Yeah, I’m not going to write it off completely until I have it fresh on the Atlantic coast, but my experience with lobster has been completely underwhelming. I’d rather have shrimp, scallops, or even crab when it comes to shellfish. I have enjoyed the lobster rolls I’ve had, but I haven’t enjoyed paying for them (usu. around $20 for one around here.)
Smoked oysters, and also anchovy fillets. The rolled-up-around- a-caper fillets. On sour cream on crackers, divine!
I was about to protest, but come to think of it, I haven’t had decent lobster in years. I used to love them though, especially when I lived in Boston. I think it’s just inconsistent. Frozen vs fresh, and properly prepared vs. overcooked and rubbery.
The first time I tried salmon roe, at a Japanese restaurant, I had mixed feelings.
On the one hand, it’s caviar.
On the other hand, it’s bait.
Once I screwed up my courage and ate it, it wasn’t bad.
Wouldn’t sour cream overpower it though?
With something sharp tasting, or salty like caviar, the sour cream mellows it out. That’s why sour cream is mixed into sauces, salad dressing and such at the last moment, to make it more palatable. A red hot Indian curry is tamed with the addition of yogurt or sour cream, to cool it down.
My experience is like this: Durian is no worse that a lot of cheeses. After a while, I started to get the reaction to it that a lot of people have to those cheeses. You can smell it in the house. You can smell it in the fridge. You can smell it where it has been. You can smell it when your relatives have bought some and are having a bit of a party and telling you how good it is.
Also, like the Turkish Delight story, to really appreciate Durian, you have to grow up without having Coke and Cake available all the time. It is a sweet smooth fruit. You’ve got no idea how fabulous that is unless you grow up without.
The first time I had Durian, I thought it was interesting, but nothing special. I can understand the special, but I can buy any kind of candy or fruit or custard I want. After a while, and gradually, I also came to understand how horrible it is. It builds on you.
Yeah, I think the durian thing is a bit like raisins. My kids don’t like raisins and they’re in a lot of random baked goods. And I try to explain to them that back in the Before Times raisins were just a way to add some sweetness to stuff. It wasn’t that everyone fucking loved raisins, it’s that it was either raisins or nothing.
I was keen to try Krispy Kreme doughnuts when they first arrived in the UK some years ago. Eeerch, what a disappointment. Revolting, sickeningly sweet. I had one and couldn’t finish it.
Krispy Kreme somehow manages to defy the laws of science; they can cram one Imperial pound of sugar into a 4-ounce donut. If Science! can crack their secret, then anything is possible.
While stationed in Germany many years ago, many of my fellow American servicemembers routinely knocked German-style sweet pastries, saying they were too bland.
I found them absolutely delightful; light, crispy-flaky outside, mildly sweet and buttery bread inside, and whatever filling they used (typically a fruit-jam of some sort) actually tasted like the fruit that it was made of, as opposed to a sugary sludge with fruit-flavoring added in as an afterthought.
For those knocking beer: it’s an acquired taste, one which many younger people haven’t acquired. The hops give it a tart, even bitter, flavor that the sweet-sensitized palettes of youngsters don’t take to; I was well into my 30s before I had acquired a taste for beer, and even then, it was for bocks, double-bocks, stouts, and porters. Lagers are ok, but I.P.A.s are right out; still don’t care for ‘em.
Having some hops in your beer for a mild, pleasantly tart flavor and a crisp mouth feel is all fine and good; brewing a beer that has each glass tasting like an entire bushel of hops were somehow crammed into a single bottle…just…no.
For me, Krispy Kreme doughnuts were indeed food of the gods, IF gotten hot, right off the river of fat/waterfall of glazed sugar assembly line. The worker would remove it from the line with a long stick, and hand it directly to me for immediate consumption. Result: MIND BLOWN.
But: Take a dozen home or to work, eat them there, and it’s meh, just another doughnut.
Exactly 6 seconds in the microwave will bring one back to life but it must be eaten immediately and quickly after removal.
That works for a bit with me, but the more time that passes before microwaving, the less good the result. And it’s never as good as it was right off the assembly line, sadly. 
I like my Krispy Kreme, but I grew up with them and they are the default donuts. I prefer them very fresh as well. Microwaving helps a little to freshen them up, but they aren’t nearly as good as truly fresh and if I haven’t eaten them by the end of day 2, it’s pretty much time to throw them out.
We’ve got a food here called a “potato cake”. Just a slice of potato in batter, fried then refried. It’s good. Fried potato, what’s no to like? But if it’s fresh, fried, cooled, re-fried fresh, that raises it to a whole new level of goodness. Of course, the whole idea of re-fried food is that you cook it first, then refry it latter, but hey…
Two, a pickled onion and $1.50 of chips, thanks.
I have always preferred cake donuts over raised ones so Krispy-Kreme never did it for me. And yes, they offer a cake alternative but it’s obviously an after-thought trying to snag people like me, and not their forte.
Turkish Delight seems not very delightful and not very Turkish.
(⊙_☉)
This would be one of those “it just wasn’t made correctly” examples. Only in this case it’s because the stuff tasted too good. Even the worst, back-country, street-vendor, road-kill taco meat tastes much better than haggis.
For me, egg drop soup. I’d been making a version of this for years, and it was one of my favorite things. Rich broth with lots of herbs floating around and flavoring the dollops of lightly scrambled egg, what’s not to like?
Then I went to a very well-regarded Mandarin restaurant and ordered it there; they served me a bowl of warm snot. We’re talking straight unflavored mucous here, with a few strips of neon-yellow rubber substituting for egg. It was absolutely disgusting.
But just note that /Turkish/ delight and “turkish delight” is like comparing swiss chocolate to Hershey’s. You might like one or the other, but we’re talking about different products here.
And it’s only true Turkish delight if you eat it on a moonlit night.