I've found some more things I hate. Baked Beans, tinned spaghetti, and most cheeses.

And Oz and Roos, are you saying that you don't smother everything (and perhaps everyone) at a BBQ with tomato sauce? You can't have a BBQ without tomato sauce!

Quote:

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You can't have a BBQ without tomato sauce!

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Now you know why BBQ sauce was invented!

It's just not the same. Tomato sauce goes with anything, even honey and soy marinated chicken steak.

I have to jump on the bandwagon about tomato ketchup. I can't stand the stuff, but I'll eat tomato anything else. Like Roos, my list is long of stuff that I won't eat, yet I'll try most things at least once. Some items that come to mind that I won't touch is: sweet pickles and relish, veal (that's an ethical issue not a taste preference), fried eggs, raisins, cranberry sauce, and anything sweet on meats, such as pineapple. I haven't tried brain or tongue and don't really think I will. And what, exactly, do ya'll mean by offal?

Sorry, ClaraSue. Offal is any animal product that is not meat - by meat, I mean muscle tissue (except heart - it's muscle, but it's offal).

This includes brain, tongue, tripe, pancreas (though often referred with to along with the thymus and in some places testicles as sweetbreads - absolutely no idea why), liver, kidneys, etc. Haggis is the king of offal!

I'm with you on the fried eggs - I can eat my eggs any way but fried!!!

On holiday in Namibia in May I was talked into trying an Oyster. I dont know why I did - I knew I did not like them before I ate one. Yuk! They are so overated.

I dont eat any organ meat and promised myself as long as I did not HAVE to eat them I would not.

I love seafood of any kind. Can't believe Lynnann does not eat seafood and lives in CAPE TOWN! Shame. But I don't eat sushi - have not tried it and dont think I ever will.

No offal for me - ever - and I have a strong aversion to eating any kind of raw meat or seafood.
A few things I have never tried but instinctively know I do not like: cauliflower, brussel sprouts, sauerkraut and broccoli. Actually, I did accidentally have a bite of broccoli once, having been told the deep-fried nugget in my hand was cheese. It was broccoli, and my instinct was 100 percent correct!

Aversion to raw meat can be wise;) For many foods preparation counts for a lot. The same food can be disgusting for one person prepared one way but pleasant another way and it's so much a matter of personal taste. First time I tried an avocado I thought it was truly awful. I didn't realize that fruit was not yet fully ripe. When I later tried ripe avocado with a touch of garlic and lemon I found it delicious. Someone else may find this disgusting. It's so personal. I dislike mango but for someone else it's nectar. Beer is another one.. I've met plenty people who have tried a bitter brand and at an unappealing temperature for them, and decided all beer is nasty. If they'd tried another brand at another temp they may have enjoyed it. Or maybe not! New flavors are often worth at least one try. You never know, you might love it.
Personally I think we should respect the palates of other people and not 'ewww!' their choices though we find them unpleasant for ourselves.

Offal is a collective name for the edible internal organs of an animal - like kidneys, liver, brain, tripe, tongue, and heart.

Edited to add: Oops! Sorry to be redundant. When I got to ClaraSue's post, I thought it was the last one, but it was only the last post on page 1. I didn't realise there were more posts on page 2 which answered the question.

Where to start. As a child I was very finicky about food and although I am much better now there are still lots of things I will not try, and some things which I don't much like.

I did used to eat boiled eggs as a child but refused eggs cooked in any other way then a friend of my mother tricked me into eating a fried egg and I found out that she lied so gave up boiled eggs too. I now cannot bear the smell of any eggs, horrid.

I don't like rice, tried it on a number of occasions, yuck.

Won't try slimy noodles or any other pasta type things, tomato sauce (although I like tomatoes) which means I have never eaten pizza as it has tomato sauce on the base.

Never tried curry, it doesn't appeal, no chilli either. Don't like the look of white sauces so give foods cooked like that a wide berth.

I like most normal meats and fish but won't try tuna, it looks and smells gross.

Won't eat runny cheeses and won't eat most vegetables.

I am sure there are plenty more things I just don't fancy.

I hate the white cheese sauce that lots of people put over cauliflower. I also hate cauliflower.

Brocolli I love though.

I was put off scrambled eggs as a small child because I found a bit of shell in a scrambled egg sandwich. The only time I've eaten them since was at a friends house when I was too polite to refuse.

Contrary to many people here, I will not eat any other soup other than tomato or pumpkin. Tomato will always be my favourite though, warm, with bread and butter is best.

I couldn't eat eggs to be polite to the Queen! I would claim to be allergic to them.

I'll join the group that doesn't eat offal/organ meat.
I do eat tongue which I truly like, and any kind of liverwurst and haggis, which I absolutely love.

I don't like seafood, except for fish of any sort and seaweed.

Apart from the above mentioned (which I tried/tasted and didn't make friends with) I eat anything. Well, maybe not chocolate covered grasshoppers and other 'exotic' stuff like that .

Food wise, I will try anything once. The worse that can happen is I do not care for it and then will not have it again.

If that should ever happen, then at least I can say I tried it, and it did not appeal to me.



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Agnes (JTJ)

I'm in the "eat anything" group, for the most part (as long as it isn't still boasting a pulse, I suppose I should say, I'll try it). Naturally, some stuff that I wouldn't try - or even tried and hated at the time, I've sort of come to tolerate with time. It helps, too, that as you get older you can make stuff according to the way you like it and not the way it's prepared for you by others when you were a kid. In my case, liver is a good example of that. Oh, I loathed that inedible substance when I was little but it was only because my mother made it HER way (aka, a ghastly blend of crap that tasted like too many onions with some rust thrown in, just to increase its "repulsive" quotient ). Liver's not so bad now that I know how to cook it in such a way that I can get it past my nose without throwing up.

I still, though, have this built-in "thing" about eating foods that were once roots. In theory, it just SOUNDS all wrong eating roots. If I don't think about these things as having once been underground and acrawl with worms and mud, I can manage most of them, though. Except carrots, of course. Those ungodly things could have just stayed underground and remained untasted/undiscovered 'til Doomsday, as far as I'm concerned...

Just the thought of mayonnaise makes me want to scream and run and never eat again. If there is only a small amount and I can't see it, I can choke it down, but otherwise..bleh! And though I am a native of Maine, I can't stand fish, including lobster. I like to go to seafood places on the coast for the ambience, though. I just have whatever non-fish meal is offered and a beer.

I hate olives, and olive oil, and hoi sin sauce is just noxious, I tried it once and could taste it for DAYS!
Other than that I can't think of anything I can't bear to eat. Some stuff I don't like as much but I'll eat it if I must.
I am a tomato snob - for ketchup and soup it MUST be Heinz, other than that brands and things don't worry me.
I wonder if the people who hate ketchup have only ever tried inferior brands? Heinz is different lol.

Oh yes, heinz is the only one. Everything else just tastes...wrong.

I don't like most sauces, it is the texture, for the same reason I also don't like 'thick' soups so only have consomme.

As for offal, you wouldn't get me touching tripe, brains and heart. Liver is fine in pates but not on its own but I could manage a bit for the sake of good manners. Kidneys are lovely with steak, as in steak and kidney pie - drools.

I use heart in stews, it's by far the cheapest to put a decent amount of meat in the pan, and with seven of us that has to be a consideration. I just tell the family it's "beef" and they eat it up lol.

You have a point, Rowena. Price comes into consideration when you have a large family to feed - you just can't afford to be fussy.

As a child, who came from a pretty poor family, we ate rabbit stew (that my grand-dad caught for us) as well as having liver and kidneys from beasts slaughtered in a neighbour's yard. Now that my budget isn't as restricted, I don't have to eat this kind of meat.

When I was a single mum, trying to work and put a roof over my son's head, clothes on his back and food in his belly (it would be so much cheaper if kids didn't need to eat 3 times per day, more during growth spurts), I became a vegetarian so that I could afford to feed him everything he needed in order to grow and thrive. I haunted the supermarkets on days when I knew they discounted their meat, and it was great to feed my son a $10 piece of steak that I had bought for $2. We ate vegetarian tacos with protein supplements (that was enjoyable for both of us) and he still loves vegetarian lasagne. It taught us both an appreciation of seasonal fruits, and we both look forward to the times of year when our favourites are in season - they taste better then, anyway.

Funny thing is, now, I prefer not to eat meat. I guess it was borne of necessity, but I don't really enjoy eating meat any more.

I still think people should try whatever food is available - you might get a pleasant surprise, and if you don't like it, at least you can make an honest statement.

Looks like a lot of us are put-off by the same foods, doesn't it?

I have to join the anti-offal brigade (excepting a good liver paté and haggis which I absolutely love), but the worst of all foods has got to be porridge. I had a parent who was convinced that porridge was the only food which would 'line my stomach' and keep me going in school, regardless of the fact that said porridge more often than not ended up down the bowl of the loo.

I also am not a fan of seafood, and find shellfish totally inedible. Crab has got to be the worst I have tasted, but oysters might win that round should I ever manage to down one. I can't get past the slimy texture they present *shudder*.

I think I could add lentils to the list of detested food, to the despair of my husband who has tried on many occasions to endear them to me. A particularly nasty bout of gastro-enteritis after consuming his last offerings (probably not even because of the darned things, but hey the association remains stuck fast), even the idea of lentils has my stomach churning.

Meat from the pig, in general, is not a favourite of mine - overcooked and dry pork chops being the worst, but I can eat a little if I have to.

Milk is vile.

I disagree totally with the anti-tomato brigade, however, and love the things. As a child I hated the wet mush they made in a sandwich, but nowadays that doesn't bother me so much.

As for non run-of-the-mill foods, I've tasted snails (tough and not worth the effort), snake flesh (not too unlike chicken), and frogs legs (too greasy and too much effort to be bothered about). Water chestnuts, apart from being crunchy, add nothing to a meal, but chick-peas are wonderful. Lychees are a fruit best left alone as they are totally bland, and any of the more 'musty' exotic fruits are not really to my taste. I think any of the 'insecty' foods you see on TV documentaries (think tribes in Africa) would just gross me out.

Apart from that I eat most everything, and will at least taste everything once to see how I find it

I guess none of us can be contestants on 'Fear Factor' or 'Survivor'