Well, so far I’ve only found one foodstuff–and I use that word loosely–that almost made me wretch: surstromming, a Swedish fermented herring. I’ve posted about it on these boards before, and I’ve eaten a lot of strong-tasting weird stuff, but this goes beyond everything I was expecting. It smelled and tasted like death, for lack of better description. when I opened the bloated can (the can expands from the gasses trapped in the fermentation processes) on my stoop, flies surrounded me in literally seconds. (And I mean literally, not figuratively). Imagine the worst dog fart you’ve ever smelled and cross that with the scent of a rotting corpse, and you’re in the general ballpark of surstromming. Vile, vile stuff.
Also, when I first had an eyeball taco, I did gag a little (much to my disappointment), as I was not expecting it to consist of an actual whole eyeball (I assumed they would chop it up). It was a little gross to see lunch looking up at you, but the taste was unobjectionable if a bit disappointing.
We need to start the Society of Banana Haters. Or maybe the Bananas Are Repulsive Foundation (BARF). I am the only person I know who doesn’t like them. Like Stillwell Angel, I tend to get strange looks from people when I say this, like I had just stated that I’m hearing voices, or I’m being visited by space aliens, or something. I’ve tried to eat a banana a couple of times, but they make me gag. Literally. I think it’s the smell the makes me retch. Also, they have a mushy texture that I don’t like; it’s like eating cold mashed potatoes, without the gravy. Dried banana chips are the only way I’ve ever been able to eat this fruit, and even then I can only eat a few chips at a time.
Unless they have beer that is about as sweet as root beer, I really, really doubt it. On a particularly good day I can tolerate a white zinfandel wine, but even that I prefer mixed half and half with ginger ale or sprite.
Some of the Belgian fruit-flavored lambics might be up your alley. I wouldn’t say they’re root beer sweet, but they’re sweet & sour with none of the hop bitterness associated with regular beer. Lindemann’s Framboise (raspberry) or Kriek (sour cherry) would be a good bet.
My boyfriend is a beer guy. He completed the Winking Lizard Tavern “2006 Tour of Beers” last month–you get a list of 100 beers and you have to have one of each of them and they keep track in their computer. He’s had me taste many, many beers. I’ve had fruity beers. I’ve had beers that get served in wine glasses. I didn’t like them. I can barely tolerate hard cider, if that is an indication.
So far I like everything mentioned here that I’ve actually tried. (I don’t think I’ve ever had fish sauce.)
The only thing I can ever remember eating that I would never try again is uni. We asked the sushi chef at our favorite local sushi joint what was his favorite and he gave us a free sample. Raw sea urchin. Completely revolting both in taste and texture. Never again.
And usually I love salty, fishy things. Sardines, anchovies, smoked oysters oh, heck any kind of smoked fish, caviar, I love all of it but I just couldn’t take the sea urchin
I want to be with all of you people when the Apocalypse comes. That way, I’ll get to eat, while the rest of you starve among plenty. Unless you can live on Brussel Sprouts, which I won’t touch. Everything else sounds just yummy! I’ll eat just about anything that doesn’t eat me first, and some that will!
Uni is one of those things that apparently can be all over the map. Bad uni is supposed to be revolting. Good uni is supposedly like gold. I’ve only had it once, and it was completely unobjectionable: creamy, buttery, tasting of the sea, but not at all the strong flavor I’ve heard about from people who hate the stuff. So perhaps you just had some subpar uni?
I could totally live on Brussels sprouts. They’re YUMMY. I have loved them since I was a kid. Dunno what you’re on about. Here, trade you this nasty ass beer for those Brussels sprouts, how’s that for a deal?
Done! I could live on beer and bread for quite a long time. Or I could use the beer to make a stew out of most of the other stuff people in this thread are revolted by.
Ok another one that grosses me out. Well, it’s more of a category than a specific food:
custard or pudding
With custard it’s both the texture and the flavor that are alarmingly barforific, but with pudding it’s pretty much all about the texture, as I’m almost able to enjoy chocolate pudding. For about two bites. Before the slimy, phlegmy texture makes me start to gag.
The only food that sets off my gag reflex is raw celery and that is mostly a texture thing.
On the other hand, many of the things I eat makes other people nauseous. Among other things, my mother can never watch me eat steak or fried eggs when I visit her… I like my steak blue and my fried eggs with the white still slightly runny and she eats hers burned.
My ex’s family wouldn’t eat steak with me because I like mine medium rare. They kept telling me it was raw. Of course these were the same people who tried to tell me venison was not only edible, but good.
Apricots and peaches. Eeww…sicky-sweet and slimy!
Tomatoes. The taste, the texture, the smell…I hate everything about them.
Mustard.
Pickles.
Mayonnaise (I don’t mind it in very small quantities on sandwiches–small as in "spread so thin that you can barely see it) but if I get a clump of it…bleah!
Milk, unless it’s in something else (like a milkshake) or icy cold so you can’t taste the icky milkiness of it.
Bananas. I hate banana flavor, but even more than that, I hate the texture.
Stewed tomatoes. They look like bloody vomit.
Split pea soup. It looks and smells like green diarrhea.
Chunks of fat on the edge of meat. I absolutely have to cut it off any meat before I eat it.
Anything that’s too greasy. Any sauce with oil separated from it is, by definition, too greasy.
Butter, unless spread thinly enough so that it melts. Unmelted butter is greasy and disgusting.
I might be able to sit at the same table as someone eating a cheesesteak sub these days, but that wasn’t the case for a long time. I ate one, and got really, really sick from it (think Bathroom Kobayashi Maru), and couldn’t stand the smell of them for a long time after that.
Organ meats. The worst one I’ve ever encountered was breaded beef brains, which my grandfather ate 20 years ago (thinking about it still makes me nauseous).
I’m not the only one! My grandparents used to keep milk out on the table, and when it wasn’t right-from-the-fridge cold, it developed a terrible off taste that seemingly only I could taste- no one else in my family seemed to know why I objected to it so much. Skim milk seems less prone to this than any other kind of milk, so skim is the only kind I will drink.
You’re right- it has gone bad. You should buy up as much of it as you can, to save others from it, and send it to me. I will dispose of it in a safe manner
It would be really nice if Chum or jali sent me some bleu cheese, to dispose of at the same time…
