10 foods people love or hate

I am American but do not like sweet stuff - what does that mean about me? I love spicy and bitter as many of those italien dishes you mention I love.

That's interesting, Fb. I didn't get to italy and go mad until I was nearly fifty and liked at least some bitter stuff before that, like mustard greens, and so on. It turned out to be a happy serendipity re the conjuncture. Huh, maybe I wouldn't have been so enchanted if I'd hated the food.

I like Campari, sure, but I like it with two ice cubes in a tall thin glass, a cultural need. My fav amaro was Amaro M-something. I think I liked all of them, small glass at a time.
Never tried the hungarian one.

I will say the first italy trip cemented me in my freaking at american sweets, but again, I might have been on my way to that already. I didn't taste all that much italian confection but I did have my whachacallems, schiacci something, seashell pastries and a number of others that have flavors other than sweet... but even if sweet, less than ours. I routinely halve or 3/5 the sugar in any baked stuff I do - which isn't much, the odd fruit cookie.

What's your take on these foods?

1. White Chocolate: It's okay...I'd rather have dark chocolate

2.Cilantro: love it - especially in salsa

3. Eggplant: it's ok

4. Coconut: I like it

5. Tomato: love it

6. Sardines: gag

7. Black licorice: gag

8. Stinky cheeses: I don't mind blue cheese, I don't like these French cheeses with ash in them...I will not elaborate.

9. Mayo: real mayo - yum (in limited amounts)

10. Bell Pepper: yum

11. Beets: just ok


See- some of these I neither love nor hate.

yeah, I like bitter too.

had never thought of artichokes that way though.

I'm glad you said that about the garlic, it's fine in small amounts, but it being left out won't ruin a dish.

I do like to roast garlic, then add to green beans, olive oil, tomato and lemon, first with the green beans almost all the way cooked.

Don't I remember that you've been to italy, linkat? Did that change you or were you already more interested in spicy and bitter?

'course, you're from Boston, not that that is the same thing, but also, connected. (I use the Romangnoli's cookbook once in a while).

Yeah - I've been to Italy, but I loved that stuff before hand. By the way I think Italy has the best food in the world.

I do have italian heritage so I wonder if that could be an influence. But I also have irish (whow wouldn't in Boston) as well and that food is crap.

Yeah.

I'm totally irish, well, 1/16 welsh, which may do more to explain my avidity for italian.
Where is lmur, he could probably speak to this - he's irish, fond of italy, wonder what he thinks re the food diffs.

I also add some chile or some curry mix to things. Not always or even often hot hot hot, but a punch. And recently, more ground pepper.

That was some riff!

I traveled in Europe solo for a bit, with very very little moolah. I lived for about a week on bread, cheese, and sausage (like summer sausage, that didn't require refrigeration or cooking) and it was all cheap but it was some of the best food I've ever had. Maybe the fact that I was so hungry had something to do with it.

Thats a nice way to have a Campari.
Have you tasted Cynar? An artichoke bitter. Great.
Campari tastes like Coca-Cola compared to Unicum.

Unicum is unique!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicum

Yes, I remember liking Cynar especially...

Not available at my local store, of course.

Unicum has, as I suppose has been observed, an odd name.

All these probably easily available in NYC, but not here.

I think I just remembered the amaro, amaro di montenegro... will have to look it up.

Ok, back to frozen spinach.

Who doesn't love Hershey 'Hugs'?? They're the best!!

hate:
sausages
vimto
macaroni cheese
marmite or vegemite depending were you live
black pudding-never tried it, and wont eww pigs blood yuck
love:
ice cream
green beans
chilli
spag bol
amaretto liquor mmmn

1. White Chocolate: Dislike it.

2. Cilantro: I like it a lot. Of course I use it regualrly in my cooking, which is mostly indian. But i always like to add cilantro at the very end. I dont like cilantro cooked ...i once ate cilantro in a chinese dish...looked like they had tossed it in oil. Hated that.

3. Eggplant: Love it.

4. Coconut: Love it. But I don't like it as a fragrance.

5. Tomato: Like it.

6. Sardines: Don't know! I'm vegetariam

7. Black licorice: The licorice we get here (called yashtimadhu) is kind of sweet. We don;t use it in cooking. It's an ingredient of the effective ayurvedic cough syrup that i sometimes take to get rid of a persistent cough.

8. Stinky cheeses: I don;t know. I didnt like blue cheese. Too smoky. Felt like I was eating a cigarette.

9. Mayo: Okay. I don's love it/hate it. Okay.

10. Bell Pepper: Like it, in all colors.
11. Beets: Beetroots I love. Don't know about beet as a leafy vegetable.

I hate brocolli and some people i know love it...how could it not be on this listt...

Bell peppers yummy!!

I think Hellman's mayonaise is a head above all others. I wouldn't think of making Waldorf salad with any other mayonaise. I craved pancakes the other night and didn't have syrrup, so I used some sweetened Hellman's mayonaise, and it worked.