Foods you don’t like that always need explaining.

Coconut. Taste, texture, smell, just can’t stand it. Even in a non-food context, can’t use coconut scented soap.

But things do change – never liked olives, went to Greece for 2 weeks and happily munch them now.

Celery is probably in the same bucket as cucumber. It’s alright, but you’re still tasting it three hours later.

My partner absolutely detests the stuff. I like making soup and so many soup bases start with onion, carrot and celery. If I showed the pan a photograph of a stick of celery she wouldn’t be able to eat it.

Onions and garlic (all aliums in fact) – IBS thing, cause a lot of discomfort, garlic basically makes me feel like I’m hungover. Big pia though, I like garlic! Would love to snaffle a lovely garlic bread. Everything has onion in it so that’s a right ball ache.

Cucumber – it’s rank. It makes everything taste like cucumber. You can’t remove the cucumber and get away with it, if it’s touched it, it’s tainted forever! But weirdly, I bloody love tzatziki which to me,  despite my wife’s protestations, doesn’t taste like cucumber.

Bananas – just a rank flavour, tried to get over it, but they remain rank

Raw tomato – that’s something to do with an enzyme they contain I think, tastes very bitter too some people, but cook them and the enzyme is denatured and they taste fine. Sun-dried Tom’s are bloody lovely .

potatoes – just imagine how many times I’ve had to explain it, and it means pub food is generally a limited choice (lasagne pls)

someone mentioned it above – nightshade family – clue is in the deadly nightshade variant – boring details about alkaloids and solanine but if you get a tummy ache after eating potatoes, raw toms, peppers, aubergines you might have similar – it turns out to be more common than people think and is quite a common cause of ‘undiagnosed’ IBS

general solution is avoid but I also recommend kefir etc

My son has a weird sensitivity to cinnamon – he can detect the smallest quantities and doesn’t like it.  Which makes some countries in Europe difficult as they put it in everything sweet.  Anyhow, I started cooking without it, and actually  it is not necessary, certainly not in sweet dishes.  Cinnamon + apple, just a cliche, cloves are just as good.  So now when I detect it I think “nice cake, spoiled by too much cinnamon”.  Curries and tagines etc. though, the right amount of cinnamon definitely works there.

Avocado for me. I’ve tried it all over central and South America and still a nope for me. Tasteless slimy yuk as far as I’m concerned.

Tangent but, why is avocado the only thing which is served “smashed”? You wouldn’t get bruschetta with smashed tomatoes, or a steak with smashed carrots. Weird.

Smashed/Crushed new potatoes are a (delicious) thing.

Mashed or pureed potatoes, carrots, parsnips – all may be served with steak.

Prawns mashed and served on fried bread, used to be a popular starter in Chinese restaurants back in the day.

Yes, but, none of those are “smashed.”

Smashed/Crushed new potatoes are a (delicious) thing.

A mate is a former chef, he put me onto “champ.” Add boiled new potatoes to spring onions sautéed in butter and crush ’em up rather than mashing. It’s amazing.

Smashed/Crushed new potatoes are a (delicious) thing.

Jersey Royals, smashed, with half a cows worth of salted butter then covered in black pepper is the food of the gods and could even rival chips as the best things to do with a spud

Yes, but, none of those are “smashed.”

The difference between smashed and mashed being . . . ?

Proper mashed stuff goes through a ricer, and is very smooth. Smashed stuff is hit once or twice so the veg is still largely intact, but the edges have split, allowing any dressings/oils/seasonings/flavourings more surface area to stick to.

Take a potato, cut it into 1” slices.

Air fry till cooked.

Smash with rolling pin or bottom of a bowl.

Drop smashed circles into v hot chip pan for a couple of minutes.

Season and enjoy crispiest, fluffiest spuds evah.

Welcomez

I can’t get my head around people loving Greggs sausage rolls (pink slime wrapped in bad pastry and barely cooked) and Big Macs(don’t get me started), but hating the creamy saltiness of while stilton with the sweet tartness of apricots in it.

Actually, Greggs food generally – just Blurghhhhh

Oh well, each to their own.

The difference between smashed and mashed being . . . ?

One is its name, and the other is not.

I can’t get my head around people loving Greggs sausage rolls (pink slime wrapped in bad pastry and barely cooked) and Big Macs(don’t get me started)

Oh well, each to their own.

Indeed. You know that literally millions and millions of people disagree with you every single day?

You know that literally millions and millions of people disagree with you every single day?

I get that a lot too.

Maybe it’s cos you is a wrong’un, innit? 😉

I get that a lot too.

Proper mashed stuff goes through a ricer, and is very smooth. Smashed stuff is hit once or twice so the veg is still largely intact

So for the last 60 years when I’ve been crushing boiled potatoes with a “potato masher” instead of puréeing them through a Mouli, I have been smashing not mashing.

Really? (Somewhat unconvinced emoji)

One is its name, and the other is not.

A baffling reply – at least for the hard of thinking like me. (Confused emoji)

You know that literally millions and millions of people disagree with you every single day?

Including Greg

https://images.app.goo.gl/tqRQ67AyXGB1E18v6

I have been smashing not mashing.

You only hit the potatoes once or twice, leaving them largely intact?

normally with the skin still on too

Obvs you don’t NEED to use a ricer to make mash, but it’s just better (& easier) if you do.

but you seem desperate to make some sort of point here, so whatever.

I have been smashing not mashing.

Cook your new potatoes, skin on, then drain them, put far too much butter into the pan, add ridiculous quantities of black pepper, lid back on the pan then simply rattle them around nice and hard like it was a pair of maracas

Sorted! Perfect ‘smashed’ spuds! 😀

Indeed. You know that literally millions and millions of people disagree with you every single day?

Yep. Pretty comfortable with that. Variety is great. If we all liked the same things it would be horrendous, all the food I like would be sold out, the mountains would be rammed  and the beaches in the med would be empty, I’d never get a ticket to the ballet and nightclubs would all close.

But more people don’t eat Greggs food each day than do so clearly I’m right (insert various emojis which show I’m really not being serious) Enjoy your Greggs, I’ll stay with the cheese.

I can’t get my head around people loving Greggs sausage rolls (pink slime wrapped in bad pastry and barely cooked) and Big Macs(don’t get me started), but hating the creamy saltiness of while stilton with the sweet tartness of apricots in it.

But those two (avoiding the Big Mac as I entirely agree) are not remotely comparable. Oh and I love cheese so much I think adulterating it with fruit or other additives is an abomination. If you must, put your fruity additions on the side of the plate, as in apple slices, fruit cake, etc.

You wouldn’t get bruschetta with smashed tomatoes.

Sounds similar to a basic tostada.. Staple Spanish breakfast.. Which in its most basic form is tomato on lightly toasted bread with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of herbs.

https://narwencuisine.blogspot.com/2020/09/tostadas-de-tomate-e-mangericao.html?m=1

It’s not mutually exclusive. I’m planning to eat my own body weight in cheese shortly. Cheers! 🙂

I’m all texture & smell driven. Custard and desiccated coconut can both get in the sea as a result, along with fondue, raclette, most fish, jelly & marzipan. My parents handily took the piss out of me for years:

“why don’t you like fish!”
“Because it smells like dirty underwear!”

“Andy do you want some trifle?”
<spontaneously vomits>

”mum I need to leave this restaurant as it smells like sick!” <traditional Swiss place serving fondue and raclette.

Autism’s like having a brain where your senses were wired by a 1975 Jaguar technician.

Once when touring Morocco we’d not eaten all day and I was absolutely ravenous I just ate what was layed in front of me and that was Lahem Ras – sheep’s head. I just gobbled it up. Until my g/f told me what it was.. sniggering.
I knew in an extreme situation I could eat my fellow passengers in a plane crash.

Threads like this are always a good reminder that I suspect I’m not wired quite right. I don’t think there is a food I’ve eaten that I can’t keep down, even as a child. I remember going to a friend’s house as a 10 year old and being served tripe, which to be fair is a strong move if you’ve got a kid you’ve never met before stopping over. I just remember the thought process being…..stomach lining, kinda weird- punchy taste that…..and the mouth feel is……. unusual. Right – down It goes – what’s next? Later is life century eggs, durian fruit in Asia and some fermented shark thing in Iceland all went the same way. It’s not that I can’t taste/smell properly, and I bloody love some foods – I just don’t seem to wired to reject stuff. I taste things without forming a negative opinion. The range is from ‘I could literally go on eating this all day it’s so bloody lovely ‘ to ‘I could go on eating this all day as I have no real opinion about it”

Or to put this in context..  I reckon I could eat a bowl full of other people’s bogies without barfing.

The true irony is that I’ve now chosen to lead a vegan lifestyle and choose to not eat huge swathes of foods by choice!

I reckon I could eat a bowl full of other people’s bogies without barfing.

Speaking of which, is there any research on this topic. It’s weird, children seem to love eating bogies, but adults always tell them not to. Surely, if they were bad for you, evolutionary pressure would have bred this habit out of children. Children don’t seem to like eating faeces the way they like eating bogies, but there’s lots and lots of research about eating faeces (to summarize, they have very little nutritional value and can be quite bad for you so you should avoid eating them as a very high priority), but I’ve never seen any research on eating bogies even though children seem to really like them.

Proper mashed stuff goes through a ricer, and is very smooth.

Sounds more like creamed potatoes.

Bogies, given the quantity that dribble down your throat on a daily basis, can’t be bad for you. The pickers are just the air dried ones at the front of your nose.

What do people think happens when you sniff when you have a cold?

I don’t think there is a food I’ve eaten that I can’t keep down, even as a child. I remember going to a friend’s house as a 10 year old and being served tripe

TBH isn’t the issue when you find what you’ve eaten,I use to eat chitlin with a vinegar  (from the butchers) as a kid in the ‘70s  but once I’d learnt what it was , never again.

Speaking of which, is there any research on this topic. It’s weird, children seem to love eating bogies, but adults always tell them not to

AIUI it’s a form of a condition known as pica which covers eating all sorts of non food items such as hair, pencils, paper, pencil erasers, twigs, soil etc.

Sounds more like creamed potatoes.

Depends on the density & cream content.

Proper mashed stuff goes through a ricer, and is very smooth.

That’s not mashed, that’s a purée.

the secret to mash is the fats you put in it. I like goats cheese myself

That’s not mashed, that’s a purée.

A puree will spread out if dropped on a plate. Mash will hold its shape, which is still perfectly possible if it’s been through a ricer.

for example… https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/best-ever-creamy-mashed-potatoes

Glad to see I’m not the only one with issues around oranges, albeit very specific to my wife’s confusion. I think it is Jaffa Cakes fault, the smell of them is complete repulsion and goes for any heavily processed orange thing like chocolate or squash.

Yet I have watered down orange juice most days for breakfast (smooth only), absolutely love the bitterest, chunkiest marmalade (as long as I don’t have to smell it being made) and will eat satsumas, but not any other orange citrus fruit.

And for the Binners baiting, onion marmalade on a pie?