What common foods haven't you eaten?

In My Humble Opinion
21

Well, I’m going to focus strictly on the ‘common’ aspect here, 'cause there are a lot of weirder foods I’ve never eaten.

Until I got to college, I had never eaten:

Sugared breakfast cereals
Twinkies et al
Those weird semi-cheeses (cheese food products, I think they’re called)
Spam
Kool-Aid
Cup o’ Noodles
Circus Peanuts
Funnel cake
McDonald’s (Burger King, et al) hamburgers
Cheetos, Fritos, etc.
Cocktail weiners, or whatever it is you call those canned little hotdog-like things
etc.

I think you get the general idea. After my college friends discovered the lack, they tried to get me a little more in tune with American Food Culture. I ate:

Sugared breakfast cereals - not bad at all. At least, some of ‘em weren’t. Corn Pops and Honey Smacks (or whatever they’re called) were pretty awful, though.
Semi-cheeses - never, never again. They taste exactly like what you’d imagine cheese vomit would taste like.
Kool-Aid - bleh. If I want to drink overly sweet and weird-colored water, I’ll just dump a whole bunch of table sugar in, add some food colorings, and cut out the middle man, thanks.
Cup o’ Noodles - well, it was college. Need I say more?
Cheetos, Fritos, etc. - I ate 'em. Won’t be going out of my way to eat 'em again.

Twinkies, Spam, McDonald’s hamburgers, and other assorted scary food items will continue to be forever untasted by me, since they aren’t vegetarian. (Note to omnivores: talk about your compelling reasons to be vegetarian.) Circus Peanuts will remain forever untasted by me because a) they aren’t vegetarian and b) even if they were, I’d still rather throw up unaided. The smell alone is bad enough.

I still wonder about funnel cake, though.

Oh, and zev_steinhardt reminds me of one staple much touted by my more orthodox family members that I refuse to eat, both on general and specific grounds: tongue. Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew. Can’t say it often enough. My aversion to this, as well as to other organs, goes well beyond general vegetarianism; I could be entirely carnivorous and I’d still refuse this stuff.

22

No. No, you’re not missing out on anything. Brussel sprouts and lima beans are merely to torment the young.

I’ve never had tongue. Let’s keep it that way.
I’ve never had lobster either.
The only way I’d eat “chitlins” is if they were prepared by a really Southern, ample woman named “Ruby”.

But Circus Peanuts… mmmmmm… Circus Peanuts…
-Rue.

23

Your contributions reminded me of other things I never ate:

Philster - clams and oysters (they just look too slimy to eat)
Kayeby - Beetroot? Is this what we call ‘beets’ - the gross red things in a can that supposedly taste like dirt? My mom eats them.
SoMoMom - Minced meat. That’s just wrong.
heembo - Is this Jellyfish Salad, or Jelly Fish Salad? Either way, sounds gross, although I’ve heard that properly cooked jellyfish is crunchy. Never mind, still gross.
zev_steinhardt - tongue (no comment) [mental edit] remove the phrase ‘it speaks for itself’ from comment [/mental edit]
Jet Jaguar - corndog: as bad for you as it smells!
elfkin477 - lobster. As you point out, too cruel to prepare.
Booker57 - Mutton or lamb, shark, sushi, and what is scrapple?
Tequila Mockingbird - never had any of the gross stuff you mention! Anything with ‘blood’ in the name of it should definitely not go in your mouth. And I was reminded of the fact that my grammother used to make scrambled brains and eggs for breakfast when we’d go for a visit. My mom always protected me, but my dad (gramma’s son) had to eat it anyway. I’ve heard the brains come whole in cans or jars. :eek:
Corvus - Marmite? must be some furriner-type vittles. You keep that stuff to yourself.
deepbluesea - coctail weiners, known round these parts as Vienna (VI-inna) sausages. I’d never even seen them until I went to college, and I certainly wasn’t going to put one in my mouth! That’s just tiny hotdogs in muck sauce!

I also don’t eat eggs in any of their wondrous forms, except disguised as a cake. Even brownies taste to eggy for me, and I won’t touch them. From earliest babyhood, I seem to have had an all-too-clear understanding of what eggs were and where they came from, and I never would touch them. This continues to cause much consternation at family gatherings involving breakfast, where egg is the mainstay.
I also avoid milk when I can, and I only eat fish when I am sick and have a fever.
And I’ve never had haggis.

All that reminds me of some stuff I wouldn’t eat until I was a grownup but now enjoy:
[ul]fried okra (it’s the south here, remember?),
sweet potatoes in any form, olives - both black and green;
black, red, and purple grapes (much tastier than white); and
escargot (yummy and a pleasing texture)[/ul]

And I have eaten and enjoyed circus peanuts a time or two, but I wouldn’t go out of my way for them.

24

WHAT???
Corn dogs are food of the Gods I tell ya…But only if purchased at a County Fair, fried in oil that hasn’t been changed since the Nixon administration.

I can’t think of anything I haven’t tried since reaching adulthood. Mother had no imagination whilst cooking, so as a kid I never had:

Eggplant
Artichokes
Corned Beef & Cabbage
Smoked Butt
Lamb
Ethnic foods - Thai, Indian, & Southern US

25

Rue, I say this with all due respect (in other words, none):

Yer goin’ straight to hell, boy.

How can you like Circus Peanuts? Do you lack taste buds? Are you suffering from some sort of catastrophic Taste Neuron Atrophy you’ve been hiding from us so you can look brave and inspirational and have a movie made about you featuring whatever the current edition is of Ronald Reagan?

And then you have the TEMERITY to make remarks about Brussels sprouts! (While misspelling the name, no less.) As if we could possibly take your word for anything involving good taste or food items after discovering the truth about you and Circus Peanuts.

You’re on mighty thin ice here, bucky. One more tasteless food remark and I - yes! - will take you to the Pit.

::deepbluesea stomps off in mortally offended rage, looking for small, moderately-priced household items to crush in rage in manner of drunken dork at bar or action movie hero::

::deepbluesea has second thoughts and returns::

Still, props to you for coming out of the closet about your Circus Peanutphilism. I know these things are difficult, Rue, and I just want to say I’d be proud of you if I wasn’t so morally outraged and offended by your disgusting food-related personal habits!

::deepbluesea departs again, in high dudgeon, not to mention severe umbrage.::

26

Although I love it, I always imagined that there were alot of people who refused to eat Jell-O (Trademark), aka flavored gelatine.

Anyone managed to avoid Jell-O their whole lives?

27

I have never eaten a baked / roasted / sauteed artichoke in situ. I have had the canned artichoke hearts / bottoms / noses (just kidding), but have never had the real deal.

I love the canned / jarred variety but am kind of afraid of the real thing. They look dangerous to me with their pine cone design and spikey ends.

I have never eaten Spam.

I have never eaten Deviled Ham (that canned stuff).

I have never eaten a parsnip.

I have never tried wax beans.

I have never tried corned beef hash. It looks and smells just like dog food. Strangely enough, I have tried dog biscuits (gimme a break, I was 5!)

28

:Homer: Mmmmmmm. . .scrapple. :Homer:

zev_steinhardt, you might want to skip over this post. . .

Scrapple is a Pennsylvania Dutch delicacy that is designed to use up all of the pig except the oink. Basically, all the parts of 'ol Porky that aren’t fit to use for hotdogs, Slim Jims, and processed lunchmeat are ground up, cooked with cornmeal and spices and formed into one pound blocks that look like little baby cinderblocks with flecks of black pepper in them.

Preparation is easy; slice, fry, top with ketchup or maple syrup and eat, preferably with eggs, toast, and homefries. Some folks prefer thin slices that get crispy and brown all way through, while others like thick slabs that end up with a thin brown crispy shell and a soft, gray, hot goopy inside. I’m not a scrapple snob; I’ll take it either way and eat it with a smile. It was a Sunday breakfast staple when I was a kid.

Now, for stuff that I ain’t never et yet:

  1. Spray can cheese
  2. Veggie burgers (don’t you people know that the vegetables are supposed to go on top of the damn meat?)
  3. Buffalo (not because I don’t want to, I just haven’t had the opportunity yet)
  4. Tofu dogs and burgers (see #2 supra)
  5. Turkey sausage (yucko)
  6. Turkey baloney, etc. (double yucko)
  7. Mutton

Of course, from looking at me, you couldn’t tell. . . :slight_smile:

Yer pal,

Zappo

29

This sounds an awful lot like what we call “goetta” here in the midwest. I wonder if it might be the same thing?

30
  1. Okra.
  2. Grits.
  3. Opal (hey, Amp, you’re not alone!)
  4. Kale.
  5. Gefilte fish.
  6. Herring.
31

For those who are interested in learning more about goetta and scraple:

http://erazo.org/chefrick/recipes/goetta.htm

scrapple

32

An intelligent woman like you who knows how to cook has no excuse not to try a really fine chicken fried steak. This recipe was savory enough to make Scylla salivate.
[sub](Say that three times fast!)[/sub]

Besides brains, scrapple and maybe mutton, there isn’t a food here I haven’t eaten. I suppose it comes with the territory when you love to cook.

No one mentioned mountain oysters, so there’s one I haven’t tried that isn’t listed yet. However frequently haggis is referenced here at the boards and in Popeye cartoons, it really can’t be considered a common food. So it doesn’t matter that I haven’t tried haggis.

::phew!!!::

Off the hook for that one!

33

I’m generally of the try-anything-once sort, but after a bout of hepatitis in Japan I’m leery of raw oysters. And I could never get past the smell of dried squid, which is Japan’s salty-bar-food-of-choice.

A traumatic childhood experience has kept me off softshell crabs ever since (the texture reminded me of a tarantula, breaded on a bun).

But those aren’t really “normal,” anyway. We’re talkin real 'Murcan food here, as in [Breaking Away]“I want American food! I want french fries!”[/Breaking Away].

Speaking of which, if I can count my rather unusual food allergy (white potatoes), then we can add mashed potatoes, potato chips, french fries, home fries, hash browns…

Even without that, about half the cereal aisle I’ve never had. What is it with Cocoa Puffs, anyway? They look like aerated rabbit turds.

34

I’ve never eaten:

  1. Poached eggs.
  2. Sushi.
  3. Okra.
  4. Lamb or mutton.
  5. Spam.
  6. Venison or other game.
  7. Oysters.
  8. Eggs Benedict.
  9. Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
  10. Caviar.

All right, so it helps that I haven’t (intentionally) eaten meat since I was 12. I’m sure there’s more common foods I haven’t eaten, but since I don’t eat these foods, I don’t think about them much.

And it isn’t really a food, but I’ve never had actual mixed drinks (just brandy or everclear cut with juice). Never had vodka in any form.