49 replies to this topic

[vjm]

I hate ricotta cheese, it smells like barf

[julienne]

canned sardines
sheep's eyes (although my partner has tried them to no ill effect)
tripe
durian
undercooked egg white
cod sperm
mackerel
uni (sea urchin roe)



Foods I hate seeing in restaurants.

Tomato-rice soup
Cream of broccoli soup
wraps
chopped raw onion as a garnish
sprouts

[vandervalk]

Not that this is going to change you mind.

But "Uni" (oo-nee) is the Japanese name for the edible part of the Sea Urchin. While colloquially referred to as the roe (eggs), uni is actually the animal's gonads (which produce the milt or roe).

Yum.

[julienne]

Not that this is going to change you mind.

But "Uni" (oo-nee) is the Japanese name for the edible part of the Sea Urchin. While colloquially referred to as the roe (eggs), uni is actually the animal's gonads (which produce the milt or roe).

Yum.

Wow! Thanks for the facts.

[victorian fan]

Fast Foods (fatty, greasy, MSG, salty)
Over cooked vegetables
Huge portions (all that waste)

[yodsaker]

Bean sprouts.
Their dirty little secret is they taste really crappy.
And you haven't lived until you've cut into a genuine French andouillette and smelled the piss.

[Holden West]

Francois Mitterrand's last meal:

What brought me to France in the first place was a story I'd heard about François Mitterrand, the former French president, who two years ago had gorged himself on one last orgiastic feast before he'd died. For his last meal, he'd eaten oysters and foie gras and capon—all in copious quantities—the succulent, tender, sweet tastes flooding his parched mouth. And then there was the meal's ultimate course: a small, yellow-throated songbird that was illegal to eat. Rare and seductive, the bird—ortolan—supposedly represented the French soul. And this old man, this ravenous president, had taken it whole—wings, feet, liver, heart. Swallowed it, bones and all. Consumed it beneath a white cloth so that God Himself couldn't witness the barbaric act.

One of the best articles on food ever written.

[Sue Woods]

Growing up on a navy base food came mostly in cans and freeze dried except for fresh seafood being that we lived on the Bay of Funday.

Fresh Digby scallops fried in magarine on high heat for 20 minutes (until my mother deemed they were definately dead) served with canned peas and dehydrated potatoes; sandwiches of white sugar spread over margarine on wonder bread; Kraft dinner with ketchup sauce. We kids also ate fresh sap from pine trees. It was a bit like spearmint gum - but I've been haunted wondering if it was ever intended to be ingested! (Any food scientests out there who can put my mind to rest?) The best part was wild blueberries and tree fruits we'd 'borrow' from orchards - probably the only reason I'm alive today!

[victorian fan]

^ You were allowed to eat Kraft dinner?
Wow.

[Sue Woods]

^ You were allowed to eat Kraft dinner?
Wow.

I assume by your question that you were deprived. Back then I think it cost 19 cents a box.

[martini]

Okra

[mat]

Growing up on an east coast navy base food came mostly in cans, freeze dried except for fresh seafood delivered by the "fish man" . Our main diet was:

Fresh Digby scallops fried in magarine on high heat for 20 minutes (until my mother deemed they were definately dead) served with canned peas and dehydrated potatoes; dehydrated eggs and fried bolony for "special" breakfasts; sandwiches of white sugar spread over margarine on wonder bread; Kraft dinner with ketchup sauce.
Salads of head letture sprinkled with white sugar and vinegar.

For snacks we kids ate fresh sap oozing from pine trees. It was a bit like spearmint gum - but I've been rather haunted ever since wondering if it was ever intended to be ingested. Any food scientests out there who can put my mind to rest?

The good thing was wild blueberries and tree fruits we kids used to steal from nearby orchards - probably the only reason I'm alive today!

My father goes into convulsions and sweats when us kids ask about food and diet when he was a kid in the UK during the war. Pressure cooked cabbage - with over cooked mutton, mmmm (the thought makes my toes curl!)

Pine sap - well, it is a known flavouring in wine (Retsina), and possibly both an astringent and source of vitamins. Wikipedia

The soft, moist, white inner bark (cambium) found clinging to the woody outer bark is edible and very high in vitamins A and C. It can be eaten raw in slices as a snack or dried and ground up into a powder for use as a thickener in stews, soups, and other foods, such as pine bread. A tea made by steeping young, green pine needles in boiling water (known as "tallstrunt" in Sweden) is high in vitamins A and C

[mat]

Okra

Why does Okra come up high as a food hate? This thread was originally started from a similar titled discussion in the Guardian UK, and Okra was, I think, the 3rd most hated food.

It's not my favourite veggie, but there are worse.

[Sue Woods]

Pine sap - well, it is a known flavouring in wine (Retsina), and possibly both an astringent and source of vitamins. Wikipedia

Thank you for that.
Now I feel so much healthier!

[Caramia]

I love eggs. But the Irish have this special thing they do to breakfast...

Fried eggs, served in a pool of oil, still runny on top, with a side of mushy peas and a chunk of ham fat and a boiled scone.

Worst. Breakfast. Ever.

[mat]

I love eggs. But the Irish have this special thing they do to breakfast...

Fried eggs, served in a pool of oil, still runny on top, with a side of mushy peas and a chunk of ham fat and a boiled scone.

Worst. Breakfast. Ever.

Chugged down with a Guinness it is slightly more palatable!

[Caramia]

I asked for a drink and they brought me a Guiness.
Back then I didn't drink alcohol at all.

[victorian fan]

I assume by your question that you were deprived. Back then I think it cost 19 cents a box.

My mother disapproved and my grandmother (who lived with us) called it "common". She called a lot of things common.

We ate what was put in front of us. Luckily, no one was allergic.

[yodsaker]

I love eggs. But the Irish have this special thing they do to breakfast...

Fried eggs, served in a pool of oil, still runny on top, with a side of mushy peas and a chunk of ham fat and a boiled scone.

Worst. Breakfast. Ever.

They do it in England too. But with less flair.
Surely the eggs have to be cold (as in some UK B&Bs) for this dish to be at its best?

[mat]

On my usual Sunday morning perusal of the NYT I came across this article "The Maggots in Your Mushrooms" - which profiles the FDA (US) acceptable levels of 'natural contaminants'

You may be grossed out, but insects and mold in our food are not new. The F.D.A. actually condones a certain percentage of “natural contaminants” in our food supply — meaning, among other things, bugs, mold, rodent hairs and maggots.

In its (falsely) reassuringly subtitled booklet “The Food Defect Action Levels: Levels of Natural or Unavoidable Defects in Foods That Present No Health Hazards for Humans,” the F.D.A.’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition establishes acceptable levels of such “defects” for a range of foods products, from allspice to peanut butter.

Among the booklet’s list of allowable defects are “insect filth,” “rodent filth” (both hair and excreta pellets), “mold,” “insects,” “mammalian excreta,” “rot,” “insects and larvae” (which is to say, maggots), “insects and mites,” “insects and insect eggs,” “drosophila fly,” “sand and grit,” “parasites,” “mildew” and “foreign matter” (which includes “objectionable” items like “sticks, stones, burlap bagging, cigarette butts, etc.”).

I am not sure what Canadian regulations are - but here are some examples from the USA.

Tomato juice, for example, may average “10 or more fly eggs per 100 grams [the equivalent of a small juice glass] or five or more fly eggs and one or more maggots.” Tomato paste and other pizza sauces are allowed a denser infestation — 30 or more fly eggs per 100 grams or 15 or more fly eggs and one or more maggots per 100 grams.

Canned mushrooms may have “over 20 or more maggots of any size per 100 grams of drained mushrooms and proportionate liquid” or “five or more maggots two millimeters or longer per 100 grams of drained mushrooms and proportionate liquid” or an “average of 75 mites” before provoking action by the F.D.A.

The sauerkraut on your hot dog may average up to 50 thrips. And when washing down those tiny, slender, winged bugs with a sip of beer, you might consider that just 10 grams of hops could have as many as 2,500 plant lice. Yum.

Giving new meaning to the idea of spicing up one’s food, curry powder is allowed 100 or more bug bits per 25 grams; ground thyme up to 925 insect fragments per 10 grams; ground pepper up to 475 insect parts per 50 grams. One small shaker of cinnamon could have more than 20 rodent hairs before being considered defective.

...and here's the result

In case you’re curious: you’re probably ingesting one to two pounds of flies, maggots and mites each year without knowing it, a quantity of insects that clearly does not cut the mustard, even as insects may well be in the mustard.

So, the question is - who is counting the amount of rodent hair in the spices we just bought - imported from China?