One of the nice things about being a grown up is that I don’t have to choke down food I don’t like just to be polite.
I think the last thing I did eat, not just to be polite, but also because it was a special occasion was turkey. I don’t eat bird meat because it squicks me out, but for Christmas one year with my vegan best friend and her non-vegan mom, who is like a mother to me, I helped prepare and then ate some of the turkey.
That’s an honest response but it can backfire. I was advised by a chef to never say, “I don’t care for <whatever>,” because it will then become their life’s mission to get you to eat it. Instead say, “Awww. I love <whatever> but I’m allergic.” Then they’ll feel sorry for you but leave you alone.
An alternative is not to claim an allergy (this can backfire too), but mention as delicately as befits your company that it gives you ahem digestive troubles. You’ll hear no more about it! 
Bacon is all right, because it’s thin and fried to a crisp. It doesn’t have that thick layer of wobbly gelatinous squooshy godawful uncrisped fat oh god I’m gonna puke…
I will eat other cuts of meat with a fair amount of fat if I must, but I will dissect away every scrap of visible fat with the precision of a brain surgeon as I do
There was a passage in one of the ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ books where the farmers wife presented the ‘vitnery’ with a big chunk of bacon. It must be an English thing, I assume it was boiled bacon? but it looked raw and white and quivery. That brave man ate it because there was a jar of piccalilly relish on the table.
I used to love reading those books. James Herriot was a braver man than I in a whole lot of ways.
I recently had dinner at a beloved colleague’s home. She apparently spent hours and hours making the perfect borscht (aka, cold liquid beet slime) and I couldn’t keep even a spoonful down.
Luckily, she is good-humored and understood when I told her that beets are #2 on my list of food hates (#1 is tunafish).
I have a friend whose life mission is to make me like wine. “Here, I brought you a lovely, expensive bottle of Merlot de Toenail; just give it a chance, I know you’ll LOVE wine once you find the right kind!”
Dude, as I’ve said a zillion times: it all tastes like really shitty spoiled Kool Aid, and I’ll *never *change my mind. I hate how any wine tastes + I get a terrible hangover if I down even just a cup. Stop it!
See, to me that is just bad planning. I mean, have many people outside of Russia or with Russian ancestry ever tasted and / or like borscht?
As a kid I grew up in a largely Jewish neighborhood and I had borscht many, many times when dining at a friend’s house. It’s delicious.
That backfires, too, because then you get the “oh, one tiny little bite won’t kill you” routine. There’s no good solution, unfortunately.
Especially annoying are the ones who will try to sneak your hated food into a dish in an attempt to prove something. In one former friend’s case, she proved that I won’t hesitate to spray a mouthful of noodles all over the whole kitchen table and anyone in the way if you trick me into trying lobster mac and cheese.
“(aka, cold liquid beet slime)”
Cold? I mean, there’s cold beet soups, but borscht is almost always served hot. Maybe you’re thinking of Lithuanian saltibarsciai or Polish chłodnik, or I’m sure there must be a Russian equivalent, too. I’m Polish, and grew up with the clear, hot type of barszcz, as opposed to my Ukrainian friends, who had a heartier stew-type of thing. Neither are cold nor slimy.
My friend is of Jewish heritage and she called it “summer borscht.” And I guarantee it was cold, red, and slimey 
Looking online, that is the same as the soups I mentioned. Never knew the English name for it, but generic borscht is hot.
Off-topic; but in my home country, the UK, Chips Ahoy is AFAIK unknown – I’ve never encountered it. However, the delightfully daft name appeals to me !
I’m a versatile eater in general, and I usually have no problem politely declining the few things I care to eat … but sometimes I get into a situation of my own making and then have to suck it up.
A few months ago, I attended a party at a friend’s house, and one of her elderly aunts came in with a tray, announcing she had made her special cookies. I love her special cookies, I have had them before! So I bounded over, saying how lovely it is to see her, and how much I have always enjoyed her special cookies, they are one of my favorites! So I take an enormous cookie.
However, it was not what I was expecting, so I think I was confusing her with a different elderly aunt. This cookie was all white chocolate and coconut, two things I strongly dislike and the coconut has that extra element of a really specific texture that I find unappealing. But I had JUST TOLD THIS ELDERLY LADY how her cookies were my favorite, and she was beaming and saying how nice it was that after all these years I remembered her cookies, and that baking is harder for her now that she is elderly and she almost decided not to make these cookies but seeing my reaction, she is so glad she did … at that point, dear reader, I felt I could not turn back. I ate the one cookie and then claimed to be very full and took more home for later (they were given to someone who did enjoy them).
Nicely done!
I ate sea urchin roe (again) a few weeks ago at a neighbourhood restaraunt only because the chef asked us beforehand if there was anything we don’t like to eat, and like suckers we said no.
I don’t like that question from a chef. What am I supposed to do - list everything I don’t like to eat - shoe leather, horse hair, rotten eggs, etc. etc. Much easier if he just says - this first dish is sea urchin roe. Anyway, I felt obliged to swallow it down - it was nasty, as usual.
I LOVE Zumma Borscht, but it has no beets and is DELICIOUS. If you have the chance to have that, definitely jump all over it.
I totally identified with this post. I was enjoying nachos when I read it and visualized eating every nasty sparrow’s nest I’ve ever come across complete with dirty plastic strings, bird shit and dead baby birds(both slimy rotting and dry mummified variety). The nachos didn’t taste quite as good after that.
Portabella and steak skewers sound awesome and I will try pears with bleu cheese at the next availible opportunity.