This guy named Sam keeps trying to get me to eat green eggs and ham. He continues to give me several interesting scenarios in which he believes I may be more tempted to try them so I will see. However, I steadfastly refuse to eat this, as I am certain the taste will not be appealing to me.
Mushrooms. They’re in a lot of restaurant dishes, and if I even suspect that they’ll be prominent in the flavor of the dish, it’s off-limits. Really narrows my options.
Cooked seafood, no problem. Raw fish, big problem. last time I ate sushi I struggled not to barf. Wife is Japanese, loves sushi/sashimi. Friend of mine (frequent lunch partner) also likes it a lot. Some of the Japanese restaurants we go to have good alternatives for me, some don’t. If I liked it raw, I would enjoy visits to the latter restaurants more.
Lobster for me. Went to the seaside this past summer and Mom was so happy to have it, I tried a few bites again… Blech. Maybe just eating it cold doesn’t work for me, but living land locked doesn’t give much opportunity and I’m not wasting money on something I don’t like in an attempt to like it.
Spicy food. I like some spice, but mom is of the very sensitive palate and I’ve not had much of a chance to develop a taste. Sometimes I can eat it, other times I can’t but even when I can my BF prefers a spiciness just past my threshold.
Stuff like olives, cilantro, sage? I dislike, but don’t care that I don’t like. Actually, IMO most people use sage with too heavy a hand. I like sage well enough but I don’t think I should taste ONLY sage.
One more, avocado. It’s healthy for you, not that expensive, and the only way I can describe it is it tastes green. Even if I could get past the texture, it just… No. I’ve tried it a few ways, on pizza, tempura, guacamole… No.
A lot of mine have been mentioned already – cilantro (I apparently have the gene that makes it taste like soap), anise/licorice, yogurt, olives, most organ meats, etc.
Mustard is a big one for me – it only takes a minuscule amount of it in something to make me retch when I inadvertently ingest it, and it’s used in so many things that it’s a constant battle of wits when dining out to gauge the likelihood of it being used but unmentioned in the menu description of a given item.
Fresh, or even cooked, tomato pieces of any size. I love tomato-based sauces, ketchup, etc., but I can’t abide tomato slices on a sandwich, and would just as soon pick around any recognizable chunks of it in a sauce or whatever.
Broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage. I can cope with small amounts of pureed cauliflower, but would rather not. Greens of any kind – mustard, collard, whatever. Spinach too (I can cope with a small amount of it in a salad, but not one that consists almost entirely of spinach).
I also have a texture aversion to bell peppers and onion – I use both all the time in things I’m cooking, and in small enough pieces that are thoroughly cooked and softened they’re not a problem for me, but at any size larger than an english pea I’ll pick around them.
I also don’t at all like lemon in anything that’s not a dessert – I’m fine with lemon pie, lemon cookies, lemon pound cake, etc., but have no use whatever for it on chicken, fish, etc. I’ll use a dash of lemon juice in something to brighten it a little bit, but never in enough quantity that there’s any kind of lemon flavor note. Oddly, I don’t have the same aversion to lime.
On a related note, I also have a hard time with a lot of things that would be described as “tangy” – I make good use of vinegars in sauces and such, but (for example) most salad dressings revolt me (including mayonnaise) – I’d far rather consume a salad dry, or with a very simple and preferably fruit-related dressing, such as a raspberry vinaigrette. Pasta salads, bean salads, potato salads, etc., that use a lot of lemon or vinegar as an acidic note are anathema to me (and many of them use mustard as well, q.v.).
ETA: Avocado. Looks really good, but even when I was making guacamole every day in a restaurant kitchen I couldn’t deal with it.
I really wish I did like all of those things, and I keep trying them in different forms – I hate being picky about what I eat, and there’ve been lots of times when one or more of these aversions caused me to go hungry at events when there are limited options.
I really wish I liked:[ul]
[li]raw tomatoes[/li][li]seafood (beyond canned tuna and New England clam chowder)[/li][li]veggies (beyond corn, peas, and carrots)[/li][li]the taste of egg (omlettes seem like they would be awesome; plus, I can never have the “made while you watch” fried rice at the Japanese steakhouse)[/li]the taste of salt (what’s fine for most people is often too salty for me)[/ul]
Tea. Why everyone else on the planet likes boiled leaf water, damned if I know. But if liking it would stop the “Does she have three heads and tentacles? Must be an alien.” looks, grant me the tea affinity, oh leaf gods!
There aren’t many foods that I don’t like, and the only one I can think of that I wish I did like is pumpkin pie - it smells heavenly but tastes disgusting.
Coffee, tea and oranges. If only I could get past the smell and bitter tastes, I’d love to like these.
Beer is the yucky to me.
Friends say, "that’s because you haven’t tried _______ brand.
No. Don’t like beer.
I like gin and rum and vodka.
I don’t like beer.
Same here.
Oh, and alcohol. I can’t stand the stuff.
I’m another one who tastes the soapy cilantro flavor, but for me it’s not overwhelming: If a dish has only a small amount of it, I can see how it contributes. Which really just means that I know what I’m missing, which makes it even more annoying.
Onions. I hate onions but they’re on f’ing EVERYTHING.
Oh, and Angel of Doubt, have you ever tried good tea? Apologies if you have; I don’t mean to imply you’re a three-headed alien. But a lot of the tea that you’ll find in the US, I can hardly blame someone for not liking it.
OMG I have to agree. My sister loves licorice, but I agree with you, satan’s anus. 
Yeah, or buying packaged meals in a grocery store - most have peppers in them. Blech.
Yeah, it would be nice to eat a wider variety of veggies, healthier too, but I just can’t tolerate them.
Coffee - smells wonderful, tolerable taste when sugared into syrup. Then stays with me all day - hours later still tasting that first cup. Um, no.
Yeah, lobster. Which also means shrimp. I mean, I like fried shrimp, or scampi, or shrimp alfredo, but not boiled shrimp (especially cold). Determined that shrimp tastes exactly like lobster, and also determined that I hate lobster. Ergo, have reduced my shrimp intake. I mean, what’s the point of eating something you don’t like just because it’s buried/soaked/coated in something you do? Same reason I gave up catfish. Discovered that I didn’t care for the fish, just the way it is cooked.
WIN!
See, I like shrimp, mainly cold, but dunked in that cocktail sauce. Maybe it’s just a cocktail sauce vector… I don’t buy it for just myself though. Can’t eat a lot of it and it goes bad if I do so I just eat it when I see it at a
party.
I knew I’d forget one! Not just pumpkin pie, but pumpkin anything…I’d love to know what I’m missing with the annual Starbucks pumpkin spice latte madness.
And I love sweet potato pie, so I have to be careful: slices of pumpkin pie look the same.
Cilantro is vile which is a bummer because it turns up in otherwise tasty salsa quite frequently.
I feel wasteful when I gut an animal and throw away bits that I know other folks enjoy eating but the thought of cooking up any of the slimy, strangely colored guts yucks me out. I’m ashamed to say I’ve never even tried liver or heart. shudder
Pie is SO overrated. Unless of course it’s my mother’s rhubarb pie.
With most of the stuff I dislike I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything (usually it’s not terribly good for me anyhow). But one thing I regret:
Raw carrots. Why is it one of the cheapest, healthiest and most portable snacks is the one I hate? If only red bell pepper slices were as cheap and plentiful…
I wish I liked bell peppers, but I hate them and they hate me. They’re hard to avoid in fall and winter, as they are cheap and colorful so every restaurant uses them in everything.
My social life would be a little easier if I liked beer or coffee.
I really dislike salad and basically cannot eat it. Very awkward socially because more or less any fancy meal is going to involve a salad course. Also salad is supposed to be healthy and some people appear to genuinely enjoy eating them.