Ricky, that sounds like an amazing upbringing, wow! I would say I'm a medium weenie about trying new things. I used to eat pickled pigs feet, but don't think I can take the consistency now. Bugs... not sure, don't think so. Love sushi, raw things, not crazy about tripes, tongue, guess it's that cartilage-ey consistency. Haven't had the opportunity to try unusual meats (guinea pig, bear, horse, etc,) but if it was cooked nicely, why not. Hmm. Sea cucumber...maybe not. Some of the Asian hairy seaweeds are tough, pickled fish guts, no. Too strong. Have not tried durian.

Olychick, the only time in my life that my brain told me NOT to swallow was when I tried escargot! lol!

I need to know what it is first- I have two severe food allergies so it is always good to know what I am eating.

annie, if you raise carolina reapers in michigan, they are NOT carolina reapers … they are northern michigan reapers … but i bet they are still HOT. i steep them in chili, and cast the peppers away before consuming the chili. they are great in jellies and jams. worth a try ...

bragu, we got them on line from someone and I raised them inside on my entry porch. It took two years, but I got two tiny peppers. I call them "Carolina Reapers" because that's what the envelope said, and my husband paid something outrageous for them, like $14.99 for 6 seeds.

I don't generally care for any hot peppers, although I do make Habanero Gold, which is a jam with apricots and habaneros, and I like that with some cream cheese, spread on a bagel or on a savory cheesecake. I make chili with no chili peppers at all, just some very mild chili powder.

Those Reapers are indeed hot. My husband can eat a ghost pepper without flinching or breaking a sweat, and I've seen him do it. A small piece of the Reaper actually had him sweating slightly and his face turned red. A couple of spoonfuls of sour cream with his burrito and he was fine, but remarked "Now THAT'S hot". I've never seen that happen, ever before, so I knew I wasn't going to eat them.

Annie

Just from what it looks like to me, I will not eat uni. I will not even taste it. I cannot get past the look of it, which reminds me a lot of sorta solid-y baby diarrhea. Sorry, no can do!!

Oh, and insects? Not going to happen.

I have eaten tongue, heart, scrambled eggs with brains, escargot, chicken livers, beef liver and such, but I do draw the line at bugs and things that look like ....well, baby diarrhea -- btw, gravy does not look like that to me. lolam!

Edited to add: after reading klseiverd's mention of Balout, yes, count me OUT for that!!!!!

I, too, was raised to try everything once. I'd probably draw the line at anything dangerous, such as fugu or live baby octopus (the latter can choke you).

I did have a hard time swallowing smoked silk worm cocoons. I did get one or two down, and they really weren't much good... likely due more to how they were smoked than to the cocoon itself.

I would like to try crickets and mealworms some day. I love organ meats.

I'm pretty certain I'd try durian ... on a day I have a bad cold.

I do avoid trying new pre-packaged snacks - most of them don't leave me feeling too good, and I've now developed the habit of reading labels. Highly processed= avoid.

Haha - tongue was regular on our table, growing up. I sure don't see much familiarity w/ it these days, tho...

If something looks "normal", I'd probably taste without asking what it was. Grew up in house where you couldn't "hate" some food you'd never tasted. Mr. Spock is rolling in his grave... that's just so illogical! I'd have to be starving before tasting anything describes as... smelling like rotting meat (isn't that what "they" say about Durean fruit?). I don't CARE if it's a delicacy... people would get HURT by this 67 yo if they tried to force Balout into me... that's just gross.

First experience with calamari was at neighbor's Christmas Eve Seven Fishes get together. When I asked what thos breaded rings were... told fish... well, better not use the term that crazy/good neighbor used.. BUTT maybe you can use your imagination?? What could possibly be not to like about something breaded and deep fried!?!

Have never tried but would like to taste rattle snake. Tried alligator (at a fair type thing)... would like to try it prepared by someone who knew what they were doing... it was TOUGH.

Have REALLY tried to like two foods but just haven't found a way yet. If I went to someone's home and these were being served... could be polite enough to eat a very SMALL portion. Just can't do liver... though a nice pate works for me. Have tried oysters every which way... fried, oyster stew, baked/broiled, even raw. It's not a texture thing but a flavor problem for me?

I can't eat snails. I can't even try one. I prepare them for my husband but I always have prawns with the garlic butter instead. I'm never going to make myself eat something that looks vile.... there are so many good things to eat.

There are certain things I don't care for, but I have learned over the years that often it is not the food itself but the skill of the preparation that matters the most, so I'm generally willing to give anything at least a taste. I'm not a big fan of cooked fishes (especially fresh water fishes, which taste very muddy to me...), but when done right they can be quite good and sushi - love, love, love it when the fish is fresh and the chef is good. I've had plenty of rubbery octopus, but prepared well it's wonderful. Shellfish can be a game of roulette- good oysters and mussels are really wonderful, but if you get a bad one ugh...

Traveling has taught me this lesson well. When I went to Japan with my husband, who was there on business, we went out to eat with the office on Friday - I don't know if they were playing lets see what the American will eat or not, but we didn't even know until later that the hotpot was cabbage and fish sperm. (it was good) We also had our first sashimi ever there and have never looked back about loving raw fish - it was tuna served with shredded myoga and it was awesome. I've also found I like natto (fermented soybeans) - which some Japanese people don't even like to eat.

As far as things that I consider to be pretty normal, but seem to turn off a lot of people - I love beets - just scrub them very well before you cook them and they won't taste of dirt. I like turnips too and lamb. For whatever reason people think lamb is too strong or "gamey"...

For me the biggest turn off that can make things hard to eat is smell - anything that smells super fishy is difficult for me and I've come across some cheeses that smelled so awful that I couldn't stomach them - like serious sewer stink... Oddly other things don't bother me - natto is stinky, but not, to me, in an unpleasant way. I've made Thai curry pastes from scratch and the dried shrimp and shrimp paste used in them will stink up your house, but I know it tastes amazing and while I won't be super pleased if you warm a dish containing lots of fermented fish sauce in the break room microwave I don't hesitate to cook and eat dishes using it in my own kitchen.

The only thing I've heard about that really gives me some pause about at least trying is balut - how do you eat the beak, bones and feathers... it sounds like a choking hazard..

I think I am a pretty adventuresome eater, I will try a least a small taste of almost anything, once. Not sure about things like insects, rats or worm-like things, though. Have never been faced with any of those, and chances are good I never will be, either.

Growing up on a farm where we butchered all our own meat made things like liver, tongue and heart real delicacies, each animal butchered produces such a small amount. My mother used to can hogs feet, and they were delicious, I loved them. I wish I knew how she prepared them, they weren't pickled, or if they were, she used a very mild vinegar solution. I was so happy to find them, jarred, in the store once, but was so disappointed, all they tasted of was the vinegar. She also made an oxtail stew that was wonderful, and I've never been able to reproduce it, either.

Because we were poor, being choosey about food was never an option. And we had to at least taste anything new that was offered. Personally, I think that is a very good 'rule' to follow, I am so often utterly flabbergasted by just how picky some kids are these days. How can anyone possibly know they don't like something if they refuse to even try to taste a tiny bite?

Rusty

I was willing to try anything when I was younger. Not so much anymore. I'm afraid to eat raw sushi because of water pollution.

When my daughter was little, I wanted her to try everything once too. So if she said she didn't want to, I put it away and told her that's fine -- it's mostly food for grownups. She always tasted whatever.

klseivard, I've had both alligator and rattlesnake, both deep fried. The alligator was mild and about the texture of chicken breast, but definitely did not taste like chicken. Maybe more like rabbit, and a little sweet, like crab. The rattlesnake was from a roadside trailer by Devil's Tower , they were selling rattlesnake baskets right next to the prairie dog village. I just had to, of course. It was kind of chewy and had little bones that had to be watched out for, but mostly tasted like breading and grease and salt, LOL, it was pretty mild.

Annie

I always order deep fried alligator whenever I go to a Cajun restaurant that has it on their menu (not available in CA but common in Texas & Louisiana. It is one of my favorite foods. I've not had rattlesnake, and my only apprehension is the bones. I thought that alligator tasted a lot like frogs' legs, which I also love.

I'll eat anything once, but don't have a "7 year rule", which sounds fascinating. Nothing though will get me to try baloot again. I was fearful at fugu. A lot of these strange foods I think evolved out of scarcity and/or became tradition, and do end up being a "why bother" again choice. I think a cooking forum is an atypical audience for this type of question, though.

Crickets. Just, no.

I do love escargots. Need to find a French restaurant around here.

Another thing to be careful about with sushi is tapeworms. The news just reported that they've been found in the fish here, especially salmon, recently. Apparently it's a known issue in Japan.

I'm pretty sure all salmon sushi and sashimi here at least, has to be made from fish that has been frozen for a prescribed period of time to kill any possible parasites.

I too grew up eating tongue--always corned, like corned beef, but I know we bought it that way from our butcher. I still get tongue when I can, corn it and still love it. It's a Jewish deli delicacy. My dad (born in 1918) used to talk about a dish his grandmother made that involved lungs and spleen. Nobody in this country cooks like that anymore. We've become very wasteful--want only the muscle meats. I like liver once in a while, but NEVER from the store--only an animal raised on pasture and slaughtered in a small facility. Actually, almost all the meat I eat is pasture raised and finished.

I've eaten ground hog-- made into stew you couldn't tell it from lamb. I've eaten rattlesnake, like dry chicken. And more recently bear that my son made into barbecue, with sauce. It was fine.

I'm not sure I'd be able to eat an insect, and not sure I want to try.

No. Unless you want entertainment, I'm a gagger. Not only taste sets me off but so can texture.

I eat about everything, never resist tasting anything, and have a wildly varied diet so according to dcarch "diverse food intake leads to good health". I once went to a meal put on by hunters (can't sell wild game but can serve them to members) when I paid their annual dues. Bobcat and bear, you can keep, rattlesnake is eh. Having lived all over North America I've eaten pemmican, every kind of fish and seafood (best loved: abalone, calamari steaks, smoked eel, Northern Pike, and native trout), caribou, reindeer, bison, moose, wild boar/hog, mountain goat, sheep, llama, crawdads (crayfish), alligator, turtle, snake, frog legs, squirrel, opossum, boiled worms, cricket/locust/ants, garden escargot, many many kinds of birds, and deer from my land of course, but my favorite wild meat is elk. When we lived in PR years ago we regularly ate horse instead of unavailable or too expensive beef. I love all cheeses but especially the really stinky ones. As for fruits and vegetables/greens, there aren't any I've tasted that I really didn't like except kale, now it is on every restaurant menu!

I think i've tried just about everything. 'Expertly' prepared is important. I'm not about to set up a cricket trap because they are so yum and i can't wait to experiment at home.

I'm not interested in posting some odd travel food just to 'tweet' about it. Or a county fair novelty.

I've declined a few memorable times. When a friend and co-worker scooped out a fish eyeball/socket with a spoon i said, "you can have mine". Plenty of good eatin' on that plate. I don't need to experience the eyeball.

If it is alive, i pass. Like the little appy plate of tiny noodles that looking closer had two eyes each and were wiggling.

Or food that is too fussy like the ten second rule. Sushi i love with a good chef. Not fussy, works fast. An expert. Food that looks overly handled, carved and shaped with fussy handling and plating i get a shudder feeling.

Lots of good options on a menu that i have no interest in trying Balout.

Wow, lots of interesting dining going on!

Hubby and I travel quite a bit and try to roll with it as much as possible so we generally will try most things. We have had many of the things mentioned here including boar (love it), uni (NO thank you), and even horse (when in Rome - literally - it was actually pretty good).

But I do have limits.

On a trip to Spain we went with our friend's in-laws to a local farm/restaurant. It was a spectacular meal but I did skip one dish. Our friend's father in law had the sheep's head - there is was right there on the plate. When he skewered the eye on his fork and ate it, I just about lost it.

So I am clearly in the no eyeballs camp - not even once!!

Freezing fish (commercially--home freezing doesn't work) is the FDA recommendation, but it's often not followed. There's some kind of change that's bringing the fish with the tapeworms to US waters and they're becoming a problem, according to the news.

pillog - how is commercial and home freezing different? Frozen is frozen, right?

Some home freezers don't get to 5 degrees below zero....ues a thermometer to be sure your's is cold enough...most are.

I have eaten a fish eyeball from a whole cooked fish. I can't say it was overly pleasant. It was not as you might expect, gooey or jelly like. It was actually very dry and chalky.

Mimi, I agree to a point. I'd rather go hungry than eat something I don't like and when I was a child I did go to bed hungry more than once, rather than eat the dreaded cornmeal mush. I wasn't forced to eat it, I had a choice. Eat it or go hungry. Sometimes I ate it, but there was nothing else and there were times we were lucky to have that much.

Now my grandkids? None of them would eat a single vegetable, ever, if they were not required to, and two of them wouldn't eat fruit either. They wouldn't eat any meat, fish or beans either, not even chicken nuggets or fast food burgers. They'd fill up on white bread, lots of butter and cheese. One doesn't even like pasta. They will all eat pizza, but only plain cheese pizza, no vegetables and no meat.

So they are required to eat the vegetables and some protein, including the choice of a peanut butter sandwich or cold cereal if they really detest what we are having. I do make sure that I make one of the "edible" vegetables, which includes only green beans, glazed carrots or corn. But anyone who doesn't eat their vegetables doesn't get any dessert, so Bud will pour 1/2 cup of Heinz catsup on green beans and eat them that way. I guess the catsup is kind of a vegetable too...

But would I smack one because they wouldn't eat eel or crickets or testicles? Nope, and I don't hide what it is either. If it's testicles, I tell them that. They are, however, required to taste "normal food" before they say they don't like it. If they don't like it, they don't have to eat it any more, but they have to taste it.

Annie

Nancyofnc, The general advice is that home freezing won't work. If you have a manual defrost freezer, or an ultra high tech one with an evaporator, and it will hold a steady temperature long enough, it might work. Without a commercial flash freezer, for smaller fish, you need seven days below -4° F without warming for defrost, etc. FDA

I agree that there's a big difference between having an agreed upon family taste it rule and turning it into a power struggle. I used to ask for tastes of things, as a small child because it was there. I didn't like my father's schmaltz herring, but I liked sitting on his knee and having a taste. :) So now I don't dumb down food for kids.

I was thinking about this more yesterday. On the premise of would I taste it, yeah, I'd taste most things. But the follow up question of would I want to taste rat, or even rabbit? Nope. Too much of my cultural upbringing says these aren't food. Rodents and other small furries seem to be my sticking point, without a compelling reason to do so.

Child abuse!!

Forcing ice cream to babies!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMnpmc0vNsM

dcarch

As a kid I was waaaaay at the other end of the spectrum from Ricky. I remember one dinner that involved canned peas or canned lima beans or canned green beans, and the parents tried "You're not leaving the table until you clean your plate." I decided that if I gave in, i would always have to give in. So I sat there until my parents wanted to go to bed, was told OK go to bed, but you'll have the beans (or whatever) for breakfast. Sure enough, the others had cereal, I had a small plate of gross cold green canned vegetables. So I sat there ignoring the plate until time to leave for school. I was given the $0.75 or $1.00 to buy a school lunch, and I never saw those peas or beans again. And if they were a part of dinner in the future I didn't have to take any.

I have become much more willing to try things since then.having tried alligator, kangaroo tail, chicken hearts, goose liver pate, rabbit, venison, and many different seafood items, but I still will say no to canned green vegetables.

Yes, we had canned lima beans and canned Brussels sprouts in childhood. I loathed them, but I tried them. The latter would be boiled. I ate as few as I could get away with.

It was years later that I got myself to try either again. Oh, they're entirely different fresh (and in the case of Brussels sprouts, roasted)!

On another note, I loved sweet breads. (Thymus, pancreas). My parents tried to get me to enjoy chicken breast by telling me I was eating sweet breads once. Couldn't fool me! Chicken breast is DRY!

Pillog, I do have a nice stand alone manual defrost freezer. It works well for freezing my fish. I leave seafood in for at least a week.

"You're not leaving the table until you clean your plate."

This is where most parents ruin their children's interest in food at an early age. No one reacts well to long term forced eating. Very sad.

Sure enough, the others had cereal, I had a small plate of gross cold green canned vegetables. So I sat there ignoring the plate until time to leave for school. I was given the $0.75 or $1.00 to buy a school lunch, and I never saw those peas or beans again

^^^

bob, I'm glad your parents realized the ridiculousness of making you sit for hours and made the wise decision to not weaponize food!

It's great when parents are adventurous and embrace all sorts of food, and don't yuck, ick and ewwww! to model for their children. If you pick up on that, great. If you don't want to eat those lima beans, you should be shown respect, no matter what your age.

It's a tough, fine line to tow when you want your children to eat a wide variety of food and grow up to be adults who don't just eat chicken nuggets and plain pasta.

Sorry, Ricky, if I don't find the story of your grandfather's rule to be endearing. I think it's great that you and others enjoy foods that many wouldn't even try, but if getting there involved abuses, like making you sit for hours, serving you the same food the next day or days or watching you gag, then it's the opposite of nurturing a love and a healthy relationship with food.

It's a tough, fine line to tow when you want your children to eat a wide variety of food and grow up to be adults who don't just eat chicken nuggets and plain pasta.

Of course, this is compounded by the fact that some would think it is abuse to allow your kids to eat food with such minimal nutrition on a consistent basis.

I eat a wider range of flavors than most in the family I grew up with. I do have a problem with certain textures (like some cooked greens or slimy things). I am somewhat a slave to my cultural biases, as well. I also think that food has a context that makes it taste good. If I were in an ethnic restaurant with an appropriate atmosphere and chefs who knew what they were doing with quality ingredients, I would probably be more willing to try something unusual, especially if the presentation is nice. I also sometimes have visual problems too, and if something is just thrown onto the plate that looks like a pile of barf, it is going to take some time to psych myself up to eat it. The problem with trying unusual things at home is if I go through a lot of effort to make dinner and it turns out to be something that none of us can/will eat, then we are still hungry and there are still dishes to wash, not a prospect I relish.

I will say I have tried to like beets. The color is beautiful and I can grow them fairly easy, too. Alas, they taste like dirt. I assume it must be a genetic thing. Thank goodness I can enjoy cilantro, though.

I had a somewhat similar rule with my dog when I was little. If he came looking at a snack I was eating (not a proper meal at the table--he had very good manners), if it wasn't on the not for dogs list, I'd offer him a piece. He was allowed to sniff as much as he wanted, but if he took it in his mouth, he had to eat it. He was very fond of string cheese. :) No abuse involved. If he dropped it--not spit it out, which once in awhile happened and I figured he really didn't like it and threw it out--just dropped it--I'd point at it. He'd eat it. That was the rule. You can have some of my food if you want to eat it but you can't use it to make a mess on the floor.

Having a must taste it once rule is an ongoing and known thing between the child and adult. It can be discussed and evaluated as to whether it's working for the family. One makes allowances. The kid who doesn't like any soup doesn't have to try the new soup. The kid who is really revolted by the appearance beyond a perfunctory "Ew! What's that?" can be given a pass. A lot of times, however, kids (especially under 10) "don't like" foods because they don't like the name, they don't like the color of the dish it's in, the shape reminds them of something non-food they don't like, etc. They're busily trying to process it, and don't have a lot to compare it to. Sometimes, they also will like a dish made with ingredients they don't like, because they like the story that goes along with it.

While variety of foods is a really excellent way to eat, there is so much new information bombarding kids daily, that they often enjoy food they know more because of the familiarity, and ease of processing what they're experiencing, and the desire to repeat and reinforce pleasant experiences. Adults are often the opposite--something may seem more delicious than it really is if it's a totally new flavor or combination. That's because almost everything has some kind of familiarity and tasting something new lights up the neurons.

mimi - I was never forced, after the first time, I just simply tasted the food and, if I liked it, asked for more. If I didn't like it there was no punishment, we just moved on to the next course.

Thanks, Ricky. I remember being urged to "just have one bite" of things, but it was just encouragement.

My favorite trick was to push food off the edge of my plate so that it looked like I'd eaten more than I had!

I'm far more enthusiastic about my veggies these day.

My little brother went through a period of almost a year where he would eat nothing at all except tunafish sandwiches. The pediatrician told my mother to humor him and he'd ask for something else if his body really needed it.

What actually happened is that at age 6 he reached a point where he would not eat tuna, nor any other seafood, ever again to this day. If he's in a situation where he more or less has to eat it (dinner with the boss, say, and sole veronique is on the menu), he says he has an allergy.

So when he had children, in their house the rule was that their kids had to eat one spoonful of any new food. If they didn't like it, they didn't have to eat even a spoonful next time, but you couldn't refuse any food without trying it, which I think was sensible.

My first experience eating sushi came when I was 16. A bunch of friends were driving into the city and invited me to come along. I asked where we were going and they said, "A sushi bar in the Village, around the corner from CBGB's." "What's sushi?", I asked and they replied it was Japanese food. I love Chinese food, so I figured it would be the same thing.

They ordered for the table and when the food came I looked down at it and said, "What's that?" Raw fish was the reply and I immediately smelled it and said, "That's not what raw fish smells like." Everyone laughed and told me that if it smells, it's not fresh. I took one bite and the rest is history.

Someone posted about not eating Fugu. I've eaten it a half dozen times in Japan, NYC, and Miami. There's no buzz, no tingling, just a really tasteless fish that you spend a lot of money on for the hype. And on the topic of Nato - Japanese sticky beans - I've tried them three times and spit them out three times. I had a client who ate them every chance he could and I was obligated to try them with him each time.

The only other foods I avoid in the sushi bar are shiso - mint leaves - I like mint in my cookies but not on my fish, and uni - sea urchin. Lord knows I've tried it a dozen times and dozen different ways. Not for me, thanks.

I grew up being considered by my mother a picky eater. I hated boiled vegetables, canned green beans and jello salads. Loved stinky cheese, pickled herring, boiled beans, fried catfish, raw oysters, pickled tongue smoked haddock dark dark pumpernickle, rhubarb... Every kid eats canned green beans!! Why are you so picky??

When our daughter was just barely able to pull herself to her feet and standing wobbling at the cocktail table while we were having a little Maytag Blue with our cocktail before the roast was done, she would try to sneak a bite....and we would pull it away from her! Eventually we decided that a well aged cheese was not going to hurt a year old kid....and pretended we didn't see her sneak a bite! She loved that forbidden fruit!
The words "you wouldn't like that, you aren't old enough" are magic! I remember how delicious that first raw oyster was from my mother's plate at the oyster bar was....because maybe I was old enough!

Remember, a new born baby will grab anything and immediately shove into the mouth. (That's why you don't put used diapers near a baby.)

Picky eating often is a learned behavior. Even many adults' eating habits are learned, there is such a thing called "acquired taste".

Also, kids are so overfed nowadays. When you are not hungry, you are a lot more selective.

dcarch

Spoken like someone who was never a parent.
Babies are predisposed to like sweet and mild flavors...nothing bitter nor sour. It's nature's way of protecting them from toxic stuff.

Lindac, I've heard the same thing, but it doesn't explain why every single child in my family has loved dill pickles since they were in high chairs. They'd bite that pickle, make a horrible face, and promptly take another bite...

And yes, dcarch, there is "acquired taste". I had the owner of a vineyard explain to me that dry red wine is an acquired taste. I replied that since his wine cost at least $20 a bottle, and contained approximately 3 glasses, it was about $7 a glass, so I didn't think I was interested in acquiring the taste, LOL.

Annie

Babies I know eat everything.

dcarch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I5v2cccZ2Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qiB3aDWcew