Other people trying to make you eat things you don't like.

Laurel brought this up on another thread.

My in-laws are the masters of this...

question: is it considered polite to ask your guest if he would like something else besides what everyone else is having?

I DO NOT LIKE LAMB and have had it plopped in front of me in all its disgusting bloody minty glory and was never asked if i'd like something else.

and basically i have out right refused to even try it. i can't fathom eating that shit.

My dad used to do this to me all the time. He seemed unable to understand how someone could possibly not like the things he did. He stopped after I started trying to ply him with 'weird' food discovered on my travels.

chris, gimme the lamb but minus the mint jelly (mint gastrique okay though).

i was also like this with sushi for a long time..of course now i would bathe in it.

Welcome to almost every day of life as a vegetarian. :-/

My post inspired by going to a business dinner a few years ago, at which I was seated at table of other company's CEO/owner, who saw himself as some kind of grossly fat, spittle-prone, benevolent patriarch who ordered several dishes for our table without asking anyone, and then tried to MAKE me eat mushrooms just by ordering me to try them several times in a row.

I was like, you want to make this a battle of wills, you rank amateur? Fuck your mushrooms.

mushrooms are tasty
so is lamb

My mother in-law is what we jokingly refer to as a "food-pusher".

-"Would you like to try (whatever food she thinks is the greatest)"
-"No thanks"
-"oh but it's so delicious! You should try some! "
- "no, thanks. I'm not a big fan of (whatever it is)"
- "you're not? this is really good. It doesn't taste like that other stuff. Try some"
- "I'm okay, really".
- "I'll cut you off a piece just so you can try it. You just have to try some."
-repeat ad nausem until family member snaps at her

is that quite the same thing? i think that's a variant on the other mother thing that works like 'would you like to eat some x?' 'no' 'have you eaten? how about some y' 'no i'm good really' 'oh, there's some z left over, you want some z?' 'honestly, it's fine' 'sure you don't want some x?' (repeat.)

Lol Laurel "Fuck your mushrooms."

Conversely, I have a group of friends who severally will not eat mushrooms, raw tomatoes, cucumbers, raw onions, mushrooms, garlic and fish. It can get a little depressing planning a dinner for them.

and i feel like my in-laws do it on purpose. I DO NOT LIKE CLAMS OR OYSTERS EITHER, do not try to make me eat them. Usually i just drink my dinner. I also get stuck eating Mutton Ribs for Xmas dinner each year over there, those i have had to eat because it would be an insult to my norwegian mother in law.

Conversely, I have a group of friends who severally will not eat mushrooms, raw tomatoes, cucumbers, raw onions, mushrooms, garlic and fish. It can get a little depressing planning a dinner for them.

fussy eaters itt

The man was like a caricature of the New Money strawman, to the nth degree. Uneducated, uncultured, unkempt and sloppily dressed, unbelievably loud, unbelievably ignorant, obnoxious, self-important, frequently patronizing when not obviously sexist, and yet somehow...RICH. I was embarrassed to be around him, and embarrassed FOR him, and wanted nothing more than to leave the dinner. And this cartoon thought he could order me to do ANYTHING?

I don't know why he thought just telling me would have any effect, but I could have sat there saying "No, thank you" in my coldest voice ALL NIGHT LONG.

i think its because my parents were never adventurous in the food department when i was growing up that i never liked a lot of things. I can remember us having the same things week in and week out...and it consisted of pasta, chicken, meatloaf..etc. Never anything out of the norm.

is it bad that my attitude to this is 'unless you are i. vegetarian/vegan ii. allergic then stfu and eat'

i don't mean, like, the guy laurel's talking about. that guy just sounds rude.

i never complain about it in the open, i just won't eat it.

I really hate cake, for the most part, and frosting. Just way too sugary for my tastes. But I've found you can't not eat someone's birthday cake. People see it as tantamount to rejecting the birthday person. So I've mastered the art of choking down a few bites with a big fake smile. No complaints from me! This feels like a good analogy for being an adult. Hopefully that's not totally bleak?

grossly fat, spittle-prone, benevolent patriarch who ordered several dishes for our table

nice adjectives and adjective clause here! wish i could use this on an exam

I think the burden is obv on the eater to be as accommodating as possible ESPESH when someone else has cooked. To refuse carefully prepared food when everyone is eating the same dishes marks you as some kind of self-centered infant, unfortunately. (To my dismay, because I am a picky eater.) Different in a restaurant, obv, since the POINT of the whole set-up is a meal of your choosing.

Otoh, to INSIST your guests do ANYTHING is equally poor on the part of the host/ess.

Things I don't like:

Capers (a little is okay);
Eggplant unless it's unrecognizable, i.e. baba ghanoush or ratatouille;
Truffles (there a few exceptions to this);
Mango or papaya (got sick on papaya as a kid) though I can eat mango salsa and ice cream and love green papaya;
Baked bananas;
Buttermilk;
Too much curry (never sits well with my stomach);
Uni;
Tripe;
Sub-par cheese (won't eat it/makes me depressed);
Baked oysters (I can't trust them unless I eat them alive);
and maybe some other things.

I have actively tried over the course of my life to overcome my culinary prejudices and find some version of things I previously didn't like which I could enjoy and have been mostly successful.

although i do credit my inlaws for getting me started eating different things, but i wont eat lamb.

Tripe has texture problems, it's true. But heavily spiced and in sausage form, I'm totally ok with it.

WILLIE
(quietly)
God, I am starving, but I can't
eat this...
INDIANA
That's more food than these people
eat in a week.
(pointedly)
They're starving, too...

Willie looks around at the emaciated faces and feels like crawl-
ing into a hole.

http://s3.hubimg.com/u/353386_f520.jpg

To clarify re the whole 'mother-in-law as food pusher': this isn't in a sit-down dinner context. Whatever is put on the table for me to eat, I will usually eat if I am a guest in someone's home.

However my Mother-in-Law gets her head turned by snacks of all shapes and sizes. She has a regular repertoire of chips and dips and things that we all like to eat but every now and again she'll get a wild hair and buy some thing that some friend told her was awesome.

that's when the food pushing comes into play. She loves it, thinks its amazing, and the only validation she can see is for everyone else to love it as much as she does. (My Mum is the complete opposite: you don't like it, fine, eff you, all the more for me mwhahaha).

That's where she has NO boundaries. You could say to her, 'Yknow, I really don't like anchovies" and it's like she acquires some kind of convenient deafness to your pleas of 'please, leave me alone'. she will try every possible way that she can think of to have you try her cockamamie anchovy paste.

What I hate is when you make a cake to bring to a potluck or whatever...and someone will say, "Oh what is that?" and I say, "Carrot cake"...and they will say, "Oh gross now way. I can't eat carrots. They make me vomit and the smell of them is disgusting and I can't even go near them and oh my god I break out in a rash and yeah I can't even be around it." Which now makes me a) not want to eat carrots either, gross...and b) regret even mentioning the cake at all.

All of that when a simple, "I can't eat carrots, I'm really allergic." would have sufficed.

sure thing, 'vegemite grrrl'

you know what's gross? vegemite

is it bad that my attitude to this is 'unless you are i. vegetarian/vegan ii. allergic then stfu and eat'

i don't mean, like, the guy laurel's talking about. that guy just sounds rude.

― thomp, Wednesday, 10 November 2010 15:23 (1 hour ago) Bookmark

OTM, for the most part.

Mind you as a kid, this was my parents' attitude - four children, so Mum wasn't going to accomodate for some brat refusing to eat certain foods by replacing them with others. I remember her once physically forcing my brother to eat some peas once. She wouldn't've allowed vegetarianism in our house, "quelle horreur" (we knew better than to even try contemplate that one).

I was never as fussy as some of my siblings, and today there's very very little I will refuse to eat point-blank. Of course there are foodstuffs I'm less keen on, but if it's served to me, generally I'll just shut up and have a little bit. Mostly it's if something is badly prepared that I would have the most trouble with.

So yeah, not a lot of time for fussy eaters, but I guess at my age I can assume that people should know what they DON'T like, so long as they've bothered to try it. People who "don't eat vegetables" or even "don't eat tomatoes" are a complete WTF to me. In my eyes things like this are close to a mental hangup in many cases. I mean, tomatoes, WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU ACTUALLY EAT THEN? ;-)

poop

dingleberries

cow pies

mountain oysters

raw tomatoes are pretty much the only thing I don't eat. I have no problem with them cooked and if there's cut up bits in a salad or sandwich I won't not eat it, but I still think they taste terrible.

but if I was a guest at someone's house for dinner and there was tomato salad I'd eat a bit of it just to be polite

and i dont turn my nose up at the offerings of food, i will just eat other things that are on the table.

at my mothers house if someone doesn't like something she always offers to make something else for the said person.

yeah plenty things i am not mad on but if in someone else's house i just shovel it down as best i can...

see but the one time i did that (oysters) i was gagging so bad and almost vomited all over the table. whats better, not eating it or puking.

Most of the time my problem is that I won't drink and drive. Like, I won't have one glass of wine if I'm going to be driving, and it is amazing how hard it is to convince parents of this. No, I won't have just one. No, I don't want a drink. No, I don't feel like drinking. Yes, I know it'll probably be out of my system by the time I'm going home, but just in case. No thanks, no. NO NO NO.

And then, of course, once you've reached the point where you get angry about it, you're the uptight bitch who judges everyone else for their drinking.

i've always figured that when dining with people who don't know my particular food likes and dislikes, if they've provided the food and i've accepted the invitation, that i have an obligation to be graceful and grateful. to at least try to eat what's put before me, so long as i'm not allergic to it, and to vocally appreciate the opportunity. doesn't mean that i ate meat when i was a vegetarian, but i relaxed my standards a bit and didn't make a big deal about whether nor not i could eat what i'd been served.

which is to say: 'unless you are i. vegetarian/vegan ii. allergic then stfu fake a smile and eat'

i think people nowadays who are planning dinners for people are better about asking people beforehand what they can and can't eat cuz there are so many non-dairy/gluten/shellfish/meat/snickerdoodle motherfuckers out there.

this doesn't apply to old people/family though. they don't give a shit what you can eat.

i was also like this with sushi for a long time..of course now i would bathe in it.

which gives creedence to food foisters' mechanations

There is one family I hang out with where they think just because I occasionally eat poultry and fish, I'll also eat beef and pork. I cannot really claim myself as totally meat-free but there are so many things that turn me off about the way certain meats are processed.

I also cannot get myself to eat anything with mayonnaise in it. You cannot make me!

You should make your own. It's dead easy. ;)

VegemiteGrrrl, your mother-in-law is my mother, and since I'm an only child, that means we're married. Hi darling! I'm sorry about my mother. I'll have a talk with her about her food pushing.

I have grown to like a lot of foods that I once hated, so I'm pretty intent on being open minded and trying new things. I really, really hate beets, though, and I made some for dinner the other night and gagged down a small serving and Jeff was like, "You know you're a grown up and you don't have to eat beets if you don't want to." So I guess I am someone who tries to make myself eat things I don't like.

Beets w/goat cheese!!!

I've had roasted beets with goat cheese at restaurants and really liked it! So I tried roasted them at home (we didn't have any goat cheese) and they just tasted like roasted dirt. :(

Re: trying new foods. The chance of discovering a food that you think is wonderful is worth the risk of finding out you don't like it. It's just a flavor. Rinse it away with some water, eat something tastier, grow up a little.

Knowing already that you don't like it is an entirely different matter, and it's the "come on, you'll like it, have some anyway" insister who needs to grow up.

I've barely skimmed the thread so this post isn't aimed at anyone in specific.

I'm basically not allowed to cook beets at home. :(

I am Italian but sorry....I do not like prosciutto and never will! Tough if you don't like it!

I'm basically not allowed to cook beets at home. :(

Why? Because they make everything pink or they never come out right? Or both, which would be my personal experience.

No, 'cause my gf loathes them and can't stand the smell in the kitchen.

PROSCIUTTO IS GODLIKE.

i thought all women loved beets! well, there goes my sexist bloodmoontide all women love beets theory down the drain. maria will be happy. she hates when i insist that only women love beets. its just cuz i hate beets. and all the women in my life have loved them. i'm a product of my environment.

Prosciutto is excellent.

Ibérico de bellota is divine.

OTM

ha that's weird scott, i was actually thinking "hmm who do i know that really likes beets" and the only outspoken beet lovers in my life are women. all two of them.

I hear the 'tastes like dirt' thing alot about beets.

Beets' flavor is complex enough that the earthiness is a feature, not a bug.

damned dirty beets

I do not like prosciutto and never will!

ok I assumed this was one of those foods everybody liked, like pizza and ice cream

Beets are earthy but kind of sweet and while I understand how some may not like it, I adore their texture for some reason.

my mother-in-law is a hardcore food pusher. not limited to stuff you don't like her specialty is relentlessly "suggesting" things you don't feel like eating at the moment.

"how about I make you french toast for breakfast"

"no thanks, not that hungry, just cereal for me..."

(ten minutes later) "would you like some french toast?"

"Uhm I'm eating this oatmeal now so no thanks."

"But you could have a piece for dessert"

"I'm fine with this, it's too early for a big breakfast."

"Maybe Miles will have some..."

"He doesn't like french toast, sorry..."

Grandson enters kitchen. "Would you like some french toast?"

and so on.

a similar and epic-length exchange involving a proposed spaghetti bolognese has become legend in our family now.

haha, my mother does the same thing.

hmm im starting to think the women and beets thing is true...my wife, mother, sister, mother-in-law, grandmother all love beets.

I DO NOT LIKE LAMB

I think your in-laws should be applauded for their efforts in trying to cure you of this serious defect.

So I tried roasted them at home (we didn't have any goat cheese) and they just tasted like roasted dirt. :(

They do have an earthy taste, it's true. I have had excellent beets from farmers' markets, though.

Thread title timewarped me back to K-8th grade school lunches, and especially being forced to eat the coleslaw in 2nd grade, throwing up all over the place, and then getting recess detention as a result

maybe i would like lamb if i could get it burnt to shit. i can't fathom the bloody mess.

Bloody? I've never had it BLOODY.

xp How about lamb shawerma or kefta kebobs? Not bloody, extremely delicious.

it was just far too pink for my liking.

http://whatscookingamerica.net/Foto4/LambChopsPepper.jpg BLECH.

Also my step mother trys to get me to eat stuffed veal roast every christmas, GAG.

I have ordered well-done lamb in restaurants and basically been refused

Oh hmm, I see your point. I think that's unusually un-done, though...? There must be a happy medium/medium-rare designation.

i cant stomach anything rare. or maybe i don't like eating baby animals...

maybe that is the case! since i can eat Mutton.

I don't like seafood. I've heard "try ____, it's not fishy." And I try it and every time it's fishy. Also yes, I mean seafood, and that includes fish, crustaceans, shellfish, even plants that grow underwater. IT ALL TASTES FISHY, AND EATING A LOBSTER IS LIKE EATING A GIANT FUCKING COCKROACH.

i never liked lobster until recently.

what if we called lamb "young mutton"?

i refuse to eat lobster or have them cooked in my home. i think they are holy. pigs and chickens, however, i can slaughter with my bare hands. go figure.

lamb biryani... *drool* (every night before i got to bed i pray that someone will open an indian restaurant in this town)

scott you still on the island?

no. i live in western mass now. thank the goddess.

i mean, there are indian places in brattleboro and amherst and northampton, but i am all about convenience.

true story: fried fish/clam/shrimp/lobster roll place around the corner from my store here is better than any fried fish takeout place on marthas vineyard. and a zillion dollars cheaper.

I don't like seafood. I've heard "try ____, it's not fishy." And I try it and every time it's fishy. Also yes, I mean seafood, and that includes fish, crustaceans, shellfish, even plants that grow underwater. IT ALL TASTES FISHY, AND EATING A LOBSTER IS LIKE EATING A GIANT FUCKING COCKROACH.

^ this. Even the smell of anything that's lived in water makes me sick. you ain't going to convince me, folks.

um, except prawn crackers. they're OK. But only the ones that are cheap and nasty and don't taste at all of prawns.

probably similar to crab chips (crisps) in Baltimore. I like seafood and though they were awful. potato chips w/Old Bay seasoning

I think the people I run into this with are by-products of the multiple children household mentality that you eat what you are served.

As the middle one of three, I, too, usually will eat what is served to me.

But, goddamnit, if I tell you I don't want any or I don't prefer it, don't keep trying to push it on me. You will only piss me off.

Also: Stop trying to convince me that cooking with margarine is ever a good idea. You are wrong. It is not butter. And do not attempt to befoul butter's fair name with margarine's slick, oily fakeness.

Crab Chips are great in theory, but get REALLY old after a small snack bag full. Old Bay has WAY too much salt to not be cooked.

And how can a meat-eating person not like lamb? If you're a vegetarian or don't eat red meat, I can dig it. But damn - lamb is WONDERFUL. I recommend avoiding the trad. lamb and mint and go more Italian, Greek or Middle Eastern. Those cultures do lamb RIGHT.

i think i've had lamb in kibbee.

lol at people itt tryin to get u to eat lamb

i think a lot of US restaurants & butchers try to pass off mutton as lamb - the gamey quality of some cuts is what ppl don't like about lamb ime

Try birria, chris.

i love crab chips! was addicted to herr's salt & vinegar chips in philly till i ate a whole bag drunk once. my mouth still hasn't forgiven me.

pork rinds, on the other hand, i can live without. and i love all things swine.

not that crab chips and S & V chips are the same thing. just feeling nostalgic for a second there. you could get crab chips in philly.

just want to pop in for a second to say

I AM A WOMAN AND I LOVE BEETS

raw beets (my favorite)
cooked beets (undercooked best)
beets with goat cheese
beets julienned in a salad
beets with vinaigrette
beets all day all night beets

BEETS

haha i was basically going to say the same thing. beets!

I have never had beets and goat cheese but that shit sounds amazing. I love roast beets. I remember my parents getting mad at me when I was five because I took so many beets from the garden while they weren't looking and just ate them raw. Beet greens are great, too!

fast food, sushi restaurants, disgusting artificial sweets/desserts

otherwise I'll eat pretty much anything

beets + feta + vinagrette = r0xx0r

Beetroot is one of the few foods I can't abide.

I like Scott's funny idea about beets & women, too. I remember the first time I hung out w/my best friend, she played me some song from a comp where the singer said he didn't like beets because they reminded him of menstruation? Does anyone know wtf this song was?

just skimmed this thread but imo, in general, just shut up and eat it you fools

i like beets because they are brilliantly colored and taste like rich mineraly earth

menstruation never really crossed my mind, but the women/eating dirt thing did

pica?

yeah, that's what i meant except not like pathological "i can't stop eating talcum powder" pica, just like periodic (no pun intended) pica motivated by...vitamin deficiency? algo asi?

beets are great, and do not care if you are a man or a woman. plus lamb is amazing and you are fools.

otm imo fyi

Beets taste horrible. I must check my genes to see if there's a stray Y chromosome somewhere in there.

I don't like beets either, which is sad because I plan on going to Russia as soon as I get the money. Also I have always hated pork.

Whenever I hear about women and pica, I always think of the pregnant woman who asked (blanking on the doctor's name) "When can I stop eating the dirt?" Turned out that her mother had been mailing her sterilized dirt from her family's farm and insisting that she eat it. Because, after all, her mother and her grandmother and probably every generation of women in her family since the ice age had eaten dirt when they were pregnant, and, by God, she would eat it too, even if she was well nourished and had no craving for it.

And, folks, I think we have the ultimate answer to the original question. Unless someone has family members that are into cannibalism.

most of my problems stem from other people trying to make me eat when i'm not hungry

I love beets and I am a man

you eat what people give you. that's the rules. if you refuse, they have the moral obligation to murder you.

this thread shld really just be abt oral sex huh

if ppl try to make me eat shit i dont like ill say 'no, gross this shit repulses me but thanks for offering it to me, your a terrible host/boyfriend/co and also person'.

not liking food is all in your head there is no reason why you should go around being fussy ffs suck it up

eating beets beats not eating beets

latebloomer & plax otm

the thing to realize is that u can bend the world to suit w/e whims are in your head dontt u see

A friend from NZ told me when he was a kid he went on a picnic & someone put out a bowl canned beets. He sat at the table & ate the whole bowl of them & the next day he peed red & thought he was dying.
#beets

Also I am a lady and I love beets

I hate broccoli and a pox on people telling me how I should try broccolini or broccoli rabe or broccoli sauteed with shallots: stfu it all tastes like broccoli so WHY WOULD I EAT THAT?

cuz it's all p good?

arrrrrrrrgh

ha, sorry

<3

I like broccoli stems much better than I like the top part. Can't get past hating cauliflower, although I ate some tonight in a curry I made (again, trying to make myself eat things I don't like) and that was pretty good.

broccoli rulez dudez

cook yer cauliflower in soups and stews. its good like that. almost anything is. recently i made beef stew with tofu! mmmm, tofu tastes awesome when its filled with beef juice. (i'm not a big tofu person)

Some people are more sensitive to bitter tastes, these people never DO warm up to broccoli, broc rabe, etc.

Amanda really really encourages me to eat beets but so far I have not taken the leap. I should, though, I really feel like I should.

I'm going to give brussels sprouts another shot this fall/winter.

Being willing to try things I don't know has done me well when abroad, since my hosts are invariably like "wow, the other Americans we've hosted haven't been willing to eat much of our food, you're not like them!" and they mean that as a compliment. Of course we are talking about organ meats and runny cheeses and insects and the like, not beets.

I loathe eggs when prepared on their own, though, and when people try to push me to eat them I stand firm, although even then, for the right circumstances I would consider it (at a friend's house in Sevilla this spring I ate a tortilla, for instance, & even liked it).

just drown stuff you don't care for in butter and salt. you'll love it!

beets are godhead btw; if we were all really friends then I would offer you all our beet & tomato salad & it would open your eyes!

beets do make you pee red, though, which is a downer. My dad went to the ER once after eating a bunch of beets, & then discovered the truth, which was silliness all around.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF4Kk9U_YXQ

i love roasted brussel sprouts and all vegetables really. I do not like Okra.

beet & tomato salad

So wishing I had this recipe but it's probably true we're not friends. Though I feel I know a fair amount about you, Euler. You had 13 kids nut only 5 survived, for example.

haha I just mean if we were friends in RL b/c then I'd make you all the salad! esp. with food, the internet is a weird medium: I want to taste, not type.

I'm sad for ppl who don't like beets or lamb or cruciferous vegetables.

lamb is the tastiest meat goddamnit

http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lbrgmuBRaR1qa9bmvo1_500.png

Some people are more sensitive to bitter tastes, these people never DO warm up to broccoli, broc rabe, etc.

― I've got ten bucks. SURPRISE ME. (Laurel), Friday, November 12, 2010 11:45 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

I'm a supertaster which means vegetables taste bitter to me, luckily I think bitter tasting things are awesome and would eat all these broccoli & broccoli raves.

i have never peed red because of beets
today i am going to eat some in my lunch salad and i CAN'T WAIT for their crunchy, mineraly, bright fucking magenta goodness

i have a deep love for v crunchy raw vegetables

xp - wow i wish i were a supertaster

Amanda really really encourages me to eat beets but so far I have not taken the leap. I should, though, I really feel like I should.

I'm going to give brussels sprouts another shot this fall/winter.

Brussels sprouts is one of the things I used to hate and now love, all thanks to the brussels sprouts in brown butter recipe in the Joy of Cooking. Also delish roasted w/ salt and balsamic vinegar.

it is the one thing that is good in my life xp

beets and sweetcorn

What is it with Australians and beetroot? They hide it in otherwise innocent looking snack foods with no kind of warning or disclaimer.

Phenylthiocarbamide

key with brussels sprouts = don't overcook 'em! sounds like a 'duh' thing but letting them go even a minute or two longer than neccessary gives them that bitter taste that ppl always associate with/hate about sprouts - cooked perfectly they are terrific

cut 'em in half and boil them for like two minutes

It's not bitterness, it's the heavily earthy/vegetal taste that kinda weirds me out. It's like eating something that grew in the dark depths of the ocean, or a kelp bed, or something. They kinda scream "I'M A PLANT I'M A PLANT."

I prefer foods that jubilantly proclaim their animal-based origins.

Cut'em in half, saute them on the cut half until browned and then poach them in chicken stock w/lemon.

Brussels sprouts are also awesome in fall salads.

Laurel, can you eat nori?

Yeah, actually I like the kinds of seaweed that I've had in Japanese food. But it's...salty. I dunno. I don't hate sprouts, I just find their plantness kind of overwhelming -- can eat but don't enjoy.

It's not bitterness, it's the heavily earthy/vegetal taste that kinda weirds me out. It's like eating something that grew in the dark depths of the ocean, or a kelp bed, or something. They kinda scream "I'M A PLANT I'M A PLANT."
this is precisely what i LIKE
i think it's just an acquired taste -- when i was a kid i refused to eat cooked vegetables, but i liked the strong vegetable flavor of raw ones
still do

Me too. I actually find less pleasure in farinaceous things now than really fresh planty things.

I don't really like raw vegetables but I like cooked vegetables. I tolerate salad as a side dish if I can smother it with more flavourful things, but I am basically never going to order A Salad. Raw cauliflower or mushrooms are a shocking waste to me because I love them cooked and dislike them raw.

Feel like kind of a freak for this - not eating salad seems to be seen as really weird and unhealthy, even if you eat other green things, which seem to be seen as way too much effort to cook. Eh, most veg I'm happy to just steam for 3 minutes, how is that more hassle than having to wash yr salad about 6000 times in the hope of it not tasting of rotting and pesticides afterwards?

At least you're not overcooking your vegetables. Do you ever eat cooked vegetables cold?

i've been growing my own vegetables the past few years in my garden, but this year a cat kept shitting in my garden. I didn't want to eat cat shit flavored vegetables, so they went to compost. I probably could have ate them eh?

i hate salad dressing! felt like i wasn't hating enough stuff on this thread...

I looove salad dressing but I haven't bought any from a store in many years. Vegetables need salt, imo. They's bland on their own.

I've been using greek yoghurt instead of oil a lot recently and if using oil, a lot of different ones. Walnut oil is really good in some dressings/salads.

That mustard sauce with walnut oil you made to go with the artichokes when I visited your place was really good. (/nerd who remembers every meal he's ever eaten)

I keep the sides of tahini from food deliveries and use them later as salad dressing with a little added water & salt/lemon to taste.

Have always wanted to try hazelnut oil but haven't ever gotten around to spending the money.

i shouldn't say i hate salad dressing i just never use it/eat it/buy it/ever want it. if i went to someone's house and they put it on my salad i would have a problem! i hate being rude...

Sesame oil in asian-flavors salads is pretty kick-ass, too.

i just never use it/eat it/buy it/ever want it

I don't have much of a sweet tooth but I have a tart tooth, if you will. I eat something with vinegar, mustard, or lemon juice pretty much every day.

i put red wine vinegar on my salad.

i love tart.

oh man, there is this store in portland, me with all sorts of homemade balsamics and oil that you can sample before you buy. AMAZING.

that's why i was SO excited to find out that trader joes sells 100% cranberry juice! no water, no sugar, no nothing. although i do mix it with ginger ale or seltzer. soooooooooooo amazing for tart lovers.

I skin the stalks of broccoli and slice the exposed marrow into thin strips which I soak in rice wine vinegar and coat in sesame seeds - great pre-prandial snack

ooh scott great idea, never thought of that!

Also, while I love balsamic vingar, I'm also growing to like Chinese black vinegar (which is also way less expensive). I've been playing with CBV, shoyu and sesame oil on certain salads/veg.

I skin the stalks of broccoli and slice the exposed marrow into thin strips which I soak in rice wine vinegar and coat in sesame seeds - great pre-prandial snack

This sounds pretty good! And would be a good excuse to buy a mandolin slicer, ha-hem.

Anything similar you can do with the stalk/core of a cabbage? I like the little cabbages, partly for taste and partly because only I eat them so they last for several meals as it is, but they do have a very high stalk:leaf ratio

Hmmm, I don't know. Normal cabbage is something I almost always prefer uncooked (except for sauerkraut) so I'm not sure. I've been using Chinese/Napa cabbage a lot recently for cooking, though.

You can also use the broccoli marrow in a soup... I realized at some point that the florettes cook way faster than the stalk and decided to treat them as essentially two different dishes.

I think I mostly ditch the core in my compost but I wonder if your couldn't pickle it?

I can't stand most bought salad dressings...EVOO & balsamic/other vinegar is still my favorite. Most dressings are too thick and sweet. And cream dressings are gross.
Ranch on a salad? Gtfo.

I like broccoli stems much better than I like the top part

Word to this. They're not always that flavorful at the very bottom of the stalk, but the part right under the head is excellent.

And cream dressings are gross.

I'm not kidding you, veg grrrl, try a dressing made w/greek yoghurt. It will have fewer calories than an oil-based dressing and adheres to the lettuce better.

Unless you don't like greeek yoghurt, that is.

I do like Greek yoghurt. Imma try that, it sounds yum!

^^^ The extra "e" is for Ellenika xpost

Greeeeeeek yooooooghurt mmmmm

I use more mustard than vinegar (lemon juice is frankly better imho) and keep it creamy like the ranch dressing we both loathe. It emulsifies pretty nicely.

I pref red wine vinegar over and above balsamic -- it's a cleaner, sharper taste without the sweetness. Lemon juice okay depending on how I feel that day, but mustard is a necessity!

I don't use a lot of balsamic though I sometimes use champagne vinegar or cider vinegar, depending. Lemon is better than vinegar for simple salads mostly comprised of fresh, crisp vegetables

HAD BEETS LAST NIGHT AND LOVED THEM!!!!

HIGH FIVE
i also ate beets yesterday and will eat them again today

I am a man and I do not like beets.

I'm also with the prosciutto haters - I dunno if it's because I've never had "proper" prosciutto but whenever I've had it, like as a pizza topping or whatever, it tastes and smells fucking rancid and ruins the pizza even if I pick it off.

i'd make myself a prosciutto suit and tuck my ding dong between my legs and dance around to Goodbye Horses if I could.

what's stopping you?

my wife.

you don't have to listen to that beet eater. its a free country.

mmmm, beets. i had the best dinner last night. turkey, stuffing, mashed spuds, pumpkin pie, beets. every day should be thanksgiving.

big shout out to maria's sister. and maria's step-mom. top notch! all we had to do was bring wine! gotta love that.

i'm guessing if you're getting prosciutto on a pizza, it's not the good stuff

I like prosciutto plenty fine but it's not ideal on pizza. Also, if your prosciutto tastes rancid, it probably is.

prosciutto in a calzone is pretty awesome tho

what michael said ^^^

spicy/strong meat products on pizza is rarely a fave with me.

I don't really like sweetcorn. Corn on the cob, yeah sure, I love that. But sweetcorn makes me feel like I am eating old people's gammy teeth.

how can there be no ask michael white thread? he could teach us how to be proper laydeez and gentlemen. he's got savoir faire up the butt.

My problem w/prosciutto on pizza is that it's too stringy/chewy compared to the rest of the pizza.

boner time:
http://www.yumsugar.com/Fig-Prosciutto-Gorgonzola-Pizza-Balasmic-Arugula-3603028

chrissssssssssssssssssss come to greenfield and eat with me at my pal maggie's pizza restaurant:

http://www.magpiepizza.com/

Good flavor combinations, chris

Scott, Maggie's place looks tasty.

this is our local fav.
http://www.cornergrille.com/menu/?page_id=3

this is maggie's flagship restaurant in greenfield. so good.

http://www.hopeandolive.com/

who's up for this hope & olive entree:

Baked Stuffed Squash
butternut, leek, apple & bleu cheese bread pudding, braised greens, walnuts & cider reduction

I'd go for it. Does she do brunch?

Beet and Orange salad!

yes! sunday brunch is awesome. mmmmm...want some now. i'm hungry.

maggie has a beet tattoo.

I'd also like to try the fennel, argula, goat cheese pizza at Magpie. I wonder if I could get her to make it w/some manchego, though.

beet orange and fennel salad
that's how it's done in my house

it's blurry, but delicious
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4120/4939344371_5ecfdacafa.jpg

After everything I've said above about fussy eating - I don't enjoy fennel or pretty much anything aniseed-y.

My girlfriend loves beetroot and kind of got me into it after I said I wasn't a fan. I especially like the smaller, sweeter variety. I got to try some roast ones yesterday and was delighted at the potassium-hue of my stools today.

DL, me neither. Fennel is cool-looking but out of the question for me.

Yeah, it looks so nice in a salad, and I'm always sad that it tastes how it does.

You guys come on
A bite of fennel with some orange and some cuke and a wee piece of beet? You can't handle that? Come on!

I will try beets on your urging, LL, but anise-flavored things are non-negotiable. Otherwise, vomit time!

The South of France taught me to like fennel but it really should always be paired with something opposite, like feta or goat cheese.

Fennel is also great 'cause of its crunch.

After a visit to Tante Marguerite (one of Loiseau's restaurants in Paris)where I had sea bass stuffed w/roasted fennel, I tried to experiment w/roasting and sauteeing it myself. One time I seared it and then poached it in some lemon juice and it came out tasting like sauteed apple.

You guys come on
A bite of fennel with some orange and some cuke and a wee piece of beet? You can't handle that? Come on!

LOL at you ITT trying to get people to eat things they don't want to eat.

i mean we had derailed, so someone's gotta get back on track
i still feel like there's work to be done here

if you don't like cooked beets TRY THINLY SLICED RAW BEETS
they are not as strong imo and are fantastically crunchy

i am eating some right now iirc, with spinach, pea sprouts, and a dressing i made for my squid salad last night that contains ancho and guajillo chile, lime, cumin seed, and oo. and salt.

i miss the squid though

i was a bit picky as a kid (something that i have gluttonously outgrown), and my family would wink at each other while making a huge production about OMG how great whichever dish(es) i declined was.

now i know it's probably coincidence or all in my head, but every time i skip a particular dish at one of our family gatherings now there seems to be a rhapsody of praise for said dish. doesn't matter what it is, just as long as it's the one thing i didn't pick. we usually do buffet style, so it's not like i'm making a public refusal of someone's culinary toil as it's making its way around the table. hell, half the time i've packed my plate so with every thing imaginable i'm just thinking 'hey maybe i'll skip the green bean/ french-fired onion casserole this go round.' ...cue 14 people fanning themselves/ eyes rolling back in their heads over yr standard green goddamned bean casserole

also interesting is the way my girlfriend (who currently eats EVERYTHING except beef and pork) is treated like some kind of exotic curio.

tbf her family does it to her, too. but i imagine back when she was a vegan undergrad she probably gave them an earful if they happened to ask why she wasn't eating meat. refusing pork tenderloin = gateway to lesbian communism iirc.

beet orange and fennel salad
that's how it's done in my house

― The Great Jumanji, (La Lechera), Monday, November 15, 2010 9:19 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

wow, that sounds and looks amazing. i make fennel salad occasionally, but it is super simple, contains nothing but orange slices w/o membrane ("supremes" or whatev), oj retained from the process, fennel slices, oo & salt. maybe a splash of lime, a little sliced onion, or some pepper if i'm feeling adventurous. will try adding beets! now that i think about it, dried cranberries would prob be good too.

speaking of things you don't want to eat, Ned keeps sending me links like this:

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/stickaforkinit/2010/11/five_food_challenges_in_orange.php

i used a tiny bit of orange juice as dressing + salt/pepper

delicious

plus re michael white: how is young cheese the designated opposite of fennel? is there some science to this, like having your color chart done by a trained professional?

in re: the discussion early in this thread - the idea that anybody for any reason should eat something they don't feel like eating strikes me as so profoundly unhealthy: personally, culturally, spiritually - "it's rude" to refuse food? really? more rude than wanting somebody to eat something he/she doesn't feel like eating on the grounds that your own feelings (or the feelings of some imagined serving/offering party) might be hurt? whole thing is like an in-vivo Pinter play or something. people should eat what they feel like eating when they feel like eating it and feel zero guilt about telling somebody "none of that for me thanks" - anybody whose feelings are hurt by "I'd rather not eat some of what you're offering, thanks anyway" is a grade A asshole imo

young cheesy

well also if u eat something enough times u will like it so like maybe just learn to apprec. things and stop turning shit down bc ur mind is closed to discovery.

I don't think I'll ever like birthday cake.

Sorry to be all contrarian.

you need good birthday cake. its not like there aren't people who know how to make good cake with good icing. store bought birthday cakes will make your teeth fall out after one bite.

well also if u eat something enough times u will like it so like maybe just learn to apprec. things and stop turning shit down bc ur mind is closed to discovery.

I think parsnips probably top my list of things I have eaten most often despite not liking, because of how often they turn up in vegetable soup or mixed roasted veg or something - will finish the soup or the mixed veg, will not ever buy a bag of parsnips

PS I am fussy! But I'm growing out of it! And also there is an insanely fussy eater in my office and I feel kind of more virtuous by comparison with her. Occasionally there is a free buffet at work with a choice of 20 different dishes and she always makes a big fuss about how she can't eat any of it, not due to dietary restrictions or allergies but just because they might contain something she doesn't like.

There's always a bowl of fruit too and she can't eat any of that either because the only fruit she eats is apples and she won't eat them if they've been in the same bowl as a citrus fruit (still with peel on).

Yeah it sounds like anyone would look not-crazy next to that!

you should start messing with her and telling her that all of her food has been touched by citrus fruits when she's halfway through it

At one point when she was really pissing me off (by having a noisy fan heater on all day even when it wasn't at all cold, which would make the entire floor vibrate and make the air in the office unbearably dry) I did kind of harbour fantasies of quitting my job and filling the air vents of the heater with orange peel and citrus oil. But then I am a bad person.

I was definitely thinking of the 8-10 tries thing last year when I managed to get sick eating some leftovers that hadn't kept well and gave myself an aversion to cucumbers. It turns up in so many pre-prepared sandwiches and salads etc that I kept eating anyway because, dammit, I used to enjoy these things. I guess 8-10 meals probably is about what it took to get me not to feel sick whenever I tasted it.

how is young cheese the designated opposite of fennel?

I don't recall saying young cheese. A sharp, halfway chalky/halfway creamy goat cheese like a cabecou or a crottin isn't sweet and isn't crunchy and like a good feta can be cut up or crumbled so you get enough cheese per bite of fennel to get both flavors.

yeah I am a dude who is open to eating anything within my veg. restrictions (and before that would literally have eaten anything interesting) but I know & am close to people who aren't like me and my position is, you know what, there is nothing wrong with a person saying "I don't feel like eating that, I don't care if I would like it after 8-10 tastings"

it's like, the tyranny of insisting everybody else be as open to new experiences as they can tolerate is worse than the tyranny of shutting out new experiences that preceded it

come on, those "tyrannies" are a 50.1/49.9 coinflip in heinousness

and together they add up to the horrific pain of a paper cut

understand where yr. coming from aero, but the food forcers i've been exposed have been, in almost all cases, warmhearted moms and grammas: 100% inoffensive people who aren't so good at taking no for an answer. salt of the earth, imo. and the the food refusers have often been uptight, self-involved weirdos who don't know from decent guest manners. so i'm biased. take some of the available food, put it on your plate, and at least make a show of nibbling appreciatively. if you are so terrified of the world's food options that you run a good chance of always finding nothing to eat when offered, just politely refuse all invitations, do not make a production of it, and bring along a small brick of fried glucose or whatever it is you do eat.

man at least 1/2 the food forcers I know are like

"you GOTTA try this! it's fuckin delicious!"
"thanks, I'm full"
"aww come ON! this is like God's own fuckin awesome just have a taste!"
"no, thanks though for real!"
"what the fuck! taste this amazingness, you'll never forgive yourself, blah blah fucking I can't see past the end of my own damn nose!"
"dude! thank you! but no!"
"oh come ON! it's just a wafer-thin one, sir!"
etc

in isolation, refusing to try a food is fine. as a pattern of behavior, it's indicative of a personality type that i personally find hard to be around.

I mean, seriously, I think it should be legal for me to murder & entomb anybody whose urgings exceed the first "no thanks" - what part of "no thanks" is unclear to you dim fucks? just stfu, everybody's stoked you're enjoying yourself, newsflash, not everybody is you

big lols at Granny "Carl Jung" Dainger otoh

granny dainger OTM, and i'm glad not to know many people of the sort aero describes. if i did, i'd probably be less one-sided about this.

dude you don't have to make some Jungian stretch to get from "unwilling to try new foods" to "has an overall propensity to not try new things"

Tbf, aero, I can see how it can fall either way for a person based on whether they were around more food pushers or food neurotics. I can usually politely refuse something with an anecdote or explanation so the host knows it's nothing personal and I push food on my friends all the time, especially if it's a well-known delicacy or pairing they haven't had, but I'd certainly never insist except with my foodie or restaurant worker friends.

There are a lot of personal control issues that stem from childhood that get expressed as food pickiness - pressing the issue almost never works. I hold nothing against such people but I'm not likley to invite them to dinner.

sure you do! eating is a pretty personal behavior. I'm practically a human garbage disposal, as I say I'm veg now so there's a big limitation but outside that I'll eat your shoes if you tell me they're delicious & they're not leather. but like do you even dig how disparate people's experience of food is? how very, very many people have nightmare experiences with families forcing them to eat when they're full, or finish whole plates of stuff that make them gag, and the effects that has on them? in my experience, the "come on, try some" people are people who haven't really grasped the notion of "live and let live," or who think it means "live and let live, but my values rule over whatever crap you believe"

xp @ Granny btw

I mean and if you're not really kinda super-closed-minded, having people over for dinner who have dietary preferences/restrictions is a welcome challenge instead of the impossibly weighty burden people make it out to be - I love to cook, and whatever it is you don't like to eat, I'm sure I can cook around that & we'll have a blast - the only food preference that's really odious to me is "you GOTTA try this, you'll only live once!"-level weak-ass faux-hedonism

aerosmith otm

the kind of food-pushers he invokes are real and they must be stopped. And they're not pushing marinated tofu...they're pushing food that you've already eaten heartily, or they're pushing frightening jello salads and appetizers made from a 1970's Readers digest.

"I made you a delicious martini!"
"oh thanks...I'm an alcoholic, I kind of can't"
"can you believe this guy? how insufferable!"

The beetroot thing is odd to me because here, the common way to have beetroot is canned, and it's canned in a vinegar/sugar liquid. So to me they taste pickled and sweetly vinegary, not earthy really. Maybe I need to try fresh roasted beets and see the diff.

I have a couple of friends who are: vegetarian, gluten intolerant, and hate mushrooms and tomatoes.

WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU COOK SUCH PEOPLE.

I am all for accomodating vegetarians, and if I have invited someone for a meal and they make a point of saying "I cannot eat [food]" I'll work around that, but if you sit down without warning and refuse to eat innocuous, every day items like tomatoes or potatoes or spinach or lettuce, you can go hungry imo.

that explains why they'd be averse to new foods, but doesn't refute how that could bleed into other facets of one's personality. i'm not going to foist food on people if they've refused it after a single "aw c'mon, try it!", but i'm also not going to be too eager to have future meals with them either if they do that with most everything that's new to them.

It took me a while to realise that I love all food, so I have a degree of sympathy for fussy eaters. I don't concern myself w/ the neuroses of those desperate to exert further control over their bodies, but they have given me more respect for my fellow omnivores, those that ubermensch their way into the hearts of their hosts and open every menu w/ pure love, no fear.

xpost granny, you need to be around these people. Your spock-ian logic is wonderful, but useless in the food-pusher realm.

the first refusal is generally taken as indication that you're not sure you don't want it, even if stated in categorical terms.
The whole point of the food pusher is to PUSH, not to accept the first no.

aero, if granny's is an exaggeration, so is yours. There are plenty of ppl who put lots of love into their food, are proud of it, want others to appreciate it as much as they do, and who push 'cause they think the refuser is deluded or doesn't know what they're missing. I have been on both sides of this. French host pushing stinky cheese on an American teenager who thought stinky cheese was vile - thanks. Pouty teenage girl who uses her food neuroses to make herself important and remarkable, why did you bother coming to a dinner party w/your mom since you obviously are far more interested in making her uncomfortable in public than in having a good time.

Trayce: off the top of my head: take some carrots, potatoes, yams, maybe some brussels sprouts & asparagus, toss them with good olive oil, a little salt and pepper, roast them at 450 either flat on a baking sheet or in a casserole til done.

now make a rice dish - maybe a Syrian rice: saute vermicelli in oil with garlice til lightly browned, add the rice, saute til translucent, stir in some stock or water, maybe a dash of wine, bring to a boil, reduce heat & cover, cook twenty minutes, turn off heat and allow to sit covered for ten more

maybe add some mashed potatoes to the mix here - you can boil garlic in the water with them and mash that into the potatoes, add some salt & even curry powder if you're feeling adventurous

this won't go over well, but i think there's a bunch of folks (ie NOT EVERYONE OR EVEN MOST,OK) who have some Munchausen-by-proxy thing going on w/their own digestive system and like being "special", having people cater to their psychosomatic food dislikes etc

xp it's true i've never been around food pushers. obv they are heinous.

eat innocuous, every day items like tomatoes or potatoes or spinach or lettuce, you can go hungry imo.

Tbf, they're only 'everyday' in certain contexts. I love, love, love tomatoes and I can't say I understand why my friend loathes them, but I understand loathing a foodstuff.

btw those roasted veggies with olive oil salt & pepper will completely rock yr world, guaranteed.

also underrated veggie you can serve to people who don't dig strongly-flavored stuff like mushrooms & tomatoes: cabbage! it's got a bad rep, but there are many ways to prepare it (look in Chinese cookbooks for starters) v. v. simply that just slay

also, although a lot of soups call for mushrooms, SOUP is a whole universe of delicious possibilities

I mean, again, I'll try almost anything twice, but I have love & interest in people's dietary restrictions, and I think my attitude is worth selling to others, because it makes the world more fun. and if food is a thing you love, it's about sharing joy, not about saying "oh you can't enjoy what I enjoy, how sad for you." the board you want for that is ILM imo

Granny, you're lucky. Sometimes the food my mother in-law pushes isn't that bad, it's usually just stuff I just don't have room to eat, or I've already eaten and it's almost dinner time. Those moments it's the pushing itself that is at issue, not 100% the food. Sometimes I accept, but that doesn't stop her pushing something else half an hour later.

Expand it wider. Have you ever come across someone who doesn't take the first no for an answer? Like a pushy salesperson? That's the archetype.

how very, very many people have nightmare experiences with families forcing them to eat when they're full, or finish whole plates of stuff that make them gag, and the effects that has on them?

these people need therapy, and step 1 of Granny's therapy is "here, try this?". step 2 is "aw, c'mon, just try it!". step 3 is "fine, gtfo".

It took me years to eat peas after being forced to sit in front of a plate of overcooked peas bathed in congealing butter "until I ate some." I did though and I like them in the spring, now, but never cooked the way those peas were cooked.

step one: would you like to try x
step two: no problem. there's plenty left over if you change your mind.

done and done.

this whole debate is weird to me. I have a list of foods that I don't like, I'm sure it's on ILX somewhere, but it includes a fair number of "normal" foods that "everyone likes" (e.g. raw tomatoes, chunks of cooked tomato, cucumber, yogurt, bananas, etc). I don't know why I don't like these foods, but it's not psychological (I've never liked these foods), I'm not pretending to not like these foods, I've had plenty of opportunities to try them. I would prefer if I did like them, it would make things easier, but for whatever reason I don't like them. I have no control over this! Insisting that I eat them or saying that I'm being difficult or picky is really annoying and borders on insensitive, and I don't really know why anyone would care that I don't like these things. Even in some hypothetical situation where you're cooking me dinner and have to take these things into consideration, it's one meal, I'm sure you can figure something out.

the cool thing about being picky when you're young is that you get to discover "new" stuff later in life when the bad memories, contrariness wear off

tbf I rarely have problems with people trying to make me eat things I don't like, I just think the tone of this discussion is pretty condescending

ok just let us grownups talk about it then

like i never ate almonds until i was well into my 30s because i supposedly hated nuts, now i love them. and it was sort of a pushy sort that got me to try them, but usually that approach fails

That roadst veg does sound pretty damn tasty JD! I suspect I'd run into at least one friend who woudl still go "ew: to the asparagus or the sprouts.

I have also a clsoe friend who is in his late 30s who says he has basically never eaten pasta, ever (lasagne aside). He hates tomatoes, so he wouldnt go near pasta. It never occured to him pasta might have things on it other than tomato or mince. This is a 35 year old man. How does this happen.

wow. like his whole life has been informed by 70's Women's Weekly recipe books. That's bizarre.

I should point out also that I am annoyed by "intolerances" when they extend to the "I cant eat anything at all here" kind of expanse of refusal but I dont see it as a burden to cook around it. Even if it means those people are eating plain roasted kumara and some beans, then hey at least theyre eating.

I was an incredibly picky eater (childhood issues, etc.) until about age 30. Then, all my issues just started to fall away. I think it had to do with her becoming a chef, and all my re-introductions to foods I used to hate (cheese, fish, mushrooms, you name it) being best-in-class versions of those foods.

Now we have kids, and they became very picky, of course, just to drive her crazy, and to karmic-ally punish me. However they seem to be already losing some of their pickiness, even at age 4. I think it's because my wife is such a good cook, but it might just be some other factor or set of factors...

her=my girlfriend, now wife...

wow. like his whole life has been informed by 70's Women's Weekly recipe books

Hahah those things are a horror! I was reading some old cookbooks a while back. They call for things like cooking dried spaghetti in boiling water for TWENTY MINUTES.

No wonder I hated a lot of food when I was a kid, mum just cooked everything into a bland mush. I used to hate peas, pumpkin and carrots until I had them prepared in a TASTY way (roasted, with flavours like garlic and onion).

And hated olives and feta right up til 2 years ago but got so sick of eschewing endless tasty salads, I forced myself to eat some, and now I love em.

I thought I hated asparagus my whole entire childhood and teenagerdom until I learned that it *doesn't come in cans*!
taste sensation!

hahaah same here =)

In fact the things people push on me now that I have to refuse mutiple times, are sweets. Cake, lollies etc. I just dont want sweet food, no desire for it, dont enjoy it.

But try getting ANYONE to understand why you dont like/want chocolate cake. Its like I said "I'd rather not breathe, thanks all the same".

OH GOD TRAYCE I WANTED TO HAVE YOU OVER TO MY HOUSE TO MAKE YOU DESSERT BUT NOW YOU'RE MAKING EVERYTHING SO DIFFICULT WITH YOUR PETTY DEMANDS WHATEVER WILL I DOOOOOOOO?

jokes ;)

recap of thread:
– some people dislike some foods forever
– some people dislike some foods and then eventually change their minds
– can you change a disliker into a liker? maybe, but probably not by being an overbearing jerk
– people interpret a pretty different range of behaviors as falling in the overbearing jerk spectrum
– "mom made me join the clean plate club when I was ten and now I'll never eat lima beans again"

So how about putting salt on the food before you taste it?

*flees rapidly*

i'm no longer a picky eater but i grew up as one, so i have sympathy for aero's take on this. the type of social stress that being picky causes is just impossible for most people on the "pusher" side to understand. it seems so simple to those who like the food, like such a silly little issue, and i guess that's why people feel comfortable being pushy. but the guilt and humiliation is very real, the social stigma just grows in the mind of the picky eater making the whole situation completely unbearable. i can't tell you how incredibly thankful i was when i was a kid eating at a friend's house and their parents just did not care at all what i would or wouldn't eat. the repetition of shocked reactions at my refusal to eat green vegetables just grew into this burning shame, so much so that dinnertime always induced this incredible dread. i know it sounds dramatic, but food really is so central to basic social events and for a picky eater to be constantly reminded of their incomprehensible pickiness is to be constantly reminded of their otherness. "pushers" don't mean to be cruel and don't realize how cruel they're being, but it really can be pretty horrible for picky eaters.

nb: i'm mostly talking about kids, here, because that's the time when i was picky and when it was really unpleasant for me. i'd imagine adults who are picky get used to it and become better at dealing with the situation.

i ate beets last night cuzza this thread. i never eat them. now i want more. wasn't that easy? sometimes it just takes the right attitude/situation.

i can't remember the last time someone tried to push something on me. but then i eat most food. i try hard not to traumatize cyrus cuz he never wants anything we cook. then again he's five. but i do push. and try the "mmm, mmm, this is SO good" trick. rufus is the opposite. a little gourmand. he'll try anything.

I just remembered an awesome picture my friend drew me for my 20th birthday. It was a crying Stay Puft marshmallow man holding a cake w/candles, saying, "Why do you hate us?" That was the best thing anyone ever made me instead of a birthday cake.

oh it was always stressful sleeping over at a friend's house and not knowing if their mom would make something gross for dinner or breakfast.

if you are really picky and someone is pushing food on you you should just scream *I HATE THAT AND I'D RATHER DIE THAN EAT IT*! that'll shut them up. be loud, proud, and punk.

I remember the first time I spent the night at someone's house. Her mom put butter on my muffin at breakfast and I started crying. They handled it really kindly – it has to be weird having some kid just burst into tears over a muffin. Her dad calmed me down by saying, "If I cried every time I saw butter, I'd weigh a lot less."

when i was little i ate dinner at a friend's house and his mother told me i couldn't have dessert unless i ate the salad in front of me. i excused myself and went to the bathroom and stayed there. for a long time. they had to come and get me.

aw :(

My mum has a picture of a young me sitting at the table in full scream-face bc I wouldn't eat my mashed potatoes

One of my proudest moments as a parent was when Sarah and I joined a friend of mine and his family for a very nice kaiseki dinner in Atlanta. There were at least a dozen ingredients/elements in the (9 or 10) courses that I'd never had before, and probably 20+ that Sarah had never tried. We both really enjoyed the meal, but I had no idea until after we left the group that she had really disliked the course that had raw lobster, mainly for texture issues. "There's no need for me to ever eat that again, but I was happy to try it once." That's my girl! You don't know if you like something until after you've tried it the first time.

I am all for accomodating vegetarians, and if I have invited someone for a meal and they make a point of saying "I cannot eat [food]" I'll work around that, but if you sit down without warning and refuse to eat innocuous, every day items like tomatoes or potatoes or spinach or lettuce, you can go hungry imo.

voice of reason, imo. yeah, i'm totally cool with vegetarians and people who are legitimately allergic. nor are people who have a few specific food enemies any kind of problem. hell, i have some food enemies of my own: don't particularly like okra or lima beans, for instance. i'll try em if offered, just in case someone's come up with some marvelous new variation, but i'm not gonna choke down a plateful just to seem appreciative. it's only a special class of entitled, relentlessly picky fussbudget to which i object.

im not allergic to tomatoes but if i find one in my mouth halfway through a piece of pizza i will gag. it has always been thus. im picky but i will quietly eat around things usu.

also disagree with granny's thesis re picky eaters being non-adventurous in other areas. for me it's probably where i'm least adventurous because like i said, gag. not that much analysis needed i don't think. just...no thanks, polite smile, im pretty sure i won't like that. and in fact i be tthere's ppl who even compensate for being non-adventurous by eating lots of chili peppers and other exxxtreme things like that.

Yeah allergies are a whole different ballpark. I have a couple of mates with deathly nut allergies but they know it, we all know it, they have epi pens, etc.

I had a bunch of food allergies when I was younger and sort of coped by telling myself that I didn't really like watermelon or bananas or raw nuts. But the allergies have faded and I've been sort of retraining myself to accept that these awesome foods are in fact awesome. (Melon allergy is the stubborn one that is still hanging on, but at least I can eat a couple of bites before my mouth and throat start to itch.)

I'm so gratified that my disgust with cilantro has been validated by the popularity of talking about how it's all genetic -- I have no idea whether I have the genetic condition, but it would at least explain why the smell alone makes me want to drop to the floor and look for an oxygen tank.

Likewise, I live in hope that something will explain how much I hate anise. All my other food problems are strictly mental. And mostly textural, tbh -- I have way more problems with textures than tastes.

Mushrooms, however, disgust me strictly becuase they're fungi and grown from spores. SPORES. The very idea of spores, clustering and floating in the air, clogging your throat, crawling inside you, caking on your tongue, being living reproductive material, and they're always a sort of sickly yellow/tan like the color I imagine a poison gas would be... gives me the creeping abbdabs. Must be the memory of all those puff-ball mushrooms we stomped open or hit with sticks when we were kids.

i was never a mushroom fan until recently when the above mentioned in-laws pushed some mushrooms on me. DELICIOUS.

I was among the top ILX cilantro haters when I first started posting here, but exposure to some very good tacos over the last few years has retrained my taste buds in that regard.

Mushrooms, however, disgust me strictly becuase they're fungi and grown from spores. SPORES.

So what? They're delicious. And hamburgers are made from ground up flesh...FLESH....PULLING THE MUSCLES AND THE FAT OFF OF A STEER AND GRINDING THEM UP, HAHAHAHAHAHAHA... *shrug*

i've gotten over the cilantro thing. had a problem with the way restaurants were dumping it all over their food. and just didn't care for that taste. but it must have been one of those cases of prolonged exposure equalling me not hating anymore.

Next time you're a victim of a food-pusher, just go "ok fine, I'll eat it", have a bite, and then go on and on about how awful it was and how you knew it'd be awful and YOU TOLD THEM you didn't want it and yep see, it's just as gross as you knew it'd be, no, wait EVEN GROSSER, oh man, you didn't know something could be so gross, you'll never trust the pusher's judgment on ANYTHING, EVER AGAIN, can you insect the pusher's tongue to see if there's even any taste buds on that mothefucker or what??

I love mushrooms as long as they are cooked thoroughly. I cannot cope with raw mushrooms (and raw eggplant, zucchini, and summer squash) because of the dry, spongy texture. I had to pause while writing his to shudder violently, even.

insect or inspect, whichever

i have a problem with bitter stuff. bitter tastes. one of my final frontiers is moldy cheese. just can't get with the mold. hate when i get a mac & cheese side at a restaurant and surprise! they have used some moldy blue stuff to kick things up a notch or whatever. but probably in a year or two i will be back here saying how much i love stink cheeses and blues. the older i get the more willing i am to try things and end up liking bitter old enemies.

Next time you're a victim of a food-pusher, just go "ok fine, I'll eat it", have a bite, and then go on and on about how awful it was and how you knew it'd be awful and YOU TOLD THEM you didn't want it and yep see, it's just as gross as you knew it'd be, no, wait EVEN GROSSER, oh man, you didn't know something could be so gross, you'll never trust the pusher's judgment on ANYTHING, EVER AGAIN, can you insect the pusher's tongue to see if there's even any taste buds on that mothefucker or what??

no the idea is to decrease the amount of overbearing do-as-I-do obnoxiousness in the world, not double it

Mushrooms, however, disgust me strictly becuase they're fungi and grown from spores. SPORES. The very idea of spores, clustering and floating in the air, clogging your throat, crawling inside you, caking on your tongue, being living reproductive material, and they're always a sort of sickly yellow/tan like the color I imagine a poison gas would be... gives me the creeping abbdabs. Must be the memory of all those puff-ball mushrooms we stomped open or hit with sticks when we were kids.

― I've got ten bucks. SURPRISE ME. (Laurel), Tuesday, November 16, 2010 11:06 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

idgt - you could say the same about so many great foods. like, beer, is made from YEAST, which are just SPORES, that are just hanging around shitting in your alcohol. or CHEESE, is just mold, hanging around, shitting in your rennet and milk fat.

ha yes, let's ruin beer for Laurel, I'm sure she will thank us mightily for it

I didn't say it made sense. I just can't do it.

Used to not be able to eat any veined cheese, either, but someone fed me a gorgonzola sauce that was so amazingly great that I could no longer deny the power of moldy cheese.

Still don't eat brie rinds.

ok aerosmith, clearly being meek and only raising hell on message boards about how much it aggravates oneself is the way to go

when are you guys gonna kiss

as soon as you and your pants-tent leave the room

but probably in a year or two i will be back here saying how much i love stink cheeses and blues.

It's gotten to the point where I, otoh, can't eat 'fake' cheese. Kraft mac'n'cheese makes me retch, cheesespreads and whatnot don't even look like food to me and the kinds of cheese I see in the US, like Colby, Monterrey Jack, what passes for Mozzarella here all either annoy me with their inspidness or make me sad. Oh and the worst is the shakers of Parmesan (a cheese I otherwise adore) so full of weird chemicals and which, heated manages to smell like ass and feet and (says the lover of Epoisses) not in a good way.

I do like jack, havarti, etc, for certain things. I mean obv muenster & havarti cheese have European roots but they're all made in Wisconsin at this point. Would also walk a mile for really sharp American aged cheddar, pref that stuff from Vermont. Don't actually like Irish cheddar that much, thought I would but...

yah the worry abt appreciating the finer things is that you will forget how awesome packet soup and microwave lasagne are

What's a "cheese spread", anyway? Did you mean that "port wine" stuff? Have never had, but am vaguely aware of its existence.

Don't actually like Irish cheddar that much, thought I would but...

You probably wouldn't like Beecher's then - my new favorite American cheese.

See, I like Irish cheddar 'cause I can actually taste how much better their milk is than ours. God, good Irish butter, for example is just magical.

CHEEZ WHIZ

how about english scottish cheddar?

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4151/5176668894_6169a2172f_m.jpg

yeah i was gonna say if you didn't dig good east coast cheddars then we would have had a problem. but i'm with you on the faker crap, MW. i LOVE cheese. good cheese. all kinds. except, you know, what i said before...

oh man i recently had some fancy-lad unpasteurized cheese spread that made me cream my jeans

you can get AMAZING local cheeses where i am in massachusetts. there is bounty. as far as american cheeses go, i never have to go very far for the good stuff. even good fresh mozzarella. goat cheese. cheddars. oh i could go on and on.

Is the milk the big difference? I could try it again sometime, I'm sure. Haven't had fancy butter in yonks, either -- when I had money, I lived places with mediocre (at best) grocery options. Now that I'm in the center of everything, I'm fucking broke.

i always want to buy some of the french butter they have at the market down the street, but it's so friggin' expensive. i mean, it should be. it came a long way to butter my toast.

Scott, is it buffalo milk mozzarella?

For a good stinky cheese, try a dolce latte gorgonzola sometime when you're feeling daring.

oh it was always stressful sleeping over at a friend's house and not knowing if their mom would make something gross for dinner or breakfast.

I've gotten better about eggs in adulthood, but I have a vivid memory of staring helplessly at a plate of scrambled eggs the morning after a sleepover. IIRC, I just doused it all in ketchup.

When I slept over, I got to have things like instant mashed potatoes, instant mac'n'cheese, and Ramen noodles, things I'd never eaten before and wouldn't have been allowed to have at home. It was very exciting iirc.

I cannot cope with raw mushrooms (and raw eggplant, zucchini, and summer squash)

Well, none of these are really meant to be eaten raw. You do find raw mushrooms a lot in salad bars or whatever, but they're healthier for you if they're lightly cooked, since it removes the toxins.

Lauren, there are lots of good milk and good cheeses in the US but our default is or used to be cattle not exclusively fed on proper food, BGH, ubiquitous pasteurization which kills a lot of the flavor in the milk and an imported cheese culture that both lacked organic local roots and was packaged to be as inoffensive as possible and as cheap as possible. I don't know about Ireland but in France, you can make raw milk cheese as long as you get your cows tested several times a year. The cheese is obv not recommended to the pregnant or people w/weak immune systems but it's among the world's best.

people make their own mozzarella around here. people are really into milk around here. raw milk. i've never made cheese. maybe i should try it! but, yeah, buffalo mozzarella too.

i know a great guy who runs this:

http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/hs623.ash1/27528_354041680738_9076_n.jpg

we just bought some fresh meat from his farm. ham steaks and pork chops. rufus is best pals with his son.

it's really easy to be a locavore around here. not that i am...but i/we could be. pretty much all year round. we are definitely signing up for a farm share next year. and the farmers market is right around the corner from my store every saturday. amazing fresh meat and cheese and veggies and honey and everything else you could ever need. we need to buy a freezer.

now raw milk is not something i'd try.

My friend who lives in Williamstown says the same. They pick half their fruit & veg themselves from a farm, I think, and she can get fresh milk for making butter at home and all kinds of stuff.

raw milk is just begging you to get the shits.

best company in greenfield!

http://www.realpickles.com/products_overview.html

http://www.realpickles.com/carrot.jpg

gonna buy these today.

http://www.realpickles.com/beets.jpg

there are some great businesses out there scott. I wish there was more shit like that around here in central mass.

i feel very fortunate!

the customers at the co-op kinda bug the hell out of me, but i can live with that!

scott, you guys are in Western Mass, right?

yeah, greenfield.

http://www.greenfieldkiwanis.org/images/index.3.jpg

greenfield/deerfield, home of my ancestors. or some of them, anyway. and its where i will die. unless, you know, i die in transit somewhere.

its so nice out there. i want to move there someday.

my long-dead relatives around here used to drink flip to warm their bones during long winters.

FLIP

3 eggs
3 teaspoons sugar
1 jigger rum
1 jigger brandy
1 red-hot flip iron or poker heated in fireplace
tall, all-pewter mug
12-16 ounces of beer
In a quart mug break three eggs
Add three teaspoons sugar and stir well
Add in the jigger of rum and the jigger of brandy, beating meanwhile.
Fill remaining volume of mug with beer
Insert red-hot iron until it hisses and foams.
The drink will become only warm.

wait is that for ONE drink?

i want michael to try making this old yankee favorite:

FLUMMERY

This is actually a blanc-mange pudding with a sea moss base. Sea moss has always been valued for its curative and vitamin powers. Earlier variation was called PAP when using oatmeal in place of sea moss, but not as palatable.

1 quart milk
3 tbs sugar
1 tbs sea moss farina
1 tsp, vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
Put milk in double boiler and sprinkle sea moss into it, stirring well all the time
Heat slowly & stir often
When it boils up and looks white, add sugar, salt and flavoring.
Strain and turn into mold which has been dipped in cold water.
Takes 3 hours to harden.
Serve topped with cream and sugar, or fresh fruit.

ah, settling in for a night of whist, flummery, and flip.

flummery! my grandma used to make that. I don't know nothing about no sea moss though. What *is* sea moss, anyway?

flip sounds intriguing, also kind of gross. but I would try it.
beer, egs, rum, and a hot poker. what could go wrong?

lol, egGs

we need to buy a freezer.

I feel like I should also learn canning how to make preserves.

Well, none of these are really meant to be eaten raw. You do find raw mushrooms a lot in salad bars or whatever, but they're healthier for you if they're lightly cooked, since it removes the toxins.

I see raw summer squash and zucchini on salad bars, too. Blerg. I had undercooked eggplant once and it was so horrifying I tend to avoid it altogether lest I repeat the experience. (Tho tbf I once had a spectacular eggplant parm sandwich so I know it's possible.)

Yeah, well-baked/-roasted/-grilled eggplant can be fantastic.

i make great egglant parm sandwiches! you would love it.

x-post

Eggplant parm is probably my favorite dish in the world.

This thread inspired me to have a SPORE OMELETTE for lunch.

I'll be experimenting with making persimmon chutney for a get together this Saturday. Because why not?

Nice! Very festive...

this whole debate is weird to me. I have a list of foods that I don't like, I'm sure it's on ILX somewhere, but it includes a fair number of "normal" foods that "everyone likes" (e.g. raw tomatoes, chunks of cooked tomato, cucumber, yogurt, bananas, etc). I don't know why I don't like these foods, but it's not psychological (I've never liked these foods), I'm not pretending to not like these foods, I've had plenty of opportunities to try them.

kinda think you're imagining "this whole debate" to be something different than what it was. not liking things is ok. not being willing to try them is basically equivalent to killing a kitten with a dead baby you'd killed with a kitten.

That sounds delicious.

tbf I didn't read the thread

not being willing to try them is basically equivalent to killing a kitten with a dead baby you'd killed with a kitten.

this made me lol really hard

mmm roasted kitten.

if i could get a lamb chop or kabob or something cooked burnt i would try them. Like i said above, i just think i have an aversion to eating "young" animals....

how old does an animal have to be before you eat it?

elderly.

wise in the ways of the world

and at least 18.

marinated in sagacity

If it's old enough to fight and die for its country, it's old enough to get on my plate.

um

xp Chris, it just sounds like the people who are pushing lamb/veal on you really don't know how to cook.

I really only have two or three things I don't eat and they are canned tuna, squash, and tripe. Oh, and holiday sweet potatoes.

man I wouldn't want to live in a world without squash and sweet potatoes

I have had edible sweet potatoes once in my life.

You're missing out.

My mother in law is a fantastic cook, but she's only ever made the lamb with mint jelly junk, which unless that thing looks like leather, i ain't touchin it. My step-mother and her veal roast..well thats a completely different vile story. She roasts potatoes in the veal juice...WTF is that.

yams/sweet spuds rule. roasted, in stews...mmmmm...

You're missing out.

So I'm told. They're too sweet and I'm not fond of the texture.

Actually it's more than once since I had some West African pals in Paris who made some stews w/them but I couldn't taste them in that much.

She roasts potatoes in the veal juice...WTF is that.

Delicious?

^^^GAGWORTHY

i love all spuds. i could survive on potatoes. And cereal.

I much prefer sweet potatoes in savory form - usually roasted or as sweet potato fries. Not a fan of the sweet potato casserole with brown sugar and marshmallows.

Given the explosive popularity of food threads on ILE, I am mystified why I Love Cooking seems to just limp along without much participation.

I only recently tried lamb for the first time after ten years of vegetarianism. I couldn't distinguish it from beef.

Maybe if it were I Love Cooking and Eating
xp

I feel bad posting to ILC that I've made the same boring thing again, I mean I might be greatly enjoying it and I like my apt smelling like some delicious meaty soup, but other people on there do some cool shit with rare ingredients and spices and crazy cooking/preserving techniques, and it's not really worth posting to say that I made lentils again.

Also, in my current sitch, cooking is mostly just a chore.

i feel like ilc could do w/ more threads about microwaving things that are maybe past the point of being edible.

Maybe if it were I Love Cooking and Eating

Possibly! I don't cook much but I have opinions about food.

i really only like to think about things i would like to eat but i usually just end up eating stale bread

There used to be tons of stuff I wouldn't eat due to being on chemo aged five and those things prompting a hurl while so afflicted. If I'm invited somewhere I try to mention at the point of offer in a not-rude way.

OTOH if I am giving a dinner party I canvass my guests for allergies, veginess, ultimate food dislikes and cultural food avoidance and go from there. Anything else is kind of against the spirit of enjoying others' hospitality and/or company.

Sweet potato h8ters: Bake sweet potatoes until soft, then scrape out of the skins and mash with butter and canned chipotle peppers to taste and maybe you will like them.

Or don't. I'm not trying to make you eat something you don't want to eat.

i make great egglant parm sandwiches! you would love it.

x-post

Okay I will take one. Thanks!

Paypal it to me.

Pastry drive.

mmm chipotle

The texture of sweet potato bothers me. I think that's my main issue. Aside from covering it with marshmallows which is a whole other thing (shudder)

I do like sweet potato fries and crisps. Holiday sweet potatoes cast a major pall over the rest of it.

wow I think you all are crazy re: sweet potatoes

they are one of nature's perfect foods and about the only ways I can think of preparing them that would ruin them would involve excrement and/or poison

I wish y'all were in my family cause it'd mean more sweet potatoes w marshmallows for me

i think sweet potatoes would taste good mashed with goat cheese. i am probably wrong, but i am thinking this. and onions? like maybe even crispy onion bits.

I'm asking this non-rhetorically because I don't eat that many sweet potatoes, but how is their texture substantially different from regular potatoes?

slightly more fibrous

i like to make mashed that are a mix of sweet and non-sweet. yummy. (a little garlic. lots of butter.)

xp Hm, okay, I can see that. I've never really noticed, I guess.

Too sweet for me. Prefer my starches savory tbh.

wow I think you all are crazy re: sweet potatoes

they are one of nature's perfect foods and about the only ways I can think of preparing them that would ruin them would involve excrement and/or poison

otm

I eat 'em steamed, boiled, mashed, roasted, fried, in pies, in pastries, with butter and salt, with sugar or maple syrup, with flakes of chili pepper, savory with cumin and black pepper...the sweet potato is one of nature's most perfect accomplishments in my opinion

basically sweet potatoes & collard greens and a starch, either rice or rolls probably, is my perfect meal

I almost had one with "setting them on fire" but it involved using an accelerant, which would be poisonous, so I stand by my original statement

I find the sweet potato thicker and sort of, um, slimier in texture compared to potato, fwiw.

sweet potato enthusiasts are of course correct. they are surprisingly delicious cut into chips/wedges and oven-cooked w/ a small quantity of marmite. I regret years wasted not eating sweet potatos, perhaps I will retire here to compensate

http://www.traditionalfightingarts.com/history_karate_files/OkinawaIsland.gif

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu7JeCGALcg

years ago, i used to have an oprah quote taped to the refrigerator: "all i want is a baked potato and someone to share it with."

about the only ways I can think of preparing them that would ruin them would involve excrement and/or poison

I read this as "excrement and/or prison" and wondered what the heck kind of potatoes they were to land you in jail o_0

To me, kumara (sweet potatoes) are meant to be a savoury thing: roasted with garlic and salt, or in a soup or curry with cumin and spices. Sure, it has a sweetnes, as does pumpkin and carrot.

But mashed with brown sugar and topped with marshmallows? Oh man, I feel like I am going to struggle to find edible food when I come to the US, geez.

Sweet potato scones are the bomb, btw.

I don't like pumpkin or cooked carrots, either. I mean carrot as a base for stocks & soups & sauces, yes. But not when you're going to actually be eating like a mouthful of carrot the way the portions are served. The sweetness puts me off, I dunno.

I can eat cooked carrots only w/salt and olive oil. I much prefer them grated in a salad generally, unless they're part of a stock.

Carrots have a weird feature where when they get a little old and woody, they can taste very strange. Kind of bitter and earthy? When that happens I dont care for them much. But I love grated carrot in coleslaw, and I'll grate carrot into bolognese sauce. Carrots roasted or steamed and then tossed in honey or marsala is also tasty, but quite sweet.

I eat carrots Bugs Bunny style.

yeah carrots are easy to overcook by just a little bit, and therefore ruin.

naked, outdoors, leaning on a tree?
xp

:-B

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/images/reviews/177/1164538758.jpg

trayce, i have yet to encounter a variety of sweet potato in the US that is anywhere near as amazing and delicious as kumara

carrots are great anyway you eat them. even the long way.

carrot juice is the best juice imo

it pleases me so much that on the streets here I can get a cup of fresh squeezed carrot juice for $1.25

carrot juice

carrot juice

ok so last night i gave it a shot, lamb kabobs. Well fuck me in the lamb ass....DELICIOUS!

you have a lamb ass?

yes its soft and wooly.

I'm glad you liked them!

The rich

No