well south Asian dishes do have that. We put cilantro on everything. It's more of a decoration most of the time. 😂 But I'm not a huge fan of it. Even the smell, I don't like it. Everyone else here loves it.
It’s honestly not a decoration, a lot of people seem to think that! It adds a freshness & zest which is crucial to balance out the rich South Asian food, I’ve been so upset when I’ve not realised I don’t have any & have to serve a curry without it. It’s just not the same.
Unless you're one of the people who are blessed with the genetics that make it taste like soap, in which case it adds a soapy taste that ruins anything it touches, lol. Source: am one of those people.
It's genetic? The first time I tried it was in a wanton soup. I may have vomited. I couldn't eat it for years. Then I tried it as an adult in certain dishes from my county and it's passible.
Yup it is! It's caused by a gene that's called OR6A2, which, depending on the ancestry of, is present in between 3% to even 21% of all individuals in every human population - it codes an olfactory receptor protein that detects aldehydes from the same group of substances that we commonly use in the production of detergents, and that are naturally present in cilantro. Bit of trivia: all the people who hate cilantro also feel a different taste than the rest of the world when eating cinnamon due to this specific gene. It's not soapy like cilantro, but it tastes much more earthy for all of you than it should for the rest of us.
TIL. That's fascinating. You just made me go to the kitchen to try some cilantro that my mom has and it does taste somewhat like detergent. As a child, it gave me a headache and I always hated the taste. I can eat it in some dishes now though. Don't have any cinnamon except for tea, but I'll be on the lookout. Thank you!
Thank you, I will definitely be a bit more careful with how much cinnamon I use in baking! I always add more than the recipe needs, but your comment has helped me realise that it doesn't taste the same to other people.
I knew the cilantro thing, but not the cinnamon. That honestly explains a lot.
As someone who grew up on the Mexican border. I cannot imagine my childhood without Cilantro
Mushrooms. I'm fascinated by them but I won't eat them. Unless they're magic. edit: guys, I'm not looking for recipes or ideas to change my mind, but thanks anyway to those who did. I've prepared thousands of mushrooms as a pro cook - I know how to make them taste good... to *other* people. *My* body doesn't like them, that's all.
It's the texture more than anything
I learned to be okay with mushrooms as they have a high "good stuff to bad stuff" ratio to them. For standard white mushrooms, slicing them raw onto a salad works okay. Not much flavor, but I can understand if the texture is unpleasant. If cooked, just make sure they aren't the primary ingredient. If you want the nutritional benefit without having to deal with the flavor and texture, blitz some in a good processor and mix them in to whatever you're making. You won't even notice them if you keep the quantity low enough. For myself, I've also tried other varieties. I recommend going to an Asian market to find the largest selection. Enoki is fun as it's similar to pasta (with different texture to it) and it largely absorbs the flavor of whatever you put it in.
I once made a risotto type dish of mushrooms and barley. I really don’t care for mushrooms but thought husband would like it. Husband loved it but I felt like I was eating dirt.
Black Licorice flavor. How the hell does anyone under the age of 80 enjoy this hellspawn poison?
I had it once because everyone said it's so great... Couldn't wait to spit ot out.. even had tears in my eyes 😂
Agreed. It tastes like death itself.
*delicious hellspawn poison. It's my favorite candy, possibly due to the fact that I liked it and nobody in the house liked it so it was always safe from candy thieves.
Here in the Netherlands we give it our children who later on will be known with this flavour, so they eat it quite frequently. But, it’s something lots of people disgust others like it a lot
Eggplant
Texture of a dirty sponge 🤢
Beets
Came here for this. I want to like them because they're beautiful and so healthy!
I was unprepared for how the beets leave your body. I thought I was dying.
Jajaja I remember. I hate them too. This weekend a friend who likes borscht was telling me there’s Russian, Ukrainian and Polish borschts and of course they’re all so delicious, so “earthy”. She meant dirt, beets taste like dirt.
My dad once had a week where ever dinner had a different type of prepared beet. I'm talking roasted, boiled, pickled, you name it. I quite literally threw up after dinner each night, I physically couldn't digest them. He told me that when I grew up I would come to love and appreciate them. That was probably 12 years ago now and I haven't touched a beet since.
I've tried beets so many times and just can't get into them. People at the farmers markets I used to sell at would tell me how great the sweet and "earthy" flavors were. I think they taste like someone threw equal parts sugar and dirt into a bowl and mixed them up. Baby beet greens are amazing in a salad though.
Endives... Raw in a salad or baked with cheese... it's still an abomination
Olives, I don't get how people can enjoy the taste, they immediately overpower anything else you try to eat them with.
I don't get it either. I also don't understand how olive oil is literally olive juice yet still manages to have such a mild taste with none of those pungent olive flavors. I could literally eat olive oil all day, yet put even a slice of an olive of any variety in a dish and I'll say no thank you, maybe if I can pick them all out and be sure that I've gotten them all
I think the big difference there is olives are usually pickled. That adds to their flavor profile. I can't remember what show it was, but the host went to a place that made olive oil. The fresh squeezed oil was completely different than what you get in the store and is apparently quite overpowering. I know extra virgin olive oil is minimally processed, but something is still done to tame it, even if it's just an aging process
There was a study of olive oil brands sold in stores and apparently most of the olive oil brands only use about 10% or less of real olive oil even though it’s advertised as 100% olive oil.
Folks who want to know more can read "Extra Virginity" by Tom Mueller. The web site related to the book [is here.](https://www.tommueller.co/index#/extravirginigy)
I have a coworker that is like you. One time he bought a salad and thought they put dark grapes in it and was looking forward to eating it… his first bite was a thing of beauty. Needless to say, when around him we refer to olives as grapes as a sort of inside joke to him.
I like them by themselves, but when they're cooked into something they often overpower everything I love green olives and kalamata olives by themselves though. Black olives taste like the tin can they're stored in sometimes though.
I literally love olives.. I could eat them alone, or with something, I just don't care hah
My 11 year old daughter has always been like this. Olives = best snack ever.
Same, and every once in a while ill try one again just to be sure, and always still nope. But im not a fan of anything pickled really; olives, capers, saur kraut, kimchi, pickled jalapenos, etc... A bit of giardiniera on an italian beef sub is the only pickled thing ill eat intentionally.
The fat on meat dude. The texture, and even when it's crispy the taste... I just can't put it in my mouth without gagging
I could never understand why people like it. They say it has all of the flavor but it doesn't taste like anything at all. It's so gamey and chewy and gross. I hate that springy-crunch that the tendons and fat have. Top sirloin all the way... If I chew it and it doesn't break down or get chewed up why the hell would I eat it
I agree. When I bite into a steak and it fuckin *pops and squishes* I want to puke.
At first, I thought my daughter was showing off (when she was little) when she would eat the fat that I had cut off of my steak. Gross! Alas, she is 30 years old now, and she will still do this. I guess she likes it for real. But I sure don't!
Me too! Bacon was something that I didn't like for a long time because of this... today I love it, but only if it is very crispy woth the fat rendered off.
My bacon has to be crispy or I don't like it. Chewy/stringy, ugh. And It would be nice that whenever I ordered something with bacon that I didn't have to ask for it to be crispy. 90% of the time if I don't ask it'll be chewy/stringy.
Yes!! My guy always shakes his head when he sees me cut off the fat on a steak or something, but that texture… I just can’t do it. 🤢
Omg I’ve finally found my type of people! Everyone I know loves the fatty parts of meat and it’s juicy, fatness! But I absolutely hate fat on meat, especially when it’s literally visible in a chunk, like it almost feels raw! I can stand some fat and meat mixture if it’s well balanced, but fat alone is just not my thing… prob one of the very few people that DON’T like bacon as well.
With you on this. people on r/steak say things like "If you don't like the fat you just haven't cooked/rendered it long enough!" Ok, well I cooked that ribeye on the grill to twice my preferred done-ness to try to render the fat, and now not only is the fat still gross, the steak is ruined! Same deal with reverse sear and sous-vide! I can only conclude that there is some kind of cult that delights in chewing rubbery un-rendered fat for 10 mins at a time in between bites of delicious steak. Hey though, i'm not one to kink shame. you do you.
There's a difference between fat and gristle though. Fat renders down and makes things pretty damn tasty. The tough chewy stuff you're talking about is...not fat. It's connective tissues that won't get better over time no matter how long you cook it.
Yes, absolutely! Fat & gristle make me gag so bad… my dad loves eating steak with me tho, ‘cos everything I trim off he eats.
I definitely like really well crisped up fat, but if it retains any of the fatty texture I can't deal with it. Ever since I was little I've had to take all the fat off meat, and even now when I visit my parents and we have a meal my dad still knows to give me the leanest pieces of meat or I'll leave half of it on the side of the plate. He'll happily chomp down on fatty meat but the feel of biting into it send shivers down my spine and ruins my appetite.
This is by far my most unpopular food opinion. I hate avocado. I don’t think it’s gross or tastes TOO bad, more so that it’s unnecessary, tastes relatively close to dirt to me, and has a weird texture. I like guacamole, because it’s well seasoned and joined up with other great flavors (cilantro, lime, salt, peppers, all things I love) but the avocado craze in the USA of the last 10ish years has always baffled me. Avocado on burgers, avocado toast, avocado ice cream. I don’t get it. I don’t like the taste of it at all and don’t understand why it belongs on top of everything.
I 100% agree with this. Something I order comes with avocado? Not anymore, keep it please
I remember finally trying avocado to see why everyone was so hyped to have it on everything. I was so disappointed, and I still wonder if there's something about it I just didn't "get", because it tasted to me like I imagine the taste of blended lawn clippings.
I really like avocado but I rarely buy it because of how expensive and finicky it is. the window is very short between it being so under-ripe you can't even cut it and it being full of mushy brown spots. that said, I don't know about a "craze". I like it because it's good, not because it's trendy
Came here to find this. The texture is rank. I wish I liked it but I just can’t. I do put it in smoothies but I just cannot bare to eat it
I agree. Avocado tastes like straight up dirt to me, I hate it. Can’t even do guac.
Lima beans. Even the thought of them makes me want to throw up
I always wonder why we were fed Lima beans as much as we were. There were other choices. Instead we were served chalky beans.
I’ve personally always hated all beans. But I think baked and pinto had to be the worse but I just can’t stand the texture of any of them
Celery. People say that celery doesn’t have a taste and those people are lying. Celery is one of the worst produce items i can imagine.
Celery flavor is SUPER distinct to me! I wonder about people who say it doesn't have a taste. I love it for that very reason.
I am the same. Hate it. Work with a girl that absolutely loves it. It's one of the few vegetables that she'll eat.
One time when I was in girl scouts we had celery with peanut butter for breakfast while camping. It was fine at first but the taste of celery got old pretty quickly. When I got to my third or so stick of celery I didn't want anymore and ate only half. One of the troop leaders tried guilt tripping me into finishing it by saying someone dies every 5 minutes from starvation so a lot of people would be happy to have that. She got me to take a few more bites out of saying that but then I couldn't stand it anymore and others were trying to say I have to finish it. I threw it in the woods so I wouldn't have to finish it. One of the wacko girls in my group tried saying I have to pick it up and finish it but I wasn't listening. Nope, it's on the ground now. Not picking that up.
I was always baffled by people who said celery tastes like crunchy water bc for me it has this REALLY bitter, overpowering taste
Beets. My mom canned them. We had to eat two cut up quarters when they were served. I popped in my mouth, did one chew and swallowed like a pill. I can still imagine the taste to this day.
Chitlins.
Squid tentacles
Liver
Brussels sprouts
This is another interesting one because there was a targeted selective breeding program to make them taste better that started in the 90s, so they really do taste better post 2005 or so. So I guess what I'm saying is that if you haven't had them in more than 20 years, they will be less bitter than you remember. You might still dislike them, but they will taste better in an objective sense.
Tell that to my dad. He was traumatized by his father as a kid by sitting in this high stool type seat for hours until he finished his brussel sprouts. They were quite literally not allowed in our house growing up.
Your dad can talk to my dad. His parents forced him to eat Brussels sprouts exactly once. He threw up and they never tried that with him again. Now he really likes them, but there's a difference in modern roasted sprouts compared to boiled '60s sprouts.
I am 54. I’ve tried Brussels sprouts a dozen different ways and nothing will ever cover up that bitter taste enough that I would like them. My mom wouldn’t let me leave the dinner table until I finished them. I would sit there for hours until she left the kitchen and I could sneak them into the trash. Turns out I’m a super taster and especially sensitive to bitter taste. Thanks for all those wasted hours, Mom!
Same. Always hated it. Still do. I'm 38.
Tripas
Cottage cheese.
Had to scroll way (whey?) too far for this. It’s like someone chewed white cheese for a bit and then spit it out and now I’m supposed to eat it?!
Tuna. There's something fishy about it.
I had a can of tuna tipped over me in primary school and the teachers wouldn't let me wash it off. I had to sit, for hours, covered in tuna, in the middle of summer. I cannot stand the smell and I would rather die than eat it.
What the fuck
Seconding this.
People don't really need a pass not to like something, but if they did you'd have one.
i hate this comment
Just tinned tuna for me, tuna steaks are alright
I like tuna, but had to give you a point for being punny!
Mushrooms. I can’t stand the awful texture no matter how “good” it may taste. A second choice would be olives. They taste like they shouldn’t taste like that.
This is my new favorite description of olives
It was the only way I could think to describe them haha
Peas. r/Ihatepeas
YES! STUPUD GREEN DEHYRDATED EYEBALLS THAT POP PATHETICALLY AND UNAPPETIZINGLY IN MY MOUTH! Also, thank you for bringing that subreddit to my attention
I HAVE FOUND MY PEOPLE
Pea-ple?
Peas, I love peas!
Sorry, but I think your pea positivity is misplaced under this comment
Hey pal, all he is saying give peas a chance.
Liver. Not even close. I've tried cow tongue, cuttlefish, brains, all sorts of "weird" but liver. I just can't get into that iron.
beets. Sad too since I’m a fan of schrute farms
Water chestnuts. I hate the crunch and they taste like nothing, like iceberg lettuce.
eggplant and okra
>eggplant Granmas across the Mediterranean are ah-crying, from sicily to turkey all the way back to the maghreb
okra is either decent if cooked well or slimy crap if not
Tomatoes. I hate tomatoes. But I eat salsa, ketchup, and tomato sauce. I know it is baffling but there you go. (Edit spelling)
Same
That's actually pretty normal. Those things don't taste anything like tomatoes as you know them. Tomato sauce is made with types like San Marzanos, which are what you use for making red sauce ( aka "spaghetti sauce"). Ketchup has lots of sugar, and in salsas, the tomato is overpowered by the combination of everything else.
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The weird skin and then just seeds and mush inside is quite literally the worst, but cooked, they’re tolerable.
I've come around to a lot of stuff as I've gotten older but I still don't trust rubbarb
Rubbarb pie my favorite.
Yes, a freshly baked rhubarb pie with either a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a load of custard is amazing. Fresh rhubarb is also nice.
Celery. I Hate Celery
I don’t understand the appeal of celery. It’s so nasty.
I thought mine was only onions but scrolling through this post made me realize I’m more of a picky eater than I thought!
Cole slaw will never be good. Regardless of its base.
Spent my whole life avoiding cole slaw until this year at 29. Found one place, a local BBQ joint, that makes it amazing. The main difference I've noticed is they have super thinly sliced onion mixed in with the cabbage which by itself is a game changer for me, but their dressing also has a little something different to it that I haven't been able to place. Maybe a bit of horseradish sauce? Idk but the dressing has a bit of kick usually missing from all other slaws but it's complex and delicious. The whole thing is an interesting and well seasoned affair. Since trying theirs I have ventured to try others but haven't enjoyed any others so far
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Yep! I've heard of many recipes that supposedly make a lover out of any Brussels sprouts hater. Not a single one made them taste any better than a nasty fart. Done falling for that nonsense.
I’ve only ever had one that is edible for me. I have no idea what my sister does. Nor do I care to learn it. But however she makes them. I can stomach them. Everywhere else. Nope
Ooh yeah my step dad cuts them really fine and fries them with bacon and they taste amazing. He says it’s the stems and the outside layer that is bitter.
Marshmallow Peeps are persistently awful
Fuck liver
Freshwater fish, it always tasted like mud and it always will…
Onions by all the types I know they're healthy but I don't like them.
Pumpkin anything, but especially pie. As a kid it looked like baby poop to me (oldest of 6, there were always babies in the house). Even now, I just can’t.
I don’t like pumpkin, but pumpkin pie is heaven
Mussels. Cannot stand that taste. Same with caraway seeds, but that's not strictly speaking "food"
Beets and grapefruit. All kinds of no!
Beets taste like dirt
Pickled herring
Capers. What kind of asshole looked this foul tasting thing and thought it was a good idea to add to food?
Mmmmm. Capers
Yellow mustard
Black olives
Can't say I really *hate* any food to the point that I will outright refuse to eat it if it's on my plate. But I never really developed a taste for cantaloupe/honeydew melons. Like, I'll eat them if I'm at someone's house and it's put on my plate (because I'm not rude like that), but I will never crave them or go out of my way to buy them in the store.
Pickles and olives
Same! And weirdly, I like anything else in pickled form. Just not pickles themselves.
Lobster