I thought this was universal?
Every time I have to prepare shrimp, it reminds me more and more of cockroaches…I have to not dwell on this thought or I won’t be able to eat them anymore.
I think life would be easier if I liked raisins, sushi, or water chestnuts.
Maybe you are allergic to sulfites?
Same here. cwPartner loves sage. Worse, we have a huge sage plant that will not die AND cwPartner is a borderline hoarder. So he’s constantly trying to work the stuff into our food now while drying more of it for later. One of these years I’m going to come up with a way to rip that damn plant out by its roots while making it look like an accident.
I’ve read that the “sulfite headache” thing is a myth. Sulfites don’t normally cause head aches, even in the few who actually have an allergy to them. I think the theory now is that there are histamines in wine (more in reds) which can cause blood vessel dialation and ultimately a headache. Taking an antihistamine before embibing may help.
I wish I liked caviar. I’ve had everything from very expensive caviar to very bad caviar, and I just can’t get a taste for it. My wife likes it when she can get it, and I’d like to enjoy it with her, but I can’t stomach it.
Oh, and beets. I’ve hated beets with the fire of a thousand suns since childhood, when my parents insisted on serving canned pickled beets with dinner as if they were edible. As an adult, I’ve had beets pickled, roasted, shredded, and turned into soup, and I just can’t make myself like them. I’ve tried, but I just can’t convince my mouth that beets are tasty.
Although I dislike many of the items already mentioned (cilantro, pumpkin, coffee), one I don’t often see other people disparage is black pepper. I have no idea how everyone can ruin their meals by covering them with black specks o’death. Yuck!
I also don’t like bacon. I’m a barrel of laughs at TGI Fridays, I tell ya.
I kind of wish I liked mushrooms. I’ve had lots of meals spoiled by their presence. It would also be handy to like raw onion, especially when it comes to burgers, coneys, and potato salad.
Another vote for cilantro. Though, I don’t necessarily want to like it per se, just to be able to taste it properly. Apparently it’s so unique and wonderful that nothing can be substituted for it, so I don’t even have a vague idea of what it’s really supposed to be like. I’m no super-taster, and in fact I’m a non-taster, but I’m another that tastes soap.
To everyone who can taste cilantro normally, you can duplicate the effect by drizzling some dish soap over everything that has cilantro in it. No exaggeration, that’s exactly what it tastes like to us soap-tasters.
Fruit. Most fruit is just too tart for me. It’s bananas and watermelon for me. I inevitably buy an apple or some mandarin oranges every year and make my way through one and say ‘not doing this again!’. I need to try that ‘miracle berry’ tablet thinger than is supposed to make even lemons sweet.
I hate cooked fruit as a rule, and so pie is just gross to me. I hate it when I go to someone’s house and they’ve baked a pie for dessert as a treat and I have to bow out and say no thanks. I wish I could just enjoy it!
Beer would be convenient to enjoy, but it tastes so vile that that will never happen.
The cilantro-soap thing just utterly fascinates me. It doesn’t taste like that to me at all. But I can’t think of another food where it’s not a matter of preference, but a matter of objective difference over how something tastes.
I haaaaate licorice, but I can’t say I wish I liked it. I’m not missing out on anything by not liking it.
I do miss out on a lot by not liking cereal. A quick, cheap, easy breakfast – hooray! Too bad it ends up as soggy bits in milk. God, the idea nearly makes my stomach turn.
I’ve gotten over most of my other food dislikes – notably mushrooms and olives. I like them both now.
Leaves with glop has never appealed to me either.
I wish I liked broccoli and cauliflower as both are so nutritious. They taste extremely unpleasantly bitter to me. I also wish I liked strawberries as my husband and daughter adore them. I find strawberries the least attractive of the most widely used fruit. Give a crisp apple, soft cherry, ripened banana or juicy orange instead please.
I wish I liked the gristly/marrowy/tendon etc. parts of meat – they pretty much gross me out, it’s taken until I was in my 30s to eat chicken “on the bone”. People who are into that kind of thing really seem to dig it, including my son, who will go nuts cleaning bones from chicken. Sigh.
I wish I liked quinoa. That stuff is really evil, but the cafeteria at my job thinks every other dish should have it in it, or go on top of it. Bleaarghh. I don’t care if the stuff guaranteed an extra 5 years of life, it’s not worth it. Truly, I can’t wait for the quinoa fad to end, so it and its pretentious-ass “keein-wah” pronunciation can exit my life hopefully forever.
I wish my wife liked green peppers. I don’t get it… they have almost zero taste, and not an offensive texture. What’s not to like? But she really doesn’t like them.
I feel bad for my son because he can’t eat carrots or sweet potatoes (allergy). Poor kid, those are both yummers. It wasn’t amusing when he was a baby, since both are popular baby foods and it took us a while to figure out the issue :smack:
Seafood. I’d love to be a less-fussy dinner companion and open up a wider menu selection for myself and liking seafood would do this for me.
It’s watermelon for me because on a hot summers day, a hunking great slice of chilled watermelon looks like such good fun to eat.
I am astounded at the number of folks who can’t stand cilantro. Love it.
And fresh tomatoes? My all-time favorite food. I seriously look forward to tomato season each summer as a kid looks toward Christmas. Then, I mourn its passing.
I wish I liked shellfish; can’t stand it (but I’d love to dip my sourdough in your drawn butter).
Most fish, particularly salmon. I don’t get how some people wet their pants at the thought of an upcoming salmon feast.
Sushi, too.
The common fruits: Oranges, apples and bananas. Blech.
As for licorice/anise: I hate it, and I’m glad I do.
mmm
Alcohol and mint.
The former because it’s very social and people act like you’re either a child or a bully if you won’t drink with them. The latter because it’s really annoying to have to buy special toothpaste just so I don’t feel like retching twice a day.
Ignorance fought!
I suspect I now know why my son hates yummy cilantro.
Thanks, Dopers.
That’s my number 1 answer as well. I think about all the dishes I would eat and enjoy if only olives weren’t so utterly, completely, terribly vile. I tried to eat a green one once and all the muscles in my face tensed at once and tried to reject it before it had the chance to poison and kill me. How anybody manages to eat them, much less enjoy them, is beyond my comprehension.
Seconded. I loath tea. I even went to a place that serves nothing but tea and had a serious discussion with the helpful girl behind the counter, narrowing down my tastes and discussing my preferences until she thought she found the perfect tea. As far as I’m aware, she’s the closest thing to an expert I’ll ever find. I did manage to drink the pot but only because I was really, really sick at the time and needed something hot for my throat, and I poured a shitload of honey into it to make it palatable (after attempting to drink it without first, I wanted to give it a fair chance). It’s just ghastly. It’s like drinking a cup of mud. But everybody loves it so much and if I loved it, we could talk about our favorite varieties, and I could make it night instead of drinking diet coke, and drink it by the potful when I’m sick. Alas, I hate things that taste like dirt.
which brings me to vegetables. I like a limited number of vegetables–tomatoes, onions, potatoes, asparagus, mushrooms, spinach, and alfalfa sprouts. Some squash is acceptable when prepared right, but that’s about it. I’m also not a fan of raw fruit.
Finally, I really wished I liked blueberries and cherries. Blueberries and cherries are ubiquitous, almost universally loved. No, I don’t want them raw or dried or cooked or in baked goods. I especially don’t want things that are merely flavored with blueberry and cherry. Cherry-flavoring is possibly the worst thing ever invented. I don’t think I’ve ever met another person who would decline blueberry muffins or pancakes, but I find them horrifying.
Perfect description. And a heroic try you did give.
Sigmagirl, I had a former boss practically force me to take home a box of tea. Guess she didn’t hear the “I don’t like it” part. Maybe she’s a closet tea hater. (we’re in the South).