Food preferences

[ailbhe]

Inspired by Another, I've tried to come up with my list of food no-nos. So far I've got:

Soy and soy products, which really makes me sick in large quantities. In smaller quanities it makes me seriously uncomfortable. I'll eat small amounts in other people's homes but not in restaurants where I have a choice.

Milk and milk products, as above but with less devastating results. Milk doesn't make me cry as much.

Seafood other than fish with tails and fins and things - though I'd like to learn to like it, I have an aversion to it without, as far as I can see, any good reason. I think it might be mostly texture. I'd love to be converted by really well-cooked examples of the genre. I do, however, eat rubbery squid when served it in other people's homes, though I admit to using my drink to wash down unchewed mouthfuls like big, plastic-coated pills, whenever I thought no-one would notice.

Mushrooms - I have eaten one I liked, ever, in my whole life; I can and do tolerate them in moderation if they're not too slimy. I ate them uncomplainingly for Mormor, but most places I pick them out carefully and quietly and leave them on the side of my plate. Now that Linnea is around I can feed them to her, because she loves mushrooms, so it looks more like I'm giving her a treat than avoiding them myself. I think if I lived somewhere with plentiful wild, fresh mushrooms I could learn to like them raw. They're no slimy raw and I don't mind the flavour much.

There are various things I won't eat on ethical grounds, but they apply more to when I'm buying than when other people are; if asked my preferences in advance I would state them but if served them for dinner I would eat them, so they don't count, I think.

[Poll #983027]

Comments

[jentifred.livejournal.com]

Question--if soy makes you ill, why do you eat it? Health trumps being "polite", doesn't it?

[ailbhe]

No, not really - it's not an allergic reaction, just the dire rear, so it's a short-term temporary thing. Definitely doesn't trump politeness, though if it's people I know well or am certain won't mind I'll mention it.

[alison.hemuk.myopenid.com (from livejournal.com)]

I don't eat mushrooms either, though I have decided it's the texture - have had fancy little pastry things with the mushroom inside minced up very finely and mixed with something else so there was no sliminess, and they were very nice. Also a mushroom gravy sauce thing was tasty. Can't bring myself to try raw ones though. Sometimes I chop up those dried porcini ones very very small to add to a veggie chili or similar, for a bit of depth of flavour.

I'm working on eating fish - sometimes I enjoy it more than others. But yeah, non-fish seafood is a bit too weird generally and the furthest I've got is a couple of prawns (yuck) and squid. I have developed a taste for good calamari, though the rubbery stuff is still awful, lol.

What about snails? Ever tried them?

[ailbhe]

Never tried snails. My biggest problem with shellfish, especially lobster, crab, etc, is that I've prepped tons of it for restaurants and can still feel the sting and itch in my fingers when I think about it.

[oldbloke.livejournal.com]

I had various shellfish, and squid and ocotpus, for the first time when we were in Spainland t'other week. Only took me 53 years to combine opportunity and courage. Rather nice. Though I'm not sure how much of a razorshell you're supposed to eat (apart from not eating the shell). And I clearly need to attend a class in dealing with langoustine. Also I felt a bit guilty about the octopus, as I suspect it could pass my "I won't eat anything that can explain Pythagoras's Theorem" test.

[k425.livejournal.com]

If I don't say this now, I'll forget. Do you like sausages? If so, www.sallyssizzlers.com is a good place to visit. They're free-from just about everything except sausage! And they've got an offer this month.

[sidheag.livejournal.com]

Dreadful because I can't imagine not liking mushrooms - DH and I are hobbits :-)