Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Foods I just don't understand

It's pretty clear that I love food. However, there are a few foods (very few) that I just don't like or don't understand. I've decided to compile those foods in a list and to hear what you readers think about the same foods.

1.) Ginger -- I'm the worst Asian ever. I don't like ginger. The problem is that it reminds me of the days I had stomach flus as a kid and my mom would boil ginger in Coca-cola to settle my stomach and thus ruin any chance I ever had of enjoying ginger. For the record, I do like ginger flavoring things -- one of my favorite things that my mom makes is a steamed bass with ginger and scallions.

2.) Horseradish -- Blech. I can't explain it, but this stuff makes me gag. I can deal with a little bit like in cocktail sauce, but eating it straight? No thanks.

3.) Grape nuts -- Who doesn't love to start the day off with a day of bland kitty litter and milk?

4.) Those really hot dried chili peppers you can find in Thai food -- Why don't I just eat some lit matches instead?

5.) Cocoa puffs -- The commercials really make them look tastier than they are. I expected a mountain of chocolate flavor in every bite. Instead, they look like rabbit turds and taste like a sort-of-chocolatey-Kix. I will take Cocoa Pebbles or Cocoa Krispies ANY day.

6.) Radishes -- It's not even the taste that confounds me, it's the way that you're breathing fire for hours after. If you burp after eating radishes, all those in your vicinity might pass out.

7.) Kimchi -- Same goes for kimchi. Who wants to eat something that you'll smell like for days?

8.) Iceberg lettuce -- I come from a household that didn't really believe in salad. It's nothing but filler. We preferred to eat real vegetables, not this limp lettuce crap. No flavor, no nutrients. Other lettuces, that's a different story. Give me romaine any day and I'll make a good hearty salad (as an app only -- salad is NOT an entree), but iceberg has no place on my kitchen table.

9.) Whole fennel seeds -- I really enjoy the flavor of fennel in a good sausage (tee hee) or in a spice rub, but whole fennel seeds are just too much. I feel like I'm chewing dead bug carcasses.

10.) White chocolate -- Putting the name chocolate on this is a travesty. There is NO real chocolate in white chocolate, and all it really tastes like is a flavorless sugary piece of butter. Now, white chocolate flavored things... that's different. The white chocolate raspberry cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory, for example. But by itself? Can anyone actually sit down and eat a bar of it? I would probably yak.

What are some foods you just don't understand?

6 comments:

  1. Arugula. It's like chewing leaves.

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  2. i totally agree about the grape nuts - never understood the appeal

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  3. 3. I had Grape nuts once in 2nd or 3rd grade. And never, ever again.

    5. Cocoa puffs weren't all that bad, speaking as someone who's had to eat at a college dining facility way longer than anyone should. The day before vacation when they're using up what's left around the walk-in freezer to make a special non-denominational holiday casserole, Cocoa Puffs with soy milk looks real good.

    6. I love radishes. I love onions, and radishes are like the love child of onions and cucumbers.

    8. Iceburg lettuce... For me I appreciate it when I'm eating nachos because it gives it extra crunch and hydration. Leafy greens on nachos wilt too fast.

    10. I like white chocolate.

    11. Nuts. Half of us are allergic to them anyway, they should just be stripped of their edible status.

    12. Sashimi. It's the 21st century. I'd like my food cooked, thank you.

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  4. those minced ginger w/scallions in oil as chicken dipping sauce? completely TO DIE FOR.
    ginger IS an effective flu remedy, at least according to chinese people. also a powerful deodorant for fish or similarly stinky food items. ginger is also a magical thing. i remember my dad once said: ginger w/skin on gives one heat, ginger w/skin off takes away heat (i can easily get the facts confused, but it's one way or the other). what other food can beat that versatility!?!

    i may not like ginger products such as ginger candy or gingerbread, but ginger beer?! omg. run to target now and get one of those archery farm glass bottles. you'll know what i mean.
    :

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  5. don't you find cole slaw is just a western, milkier version of kimchi? i taste the same "foulness" in cole slaw, minus the spicy part, of course.

    what i don't understand most is those vegetarian meat. i mean, some are...hm...passable, but some are downright in the "what the *beep* is this *beep*?" category. why would anyone want to eat shrimp-alike when they can't eat real shrimps--they probably don't even know what real shrimps taste like. so why make imitations of such things?? i don't get it. and seriously, those veggie shrimps taste/feel NOTHING like real shrimps. it was just some crunchy substance put together by a chemical reaction of some sort. so why not just be a real vegetarian and stick with real vegetable? why vegetarian duck, vegetarian seafood, vegetarian monkey brains? is that what oxymoron should taste like?
    :)

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  6. I would agree about the cole slaw, but I like to make it at home and I do it without mayo (or with just a touch of it) and it's a lot better. It's basically kimchi without the spice or the odor!

    And yeah, vegan shrimp is not good. It even looks gross.

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