Foods You Love or Hate

In My Humble Opinion
21

The list of foods I like would be way too long to list here. I like almost everything, but I’m kind of a purist in many cases, and there are many things I don’t like combined.
I like raisins, but not in things, although I will put golden raisins in a sweet curry.
I love fresh-from-the-garden tomatoes, but don’t want them in my salad.
I like horseradish, but don’t want it anywhere near my beef. In fact I dislike any kind of steak sauce whatsoever. Truth be told, my perfect hamburger is a large, medium rare, flame broiled beef patty, on a hamburger bun, with a slice of sweet yellow onion. Nothing else. No condiments. If the bun isn’t nice and soft, however, I might add a bit of mayonnaise, as I find it the least intrusive of the condiments.

There are a few things I don’t actually like.
Asparagus, although I will eat it with cheese sauce.
Artichokes – not worth the trouble.
Pomegranates – Ditto.
Caviar – I am completely ambivalent about it – tastes like jelly with buckshot in it to me.
And then there are a couple of things that I truly dislike.
Lutefisk – I’ve talked about this substance before and I don’t want to go into it again.
Oysters – Don’t like ‘em, and I’ve tried. I’ve tried them raw, I’ve tried them fried, I’ve tried them barbecued, I’ve even tried them in a casserole. They taste vile. My wife loves oysters, and every time she orders them I try a bite. It just ain’t gonna happen. Someone told me once that eating oysters was like “getting to know somebody really, really well.” I suspect that’s true, though I really couldn’t say. I asked my wife and she just laughed.
[aside] Zenster, speaking of smelly cheeses, I imagine you’ve tried Cotija? If you haven’t yet, you should. It’s a hard, crumbly Mexican cheese, also known as queso añejo. It smells like old sweat socks and tastes kinda like feta, only better. [/aside]

A couple more comments:

Good fruitcake is a delight to the senses. Most of the stuff sold as fruitcake these days is not good. Good fruitcake does not contain citron. Nuff said.

What the Hell do you do with liver?
Score your liver all over on both sides with cuts about ¼” apart. Rub all over with fresh chopped Basil. Fry as usual, do not over-cook. If you still don’t like liver, and many people don’t, then give it up. No point in being obsessive about it.

22

Chantrelles, oh chantrelles, dry sauteed and butter added in the end. Fall cannot arrive soon enough.
Oyster mushrooms just fried in butter with salt and pepper.

Rich, dark bitter chocolate.

Wild strawberries are just like candy. Oh, I can’t wait until they ripen in the alpine areas around here.

Cheese, oh how do I love thee? From mild havarti to soft and squishy brie, an aged dutch cheddar, so appealing to me. Cotija’s been mentioned, feta so fine, parmeggiano reggiano, it’s mine all mine.

Tzatziki sauce and warm pitas.

Steelhead is just wonderful baked.

Guacamole. Two avacadoes fear my return as they will be squished into a fine light green mess this evening with lemon, garlic and peppers. Surprisingly, I cannot eat avacadoes any other way. Plain they make me gag.

Tacos carnitas with soft, greasy corn tortillas.

Licorice. I have been known to indulge in this delicacy to the point that it has maintained my regularity. :wink:

I also love to eat fresh raspberries, thimbleberries, beefsteak tomatoes, dill pickles, kalamata olives, plum sauce, mochi, curry, plain naan (cooked in a tandoor oven with clarified butter brushed on top and a tamarind sauce and cilantro sauce for dipping).

I do not care for turnips, radishes, plain bell peppers of any variety, cherry tomatoes, sugar peas, string beans, asparagus (I think it smells like piss and infects anything cooked with it.), and most squash. I try and try to like squash, but have failed most times. Sweetmeat and hubbard are very good, but unless one plans on eating squash for a week, they are too large for one or two people to consume.

Almost forgot, a good cut of bacon.

Mmmmmmmm…bacon.

Oh my.

23

Love: Broccoli Florets
Hate: Broccoli Stems

Love: Liverwurst, Braunsweiger, Pate
Hate: Fried Beef Liver with Onions and Gravy

Love: Oysters, raw or smoked or steamed
Hate: Clams in any form.

Love: Cumin, esp. in enchilada sauces
Hate: Cilantro

Love: Kosher Dill pickles
Hate: Sweet pickles

Love: Ben&Jerry’s Mint Oreo Cookies & Cream
Hate: Anything else mint

Love: Cornbread, Corn Tortillas, Corn Flakes, Tamales, etc
Hate: Creamed Corn, Corn niblets, corn on the cob, etc

24

I’d just like to add that fresh, sweet, locally-grown, Oregon strawberries are now available at the local fruit stands. These can be popped into your mouth right out of the flat. Soooo sweet! We bought a flat yesterday and half of them have already been converted into jam. The rest are sitting in our fridge awaiting our attentions. :smiley:

Bwahahahaha!!!

25

DURIAN.

The ultimate, the most extreme case of “love it”/“hate it” in the entire food universe.

Most non-Southeast Asian folks are repelled by its powerful aroma which is like rotting onion garbage. The saying is it smells like hell and tastes like heaven. For those in the know, it is truly the food of the gods. The secret to Durian is: once the first bite passes your lips, you don’t smell it any more. You just enjoy the unbelieveably ecstatic feeling that comes from eating it.

26

It is explicitly to mimic this cheese’s presence that I routinely belabor people to put grated Parmesan on my famous shredded beef hard-shell tacos.

27

Horseradish: In my early twenties I absolutely abhorred horseradish. Once, at a business luncheon, I ate some by mistake and had to leave the table and throw up in the restroom. Now I love it, esp. the creamy kind, with prime rib. Maybe I just got older and my taste buds mellowed?

Liver: When I was living on a very tight budget years ago I ate liver 3-4 times a week and loved it. But my sons finally turned me against it by talking about it’s function in the body over and over. It really makes me mad because I liked it a lot.

Artichoke hearts in Oil: Love these as a snack

Anything Italian with red sauce: I do not like, e.g. pizza or spaghetti. I will eat ravoli, but only with butter and pesto. Once when I was working in a small town in upstate NY the only restaurants in town were pizza places so I had to get something to eat at the local grocery. I was there for four weeks and it was a real drag.

Nuts: I eat some nuts everyday; walnuts, almonds, pecans, macadamias, pistachios, hazel nuts, no peanuts. I love them.

Dried fruit: I eat raisins and dates with the nuts. Yummy!

Hot dogs: I love hot dogs. We have Rosie’s on the pier where I live and she frys onions and puts them on the bun, with the hot dog just lightly fried, with mustard and relish on top. I wait all winter for her to open in June. I also buy hot dogs at the deli and eat them plain right out of the refrigerator.

Tuna noodle: I absolutely love this with mushroom soup.

A gourmet I’m not.

28

I thought the OP was to be about food that “you either love or you hate,” not just likes & dislikes in general. When I was a kid, the first example of this I heard was **buttermilk.

Durian** with its sweet, luscious, luxurious, creamy custardy pulp is the most extreme example. Devotees of durian become passionately attached to it, while non-devotees cannot stand to get within 100 yards of it.

Another Asian example is bitter melon. It looks sort of like zucchini, but its skin is all nubbly & knobbly. Its taste is really bitter, trust me. Its taste is enough to make most people, if uninitiated, run screaming from the room. But I find it quite good when sautéed crispy with ginger, garlic & red pepper. It’s considered a blood purifier. It has considerable value in India in the Ayurvedic system, where the “six tastes” (Shat rasa) have to be in balance and the ideal meal comprises all six tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, astringent, and pungent.

Okra: I never have gooey okra. The secret to good okra is to never let a drop of water touch it. Mrs. Mojo has the most delicious okra recipe: she sautés sliced okra dry in oil with ginger, garlic, & red pepper, until crispy. <kissing fingertips> C’est magnifique!

Broccoli and tofu are delightful, you just have to know how to cook them the right way. The staunch Anglo-Saxon whiteboy cooking of Protestant America has never known how to treat vegetables decently. Turn to Asia to learn how to make them delicious. I love broccoli, tofu, & shiitake in Indian curry — even though they were never heard of back in India. Mrs. Mojo and I together have developed what I call “neo-Indian cuisine” and found that these non-Indian items make great curry. I practically live on broccoli & tofu. Tempeh is even better. Anyone ever tried tempeh?

Come to think of it, I’m such a vegetarian, I never met a vegetable I didn’t like.

29

Mia maxima culpa

A while ago I mentioned a thing one could do with liver. Nearly a decade ago my doctor forbade that I eat any more organ meats, (Gout, you know), so my memory is a bit rusty in this regard. Well, I checked my recipes last night and I must now confess, I misspoke.
One does not rub the liver with basil, rather one uses salt, pepper, sage and garlic. If anyone was actually foolish enough to try my recipe, I apologize profusely.

Thank you, we now return you to your regularly scheduled thread, already in progress.

[aside]Zenster, What was I thinking? Of course you know about Cotija. You are the master. My apologies.

30

These food items are of the devil:

Olives. Hate green ones, hate black ones.

Horseradish. I hate how the taste filters into my brain.

Sweet Pickles. But I love dill pickles.

Diet Coke. Talk about an abomination.

Egg whites. I actually put eggs in the blender so I don’t see any trace of white in my scrambled eggs.

31

Oooh, with crushed potato chips on top? Yummy!

32

Funny, there really isn’t anything that I hate passionately. My attitude toward new and/or strange foods is “you first.” If I can see someone actually putting it in their mouth and eating it without immediately dying, I’ll give it a try.

The only food that has made me seriously re-think this policy is Shiokara. Shiokara is to squid what lutefisk is to fish. That was the only time since childhood that I nearly threw up from the taste of something.

And I absolutely love tofu, licorice and most meats, cheeses, fruits and vegetables (but not all together).

–sublight.

33

Foods I love that some people hate:
Olives. They’d bettter be juicy and oily, though. I don’t like crappy plasticky processed olives. I remember not really liking black olives as a child. I’d class them as somewhat of an acquired taste.
Smelly blue cheeses - Stilton, Roquefort etc.
Horseradish I like the creamy kind and the wasabi kind. The secret is not to use too much, obviously.
**Coriander leaf (cilantro)**My Mum thinks it tastes like Fairy Liquid.
Foods I hate that some people love:
Sweetcorn I’ve mentioned my feelings towards sweetcorn before. See, I like buttered corn on the cob. I hate sweetcorn kernels in things (I’m shuddering at the memory of the worst risotto I’ve ever had, the Crime Against Risotto - soggy, overcooked rice with peas, sweetcorn and cheese). The Jolly Green Giant can just bog off and take his cans with him.
Raw Beansprouts I’m mildly allergic to these. I have to pick them out of salad.

Foods that can be very good or very bad:
Tomatoes
What’s worse than a tasteless wooly tomato?