As to the not eating raw plant parts thing, my guess is that it’s often a sanitation issue. Since Lamia’s Kenyan acquaintance was from a rural village with no running water, this may well be the case here. Cooking kills most of the germs in the vegetables; if facilities are not sanitary, eating raw food (in general) is not a good idea.
I really don’t think it is. See, if someone badgers me into eating shrimp, I’m probably going to throw up. If I were to whine and bitch about how much I hated shrimp in order to get out of having to eat it, I would be guilty of rude and obnoxious behavior but I doubt it would cause anyone to hurl. They might want to, but they wouldn’t actually have to.
This isn’t to justify whining or rude remarks, of course. My sister doesn’t like spicy food, which is fine, but she can get really snotty when other people are enjoying a spicy dish. “How can you eat that? I don’t know what’s wrong with you that you want your mouth to BURN. Are you all crazy?” I think it’s very bad manners to say anything that will interfere with another person’s enjoyment of their food. But this really doesn’t have anything to do with how picky an individual is about what they themselves eat.
Another thing I don’t get is, “You don’t know what you’re missing! It makes me sad that you’ll never experience the joy of blah blah blah…” What the HELL? If I don’t like something, I won’t experience joy by trying it! And yes, quite frankly, I DO know what I’m missing, and I’m GLAD.
Maybe I find joy in other places, or in other foods that YOU don’t like. Shut the hell up.
Exactly right. I think I learned about that in a Straight Dope column, but rather than do I search, I think I’ll just say I could be wrong. Anyway, both my husband and I have this genetic trait but to different degrees. It’s worse for him. We can both eat it in salsa but, when we were dating we liked to be all cute and cook together and we made salsa and discovered the soap thing.
Well, OK. Not technically equally appalling. 
But I would never put a dinner guest in the position of having to bitch and whine about my food. If they don’t eat it, they don’t eat it. I may not like it, but I’m sure not going to tell them that, or try to cajole them into trying “just a little bit”. That’s what I’m trying to say. My worldview about the wonderful world of food doesn’t affect my behavior toward picky dinner guests; it just gives me a momentary twinge of disappointment.
On preview, I would never say such a thing, Guinastasia. I’d probably think it, but you wouldn’t even see an echo of the thought on my face.
Agreed. I think I’d have to throttle your sister if I were eating at, say, a Thai restaurant with her. 
It’s all about the politeness here, folks.
Oh yeah? Like what? C’mon, I dare you. Give me your best shot.
[sub]I’m very ecumenical about my food. Unless you’re a big eggplant fan or something. Then the dare’s off.[/sub]
Well, fine then. As long as you don’t do the puppy dog eyes and say, “Oooh, but it’s soooo good!”
All I ever say when people turn down something is, “You’re sure-okay, well, it’s here if you change your mind,” then move on.
FWIW, I’m not a picky eater-I’ll try pretty much anything at least once, but if I’ve tried something and don’t like it, I won’t try it again. That means any kind of egg dish-egg salad, hardboiled and/or deviled eggs; mayonaisse or celery.
And again, I fully endorse the “more for ME” attitude. If someone turns down my mother’s homemade pierogies, that secretly thrills me, because it means that I don’t have to worry about leaving enough for the other person!
I still don’t understand why our being quite happy to enjoy (immensely) a more limited pallette (palate? :)) of flavors is so incredibly agonizing to some people. I’m not a foodie. I don’t WANT to be a foodie. I’m quite happy with my hamburgers and macaroni & cheese and pasta, etc. I don’t NEED nor particularly WANT to “expand my horizons” with Thai, Vietnamese, West African, Greek, Middle Eastern or whatever foods. If I happen to come across something from those cuisines I happen to like, then I’ll add it to my (not necessarily) short list.
What really baffles me is the indignation that the non-pickies are expressing. Why. Do. You. CARE? Food doesn’t mean enough to me to get indignant about whether or not someone else likes my Mueller’s angel hair with DelGrosso Meat Sauce and Kraft Grated Romano Cheese in a plastic jar. It’s fucking FOOD. Not religion, not politics, FOOD. You put it in your mouth, you enjoy it for a couple of minutes, you digest it, and you shit it out. It’s FOOD. Why does every bite I take have to be a new and exciting culinary adventure? Damn…
It means that the food can cause changes in the body that are unhealthy or unpleasant. If I eat shellfish, the Iodine they absorb makes me ill. Some people will have their throats swell shut and they can die. Too bad they are ‘limiting their diet’, they’ll never know the joys of shrimp because they’re too afraid of a little death. Poor them.
Would you eat a mud pie( a literal one) because a 5 year old gave it to you? Wouldn’t you want to expand your food horizons? No, you’d know that mud tastes terrible. I don’t like fruit. It’s not like I decided that I didn’t want to eat it, for whatever reason I can’t find a piece of fruit that I enjoy eating. So if a friend offers me a bowl of fruit salad, I’m going to turn it down. I’m not going to taste it because I know I’m not going to like it. Now if someone offers me a Siberian Passion Fruit, hey, I’ll give it a try. I’ve never had one, I don’t know if I’ll like it or not. But don’t expect me to eat a bunch of stuff I already know I dislike or will make me ill just because you enjoy it.
Your enjoyment shouldn’t come at my discomfort. If you can’t enjoy things without making my life uncomfortable, I suggest you seek help.
I agree with all who said pickiness is not a problem… as long as you shut up about it. Special diets are a whole different kettle o’ fish, however.
At our wedding, the best man’s girlfriend was a vegetarian and neither of them told us prior to the event because they thought it would be “rude.” We had a roast beef dinner served and she planned on eating quietly eating the carrots.
I found out the day of the wedding and the chef volunteered to make her a veggie omelet (which she loved). I would never want a guest of mine to be uncomfortable or hungry for the sake of being “polite.” It’s okay to tell people if you have special needs. Really.
/Ms Cyros
Well, I guess this really gets to the heart of why I even posted here in the first place. I should explain.
I understand the allergies. I understand that some people don’t like the taste/texture of a certain food. I understand that even the smell of a certain food can make a person feel nauseus. I get it. For example, when I was a kid a used to eat mushrooms by the truckload. Mom had to make 2 extra cans just for me. Raw or cooked, I ate those things. Fast forward to present. I can’t stand the thought of eating fungus. My wife loves them, so as a dutiful husband I’ll cook some for her if she wants some. But I do everything I can to avoid even touching them.
What pisses me off and what caused me to even post in the first place are the people that have “issues” with certain foods. Not any allergy or medical problem, but that they simply don’t like a food. The problem is when someone gets so wrapped up in the dislike that it becomes an “issue”. If I’m in a situation where pizza is ordered and it has mushrooms on it, I pick them off. I don’t insist on a seperate pizza being ordered. Those are the twits that piss me off.
In no way do I think of myself superior based on what foods I like vs. what turns others off. Where I take the high ground is adapting to what is offered and take what I do like, without being a complete pain in the ass to everyone else around me. I’m not accusing anyone here of that, but everyone knows damn well there are people just like that. They’re the one’s that get under my skin.
So, I’ll say again. If you’re in a prison camp and facing starvation and still refuse to eat certain foods, your gripe is legit. If it’s just because you don’t feel like eating it, STFU and do what you can to survive the few hours until you can feed yourself.
One other thought. In post #62, Morgyn said:
This was in response to DtC’s mention of land animals as opposed to sea animals.
And it’s a big stretch. I love crab, lobster, swordfish, shark, halibut and walleye.* I don’t like salmon, snapper, clams, oysters or shrimp. Know why? Because they aren’t all the same. To go land-based, I love bacon but won’t eat pork chops. To lump all seafood together is akin to saying sirloin, hamburger, bacon, chops, ham, and roast all tastes the same.
Some people don’t like seafood of any kind. Fine. More for me. But refusing to even try something because it didn’t have lungs is annoying as hell to us wannabe chefs. It took me 3 years to get my wife to try swordfish. Now, she wants the bigger of the steaks. Her own predjudice kept her from eating a wonderful dish her whole life.
Again, if you have an aversion to a particular food, go right ahead. But if you’re becoming a genuine pain in the ass over it, carry a loaf of tofu with you and let the rest of us enjoy the diversity of world cuisine. Unless you’re serving snails. Then I’d have to punch you in the tit.
*Dolphin meat is pretty tasty, too. But Greenpeace had to go and fuck it up for all of us when they set thier sights on the tuna fishers. :mad:
I’m afraid I can’t provide much insight into the dietary habits of the Masai, as I’ve only ever known one. But I’ll do my best to tie up this little hijack and say what I do know.
If you think my little anecdote proved your point, then one of us is badly misunderstanding the other’s point. My Kenyan classmate did not eat raw vegetables under any circumstances. It wasn’t that she liked fresh tomatoes but didn’t like them on burgers, it was that she could not even tolerate the little slice of tomato or scrap of lettuce that comes on a burger. She ordered them without, and scraped it off if she got any by accident.
I did see her eating a pear once senior year, so she did eventually learn to tolerate some raw fruit. But never vegetables.
*The traditional Masai diet is heavily meat-based. In fact, the Masai were about as close to being carnivores as any human population could be. They took up agriculture only recently. I’m not sure what kinds of plant food were traditionally gathered, but they now grow some grains and vegetables. They don’t eat a lot of these kinds of food though, and at least where my classmate came from they don’t eat them raw.
*As far as I know, the Masai don’t eat raw veggies for basically the same reason Americans don’t eat raw fish (or at least didn’t until sushi became popular) – they never ate it before, and it seems unwholesome to them. There’s no religious ban on raw veggies or anything. All my classmate ever said on the subject was that it wasn’t done where she came from, and she thought it was gross. Which, from an American perspective, is a pretty funny thing for a person who grew up drinking cow’s blood to say! But cow’s blood is part of the traditional Masai lifestyle and diet while raw veggies are not. (Other ethnic groups in Kenya are different.)
I think a lot of us have tried to emphasize that it only becomes of concern to us when the person is a pain in the ass about it. Of course, nobody likes everything. Everybody has something they don’t like (I hate broccoli…always have, always will). It’s the people who are excessively narrow about what they will eat who are PIA’s and even then, only in situations where it becomes a burden on others. For instance, It sucks to try to cook for people who have an overbearing list of unacceptable items because it’s almost impossible to be creative or complex in the kitchen. Even if they quietly leave their plate full, it’s still annoying and makes us feel as if we’ve wasted our time. It sucks to work hard cooking a gourmet meal only to have it all dismissed because (“I don’t like onions. I’ll get a burger later.”)
The other thing that bugs me is at restaurants when somebody has to ask the server a million questions about what’s in every dish and give a special set of instructions for everything. It holds up the rest of the table, it’s unnecessarily burdensome to the server and it’s uncomfortable to listen to. This is what we mean by pain in the ass behavior.
I’m not talking about diabetes. Because you learned to choke down food you hate, doesn’t mean that everyone can do it. Raw tomatos make me gag. This is not a conscious action: it’s a reflex. I can’t over come it. I don’t particularly want to overcome it. Again, why is this an issue that concerns you in any way? Is someone going to shoot your dog if I don’t suck down the vomitous little fruit?
You know, I seem to be functioning pretty well in society as is. Amazingly enough, 99% of the people I meet aren’t irrationally judgemental pricks with a bizarre control fetish about other people’s diets. Apparently, the only part of society in which I can’t function is the part that contains you. Which is quite possibly the best reason for bieng a picky eater that I’ve ever heard of.
Haven’t eaten at a fast food restaurant in almost two years now. Because the food isn’t very good. And yet, somehow, I’m able to live with the fact that other people like the way it tastes, without thinking of them as immature, cultural outcasts, or cripples. Imagine that!
This is what I don’t understand. Do people, ADULTS, actually whine and bitch at the food being served at a party? Other than sorry, I don’t care for any. I don’t see it.
If I know that someone does not eat meat, or would like a salmon steak instead of beef, I take that into account.
I never see anyone complaining about what is served. But I do see people with the just ‘Deal with it’ attitude like theLoadedDog.
I’ll deal with it. I’m not gonna eat it. Deal with that.
Conjoule, badger, me to eat it at your party, your precious dish, and you may get an honest critique from me. Feelings would be better served all around if you did not ask me to eat something I don’t want. If I want to try it, I will.
I cook seafood for my Wife. I even try it once and a while (can’t fuck up steamed crab legs, or so I’m told). I make a mean salmon steak too. At least my Wife thinks so. I’ll cook myself something else.
That part being the SDMB, I can assure you that your assumption is quite correct. There’s really no need to remind us. We’ve known it for years.
[makes note to self: Invite enipla and wife to come cook dinner for us when they visit Bloomington]
I’ve worked in enough restaurants to know those are the people that get a little “something extra” in the dish. :gag smilie:
Lamia, thanks for the info. Considering the relative newness (yeah, it’s a word. I say so!) of agriculture, it would probably be a bit like looking at one of my Pugs and wondering if I would use a garlic or vinegar sauce.
TheLoadedDog, here’s the part I don’t understand. You say
Why is this even relevant to the subject of food, anyway? I’m not six years old, sitting at the dining room table, choking down brussels sprouts because my dad won’t let me get up until I’m done. I’m 33 years old, and I can damn well eat what I want and not eat what I don’t. Is there some moral victory in choking down something that I dislike intensely? Do I get a prize (other than making you and people who feel the same as you shut the fuck up)? If not, what’s my motivation for pretending to like something that tastes absolutely disgusting to me? And I’m afraid your feelings on the matter simply don’t motivate me in the slightest, for some reason.
- not holding up the table.
- not pissing off restaurant staff
- not making friends and family have to cook two separate dishes
- not insulting your host
- not been seen as a prima donna
- just generally making life easier for everyone.
That sort of thing.