Oh yeah. I've never been big on hot peppers either. Usually avoid them.
Yes, different people have different tolerances for heat in food. I do not tolerate peppers. Jalapeno? Mouth on fire.
However, I can tolerate almost any amount of heat in Chinese and Thai food. Not only doesn't it bother me, but I love it.
So for me, it's not the heat but the source.
osso, I don't consider myself an adventurous eater, although I'm game to try just about anything. But I do see a difference between trying and really exploring.
John and I, John being my ex, ate our way through LA's ever burgeoning ethnic restaurants, far and wide, with Harvey, our leader. Not that we didn't venture on our own, but we were slower. Harvey led us in the venturing. Not uninteresting, in that he was a nice orthodox jewish guy some time before we knew him (U of Chicago). A nice orthodox jewish man who married an irish woman...
Harvey pulled it all together with truly great meals on varied different holidays.
Well, anyway, we benefitted by his exploration and learned to do that ourselves.
Nice to have a Harvey. Glad you did.
My second trip to Europe was an eye-opener--to the possiblitlies. And I learned that I would try anything. But at home a friend would discover something and invite me to try it. So one at a time, I found new cuisines, new approaches.
But I lack your passion for it. It interests and appeals to me, but doesn't light any fires--except for the jalapenos.
ehBeth wrote:Roberta wrote: Live monkey brain???? Are you telling me that the monkey is alive and kicking while somebody is eating its brains?
exactly
I learned to skip that page in the cookbook.
Oh my! I think I'm going to faint!
I'll eat almost anything with great enthusiasm, providing it is well cooked. Overdone vegetables and leathery liver and any sort of barbecue seasoned with too much bottled barbecue sauce require a great deal of conscious courtesy towards my hostess.
The First Mr. Noddy and I had a few days in Paris. Neither of us had retained much of our college French (and the vocabularies did not emphasize choosing from a menu). I was happy as a hog. He was all of an ego twitter, hesitating to ask the waiter for information lest he seem unsophisticated and yet unwilling to follow my lead and order blind. After all, he might not like the result--and this would be the end of the world.
(This was in the '60's. Had I asked the waiter for information I'd have been an emasculating bitch. By the '70's I chose to become an emasculating bitch and eradicate my ignorance.)
I do refuse warm milky drinks--if pressed, I summon up "lactose intolerant" as a spurious rationale.
Noddy, Glad you made the leap to emasculating bitch. I was forced to order blind in Norway. No one spoke English, and the menu was in Norwegian only. Two winners and one meal of mystery slop. Two out of three ain't bad.
Montana, I'm with you re the anchovies.
Roberta--
Mentioning no names, but some people act as though eating blind is partaking of communion with alien gods.
I am one of the least picky eaters I know. I love good food and there is not much that I really can not eat. However, I am not a fan of watermelon and I do not like sausage.
YellowRoseBud, Welcome to a2k. I'm with you on the sausages, but we part company with the watermelon. Love it.
Watermelon? Sausage. Two of my favorite things.
What kind of sausage. All kinds?
List of my "thank you, I'd rather not"s:
fried tarantulas
10 days old ducklings (still in egg, you're supposed to suck them out raw)
fried crickets
dog, horse, cat meat
...if I absolutely had to, I would eat those, too. Other than that, there is little I won't eat. I'll try just about everything, ain't allergic, don't have any developed dislikes. I wish I was a bit picky, would be easier to keep my weight down permanently.
eoe, Can't tell you how many times I've tried sausage. All kinds. Just a no. Don't know why.
Dag,
Think I'll pass too. Do those things come up all that often?
No sausage?
<thud>
How can you have kartoffel auflauf without sausage? weekend breakfasts? life?
roberta, all of those are common in cambodia. not so much here, no.
ditto on the sausage though. how sad to go through life without a sausage!
dagmaraka wrote:... how sad to go through life without a sausage!
Oh lord -- I think you've just given someone a new sig line!
