Thanks, Podkayne. I missed your first post defending me or I would have thanked you before. You explained my position beautifully (and much more concisely than I did.)
Diogenes, you nitwit, think for a minute. Taste is pretty subjective. Just because you can tell the difference between crab, lobster, and flounder doesn’t mean that Miller can.
Why the hell is this even a problem in the first place? When I don’t like something, I don’t eat it. I don’t say anything about it, since doing so would make me an asshole. I just don’t eat it. If this bothers you personally, I suggest that you IGNORE IT and mind your own fucking plate. If you feel compelled to bring it up and ridicule me for not eating a certain portion of my dinner, then you’re the asshole, whether your ridicule is direct, or uses that bullshit “friendly jest” tone that people use when they want to be assholes without getting called on it. I’m glad you like every fucking food known to mankind, but sadly, I am not as unbelievably awesome as you, and there are a few select items I do not enjoy and, barring starvation, will not voluntarily consume. If, in your mind, this grievous deficiency on my part renders me inadequate to bask in the magnificence of your dining company, then you can go straight the fuck to hell.
Here’s an idea, folks: eat the stuff you like. Don’t eat the other stuff. Don’t bitch about not liking the stuff you don’t like. Ignore what other people did or didn’t eat. Holy shit! Problem solved! I must be a fucking genius! Or just not an asshole. Something like that.
Apologies for all the swearing, but the fact that this sort of thing exists as a problem in the first place really boggles the mind. It’s just another one of those issues that wouldn’t BE an issue if people would just do their own thing and mind their own damned business.
Shit fire! In some third-world countries, dung beatles might be ogdamned delicacy, but I ain’t eatin’ one of them fuckers. Texture?? Let me guess, crunchy on the outside, squishy fuckin’ bug shit in the middle. Am I close?
And that rotten fish sauce stuff. Man, you let a fish “ferment” and stick it in a bottle… I can smell that shit from here… and you want me to pour that rotten fish on my lunch??
And I’m hardly a picky eater, I’ve grown to really like a lot of foods I never liked growing up. I eat deep fried bull balls.
But I can’t enjoy fresh tomatoes. I can choke them down and not make too much of a face, but the taste of them just ruins the dish they are in/on. Salad with garden fresh tomatoes?? Sucks IMHO. Hamburger? Fuckin’ ruined.
I likes me a little horseradish, but I’m not gonna tell somebody that they are too picky if my horseradish slathered dung beatles ain’t their cup-o-tea.
I get this mental image of elmwood at a big, fancy buffet table…full on spread.
“The food looks lovely, makes me want to gag and puke!”
During my childhood I was made to eat everything that was put on my plate. My mother loves foods that I absolutely abhor - asparagus, broccoli, brussel sprouts and English peas, to name a few. Every night I would sit at the table, force-feeding myself these foods. I would gag, choke and almost throw up every single bite. I learned to try to finish them as quickly as possible, following them with other foods that were more palatable to my tongue. My mom said I was being a drama queen and that I should just “shut up and eat my vegetables”. Dinner time was not happy for me on these nights, I’d be in tears nearly every time I had to eat this stuff.
I always thought I was weird and had just psyched myself out about these foods, but there actually HAVE been studies done on the subject:
Supertasters
and here…
While I will fully admit there are foods that I just don’t like the taste of - ramen comes to mind - there are others that I almost cannot swallow, no matter how it’s cooked. I also cannot eat very hot food, and salsa that some people would call mild makes my eyes water. I could never eat a very hot pepper. I also don’t like Chinese food, and this has gotten me into a lot of arguments with friends and my ex-husband. “There MUST be something you like!” “Just try this, I know you’ll like it!” “How can you not like Chinese food?!” 
How am I being rude for not wanting someone to waste money buying food for me that I know I don’t like?
I think there’s a fine line on both sides: We shouldn’t force people to eat food if they don’t like it. No one likes EVERYTHING that other people consider to be fine cuisine, and they shouldn’t be expected to eat absolutely every food that you find delicious. We picky eaters do not deserve to be belittled anytime we mention our dislike of certain foods. If I’m going out with some people and I find out they’re planning to eat Chinese, I’d rather politely decline the invitation than listen to everyone complain that we had to have Italian instead because Jaaaaade doesn’t eat Chinese food. Then I have to feel like a complete asshole for ruining everyone else’s night. Fuck that, in that situation, I’m not the asshole, the people who won’t drop the damn subject are the assholes.
By the same token: Picky eaters should try to be polite around people who have cooked food for them, and approach the situation with kid gloves. I will either put a bit of the offending food on my plate and hope no one notices that I throw it away later, or just be honest with the cook if they ASK why I didn’t take any of that food.
And I thought that Kalhoun meant crawfish…
I think there’s another issue at work here. Many of the self-identified picky eaters say they “can’t eat” or “can’t tolerate”, when it sounds more like “don’t like”.
enipla, do you have any allergic reactions to seafood? Anything uncontrollable? Or do you just not like the taste?
I don’t much like cilantro either- another soap taster. But I’d hardly say “I cannot eat cilantro”. I just don’t like it much. It doesn’t make me gag, break out in hives, etc…
For me to say “I cannot eat cilantro” implies that it’s something dire, not just something I don’t like. I can eat salsa, Pho’, pico de gallo, etc… with no ill effects, just a little soapy taste.
I think this is no small part of the non-picky eaters’ disdain for picky eaters. Nobody’s calling anyone with a legitimate medical condition picky, but people whose histrionics about foods they don’t like make them seem like food hypochondriacs are kind of hard to put up with.
But why should I eat soap if I don’t like it? I can’t see any explanation for that from the non-pickies yet. Why is it so damn important that I eat the soapy fuckin’ cilantro just because your view of the world seems to put such importance in a goddamn herb? I don’t want to eat soap. Leave me the fuck alone when I choose not to.
bump my mother is a picky eater, yet there are some things she cannot eat, rather than will not. She has an extremely sensitive stomach that has gotten worse over the years. Anything spicy (not “hot”, just “spicy”, if that makes sense) makes her incredibly sick. She’s had to give up food she likes in addition to not eating what she doesn’t like.
And anyways, what does it matter, if they can’t or won’t? If they won’t eat something, OH WELL. More for me, I always say.
Well, I can put this simply. I suppose I COULD eat cilantro if I had to. But I would not enjoy one bite of it any more than I would enjoy eating a bar of soap. To ME, it doesn’t taste like food, it tastes like cleaning supplies.
What is the point of eating things you don’t like, when there are so many foods you do? Nobody’s day is ruined by my not eating cilantro.
By the way - why does it make a difference to anyone if I have a horrifying allergic reaction or if I just don’t like that taste of something? Once I have said “no thank you” the matter should be dropped. I don’t understand why it would be OK for me to refuse to eat something that will kill me, but not OK for me to refuse to eat something because I find it icky.
Really, this thread is making me flash on thge diner scene from **Pulp Fiction:
DtC is acting like the Pubs he professes to disdain, treating other people’s choices as inferior to his own. What business is it of his what other people eat? So what if some picky eaters miss out on yummy foods? It’s their loss, and none of his concern.
For someone who claims to detest fundie Xian behavior, DtC is matching the fundiest of the fundies in pigheaded intolerance and contempt for other people’s rights to make their own choices.
If Miller doesn’t like sushi, that just means more for me. Let each person enjoy what he enjoys and let’s live in tolerance and mutual respect…
I also really dislike mushrooms and bananas. I’m not particularly fond of fishy smelling seafood (I can only eat fish that has been caught that morning and preferably by me). But I will ALWAYS try something before I say that I don’t like it. And I will, once in a while, try bananas and mushrooms and seafood just to see if my tastes have changed as they did with asparagus. I used to hate asparagus when I was a kid. Now I love the stuff. What bugs me is people who won’t try something once or make up their minds they don’t like something before they’ve even seen it, smelt it or tasted it. I will try almost anything once, because you never know…you might discover you like something that you thought would be disgusting.
My fiance is a bit weird…he’ll eat apples, but won’t drink applejuice…he’ll eat scrambled eggs, but no other kind of egg. He’ll eat a baked potato with mayonnaise on it, but will not eat potato salad…makes cooking for both of us a bit of a chore!
Oh, how I love the picky eaters. Look, I could give a RATS ASS what you eat, but if you “ick” my food, I’m going to be pissed. At work last week, one girl started ranting about how she HATES PEAS. OMG GOD, HOW COULD ANYONE EVER ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH EAT PEAS??? THEY ARE SO DISGUSTING…" and on and on and on. Of course, what was I eating with my lunch? Peas. She must have rattled for 5 straight minutes about how even the SMELL of them (wrinkles nose at my lunch) makes her gag.
I politely suggested she wait outside the lunchroom until I finished eating then, because I was going to eat my freaking lunch whether it grossed her out or not! What is wrong with people? I can understand being picky- I mean, I’m not going to eat something I find gross- but don’t comment on other people’s food and make faces. That’s the childish part of picky that bothers most people. THAT’S the grow up part.
I don’t know of any allergies, but it’s possible since I detest the stuff so much. Any. Type. Of. Seafood. It all has the same taste that I just can’t get around.
Sometimes I say ‘can’t tolerate’ because it usually ends the discussion right there. Could mean anything. If I say I don’t like it (the taste is truly offensive to me [I wouldn’t say that to a host]). I usually have to do the ‘oh but this is different, you’ll like this’ dance.
Do you still consider this ‘retarded garbage’? You and DTC have made some really outragious comments.
I don’t think that’s weird. I love tomatos, but I can’t stand tomato juice. I also only like scrambled eggs-I HATE hardboiled, poached and/or fried eggs.
If someone’s eating something I can’t stand, I don’t sit there and gag in front of them. I simply eat my food in peace.
Besides, as previous threads have shown, it doesn’t matter even for those who DO have allergies, they’re still hounded and told, “Oh come on, one little bite! How bad can it be! It won’t kill you!”
Definitely not true. I have no problem at buffets, whether it’s Indian, Chinese, or in a Vegas casino.
I only gag if I’m eating certain foods with certain textures or tastes. The only thing that will make me gag on sight, aside from the more disgusting things on Fear Factor, is watching someone eat hard-boiled eggs. I have no idea why that is, and I’ll be the first to admit admit it’s fucked up. However, if I’m around someone eating a hard-boiled egg, I simply excuse myself. That’s all.
Amen!
It’s freakin’ FOOD, people, not some life-saving medicine that will make us immortal that we’re desperately trying to avoid taking because we think it’s “icky”. If you can get so incensed over someone’s choice of whether or not to partake of a certain type of food, I have to wonder if maybe you’re not missing a dose or two of medication.
Why is it so goddamn important to you all that we choke down the things YOU like?
I think that this bears repeating. Preach it, brother!
Look, I think I explained my position well enough, but it leads me back to my first question- as this is not really on the ‘normal’ spectrum of human behavior, have any of you sought any sort of treatment? Because I don’t know that I could live with restrictions on my actions as severe as those some of you speak of.
I don’t care if it’s physical or psychological, or both. But it sounds like it sucks, and you’d want to do something about it.
And I’ll reiterate- it’s the drama queens that piss foodies off rather than any sort of preference. And yes, if you’re a regular dinner companion to someone, it gets old real quick.
Agreed and agreed. I have a friend who makes gagging noises when she sees me eat anything with sour cream on it. “OH MY GOD, THAT’S LIKE EATING SPERM, ICK, BLAH, ETC!”
I did get even, though. She was eating a Reuben sandwich. So I said, “Look, you’re eating pickled meat and fermented cabbage and you’re criticizing MY lunch??” (And I wouldn’t normally have criticized, but she was being an ass and I didn’t feel like being a bigger person at that particular moment.)
Cilantro…
I like the hint of cilantro in salsa, but when watching Food Network cooks, they throw like a double handful of in a dish. Now they are “pros”, they know what “tastes good”, but I can promise you that there will be more cilantro in those dishes than I care for.
Now does that make me picky?
Why do restaurants have a guy with a pepper mill come around and pepper your food to taste? Why, if you weren’t so fuckin’ picky we’d just throw about a cup and a half off on your plate and scoff when you complained.
Kinda begs the question: Why are there so many different types of restaurants, and why do they have such a variety of dishes on their menu?? Because not everybody likes the same stuff??
Picky bastards.
Sorry that came off the wrong way, elmwood. I wasn’t diggin’ on you over your food preferences. I totally agree with your position, the mental image I conjured up was just how I envisioned it in my mid’s eye.