Sometimes people post that they like canned tomato products but not fresh tomatoes. I wonder if they live in the southeast U.S. Good tomatoes are rare as hen’s teeth down here. Good sweet corn is finally making inroads down here- people have discovered that overripe Silver Queen isn’t the best out there.
I know a guy who said he didn’t know why anyone would bother eating apples, but he had only ever tried Red Delicious apples when he was in school. I gave him an apple from an Ellijay orchard. He was quite pleasantly surprised at its flavor and texture!
Anyway, sweet potatoes are horrible when cooked. Their flavor used to make me gag when I was younger. Now it’s merely nasty. Raw sweet potatoes are fine- they taste like a crunchy, milky-sweet carrot.
Carrots and celery are similar- their flavors change when cooked. I like them both raw and cooked, but it’s surprising how much more flavor cooked celery has than when it’s raw.
I put those in the air fryer till extra crispy, and I made a dip from a bit of tomato sauce, roasted red sweet peppers, and garlic - maybe a spoon of sour cream and a dash of hot sauce? I cooked the garlic, tomato, and peppers briefly in some oil, and whizzed everything in the food processor. Came out excellent, not a scrap was left of either eggplant or dip.
Depends on the oatmeal. I have horrid memories of Quaker instant oatmeal, but love porridge made with oats that retain their consistency and do not turn into something like wallpaper paste.
My own culinary quirk? Coffee. I love coffee, and I need my java jolt every morning, but I dislike just about anything coffee-flavored, such as cake or ice cream.
What about peanut butter? I love peanuts, but I find peanut butter truly awful. Maybe that is an ethnic thing, as peanut butter is anything but popular in Europe.
Tuna. I just love tuna sashimi, but hate canned tuna. And tuna in a salad or on a pizza… NO WAY.
A word for Loach: spinach can be cooked in ways that make it tasty, but boiled to death is not one of them.
I loathe boiled eggs that are still soft. I tend to go with BriockBat on eggs; I prefer them with the yolks hard if fired or poached, over the years I have become able to tolerate somewhat runny yolks if I can mix them in with something.
I have never been a fan of raw eggs, which was something of a problem in Japan, as the traditional breakfast might well be rice wrapped in nori (seaweed sheets) and a raw egg. In fact the raw egg is also beaten up and mixed with soy sauce, so it is almost palatable, but my happiest memory of Japan is having just such a breakfast at 06:00 in a mountain lodge where it was -20C outside and not much warmer inside.
Cucumbers - Love them. Eat them all the time with my dinner. HATE pickles.
Onions - I like them fried on a burger and I’ll eat them (ignore them) if diced in a hotdish and I like onion rings, but NEVER raw.
Tomatoes - I like them raw in a salad or on a taco, eat them as spaghetti and pizza sauces but Hate ketchup.
Eggs - I like them scrambled, fried pretty much any way, but I will not touch a hard-boiled egg or egg salad.
Celery - I don’t mind it raw (not my favorite but I’ll eat it), but I dislike cooked celery in soups, stews, etc.
Coffee - I never drink coffee, but I love to dunk hard cinnamon toast w/peanut butter in coffee and I love the smell of coffee.
Peanuts must be boiled. Otherwise, you can keep them. I don’t care for spinach if it’s cooked unless it’s part of something like a saag, but it’s my favorite salad green.
Apples must be cooked for me to enjoy them. It wasn’t always that way, but it is now. Not sure why.
I’m okay with tomatoes, except sun dried ones.
Hate olives, love olive oil.
Tuna, seared or as part of sushi great. Tuna salad or canned tuna of any kind, no way.
We never ate spinach when I was growing up—the powers that be didn’t buy it or ask us to try it etc. Mrs. L will eat almost any vegetable and enjoys spinach, so I eat it now. Surprisingly, it’s almost entirely water. You don’t have to boil it and shouldn’t—you’ll drain away what flavor it has. Instead, sautee with zero water or oil, concentrating the flavor for omelettes etc. 90% of it cooks away.
I have had it in a few omelettes cooked that way and it wasn’t bad.
My Mom cooked all sorts of “greens” and boiled them all to death. My hatred of cooked veggies stems from this. Otherwise, she was actually a very good cook.
My mom worked in a factory 8 hours, then came home and threw together supper. Fresh vegetables were rare…she’d drain a can of peas, boil until dead, spread a little margarine over the top, and call it good.
Mrs. L has also taught me to enjoy Brussel sprouts. We got some from a food truck in Albuquerque and they were really good.
Now see, I’m the opposite. I love cooked carrots, but I can’t eat them raw – not since I was kid and got sick after eating some. I think it was probably a coincidence, and I just had some kind of stomach bug, but any time I try to eat a carrot stick, I gag.
Other than that? Eggs. I LOVE scrambled eggs and omelets. Put some salt and a bit of pepper on them? Oh delish! Eggs cooked any other way, especially hard boiled?
