Anybody Else A Total Non Epicurean?

I want to be a foodie, but between the things I can’t eat, the things I won’t eat and the things I outright dislike, I have very narrow menu choices. I read the detailed descriptions of meals offered by our resident foodies and wish I could have the same appreciation and enthusiasm for the exotic fares they offer up. Of course, most of you knew I wasn’t a foodie by the way I relish Kraft Mac & Cheese. What you didn’t know is I love Betty Crocker Potatoes Au Gratin even more than K-Mac, but it takes too long to make.

I have allergic reactions to most seafood/fish. Hence, sushi is out. With enough breading and lots of aioli sauce I can get calimari down. Yet smoked salmon doesn’t trigger my allergies. Every once in awhile I get brave and try something new in the fish realm. Sometimes, I provide the entertainment or embarrassment when I do. (As a teenager, I wanted to be an ichthyologist and work with Jacques Cousteau. My dad pointed out I would have to bring my own food and that sharks don’t have allergies caused by eating people.)

I don’t care for anything gamy and cilantro tastes like soap to me, so any excess of it ruins my meal.

I could only eat 3 or 4 of the 7 courses at the French Laundry and only 2 at the new Kenzo restaurant here in Napa.

Anybody else willing to admit they are food challenged?

My wife is something like that. She really likes good food but rules out a bunch of things. Tasting menus are hard. Forget French Laundry. You can go to Bistro Jeanty four times.

sounds like you are a super taster. nothing to be ashamed of. I’m a super smeller and I can’t be in the room with perfumes, brett infected wines, essential oils, etc. don’t sweat it.

1- allergic to seafood or shellfish ? (shrips, crab, lobster vs Salmon, tuna etc.) This maybe a thing to lookup.

2-you have the ‘cilantro Gene’ which makes it taste very nasty, it is genetic nothing to do about hits.


As for me I was food challenged before but I have no allergy and am willing to try stuff and this is where it helps, my willingness to try even if I cleary am rebuted by something. I tried foie gras this summer, while I was always wary about it I paired it with a sauterne ans was very suprised that I liked. that being said I still have lots of trouble with the ‘abats’ part of the french cuisine.

My 3yr old Grand-daughter is like that. She eats linguica, artichokes, cucumber, avocado and Mickey D’s hash browns.

I used to be super picky, but actually through falling in love with wine and the food culture that follows, I’ve been venturing out of my comfort zone a lot more.

It’s a slow process and there are still plenty of things I’ll politely push to the side of my plate – which sometimes makes me wary of tasting menus (or chef’s choice type dinners). I’m sure most of it is psychological, but there plenty tastes I just can’t enjoy.

Peer pressure at wine dinners or going out with foodie friends has certainly helped me try (and now enjoy) things I never would have touched just a couple years ago. But there are still a lot of “foodie” favorites (such as foie gras) that even with tasting a few times, I’m just not a fan of.

Bell peppers, especially green. just kill me repeating on me for hours so I avoid at all costs. Yet well roasted and the skin peeled off can be tolerated is small amounts?

Same here. I can’t imagine how an entire cuisine could have emerged, based on this ingredient. For my entire live my mother tried to sneak green peppers to me by chopping them tiny, which just made it worse; as if it was the sight of them that I didn’t like.

As an adult, I’ve found that Poblanos make a fantastic and delicious substitute.

As for Randy’s original question, I’m for peasant food all the way, but count on that being the next hot trend.

ooh! ooh! add me to the bell pepper wagon – so much so that when I find the flavor (mostly when it’s raw green peppers) in wine, it ruins my tasting experience. that means, a lot of bigger cabs and bordeauxs don’t agree with my palate … although oddly i can handle chinons a bit better, i think because the flavor is more integrated and not as raw).

Ron/Larry – curious to know if your loathe for the peppers also impacts your wine drinking.

(hoping this doesn’t count as thread drift! but if so, holler and i’ll start a new thread!)

I do NOT like bell pepper in wine but to also answer Larry I love all other peppers either hot or mellow.

Most definitely for me. Can’t drink more vegetal Cab Sauv, and detest every Cab Franc I’ve tried.

I HATE bell peppers (and celery, for what it’s worth) but don’t mind it in my wine, I sometimes enjoy it. I also dislike cherries but like a cherry dominant fruit profile in my wine.

I’m also a self-diagnosed chocaholic but don’t enjoy chocolate/mocha notes in wine.

Who knows how these things work.

I also have a very narrow palate, in great part because there is a long list of things I just don’t like, and more recently, because I have been eating Paleo for the last year. But I love what I love, and I’ve become a really good cook because it’s just easier to make what I like than go out. So while I could never be a “foodie” since I don’t eat a wide variety, I eat high quality, real (non processed) home made food.

I’m definitely food challenged in that I’m the pickiest eater I know. No meat besides seafood, so I eat mostly vegetarian. Okay. They there’s the fact that I don’t like mushrooms in most settings (I’m ultra-sensitive to that decomposing flavor, but I can enjoy some sauces made with them when there’s a LOT of other flavor involved), or olives (too briny and bitter), or eggplant (too bitter, and yes, I’ve tried it dried out, well seasoned, and cooked well). Those are 3 of the vegetarian staples, so my options at restaurants are often extremely limited. That said, I do consider myself a foodie. I love trying cuisines of different origins and eat a huge variety of styles of food on a regular basis. I really don’t enjoy most things that taste overly processed like the foods mentioned in the OP. My wife enjoys pretty much everything, so when we go out and have a tasting menu (only if a full vegetarian or pescetarian menu is offered), it’s a bonus for her (I hand off some of what I get), and I am always still satisfied at the end. I guess I’m a food-challenged foodie.

As Paul pointed out, even though we’re constantly told we need to “try it one more time” or that we’re too closed-minded, a lot of picky eaters are far more sensitive to certain things than most other people are. Plus there are genetic traits that cause certain things (cilantro is the best and most commonly known example) to taste completely different to some people than they do to other people.

Randy, do you not enjoy “fine dining” type food at all, or is it just that there’s a lot that you don’t like?

When Randy swears, we can wash his mouth out with cilantro? How are you with coriander?

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I will generally eat anything that someone else at the table is eating - haggis, Anthony Bourdain food, etc…

I have only drawn the line at raw cow nose at a “Fear Factor Party” and that Sicilian maggot cheese.

I also think I would say nyet to that Icelandic Kiviak.

I tried that Spanish baby eel noodle and it was OK.

Never tried that French little baby bird dish, but that’s an ethical thing.

The real crapper is that I am allergic to allium family. That sucks. Haggis got in my belly, but didn’t stay long! [barf1.gif]

Anyways…

No pressure to eat anything in Particualr, Randy. Can you tell wines apart?

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