What foods have you come across that are repulsive to the visual/olfactory senses but taste sensational or at least edible?
Tuna in oil. Looks filthy, tastes great!
Any takers?
Cruciferous vegetables. Smell terrible, taste great if prepared well. I realize that some people will debate the tastes great part, but this is my opinion.
Some cheeses also smell terrible but taste great. Parmesan, for example, smells like feet but fresh parm is great. I say “fresh” parm as in “no cannister”, the cannister stuff is okay on certain things but it does have a slight feet taste.
Yeah, lots of strong cheeses and blue cheeses smell like diseased feet, rotting garbage or vomit, but taste fantastic if you just take the plunge. I’m the only one in my family who really likes ‘outdoor cheese’( as my kids call it), so I don’t indulge as often as I might like.
An especially runny cheese from France called IIRC Munster.
Durian fruit - best description I ever heard was “imagine eating Ben And Jerry’s in a sewer”
Durians
I vote “durian.”
I’ve never had the opportunity to try durian - perhaps one day - but I’m intrigued by the diversity of the descriptions that people offer; ‘Ben & Jerry’s in a sewer’, ‘onion-flavoured custard’, ‘cream cheese with turpentine’, etc, etc. It must be quite a complex flavour to inspire such a variety of reviews.
Kim chee.
When I was a freshman in college, a guy in my dorm was studying abroad from Korea. He would get out the kim chee every once in a while, and everyone in the building knew about it. “WHAT is that awful smell?” “Oh, Moon’s eating kim chee again.”
And yet? Delicious.
Chou Doufu or “stinky tofu.” It really does reek but I love it. You can smell it at 100 meters from a street vendor.
Durian has a lot of fans in my house. I’ll eat a little but it’s nothing special for me.
Cheese = man that was a highlight of visiting France was all the unpasteurized fresh stinky cheese that would come out at the end of the meal.
Pesto…green, oily…but totally yummy. My 12 y.o. daughter and I are maniacs for it.
I think that mangoes smell exactly like turpentine (to me anyway) but they taste delicious.
Raw oysters.
Deviled eggs, Mouthfull of ass, but taste delish.
Cooking broccoli smells like a pot of rot. Sautéing garlic doesn’t smell great either. But sauté the brox IN the garlic – MMM mmm, delizioso!
Guacamole looks like a heap of lumpy green slime, but it’s delightful.
My girlfriend goes nuts for saganaki, the flaming puddle of melted goat cheese. I refused to be anywhere near it, since it does rather smell like burning vomit, but I did try some once and found it mild and rather tasty. Still not ordering it for myself.
A good Munster is a world of difference from processed Munster. It should look like it is about to melt, bulgeing all over. It has a strong smell that you will notice even when kept in a fridge with the door closed. But the taste is fantastic, easier to enjoy than many other strong smelly cheeses, and the rind is well worth eating with the cheese as the flavour goes so well.
My kids would rate Chili this way. Whenever I make it or cook canned chili, they go off about how it is dog food…<insert mock-worthy comments about my cooking here>
Spam looks and smells nasty out of the can, but I’m not ashamed to admit that it cooks up quite tasty.
My mom hates scrapple–says it looks like dog food, and she gags whenever any of us eats it. Guess what we order whenever possible? Good stuff.