It was that green stuff! Ugh. I think I’ve had fresh wasabi, but not the real stuff from Japan and didn’t like that either. I don’t like horseradish of any kind, but it’s easier to avoid.
I’m Japanese/Okinawan and sometimes get strange looks when I say I don’t like ginger either. I’ll sometimes eat the ginger you get with sushi, but just a tiny bit when changing types of sushi.
Okinawans are known to traditionally be pork eaters, but my Dad didn’t care for it because he said that was the only meat they ate when he was young. I never noticed it, but I don’t think my paternal grandmother ever made anything with chicken except chicken soup. And never used beef ever.
Edit: I used to sometimes eat ginger snaps, until one day I realized what the ginger in the name meant.
Ironically, my Mom (who’s the Japanese half) liked pickled ginger. Thinking about it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen my Dad it however.
Another vote against curry. It is just too overwhelming. I’ve told Mrs. FtG “Take the amount you consider mild. Divide that by 10.” And that’s waaaay too much still. I can only taste the curry, not the actual food at all.
As a clarification: sassafras as a flavoring was largely banned because the safrole in roots and bark is regarded as a carcinogen, though also directly toxic if you imbibe enough of it.
On the other hand, gumbo filé made from sassafras leaves is legally sold and used in cooking, as the safrole content is negligible.
Also, sassafras is a great small tree with wonderful fall color. I have two potted specimens to be planted this spring.
Can’t everyone taste that difference? I don’t think wintergreen tastes “minty” at all, it tastes like wintergreen. I guess they are both “cool” flavors.
Yeah, they are quite distinct to me as well, with wintergreen being more medicinal to me. I use mints in both sweets and savories (more the latter), but I only know wintergreen from gum mostly. And root beer. I don’t hate either, but have a clear preference for mints.
I’m fine with the flavor of fennel seeds, but I hate when there are whole fennel seeds in things. Feel like I’m chewing on nail clippings. Grind that shit up or leave it out.
I used to dislike the smell and taste of cumin as a kid. I thought it smelled like B.O. And for good reason, as I’ll get to. But I acquired a taste for it, and I use cumin a lot in my cooking. Right now, as a matter of fact, I’m having some reheated Moroccan stew for lunch that is quite cuminy.
It’s interesting to me how many scent and flavor profiles are shared by food items we find desirable and things we typically find extremely undesirable.
The smell of the aforementioned cumin comes from the chemical a 3-hydroxy-3-methylhexanoic acid, which the body also secretes in sweat.
Part of the smell profile of Parmesan cheese is caused by Butyric acid, which also strongly contributes to the smell of vomit (don’t click if you’re weak-stomached and want to continue enjoying Parmesan cheese).
Brown marmorated stink bugs smell strongly like cilantro, because the chemicals that cause the smell, trans-2-decenal and trans-2-octenal, you guessed it, are in cilantro. In fact, in parts of Mexico they use stink bugs to flavor salsa:
Allspice and Nutmeg. No idea why these are popular much less drove nations in rickety boats around the world in order to make a fortune. You can get those weird muted flavors by licking the bottom of a shoe.
This is me too.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a genetic component to some of these dislikes. Cilantro, cumin (same plant different parts), anise, fennel, and caraway are all closely related, in the Umbellifer family. Along with parsley and chervil.
I personally love all of them especially anise. Much labeled ‘licorice’ is actually anise.
The thing I really can’t abide is bananas. The smell makes me gag.
Cucumber (not a spice obviously, but a flavour) started tasting like musty old books a few years back (I thought it was a covid thing, but now pretty sure I never caught covid until just recently over Christmas).
Not sure there’s really anything else I absolutely can’t stand, but one thing I often find is too much, is salt. People put a lot of salt on stuff. People expect me to put as much salt in or on my food as they think they would like. I don’t mind salt, and some salty foods (bacon) are superb, but a lot of stuff out there is more salty than I would like.
In some cases, salt is just added to notionally compensate for a shortfall in natural (non-salt-based) flavour - for example in cheese - mature cheese is delicious, but expensive to make because of the maturing process; a while back, supermarkets experimented with subtly passing off younger cheeses as if they were mature by labelling them for example ‘tasty chedddar’ and placing them amongst the mature cheeses, when all they actually were, was mild cheddar with extra salt.
I can stand basic yellow mustard (French’s or similar) on a hot dog or a turkey sandwich: a very thin spread, thank you. Any other mustard: deli mustard, Dijon mustard… absolutely not. Totally ruins a food if it comes anywhere near it.
Rosemary. I add a sprig of rosemary to stew or when I’m making a stock but if I can taste (or even smell) it in a food? Hell no. One of my coworkers uses it extensively and it reeks. I hate it.
I used to like extremely spicy food: I even grew my own face-melter peppers to dry and then grind into a powder to sprinkle with reckless abandon on pretty much anything that came near my face. But then I got Covid, my taste changed, and now things as benign as basic restaurant salsa is often too hot for me. I’m really hoping that will change over time.
If I can taste salt on or in anything I’m likely not going to eat it. I use salt in cooking, and some dishes like potato chowder are pretty much ruined without it, but salty foods just do not appeal to me. Same with things like pretzels that have salt on them. My MIL puts salt on her damn pizza. Some people put salt on watermelon apparently. WTF???
