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What food could someone not pay you enough to eat?

Jill

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I am so with Melissa on marshmallow peeps. Also on my list: Donuts. Capers. Chardonnay. Cocktail weenies. Aplets & Cotlets which, growing up in Washington State, I always got as Christmas presents. Lemon-flavored desserts (especially any sort of mousse, yuck). Jello, especially the way my grandma — God rest her soul — used to make it (with grapes inside).

Despite my long list of foods I despise, I’ll try pretty much anything once, and I tend to like strong and/or odd flavors. The only food that I have ever absolutely refused to eat was bull penis in Tunisia. It was (surprisingly) small and spongy and pink and in red sauce, and I just could not do it. You can kind of see it in this picture.

What do you hate to eat?

109 thoughts on What food could someone not pay you enough to eat?

  1. Bull penis? Yeah, I doubt there’s enough money in the world to make me do that.

    I really deeply loathe asparagus. Serious hatred.

    I don’t know how you can dislike donuts, though.

  2. Natto is the most foul tasting substance ever considered edible. Hell, it tastes and feels worth than anything I’ve ever put in my mouth, and a pigeon once flew into my face while I was talking.

  4. I may or may not have dragged by (Olympia native, Seattle resident) best friend clear out to Cashmere, WA to take a tour of the Applets & Cotlets factory (with a stop on the way back in Leavenworth for a much-needed kitsch injection. Jill, I am so disappointed that you hate them – it’s Turkish delight! in America! What could be better?

    There was a thing in Russia that I wouldn’t eat, it was a sort of gelled-aspic-meat thingy. I forget what it was called, but it sure looked unappetizing. And eels gross me out, like whole eels that were flopping about like big engorged worms just before being killed. I can’t imagine I’d eat bull penis either, though.

  7. Tomato aspic salad.

    My in-laws make it every holiday. Serve on lettuce with a big dollop of mayonnaise on top. Oh dear LORD it’s horrible.

  8. cottage cheese. Rice pudding. Anything with that texture. If it touches my tongue, my gag reflex starts and I will throw up.

    I also despise yellow mustard.

  11. Organ meats of any kind – liver, heart, etc.
    Tapioca – the texture reminds me of fish eyes and makes me gag

  12. pickles. I don’t even like to kiss people who’ve had pickles in the last 24 hours. tuna too, though not as intensely.

    I also don’t understand how it’s possible not to like any type of donut at all. Not even the super fluffy, light sugared ones???

  13. Gazpacho makes me gag. Actually, I can’t drink tomato juice, either, and I’m not really a huge fan of fresh tomatoes.

    Incidentally, there is considerable overlap between your hated foods list and my most-favorite foods list. Specifically: capers, lemon-flavored desserts, and jello in pretty much any form. (But not tomato aspic. I’m pretty sure that goes in the gazpacho category.)

  14. Dude, what, you hate donuts? Wow. Can you start sending all the ones you don’t want to me? Thanks.

    There are many foods that I will not touch. I’m a very picky eater, and it sucks. At the top of the list would be anything seafood and anything with vinegar. I have a visceral reaction to the scent of vinegar; it makes me retch. I can’t even come within a couple of feet of it let alone eat it.

  15. Fish roe
    Fish sperm
    Sea urchin

    I didn’t throw up the one time I accidently ate natto, but I still think it’s vile.

    Runny cheese of any kind, or any moldy cheese.

    Most yogurts (I choke down strawberry yogurt for my health only, and that’s hard enough).

    Eyeballs. Of anything.

  16. Dude, what, you hate donuts? Wow. Can you start sending all the ones you don’t want to me? Thanks.

    I know. That’s everyone’s reaction. I will fully admit that I am a freak 🙂

    EoL, you are right about fish roe (and fish sperm?! How is that even big enough to eat?), and I definitely won’t fight you on eyeballs (does anyone like to eat eyeballs?), but you are wrong about sea urchins. So very, very wrong.

    And isn’t all cheese moldy?

  17. You know, I almost wish I were a pickier eater. I’m a vegetarian, but that’s a different issue. Being willing to eat pretty much anything someone gives you could be viewed, in certain lights, as a refreshing earthiness, but I’m afraid it mostly feels gluttonous. There are a few foods I don’t love and would never choose if something else is available—ketchup, pecan pie, eggs—but if that’s what’s served, I’ll eat it. I don’t have much I hate.

  18. I love 99% of what’s hated here. I’m undelicate to a fault, seriously. I belch and open beer bottles with the ankles of my jeans. Jill and I have shared a hotel room, so she can probably testify that I’m more redneck than I appear on these here internets.

  19. I’m actually normally pretty anti-donut as well, especially at breakfast time. Ugh. (However, the real deal, fresh from a good bakery can be fine.)

    Bell peppers, yellow mustard, anything with caraway seeds, anything licorice flavored (a curse upon you, fennel!), and anything with a texture like cottage cheese.*

    *Aside from texture, cottage cheese is used far too often as analogy for truly gross stuff that makes me wince upon seeing it. Like the symptoms of a yeast infection. *shudder*

  20. Being willing to eat pretty much anything someone gives you could be viewed, in certain lights, as a refreshing earthiness, but I’m afraid it mostly feels gluttonous.

    Personally, I think that being gluttonous (like being slutty) is seriously under-valued. Gluttony is definitely one of the best sins.

  21. I love 99% of what’s hated here. I’m undelicate to a fault, seriously. I belch and open beer bottles with the ankles of my jeans. Jill and I have shared a hotel room, so she can probably testify that I’m more redneck than I appear on these here internets.

    She also farts in her sleep.

    (Just kidding, that was Lauren).

  22. I draw the line at risotto. I dislike several allegedly “edible” items though I’d eat them if you paid me enough. Risotto though, I’d rather starve to death than eat it.

  23. That honey dijon sauce Bennigan’s will sneak onto some of their sandwiches if you don’t threaten their firstborn, animal genitals no matter how they’re prepared, and any sort of squishy seafood.

  24. Rocky Mountain Oysters. (fried bull testicles.) Despite being a Southerner and a Texan, I cannot stand collard greens, grits, beer and it has to be really really really *good* BBQ for me to eat it. Lentils make me gag and the only way I can eat boiled cabbage is by holding my nose pinched closed. Oh, and despite growing up on a pecan farm, I find pecans tasteless and bland. Maybe that should be *because* I grew up on a pecan farm, lol.

  25. Pickled pig’s feet. My grandmother made it all the time.

    Sushi. Just. Yuck.

    I have a wicked sense of smell, so anything that is slightly off in any way will not come near my lips. I do believe it is a matter of survival because I get extreme intestinal distress eating most everything anyway. I occasionally get badgered into “not being so damn picky,” and I pay. Dear god, do I pay.

  26. I only sometimes fart in my sleep. I also adore capers, lemon-flavored desserts, all things tomato, collard greens, grits, mushrooms, mustard seeds, unpopped popcorn kernals, lentils, cabbage, and bacon. Oh, sweet bacon.

    I really can’t stand fish, any kind, and IF I have to eat meat it must be well done, preferably charred. And after several years of growing bell peppers in my garden, I’ve finally accepted that I kind of don’t like them. At all.

    I’m only picky about meat items. Bull penis is out of the question. And fucking clams on the halfshell, as I discovered this Christmas, look like snot. Why anyone gets excited about swallowing a phlegm ball whole is beyond me.

  27. I should also mention that I will not eat spiders, in their webs. Seriously. I was served a “fresh garden salad” at my in-laws house one time and there were spiders in the lettuce. I pointed this out, showed them the goddamned spiders, and I was told I was being too fussy. Aarrgh. Ok. This reminded me to that.

  30. Off the top of my head, the only food item I would absolutely refuse to eat would be American cheese. The taste and texture is absolutely vile.

    Being willing to eat pretty much anything someone gives you could be viewed, in certain lights, as a refreshing earthiness, but I’m afraid it mostly feels gluttonous.

    In my experience, it also signifies someone who is open-minded, flexible, and adventurous….or at the very least attempting to be polite to not offend the host’s sensibilities.

    Though I was a picky eater as a 6-8 year old, that was rapidly drummed out of me by constant shaming from older relatives who cited their childhood experiences of food scarcity and hardship during WWII/Chinese Civil War. Nowadays, unless the host is someone I’ve known for years, I will eat things I detest just to be polite and not potentially offend the host’s sensibilities…..though I will limit myself to one serving.

    Later in college, nearly all the picky eaters I’ve encountered tended to be upper/upper-middle class classmates with some degree of entitlement. Sometimes that entitlement was of a degree where they became rude with the host. One cringe inducing incident took place at a limited invitation formal student dinner being given by the Dean Emeritus of my college. 🙁

  31. For me: blue cheese – tastes like mildewed dish rags smell; mushrooms – taste like mold and dirt; most beans – have issues with texture and taste; organ meats – my brain goes to places it doesn’t want or need to be. Oh, and for anything seafood related, I’m allergic. That last bit sucks, as I’ve had to leave restaurants that were predominantly seafood because of the “stuff” in the air. I want to like blue cheese and shrooms, so I keep trying different preparations, it just doesn’t work.

  32. I’m a vegetarian, so the field is narrowed considerably.

    Olives as a whole. I’ve tried several kinds and they all make me gag.

    Jellybeans, except for Jelly Belly ones. I can’t handle that texture. Same with Dots candies, gumdrops, and Good and Plentys.

    Sweet pickles.

  33. Also, sushi.

    I thought sushi was disgusting until I tried it. Now I love it.

    Creative Loafing posted these video of strange foods the writers tried. It’s hard to top this for purely disgusting. The food includes BBQ worms, pickled pig feet (it looks nasty), bar eggs and a strange fruit from Thailand. The videos are not for the faint-hearted.

  34. Ketchup, by itself, mixed with mustard it’s not too bad.
    Kraft singles (American cheese?)
    Balsamic vinegar and uncooked red peppers (food poisoning, once. Which is too bad cause I used to adore them both).

    Those are pretty much the only things I’ve refused to eat.

  35. I’ll eat nearly anything.

    However, I once had a co-worker who was an incredibly picky eater. Going out to lunch with her was something else because once she found the one item on the menu that she would actually eat, she had to have it customized (extra this, leave off that, etc.). If the waitress messed up her customization she would freak out.

    We once went to a conference where lunch was served and she wouldn’t eat the salad (not iceberg lettuce), the entree (mushroom ravioli in a cream sauce) or the dessert (mocha something). Amazing.

  36. I agree on marshmallow peeps, they are horrid. My mom used to get them for me for Easter just so she could eat them. I also don’t like raw onions or mushrooms and I’m not a big fan of really spicy things unless they are paired with blue cheese. I don’t eat organ meat and I won’t eat red meat unless it’s extremely rare. I’ll try most things at least once though and I’m trying to expand my food tastes because my parents never exposed us to much of anything and as such I tend to be pickier than I would like.

  37. Mmmm. I’ll have the lemon anything please!

    My hates – beets, sweet potatoes, liver. And the topper, which I would willingly eat any of the preceeding rather than touch, is cockroach. Fortunately I’ve only ever been offered it once. Nice, big farmed cockroach. My husband tried one. I had to look away rather than even watch him eat it.

  38. Bitter things (collard greens, broccoli rabe, tonic water, Campari). I can’t handle that much bitter.

    I don’t like beef liver or green tea ice cream, and whenever I have bubble tea I usually avoid the tapioca pearls. But that’s about it. Pretty boring, really.

  39. I’m a gluten-free vegetarian and allergic to milk and nuts, so my options are limited anyway, but…

    curried anything. Good god, I hate curry.
    Pumpkin pie.
    Peppers
    Pickled anything other than pickles.
    Jelly beans (I guessed how many were in the jar, and then ate all 699 of them in a week… gah. I was 9. Still can’t look at those things)
    Olives

  41. Rumaki, yellow mustard, black licorice, root beer, black coffee, tea, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, sushi, olives, mayonnaise, and three musketeers candy bars.

    I’m convinced that I’m a bad college student because I really don’t like coffee or tea. Hell, I don’t even like hot chocolate. Hot drinks in general make me nauseous, but coffee and tea are just disgusting. I really don’t get why people like them so much.

  42. Red meat, though I’m not vegetarian.
    Tootsie rolls. Ugh, fake chocolate!
    Pineapple because it made me sick as a child.
    Popcorn flavored Jelly Bellies.
    Pretty much anything containing alcohol because I have type one diabetes.

  43. I love capers, cottage cheese, seafood of any sort. I have faced down the crawfish staring at you with accusing eyes and eaten the motherfucker anyway. I will eat stinky cheeses and my main worry about garlic is if the smell on me makes me repulsive. I got into a fistfight with my cat over a piece of half-assed sushi. Honey dignon is an insult to human dignity, but it is edible. Southern foods of the greens/grits variety make me happy. My bf is a bit picky so I snuck in greens by making them look spinach-like, so he is a true believer in the low-class, high-spice category of eating. All soul food makes me happy.

    My ex-boyfriend and I took a bunch of LSD in college and ended up cooking peeps on chopsticks over the gas burner. Good times.

    He was far more redneck than me and helped shame me out of pickiness. His dad would forget to give him money when he traveled, so he would steal food. He was not above eating squirrel. He’s a great cook. Not a romantic guy by most measures, but would cook a feast for me. He knew all the tricks, like making your own stock with turkey and chicken bones.

  44. Ewwww: citrus. No way, no how. Natto I’m probably never going to try, either, but I know I can’t stand citrus.

    And I loooooooooove capers. And sushi. Nom nom nom.

    I tend to be something of a picky eater when fruits or vegetables are concerned, but leaving aside testicles and internal organs, I’ll eat practically any meat or starch. Most spices, too.

  45. Mayonnaise squicks me out, and I don’t much care for radishes. I don’t eat meat anymore, which eliminates some of the stuff I never cared to try. Actually, since I don’t eat eggs anymore, either, mayonnaise is avoidable, too. And I’m sure if I found better radishes than those dried-up dirt-tasting ones that always pop up on salads, I’d like them better.

    Also, sweet pickles. Sour ones I love, but sweet ones give me the heebie-jeebies.

  46. I absolutely loathe peanuts – always have, always will. I used to refuse to ride in cars with my parents after either of them had consumed the dreaded legume. I’m not a fan of peas, used to swallow them whole because I disliked the taste so much, but I’ll eat them now in stews or other dishes when the flavour of the dish has overtaken that of the pea.

  47. Durian. Anyone who has ever seen, smelled, tasted or been in the same room as durian porbably understands. It is the world’s most vile fruit.

    Also raw tomatoes (the gooey seedy part especially) and any baking containing raisins.

  48. I was once duped into eating ox penis soup by some pranksters in college. It was surprisingly good, but that’s probably because the cook was a genius. He later transfered to culinary school.
    I’ve also managed to eat chocolate-covered deep-fried crickets.

    But that was all once upon a time and now I can’t eat a roast beef sandwich without gagging on the red meatness of it . Organ meats are out of the question. And you can’t pay me enough to eat brains because I’m paranoid about prions.

  49. Lemon-flavored desserts–so much agreement. Desserts are supposed to be sweet. Not lemon-flavored. Just…no.

    Chickpeas (can’t stand the texture), cantaloupe (makes me gag), bananas (ditto), American cheese (whoever said that the taste and texture are vile is spot on), fresh tomatoes (really GOOD tomatoes in small doses with dressing I can deal with, but not those disgusting tasteless grainy things they sell in supermarkets), mozzorella cheese (except in small doses in pasta dishes), orange juice (though I like fresh oranges), white chocolate, Doritos, marshmallow peeps (ugh), and most Mexican food (I got a horrible stomach virus right after eating it and…yeah. I can’t even think about it now).

    What’s funny is that as I get older I’m more and more open to trying new things (just had venison for the first time last week and YUM), which I never was before, but I still hate the foods I used to hate.

  50. I am becoming decreasingly picky as I age, and have recently begun to actually enjoy broccoli, something I would have told you five years ago would never happen. There are still some things that I will skip a meal rather than eat, though.

    Mayo. I can live with “-salad” sandwich fillings with some mayo in them, as long as I can’t taste it and the texture is disguised. If it’s spread on something, though, I’ll valiantly try to wipe it off with a napkin, but usually wind up having to stop after a few bites. I one time bit into a sandwich and gagged on unexpected mayo. Similarly, dijon mustard. All the grossness of mayo, and spicy, too.

    I am getting better about fish, but outside of sushi I’m still pretty hesitant to eat anything with bits of fish in it large enough to see. I was allergic as a small child, and never picked up a taste for it. I keep trying to get myself to eat yellowtail on sushi, and it just tastes like the aquarium. Not appetizing. (Eel, on the other hand, I find pretty tasty, for fish. And I’ll eat fake crab, even though I know it’s some kind of other fish.)

    Mushrooms I can usually manage to eat around; thankfully they don’t usually make other things taste like them. Grapefruit, on the other hand, practically makes the whole room taste like it. Way too bitter for me. Yuk. I am beginning to be able to enjoy lettuce, but mostly leafy green things get picked over for anything with flavor they might be hiding, then left on the plate.

  52. I can’t stand mushrooms or onions. I know an awful lot of the food I eat that I don’t prepare has onions in it, but as long as I can’t taste them or feel them, I’m fine. It might have something to do with mistaking an onion for a peeled apple when I was little and taking a huge bite of it.

    I’m actually pretty picky about vegetables in general. The only ones I really like, as opposed to just tolerating, are celery, carrots, peppers, broccolli and spinach.

    Also don’t like liver, relish, cream cheese, cantaloupe, coconut or fake banana flavouring (though I love real bananas)

  53. Well, if there’s money involved, or, you know, surviving, I could widen my range considerably. But given a choice I won’t eat raw tomato, organ meat, anything with eyes, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, any raw meat product (sashimi or tartare or oysters or whatever), okra or molded cheeses. Not a big fan of mushrooms, caraway rye, or avacado either. And while I’ve never actually had anything like the tomato aspic Auguste describes, I think I’ll avoid that too (it sounds vile).

    Lemon deserts and donuts are delicious, by the way.

  54. Lettuce. Anything in leaf form, really, but lettuce especially since people insist on sticking it in cheeseburgers ‘n stuff.

    Mushrooms.

    Tongue — I tried it once, and it’s not bad, but I have trouble with the concept.

    Raw shellfish.

  55. I love food. I must just be lucky because food always tastes so good to me and I love to cook so I can always get it just how I like it. I was also raised in the country so fresh fruits and veggies are pretty much par for the course, and they are the best. Whenever I hear someone say they hate tomatoes (or any other fruit/veggie) I wonder if they’ve ever picked one straight off the vine and eaten it in the garden, because everything you buy from a supermarket is going to taste bad.
    I’ll seriously eat anything, though. I don’t know if it’s just a part of me that has to show off or prove myself or whatever, but I’ve eaten various animals (crocodile, ocotpus, venison, etc), various parts (like hearts). I love food adventures. My favorites are different cheeses.
    Despite my adventurousness, I still can’t stand white rice (boring unless topped with some kind of gravy), iceburg lettuce (it’s like eating nothing), and clam chowder (it just tastes weird). Or anything made at Subway. Oh, how I hate Subway.

  57. There are several foods that I consider, under normal circumstances, NOT FOOD. They include any seafood except some forms of sushi (anything unagi, whatever that orange roe is, anything with tentacles, tuna, maybe salmon) and maybe canned tuna if it’s a good day. I can’t even be anywhere with a fish or fish-cooking smell. It’s literally the only thing that gets me nauseated. Tongue, mainly because it still looks like a tongue. Shortbread or butter cookies of any kind, even with fillings. Mangoes or mango-flavoured anything. Artificial guava, papaya, or mango candy. I tried dried durian and wanted to die, afterwards. Anything involving a spinal cord or brain. Bugs that still look like bugs (I’d eat cockroach filet or pate or something, just no legs.) I don’t drink alcohol under any circumstances. Anything that mixes peanut butter and chocolate– no! Peanut butter is a savoury food! Not even with jam. The insides of the Oreo. Coconut milk by itself. Apple-cinnamon herbal tea. Sweetened or milky tea, or sweetened ice tea, or sweetened ANY tea, actually. Toast that has both butter and honey on it.

    Then again, I’d eat a bug on a stick or a squid, or a lamb eyeball if it was someone’s pride and joy and it would make them overjoyed and if I were pretty sure I’d never have to eat it again. Or if I were paid a significant amount of money. Or just to try it. Honestly, I will try anything once, but it might take a bit of working up the nerve. Most of the things on my list are things I just plain hate and already have had.

  58. I belch and open beer bottles with the ankles of my jeans.

    Amanda, dead seriously, I wanna know HOW you open beer bottles this way! Maybe it comes from growing up with all male couisns but one (and she’s a hog-riding EMT/ fire captain in the Southwest), but I’m still quite tomboy and NEED to learn this trick!! And i can burb on command, much to my daughter’s chagrin.

    Icky foods: tripe, cooked peas, liver, Chardonnay. And after reading down through this thread at 6am, I’m HUNGRY! 😉

  59. Liver and brussel sprouts. I’m one of those lucky ‘super tasters’. It goes beyond bitter into something truly vile. And, wow! Can’t believe how many of my favorites made other folks’ hit lists.

  60. And bull penis, Rocky Mt oysters, eyeballs, etc are up there with chocolate covered insects or live mealy worms. Those are “dare-ya!” items- NOT “food”… and personally, I don’t need to do what someone else did to know it’s a fucking stupid idea.

  61. Can’t stand sesame seeds. Even the smell makes me gag.
    I’ve tried so many things that I don’t like that it is hard to say what I just would not eat. Say if you paid me, right? There’s tons of stuff I don’t like but not eating for tons of money…. ?
    Something live probably or humans. Bring on the offer and we’ll talk !

  62. Raw meat. I’m sure it tastes great, but my brain says it’s a bad idea, so no raw meat.
    Organ meats. I’ve tried to eat them, but I can’t get past the texture most of the time.
    Cooked cabbage.
    Lettuce on hot sandwiches, like burgers. Even good lettuce, hot, makes me gag.
    Strong stinky cheeses, like bleu and gorgonzola.
    Wild meats, like venison and squirrel. I’ve had domestically raised venison and kangaroo, and they were okay, but wild venison was too gamey for me.
    I am sure there are others, but these are the ones which spring to mind first.

  63. I’ll try almost anything at least once. There are very few things that I won’t eat because they actually taste bad- most of the things I can’t stand, it’s because of the texture or smell. There are a number of things I’m not fond of, but things that I actually loathe?

    Chicken feet.
    Most organ meat.
    Mayo.
    Mushrooms.

  64. I had bear meat once, and it wasn’t great. But otherwise I’m such an omnivore that I don’t turn my nose up at anything. My mother’s horror that a picky child might embarrass her in front of hosts or guests transferred well.

  65. CURRY. I can smell it from miles away and it makes me gag.

    Raw onions – tastes like what a sweatty armpit would taste like if you licked it.

    Sweet potatoes, sweetbreads (oragn meat), black licorice, Brie, Lamb, Venison, Kale, Fennel, chitlins, Veal, coffee, rhubarb

  66. hm, mayonnaise totally disgusts me and i have a gag reaction to even thinking about honeydew melon. i had a bad experience with one once and there’s no going back, i’m afraid.

    i was among the pickiest of picky eaters i’ve heard of as a kid (no meat of any kind, almost no vegetables – god knows how my parents kept me alive), because i absolutely refused to be pushed into anything before i was ready and couldn’t stand different textures. the big change came by going to japan for a month when i was 16. that sure blew the doors off the house and now i eat just about anything. (don’t be hating the sweetmeats/organs! just have them wrapped in intestine and grilled over a fire with oil and lemon juice. mmmm, kokoresti…)

  67. Sea urchin. Oh god sea urchin.

    Also olive loaf, but that can probably be extended to a blanket statement about all bologna, olives or no.

  68. I’m a long-time veggie, so that knocks out anything w/ a face (and some things w/o, like shellfish), but what I find repellent in terms of flavor/texture: mayonnaise, olives and capers, and black licorice. There are other things I’m not crazy about–cauliflower, for example–but not too many. I will eat anybody’s unwanted lemon anything. Except “lemon pickle” like you’d get it an indian restaurant; that stuff is beyond. Add that to the “repellent” list.

  70. I avoid invertibrates. Animals without a spine are not appealing to me. If it wears its skeleton on the outside, I’m not interested; if it has no skeleton, I’m not interested.

    OTOH, I know people who are really squicked by organ meats, which I’m fine with. I LOVE haggis. I tried it for cultural reasons, but in fact, I really love it. Not just the beef-liver-pate filling people usually serve in the US, but real mutton, lungs-and-all haggis commonly served in the UK. At Scottish events, if I get a tablespoon-sized portion of haggis and neeps (turnips), which is common, I ask for seconds. I also like black pudding, which is a blood pudding served with breakfast.

  71. There is little I absolutely will not eat. There are many things I don’t like, and choose not to buy for myself, but I’ll try almost anything twice.

    Most of the stuff on my “absolutely not” list are things I think are unsafe; raw chicken and the brains of vertebrates come to mind. Also, peanut butter and mayo sandwiches with american cheese, bacon, and pickles. Who, you ask, would ever eat such a thing? My father. With glee.

    One step up from that is the stuff I won’t eat unless it would grievously offend my hosts at a meal and/or I am starving on a desert island: red meat, mayo, any invertebrate, anything that ought to be a dairy product, but contains no actual dairy (kraft singles and margarine, I’m looking at you), soy anything (I’m less than soy-tolerant. Not an allergy, but boy do I think I’m going to lose my cookies for a couple hours afterward if I eat tofu.), frozen dinners.

    And one step up from that is stuff I don’t buy for myself and don’t like, but will eat: mature leafy greens, mushrooms, olives, coffee, whiskey, and OJ.

  72. Is it strange that when I read about people hating my favorite foods (stinky cheeses, all things pickled, mustard seed, beets, asparagus, mushrooms) I think, haha! more for me! =)

  73. Wow, most of this stuff just sounds really tasty.

    I lived in China and liked most everything except aspic meats and boiled cobra. even then it’s not that bad (cobra gives me stomach problems)

    But honestly….I despise meatloaf. Refuse to eat it in any form.

  74. Other hates:

    Cauliflower – I was a sportswriter for 10 years and cauliflower smells like an NBA locker room.

    Mushrooms – Slimy, moldy, smells like an NFL locker room.

    Blue cheese – Smells like the ultimate hell – an NHL locker room.

    Beets – Stains like a mofo, tastes like dirt.

    Most condiments – The aforementioned mouseturd, ketchup, mayo, relish, pickles, salad dressing. Why would people ruin a beautiful, fresh salad with stinky glop?

    Liver or pate – As a friend says, “Don’t eat the filter.”

    Tunafish – Should be banned from being eaten at your desk.

    Curry – Smells like feet.

    Most fish and seafood – I grew up in New England and all I like are fried clams.

  76. I too am not so picky, though since I stopped eating meat, you can’t convince my mother of that fact. I love many of the things listed here: eggs, curry, tapioca (yay!), blue cheese (but only really good, like neal’s yard dairy, blue cheese), beets, mushrooms, lemon anything, capers, olives, mustard, cabbage, shellfish, beans, brussels sprouts, bitter stuff like amaro, etc., etc. Even peeps I will eat from time to time.

    But I cannot eat tomatoes. I can eat ketchup, I can eat stewed tomatoes in soup, but not raw tomatoes, nor tomato juice, nor tomato soup. This has caused me pain over the years, as my family tried every trick they knew to get me to eat them: salt, sugar, cherry tomatoes, nothing worked. It’s not that I hate them, I just can’t eat them. It’s like a taste allergy. In fact, I wonder if many of these things are actually allergies; I swear I read once that people who find the taste of bell (or as we call em, mango) peppers disgusting are reacting to a rare allergy to bell peppers.

    Though I can eat shellfish, I had never been served whole cooked shrimp before until I was at a restaurant in Italy; no one told me to beware the “vein,” and when I realized that that gritty taste in my mouth was shrimp poop, I had to look that little guy in the eyes and call it over.

  77. Also: what *is* it with Chardonnay? It’s not the taste of it per se, but it’s like a little guy just went in with a hose and spewed petroleum jelly all over the inside of your mouth or something. Fucking gross.

  78. I like most of the stuff people listed… I’ll try almost anything, but once I have, I’m picky about what kind of certain food items I’ll eat (I love American cheese from the deli, but Kraft singles are nasty). I like fish, I’ll eat mushrooms raw with glee, and I eat mayo on fries. I’m already counting down the days until asparagus season.

    There are some things I can’t stand the idea of. Like Rocky Mountain Oysters… they could be good, but I’ll never know, because I’ll never be able to get over the concept. Ditto for anything that looks at me (whole lobsters or crabs or crawfish… I love lobster and crab and crawfish, but if I can see its eyes, it’s not going in my mouth). Non-veg sushi creeps me out in the same way, thought I’ve been told how good it is many times.

    Bologna.

    Otherwise, I have preferences (no lemon, no olives, no anise, please), but I can bend those if need be.

  79. LeNi beat me to the balut. And I’ll second the aversion to peas, as well. I won’t eat them, except MAYBE in pasta carbonara where there is enough pasta and bacon and cream and eggs to hide the taste of the peas.

    Also, carrots. Hate ’em raw, hate ’em cooked. And coconut-flavored anything. ::::shudders:::: Pina Coladas, because the only thing worse than coconut flavor is coconut flavor with pineapple flavor added. (Although I should metion here that I like pineapple a lot, and I can eat unsweetened coconut, even though I’m not crazy about it. It’s specifically the coconut and pineapple FLAVORING that kills me.)

  80. Whenever I hear someone say they hate tomatoes (or any other fruit/veggie) I wonder if they’ve ever picked one straight off the vine and eaten it in the garden, because everything you buy from a supermarket is going to taste bad.

    Yup. My mom grew tomatoes in the backyard when I was a kid, and I couldn’t eat them without gagging. I think Sina might be right about this being some sort of physiological reaction. There are other foods that I don’t care for, but fresh tomatoes are the only thing that I actually have trouble getting down my gullet. It’s not that I don’t like them. It’s that eating them makes me feel like I’m going to puke.

    (I hasten to add that I can eat them if it would be rude not to. I went to a dinner party a month or so ago where my host served gazpacho, and I’m pretty sure I managed to eat it without letting on that I was gagging. Also, cooked tomatoes are fine, and I can and do eat tomato paste out of the jar with a spoon. So it’s a bit of a mystery.)

    My only other food thing is that I’m pretty seriously lactose intolerant. I love, love, love cheese, but I pay for it later. Even if I take two lactaids, I end up at least a little bit sick. I probably appear picky to other people, because I try pretty hard to avoid dairy, but it’s really as much for the benefit of everyone around me as for my own comfort. And I’ll just leave it at that.

  81. Sweet pickles and therefore relish. Beets. Organ meat. My childhood aversion was brussel sprouts. I’ve tried to like them — I’ve tried various ways cooks have enhanced them, but they still taste nasty to me.
    Otherwise I’ll try just about anything.

  82. A little off track, but it’s been brought up several times here. I see this “conventional wisdom” about not offending the host spouted way too much. I honestly don’t get it. As a host of many, many dinner parties, I would be appalled to find someone would put something into their mouth and eat it if they were disgusted by it or didn’t like the taste. For crying out loud, I don’t invite people to my house to abuse them and would be horrified to find people thought so little of me as to think I would be offended by such a petty thing.

  84. I third the balut. Yuck. I once sat on a commuter bus in Hawaii, 3-months pregnant and with morning sickness, and watched the man across the aisle work his way through one of those. I paid for parking the next month.

  85. I have several dislikes, I wouldn’t turn them down if I was starving to death, I’m sure. Bell peppers of any color, liver or kidneys (why would you eat something that processes waste?), raw meat from any cuisine, Cranberry sauce (although I like the juice and the dried ones), veal (I don’t eat babies), or things with tentacles.

    I’m not sure what you couldn’t pay me enough to eat, if it was like a Powerball lottery of 300 and some-odd million dollars. Bugs. You couldn’t pay me enough to eat bugs in any form. Or those nasty half-formed duck embryos that were on Fear Factor.

    I’d eat it for $30 or more, but I’ve yet to come across a brand of Soy yogurt that wasn’t nastily grainy, and I’ve tried several. It just doesn’t work.

  86. Meat, raw tomatoes (that aren’t entirely hidden by other things in the sandwich–and yeah, my mom and various relatives grew multiple kinds of tomatoes from cherry to grape tomatoes), cottage cheese, jello (unless there is a whole lot of fruit in it), slim jims (I don’t think they’re actually meat so they get a separate category), brandy, brussell sprouts, cooked carrots, those smushed-vegetable veggie patties, green olives, and probably some other things that I can’t remember.

    i love asparagus, artichokes, tofu, soy cheese, cooked or stewed tomatoes, raw carrots, peas, black olives, buttermilk, mushrooms, garlic, and a whle lot that other people find gross.

  87. As a host of many, many dinner parties, I would be appalled to find someone would put something into their mouth and eat it if they were disgusted by it or didn’t like the taste. For crying out loud, I don’t invite people to my house to abuse them and would be horrified to find people thought so little of me as to think I would be offended by such a petty thing.

    I think it’s more that I wouldn’t want to make them feel bad or weird for serving something that I hated, and I’d feel bad about calling attention to myself. If it were one dish out of many, I’d skip it because I’d figure that even if they noticed, it wouldn’t be a big deal. But if it’s an entire course, I would eat it, because otherwise it might make the host feel uncomfortable. Also, people are often cooking around my pretty obnoxious food issues (cooking without butter, cream and cheese can be a pain in the ass if you’re not used to cooking for vegans), and I feel like I’ve already cashed all my food-preference chips before I walk in the door. Once you’ve pretty much dictated the menu, I think you’re obligated to eat whatever is put in front of you.

  88. i am also with the lemon flavored desserts.

    any type of pudding (texture thing). mayonnaise is even worse for me. that is seriously the one food i really wouldn’t eat no matter what.

    vegemite is terrible.

    i’m also mostly vegan (no meat, eggs, dairy).

    there are other things i don’t generally prefer, but will eat if served. the above list consists of things that i absolutely can’t eat no matter what.

  89. I love all types of food, to my waistline’s detriment.

    However, natto makes me gag. Anything that’s touched natto makes me gag. (Which I discovered trying to pick apart the otherwise lovely tuna rolls.)

    And I’ve never had the guts to bring durian into the house. A friend and I have agreed that at some point we’ll take one into the woods and crack it open to give it a shot. If all else fails it should keep the bears away.

    I also hate soy milk, to the point that when I was a baby and had a cow milk allergy I actually started losing weight because I refused to drink soy milk even when starving. Strangely, I like just about every other variant on soy products.

  90. Cooked peas. Raw peas, straight off the vine, before they start to get round, are fine, but cooked peas are disgusting.
    Anything with a sort of soft, slick texture, indescribable except by example: soft tofu cooked certain ways, occasionally eggplant. Like gooey phlegm, the sort of texture cockroaches probably don’t have but that I, nevertheless, always imagine them having.
    Liver, except liverwurst.
    I have not as yet been offered insects, but I cannot imagine being enthusiastic about them.

  91. I have not as yet been offered insects, but I cannot imagine being enthusiastic about them.

    I have heard that if you can get past the fact that they’re insects, they can actually be quite pleasantly crunchy.

  92. fresh basil and rum & cokes. also, i second (or third or whatever) tapioca, cottage cheese, and anything else of that general texture/consistency.

  93. LeNi beat me to the balut. And I’ll second the aversion to peas, as well. I won’t eat them, except MAYBE in pasta carbonara where there is enough pasta and bacon and cream and eggs to hide the taste of the peas.

    WHAT CARBONARA HAVE YOU BEEN EATING?

    That is NOT carbonara! That is an abomination! (This is not directed at you but at whomever made the carbonara. Unless you did. In which case: stop! No peas in Carbonara!)

    My hates are:

    Anis. UGH. I can choke down cooked fennel but…yuck.

    Since I’m allergic to all shellfish, nuts, chickpeas and lentils I almost feel like a vegan sometimes with the whole “cashed the food dislike chips”.

    I used to hate mushrooms and trained myself out of it. Now one of my fave foods!

  94. Cilantro/coriander (ah, and there’s http://www.ihatecilantro.com)
    Mint (I once threw up after just smelling the stuff in a friend’s garden!)
    Fennel (thanks for mentioning it, other commenters! I would’ve forgotten)
    Milk, plain yogurt, mayonnaise, sour cream, pretty much everything white and creamy, though vanilla ice cream can be OK, I guess.
    Ugh, I’m with the other people that said fresh tomatoes. Terrible.
    Anything super salty
    There are things I’ve never tried, but am sure I would absolutely hate like bleu cheese, anise, and cottage cheese.
    I think that is about it for stuff I just won’t eat unless my life depends on it. I have plenty more things I’d really rather not eat, but that would take forever.
    And you know, I agree with the raw onion/armpit comment, but I still LOVE raw onions. Oops.

  95. Foods that I would rather die than gag down:

    Organ meats of any kind (except Rocky Mountain Oysters, which are damn good sliced thin, battered, and deep fried)

    Cream of Wheat (or any other hot cereal – it’s a texture thing)

    Brussel sprouts

    Hot spices or peppers (I think I’m a “super taster” when it comes to these – Taco Bell plastic Mexican food is TOO SPICY for me)

    Raw fish

    Tofu

    Beans (bleah! They’re just like tiny little balloons filled with baby powder in texture.)

    Anything carbonated (although I bet I could gag down a Coke for $100 million.)

    Sally: If you have problems with lactose-intolerance, you can take literally *handfuls* of Lactaid. I had stress-induced lactose intolerance for awhile, and I was taking those things 8 at a time at every meal (even the ones without obvious milk products). They’re an enzyme, so it’s really hard to OD on the things. I’m no longer lactose-intolerant (except for Lucerne ice cream and cream cheese made by anyone other than Philadelphia), so I don’t take the Lactaid anymore. So the next time you would like to eat some cheese, take at least 4 or 6 of the Lactaid, and I’ll bet you do okay. 🙂

  96. Any undercooked eggs like softboiled eggs generally remind me of vomit. Mayonnaise is fine, mousse is fine, just not the slimy eggs by themselves. Another thing I hate are canned clams, especially the ones with lots of grit in them.

    Generally feel sick eating junk food, especially ultra-sweet stuff like cheapo candy bars. Part of it is because my teeth are sensitive to overly sweet stuff. Other than that, everything goes down well. No food allergies that I know of. As long as food doesn’t give me thoughts that I’m drinking a glass of phlegm or slime, all’s well.

  97. A little off track, but it’s been brought up several times here. I see this “conventional wisdom” about not offending the host spouted way too much. I honestly don’t get it. As a host of many, many dinner parties, I would be appalled to find someone would put something into their mouth and eat it if they were disgusted by it or didn’t like the taste. For crying out loud, I don’t invite people to my house to abuse them and would be horrified to find people thought so little of me as to think I would be offended by such a petty thing.

    I believe it is a mixture of family shaming at being picky when they grew up amidst food hardship due to war (“Back in my day we ate whatever we can get…” & Pickiness = being spoiled by excess…) and not wanting to be associated with some overentitled upper/upper-middle class college classmates who were rude about their pickiness at a formal dinner presided over by the college’s Dean Emeritus.

  98. I’d eat just about anything for enough money, but since nobody’s offered to pay me to eat, I avoid:

    -Cap’n Crunch (stomach virus, first grade, circle time – ’nuff said)

    -bologna (see above, except it was kindergarten)

    –Ham – I can do hot honey-ham at christmas, but cold ham makes me nauseous

    -Hot dogs, except for Hebrew National, Nathans, or Vienna Beef, and only with all the Chicago-style trimmings

    -Mac ‘n cheese from a box

    -the crappy hummus you get at the grocery store – fresh made at a good mediterranean restaurant is tolerable

    -nuts

    creamy peanut butter (but I’ll eat chunky – yes, i am aware that it has both peanut butter and whole nuts in it)

    -poultry on a bone

    I will, however, eat sushi, ceviche, any kind of fish, and try pretty much anything at least once.

  101. Just have to say, I love lemon flavor desserts. 🙂 I love lemon flavor anyhthing, really, but desserts I especially like since the sour tends to ‘clear’ my tastebuds up. 🙂

    Since I saw it a couple times listed: coffee. Hate it, can’t stand it, don’t want to be anywhere near it . I avoid Starbucks and the coffee aisle at the grocery store. The smell of brewing coffee has been known to ruin my appetite.

  104. I’m not too picky, except that I don’t eat anything that flies or lives on land (pescatarian). However, there are exceptions:

    I don’t like eggplant, although I love my mother’s eggplant parmigiana (and only my mother’s). The texture is slimy and those little seeds, eek.

    Codfish, it’s very big in my culture and my folks love it, but I just can’t do it.

    Fresh papaya, although it’s awesome and dreamy as a milkshake.

    I was addicted to tomatoes as a child, and now I can’t tolerate it, only the very small varieties.

    Raisins, I must pluck them out of my desserts. If I chew on just one, I might lose my appetite (which it’s almost impossible to do). But I like dried cranberries, so go figure.

  105. Dislike of cilantro is supposedly a genetic trait. If you have a certain gene, cilantro tastes terrible, either soapy or rank, because you can taste certain substances in the cilantro that others can’t, possibly phenylthiocarbamide. If you can’t taste that flavor, cilantro just tastes grassy, rainlike and clean, like a fresh leafy vegetable.

    This whole thread of foods people can’t stand makes me hungry. I honestly can’t think of anything I wouldn’t eat for a reasonable sum of money, probably because I’ve already eaten practically anything that someone puts on a plate in front of me. Brains, check. Horse, check. Goat head, check. Vulture testicles, check. Whole roasted guinea pig, check. Live seafood, check. Dog food, check. (OK, I was six years old for that one.) Foie gras, check — although I have to say I try to avoid meats that are extra-cruelly produced, if someone served it to me I’d eat it. I don’t really like mayonnaise and I’m not fond of candy corn, but I would certainly eat it. I also really do not like bitter, powdered Chinese candies. Those are possibly the worst thing I’ve ever tasted, but I still ate one to be polite.

    Probably the only things I wouldn’t eat would be things that would actually make me sick, such as rotten food (well, past a certain point… my parents made us eat “off” food all the time when I was a kid) or something poisonous, a chunk of metal, heavy cream pureed with mackerel (definitely makes me throw up), chugging a bottle of apple cider vinegar. Actually I’ve consumed some of those things and although I’m not really into being paid to throw up, there is probably a sum of money I’d consider doing it for since you know, I could do good things with the money. I probably also would not non-consensually eat part of a living human being. Can’t think of anything else I wouldn’t eat. Maybe I wouldn’t eat a dead baby either, it would make me too sad. But I’d still feel like I was wasting food. Pathological, eh?

  106. Thanks to family history and personal warning signs, alcohol’s at the top of my list.

    For actual foods, though, hmm … I’m not very picky. But definitely chili peppers and the like; I don’t burn my mouth for anyone!

  107. Wow — you guys are weird 🙂

    I didn’t like bitter things as a kid, but I grew out of it. Now it’s just a matter of foods that I don’t care for, like pickled green tomatoes, or food whose taste isn’t worth their calories, like doughnuts or most cake. Now that it’s winter, I’m eating a lot of Brussels sprouts and beets. You have to cut a little X in the bottom of the bigger sprouts before you cook them, to prevent bitterness. Somebody alluded to head cheese, which can be delicious if it’s not too vinegary as German-style often is. Try Italian, or better yet, French.

    Kishka is the weirdest thing I ever ate as a kid: a large intestine filled with blood and buckwheat groats. We kids got it down with enough ketchup. I don’t know if I would eat it now or not. We also ate pigs feet and fried ring bologna, neither of which I’m rushing to obtain now.

  109. The flesh of any great ape. I will not do it. Unless I were in dire straits, and would die otherwise.

    Otherwise, there are plenty of foods I am not supposed to eat (they give me migraines) but if paid enough I could down some blue cheese, coffee, or licorice.

    I’ve eaten insects and brains and pickled invertebrates, so most people’s deal-breakers look okay to me.

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