Only when one is mistaken for the other!
Count me in on this, too. Overpowers every single other ingredient in the dish and leaves me utterly unable to taste anything else. And no, picking them out does not help, no matter how much people seem to pretend otherwise. Terrible flavor, too.
-Add me to the beets hate list, too. Looks gorgeous, tastes like shit.
-Any kind of vinegary sweet and sour sauce, or sweet vinaigrette salad dressing. The smell of vinegar makes me want to hurl, but I can tolerate it in salty foods, because it tends to blend quite well. Vinegar stink + sweetness = food from hell.
-Raisins. Why the hell would you ruin a perfectly good dessert with these shriveled abominations? I actually like most dried fruit (I’ll even eat prunes), but raisins are always awful. And whenever I bite into a cookie thinking it’s chocolate chip and find instead that it’s oatmeal raisin, I always feel betrayed. Cookies have no goddamned right to be gross!
-Coleslaw. Again with the awful dressing, paired with a mediocre vegetable. Eating this stuff, I can understand–you have to keep from starving somehow. Actually liking it? Come on, now. Some of you have to be lying.
-Italian sausage. Again, terrible taste. And I don’t know what kind of seed is typically in it (fennel, I think?) but biting into one is always a nasty shock.
Mustard, of any type. When I get even a small amount on my tongue my throat closes up like it thinks I’m trying to ingest poison. A lot of the foods listed here I don’t really like either, but I get how someone could – pickles, for example. I can see liking that vinegary-ness. I don’t get mustard.
And yeah, durian is like trying to force yourself to eat something which is rotting.
Beer.
It tastes nasty.
No, I won’t. I’ve had them any number of ways that people swear will make me love the foul fucking things, and no matter how they’re cooked, they always, ALWAYS taste the way really noxious farts smell. Always. I can gag 'em down to be polite, but only if me not eating any is really going to hurt your feelings.
No sprouts, no cooked cabbage, no nasty-ass cilantro, no avocado, no mushrooms, no raw tomatoes, no asparagus. And no anise.
Oh, this thread is making me hungry. There’s not much I dislike. Organ meats don’t do it for me, and overcooked/mushy vegetables; otherwise, I like most things.
Olives…mmmmm! Health food store has an olive selection–maybe 25 or 30 different vats of olives, with written descriptions–heaven! I could spend all day there.
That’s alright, papergirl. Come the Zombie Apocalypse, when all there is to eat is what’s in the stores, you and I will feast like royalty while all the rest of these picky eaters become zombie-chow because they’re too weak to run because they won’t eat good food. 
So true,silenus. I hope they have a good olive selection. And blue cheese and feta too. mmmMMMMM.
I forgot I’m not fond of tofu. I guess it’s okay–hard to find anything so bland to be actively offensive–but it tastes like…I don’t know, maybe water-flavored jello, without the cool jello texture. My dogs adore it, though.
Agreed! Pickles are abominable. As are olives and the taste of olive oil. Contrary to popular opinion, the taste of tofu is so strong and unpleasant it comes through whatever spicing is given to disguise it.
On the other hand, I’ve loved cilantro since the first time I tasted it, in the Mt. Everest restaurant (now defunct) on Monroe Street in Madison. It tasted like the Breath Of Life to me, mystical and wonderful.
Non-fans of spicy foods – I am one of them, though I really lurve me some black pepper – should take a look at poblano peppers. They clock in a 2000 scoville units as opposed to jalapenos at 5000 scoville units. Those 2000 scoville units create a very mild burn, but not enough to wipe out the flavor of the peppers and the other spices. I won’t touch food with jalapeno in it, but poblanos are Da Bomb!
Coffee and beer. Gross!
In the hands of a good cook, tofu can be delicious. The key is to cook it in a broth or spiced oil. That way it picks up flavor, because by itself it’s kinda…bland, as you well know. Our local Thai place puts it in a fried rice dish that registers on the Scoville scale in 6 significant figures, and it’s wonderful!
Amen! Beet are fucked up, man!
Ok, someone please tell me-what exactly is durian? I’ve heard it mentioned several times in this thread and I’ve never heard of it before.
Durian is a fruit from south east Asia.
It has a very distinctive smell- so much so that a number of hotels don’t allow guests to open one in the rooms.
They are available in supermarkets here.
-Raw celery: once cooked, it’s delicious. And I love the flavor of celery seed in cooking as well.
-Cucumbers: thinly sliced on sandwiches is OK, I love pickles, and those vinegary Asian-y cucumber salads. But keep them off my green salads and every other application. My mom and roommate love just eating them raw and unadorned.
-Most seafood, like mussels, oysters, clams, crab, crawfish…: well, scallops are delicious. and I enjoy fish and shrimp. I just can’t get over the funk of the first 3, and crab/crawfish/lobster don’t do anything for me. I can tolerate lobster.
-Cake: I just don’t care for the texture. Even when moist, I feel like I’m eating an airy, sweetened bread. Ice cream makes it tolerable.
-Most herbal “tea”: everything mentioned above. Some of them that mix tea and other things are OK (I really love Teavana’s “To Life” tea), but peppermint/chamomile/jasmine are my worst offenders.
-Jell-O: normally I love artificial flavors and colors, but this just turns me off. I used to have all sorts of Jell-O cookbooks as a kid, and several different shaped molds (anyone remember those eggs that you filled through the hole in the top?), and would make layered molds and salads and everything. Didn’t eat any of it though. Just enjoyed the kitchen magic.
Fried chicken (on the bone): just can’t do it anymore. Every single Saturday growing up, we had a routine. Garage sales, grocery shopping, fried chicken. Have never bought or made it as an adult.
Now that I look at this, I feel like a picky eater, but I promise I’m super easy to please!
Are the supermarket varieties tamer? I picked one up at the Asian market here, and it seemed… bland. There was a vague sweetness, a vague smell, but nothing exciting or repulsive.
Count me in as yet another Doper who hates cilantro.
I also hate cottage cheese and pears. With the latter it’s not the flavor, but the texture, that nasty gritty texture.
Canned sardines vary pretty widely from manufacturer to manufacturer, IMO. However, you have to like oily fish to consider them.
I have never had this happen, and I have eaten a ton of beets in a sitting before. Must be immune to this effect.
I like to also add either garlic, balsalmic vinegar or bacon-- sometimes all three-- before I roast them. This is, however, a really subjective thing; if you don’t like cabbage, you more than likely won’t like brussels sprouts.
If you go to the right places, you can find an option of Italian sausage without fennel.
I dislike cottage cheese and gefilte fish makes me want to throw up (food texture), but I haven’t had either of those offered to me in years.
It smells like someone spilled garbage, it tastes like dishwater even if you put in as much sugar as actual coffee- but I did try some, a few years ago, when I was trying to stay awake for class. That is to say, I’d buy a small cup in the caf, force myself to drink a bit, then throw the rest away and say, “If that’s not enough, too bad for Hebrew class.”
I can’t say I really noticed a difference. Caffeine doesn’t really affect me.
Also: ketchup, yogurt, peanut butter