I’ve never been a big seafood eater (except when I was addicted to Filet O’Fishes as a kid, and got tired of them after a break away, but that’s neither here nor there at this point). I ate some sushi and shrimp of various types at the hotel I mention in the linked thread, mostly because I didn’t want to insult the chef/owner. It confirmed what I’d suspected from earlier tastings: I don’t like or enjoy eating it. But I can eat it, in that the flavor doesn’t disgust me and I won’t gag on it.
But then tonight, three other members of my family wanted to eat sushi at a restaurant that, it turned out, had nothing but. I go with it, because I don’t want to be the wet blanket who kees the others from getting what they want. Besides, my sister is kind of contemptuous of my food preferences (she said in my presence how surprised she was that I didn’t just not eat all the fish/sushi). So I went in, forced myself to eat some sushi, and got myself something else afterward.
Now I’m kind of concerned that I’ll be “roped” into going to sushi in the future on the assumption “oh, he’ll eat it.” Plus, I keep getting the sense that it’s unusual/wrong to not like seafood. So I have no idea what to do.
I hate steak. I just can’t eat it. I gag. But every so often, my family or my in-laws want to go to some sort of steak house. Most of them are pretty good about offering other things, but this one they particularly like has only a pork chop (and I don’t eat pork) or a half chicken (and I don’t eat dark meat). But I go along, pick at the white meat and enjoy being with the people I love.
I’m really surprised there was nothing else on the menu. No chicken tempura? No *vegetable *tempura? That sucks (not for me - I love sushi - but I don’t enjoy it when there’s someone forced to eat it who doesn’t want it).
Leaper, I’ve been a galley slave on that boat my whole life. There’s no such thing as a food you “should” like, no moral imperatives regarding cuisine. Sure, it’d be easier for you if you liked it, and it is a healthy option, but if you don’t like it, you don’t like it. There are different ways to deal with these situations, depending on the circumstance. If it’s a casual acquaintance / co-worker I generally find an excuse to decline. To someone a little more familiar I thank them sincerely and tell them I simply don’t do sushi but I’d love a raincheck. If there’s no practical way of getting out of it I try to check out the menu before hand and see if there’s anything I can pick at and then I make sure to eat something at home first. If it’s people I care about or a special occasion I won’t decline the invite but I most definitely will not eat something I don’t like.
It is certainly not all that unusual to not like seafood, much less sushi. My brother-in-law does not like any type of fish, and is no big deal. An occasional family meal has occurred at a seafood restaurant, and BIL just orders the one of the token non-seafood items on the menu. It may not rank as his all time favorite meal, but nobody in the family goes out of their way to make him feel bad about it or choose a seafood restaurant just to make him go there.
I am the opposite, in that I can almost always find something that I will like in a restaurant’s main items. I would never mock anybody for not liking a type of food though.
IIRC they are in Japan, and Japan unlike the US will have places that serve nothing but certain things like those nasty little octopus puffs made 15 different ways, so it would not be unusual for the place to serve only what is sushi and sashimi, Japanese style and not US style.
At best he might be able to get a scattered sushi with egg, pickled daikon, and sweet shrimp.
I should have such problems! I don’t know anyone who will even think about eating sushi and I end up buying it for myself at a grocery store (who has a sushi maker right there making it).
I feel I should like cottage cheese, fruit, granola bars, and diet Coke, all “women’s food”. Nine times out of ten, the first three are blah and disappointing (not always, there are really good versions!). I don’t care for any kind of soda, but when I do get it, it’s diet Coke. Like everyone else at the table.
