# Foods you just don't understand. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 8, 2011, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-you-just-dont-understand/577635 "2011-04-08T06:23:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-you-just-dont-understand/577635/21 "2011-04-08T13:20:16Z")
Canned peas. Fresh and frozen peas are delightful: a little snap, a little pop, a little sweetness, a ton of color, they just exude spring. Fantastic. Canned peas are mushy, flavorless, and _gray_. They are an abomination. Canned peas are not allowed in my house. Boxed mashed potatoes. Real mashed potatoes take like the least effort to make of anything, and taste fantastic. Boxed mashed potatoes just aren’t real food. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-you-just-dont-understand/577635/22 "2011-04-08T13:21:08Z")
Jello. It looks nasty, tastes chemical, and the texture is vomit inducing. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-you-just-dont-understand/577635/23 "2011-04-08T13:21:48Z")
> [@Cluricaun](#): > > Crab and lobster. I know that people rave about them and say that they’re delicious, but they are bottom dwelling scavenger spiders with claws and eyestalks. I just don’t get how people can go and pay upwards of $100 for someone to boil a giant sea insect so that they can then rip it apart with their bare hands and slurp down it’s solidified bug sinews. That’s fucking gross. I have nothing at all against lobster meat or crab meat, but I don’t get why you’d want to have a dead critter on your dinner plate for you to dissect yourself. I don’t get liver. It has a thoroughly nasty taste, a nasty texture, and it’s the body’s filter so it’s full of nasty crap. Why would anyone eat it? A different sort of “don’t get”: The canned soups that proudly proclaim they have 25% less sodium, when they still have way more than anyone who’s concerned about their sodium intake should have. If you can leave out 25% of the sodium, why not leave out all (or at least most) of it? ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-you-just-dont-understand/577635/24 "2011-04-08T13:23:49Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Anyway: Canned creamed corn. Oh God yes. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-you-just-dont-understand/577635/25 "2011-04-08T13:26:31Z")
Wasabi. I like most of the Japanese food that I’ve tried, including pickled ginger, and seaweed in various forms, but I just don’t see the point of wasabi in any quantity, no matter how minute. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-you-just-dont-understand/577635/26 "2011-04-08T13:34:52Z")
This thread is quickly becoming a “icky food I don’t like” thread. I don’t think there is any way to keep that from happening. > [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](#): > > I don’t understand why canned veggies (sorry. VEGETABLES) even exist. You have to own a freezer to keep frozen veggies. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-you-just-dont-understand/577635/27 "2011-04-08T13:40:30Z")
> [@voltaire](#): > > Yeah, texture is a biggie for me. Raw carrots? LOVE 'em! Cooked carrots? \ Overcooked vegetables are an abomination unto nature; those who bestow them upon children, depraved monsters who shall, in any future lives, be condemned to the tasteless existence of a head of iceberg lettuce. And carrots are overcooked if they have any degree of cooking at all. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-you-just-dont-understand/577635/28 "2011-04-08T13:49:16Z")
> [@what\_do\_I\_type\_here](#): > > So a friend suggested I try [lupini beans](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupini_Beans) which are beans, and are pickled in brine. And are apparently, according to Wikipedia, eaten as a snack food. > > And I just don’t get it. These things are _really_ bad. The beans themselves have no taste. It’s just salt. All salt. Each bean is just a matrix to contain salt. That’s it. You might as well just ingest salt and water. > > It has no point. Have you ever tasted a food and thought, “there’s no reason why this should exist?” This reminded me of the one time I tried caviar. It tasted like I had poured a tablespoon of salt on a cracker and taken a bite. Even the tiniest little smear was overpoweringly salty. I don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-you-just-dont-understand/577635/29 "2011-04-08T13:52:29Z")
[Natto](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natt%C5%8D). Looks horrific. Tastes even worse. They intentionally ruin perfectly good soy beans. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-you-just-dont-understand/577635/30 "2011-04-08T14:24:58Z")
> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > This thread is quickly becoming a “icky food I don’t like” thread. I don’t think there is any way to keep that from happening. Fair enough, here’s a common one that I even like that I don’t really get: Ribs. They’re delicious for certain, but it just seems like a whole lot of work for something that’s 80% bones and just a few bits of what’s then essentially barbequed pot roast. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-you-just-dont-understand/577635/31 "2011-04-08T14:25:16Z")
> [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > This reminded me of the one time I tried caviar. It tasted like I had poured a tablespoon of salt on a cracker and taken a bite. Even the tiniest little smear was overpoweringly salty. I don’t get it. God you just reminded me. I was at the officers’ club at Scott AFB and I was probably less than ten years old the last time I had caviar, and I thought almost precisely the same thing you did. All this time I thought it was just that batch or something, but this seems to imply that all caviar is that salty. If it is, why? Why do people go nuts over it? I can understand liking a fish taste, but something that’s mostly salt? Bah. Give me anchovy paste any day! ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-you-just-dont-understand/577635/32 "2011-04-08T14:28:20Z")
> [@Cluricaun](#): > > Crab and lobster. I know that people rave about them and say that they’re delicious, but they are bottom dwelling scavenger spiders with claws and eyestalks. I just don’t get how people can go and pay upwards of $100 for someone to boil a giant sea insect so that they can then rip it apart with their bare hands and slurp down it’s solidified bug sinews. That’s fucking gross. > > Also, smelly cheese. Ok, I get that it’s classic and has been around for a long time, but we’ve gotten much better at making cheese since then and there’s no longer any reason to eat moldy pus that smells like a gym shoe threw up on a hobo’s balls. As a lover of these things, I have to say that your description here might make me think twice next time I’m confronted by an insect-covered hobo bearing gifts of socks wadded up in a cheesecloth… > [@Athena](#): > > Yeah, this. I hated Brussels Sprouts up until about a year ago, when I broke down and bought some fresh ones because (1) I’d never seen fresh ones before, only frozen and (2) Mr. Athena kept telling me he liked them and wanted them sometime. > > I took the time to figure out a good way to cook them, and I gotta tell you, they are delicious. WAY better than I’d expected - some of my favorite veggies nowadays. But I have overcooked them at times, and they’re disgusting. If they get mushy, they’re inedible. A high-end restaurant here in Cincinnati called Boca is known for them. They are carmelized and served with seared scallops in a brown-butter and truffle sauce, and they are fucking amazing. > [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Jello. It looks nasty, tastes chemical, and the texture is vomit inducing. You’re not doing it right. You’re supposed to hold it in your mouth until it reverts back to liquid, then you drink it. See? Problem solved! > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I don’t get liver. It has a thoroughly nasty taste, a nasty texture, and it’s the body’s filter so it’s full of nasty crap. Why would anyone eat it? You’re not eating the right kind of liver. See: username. > [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > This reminded me of the one time I tried caviar. It tasted like I had poured a tablespoon of salt on a cracker and taken a bite. Even the tiniest little smear was overpoweringly salty. I don’t get it. Did you wash it down with a swallow of vintage champagne? Its the only way to fly with caviar. Plus its supposed (traditionally) to come with little diced sides of hard cooked egg, onions, etc to blend the salty, fishy flavor with. My WTF food is pretty much anything that’s actually rotten, like hakarl. Blech. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-you-just-dont-understand/577635/33 "2011-04-08T14:29:34Z")
> [@Cluricaun](#): > > Crab and lobster. I know that people rave about them and say that they’re delicious, but they are bottom dwelling scavenger spiders with claws and eyestalks. I just don’t get how people can go and pay upwards of $100 for someone to boil a giant sea insect so that they can then rip it apart with their bare hands and slurp down it’s solidified bug sinews. That’s fucking gross. Cognitive issues can derail anyone’s appetite. I happen to like steamed crab/lobster, but I just can’t stomach raw fish. About ten years ago I was eating some sushi and as I was chewing I started thinking more and more about the fact that it was raw fish; it became a race to chew and swallow before barfing, and I barely won, wretching a few times before I swallowed. I haven’t had sushi since then. Meanwhile I’m baffled by foods that have a reputation for smelling/tasting disgusting. A poster in MPSIMS recently described his experience with [hakarl,](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbYqznD0R5M) which by all accounts literally smells/tastes like a blend of stale piss and ammonia. Maybe when rotten shark was all you could find to eat and it kept you alive, it made sense to choke it down, but do you really need to celebrate that victory over the forces of nature by eating it again and again when you don’t have to? I wonder if the 1972 Uruguayan rugby team similarly celebrates their cannibalistic survival effort in the same way. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-you-just-dont-understand/577635/34 "2011-04-08T14:31:53Z")
> [@Cluricaun](#): > > Fair enough, here’s a common one that I even like that I don’t really get: Ribs. > > They’re delicious for certain, but it just seems like a whole lot of work for something that’s 80% bones and just a few bits of what’s then essentially barbequed pot roast. If the ribs you’re eating taste like barbequed pot roast, someone’s not doing it right. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-you-just-dont-understand/577635/35 "2011-04-08T14:41:26Z")
Pimento cheese- it’s two good foods ruined by mixing them into a mayo-laden slimy slurry. While I’m on the subject, I can’t imagine why anyone likes mayo as a condiment. It reminds me of slightly sour salty phlegm. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-you-just-dont-understand/577635/36 "2011-04-08T14:45:05Z")
FoieGrasIsEvil, if you don’t mind - may I ask how many colanders you own? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-you-just-dont-understand/577635/37 "2011-04-08T14:46:39Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > If the ribs you’re eating taste like barbequed pot roast, someone’s not doing it right. Well pot roast insomuch that it’s fatty, stringy meat. I’d be able to justify ribs to myself a lot more often if I wasn’t paying $25 for a slab that I have to work at for a few hours to achieve little bits of something that doesn’t magically turn into filet mignon. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-you-just-dont-understand/577635/38 "2011-04-08T14:49:32Z")
Artichokes. I mean the hearts taste okay but not that unlike a lot of other vegetables that are much less a pain in the ass to prepare and eat. The leaves are just a spoon for butter; there’s nothing there. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-you-just-dont-understand/577635/39 "2011-04-08T14:50:31Z")
Thought of another thing: spicy food in general. Food shouldn’t hurt, I feel. To my taste buds, that’s all spiciness adds – “wow, this sausage would be delicious if my tongue weren’t in pain right now.” ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2011, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-you-just-dont-understand/577635/40 "2011-04-08T14:53:24Z")
Durian, there is just nothing right about eating that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-you-just-dont-understand/577635.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-you-just-dont-understand/577635.md?page=3)