america's Most hated Foods

  Blue berry season will be soon upon us here. We will be heading up to Hatcher's Pass next weekend. I agree that fresh berries taste a whole lot different than commercially grown. The strawberries out of the garden were much better than anything I ever got from the super market.

 That being said, here is my take on the rest of the list.

  #11 Sour cream... I love the stuff and mix it 1/2 & 1/2 with mayo for salads.
  #12 Pea soup...  MMM, MMM, Good!!!
  #13 Oysters... Can't stand them canned, never tried them fresh.
  #14 Peas... I love them prepared in any fashion
  #15 Raisins... I would rather have grapes
  #16 Cooked Carrots... Next to peas, my favorite veggie
  #17 Onions... I can't imagine living with out them. I use them in just about every sauce and soup.
  #18 Cilantro... As stated above, I really love the stuff. Some people say that it tastes like soap. I disagree.
  #19 Maple Syrup... I love real maple syrup! The fake kind tastes like ass.
  #20 Blue Berries... They are great fresh with a little sweetened heavy cream!!!

  JMHO

  David O.

 

I guess my tastes have mellowed over the years. There are a few things I really didn't like as a young person, that I find quite good now.

I really like 'good' liver, when it is cooked properly. I haven't seen calf liver for a long time, but Beef Liver sliced about 3/4 inch thick and dredged in seasoned flour before being skillet fried in Bacon drippings is high on my 'likes' list. Many places serve very thin slices cooked beyond 'well-done' to shoe-leather toughness. Make mine just a bit past medium, with a little bit of pink still showing, smother in onions and Bacon and I will over eat it every time. Chicken Livers are high on my list of favorite foods. Many places in this area serve Chicken Livers that are outstanding!

I guess the one thing I avoid is the Cilantro mentioned by others. I like peppers and onions and garlic on my Mexican food, but I do not like Cilantro at all.

I like Blueberries, but they are pretty far down the 'berry-list' on my "Likes chart". Only Elderberries (recently tasted for the first time) would be below Blueberries, tied with Figs for my least favorite fruit.

I don't care for the White BBQ sauce made famous by Big Bob Gibson in Alabama, or the Mustard-based sauces that come out of Carolina. I do like the sweeter, and spicey versions of the KC style thick sauces. The ones Buddy Roadhouse produce are my favorites as of now.

I tend to pass on most "boney" fresh-water fish, but love Catfish and Walleye. I have tried the fried Smelts available around the Great Lakes and like them very much also. I can pass on most trout as I find them too boney to eat with ease. I like Smoked Salmon...in fact most all smoked fish.

I love mushrooms, but lately they haven't loved me, and I tend to pass them by due to the adverse reaction I seem to suffer after enjoying them.

Mutton is popular in this area for BBQ. It's OK, but I prefer Pork and Beef 'Que over the sheep. I seldom order BBQ Poultry if the other meats are available.
 
All Shellfish is great. I recall eating Abalone on our last Mexican Fishing trip, Pried off the rocks in front of us, and served within an hour of that time, It was sooooo good. I love large Scallops, especially broiled in butter. Lobster, Shrimp, Clams, Oysters, & Mussels, cold/hot/ cooked every possible way..all are super foods. 

I just looked back over this and see I have not really targeted many "DisLikes". ...Just because I will pass by  some dishes, doesn't mean I hate them. I seldom order any cake for a dessert...but will eat week-old pie that has dropped on the floor. A little chocolate goes a long way with me, but that doesn't mean I don't like it.

To each his own!

  We serve calves liver at the Restaurant. It comes frozen but it is about 3/4 inch thick. I try not to over cook it. We serve it with bacon and onions.

 Personally, I don't even like the smell.

  As The Mayor says "To each their own."

analei


Sorry for the typo, it was rabbit heads, not rabbit heats.

Are you sure it was rabbit heads? Yuk.Can't stand tripe.Never had kidneys,hearts, brains or sweetbreads.Only time i had tripe was when my dad got a small bowl of it years ago at Taco Cabana in Universal City,Tx.He thought it was rather spicy, and wondered what the meat was.I told him tripe,which turned him off right away.I ate the broth, but left the tripe it's self alone.
Just use mayo in potato salad and on sandwiches.Okra will eat fried.But really like it cooked with tomatoes,bacon and onion,which daddy would fix. I like liver and onion but as a kid couldn't stand it.
Have no desire for deep fried pickles,twinkies or other such stuff,though I do like onion rings,french fries and fried mushrooms.Never had parsnips,kohlrabi or salsify,also known as oyster plant.Oysters I prefer as Oysters Rockefeller or Casino style,fried orwrapped in bacon.Don't care for them raw.Will eat fried clams, but they aren't my favourite .Prefer scallops, lobster and crab to clams.
 For those not in Texas,Taco Cabana is a San Antonio based mexican fast food chain.They are spreading out, but not sure how far outside of Texas.

It's funny but we never buy beets, however if we're at a salad bar we both have 2-3 sliced beets. Liver disgusts me but my wife swears she likes it though she's never ordered it while dining out nor cooked it at home.

CES

Funny you should mention Beets. On most salad bars they serve the canned pickled slices, and when they are firm (not old and soaked to mush), I really enjoy them. At Claudia Sanders Dinner House in Shelbyville,KY (yeah, Mrs. Harlan Sanders) one of the magic veggie side dishes with their dinners are baby beets (whole) glazed in a sweet orange sauce. I love them !! I have heard this dish called 'Harvard Beets' other places, but not actually tried them elsewhere. Best root-crop I have ever enjoyed.

I do not care for Turnip in any form. Kohrabi is good raw, eaten like celery with a dip, as is Jicama. We grew good Kohrabi in SoCal. It needs to be picked while small as it gets 'hot and woody' if it gets too large.
 
My life was almost destroyed by Hamburger Helper, the only thing my first wife would cook. To this day I will not permit HH in my house!

Poi,i would be my top pick, I used to sit with my fellow employees in Hawaii for break, never could eat the stuff.................BillYB

I got a couple strange looks in the produce department yesterday when I picked up a big fresh bunch of cilantro, stuck my nose in it and took a big inhale, and said "oh yeah" out loud. Of course I bought that bunch and made some salsa with it.

I wouldn't touch beets when I was younger (mom would only get canned Harvard style, they were weird and I was fussy), but when I was looking after my grandfather in his declining years, he bought some fresh at a farmer's market and simply boiled them in some lightly salted water, and now I love them.

Maple syrup, I was never a fan until a friend made some of his own. All I remember growing up is the sickeningly sweet maple-flavored syrup and candies, gross. The fresh real stuff is better than anything else.

Count me as another that hates olives but loves olive oil. Nasty little things. Fish is pretty much out for me too, unless it's a cod or haddock fish fry on a Friday, and rarely at that. Any shellfish, calamari, salmon... not even a consideration. Although, I do like tuna from a can from time to time, so I'm intrigued by fresh, though I haven't found the fortitude to order it at a restaurant yet as I don't want to waste a whole meal if I don't like it.

The last time I had liver or lima beans, my mom served us liver and lima beans. Horrifying!

SeamusD



The last time I had liver or lima beans, my mom served us liver and lima beans. Horrifying!

That's child abuse.

I wonder if the age factor enters into the equation in this discussion. In my case as I aged, my list of childhood dislikes faded and the overall list was reduced to just a few things..with a couple of add-ins as the years progressed.

My deceased father loved turnips, my mom (Mamaw Smith) loves them and we grow them in the garden for the greens,  Mamaw harvest the turnips.  For some reason, I have never ever developed a taste for them.
 
In a few more months, we will burn the garden to kill weed seed and plant greens of every variety as we always do.  I guest turnips will also be there.
 
Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

I have to say I like all the foods on the list, in fact some are my favorites:
 
#10------gelatin-love my mom's cranberry gelatin,a must for turkey.
#9--------Tuna- love sushi grade tuna appetizer,rare with wasabi; but also plain ole tuna
                         salad with tuna from a can, mayo, onion, celery,hardboiled egg.
#8--------Brussel Sprouts- cut fresh sprouts in 1/2, toss with olive oild, salt, pepper,roast in 
                                          overn.
#7--------Beets- pickled beets, then pickle eggs in the purple beet juice. 
#6--------Okra-fresh okra, freshly fried. 
#5--------Eggs- farm eggs with orange yolks, fried in bacon grease
#4--------Mushrooms- I like them cooked anyway, but expcially stuffed or sauted in butter.
#3--------Mayonaisse- couldn't do without it, potato salad, cole slaw, BLT's, etc
#2--------Lima beans-  Love fresh limas creamed with butter/
#1--------Liver- We love liver & onions, have it at least once a month.

Before scrolling down, I guessed liver and Brusels sprouts, but eggs and mayo?  I'm surprised black-eyed peas didn't make the list.
 

I don't like liver and i especially dislike broccoli and cauliflower, both of which Trudy tries to served with tarted up sauces to entice me to eat. Love fried okra, even snails and especially love raw oysters.

Chips you are a strange dude---not long for this world with  love of Okra ---

Did you ever consider a visit to a nut doctor ???  Broccoli and cauliflower are good for you-------put hair on your chest. 

Yes Belle eggs and mayo----the list was made by madmen
------------who else could conceive of such stupidity ???? 

Sundance----turnips are great------learn to love them---you will be a better man fior it.

Mayor------age never has anything to do with anything.  Now back to the subject--------subject, yes, what was the subject ???/

mr chips


I don't like liver and i especially dislike broccoli and cauliflower, both of which Trudy tries to served with tarted up sauces to entice me to eat. Love fried okra

You'd probably like the food served in this house, Jim. Liver, broccoli and stankiflower never darken my doorway.

#1 Liver...
#2 Lima beans...
#3 Mayonnaise...
#4 Mushrooms...
#5 Eggs...
#6 Okra...
#7 Beets...
#8 Brussels Sprouts...
#9 Tuna... 
#10 gelatin...
#11 Sour cream... 
#12 Pea soup...
#13 Oysters...
#14 Peas...
#15 Raisins...
#16 Cooked Carrots...
#17 Onions...
#18 Cilantro...
#19 Maple Syrup...
#20 Blue Berries...
Hmm, quite a list. Most everyone here likes most everything on the list.
Do you think that is why we post here?
I mean McDonald's is the biggest restaurant system in the world yet most of us go elsewhere when it's time for a burger.
Same with this list. Frankly I'm shocked at some of the items. I prefer raw carrots yet glazed carrots can be sublime.
I have yet to taste a beet that I've enjoyed but I keep trying them. I look forward to traveling down south and pigging out on Lima and Butter beans, things not too common up here in Milwaukee. I find braunschweiger, liverwurst and pate wonderful, liver and onions not so much. Most everything else is a staple. I think us Roadfooders just have a more developed palate and we are more open to trying foods our mothers and grandmothers never made.
That said, I'm grateful livermush, goetta and headcheese weren't part of my diet as those are items I'll skip when offered. Tried 'em, don't like 'em. Mayor Al, you can have mine.

A food by any other name------if, for instance, liver mush was called
nectar of the gods i might give it a shot.   Headcheese reminds me of my days in the USNavy but, if instead of what it is called, it was called creme de la creme you can bet it would be a big seller.  Well it might fool all of us one time and some of us a few more, but sooner or later I think we would decide that Mayor Al can have all of them.   

As a child I always gagged on beef liver but could tolerate chicken liver. Yet I always craved braunschweiger and still do even though it may be the most artery clogging, gout inducing food one can possibly eat.

Oh David, that's offal.

As a child I always gagged on beef liver but could tolerate chicken liver. Yet I always craved braunschweiger and still do even though it may be the most artery clogging, gout inducing food one can possibly eat.

 
Wow - that brings back alot of memories for me - about every 6 months my Mom would cook beef liver and although she prepared it the right way I just couldn't eat it -  we never had chicken livers but now I think they're great breaded and deep fried crispy - I also like them grilled wrapped in bacon.
 
Anyway - I can still remember my stepfather taking me fishing and the lunch box always had Braunschweiger, Cheddar Cheese, Crackers, Sliced Red Onion and Dill Pickles.  We would fish about an hour and then break out the lunch - it was so good out there on the water. 
 

I try not to eat lima beans or liver, don't really care for those 2. Otherwise I like the rest.

It's Braunschweiger that's causing my gout?

Hmmm,  Pain or taste,  Pain or taste....

This is difficult!

  Braunschwieger was a staple at my grandparent's house. That and hot mustard, German rye bread and any, and all veggies they could grow pickle and preserve in their garden.  I don't really have a taste for it though as I know what it is made from.

  Turnips, asparagus, and broccoli were my least favorite and are still on the hit parade.

  JMHO

  David O.

Maybe it's a Southern thing, but I was confused about the peas. I keep forgetting those little green things. To me peas are blackeyed, lady, purple hull or field. The others are called "green peas".

Hmm. Some of these do seem strange. My most hated food is cilantro - It is sooo bitter to me, I honestlly cannot understand how on earth people can put it in their food! Other than that, I'm open to eating, if not loving the others listed. I really like good liver, except it makes the house smell for days when I make it at home. Mayo I could eat with a spoon (I don't, but I could). And let me throw in a thumbs up for braunschweiger sandwiches. Reminds me of taking a break with dad during Sunday yardwork. Mustard and onion, baby!! Don't know what's in it, never want to.

Braunschweiger is mostly smoked liver sausage with pork being the dominant liver ingredient. Here is one version that is broken down in detail...

http://schmidling.com/liver.htm

My mother died at age 96---No Gout and No Cholesterol ever--

just decided one day to die.  Her favorite foods were shrimp

and braunschweiger---boiled eggs and oatmeal.  Did her own

cooking and showered every day ----tough old lady. 

Davydd


Braunschweiger is mostly smoked liver sausage with pork being the dominant liver ingredient. Here is one version that is broken down in detail...

http://schmidling.com/liver.htm

Killjoy.