The Ryndex

Sambuca? Really?? LOL…I remember our flaming sambuca days…:)

I hear you about the weird sausages and liver/heart/tongue, etc. Never heard of deep fried zucchini, but it doesn’t sound good! LOL.

You will still never get me to eat a blueberry…:)

All of the things you say you hate, I also hate (actually, I’ve never heard of several of them, but I’ll take your word for it that they are offal), with the addition of cottage cheese (the most ungodly of all god’s creations) and brussel sprouts. But what’s wrong with teriyaki chicken boxes? They rule!

I had the same experience with sushi! It was the seaweed that got me. Now I love it!

Tofu too. That took a while.

Growing up, I was never exposed to vegetables like avocados, asparagus, artichokes… well any of the A’s really. Now I can’t get enough. When my parents come to visit, sometimes I feel like it’s role reversal trying to get them to finish everything on THEIR plates!

I know I’ve been successful when I visit their home and find my mom has a few goodies that the inside of her veggie drawer has never seen! I even saw quinoa on her counter a while back.

Sambuca… YUM. With Baileys? Devine!

I dislike all the things you mention and many more – but remain untroubled. There’s more to life than food – so there’s no need to get your kicks through a fascinating diet of inedible specialties. Just eat enough to avoid starvation and then get on with a productive and fascinating life.

Sambuca is as evil as evil comes, so you are wise to avoid it. Same goes for tequila.

Now prickliness is not the learned trait. I am sure you’ll see that unprickliness is in fact the learned trait. As any mother can confirm, children are notoriously prickly – and this is not because they’ve learned to be that way – it’s because it’s a good survival instinct not to eat food that tastes like crap.

Undoing your gut instincts (which are correct) and eating terrible food undoes the work of millions of years of evolution. So stay true to your heart when it tells you not to eat the gross food a snob tells you that “you’ll grow to love”.

Well done Tin Foiled, well done. I admire a man (or woman) who takes a concerted effort to change for the better.

Ironically enough, I used to be the pickiest eater I know – my mum would call me a “snool”, which is a great word, although I suspect it doesn’t exist in any dictionary. For example I would gag at chicken, orange juice, peas, beans, lettuce, tomatoes, fish… heck I wouldn’t even drink water (no joke!) The only things I would eat were peanut butter sandwiches, apple juice, and plain hamburgers (no condiments or toppings) and occasionally a bowl of cereal (only honey-nut cheerios), oh and chocolate of course.

And contrary to Snowy’s ridiculous hypothesis, this was because I could get away without eating anything else (my parents would eventually buckle when I threw a tantrum) and, of course, if I were raised a thousand years in the past, would have eaten almost anything.

I slowly added new allowable items as the years passed, but it wasn’t until I was about 20, when I suddenly did some self-examination, and noted how other people seemed to really enjoy other types of food. “Am I really that different?” I asked. This was also about the time I resolved to change who I was – or at least get rid of as many of my hangups as I could. So I moved to another country (never been away from family), took public speaking courses (was too shy), went sky-diving (had vertigo), took dance lessons (had 5 left feet), started asking girls out (feared women), and started eating new things.

And, just as you describe, dear Tin Foiled – almost all my favourite culinary pleasures come from these foods that I forced myself to try (Sushi was a really tough one – that didn’t come till I was 24 – now I eat it 3 times a week minimum). It’s kinda like I finally woke up.

Now there is almost nothing I won’t eat (although brussel-sprouts still annoy me).

Foiled – is the Sambuca aversion because of an “incident”? Didn’t we a have a bunch at that Greek restaurant? I higly recommend it (practice, friend, practice).

And, if you want to get “into” tomatoe or clamatoe juice, may I recommend starting with V-8 or lots of caesars?

Good luck on your adventure!

Great post, complete with hilariously predictable comments! I’ll add my own.

Like Roggles, I didn’t really come out of my shell until I turned 20, although I’ll grant that I’m still more of a “snool” than he. Great word!! I love spicy Indian, Thai, and Mexican, sushi, weird species of fish if well-prepared, crazy cheeses, and vegan creations that I would have laughed at before. I have to admit that blood sausage is yucky (humans dislike blood sausage for the same medical reason that humans dislike eating feces – so don’t eat blood sausage).

Like you, I also dislike black licorice and things of similar taste (eg anise seed). I wonder if anyone’s every studied the factors that lead so many people to dislike black licorice?

Remember – it’s more important to enjoy living than to boast to other people that you eat feces.

I can’t believe I’m 7th to comment…

1. Anything blood-related is not for ingesting, no one can argue otherwise.

2. Organs are not food.

3. Intestine is organ. See #2.

4. No idea.

5. Sambuca has magical properties. In the distant past my friends and I would camp at Shuswap Lake every August. Every August it rained at least 30% of the time. Rain and camping go together like cactus and rectal exams. But, after covering the campsite in 5700 square feet of tarp we would sit and drink Sambuca shooters and yell “To Rain” and eventually the rain would stop, or maybe we just got so hammered from doing Sambucca shooters for hours that we just didn’t notice the rain anymore. Either way, I stand by my Sambuca is magic assertion. I will confess that it took a few rainy days before I learned to enjoy the taste.

6. Tomato juice is reminiscent of blood. Tomato juice with ground up shellfish is blood with fish added. See #1.

7. Zuccini isn’t really food, it is a harmless food substitute.

As for food I will try pretty much anything, except brussel sprouts. Maybe it’s my antipathy for anything Belgian but I truly believe that those mini-cabbages are the spawn of a malevolent entity bent on inducing vomitting in all humanity. I have no plans to overcome my revulsion, I will instead wallow in it.

I also don’t like olives – you know that olive is “evil O” spelled backwards – satan’s work.

I also didn’t used to like sushi but that was based entirely on ignorance, once I tried it I found my one true love…I mean I discovered a deligtful source of nutrition and deliciousness.

Hooray! I’m stimulating scintillating conversation (even if I’m not stimulating much appetite).

Katrina: The only thing I remember about the flaming Sambuca days is seriously throwing up, which is surprising not unpleasant when you’re that drunk.

I think you should try the eight to ten doses of blueberry, just to see what happens…

Gilman: Cottage cheese is a delicious special hug from God, for each and every one of us! Maybe he hates you or something?

The problem with teriyaki chicken boxes is that they consume space that should be reserved for sushi.

Tri-girl: Sambuca with Bailey’s? I think you might have found the key to my future alcohol problems!

I am also an avocado fanatic, which is great because it’s one of the few fatty vegetables.

Snowy: I disagree that “eating everything” is food snobbery — in fact, I’d have to make the exact opposite claim. And I have all the moral high grounds covered, thanks to my return to fast food this year. See, I’m a common Joe McFilthy!

On the other hand, I’ve developed a taste for San Pellegrino sparkling mineral water. Even if the bubbles are added after the source, and I have little faith in miracle cures available from thermal spas, it’s a pleasure to drink, especially after a strong coffee or a weekend Sambuca-and-Baileys bender.

So if you actually meant “pretentious dick” instead of “food snob”, you might have a point. On that note, please don’t drink Dasani — it cheapens the both of us.

I will maintain that pickiness is the learned trait, and I submit that common sense backs me up on this. After all, foreign children eat foreign food quite happily.

Roggles: Snool is definitely the word of the year.

I never knew you in your snool phase, and it seems vaguely impossible that the heroic, adventurous Roggles once cowered in the face of green peas…

You are an inspiration to us all! I suspect that facing the social fears was far more difficult than the food fears.

We had Ouzo in the Greek restaurant, and I secretly hated it. The ambience of the place more than made up for it.

They closed it down, however and the paper on the door looked like it wasn’t done by choice. If you speak to Dmitri, see if you can find out the story!

By the way, Ouzo is actually first on the list to conquer, because I have a bottle that I brought back from Greece with gkarlsen. So I cracked it open and slowly sipped a shot — with water, which only prolongs the agony. I’ll keep you updated.

gned: The only ethnic cuisine we ate growing up were tacos (and pizza, I suppose).

The funny thing is that my parents have started eating all this great stuff. Curry is still out, but spicy Vietnamese soups are in!

Blood sausage actually tastes fine, but the texture and the idea is off-putting. I think it’s disingenuous to put blood and feces in the same category, however — one is obviously not a waste product.

gkarlsen: Well, argued, but you left a gaping hole for my riposte:

No it’s not. No they aren’t. They are so.

Also, you are mistaken about olives.

Bon appetit!

I have to say that they are very few things that I dislike eating. My parents drilled it into us when travelling around the world that picky eater children went hungry. So we were encouraged to eat a lot of weird things including: goat, camel, shark fin, haggis, snake and alligator.

As for your list Tin, my gran used to make exquisite liver and onions. I love caraway and cumin seed on bagels. Sambuca, Ouzo, Pastis, Black licorice and anise are all heavenly. With the added bonus that licorice keeps you regular when camping. Tomato and Clamato are a meal in themselves.
My all time favorite appetizer is Deep-fried Zucchini.

As for things I dislike, there are very few. I don’t like raw pinapple but love it cooked. I don’t like mac and cheese unless it’s organic. I don’t like bland frozen foods. And too much gravy can be an issue.

My allergies are playing havoc with food of late. Egg whites, wheat gluten and red wine all make me feel ill. Which sucks.