My daily stroll around the entertainment websites led to a gem. Foods we refuse to eat due to bad childhood experiences. We all have some of those. I think I can give my top 10.
1. Pimento Cheese. My mother loved it. If there was a spreadable cheese in the house it was pimento cheese. Later in life I realize that I love cheddar and various other cheeses, but when I go to a social event where there is pimento cheese, I'm ready to go home.
2. Beets. Sometimes you taste something you just don't like. Unfortunately, when you are little, you are made to continue eating it because it is on your plate. And if you had the bad luck of your parents buying it in bulk because someone was "picking it from their garden," you will be subjected to the horror of consuming it more than once with the accompanying phrase "eat it or no desert." Sometimes desert wasn't worth it.
3. Root beer. I found a trick to root beer. Get used to chewing wintergreen gum and you can drink root beer. The first time I had root beer, it wasn't for me. Then I was placed with a choice of either root beer or water at a sleepover. After spending the whole day chewing wintergreen gum, the root beer didn't taste bad at all. They seemed to have the same taste. I'd like for someone else to try that and see if they agree with me.
4. Stir fry. You run into the kitchen excited to find out what's for dinner and when you see the wok, its over. No flavor, just the taste of vegetables with a hint of whatever meat was placed in there. I was able to overcome this aversion by watching Food TV. Chicken stock, garlic, onions, light soy sauce, 5 spice powder, scallions, white wine and a little honey reduced down to the consistency of a sauce... did wonders.
5. Cube Steak. This amounted to marathon chewing sessions almost every time. The mashed potatoes and peas were the best part of that meal.
6. Hot dogs with the cheese in the middle. I think this wound was self-inflicted. I said I could eat them everyday and they were on sale. My mother put me to the challenge and I haven't touched them since. The thought comes back as I'm typing this. What was I thinking?
7. Coffee. I can hear people gasp. This was also a mistake and my mother warned me not to have more than a cup. But I wanted to be an adult. The adults in the house could drop a pot of coffee in an hour. So I think I consumed around 4 cups with 6 or 7 sugars. The erratic behavior that followed would've been worthy of YouTube. Thank God we hadn't heard of the Internet back then.
8. Ranch Dressing. It took me a while to warm up to Ranch because the first time I tried it was the day I had a concussion. The fall knocked me senseless. Everything tasted strange and that was the first time I had tasted ranch dressing.
9. Chitterlings. My parents would call it babysitting. I called it kidnapping. I was trapped in a house where the people either don't believe in or can't afford air conditioning. Then I had to suffer through the smell of collard greens and chitterlings being cooked. It's not pleasant. I never got used to it. Still can't bring myself to try them again. Bobby Flay and Gordon Ramsay could tag team chitterlings in an episode of Hell's Kitchen and I'd still fill up on bread and water.
10. Soup. One of the things I learned about soup is to listen for the way people say it. Do they say vegetable beef or beef and vegetable. My mother made vegetable beef soup. Very little meat and more than enough okra. I wasn't a fan until my uncle took over the kitchen one day. Four packs of beef and steak went into that soup. That man was my hero. Add cornbread to it and soup has never been the same since.
Do you have a food aversion and were you able to overcome it? Tell us how.
*image Eun Byeo/flickr
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