Foods I’ll Never Eat

Even though I’ve outgrown most of my childish food aversion, there are foods I’ll never eat. When blending our household after Mom came to live with us, there was a lot to work through.  We had different dinner hours.  So, Lee and I started eating a little earlier, and Mom started eating a little later.  We also compromised on the foods we like to eat. 

Mom eats a lot of beef, in fact, almost exclusively beef with some pork thrown in occasionally.  We ate mainly chicken, with occasional fish, pork, and beef sprinkled in, plus twice or thrice weekly meatless meals.  Since we were still working, and mom was doing most of the cooking, we ate what she liked to cook.  I certainly will never complain if someone is cooking for me. I have a rule, if I didn’t have to make it, it’s the most delicious meal I ever ate. 

Sharing the cooking

But once I was no longer going to the office, I started cooking more of our dinners.  Our differing food choices became a lot more obvious.  To me, salad is lunch food.  I don’t really like lettuce and will make a mostly veggie salads with a little bit of meat, nuts, or cheese for protein, and easy on the greens for a healthy lunch.  Rarely will I eat a “side salad” with dinner.  Mom, on the other hand, really likes a side salad with every meal.  So we compromised. 

Tacos are salads, right?

We eat taco Tuesday every week (which is basically a salad in a tortilla), and then I make a big dinner salad on Thursday with whatever meat or cheeses we have in the fridge.  I love lots of goodies in my salads, including capers.  Mom doesn’t like capers, at all.  She refers to them as my “new age” food, even though they’ve been eating them in Mediterranean cultures since the dawn of time. In America, capers are used as more of a condiment, but in the Mediterranean, they are an ingredient.  That’s the way I learned to appreciate them, in recipes.

I do tend to be a more experimental cook.  I’m not really the basic “home cook”.  I’ve subscribed to Bon Appetite magazine for nearly 40 years, and I really do enjoy making many of the recipes.  I’ve made my own yogurt and cheese. I have made souffles, and most recently my own sourdough starter and breads, you can read about here. I’ve pretty much tackled all of the scary things, except for the foods I will not eat. 

Outgrowing childish things

These have become fewer over the years.  People should try foods they don’t like, at least once a year, to see if they still don’t like them.  I used to really dislike raisins and would pick them out of everything.  But I started eating Raisin Bran Crunch at my dad’s house because that’s what he had.  The raisins aren’t really that bad with the crunchy flakes and cold milk. I still don’t like them cooked into things, and I wouldn’t eat them in a box of “natures candy”.  But I can tolerate them, and even enjoy them in cereal with cold nut milk. Still, don’t be offended if you see me pick them out of baked goods, or salads. Sorry.

Another food I used to really dislike as a kid were brussels sprouts.  Mom would make us eat them, and I’d cut them in half and swallow the halves whole.  They were just that awful to me.  Fast forward about 40 years to a dinner party with friends.  She roasted the brussels sprouts in garlic, oil, and balsamic vinegar.  I tried them because I hate to be “that friend”, especially since I do have food allergies that have to be avoided.  So, if I’m not allergic, I’ll usually eat whatever is served.  Her brussels sprouts tasted incredible.  They were crispy and delicious.  I loved them so much that I started making them myself and ordering them in restaurants.  See, you never know if you will like something once you’ve developed an adult food palate, if you don’t try it.

So what are the foods I will never eat?

Shellfish

This is a big one for me.  I’m allergic to all shellfish and mollusks.  It’s a serious enough allergy that my food can’t even be cooked on the same surface where shellfish was cooked.  This includes oil fryers, grills, and cast-iron skillets.  My best friend even keeps a pan that she uses only when she cooks for me.  I’m lucky to have friends that watch out for me.

The allergy includes all crustaceans, and mollusks, which include squid and octopus…so no calamari, even.  I just don’t take any chances anymore.  It’s gotten pretty serious each passing year. You’ll know I’ve eaten them before I will because the first symptom is a rash. A friend sat next to me at a work meeting where lunch had been served. Neither of us noticed there had been bay shrimp in the salad. She looked at me and said, “Are you feeling alright?” I actually was feeling a little woozy, so I said, “Why do you ask?” “You have a bright red rash all over your neck and chest!” Dang it!

Avoiding shellfish is becoming more difficult when eating out because so many places now serve it.  Most places don’t prepare their seafoods in different prep-stations and cooking surfaces.  As an example, Rubio’s used to be one of my boss’s favorite places to walk to for lunch. He’s a pescatarian, and only eats fish.  He basically always eats fish tacos for lunch because he’s such a creature of habit. I do eat finfish, so that wasn’t a problem.

Then one day Rubio’s started offering shrimp and lobster tacos.  Since everything is grilled on the same surface, including the vegetables, there’s virtually nothing I can safely eat there.  That became a work issue for me.  I could no longer grab a quick lunch with my colleagues because they always went to Rubio’s.  I’m still bitter about that, can you tell?

Organ Meats

The truth is, I barely stomach meats in general, so organ meats are a great big no.  They don’t taste good to me.  I understand they can be very nutritious, but they can also be high in cholesterol and saturated fats, which I’d rather get from a medium rare rib-eye steak.  Even then, I only eat 3 or 4 ounces of meat in any sitting.  It’s just not my favorite thing.

Animal Fat

I’m like Jack Sprat.  Just the thought of eating fat gives me the shivers.  It’s probably more a texture thing, honestly, because I do like extra crispy bacon fat.  But then again, it’s bacon!  Because of my queasiness about meats in general, everything has to be boneless and skinless, and very well trimmed.

Under-cooked Egg Whites

I love my eggs over medium with the whites completely cooked and the yolks runny.  But if my egg arrives with any wiggly egg white, I can’t eat it.  Nope.  Just can’t.

Beets

I don’t know what it is about beets, but they just taste yucky.  They are one of the few foods that I disliked as a child, that are still on my no list.  This counts for red leaf lettuces as well.  I just don’t like the taste. They have a dirty metallic taste, and are kind of sweet. People love them.  They’re super nutritious and are having a trendy moment at all of the restaurants.  But I just can’t stomach them. 

Kale

This one is an odd allergy.  It’s in everything lately, and I have to avoid them.  I don’t get physically sick, like I do with shellfish, but if I eat them, the rest of my allergies are worse. Particularly skin rashes.

Seaweed/Kelp

This is a random one, right?  It showed up on an allergy test and a lot of missing pieces came together for me.  I even get a big red welt on my body when it brushes by me in the ocean. I should have figured that one out on my own.  So coupled with the shellfish allergy, you can pretty much guess that I won’t be joining you for sushi.

I’ll Try Anything Once

Other than the obvious allergy, I’ll try most anything once, if I’m served it by a friend. I’ve had escargot.  It was ok.  They tasted like the garlic butter they were cooked in.  But I wasn’t crazy about the texture.  I’ll eat them if someone orders them for the table, but I wouldn’t order them myself.

I’ve tried frog’s legs.  They fall under the same category as escargot, for me.  They’re more a delicacy food that I can take or leave.  There are so many other foods I enjoy more, so why waste the calories?

Travel and a diverse group of friends help to expand my food experiences. I was once invited to a special Armenian dinner where we were served Chi Kofta (their version of steak tartar), and Khash (which included various beef parts including the brains).  I tried both and passed them on.  But I tried them. They weren’t awful. Nobody died. There were other fantastic things on the menu that night, so I didn’t go hungry.

Once while in Jamaica, we attended a traditional Jamaican dinner.  We were served an amazing meat stew, which they served with rice and beans.  It was so, so good.  I kept asking what it was, and the servers would smile and move on.  Finally, someone answered my question.  Jamaican Curry Goat.  Stews are among my favorite foods, but I would have never ordered goat. It was delicious.  So, you never know if you like something until you try it.

Have you ever been surprised to like a food? Are there still foods you won’t eat from childhood?