People Online Really Tried These 30 Foods And Drinks Before Knocking Them, But Can’t Stand Them
Back in the day, I was a big fan of tropical fruits and, as you probably guessed, durian was at the top of my list of desires. I'd read a lot about its incredible taste and even more incredible smell. And so, after several years of dreaming, in 2018 I went to China and there, at some street diner in Guangzhou, I finally tried it... What can I tell you? Really tasty, but the absolutely hellish smell completely discouraged me not only from the taste, but also from further fascination with this kind of fruit.
In fact, there are now over 7 billion people in the world, and about the same number of taste preferences in food. What is an undoubted delicacy for many can literally turn others inside out just with its taste. And here is a special selection by Bored Panda based on a viral thread in the AskReddit community dedicated to just such foods, meals and drinks...
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Black licorice. I've accepted my DNA just can't stand the stuff.
Intestines/innards of any kind and solid portions of fat on meat. One of my husband's favorite dishes is barbequed intestines (Japanese barbecue) and I can smell its appeal, but I physically can't deal with the texture. And it really saddens me because I've always wanted to eat menudo and I know the soup is bomb AF 😭. I think I have some sort of fat/chewy PTSD from when I was forced to eat gristle off of meat as a kid.
Liver the smell alone makes me sick.
Yup. This is one food I will willingly live without. I can't stand it.
Let's start, perhaps, with the main question - why do people generally differ in their taste preferences in food? Here the answer, as usual, is quite simple - it’s in our genome. In 2004, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, showed, for example, that our smell receptors are associated with a part of the genome that has a higher number of variations than the rest of the DNA.
And the more variations, the more differences in taste. So, literally the same steak will be perceived by two different people in completely different ways. Simply because they have different perceptions of taste at the biological level.
Tripe
"When they say every flavor, they mean every flavor - you know, you get all the ordinary ones like chocolate and peppermint and marmalade, but then you can get spinach and liver and tripe. George swears he got a bogie flavored one once"
Matcha ! Just tastes like grass to me
100% agree. It is just blended grass. But not even good grass. Blended crappy city grass.
Initially, this feature helped people survive. A classic example is why the vast majority of people don't like bitter tastes. The thing is that for ancient people, this taste was strongly associated with the presence of toxins in food, and therefore such food had to be spat out quickly, or even better, not eaten at all. Thousands and thousands of years have passed since then, humanity has come a long way in development, but the ancient protective mechanism remains.
And, of course, the psychological factor plays a huge role in our taste perception of food. For example, if we were taught from childhood that some dish is tasteless or even disgusting, then dislike for it can spread into adulthood. Or, let’s say, we once had a bad experience with some vegetable or fruit (like, for example, I had with durian). But overcoming such food prejudice can sometimes be very difficult.
Beer, of any kind. It always makes me very nauseous.
When I was younger, I really tried to like beer because everyone seemed to love it. Yuck. I didn’t like it. So I do not drink beer at all. Never. Hell, there are only a handful of wines I will drink. Don’t like reds, and a lot of the whites taste like vinegar. Liquor? Gin tastes like rubbing alcohol. Martinis are s**t. Bourbon is OK, but only if it doesn’t bite the back of my throat.
Overnight oats. They're basically lumpy, cold snot in my throat first thing in the morning. I gag just thinking about adding chia seeds.
Couldn’t agree more, what’s wrong with actual hot porridge?
Most definitely Brussel Sprouts. I've tried them in so many forms and yet I still hate them.
On the other hand, our culinary preferences are quite flexible - and once we try something delicious, we stick to it for the long run. In any case, all the factors that influence our perception of food can be divided into three groups: innate taste preferences, which are determined by human evolution, the physical characteristics of food (texture, temperature and whatnot) and our previous experience of interacting with this taste (or smell - sorry, I’m reminiscing about that very durian over and over...)
Kombucha, smells like stinky feet and taste like vinegar to me.
I know this is a drink, but sparkling water. I like some flavors, but I can’t stand that after taste. Bleh
Perhaps some of the stories told by people in this selection will seem absolutely strange and weird to you. On the contrary, you will completely agree with some. In any case, please feel free to scroll this list to the very end, give your ‘likes’ to the most interesting submissions and for sure share your own experience of interacting with some foods or drinks. Maybe your special story will be no less tasty and delicious than the most popular meals ever!
Octopus.
The texture just isn't for me. I want to like it. The flavor is fine, just can't get over the chewing experience.
Lamb. I tried... really
My brother raises sheep so I have every reason to love it...and I don't. It's nasty.🤣
Peeps, the Easter sugared candy. I like to think I can digest anything covered in sugar BUT NOT THAT....
. No just no I love those things like they are my siblings
Wine. Every year I'll try it around the holidays with family and it's still gross
Caviar .
The salty /fishy /cold/ bubble tea texture combo makes me retch . Smoked salmon too - I’m a terrible one for cold fishy amuse-bouche.
Olives. I've tried many varieties. I always try them because they look like they'd be good but they're just not.
I can’t drink egg nog. Every year I give it a shot and try to like it, but I just can’t.
Tofu. I’m trying to be more health conscious and environmentally friendly with my eating habits. I’ve tried tofu several different ways, but haven;t found a flavor/style I like enough to keep eating.
Tofu's not really a health food. Don't eat massive amounts of soy thinking it's healthy. Also, if you press a block of tofu for a couple of days and then marinate it for a couple of days, it's going to taste like whatever the marinade is and have a harder texture. A lot of restaurants don't do this.
Celery
Spicy food. Never have been able to eat it.
People conflate spicy with hot. I make spicy food but not hot as I like, when I make something to share. Coriander, cumin, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, saffron, anise ... these are spices that won't make your food hot at all. But every time someone says spicy, they're usually talking about chili peppers.
Durian.
I went to a restaurant that served all the types of durian on a platter, all the way up to musang king. Hated every bite.
My fellow Asians judge me for hating it, but I refuse to be shamed. My American palate won't let me like it.
There's a reason they're banned on public transport in Asia.
One of those things that make you wonder how they were tried in the first place. Was it a dare? Did someone say "Ooo look! A big greenish brown spike ball that smells like death! Let's cut it open and dig in!"
Sweet potatoes
I like a nice asked sweet potato, dripping with butter and sprinkled with brown sugar. Yum. I also make a killer sweet potato casserole—-no marshmallows, but whipped sweet potatoes with a brown sugar and pecans topping. Yum.
It’s like the perfect food *as is!* Love a well roasted sweet potato plain, with nothing added. I tiny bit of salt brings that sweetness out a bit, but totally unnecessary
Try it with a few crumbles of blue cheese! A mind-blowing flavor combination.
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One of my colleagues used to make small tarts for the office and she'd make a dozen just for me. Love them. My husband is not a fan so I eat them in frittatas.
I don't like anything sweet in the main dish. Just tastes odd and wrong. My mom makes fried rice and sometimes adds apricots. The sweetness from them absolutely kills the dish. ugh
When I ordered fried sweet potatoe strips, I was really dissapointet! Waste of money for me.
But sweet potatoes are the absolute best no matter how you cook it!
Sweet potatoes and yams are delicious. Just bake them well and add plenty of butter!
At a Middle Eastern restaurant , we had a delicious baked sweet potato (with crispy skin) topped with a spiced vegetable and lentil topping. I have been trying to recreate this dish at home.
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I swore I didn’t like sweet potato. Much preferred the kumara (a purple skinned sweet potato with a creamy flesh) we were so used to here in NZ. But now I love it and if anything I prefer it over what we originally called kumara. Nowadays all sweet potatoes here get called that.
I love love love regular potatoes but there’s something about sweet potatoes that make me disgusted. I love sweet potato fries though!
I found an amazing recipe with chopped sweet potatoes, butter, vanilla, brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger that you roast in the oven... instant pumpkin pie vibes!
Sweet potatoes are fine as long as you don't try and turn them into fries.
Oh, this so much! Sweet potatoes just taste like mold, no matter what variety I try, I don't know why they are so popular. I tried sweet potato ice cream once and it was still terrible.
Me too. Basically any orange vegetable (not fruit). Apparently it is the flavor of beta carotene that puts me off.
Except pumpkin. But only when flavored with ginger.
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I also love sweet potatoes. Sweet potato pie is just the best during the holidays!
Note: this post originally had 41 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
People get weird about personal likes/dislikes. Especially with food. A lot of comments: "You don't like blah blah blah, so you are therefore uncultured and I am better than you." Your personal preferences do not make you 'better' or 'worse' than anyone. Personally, I find differnces interesting. Taste buds, and they way we interpret tastes are not universal. Things do not taste the same for you as they do for me. Please calm down with the judgey comments fellow Pandas.
10,000 upvotes. We're also genetically predisposed, and early-childhood-upbringing influenced, so it's not just a matter as s imple as "try it!"
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I used to hate cucumbers. Then i got pregnant and craved them with caesar dressing. Now I love them. Pregnancy does strange things... how do you start craving things that you previously gagged at the smell?
That's funny you say that because I just commented on the celery one how pregnancy does strange things to us. I don't think I craved things I'd previously disliked but all of a sudden I couldn't stand things that I normally loved. Celery, ranch dressing, pasta sauce and mayo were mine. Pasta sauce and mayo took about 15 years to get back into but Celery and ranch dressing are a no go. They make me gag, even now 26 years later. This is interesting! Any other foods your pregnancy said, "okay you like this now!" Or, "yeah this isn't for you anymore!"?
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For at least five of the vegetables listed here, the golden rule is: never boil. Eat raw, oven baked, fried, or even microwaved, but never boiled. Boiling removes all the sweetness and adds sliminess.
Deli meat. I don't understand, why would you want cold, wet meat in your dish. I also don't reallly care much for most sandwiches, other than burgers, grilled cheese, nutella, and egg sandwhiches.
Other than ketchup, peas, cold cheese, pork and ham I hate everything on this list.
My dad loved split pea and bean with bacon Campbells soups. The smell of both of those still makes me gag.he ate some odd stuff, like corn chips in buttermilk when there was no cornbread, and what he called sh*t on a shingle, which is some sort of chipped beef on toast. He was in the military for decades, and I think his weird eating habits came from his service.
Why do so many people take it so personally if someone doesn't like the same things they like?
I can't handle cabbage. The smell, the taste, the texture, all of it makes me hurl.
Other than durian (yes, I'm Malaysian and I still refuse to like it because I tried for close to 5 years and just gave up after), most of the other stuff doesn't sound too bad. Some of the posters seriously need to try other types of food than what they are accustomed to.
For me, I can't stand mashed potatos. They're just so bland! Also Sheperd's Pie and lasagna.
There are starchy potatoes and waxy potatoes. Different subspecies. Anybody who mashes starchy potatoes and doesn't add butter, salt and milk needs their head examined. But waxy potatoes aren't bland and don't need any seasoning except perhaps a little pepper.
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KIMCHI....ewww....anything fermented & buried in the ground and smells THAT bad...no way! (I spent a year in South Korea, tried a few different varieties...still EWWW!)
Kimchi for breakfast, never. For those of you who don't know, it tastes like a mixture of sauerkraut and raw vine leaves and smells worse.
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Thanks for the heads up. Didn't want to try it. Won't.
Load More Replies... I was surprised to see "regular" food on this list. Tell me you don't like spam, meatloaf, or aspics, then I might understand. I like meatloaf BTW; I have 3 good recipes.
Ooooo! I love meatloaf and had it for dinner just last night. You don't hear about people having more than one special meatloaf recipe very often. What are the differences... if you don't mind sharing? I'm super curious now!
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For me it's avocados/guacamole. I try it every few years but nope, still don't like it.
I gave another go to avocado the other day when hubby brought a kilo from Lidl "because it healthy🤪"; tried with pouring soya sauce/ pumpkin seed oil/ greek yogurt over them, but nope, they actually managed to make all of it taste grose🫣 but just think about all those avocado toasts we've been saving on and how many real estates will we be able to buy😁
Load More Replies... Most of these comments are from people whose parents let them eat mac & cheese and Dino nuggets or hotdogs every meal. Seriously, this is all people with no flavor palette. If all you know are bland foods, that's all you will eat.
Hm, I agree with cca 15 entries on this list and cca 10 more I have never gotten the chance to try. But I also never had mac and cheese nor nuggets in my life; I grew up in Yugoslavia, it wasn't a thing there😁 I have never tried ready-to-eat meal (instant or canned or frozen) until university, I lived exclusively on nice home-cooked meals. But I was picky as hell, still am to a certain extent.
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People get weird about personal likes/dislikes. Especially with food. A lot of comments: "You don't like blah blah blah, so you are therefore uncultured and I am better than you." Your personal preferences do not make you 'better' or 'worse' than anyone. Personally, I find differnces interesting. Taste buds, and they way we interpret tastes are not universal. Things do not taste the same for you as they do for me. Please calm down with the judgey comments fellow Pandas.
10,000 upvotes. We're also genetically predisposed, and early-childhood-upbringing influenced, so it's not just a matter as s imple as "try it!"
Load More Replies... I used to hate cucumbers. Then i got pregnant and craved them with caesar dressing. Now I love them. Pregnancy does strange things... how do you start craving things that you previously gagged at the smell?
That's funny you say that because I just commented on the celery one how pregnancy does strange things to us. I don't think I craved things I'd previously disliked but all of a sudden I couldn't stand things that I normally loved. Celery, ranch dressing, pasta sauce and mayo were mine. Pasta sauce and mayo took about 15 years to get back into but Celery and ranch dressing are a no go. They make me gag, even now 26 years later. This is interesting! Any other foods your pregnancy said, "okay you like this now!" Or, "yeah this isn't for you anymore!"?
Load More Replies... For at least five of the vegetables listed here, the golden rule is: never boil. Eat raw, oven baked, fried, or even microwaved, but never boiled. Boiling removes all the sweetness and adds sliminess.
Deli meat. I don't understand, why would you want cold, wet meat in your dish. I also don't reallly care much for most sandwiches, other than burgers, grilled cheese, nutella, and egg sandwhiches.
Other than ketchup, peas, cold cheese, pork and ham I hate everything on this list.
My dad loved split pea and bean with bacon Campbells soups. The smell of both of those still makes me gag.he ate some odd stuff, like corn chips in buttermilk when there was no cornbread, and what he called sh*t on a shingle, which is some sort of chipped beef on toast. He was in the military for decades, and I think his weird eating habits came from his service.
Why do so many people take it so personally if someone doesn't like the same things they like?
I can't handle cabbage. The smell, the taste, the texture, all of it makes me hurl.
Other than durian (yes, I'm Malaysian and I still refuse to like it because I tried for close to 5 years and just gave up after), most of the other stuff doesn't sound too bad. Some of the posters seriously need to try other types of food than what they are accustomed to.
For me, I can't stand mashed potatos. They're just so bland! Also Sheperd's Pie and lasagna.
There are starchy potatoes and waxy potatoes. Different subspecies. Anybody who mashes starchy potatoes and doesn't add butter, salt and milk needs their head examined. But waxy potatoes aren't bland and don't need any seasoning except perhaps a little pepper.
Load More Replies... KIMCHI....ewww....anything fermented & buried in the ground and smells THAT bad...no way! (I spent a year in South Korea, tried a few different varieties...still EWWW!)
Kimchi for breakfast, never. For those of you who don't know, it tastes like a mixture of sauerkraut and raw vine leaves and smells worse.
Load More Replies... Thanks for the heads up. Didn't want to try it. Won't.
Load More Replies... I was surprised to see "regular" food on this list. Tell me you don't like spam, meatloaf, or aspics, then I might understand. I like meatloaf BTW; I have 3 good recipes.
Ooooo! I love meatloaf and had it for dinner just last night. You don't hear about people having more than one special meatloaf recipe very often. What are the differences... if you don't mind sharing? I'm super curious now!
Load More Replies... For me it's avocados/guacamole. I try it every few years but nope, still don't like it.
I gave another go to avocado the other day when hubby brought a kilo from Lidl "because it healthy🤪"; tried with pouring soya sauce/ pumpkin seed oil/ greek yogurt over them, but nope, they actually managed to make all of it taste grose🫣 but just think about all those avocado toasts we've been saving on and how many real estates will we be able to buy😁
Load More Replies... Most of these comments are from people whose parents let them eat mac & cheese and Dino nuggets or hotdogs every meal. Seriously, this is all people with no flavor palette. If all you know are bland foods, that's all you will eat.
Hm, I agree with cca 15 entries on this list and cca 10 more I have never gotten the chance to try. But I also never had mac and cheese nor nuggets in my life; I grew up in Yugoslavia, it wasn't a thing there😁 I have never tried ready-to-eat meal (instant or canned or frozen) until university, I lived exclusively on nice home-cooked meals. But I was picky as hell, still am to a certain extent.
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