I must say the results of the poll surprised me. I voted that I love anchovies, but I didn’t expect to be part of the largest group answer.
I got reaquainted with anchovies after an episode of Babylon 5, in which Mr. Garibaldi was making bagna cauda, a north Italian hot oil dip.
The simplest recipe(there are several variations) is as follows:
Warm half a cup of good olive oil in a double boiler on fairly low temp, and add 4 ounces of unsalted butter. When the butter is melted throw in finely minced garlic, to taste. but probably at least four large cloves. When the garlic has steeped for a while stir in anchovie filets, one of those little 2 ounce tins, and stir until the fish breaks up.
Keep the oil dip warm and dip chunks of fresh bread, or pieces of veggies, like peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, mushrooms and so on.
Leftover dip will set up softly in the refrigerator, and I’ve used it as a spread on French bread that I then toast lightly in the oven.
Loathe them, hate is far too mild a word. I might not hate them so much, but some idiot felt it was a good idea to use them in one dish in mandatory school food back when I was a kid, so I was forced to eat them something like a dozen times at least (the menu was on a 6 week cycle). That was over 20 years ago, but the mere idea of eating them still makes me feel like vomiting.
Find a good italian restaurant and order *pasta puttanesca, *an outta-sight pasta dish with anchovies, capers, olives and red pepper flakes. Love that stuff.