I'm a pretty adventurous eater, but there are a few things: Coarse pate - it reminds me of canned dog food. Mussels - after a very rough night after eating bad mussels, I can't eat them now. I can eat chopped liver/smooth pate, but not a piece of liver cooked whole.

The only things I can think of that I have never eaten but refuse to try are brains (very risky) and anything alive.

Coca cola or any brown carbinated beverage. I must have tasted it once and now say if a gun was pointed at me and I was told to drink, my response would be to ask for a minute to decide.

I drink clear or orange soda in dire circumstances only.

beets ook me out too.

Sushi---bleech! otherwise if something doesn't crawl off the plate I will eat it.

Oh and for those of you who know Kasha Varnishkas aka buckwheat groats. It SMELLS horrid.

My best friend won't drink smoothies if they are green. She likes spinach and other greens, but a green smoothie grosses her out.

I came home from school one day (about 55 years ago) and opened the refrigerator to get a snack. I saw a quart jar full of CHICKEN TESTICLES! A visitor had come to see Mom and asked if he could stash them in the fridge while they visited. Can you imagine how many chicken testicles would fit in a quart jar? I'm sure he planned to cook and eat them at some point. Nope not I.

Vietnamese food. I've eaten in three Vietnamese restaurants, a decade apart each time. Food poisoning twice, and my mom had a terrible accident in the third one. Nothing against the food itself, but I feel jinxed, and cannot go near it.

No vegetable drink of any kind. Makes me gag.

The gelled broth from gefiltte fish. Give me chills thinking about it.

@donna_loomis - What a graphic image. I've never thought of chicken testicles. Holy smokes.

@Rho Dodendron - My grandma made kasha varnishkas and I don't recall a smell.

As a kid I walked into my grandma's kitchen, took a lid off a pot and saw a boiling bloated cow tongue. Scared the hell out of me. But, I'll still eat a tongue sandwich.

My grandma loved bloody nearly raw burgers. Anytime she's order one in a restaurant and they'd ask how she'd like it done, her reply was, "Mooing."

@LoneJack Zn 6a, KC, I find goat meat is very similar to lamb or hogget. It makes a delicious curry.

@Amylou, I have found as I get older my taste buds change. When I was younger I would not eat blue cheese, anchovies, feta, olives, the list goes on. Now I love them. I try things I don't like every ten years or so and often they're OK. I still don't like oysters or cucumber though.

I don't like big chunks of raw tomato, but I love finely diced tomatoes in bruschetta. I will also eat thinly sliced tomatoes in a mixed salad sandwich.

I won't try brains, though I do like other organ meats. I also will not try a snail, the thought skeeves me out. I don't like fruit flavoured sodas either. Diet cola, diet ginger ale and diet sprite for me. I prefer the diet versions because I find the regular versions way too sweet.

@littlebug Zone 5 Missouri, I think you mean "carnivore-ish". An omnivore is someone/something that eats both meat and plant food.

I don't eat rabbit (too much like a cat), and don't care for octopus, though I do like squid.

I will happily eat raw beef and raw salmon.

Interesting to include lamb with the 'weird' meats like ostrich. It really depends where you live. For Colleen and me lamb would be a really common meat.

Yes, "weird" is subjective.

Over the years I have been part of slaughtering of cattle, pigs, and chickens on a farm. I myself can have a live chicken ready for the pot in about 15 minutes if the water for scalding off the feathers is the right temperature.

Yes, killing is killing, but the relationship of humans to animal food is a very ancient one--and we are physiologically omnivores (our teeth and our bodies' need for Vitamin B 12). It is the way the animals are raised and the way they are killed that is important to me. I do not want to eat industrially raised animals/poultry and purchase only locally raised and slaughtered either on the farm (poultry) or larger animals killed in small, local slaughter houses where proper attention is paid to the animals in their final moments. Aside from the humaneness, this also avoids the dangers of the serious contamination by E. coli and salmonella. (Not just my beliefs, repeated testing have confirmed all this.)

You might find some very interesting information about raising/slaughtering animals at this farm site, and Will Harris's book, A Bold Return to Giving a Damn.

My DH won't eat raw tomatoes. As a teen, he worked for a summer in tomato packing sheds. He said he saw more rotten tomatoes than anyone should see. He will eat canned tomato products.

Moose meat is common in parts of Canada, especially Newfoundland. It’s even on the fast food menus.

Chocolate. I know I know. I just don't care for it. Chocolate lovers think I'm nuts, but I do have my uses. One addict used to deposit his stock with me to keep himself from the stuff, knowing he'll find it untouched.

I eat chocolate only when it's the only food around and I'm starved. I wolfed down a whole Cadbury with raisins and nuts (almonds?) way back in the eighties on coming back late to my hotel in London and discovering the only food was in a vending machine. The Cadbury was the least of several evils.

Very interesting thread here.

I know sometimes people find tomato too acid-y? I love a good tomato and will eat them as a snack ( not often, but a whole one like someone would eat an apple... or of course t cherry and grape tomatos).

As a child I did not like kasha but now I love it. I have never noticed any smell from it, other than maybe the fried onions?

I know quite a few people who will not eat mushrooms. I don't think I've seen mushrooms mentioned here. I love them.

I developed a shellfish allergy so I am very hesitant to eat sushi ( unless it's fully kosher) because I can't risk contamination.

The only food that comes to mind that I avoid is beets. I think I remember as a child that my father was having borscht and mixed in sour cream. I thought i was strawberries and cream and when I tasted it, it was NOT sweet strawberries and cream. I still have the image in my mind. ( I have tasted beets and they are ok, but I avoid them due to my childhood memory).

colleen oz, during one of your decade tastings, if you like cream cheese, you should try a cream cheese and cucumber sandwhich! It's made with just the "meat" part of the cucumber. No skin or seeds. And it's mostly cream cheese, which I happen to love all by itself.

All the mentions of the grandmas makes me a little sad. My mom was 40 when she had me and 42 when she had my brother. Our grandparents had already passed, the last grandma when I was 6 months old. While I do feel like I missed out in some ways, in other ways it was like having a mom and grandma rolled into one since she became a grandma before I was born!! Thanks for the memories.

I guess I'm texture sensitive. A big no to slimy stuff. Undercooked egg white, oatmeal, okra, oysters. Meat gristle, anytime, anywhere. Undercooked sausage on pizza. Most fish or seafood, other than the most common and mild tasting. Ethnic food that is too authentic. (sorry).

Organ meats; lamb, because it’s a baby (I know, but that’s just me!); Brussels sprouts because they taste bad to me; raw oysters and meat; blood sausage, etc; and, a lot of what you all have listed.

" I know quite a few people who will not eat mushrooms. I don't think I've seen mushrooms mentioned here. "

I've known a fair number of people who won't eat raw mushrooms - they don't like how they kind of squeak when you bite them - but they will eat them cooked.

@murraysmom Zone 6a OH, it's the flavour of the cucumber that I don't like. If I purchase a ready made sandwich with cucumber on it and take it out, I can still taste the cucumber and while it doesn't stop me eating the sandwich, I don't enjoy it as much as I would have had it been made without cucumber.

As @floral says, lamb is very commonly eaten here. I never tried it until I was about 13 and have enjoyed it ever since. My mother loathed lamb (we came from the US to Oz when I was 8) and never cooked it. I didn't try any until I was in high school and was invited to stay on a friend's farm in the school holidays. Farmers then (and probably now) ate a lot of lamb/hogget/mutton as they mostly raised sheep for the wool or for the meat market, and would dispatch and butcher one of the flock as needed. On another friend's farm I participated in this process, which I found interesting as I had never seen the insides inside, if you get what I mean.

I know some people object to lamb as it's "a baby", but if you ever met an adult sheep (they are soooo not smart), you could think of it as saving the lamb from the life of being a sheep.

If a person drinks milk or eats eggs it's illogical to worry about killing baby animals for food. To get laying hens millions of male chicks are destroyed. The dairy industry slaughters male calves by the thousand. I don't eat veal because I find it tasteless and it's not common here. But fwiw crates and a low iron diet (to get pale meat) have been banned here for decades.

New ones to me: Had a big allergic reaction after Christmas with face,ears, and hand itching and swelling. With lots of dectective work, I figured out it was blue cheese, or french onions in can. I can live without both.

No organ meats for me either. And no beets.

My mom had a second kitchen in the basement of our house. It was for cooking and canning before we had air conditioning. Basement was always cool. Mom canned a bushel of beets every summer, along with making pickles. Those beets smelled like boiling dirt every time. That's why I won't eat beets.

I’m surprised at how many people don’t like beets!

I don’t care for borscht, but cold beets, pickled, plain, or in a salad with pecans and crumbly cheese, especially in the summer, I love.

" it's illogical to worry "

There's no point in mixing logic and emotions. People can't control their emotions (though they can create an environment and take actions that might bring about change), so you're talking about 2 separate things.

Pork, mainly - and I do avoid non-organic foods whenever possible. I also don't eat candy, other than chocolate nowadays - no soda, no fast food or junky snacks, barely any restaurant foods either. They have zero appeal to me. But I like a lot of the things listed above, like liver, beets, tomatoes(good ones) and borscht with sour cream.

Always been a veggie lover since I was a baby - according to my mom, I was an early fan of spinach and huckleberries.

This made me recall an article I read recently about how kids used to eat and enjoy all kinds of foods before the industry created demand for the limited and highly processed things kids often prefer today - like chicken nuggets. I think starting mid-20th century...? I know I loved frog's legs, tomato juice 'cocktails' and stewed prunes when I was little - but not all at once 😄

I thought I posted here but I must have not submitted

Tater Tots. GAG

All that highly processed fake food for kids with weird cereals and such. I am not much for sodas either.

I think it is fair to eat things that would happily eat me like fish, crabs, chickens and pigs. Cow is obviously problematic on that point.

No liver.

I can tolerate pickled beets but would not seek them out. I do not care for rutabagas either but would eat them if required.

We were never forced to eat anything except one time and that did not go well. We simply could not double up on something else. All seven of us would eat just about anything but you did not have to.

Raw veggies and fruits--yes. Raw meat and fish--no thanks

Mushrooms - don't care if they're raw or cooked. Not eating them.

Rotisserie chicken - I saw a documentary on how they are raised and processed about 25 years ago and haven't bought one or knowingly eaten one since. When I see one in the fridge at my kids homes I want to gag.

But - I will spend a veritable fortune on free-range, organic fed, spoon-fed, pampered chicken.

I do not think there is anything I will not eat. Things I do not prefer, yes. I do not care for peanuts, India Indian food, anything with coconut milk, nutmeg or cinnamon in savory food, (sweets fine, savory no).

I would love to try escarole, but a trip to France is out of the question!

No veal, because of the way most of it is raised in the US.

ETA snails escargot

There are a lot of things referred to with "escarole" in the name. We have both escarole chicory and escarole lettuce available in regular grocery stores right now.

Ah, since the subject of escarole came up and it's my favorite, I want to share for gardeners :

https://www.uprisingorganics.com/collections/chicory

And for those with a great farmers market, terrific ! Ours is great but I've not seen escarole so I attempt to grow my own each year, and have had it survive the winter at times - I would dearly love to get it to perennialize.

I wouldn't eat snails, and maybe I'd avoid whatever haggis is... an environmental friend once offered dried insects which I didn't want to try. . I enjoy oysters, but not clams or mussels.... that's all I can think of :)) I've wanted to try blood sausage to make Asturian bean stew, but haven't found it, nor the beans so... I guess I'd better get to Spain :)

maybe Sherry was meaning Escargot (snails)?

@lat62, you should be looking for morcilla (Spanish blood sausage). Sorry if you already knew that. But you can buy them online in the US if you don't have a grocer that sells Latin American groceries.

@LoneJack Zn 6a, KC, escarole is a leafy green vegetable. Also called chicory or endive.

Oh, that's interesting LoneJack, good catch, haha ! Like a game of 'telephone' . Sherry , did you mean escargo ? In either case, I like the segue to escarole

Thanks for providing the name, colleenoz , I'll make a note of the name morcilla.... I do have a grocery that sells South American food, hadn't thought to look for the sausages there, will do ! After my trip to NZ coming right up :))

colleen, the names do vary and are confusing when comparing English French.

Curly endive in English is frisée in French

Belgian endive in English is chicon in French (a form of the word "chicory")

Click to enlarge

Can't choke down anything with mayo on it as a condiment. I do eat foods with a bit of mayo in them like tuna or egg salad as an ingredient but on a sandwich or a burger, I just can't.

I know red endive, pictured above, as radicchio di Treviso.

I stopped eating beef due to environmental concerns, veal for cruelty, pork because of intelligence, then lamb just because.

I try to eat organic fruits and vegetables as much for the farmworkers as for the environment in general.

Dislike octopus intensely, and can recognize it in Spanish and Italian too. Rhubarb tastes like metal, and most anything pickled is no go.

Tofu-ie.

I need a spell check for the spell check! Yes, snails. Although I could leave the lettuce, it is not anything I buy unless it is in spring mix of lettuce I purchase for salads.

Vgkg, don’t forget chalazae. 🤠🥚

Lamb. I absolutely detest lamb.

Veal, liver, eggplant, lamb, off the top of my head.

FWIW, I had a wild chicory seed mix from Pinetree ( superseeds.com )that grew really well in a container. I loved it in salads made with chicory, feta, mini sweet peppers, walnuts, lemon juice, oregano and S&P

Many died off, but a few Italian varieties survived for more than one season.

https://www.superseeds.com/products/endive-and-chicory-gourmet-mix

I like liver of all kinds and eggplant.

Wildchild, when I was a not-so-wild child I liked mayo salads like tuna, etc, but not mayo as a condiment. Now I like it, I guess my taste changed.

I have never eaten snails, but we were hosting a French exchange student and for fun went to our favorite little French restaurant. This kid’s family owned a restaurant, and he approved of our little spot. He ordered the snails, and we kind of questioned it, but the snails arrived, and he masterfully removed the meat from the shell. He was 14. I’ve still never had snail.

Not particularly fond of Lamb but do like a well-seasoned & loaded Gyro......and Roxsolid, I refuse to put chalazae a food category ;-)

I don't care for eggplant as eggplant, but I love baba ganoush.

bpath, when I lived in San Francisco, I dated an adventerous guy and he took me to a fancy French restaurant for my birthday. He ordered escargot and I decided to give it a try. They were delicious - a butter and garlic delivery system. Very tasty.

I like liver too. Best liver and onions I ever had was at Musso & Frank's in Hollywood - perfection 👌

Adding a thought to my earlier thought, why is one of the most luxurious foods ever, the youngest?

Why is it okay to eat caviar? They never even got to live!

" Why is it okay to eat caviar? "

for the same reason it's OK to eat (chicken) eggs.

" They never even got to live! "

There's no "they" - like most chicken eggs we eat today, they're unfertilized.

Ah, I see