Flavor Unfavorable

Scott Hardie | March 30, 2017
What's a flavor, or flavor combination, that many people like that you cannot stand? Why don't you like it?

Aaron Shurtleff | March 31, 2017
Nutella/Hazelnut. It is so bitter to me, that I honestly think everyone has to be joking about it tasting good. I am pretty sure that it is like a huge joke that everyone else is in on, but they don't let you know about it until you finally succumb to peer pressure and say you like it.

They will never get me.

Samir Mehta | March 31, 2017
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Scott Hardie | March 31, 2017
My father burned beets on the stove when I was a kid, filling the apartment with foul-smelling smoke and setting off a screeching smoke alarm. That experience certainly put me off of the taste of beets for good.

Only recently have I started to like honey barbecue. They're both pleasant tastes separately that don't work when combined, or so I thought. Now I'm convinced that the brands of honey barbecue sauce that I was buying in the store were crap.

Hazelnut is ok I guess, but it's inferior to chocolate and so similar. Except for allergies, I don't know why anyone would choose candy made out of hazelnut when they could just have the same thing made out of chocolate. I've had exactly one good thing made with Nutella, a fancy layered breakfast pastry that was like French toast and ice cream, and it came across like more of a dessert sundae than a breakfast dish, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't sweet and tasty.

No relish here, either. Anything with a sour, vinegary taste is a huge turnoff to me -- relish, pickles, jalapenos, most mustard. Maybe it's the way my parents used to clean the coffee pot every few days by running vinegar through the machine, filling the kitchen with fumes of hot vinegar. As a (suburban) Chicagoan, I'm not supposed to like ketchup on hot dogs, but it's one of the few condiments I can stomach... and since I started developing heartburn problems in the last couple of years, I can pretty much take ketchup off of that list now, too.

Samir Mehta | March 31, 2017
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Scott Hardie | March 31, 2017
Nah, he just forgot them on the stove after we sat down to eat. I confess to doing that once too; I forgot that I was boiling water on the stove as an old friend called to chat, and it turned black before the alarm went off. There's an old joke about bad chefs using the smoke alarm as a cooking timer, and I know how they feel.

I can see oatmeal working that way. It's such a malleable food that so many different things can go with it. Good combo.

Kelly gives me a hard time about sprinkling black pepper on cottage cheese, and now half of the reason I do it is to mess with her. The other half is to remember my grandmother, since it's her habit that I picked up. My father used to stir together equal portions of cottage cheese and mayonnaise; he'd fill a plate and make a whole meal out of it. Thank goodness I never picked up that habit! When I was little I would often get served a portion of cottage cheese and a portion of applesauce, and sometimes I'd stir them together and like it, but I don't think I could enjoy that now that I'm not a toddler any more. I did once make a cottage cheese and baloney sandwich when I was very low on groceries, and it was messy but not so bad. (I didn't mean to make this about cottage cheese; I guess my brain is just running with that association today.) I would mention liking cottage cheese with pineapple on top, but I don't think that's terribly weird if it's on restaurant menus; Steak 'n Shake offers it.

Steve West | March 31, 2017
I dislike hazelnuts as well but I adore Frangelico. although I prefer Amaretto. I put pepper on almost everything. I detest sauerkraut so it makes Reuben sandwiches a pain to order because I love, love, love corned beef, Swiss cheese and thousand island dressing and have to put up with snobby waiter sneers when I say no sauerkraut. They look at you incredulously and mutter, "blasphemy!" I love cheesecake but hate it if it comes with any other flavoring, fruit or chocolate - just plain please and I'm in Nirvana.

Scott Hardie | April 2, 2017
Unlike a Swedish coworker who often eats sauerkraut right out of the jar for his lunch, I've never been a big fan of sauerkraut. I'll take it on a Reuben, but I'd rather have coleslaw or nothing. I don't care for corned beef either, come to think of it. My ideal Reuben would be ham, Swiss cheese, dressing, and raw onion, which doesn't deserve to be called a Reuben but sounds good to me. Next time you're in Florida, Steve, try a grouper Reuben with coleslaw.

Steve West | April 2, 2017
Oh, man. I'll see you next week! Sigh, if only...

Erik Bates | April 5, 2017
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Erik Bates | April 5, 2017
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Samir Mehta | April 5, 2017
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Scott Hardie | April 7, 2017
Weirdly to me, the popular local pizza chain here in the Bradenton/Sarasota area is Joey D's, a Chicago-style restaurant that keeps opening more locations. I move across the country from the Windy City and all anybody wants to eat here is deep-dish and hot dogs dragged through the garden. We used to have a Rosati's too, but they were put out of business; apparently there's only room for one Chicago-style restaurant in this not-remotely-close-to-Chicago town.

I hear you about the peach thing; for me it's watermelon. I love real watermelon, but watermelon candy and watermelon gum and watermelon Kool-Aid and so on never seems to taste right.

Lori Lancaster | April 11, 2017
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Erik Bates | April 12, 2017
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Samir Mehta | April 12, 2017
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Erik Bates | April 19, 2017
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