I’ve heard several people say they don’t like lamb. They often say it’s too ‘strong’. It does taste different from beef, but I wouldn’t call it ‘stronger’; just ‘different’. (Of course I don’t know why Lynn’s husband doesn’t like lamb. ‘Too strong’? Or is it just like come people don’t like cilantro; they just don’t like it?)
I prefer dark chocolate to milk chocolate, red wine to white wine, lots of capsicum in my spicy dishes, chunk-light tuna to white tuna, dark roast coffee to medium roast, anchovies, sardines (especially with Sriracha sauce), dark meat to white meat, and you can never have too much garlic. My coworker is exactly opposite. Her daughter once gave me some potato curry, which she said was ‘too hot’. I didn’t detect any ‘heat’ at all. It just tasted like potatoes to me. Coworker brought in a jalapeño pepper, and to her amusement I munched on it like a carrot stick. Not that there’s anything wrong with delicately-flavoured foods; I like them as well. But given a choice of ‘mild’ and ‘bold’, for example, chocolate, tuna, coffee, whatever, I always go for ‘bold’.
I grew up in a household in which Bland was the order of the day for medical reasons; I love lamb (and like it a lot better than beef), prefer dark chicken to light, want fish to taste of fish, but when it comes to heat I’m still getting used to it. If you ever came to my home for bean soup I’d make sure to provide a few guindillas and ask the grocer for “as hot as you can get 'em” for your amusement, but I’m not going to bite into them myself.
I do as well. My sister (a special ed teacher) recently mentioned something offhand about this being a marker of those who are at one end of the Asperger’s “neurotypical” spectrum. However, a brief search didn’t turn up any learned discussions of the matter.
I do like very strong flavors–Indian hot pickles, among many examples.
A few words about coffee, though. Roasting is a process with phases in which certain aromatic compounds are brought out, sequentially, at the expense of others. A light roast isn’t “less” than a dark roast; there are literally different sets of flavor compounds present. Some flavors that were present at the start of the process, or that arose in certain intermediate stages, are destroyed before the end. Floral flavors are gradually exchanged for more complex fruits; bright acidity flourishes then fades; fruits give way to syrup, caramel, wood and earth; then increasing smoke and oil; and finally everything reduces to char.
I mention this not to disparage either dark-roasted coffees or people that like them, but simply to encourage folks who may have been swept along in the trend towards very dark roasts to try some others. Some of the best coffee I’ve ever had was a very light roast, brewed strong.
In some things. I like strong cheeses (well-aged cheddar, robusto provolone, peccorino romano), vinegar, tea. I enjoy dishes with garlic, some capsaicin (though I’m not fond of the actual peppers themselves…texture), worcestershire. I like sharp steak sauces.
I’m not fond of strong-tasting meats, though…I don’t like lamb or mutton.
I agree that the strength of coffee and the roast of coffee are two different things. No matter the roast, I like it strong.
FWIW, I bought eight pounds of Community Coffee (from New Orleans). It’s not The Best Coffee In The World, but it’s reasonably priced and very good. I got two pounds each of Medium Roast, Café Special (medium-dark), French Roast, and Dark Roast. I preferred them in the opposite order listed.
It really depends on my mood. I absolutely love the extremes: I like my gai pad grapao (Thai holy basil chicken) stinky with garlic and fish sauce and absolutely blazingly hot. I love stinky kimchi and pickled herring, fermented beans, blue cheese, Marmite, imperial IPAs, imperial stouts, geuezes (very sour Belgian ales), and the like.
On the other hand, I also very much enjoy subtle and delicately flavored foods. My favorite hamburger is a simple cheeseburger with onion and pickle. I don’t need any additional crap on it. Roast chicken only needs salt and pepper on it. My morning coffee is always the lighter, milder roasts (which are usually higher in caffeine, anyway.) On a sweltering hot day, I want an Old Style, not a Dogfish Head 90. I tend to be a minimalist when it comes to pasta sauces. Give me flavorful tomatoes and some olive oil and I’m a happy man.
So, for me, variety is the key. My preference does lean towards the stronger flavors, but I need to mix it up.
I could probably eat curry three times a week, so strong flavors are high on my list. Many people who don’t like lamb are possibly remembering the way American-raised lamb used to taste. I think the Kiwis and Aussies damn near put US producers out of business before they figured out they were doing it wrong.