Pretty much the same here. I had caviar* a few times and it was OK, but too salty for me. Had foie gras for the first time last week, and again it was OK, but only as a taste or two. I’d much rather have one of a dozen types of cheese. Both were at fairly good restaurants, so I assume I was getting “the good stuff”.
*Tobiko is fine, though. Love the stuff sprinkled on certain Japanese dishes.
That’s the GOOD part. If someone served me kedgeree I might remove the eggs, wipe off any curry powder, and try to make breakfast out of ‘em.
I think the combination of the English being really great at literature and really lousy at cooking is responsible for a lot of disappointment.
Kippers in the USA are not dried they are canned or rather “tinned”. I have an attachment to our kippers on Swedish flatbread dating from my childhood. The idea of combining them with frankly almost anything is disturbing but raisins? God help us.
What? Nooooo. Kedgeree is delicious!! No raisons though, don’t know where you got that from.
“Sultanas,” then. I was translating from English to American.
You haven’t had my jerk chicken I see! 
But heat level varies all over the map depending on where you get it. It is perhaps my favorite preparation of chicken, even if it’s not made really hot spicy, because of all the other flavors going on (especially that allspice.) That said, the most popular commercial brand of paste, Walkerswood, is pretty darned hot. Even the “mild” is something I would call “hot” by American standards.
I definitely agree on dragonfruit. Pretty, but pretty useless flavor-wise, but there’s a number of varieties of them, and I haven’t tried them all. I’ve just had them here and in Mexico and every one I’ve had has been bland and just uninteresting. Not like guanabana which is fantastic, but a bit of a pain in the ass to eat and expensive as hell.
Truffles tasting like nothing is odd to me. They are pungent as all get-out. Even that truffle salt I feel like I could smell it clear across the room when a jar is opened up.
The one that kind of is a let-down to me, even though I still eat it, is Binghamton’s regional spiedies. It’s just chicken or pork (or apparently lamb was the original meat) skewers marinaded in what essentially is Italian dressing. And it’s served (traditionally) on a slice of Italian white bread and not topped with anything. I mean, I do have a certain fondness for it, I guess, but the first time I had them a few years ago, I was like “That’s it?”
No shrivelled fruit items are part of kedgeree.
For a couple of items mentioned here, scallops and avocados, I’m going to suggest that they share a quality of being mild or subtle in flavor. For some people, their tastes and eating habits don’t include mild or subtle flavored foods as part of their regular pallette. So, they would be less inclined to appreciate the things like scallops and avocados.
Similar to me, being on the flip-side I don’t appreciate spicy foods. So, the current trend for spicy everything is lost on me. If I am encourages to try something by an aficionado, or compare this spicy food to that spicy food, I am worthless. All I get is “HOT! HOT!” and miss whatever flavor is there.
I tried avocado once, tasted just like soapy dish water to me.
It’s been 35 years but the disappointment of Turkish Delight still stings. My parents took a trip to the UK and brought back this exotic delicacy. The enormous buildup from the book and difficulty in acquiring made the letdown especially harsh.
Dragon fruit is basically garnish. Pretty and edible but not really meant to be eaten.
Regarding scallops, I really like them myself but no, they don’t have very much flavor on their own. For me it’s more about texture; I like that soft, springy, chewy bite. What flavor there is, to me, is mainly just salt. Actually, that’s pretty much the way I feel about almost all seafood. I love it, but it’s all very subtle, flavor-wise.
In one of my favorite novels, the lead character is a stickler for “properly aged” steaks.
A couple of years ago, two restaurants in my town started advertising aged steaks. One of them even installed their own aging room, and had a big write-up in the newspaper about how much care they took in selecting the best cuts, carefully aging them for X days, etc., etc., etc. For my birthday that year, I asked to be taken out for one of those.
On the first bite, I thought it was just like Mom used to make . . . when she was cleaning out the refrigerator, and trying to get rid of stuff that was in danger of spoiling.
Back to the middle-class family steakhouses for me.
My family didn’t have a lot of money so lobster was something that was held up as the absolute height of luxury. We certainly never had occasion to try it when I was living at home. Years later I was dating this guy who was shocked that I’d never had lobster so he took me out as a special treat and… I didn’t get it. It was fine but nothing remarkable. I actually felt really guilty that I wasn’t more excited by it because he’d clearly gone to a lot of effort and expense!
Eggplant! I know, right? Years ago, my wife and I went to our favorite Italian place, figuring if anyone could get it right for our first try at eggplant, it would be them. And they probably did it perfectly, but we both hated it. Hated it! It was like eating a big, tasteless booger! We apologized to the staff and ordered something else and insisted on paying for the eggplant entrees, but they would have none of that; they comped the eggplant meals and brought us a free dessert. I felt so bad for them; not their fault we ordered something new and unusual. And awful.
And scrapple rules!
On my first trip to Japan, people were telling me how great the sushi is over there, not like what you can get in the USA, it is so much better and some of it has RAW FISH it it.
So I get over there, and I try both the cooked and raw versions… meh, tasted no better than the all-you-can-eat sushi place down the street. And raw fish tastes like… fish.
I admit, this second one might be because I don’t care for beer. But again, on my first trip to Germany, everybody was telling me how great the beer was, and so much better than American beer.
It tasted like beer. Would not drink it again.
The chocolate, on the other hand, was much better than American chocolate.
I had it once. Loved it. Would have it again, but that restaurant closed, and that dish is hard to find.
It’s easy to cook!
My exception in the fish-egg department is bottarga, sprinkled on spaghetti. I like the texture, and it really does taste like the sea!
Hoo, I had the same experience with German beer. The only difference from American beer is German beer is more potent. Taste? It’s the same. I guess getting drunk faster is a selling point for certain people, but not me.
French macarons, a pretty cookie (NOT a macaroon). They sounded very exotic and tasty, made with almond flour, coming in various flavors, and very labor intensive to make. We looked at a Martha Stewart recipe and it seemed very complex, so when they showed up at a shop near us, I bought us some. Four for $7! Pricey! they must be a real treat right? Wrong. … Very disappointing, very bland, just sweet. I liked the texture, but they weren’t all that.