What’s the food you’re embarrassed not to like?
I can only think of one ordinary food that I would flee in terror rather than eat: egg salad. I’m not particularly embarrassed about this, though, because (a) egg salad is weird, and (b) it doesn’t come up that often. I’m not big on potato salad or chicken salad, either, but I can eat those when required, since I like potatoes and chicken. I don’t like hard boiled eggs, but I could eat one plain if I had to. Iris loves hard boiled eggs, even aside from the fun of sprinkling salt. She’s welcome to bring this up any time I mention that she doesn’t like cheese.
Tuna salad might cause me to flee on foot, whereas egg salad would have me gassing up the Learjet. I’m just kidding. Who gasses up their own Learjet?
I hate dill, except in dill pickle form, but that doesn’t come up very often, either.
So here’s the big admission of guilt: I don’t like basil. Pesto is fine, since it usually tastes more like pine nuts, garlic, and cheese than basil. But whole leaves or a chiffonade of basil? Nope. Not with tomatoes. Not with Thai curry. Not even fried. It’s not in the flee-on-foot category for me, but I do think anything could be improved by leaving it out. I even prefer parsley pesto.
I wonder if basil might have a successful life as a sweet herb. I’m not a big fan of mint in savory cooking, but I love sweet minty stuff. I’ve had basil ice cream, and it was delicious.
Perkins, gas up the Learjet. We’re off in search of sweet, sweet basil treats!
My most idyllic encounter with basil was on a simple pizza in south italy with just a tad of oil, fresh tomatoes and mozarella di buffala (sp?).
My favourite sauce herb must be thyme.
I do not really like cake. It’s not a ‘have my people gas up the Lear jet’ kind of dislike, but I usually politely decline opportunities to eat cake. It can be more awkward than embarrassing as people sometimes assume I’m on some sort of diet (I’m not) and then give me ‘permission’ to indulge in a ‘treat’ or get puzzled as to why I don’t want to celebrate with everyone else with cake. I just don’t really like it. Even cupcakes. Even just the frosting.
Not liking pizza would be worse, I think. Who doesn’t like pizza?
amanda, I don’t like cake either. Especially white cake like they serve at parties.
I do like cupcakes, but only interesting flavors or with lots of chocolate frosting.
I don’t like fresh ginger. Lots of people seem to think I must LOVE ginger, and they tell me “Wendy, taste this! I put in tons of fresh ginger!”
So… have you tried egg/chicken/potato salad with homemade mayonnaise? Or would that just be a waste of delicious mayonnaise for you? Do you like deviled eggs? You don’t need to be embarrassed about THAT, if you don’t. We need more people in the family who don’t like deviled eggs.
I don’t like deviled eggs at all. They’re on the road to egg salad.
I love fresh ginger, but I can certainly sympathize, since it seems as innocuous as basil.
As for the homemade mayonnaise, I don’t think I’ve ever tried chicken or potato salad made it it. I do like chicken or potato salad made with vinaigrette rather than mayo. And since I like homemade mayo fairly well, at least on sandwiches, it would be worth a shot. Not egg salad, though.
You are nuts. Even Thai basil? What the hell. Deviled eggs are awesome, especially with Spanish smoked paprika.
You are correct about dill, though. Dill is gross (except, as you note, in pickles).
I also don’t like fresh ginger. And I will run far away from anything spicy.
Personally, I think if you don’t like cake, you just haven’t had good cake.
tomatoes. and cherries. tomatoes = texture GROSS, no matter how height-of-season, prime herloom organic the specimine. I can deal with bruschetta, but whole slices? EW. and cherryie I just can’t stand the taste.
I don’t like peanut butter or any peanut products. So I’m generally not a huge fan of Thai food, either (although I have eaten and enjoyed non-peanutty Thai food).
bananas give me the jibblies.
i eat one almost every day now, because they’re so damn good for you. but i hate it every, every time.
>:(
I always knew there was something emminently reasonable about you Matthew and I just couldn’t put my finger on it….turns out its our shared disgust with egg salad and deviled eggs. Just the thought of them makes my chin quiver.
I don’t like squash (zucchini is fine), sweet potatoes or bannanas.
I didn’t like sweet potatoes until I tried Cook’s Illustrated’s mashed sweet potatoes. Squash is generally too sweet for me, too, although there’s this recipe I like for pasta shells baked with onions and (frozen) squash.
Bananas are awesome!
sweet potatoes are yummy in a basil stir fry.
as a child i hated eggplant, tomatoes, mushrooms and onions with a passion. i still won’t touch stewed tomatoes with a ten-foot-pole but i’ll eat anything else except for meat.
the texture of meat is gross.
Yeah, I love mashed sweet potato too! I’ve got a good recipe for a great sweet potato mash on my blog: http://www.makesomemash.blogspot.com Sweet potato I find also works wonders in soups. Sushi on the other hand makes me feel like throwing up, for some reason.