There are some foods that I occasionally eat, just to remind myself that I’m not particularly fond of them. I’m not talking about foods that I actually dislike, just foods that I don’t really care for and yet feel compelled to try now and then.
Anyway, while I usually get the urge to revisit these individually, it occurs to me that I could actually assemble a reasonably presentable lunch from several of them. Here is my lunch-made-out-of-foods-I-feel-to-eat-occasionally-even-though-I-don’t-like-them-much:[ul]
[li]Deviled ham sandwich[/li][li]Barbeque potato chips on the side (why are these so popular?)[/li][li]A bottle of Zima to wash it all down[/li][li]85% cacao chocolate bar for desert (I love dark chocolate, but this is just TOO dark)[/li][/ul]
Anyone else feel compelled to occasionally eat food you know you don’t like? What’s your meal of meh?
Every time I see it in the store, I remember those first few bites of pasta the last time I had it. “Not too bad. Obviously, a little off compared to fresh-made, but not bad.”
I never remember the last few bites. “Man, this stuff is actually not quite right. Distinct waxy and metallic overtones that nearly manage to crowd out the bland, over-salted greasiness of the rest of the sauce. Bleh. But I’m still hungry… <munch, slurp, etc.>”
Bolonga sandwich with mustard on white bread.
Barbeque potato chips (I feel ya - why the hell ARE these so popular?? They’re awful.)
0reos
Can of Pepsi to wash it down.
If you don’t mind me asking, how do you usually cook your parsnips? It’s just that, to me, roasted parsnips (particularly in a little duck fat) are the tastiest vegetable by far - crisp, not starchy like potatoes can be and just a hint of sweetness. Yum!
Bacon - yes, it’s nice for a change but it just never lives up to that glorious wicked unhealthy thought that "oooh, yes, I SHALL have bacon sandwiches.
It just somehow doesn’t taste as good as it smells. Strawberries are a little bit like that too. Well, not bacony, obviously, but you know what I mean.
Another vote for strawberries. People wax poetic about strawberries and cream on a summer’s day at Wimbledon etc., but really they’re merely OK. Nice enough, I suppose, but a mite too watery and bland. See also fruit salad.
Tomatoes and red peppers. I routinely put both in my sandwiches, take a few bites, and then pull them out and toss them away.
I guess they seem like a good idea – adding such a bright cheery red to my blandly colored sandwich will surely make it taste better, right? But…not right. They weaken the flavor and add an unpleasant smooshy texture to the whole thing. Meh.
Pre-sliced ham out of the blister pak with mayo on sqooshy bread.
Cold potato or macaroni salad.
Chips Ahoy!.
Bud. If it’s cold.
Put this repast under a big shady tree on a beautiful afternoon in a city park somewhere in Iowa without loads of mosquitoes or humidity and it would become a mythic feast such as lives long in memory.
I suspect you’ve been buying the giant watery supermarket strawberries. You’re in England, right? Next June/July, get yourself to a pick-your-own place and fill a couple of punnets with small, intensely flavoured, non-intensively grown strawbs and your opinion will change forever. And don’t put them in the fridge! Fresh strawberries, straight off the plant and still warm from the sun are as different from the supermarket pap as fillet steak is from a cowpat. Truly.
(I’m lucky enough to have a thriving strawberry patch in my garden, with a couple of different varieties. The best are the Alpine ones which are absolutely tiny, often only half an inch long, but pack more flavour into that size then you’d find in a whole punnet of the bloated giants from Sainsbury’s.)
That was a message from the UK Strawberry Marketing Board… Lil’ Mahoney, I have parsnips roasted, along with potatoes, in the juice from the meat. They’re not bad, I guess, but I think my dislike stemmed from the first time I tried them as a child, unwittingly – a parsnip had disguised itself as a roast potato on my plate and was a nasty sweet-flavoured shock amidst the crunchy savoury potato goodness.
Thanks, all. I figured I wasn’t the only one who did this, but you’re never sure until you ask. I really like Hypno-Toad’s concise choice of words here… it makes me realize the thread would be better titled “Once a year I’ll buy a can/bag/package of _______, eat it, and then wonder why.”
I seem to be the only person in the world who doesn’t like hot peppers, or any food containing or resembling them. Including salsa. But occasionally I’ll get some mild salsa, which invariably leads to “This would taste really great if they removed the peppers.” And sometimes I actually do that.
Suddenly I am put in mind of a Far Side panel with a caption something like “When mayonnaise goes bad,” involving a gun and the other condiments with their hands up.
I don’t hate any of these things, but they’re all very meh for me.
buffalo wings (I love chicken wings, but that generic, bright orange, Tabasco-based “buffalo” sauce is the worst.) shrimp (seafood for people who don’t really like seafood) Bud Light (every time, I end up going “Why didn’t I just drink water?”) cherry pie (I love pretty much every fruit pie, and I love cherries, but cherry pies are usually swimming in sugary, syrupy goop.)
Corned beef (unless it’s in a really good Reuben sandwich)
Any kind of fish other than salmon (I go for shellfish much more often)
Cornbread
Oatmeal
Peaches (never cared for them, really)
Tomatoes
Coca Cola, Pepsi, or any other dark soft drinks (except for root beer, which I like as an occasional treat, or in a root beer float)
Mayonnaise (I’m a philistine: I actually prefer Miracle Whip)
