Do you like mushrooms?

Just a simple yes-or-no question. Please answer before reading the comments.

I’m about to go on a rant here.
I can’t stand mushrooms. They taste like dirt and the texture is disgusting. Don’t try to tell me portabello this, skiitake that, morel the other thing. They’re all fungus, and they all gross me out.

But that’s not what the rant is about. It’s about how ubiquitous mushrooms have become at just about every restaurant everywhere. So many dishes that would otherwise appeal to me are ruined by the presence of mushrooms or mushroom sauce. Yes, I know I can ask for no mushrooms, but sometimes they can’t do the dish without them; the ingredients are pre-mixed or whatever. And sometimes they don’t even tell you about them. Recently at a nice restaurant, I ordered a stuffed pork loin with mozzarella and bacon. It sounded great. When it arrived, the entire plate was covered in a huge heap of slimy 'shrooms. I had to send it back. Just this morning I got a sausage frittata at breakfast. Guess what the “sausage frittata” was full of? Yep.

So I just decided to run a quick poll, since restaurants seem to assume that everybody loves mushrooms and can’t get enough of 'em. Is that true? Am I an outlier? Or is the culinary industry trying to force something down our throats that we don’t want?

Nope, mushrooms ain’t food.:cool:

I’m very fond of them, specially the prettier species. Got the yucks of my life once when I mistook one for a rock, though.

Oh, you meant to eat. I don’t think one’s supposed to do that with most amanitas, which includes several real-pretty species.

Wow, surprising results. Given my status as a “picky eater,” I’m surprised to find there’s a food out there that most people don’t like but I do. :slight_smile:

I think they’re fine. Button mushrooms add a nice flavor to dishes, while fancier ones are quite good on their own.

I answered like, but it’s really love.

I like them, but I’m sympathetic to the OP’s complaint. Restaurants shouldn’t assume everyone like mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes, olives, mayo, or a ton of other things. Let people know what they’re ordering, and everything will be okay.

I like fried mushrooms, sliced mushrooms in the chili recipe I make, and green beans with mushroom soup.

Other than that, no I don’t like them.

Vile, nasty things.

Love 'em! Well, fresh ones. You can keep your rubbery canned 'shrooms.

Generally, yes. Especially fried portobellos. Don’t care for shiitakes.

I like them just fine, but cooked, please. Mushroom soup, risotto, etc. are excellent.

This. I love mushrooms. All types, prepared all ways.

Fuck fungus!

I don’t eat Athlete’s Foot, either. Do you?

Well, WASHING THEM WELL does a lot to take away the “dirt taste”. LOL

Mushrooms are disconcertingly textured pieces of forest floor. Not food.

I love the smell of sauteed mushrooms and I’m more or less fine with the taste, but I can’t deal with the texture. I answered no to the poll because I’d prefer my food without them, but I’ve given up on avoiding them entirely.

I was never a huge fan, but I did once convince a farmer that I was collecting samples for a botany class…and the best samples just happened to grow in his pasture…where he kept his cows.

Yes. To eat, or to look at, or to photograph.

We have a little mushroom plushie that goes as a floating trophy to whichever family member finds the first mushroom on our walks - who then gets to lord it over the rest of the family as the Mushroom King/Queen/Princess until the next walk.

Regina (ham+mushroom) is the default pizza order for us. Mushroom risotto is a family favourite. Sauteed herby, peppery, garlicky mushrooms are a standard part of our Sunday breakfast fry-up. 14th C mushroom+cheese pastiesare a medieval dish I could cook in my sleep. Our ramen isn’t really ramen without a few tender butter-fried shimeji, playful star-cut shiitake or delicate fresh enokitake on top. Then there’s my caprese-stuffed portobellos - rated “delish”…I could go on and on.

My wife wasn’t a fan when I met her - that’s because her experiences with mushrooms were slimy beige canned buttons, or cream-of-mushroom soup in casseroles. Now she loves them.