Foods that are great (or not) really because of texture, not taste.

Pasta.

Nothing with the texture of jello cold possibly be considered edible.

Wow, this is funny because I love lengua, partly because of the texture. Soft and a little chewy, and at the place I go to, delightfully salty.

Good texture, not necessarily taste: I’ll second water chestnuts; I love them in my mother’s turkey stuffing. I’ll also add deep-fried stinky tofu; the taste is more unusual than delicious, but I like the styrofoam-like texture!

Bad texture, not necessarily taste: I really dislike anything that’s rubbery with a meaty flavour, like tripe. Jellied pig’s blood is a bit creepy, too.

I guess that’ll be next!

Well, presumably you would be able to find enough twinkies to see you through. :wink:

I have problems with certain hunks of meat. The smell and flavor is fine.

My problem is biting into what I think is a normal piece of meat and then hitting this…squishy…part and I’m thinking ‘what **is **this?’ and then on the next chew while I’m trying to frantically swallow the squishy part to get it out of my mouth I hit this tough, stringy thing that won’t break, but it pulls a whole hunk of meat off with it and then it’s only natural to freak a bit while chewing furiously while thinking ‘that must have been a vein, gah!’

Apples in general - I like the TASTE of other fruits better, but the crunchy texture is just awesome.

I just had to go make a batch [and I actually use liquid splenda, since sugar is not actually a texturizer in custard, so it is even diabetic friendly.]

I made it with cinnamon sprinkled on top instead of the usual nutmeg, I used up the nutmeg making sausage and didn’t feel like running out for more =(

Ah, someone after mine own heart…

I agree that tongue is one of the worst. The tastebuds, ew!

Anything creamy – ice cream, yogurt, pudding, flan, and especially creme brulee. The combination of cool creaminess and little shards of sugar is amazing.

But when I was a kid we used to make ice cream. I’m not sure what my mother did, maybe she didn’t chill the mixture before we froze it, but it had sort of a gritty texture. Some people didn’t like that, but I thought it was awesome.

Fried chicken, if it has a real crunch.

Softer fruits, like pears and plums.

A grilled hot dog with a natural skin casing. Crunch!

Food is amazing, isn’t it?

It has texture and flavor, and can be quite a sensual extravaganza to eat, or it can take almost the exact same ingredients but an unimaginative/untalented cook and be purgatorially horrid.

Take basic fried chicken. It can be bready, stodgy and greasy, or the crust can be light and crunchy, nongreasy and full of flavor out of the same exact kitchen and recipe, but 2 different cooks.

I have a friend who can follow the exact same thanksgiving turkey recipe, and can’t make an edible turkey to save his life, and mine is fantastic. His, dry and mealy, mine moist with crunchy skin. Same exact instructions, no idea what he is doing wrong because I have watched him cook it in my oven, with my recipe, using my thermometers and everything.

Some people shouldn’t try to make anything more involved than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich …

Tofu. Wonderfully versatile in texture and ability to carry or absorb other secondary flavors, but essentially flavorless by itself.

Chicken gizzards - they smell delectable being broiled, but I can’t chew one to save my life.

Eggplant - one of my favorite foods, but I know many people who find the texture too off-putting to eat.

For me it’s shrimp. Nothing memorable about the taste but a wonderful food to bite into.

Ooh, I love the texture of shimp, as well as lobster tail and crab legs. And I love the flavor, too. I love the flavor of sea scallops, but I’m not nuts about the texture.

I share multimediac17’s feelings about tomatoes. Nothing wrong with the taste but the stuff inside is just gross. Ironically this problem is often worse with garden tomatoes than store-bought, depending on the variety, and yet if you say you don’t like fresh tomatoes the tomato freaks will come out of the woodwork trying to get you to try their garden-fresh goo bags.

But boil those suckers into submission and I’ll be the first in line for a taste.

The texture of a raw potato, on the other hand, is one of my favorite things, although I’ll admit they don’t really taste all that great. And a really good golden delicious apple? Amazing texture.

Cotton candy. Mmmmm. I mean, for taste, you could just sit and eat a bowl of sugar with a spoon. But the way it just dissolves on your tongue, and leaves a sort of warm feeling in your mouth. . .And I adore giving really little kids (like 2YO) their first taste of cotton candy, because the sweetness hits them, and their all like “MMMM sugar!” then it just dissolves, and the look on their face “OK, where’d it go? WHO TOOK MY CANDY??” :smiley:

Still on the sweet side, Good N’ Plenty. The shell is crunchy, then you bite through to find the chewy, black licorice-y goodness inside. Yum.

Savory (and good): water chestnuts. In fact, one of the things I love about stir fry is the variety of wonderful textures. As long as the veggies aren’t over-cooked, they each have their very own, unique texture, combined with the crunch of the water chestnuts, and the chewy meatiness of the protein. Good!

I’m with you on the macadamia nuts. Crunch! Bite into one, but then, suddenly, it seems to dissolve into buttery, fat-laden goodness on the tongue.

Speaking of tongue, the texture is the primary reason I won’t ever, ever even try it. It just seems. . .nasty and wrong. I forget who, but I saw a comedian some years ago talking about eating tongue and he said “I refuse to taste anything that might be able to taste me back!” :stuck_out_tongue: I also will never try pig or cow brains for the same reason. Ewwww. The organ meats I have tried, I haven’t cared for at all, and I’m sure it’s all about texture, because on a whole, I love meat.

Lump crab meat is excellent. The taste is very, very delicate, so I’m sure it’s more about the texture. Little silky threads of sweet succulence!

Oh, one more: improperly cooked calamari is nasty. I bought some broccoli at the market a couple of days ago. Two big stalks of raw broccoli packaged in a styrofoam tray. Each big stalk had a wide rubber band way up high on the stalk. I’m certain that if I batter-dipped and deep-fried those wide rubber bands, they would taste just like badly cooked calamari.

Croutons. Pretty much their whole point is texture; they add crunch to a salad. As far as flavor, they’re just pieces of bread.

Potato chips and pretzels. Again the crunch is the point. Otherwise it’s just a salt rush.

I can’t believe I’m the first to say “Beans.” Fresh or frozen beans are wonderful. The canned or dried varieties are impossible for me to contemplate. The canned are mushy and no matter how much I rinse, soak, and spice them they have a faint whiff of dog food about them. The dried ones simply can not be rinsed, soaked, boiled enough to make them anything but mealy.

Fresh beans are like a tender version of the macadamia nuts. That great mushing feeling of the structure breaking down under your molars. Sometimes the really fresh ones will feel almost “squeaky” as they slowly give way.

Mind you, it’s a stronger version of the “Squeakiness” which makes fried curds so disgusting. They’re like flavered rubber.

Speaking of curds, large curd cottage cheese. I know that the texture is what turns many people off, but I love it.

Crackers broken up into soup. As long as the don’t get soggy, they add great texture. Crunchy soup, mmm!

Edge brownies. They now make brownie pans in which every brownie cooks on the edge.