Here I’m talking about some food item you became aware of without actually eating it, as in from novels or movies, and all the mentions made it sound wonderful and you were super eager to try it. And then, possibly years later, you finally got to eat this marvelous thing… and you reaction was something on the spectrum from “ugh!” to “meh.”
As a school child I grew up reading English books and tons of them included loving descriptions of the wonders of tea. Well, not the tea so much, as the glorious items that got served along with it. Whether at Tea Shops or served by livery-clad retainers in Great Houses or just school kids over there salivating over sneaking treats at their schools. Everyone raved over how marvelous it was, and I was consumed with envy.
Fast forward to college days when I came across an announcement that a hotel in the nearby city would now be hosting ‘proper’ English teas on weekends. I headed there the first weekend I could talk my roommate (she had a car, unlike me) into sharing this delight with me.
Verdict: meh.
The magically named fairy cakes are just ordinary cupcakes. Scones are just rather crumbly but sweeter biscuits. Most disappointing of all were the crumpets. Really?? THOSE are what Lord Peter and a million school kids slavered for? :mad:
I apologized to my roomie for dragging her there.
So, how about the rest of you? What untasted food got built up in your mind into ambrosia, only to have the reality leave you crushed?
Another example from BritLit. In the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Edmund sells out his siblings for Turkish Delight. Whoa… it’s from The Mysterious Far East, home of exotic words like Mohammedans and The Byzantine. And it’s clearly a delight…
Forty years later, I’m intrigued by a plate of powdered rectangles of goopy sugar jellies at a party in Seattle. These “Aplets & Cotlets” are too sweet for anyone else, but I think they’re not too bad. A friend sidles up and says “These were invented by Turks who were harvesting apples and apricots in Eastern Washington.” “Okay…” “So you realize, you’re eating Turkish Delight?”
Really? The evil queen of Narnia controlled people by bribing them with ordinary sweets?
Dragon Fruit. I was so excited to taste something so new and different and pretty, red curly skin with a white shiny inside, speckled with cute little seeds.
And it was a big mouthful of nothing. A wet raw potato is the best way to describe the flavor.
I later heard that Dragon Fruit is prized for how it looks laying sliced on a salad. Yeah, style over substance, what else is new? Only with fashion that’s fine. With food, it sucks.
I was a big fan of Agatha Christie. They’d have “house parties” and everyone would come down to breakfast and there’d be an array of “stuff” to eat which I always thought was something special. Kedgeree is pretty ordinary stuff and kippers are horrible little dried up salted fish things. I was very disappointed when I discovered what these things really were. (and for breakfast? urgh, no thanks.)
Yeah, that was an $8 lesson I learned a few years back. It’s beautiful, but utterly flavorless. I compare it to the whitest part of a watermelon rind, with the texture of the sweet red part, but with no sweetness, or any other flavor for that matter, to speak of.
And every time I mention this online I get a bunch of responses to the effect of “You got a bad one!” These people are all completely full of shit. Probably getting paid by “Big Dragon Fruit” to post those comments.
Scallops just never did very much for me. I’m not a huge seafood fan at the best of times but even a perfectly seared scallop is ignorable. Mild flavor, meaningless texture and where I live, HUGELY over priced. Similar to DCnDC’c “bad one” comment, people often tell me that I just have not had one properly prepared and that if I go to their particular favorite restaurant then I’d love them. They often openly, gleefully hate the idea that I think I’m allowed to not adore something that they know is the absolute perfect food. I just don’t get it.
I forget what I was reading exactly, but macaroons and meringues figured prominently. When I got to try them, meh. Nothing special at all.
On the flip side, from watching food shows, I had heard of Scrapple and I thought it looked interesting. I was at a food festival a couple of years ago, and some folks from Delaware were making Scrapple to give out as samples. I got to try it for the first time and was impressed.
I love West Indian brown stewed chicken with rice and peas when I get Island takeout, and have tried several times to make my own…but I never get the rich deep color (or flavor), even if I start the stew by browning sugar in the pan. So I splurged on a $1.50 bottle of Jamaican Choice “BROWNING: Taste of the Islands.”
It’s certainly no magic ingredient. The chicken did brown, way too much (only used a tablespoon or two of the sauce), and didn’t get the deep flavor at all.
I really thought this would be first. C.S. Lewis hoodwinked a lot of us poor impressionable Americans! I’m going back to imagining it as something more akin to Wonka’s Whipple-Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight.
Avocados - I know they’re common, but I had never eaten one until sometime last year. It seems like avocados are everywhere lately. One day my friend and I were walking together and she mentioned she loves sliced avocados on her turkey sandwich. I said - “Really? I’ve never had one”. She told me how delicious they were. The next day she brought me one. I was kind of excited to give it a try. So that evening I made my self a turkey sandwich with VERY thin (I was a little skittish about it) sliced avocado. I took my first bite and it was just tasteless with a kind of mooshy texture. I don’t know what the big to do is about avocados.
I love scrapple! Just on general principal though, it’s easy to make tasty food when you don’t give the slightest XXXX about limiting your fat, salt and carb intake. People who eat scrapple on a regular basis may die at fifty but they die happy.
“Kedgeree” is an unholy mix of smoked fish, rice, curry powder, and raisins…a prime example of British people fucking up a colonial indigenous cuisine. I have never eaten it or wanted to try it. Gawd help us all.
Scones are just rather crumbly but sweeter biscuits. 
Most disappointing of all were the crumpets. Really?? THOSE are what Lord Peter and a million school kids slavered for? :mad: