# What do your friends and relatives eat that you find to be just plain nasty? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [July 14, 2022, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-your-friends-and-relatives-eat-that-you-find-to-be-just-plain-nasty/967972 "2022-07-14T22:03:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-your-friends-and-relatives-eat-that-you-find-to-be-just-plain-nasty/967972/81 "2022-07-15T19:23:30Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > Beer has been mentioned a couple times. I like beer occasionally - pretty much any variety OTHER than IPA. The IPA craze has a lot of local brew pubs offering at least half of their drinks as IPA, with all varying levels of bitterness. Blech! Same with sours. Ehech! I’m a teetotaler, but I have tried beer, and just didn’t like the taste. No idea what people in university found so attractive about it. I was in Bruges in 2010, and as it was Belgium, the town was trumpeting that there were 500 different brands of beer available there. They were also having a mussels festival at the time. I found Belgium pretty unpalatable. ---
**Author:** ![Esprise\_Me](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprise_me/32/2947_2.png) [@Esprise\_Me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprise_Me)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-your-friends-and-relatives-eat-that-you-find-to-be-just-plain-nasty/967972/82 "2022-07-15T19:33:56Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Incidentally, the idea that cilantro-haters are condemned by their genetics has a shaky basis. Study evidence is limited (one that gets cited all the time has to do with an _olfactory_-associated gene, not one having to do with taste) and disdain for the herb may commonly be associated with simple preference, not that there’s anything wrong with that. The cilantro thing has always fascinated me. Not liking it, sure, whatever, to each his own. But so many people saying it tastes like soap to them, that blows my mind. I cannot fathom the connection between the flavor I perceive and the taste of soap. People who say cheese smells like feet or seafood tastes like rotting seaweed or hot peppers taste like the searing humiliation of being publicly dumped by your first love, I can see that, even though I still like all those foods. But cilantro soap? That’s as trippy as if you told me the color I perceive as red looks blue to some people. What even is reality? ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-your-friends-and-relatives-eat-that-you-find-to-be-just-plain-nasty/967972/83 "2022-07-15T19:51:56Z")
I’ve never liked peas. Think grass clipping with shredded dandelions\*, and that’s what they taste like to me. \*It’s a story, not particularly interesting, short form is never let a “survival expert” make your salad. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-your-friends-and-relatives-eat-that-you-find-to-be-just-plain-nasty/967972/84 "2022-07-15T20:16:02Z")
Ranch dressing. People slather it on everything. Revolting. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-your-friends-and-relatives-eat-that-you-find-to-be-just-plain-nasty/967972/85 "2022-07-15T20:25:26Z")
> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > > [@DCnDC](#): > > > > When I was a kid I had a friend who liked to eat fruit-at-the-bottom yogurt without mixing it up. He’d just rip it open and start eating it. > > I cannot abide fruit-at-the-bottom yogurt. The yogurt is usually poor quality and the fruit stuff is gross. I mostly eat yogurt, and add my own sweetener if desired. But if I’m buying flavored yogurt, i strongly prefer the stuff that hasn’t been mixed up. And i only eat about half or a third of the overly sweet fruity stuff the yogurt comes with. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-your-friends-and-relatives-eat-that-you-find-to-be-just-plain-nasty/967972/86 "2022-07-15T20:43:02Z")
I’m amazed at some of the items that have been mentioned, as they include some of my favourite treats and condiments – the taste of cilantro, ketchup, coffee, mustard, [good] mayo, [grilled] bell peppers, shrimp, sushi, Jello, sour pickles, fresh tomato, relish, peanuts [salted peanuts are good, salted cashews are heavenly]. It’s impossible to make a good burger without at least three of those ingredients: ketchup, a slice or two of sour pickle, and a couple of thin slices of fresh tomato (plus sliced white onion). But then, some of you don’t like burgers! Go figure. It’s not that I’ll eat anything – I refuse to even consider eating any animal that IMHO is not meant to be eaten, and any kind of insect is right out. And due to their resemblance to huge seagoing insects, not a big fan of lobster, and crab even less. Would never touch crayfish (also charmingly known as mud bugs) nor the horrible little things that are considered gourmet delicacies, langostinos (pictured below). [![](https://www.seapedia.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ab01205aafe8da1d.jpeg) ](https://www.seapedia.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ab01205aafe8da1d.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-your-friends-and-relatives-eat-that-you-find-to-be-just-plain-nasty/967972/87 "2022-07-15T20:49:39Z")
The thing in your picture has exactly two advantages as food. 1) Primitive proto-humanoids could run faster than they do and 2) they’re not able to fight back. Primitive proto-humanoids thereby got to actually eat some animal flesh and discovered the advantages of such concentrated calories. Shame about the appearance. Now, umpteen hundreds of thousands of years later, we’ve all got the genes that consider them tasty. I sure do. Not sure what went wrong in your ancestry. 😉 But yeah, we had to move up to the point of mastering the “club” before we could enjoy the taste of the more armored and more defensively-equipped crabs and lobsters. That was the work of a good 100K years right there. We used to be very, very slow learners. And sort of like the Stegosauruses’ legendary Thagomizer, a lot of 9-fingered hominids resulted from early encounters with the thumbomizer. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-your-friends-and-relatives-eat-that-you-find-to-be-just-plain-nasty/967972/88 "2022-07-15T20:55:17Z")
I don’t eat sweets and never cared much for couscous. But I love a lot of the stuff mentioned in the thread, especially all of the vegetables. > [@Esprise\_Me](#): > > But so many people saying it tastes like soap to them, that blows my mind. I cannot fathom the connection between the flavor I perceive and the taste of soap. Cilantro tastes soapy to me but I don’t remember ever not loving the stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Ziberian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/919ad9/32.png) [@Ziberian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ziberian)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-your-friends-and-relatives-eat-that-you-find-to-be-just-plain-nasty/967972/89 "2022-07-15T21:00:44Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > > [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > > > Jello. In all its forms. > > To be clear: > Jello pudding = fine and dandy > Jello cheesecake = OK in a pinch > Jello gelatin = snot-ball > > My mother makes some Jello dish with lime Jello, cream cheese, chopped pecans and God knows what else and just thinking about it makes me want to… EXCUSE ME! 🤢 🤮 And I would extend this to jelly beans and gummy bears. Gross, slimy, gelid snot-chunks. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-your-friends-and-relatives-eat-that-you-find-to-be-just-plain-nasty/967972/90 "2022-07-15T21:02:50Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Now, umpteen hundreds of thousands of years later, we’ve all got the genes that consider them tasty. I sure do. Not sure what went wrong in your ancestry. 😉 My ancestry has equipped me to be repulsed by anything insectoid in appearance that is presented as food. It’s an important survival trait! 😀 Otherwise you end up eating stuff like chocolate-coated grasshoppers (yes, it’s a thing). I have never had langostino TBH, and have no plans to. I admit that I have, in fact, enjoyed lobster, but the appearance puts me off so the circumstances have to be just right. One of those circumstances was being out at a rural Massachusetts lobster restaurant some years ago, the sort of place where they first bring you lots of beer to soften you up for the occasion, then when you have duly taken leave of your senses and good judgment is thrown to the winds, they put a bib on you and bring out tubs of melted butter and those giant red insectoid specimens of sea life. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-your-friends-and-relatives-eat-that-you-find-to-be-just-plain-nasty/967972/91 "2022-07-15T21:13:27Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > those giant red insectoid specimens of sea life Actually, I think they’re arachnoids. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-your-friends-and-relatives-eat-that-you-find-to-be-just-plain-nasty/967972/92 "2022-07-15T21:15:08Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > My ancestry has equipped me to be repulsed by anything insectoid in appearance that is presented as food. It’s an important survival trait! 😀 Yeah. I admit I much prefer my leggy seafood of all species disassembled by the chef, not by the diner. I’ve shelled one hell of a lot of headless shrimp in person, but I find the larger more complete critters to be more work, and more supressed disgust, than they’re quite worth. OTOH, if the kitchen worker is happy to shell it and pour enough cream sauce or butter over the remaining edible parts, I’m all in!! They are yummy, despite the appearance. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-your-friends-and-relatives-eat-that-you-find-to-be-just-plain-nasty/967972/93 "2022-07-15T21:15:26Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > > [@wolfpup](#): > > > > those giant red insectoid specimens of sea life > > Actually, I think they’re arachnoids. That’s even worse! ---
**Author:** ![Ziberian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/919ad9/32.png) [@Ziberian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ziberian)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-your-friends-and-relatives-eat-that-you-find-to-be-just-plain-nasty/967972/94 "2022-07-15T21:16:26Z")
Beer. Tea. Not food exactly, but Listerine & Halls Cough Drops are ingested orally so I figure they qualify – just the smell makes me retch. I know several people who consider squirrel brains a delicacy, but to me they taste like you would expect brains to taste & it’s not good. (They can also carry a prion disease so shouldn’t be eaten for that reason). Same for frog legs. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-your-friends-and-relatives-eat-that-you-find-to-be-just-plain-nasty/967972/95 "2022-07-15T21:29:16Z")
Holiday fruitcake. Something about that “fruit” is just too much and it really doesn’t gel (🤣) with the caky part. But, man, do the winos at liquor stores love it! ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-your-friends-and-relatives-eat-that-you-find-to-be-just-plain-nasty/967972/96 "2022-07-15T21:32:29Z")
I’ve had frogs’ legs—my last girlfriend would order them on our annual trip to a Chinese restaurant on Valentine’s Day. They don’t taste _bad_, just weird—like a cross between chicken and fish. I actually found the other dish she’d order to be really sickening—chunks of tofu swimming in hot red chili oil. Ew! 😖 100 years ago, my Austro-Hungarian immigrant grandparents raised chickens in their backyard in Milwaukee. My dad told me of how grandpa would sauté chicken heads and then crack them open and suck the brains out. Not all that weird, I guess—my mother’s family raised rabbits in their backyard in rural Missouri. It was years before she realized she was eating Peter Cottontail instead of Foghorn Leghorn. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-your-friends-and-relatives-eat-that-you-find-to-be-just-plain-nasty/967972/97 "2022-07-15T21:42:43Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > > [@terentii](#): > > > > > [@wolfpup](#): > > > > > > those giant red insectoid specimens of sea life > > > > Actually, I think they’re arachnoids. > > That’s even worse! [https://apnews.com/article/4b9ea25cb32639e9de4dbd564b75e22c](https://apnews.com/article/4b9ea25cb32639e9de4dbd564b75e22c) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-your-friends-and-relatives-eat-that-you-find-to-be-just-plain-nasty/967972/98 "2022-07-15T21:48:07Z")
Then there was the discussion here a bit ago about scorpions vs IIRC lobsters. Turns out that lobster claws are modified legs, whereas scorpion claws are modified mouth parts. So they have different appendage counts even though they really don’t. Yaay biology! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@salinqmind1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind1)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-your-friends-and-relatives-eat-that-you-find-to-be-just-plain-nasty/967972/99 "2022-07-15T21:51:08Z")
Everything y’all hate, I like 😢…I do not like remnants of my miserable childhood: spaghettios and that ilk, white bread, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Most commercially baked cookies. …Now? I pretty much like everything, I think, except burgerfries. I HATE hamburger, I am bored to death with french fries. Pouring on melted yellow cheese and bacon bitz doesn’t help. I despise ranch dressing and hot hot hot foods/junk foods. Applebees is low on my list of fine dinin’. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-your-friends-and-relatives-eat-that-you-find-to-be-just-plain-nasty/967972/100 "2022-07-15T21:53:17Z")
Coffee and tea, hot or cold. I don’t even like the smell of coffee brewing. I find it kind of nauseating. Also watermelon or cantaloupe. I could choke it down to stay alive. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-your-friends-and-relatives-eat-that-you-find-to-be-just-plain-nasty/967972.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-your-friends-and-relatives-eat-that-you-find-to-be-just-plain-nasty/967972.md?page=6)