Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Love It or Hate It?

Well, yesterday's post seemed to have a rather polarizing effect on readers as they expressed either revulsion or delight at the recipe for Chicken and Waffles. So I thought I'd pull this little idea out of drafts and use it today.

According to this article these are the top 10 polarizing foods. I'll add my take on it and you may feel free to offer yours.

White Chocolate
Just to eat a chunk of it doesn't really do it for me but if it's in combination with something else (especially if wrapped around some lovely dark chocolate truffle filling) it has its merits.

Cilantro
I learned it's an acceptable substitute for one of the main seasonings (which I have yet to find here in Pennsylvania) required in Trini cooking so I am all about the cilantro. Plus it's a must have for salsa.

Eggplant
Not a fan of this really. I have had some eggplant parmesan that was good but it has to be done just right.

Coconut
I absolutely despise coconut in chocolate or anything sweet like cream pies or ice cream. That said, a cold, green nut cracked open on a hot day in the tropics is a might refreshing drink and I like scooping out the jelly afterwards. I also like things made with coconut milk like hot Thai food. Basically if it goes with savory things I like it, sweet things it's gross.

Tomato
Love it. There is nothing like a home grown, fully ripe tomato sliced up and sprinkled with some black pepper...Mmmmm...slurp. Isaac find them completely revolting though (but he likes tomato sauce and marinara as long as it isn't chunky). I also know another person who won't eat them because he likens them to human flesh. How he knows what human flesh tastes like (beyond, ya know, licking someone) I really don't want to know.

Anchovies
I absolutely do not want them on pizza or even in any kind of discernible form but I do realize a proper Caesar salad requires their incorporation and I like that. Also, they are in Worcestershire sauce, which I also use. A little of these goes a long way. I only want a trace of them.

Black Licorice
Blech! Barforama! There is no context in which I like this, it's the first officially negatively polarizing food on this list as far as I am concerned. Ptooey!

Stinky Cheeses
I have come to realize different people regard different cheeses as stinky or not. I love me some good Swiss cheese. I have a pal who calls it stinky feet cheese. It never struck me as stinky. I draw the line at cheese with veins of mold running through it. Yeah, if you want to say I lack refinement that's ok by me. How in the name of all that's delicious did someone ever decide moldy cheese made in a cave full of bat shit was the height of taste? Gagalicious.

Mayonnaise
Vile, revolting congealed globs of snail trails and snot. The slime factor is just too much. I'll pass. Miracle whip isn't any better in my book. Excuse me, I need to go shave my tongue just thinking about all of this.

Bell Peppers
Love em. Raw or roasted they are good.

Beets
This is another thing I can take or leave depending upon the context. I've had them in salads and liked them. I've had them boiled beyond recognition and lived to tell the tale but would never crave them. In Pennsylvania German cooking you can find such a creature as Red Beet Eggs. The eggs are pickled along with red beets so they turn a very pretty magenta but you loose me at the point where you've pickled the eggs at all. The addition of red beets doesn't sell me any more on the concept. Oh and while we are at it....

I hate hard boiled egg yolks. Bleck. It's like eating a tray of damp chalk dust. When I was a kid my mother used to pack a hard boiled egg and a teeny weeny Morton salt shaker in my lunch for school. Every single day I ate the white very happily and threw the yolk away. All the while I envied Guy DeStefano who got Pop Tarts in his lunch. Oh, and for the record, I like the runny yolks in fried eggs, I like scrambled eggs, etc. It's just the horrid texture of a hard boiled egg yolk. If you think mixing them with mayo and mustard to make deviled eggs is going to help, you're out of your mind. Ptooey... I gotta go shave my tongue again.


I'd also add squash and okra to the list.
Personally, I love squash. Love it. Love it. There's a nice restaurant here that in the winter makes a squash cannelloni I love. When Dad took me to Philadelphia a few months ago I ordered this acorn squash roasted with apple cider that was to die for. I make stewed squash and dump it over rice and I am a very happy girl. I also make a butternut soup Diana and I fight to the death over. My Dad, on the other hand, the man who brags about the bizarre foods he has eaten on business trips to China, will not touch squash. He can drink snake blood but squash makes him gag. Go figure.

Finally, I am no fan of okra. Once again, there is the slime factor going on, and there is a certain odd aromatic quality to it that I can only deal with in limited doses. I discovered this in Trinidad because it's a component of callaloo, which is widely regarded as the national dish. Callaloo is like meatloaf in that everyone on the island makes it but everyone has their own twist on it. I found I really disliked callaloo made by the folks with a heavy hand for the okra but if the cook went easy on the okra I liked it. If it was like my friend Petal made, with some pigtail in it...mmmmm, bring it on.

And since we are talking Okra, which is a southern staple let's talk grits. I am one yankee who happens to like grits. I can't say as I have ever made them myself but I do enjoy them when I venture into Dixie. Cheese grits or grits with brown sugar and butter. It's all good. Actually, I'd even eat plain grits even though it looks like a bowl of wall paper paste and doesn't taste like much more than that. In case you're wondering, no, I was not one of those kids who ate paste in kindergarten. I thought Artie Meyers was out of his mind when he did that.

35 comments:

furiousBall said...

okra is good fried, but then again, so is the sock on my foot

Desmond Jones said...

White Chocolate - I understand the appeal, and before I started eating all 'healthy', I liked it. Pretty much no redeeming nutritional value, tho. . .

Cilantro - Now, this is one of the staples of my 'healthy' diet. Didn't used to care for it all that much, but it ain't so bad as all that. . .

Eggplant - Another 'staple'; I wouldn't care for it much, but Molly has a recipe for eggplant tarts, with tomato, walnut and mozza cheese, that's pretty darned good

Coconut - take it or leave it; altho, if I'm 'off the wagon', I do like me some German chocolate cake. . .

Tomato - a good, fresh, ripe tomato is one of the hidden joys of embodied life. I have a sister who likes tomatoes but loathes tomato soup (and another who loves peas but hates pea soup).

Anchovies - I'm with you - Caesar salad, yes; anything else, ick.

Black Licorice - Hate the stuff. Altho I really like anise seed in Italian recipes. . .

Stinky Cheese - not a fan of limburger, but I do like Swiss. And I like blue cheese on a salad - or a hamburger - but not by itself. . .

Mayo - used to love the stuff; put it on burgers, etc. When I was a kid, I was known to occasionally partake of a mayonnaise sandwich. Absolutely negative on the 'health-o-meter', tho. . .

Bell Peppers - Like 'em; love seems a tad strong. . .

Beets - to paraphrase General Sheridan, the only good beet is a dead beet. When my mom served beets in my childhood, it was guaranteed that I would puke 'em back up. . .

HB Egg Yolks - if they're a bit moist, like Molly makes 'em, I like 'em just fine. If they're dry/crumbly, not so much. . .

Love squash.

Okra, not so much.

Grits, take 'em or leave 'em.

And - no liver?

My WordVer is 'beertact'; are you tryin' to tell me somethin'?

in another lifetime said...

Thanks for visiting my blog! I found this post to be amusing, especially the part about hard boiled eggs. I understand where you are coming from. Deviled eggs are even worse, I can't think of anything more disgusting!

Ed & Jeanne said...

I'm glad you added Oprah to the list. Why I am definitely in the negative on the whole Oprah thing and what after she hunted me down last year and all.

Oh wait...you said Okra, didn't you? Never mind...

Bijoux said...

Lime - GREAT TOPIC! My grandma (from Altoona, PA) always had those pickled eggs in her fridge that she made. Thought that was so weird as a kid!

I find eggplant & squash similar, but also I think beets & carrots are alike too in flavor/texture. I like them all. The only things on your list that I don't like are the licorce, anchovies and bad cheeses. I don't think swiss qualifies as stinky either. Blue cheese smells like vomit to me. Totally disgusting as is the flavor.

I LOVE coconut!!!!!!

Shadow said...

i think you and i have similar tastes in food. but i still don't think the chicken/waffle photo is appetizing, sorry... hey, maybe just get rid of the photo. it'll probably get more 'i like it's'...

Ananda girl said...

White chocolate is a pale imitation of chocolate. Imposter!

Cilantro-- more please!

Eggplant-- Yum.

Coconut-- Yum, but too much fat.

Tomato-- never enough tomato in the world.

Anchovies-- A necessary evil.

Black Licorice-- Manna from the gods and it makes constipated children poop!

Stinky cheeses-- Love 'em all, but like few of the normal smelling cheeses.

Mayonnaise-- I agree totally with your assessment.

Bell peppers-- Must be roasted to the point of limp.

Beets-- No beet shall pass these lips!

Hard boiled egg yolks-- yum.

Squash is heavenly.

Orka must be fried by a woman named "Willie's mom" or avoided like the piggy flu.

Craver Vii said...

Aside from mayo and hard boiled eggs, I think we have kindred taste buds. I like both of those. And Lime, don't eat chalk.

S said...

White chocy gives me heartburn.

Is that normal?


:)

Anonymous said...

Love everything on your list except Okra, yuk, slime, Lime, too much.
Mayonaise, fab. but make your own and you'll know it is slime free.
Coriander/Celanthro is superb on a tomato salad,in salsa, thai curry,
such a fresh tasting herb.

lime said...

furiousball, fried sweat sock, mmmm

desmond, liver is vile. i don't care how much iron it has in it, do people understand the function of a liver? would these people eat the oil filter out of their cars too? beertact, haha funny one

lifetime, i am glad you enjoyed and even gladder we agree on this important issue

ve, deep fried oprah with a side of furiousball's sweat socks?

cocotte, hhmm, never thought of the carrot beet connection, though since they are both root veggies it makes sense.

shadow, yeah i know that pic is not very appetizing, but it's good, trust me.

ananda, interesting factoid about the black licorice, thanks!

craver, i'll save the chalk for drawing hopscotch boards

s, you are asking ME about normal?

moannie, oh you have me so hungry for thai food now...

jillie said...

Did you know there is no such thing as "white chocolate"? It's considered "white confection". Who knew...I went to buy some for a friend and I asked for the "white chocolate" boy did I get the lecture from hell. But they can keep it. I want the real deal here.

Anywhoooo....of all you've listed, I LOVE black licorice the most. I eat it until I can't eat any more. Love the tomatos, coconuts and bell peppers as well.

LOL @ your dad. Ummm...I'm thinking I woud eat squash over snake blood ANY DAY!!

for a different kind of girl said...

I will eat anything that can be made with tomato as the primary ingredient, but there is no way in the world I am going to eat a tomato in it's natural state. No. No. No. The texture skeeves me out, and I revert back to my childhood when my parents used to make me try one every summer from our garden. It's a matter of principle for me now! Same goes with beets. I won't eat them at all because my mom used to pickle them and then make me try at least one every season. Blech.

S said...

PS and you know what happens when I eat coconut, such a shame because I do like it. Except the slime, that is!

Elle Dubya said...

mmmmmmm grits..... love, love, LOVE them. my kids love them. we eat them a LOT. but never the instant ones. my favorite movie line from My Cousin Vinnie: "No self-respectin Suth'nah would evah eat instant grits."

Suldog said...

"essence of putresence"? Haven't read the post yet, but the label is pure YOU.

Anonymous said...

Onions, Peppers, chili peppers (any hot/spicy pepper really), certain fish, cilantro, onions, lima beans and onions.... I cannot stand those foods! :)

hahahahaha!!! Wonderful post!

G-Man said...

Snail trails are kinda HOT.....

lecram said...

I'm with you on the okra... unless it is fried crisp with chillie and lime. But being the foodie that I am... I'll eat just about anything.

Dr.John said...

It's a great world. We agree on some and disagree on others.
I don't like a hunk of chocolate by itself so we agree there
I love coconut in chocolate so we disagree there. And so it would go through the list.

Anonymous said...

coconut....ooohhh yesssss...!!! ;)

lime said...

jillie, yep, because there are no cocoa solids in it. glad we agree on the snake blood vs. squash thing

fadkog, i love tomatoes but i can appreciate someone not liking food based on texture, that['s my big issue too.

s, righto, no coconut for you and no bananas or kiwi for me

ella, my tastes are unrefined enough to tolerate real or instant grits, lol

suldog, true confessions, that phrase comes directly from "the princess bride"

solitaire, so i am guessing when i order my pizza with onions and peppers and toss a bunch of crushed red pepper on top of that you won't be asking for a piece

gman, :P

lecram, okra needs to be buried in something else for me to eat it

dr john , i will gladly relieve you of any unwanted hunks of chocolate and send all my almond joys and mounds your way

guinness, i've got a lovely bunch of coconuts

airplanejayne said...

I'm still recovering from the chicken/gravy/waffle pic.

::shudder::

I'm with Issac - I don't like raw tomatoes -- I think the inside looks/feels like snot.

Okra is acceptable only if I don't have to touch it. or cook it.

chocolate is chocolate, regardless the color. I do not discriminate.

I like mounds. Fun to eat, fun to say.

:)

Ananda girl said...

Very cool beans Lime! Had as much fun with the responses as I did the posting. Big smile.

Cooper said...

good post...although I differ on a number of items...guess I'll have to give it a whirl.

Commander Zaius said...

Slimy okra is something we Southerners inflict on each other to differentiate ourselves from our Northern kinfolk. Despite the Civil being way over a century in the past walking into a real Southern restaurant and slurping down at least two helpings of boiled okra will get that person into the local secret sanctum. Sort of like the Masons, in fact Dale Brown is researching for his next two books right now after learning this secret. Look for "The Colonel Sander's Code" and "Southern Belles and Rednecks".

misticblu said...

Lol @ furiousball and Beach Bum!
Okra must be fried (cast iron preferred), and while you are frying add fried greed tomatoes to the list. We have learned to do these in light olive oil.
Grits require cooking time and butter (or in our case Smart Balance passes for butter).
Agree strongly with you on the cheese!

NYD said...

Would love to try some chicken and waffles. As for your list- I eat everything on it. You ought to come to japan. They serve up stuff that would make a billy goat back off.

Have you ever heard of Natto???

Anonymous said...

white chocolate - not chocoalte at all, but a confecion. I don't care for it, but I agree it's tolerable in combination with real chocolate.

cilantro - Agh! Bad, stinky, rotten stuff!

eggplant - good roasted

coconut - Fresh only, or coconut gravy, Not the cardboard shavings they put on cupcakes, though.

tomato - Yes!

anchovies - Same as you, maybe one or two.

black licorice - Not much, but I like Good & Plentys and black jelly beans.

stinky cheeses - Brie, feta, cammembert, Swiss, yes. Blue and some others, ick.

bell peppers - Hate the green ones, love every other color.

beets - Mmm - fresh beets only, though.

egg yokes - Good, especially devilled.

squash and okra - Yes!

grits! and boiled peanuts! It's the Georgia girl in me.

Mona said...

Strange, how I like most of the things you do & same about he dislikes!

except Okra. It depends on how you cook it. A pinch of mango powder or a dash of lime makes the slime factor vanish completely!

Hilary said...

I'm fine with most foods and generally love veggies and herbs.. but cilantro triggers my gag reflex like nothing else. To me, it tastes like burnt plastic... not that I've ever had much of that. ;) I love chocolate.. dark, especially but white chocolate tastes like sweetened butter to me. Gag. You started off with two bad ones, but the rest of your list was just fine.. for the most part.

Logophile said...

White Chocolate - Not a favorite, but as you said, can work as a component of something else.

Cilantro - Yum

Eggplant - Didn't think I liked it till I lived in Italy. Depends on the quality of the plant and how it's prepared.

Coconut - Sometimes, depends on how it's used

Tomato - Like it in almost all it's cooked forms, but raw? Didn't like them that way at all till Italy, now it depends on the quality of the plant
:P recurring theme

Anchovies - Works...sometimes

Black Licorice - No thank you

Stinky cheese - Can work, but sometimes just NO

Mayonnaise - I don't LOVE it but it works for me usually

Bell Peppers - Love 'em

Beets - No thank you

Hard boiled egg yolks - Mostly no, really, I'm fine, I will just chew this electrical cord, thanks

Squash - Depends on how it's prepared.

Okra - Please fry it, please, and just a little for me, preferably with a nice spicy dip

Grits - why? I mean really, if you want to eat something that tastes like nothing there are more nutritious options.

Stuff I actually have strong feelings about...

Liver - get it the fuck away, are you kidding me??? Ditto tongue, heart, entrails, etc.

Squishy melons - Oh BLECK! They make me gag

Bananas - Puke o rama

I think those are my headliners

tsduff said...

White Chocolate - loved it as a kid, but now I'd never eat it.

CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT:
Cilantro - I eat it fresh from the garden and cook it in anything/everything

Eggplant - Love this - especially in spicy garlic Japanese style

Coconut - Love it in Thai foods and curries - also one of my favorite ice cream flavors but it ironically must include no pieces and be smooth

Tomato - Love fresh tomatoes warm from the garden sun, and every other way too.

Anchovies - gotta have them, on pizza, out of the can, in salads - you name it.

Black Licorice - sometimes

Stinky cheese - I adore Stilton - not because of anything classy but because it tastes so good. Once my Sweetie opened the ice chest and ran away outside puking; he smelled what he thought was rotten chicken, but actually it was fresh Stilton. I like to refer to it as strong cheese.

Mayonnaise - I love Best Foods on a turkey & sourdough sandwich with black pepper - yum

Bell Peppers - Love them, especially baked/stuffed or with onions, tomatoes and sausage

Beets - Any way you have them, yes!

Hard boiled egg yolks - I love them - anytime and anyplace. They are the perfect food when eaten together with the white.

Squash - YES - yum yum yummy - my favorite garden plant.

Okra - gross

Grits - okay, but not particularly exciting

Liver - abominable in every way

What a fun post - who doesn't love talking about their food preferences?

Cheesy said...

No stinky cheese? I will try not to fart here then!

The Zombieslayer said...

White chocolate doesn't do it for me. I won't kick it out of bed, but I won't go out of my way for it either.

Cilantro - Enjoy it.

Eggplant - Used to hate it until we learned how to use it. Now I like it. good substitute for meat when I have vegetarians over.

Coconut - In what form? Actually, I take that back. Love it in any form.

tomato - Love 'em, especially those ones that are different colors. Heirlooms, that's them. Just had a mind blank.

You put black pepper on them? Weird. Not me. Just salt.

Anchovies - I don't like them on pizza either but funny story - used to deliver pizza in Texas and my car had no air conditioning. it would get 110 degrees and 98% humidity. I needed salt badly. So I'd open up a can of anchovies and eat the whole thing.

Black Licorice - It's okay.

Stinky Cheeses - I love cheese. I've yet to meet a cheese I didn't like.

Swiss cheese does not stink. Your friend's on crack.

Mayo - You no likey? I like it, but not gobbed on. Moderation is the key.

Bell Peppers - Yummy.

Beets - Beets are the work of Satan.

Hard boiled eggs - I'll pass

Squash - Used to hate it but now I cook with it and absolutely love it now. But it has to be done right.

Okra - Same as squash.

Grits - The South can keep their grits.